#only Facebook is where I remember to post my art

[bestshipsmackdown]

Honestly I will probably draw the winning ship at the end of the bracket. For funsies.

[toziers]

had a bad dream and now im in a bad mood. hate how that accidental cranial self-sabotage works

[seancurry1]

Remember, Thou Art Barnacle

A serenity prayer for election day.

Originally posted on my website.

The Ann Selzer Iowa poll, regarded as the gold standard in all of political polling, shows Harris is up +3 in a state that Trump won by +8 in 2016 and by +9 in 2020. 

And you are a barnacle. 

The election better markets have Trump up by +19 (as of noon EST, 11/5/24), and bettors don’t care if people are ashamed to admit who they’re voting for—they’re in it for the money and only the money.

And you are a barnacle. 

Mainstream pollsters have admitted to weighting their polls heavily in favor of Trump, to ensure they don’t end up with egg on their face like they did in 2016 and 2020 again. International whales are taking out huge bets in favor of Trump, swinging the markets, and right wing think tanks are flooding the zone with bullshit polls to artificially inflate Trump’s odds in the aggregate. And even if the popular vote is overwhelmingly for Harris, Trump’s team is already laying the narrative groundwork to support a Stop the Steal campaign that, by the time you read this, will likely already have started. 

All of that is true. 

And you are still a barnacle. 

You are not piloting the ship. You are not the captain of the ship. You are not laying out the potential courses the ship could take, you are not deciding which course the ship will take, you are not scouting ahead. 

You aren’t even a paying, ticket-holding passenger on the ship. You are a barnacle on the hull, deep underwater, and unfortunately, there isn’t really anything you can individually do to affect where this ship goes. Sorry! 

This isn’t an invitation to check out, or become apathetic, or (heaven forbid) embrace doomerism. Quite the opposite: this is a reminder of who you actually are in this entire scenario, of the power you do not have, and of the power you definitely do. 

After the 2016 election, some small part of myself was convinced I could change the outcome if I just posted hard enough. If I fought enough of my friends on Facebook, texted angrily, and tweeted from enough protests and rallies, somehow Trump would no longer be President-elect. 

All it did was, literally, give me a rash. I got so angry for so long that my skin started to break out in hives. A doctor friend more-than-half seriously prescribed that I “get the fuck off Facebook” until my skin returned to normal. Trump was still President-elect, the next 8 years happened the way they did, and here we are today. 

You’re going to hear a lot today: polls are tightening! Votes still aren’t in from this critical precinct! If these trends hold, then we can expect to know something by such-and-such a time! The race is as tight as can be! White supremacists are threatening violence to avenge a dead squirrel! 

(The squirrel thing is 100% real, and my god, I really wish I was joking.) 

Remember, through all of it, that you are not the captain of the ship. You are a barnacle on its hull, and there is very little you can personally do to change it at this point. You’ve already done all you can do—or maybe you haven’t, but even then, you’ve already done all you’re going to do. 

And as you stress, and consider how inebriated you’re going to get, and decide on which web pages you’ll be refreshing every thirty seconds, and stress out some more, remember too that Donald Trump hasn’t ever won the popular vote in his entire miserable life. He only won the electoral college, a racist system explicitly designed to empower slaveholders in southern states, one time, and ever since then, he has lost every election he’s declared for. 

More people did vote for the woman candidate the last time one ran for President, and more people have voted for the candidate of color than their opponent every single time a person of color has run for President on a major party ticket. 

And women have already made up a larger share of early voting than men in this, the first general election post-Dobbs, than ever before in American history. (53% women to 44% men.) 

So as you stress and consider your inebriates and say to yourself, “How can it possibly be this close?!” for the umpteenth time today, remember too that Donald Trump is a fascistic, deeply unpopular person (let alone President) backed by an even more deeply weird party, and that almost the entirety of your experience of this election is being filtered through the lens of a national, for-profit media that doesn’t care who wins, so long as you keep watching. 

Remember, you are not the captain of the ship, you are not the helmsman, you are not the map-maker. 

You are a barnacle. 

Vote for Harris, vote Democrat in your local and state races, and trust your other barnacles.

If you like this, consider signing up for my newsletter to get more writing from me right in your inbox the second it posts: sean-curry.com/signup

[dalimarisdaddy1967]

Continuation of my last post...

In my last post I showed my new profile picture and mentioned that I found it on a post on the Facebook for GrandMA Studios. I wanted to elaborate further on that and discuss some theories I have surrounding that so without further ado, let's get into that. There may be mild spoilers ahead so be advised...

The post reads: 'Dear MCF fans, especially those who love the story of Charles and Emma. We have prepared a little fan art to please you! Perhaps there is a universe in which Charles is not an evil genius at all and he has a chance for Emma's mutual love?'

Now let's dive into some theories I have on this... I find it interesting and kinda weird that the official Facebook for the current developers of the series to mark this image as 'fan art'. Fan art?! Excuse me?! I don't think this is fan art at all. I think this is a teaser image for a future game. Notice how it's torn in half?! That looks like something that could show up in a game. Maybe Charles or Emma ripped it?

They hint at alternate universes as well which could be a call back to what the Detective caused in Dalimar Legacy with the changing of history. I also remember at the end of Dalimar Legacy that Charles says something along the lines of 'perhaps there's a universe where I won.' I've only played it once so forgive me if I'm misremembering.

I know at the end of Dalimar Legacy Charles gets sent back to the asylum but he always finds a way to come back somehow. He's done it so many times and if there are multiple timelines out there now because of the Detective messing with things, then it could be possible for him to come back. Also with this image, it's possible there's a timeline where he was good and got to live a happy life with Emma and didn't kill her.

I have more theories surrounding this but I'm gonna save those for some other posts because I have more fun little tidbits to share so stayed tuned!

@detectiveruth @masterdetectivemcf @macatt4c @fallenidol-453 @redrum-eht @hakurakurohime @proustianlesbian @thebiggestpartypooper @rebellovesthings @artsydon @hiddenobject-fanblog @pookiethebloodsucker @apeirotilio @ink-and-pixels @arty-girl-asks @angelsmama1968

[art-res]

I’m just getting into digital art and I’m not sure what to do re tablets. Can you use them with laptops? That’s the only kind of computer I have.. I heard Cintiq and Wacom are good brands? Sorry for this rambling question, and please ignore me if you have answered this before, thank you very much for such a helpful blog

Hey, no worries at all! Your question is a great one. I remember when I first started in the digital art world, and I had the same questions.

Yes you can absolutely use drawing tablets with laptops. That is how most of them work, all you need is a USB port to connect the tablet to your laptop, and you're good to go. Some newer tablets even offer Bluetooth connectivity, so you can go completely wireless if your laptop supports it.

Wacom is great! Cintiq is its more expensive line, where you can draw directly on the screen. I don't own one due to price, but I do use an iPad Air 4th generation and like it a lot. I have used Wacoms without screens and they are great, your hand eye coordination will get used to it. I've also used cheaper brands like xp-pen, and liked them a lot. Specifically, the Deco 03 (see my review here: Drawing Tablet Review: XP-PEN Deco 03) and the display screen artistul d12s (didn't review, got tired lol. It's good though!) . Honestly, for portability, I love to take my iPad on the go. But the tablets let you use more powerful drawing software and the ease of keyboard shortcuts, so honestly I'd try to test drive the products out.

Another thing I did when deciding which model to buy was exploring tons of reddit threads and asking around on art related chats lol.

Don't worry about rambling; we all start somewhere, and it's better to ask and get the info you need, as the options out there can be overwhelming.

Hope this helps!

Wrote a lil guide to  digital art that you might be interested in.

Recent Posts / More Useful Links

Art-Res Website / Personal Art Blog / Instagram / Facebook

[gearbox-doll]

I think what most antis don't understand is that I've been like this my whole life. I drew Celestia × Luna kissing during class in elementary school. I had a duplo lego set with a pair of minifigs who I immediately decided were a) siblings and b) dating. Related to that one, there is a post on my mother's Facebook account from once I was old enough to play with regular lego where I had been looking for (and successfully found) one of those red 1×1 tubes and exclaimed "Oh, there it is! There's my other bottle of blood!". I watched Tinkerbell: Secret of the Wings and immediately assumed that them healing Tink's wings was because the sisters loved each other romantically, the intended message of "familial love is just as strong as romantic love" going right over my head. I couldn't have been more than eight. Hell, I shipped Dora and Diego from Dora The Explorer and I was fully aware they were cousins, it just didn't occur to me that that was weird.

And it's not like I was taught about these things by someone, either. Especially the Tinkerbell one, I don't think I had internet access of any kind at that age. Even once I did, all I did until I was like ten was watch silly fnaf meme videos and doll unboxings on YouTube. I didn't even fully understand the lore, I just knew the robots were alive and wanted to be friends with them.

I only read smut once, a Mangle × Springtrap fic on Wattpad that I had zero context for, and was immediately disgusted because my attitude was "ew sex gross". I only read it because I had heard some older kids talking about smut in a fandom context and was super excited that I didn't have to ask my mom anymore (I'd just gotten my first working phone). I didn't go back to smut until I was like 14, because I was experiencing arousal for the first time and all of a sudden all the stuff in that fic that seemed gross to 10yo me seemed really appealing.

No one taught me that incest was okay, or gore, or anything. It was just something my child brain thought up and I never thought it important enough to mention. I learned later to hide the art I drew because my parents might be upset, but they were upset I had gay fanart on my phone, so what did they know about what relationships were acceptable?

I wasn't taught that incest was even a thing that existed for a long time, and certainly no one ever had a conversation with me about it, they just picked up on me knowing what the word meant at some point after I'd figured it out online. I knew what murder was (my mom watched cop shows), but I don't remember where I ever came across the concept of a business that ran machines fueled by blood (which was what the "bottle of blood" thing was about, iirc), it might've just been something I thought up on my own. I wasn't ashamed of these things until I was older, I just never mentioned it because I didn't think it was relevant to anything.

[toxooz]

The canvases aren’t even safe 😭 they used the Boroque era as reference for their search engines. Like I’m losing my shit constantly over ai art so bad. Like this is totally gonna be a rant so forgive me but it’s driving up the WALLS. Ai art being readily available is killing the incentive for people to be creative. I cannot tell you how many times I think I’ve found a really cool fellow artist on tiktok and then see #midjourney. I take psychic damage every time that happens to me. And I’m starting to see it infiltrating business too where they generate ai images instead of hire photographers. I also saw someone selling tshirts with ai art on it at my local farmers market. MOTHERFUCKER THE FARMERS MARKET??? HAVE YOU NO SHAME????

NAW PREACH IT cause its become a nagging issue for me for a while that i simply try to not think about and dwell on but dear FUCKING god is it everywhere and it's painfully obvious too! just about every ad takes me 3 seconds to find damning evidence that its ai and im 99% ready to just delete facebook bc #1 i dont give a fuck abt anyone on there anymore and #2 Literally every other post is the most deplorable ai shit ive ever seen that everyone is carelessly oblivious to i mean total abominations that don't make any sense as an image but ppl share bc its the most bottom of the barrel ''relatable'' shit and that's just the sad reality of it is most people don't even give a shit what they're looking at as long as it looks pretty to their eyes for 3 seconds they don't give a damn

and that's just on basic everyday world shit like u said there's so many mfs i think are decent artists where i legitimately cant tell its ai until i read their fuckshit bio or somethin, like that midjourney i didnt even know it was an ai program i would've just thought it was the name of a video game or some shit! like I feel like I'm kinda turning my back on the whole art community involuntarily bc i just dont trust any image i see most of the time and its fukkin sad i ESPECIALLY feel for the real artists prior to this shitshow who have art styles that now look so much like ai that they basically hijacked to feed the machine like I couldn't imagine spending thousands of dollars on an art college and hours of practice just for your art style to be The Blueprint for empty soulless photos cranked out at inhuman rates by any stupid fucking lazy ass clown like Fuck Man it all sucks so much and the worst part is I just feel like it's one of those things where it will not stop until Something caves and i honestly dont know which one it will be but i just know its only going to get worse idk i try to remember that i can pick up a paintbrush or even whatever the hell i want and make something beautiful while 98% of these ai sacks of shit are just limited to stealing other peoples art on the internet and they couldn't even paint a damn flower if their lives depended on it and if i was stuck on a deserted island I'd probably still find ways to make art with whatever tools and resources i have cause that's an artist baybay but as far as The Internet and its grasp it has on the world and trying to make it as a digital artist and trying to make money from your homemade artwork is very grim man and dont even get me started on art and artists in just about every job field rn my heart goes out to them

[dirty-droid]

For the ask meme, 5 and 28?

I don't think that's silly! Bc honestly making sideblogs is so high stakes for me in the first place, and honestly it's a funny story, so I joined Tumblr in high school, I think I'd seen a bunch of Tumblr screenshots on Pinterest and like, Facebook, first so I wanted to get in on all the memes and shit. I was restroom-pizza for years, and I don't remember exactly where on the timeline I made dirty-droids but after I got into dbh, I made a group chat for Hankcon that was 18+ and started making friends. It was my first time really being social with fandom online, I'd only ever lurked before.

Then I started roleplaying and that inspired me to write fic and somewhere in there I made my dbh sideblog so I could make more friends and get more attention 😅 I wanted to be a big fandom name, idk if I ever got there. But I tried making art for a second there (it was a lot of tracing reference images) and I posted Connor ass of my own exactly once and got my whole account nuked. So when I remade my Tumblr, I made Dirty-droid my main and made my general fandom blog a side blog instead so I could fandom as hard as I could (mostly just so I could reply to posts without looking like a completely different person)

The second question is do I collect anything, and honestly? I don't know 😅 not purposely anymore, I used to get a lot of little figurine statues of like, cats and dogs and horses because my grandma knew I liked them, but I guess it's all more touch and go these days. Money is tight, but me and my fiance tried to start collecting rainbow high dolls, but only got like, four dolls 😅 we do get art things here and there to cover the walls and I like those, but other than that?? ... Debt? 🫣😬😅

I'll try and post some pictures of how we've decorated the house here soon, I'm actually really proud of it.

Thank you so much for asking!

[tachyonmemories]

Is there a place where i can get every illustration done by wayne barlowe? asking this before shitty ai art takes over and makes it hard to look for his legit works.

I honestly doubt there's any single place where you can find all his art. He's been my favorite artist for pretty much as long as I can remember and I still find pieces from him I've never seen before. Best I can do is point you in a couple different directions:

-His website is probably the best single location to find his work. Well organized, high-res scans and still gets an update every couple years.

-Weirdly, he is very active on LinkedIn. I think he posts all his new art there and you can easily "right click -> save as... " his posts instead of having to get some kind of 3rd-party plugin to download what he posts on instagram. To my knowledge, those are his only active socials and that's where you can find his new work. He may have a facebook page, but I haven't used facebook in years.

-If you go through torrent sites you can find high-res scans of a lot of his art from the "Barlowe's Guide" era up until about 2010ish. I think RUtracker is where I found a pretty thorough collection.

-His really early work- book covers and such- is pretty hard to track down. @70sscifiart and similar accounts occasionally post pulp covers by him from super early in his career but I seriously doubt they've been collected in one place. If they have, I don't know about it.

I think that's the extent of my knowledge. If you want to buy his physical books they're usually pretty pricey so either save up for pray for a deal. The only exception I think is Alphabet of Dinosaurs which you can normally get for a steal and which I highly recommend picking up.

Hope that helps! If I think of more resources, I'll come back and add them. Here are some weird Barlowe pieces I don't see in circulation too often:

[thenightling]

In a Facebook Over the garden Wall group that I am in, I posted about how the new Dungeons and Dragons module "Night of the Crooked Moon" is just Over the Garden Wall through a Dungeons and Dragons filter. I provided two youtube links, one of which showed the concept art, which is strikingly similar to the Oer the Garden Wall concept art. I quoted the narration which is virtually identical except for five words slightly changed. (i.e. "Clouded" swapped with "shrouded"). But someone named Jason Nesbitt was quick to dismiss the similarity as coincidence since both used Americana and The Blasting Company music. It was frustrating because he acted like I wasn't familiar with folklore, American folk art, or the vintage Hallowe'en, Thanksgiving, and Christmas postcards that inspired Over the Garden Wall. It's more than just that... This is something I hate about Facebook. Far too many people skim posts and don't read them properly before commenting and it wastes a lot of time. It becomes talking "at" someone instead of talking "to" someone. Here's what I said back to him.

"Maybe you should have read my post all the way through instead of skimming and leaping to conclusions, it's frustratingly obvious you only skimmed the post and were eager to be dismissive of it. Now I ask you to have enough consideration to read this slowly, at least the next three paragraphs.

This line here is NOT Americana: ****"Somewhere lost in the shrouded realms of death lies a realm of endless night where long forgotten horrors are revealed to those who travel through the mist."****

It only changes about five words from "Somewhere, lost in the clouded annals of history, Lies a place called The Unknown. Where long forgotten stories are revealed to those who travel through the wood."

Allow me to pluck out the similarities. The part in brackets is what is changed. "Somewhere lost in the (clouded / shrouded) (Realms / Annals) of (Death / History) lies a (Place / realm) (of Endless Night / Called The Unknown) where long forgotten (horrors / stories) are revealed to those who travel through (the mist / the wood)."

There's only five changes in the entire quote! That quote is not Americana.

Also watch the play through that is up on Youtube. They even use the black train that originally was going to be the opening of Over the Garden Wall with the implication that it's carrying the main characters to the afterlife and they don't know how they got there. That was the original planned opening sequence for Over the Garden Wall. The black steam train being what is carrying them between life and death was an invention of Over The Garden Wall, not a feature of seventeenth through early twentieth century American folklore.

Not only does it, yes, use the same Americana but it's the America AFTER it had been filtered through Patrick McHale's stylizing as you will notice most of Over the Garden Wall is visually based on vintage Hallowe'en, Thanksgiving, and Christmas postcards from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. But this uses the visuals after they had been stylized by Patrick McHale's imagining.

Outside of the aesthetic there is also the main plot. The characters don't quite remember how they got to this surreal place and are trying to find their way home while The Beast preys on those that lose their way and hope and is a known threat lurking in the woods. And that Beast happens to be a combo Windigo / Erling.

Did you even look at the concept art or you were just eager to think I'm speaking about coincidences and don't know the origin of what's in Over the Garden Wall? I can dismiss the Jack-o-lantern maypole with the tendril sashes (because that has appeared in early twentieth century Hallowe'en postcards) but the dog-creature and even how its eyes are drawn is virtually identical to the one from the first episode of Over the Garden Wall. That was not Americana. That was an original creation for over the Garden Wall.

This is no coincidence.

You shouldn't have been so quick to assume I don't know Americana. I'm an armchair folklorist. I know what was original and what was reconstituted through Patrick McHale's imagination. You should have actually checked out what I was saying before commenting. Not only was it rude and dismissive but it made clear that YOU don't know the difference between what was original homespun lore and what was Americana in Over the Garden Wall."

[my2klife]

Forward my mail and calls to: c/o the decade 1998-2008

As I was thinking about how my neighbors have been on a 2 week vacation in both Hawaii and Alaska (best of both worlds I guess??) this past week, a feeling welled up from inside of me. Mourning. I was saddened by the realization that my next door neighbors were living my dream life; steady dual incomes, regular weeks long vacations (I think this is like their second one this year and it's only July), going out to brunch weekly, etc. A very "normal" life.

Now, let's not forget the famous words from one Aunt Frances Owens:

"My darling girl, when are you going to realize that being normal is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage!"

And who could forget the wonderful Aggie Cromwell's magical quote on the matter!

This emotion wasn't directed towards the "normalcy" they had so seemingly acquired more easily than I had. It was more directed towards how I was less disciplined in making it for myself. I'd also like to note that it also did not have a twinge of jealousy in it (I'd know, I personify my emotions like Inside Out taught us to).

It was definitely and exclusively mourning. Mourning for a life in a world so different from the reality we're living in. Non-politically, but is anything these days "non-political", I was raised and prepared for a life where home phones were a thing and cellphones were only for emergencies. Where the internet was a tool for learning and relaxation, like computer games and search engines. Where MySpace was the only social media network and even then we weren't posting pics of our food, posting videos of ourselves navigating life, or posting death threats to strangers (at least my friends and I weren't doing that). I remember never being bored because if that thought ever entered my mind, it quickly supplied it with an activity: playing outside, reading a book, doing arts and crafts, playing with barbie dolls, etc.

Now if I'm even the slightest bit "bored" (bc usually I'm really not), TikTok, Instagram, Facebook or X(Twitter), are there for a good disassociating doom scroll, that makes you think and feel like you're doing something but when you finally get free from its claws you feel even more bored and empty than when you began! Also, remember watching TV and movies without also scrolling on your phone? Yea that was a thing and it was marvelous.

I was not built, nor prepared, to participate in a world where a screen, or two!, is constantly in your face or at your fingertips. Even when I was in high school and the iPhone had just come out (circa 2007), it was just an all-in-one device: a phone you could take pictures on and listen to your music with. Youtube was on there but that too was still in its infancy and we weren't all having a channel and watching it all the time. Similarly, we had computers and laptops but for me I used it for Google and then in 2007/8 for Facebook bumper stickers and flare posts to my friends. Computer time had a curfew just like video game time did, because don't think that I wasn't slaying at Ocarina of Time on the Cube constantly because I was! But everything was in moderation.

Well, WHY CAN'T I LIVE LIKE THAT NOW?

*ahem* Sorry, I got a bit heated there.

All I mean is, why can't I choose to turn back the clock in my daily life? Like, go back to when smartphones post iPhone had 16ish basic apps?

Or how about using a site like Tumblr as the "new" Myspace, Xanga, or Wordpress ("" because all of those sites are still around, just different), to post my thoughts without worrying about monetization or vitality?

(omg this was a thing?! ^ 😅 what a time)

And what about taking videos and photos with actual cameras and camcorders? Then uploading and editing them on a different day than when you took the photo or video? OR EVEN....Posting them to your blog space DAYS later! *GASP*!

I think I may just do that...

Live as authentically close to how I was raised between the years of 1998-2008 (give or take a year or two on either end).

I've already begun the purge on my phone of all apps that I can access via my computer (minus of course the REALLY on the go important ones like banking, health, and wallet apps). I also am weening myself off of TikTok and Instagram. I've deactivated my accounts for X (Twitter), Snapchat, and Reddit. In the coming weeks I'll get up the courage to deactivate TikTok and Instagram when my brain doesn't freak the f*ck out at the idea lol. (and no I will not be downloading the Tumblr app, because that wasn't a thing until 2009 and I choose not to use my phone that way even if it is within the outer bands of the range I'm going for)

I can't claim all the credit for the idea. I was inspired by Sarah A. Chrisman and her husband who live an "authentic" Victorian life and blog about it. (Sarah gets as authentic as she can without cutting herself off from society and the outside world).

I recommend checking her blog out ^, their life is pretty fascinating and her book is good too!

I'll make another post on how I will be implementing a lifestyle reminiscent of the decade spanning 98-08. So far I'm excited at the prospect of reverting back to a time when my hand didn't automatically reach for my cell phone and automatically click an app to scroll through, seemingly on its own (we all know we do it and its spooky as hell).

I'm also excited to talk about it on here because I would be a hypocrite if I said that I didn't want to post about this experiment somewhere for the communal connectivity. I am also a product of the infancy of the social network, so I still have a longing to be seen and connected with others on the world wide web (I just don't want to feel pressured to monetize it or consume it constantly).

So this blog will be my chronicle of implementing a more 2k lifestyle! I hope you'll follow along and join in the fun of the nostalgia!

xoxo,

Faethy

[taylortruther]

Okay I have some thoughts and opinions bestie

A few weeks ago someone complained that Taylor's production has gotten worse since reputation. Her melodies are no longer "unique" and as memorable as they were back in 1989 & prior to that. It's such a weird take because I feel like Anti-Hero, Getaway Car, Cruel Summer, cardigan and ivy, for example, all have very unique melodies and can be recognized in a heartbeat. I remember when 1989 came out people complained it sounds robotic. Of course the albums that came out a decade+ ago would sound more timeless than the ones that came out less than 5 years ago. For some people it's nostalgia because the pre-rep albums came out when they were children. For newer fans, these albums are basically relics of the past.

That same post (& a few others) also brough up the subject of the amount of content Taylor's been releasing. People think she needs to take a break because she'll get repetitive and the quality of her music will start dipping. And I get that but as someone who likes to write the advice I hear most is to "never stop creating" the more you create, the better you get at it (and Taylor just can't stop creating).

Nostalgia's my sworn enemy, especially in the fandom. I die a little whenever I hear someone say "things used to be better" because I looked through this Facebook group I was in in the red/1989 era and the girls were so mean to me. I genuinely don't know how come I didn't cry myself to sleep every night. Internet and fandom cultures were always toxic and they're incapable of being anything else.

I understand the complaint about similarities in production and lyrics. I'm not a musician, but there are only a few chords in the world so things are bound to be similar. (And I don't think Lavender Haze and ITHK are that similiar. They flow well together; that's not the same thing.) And the person who makes the music is only one person with a few life experiences. People complained that Taylor's writing too much about 2016. She's just one person! There's so much someone can experience in 5 years and people don't just "move on" from things that happened to them. People heal but these stuff essentialy become a part of you and when you're a creator, memories are the main source of inspiration.

I want to talk about Jack Antonoff too but I feel like this ask is already too long lol

you are hitting some really interesting points that i completely agree with. the fandom (like any other, it's not unique to us) has a VERY short term memory. they rewrite history, often without realizing it. it's just a human thing, i think.

but the takes you're talking about truly are the mentality of the chronically online. hardcore stans consume content waaay different than the average fan does, and we all experience on art that came out in the past differently than art that is current to us.

and i also really hate that people expect taylor to constantly come up with new things to write about. she's just a person with her one life. it's a fascinating and rich life but she only has so many traumas or philosophies to share. she's not a tv show where a team of writers is thinking of what else to throw at her next so she can grow.

[ask-the-crimson-king]

On Writing, Art, and Creativity

Hello.

My apologies for this being another "behind the curtain" post written by the mysterious hermit who runs this blog, but I have some things I would like to articulate.

This post is more than likely going to be deleted within a day or so of it being up, but I'm going to write it regardless and maybe others will get something out of it.

This is going to be a bit of a reflection/maybe kind of a vent post in regards to my feelings on writing, art, and creativity in a space and environment that I frequent in my online spaces.

I will also preface and say I do not own any social media. I do not have a Twitter, nor an Instagram, nor a Facebook, nor a Bluesky, Mastodon, Pillowfort or whatever other platforms exist. The closest I have is a Discord and this blog, basically.

This will go under a readmore to prevent textwalling.

Hello and welcome to those who are curious enough to read my thoughts. Maybe we can have a discussion on this. Maybe people will tell me I'm being egotistical, I don't know.

It is no secret that I have struggled to maintain a will to be creative on this blog and my alternate. I find it difficult to even write a singular sentence or prolong a banter thread beyond four replies before I'm hitting "open in new tab" for it to hang in purgatory with the rest.

I have been taking time to reflect on why I am having such immense difficulties, and I've spoken about it with a few different humans.

I think I've finally nailed down what the issue is.

Engagement.

No, not likes or empty reblogs. Actual engagement with what I produce creatively. Comments beyond "nice job!".

Now I know; "hey, you only like things or leave empty reblogs too!" -- I am aware this is going to sound hypocritical, but hear me out for but a moment.

I do not create for me. I create for others. I create because I think that art is a conversation. It is a way for me to put things from my brain out there and for others to see a window into how I am. I create because I enjoy being able to express myself and engage with people while doing it. I do not create for clicks, I do not create for likes or notes, I create so that I can share something with others.

It takes a lot of effort for me to write something. It is genuinely something that feels Herculean to me. Writing this is lower stakes; this is not a creative piece, this is me putting my precise thoughts down into a written medium. This is me being analytical. That is second-nature to me.

But being creative, whether it be writing or even drawing, is a chore. It takes so, so much effort just to set up my tablet or open a new document. Writing a singular sentence takes an age. Rarely does it come easy. I am always nit-picking it; "this isn't catchy enough. This paragraph is too long; people aren't going to read it. This isn't splashy enough."

I have gotten to the point where I think I know how to get people to simply read what I have written, and even then, still no one reads my writings. In part this is due to my writings being a niche within a niche. I cling on to characters and concepts long since forgotten and abandoned by many, and thus there is no audience to engage with my work.

So I stop writing. I know that if I post anything over a thousand words, no one will actually read it. Most of my writings cap out at only two thousand words, with an exception being a piece I made that sits at almost five thousand that will go unpublished because no one is going to read it anyway.

Why put in so much effort if no one is going to engage with it?

I used to put in effort engaging with other people's art and writings more often. I'm trying to do it again, and I remember seeing so, so often people reblogging posts that said, "remember to reblog writing too!" and then no one does.

So I stop writing. No one reads it anyway, so what is the point in putting in the effort? Just so it can continue to be ignored?

My art gets only a few likes. Rarely more than five. I know it isn't great. AI generated pieces get hundreds of likes and reblogs that comments on how pretty it is, how gorgeous. This is not a post that is going to tell you to go back and find my art -- I do not keep tags on this blog, and genuinely my art is garbage enough that if I could find the old art posts and delete them, I would.

But then I see posts about supporting improving artists. I see people reblogging posts that say "support all forms of art", and then no one engages.

I have been trying to engage a bit more. I have been trying to leave nice comments in tags and the like, I have been trying to be more proactive in that regard again, because I know how great it feels to have that engagement as an artist. And I know I am not the only one for whom art is tortuous and arduous.

I know my biggest issue is that I write things that no one is interested in reading. I find myself occupying niche areas of interest that no one else is interested in. The only thing people want is kinky sex in their fics. People don't want to have philosophical and moral discussions in them. People don't want complicated things or fics that span more than 1200 words. I know this because I have written, or attempted to write, and post such things before. All go unread, forgotten, ignored.

It's ridiculous of me to whine and complain about fic of all things, but it is still an artform. It still takes effort. But why should I put in the effort if no one is going to even try reading it? Why should I even try, if only for someone to then turn around and tell me, "I prefer this person's writings to anyone else's currently present"?

I know my writing is not good. It is not of novel quality. Maybe I'm just an entitled old bastard. I don't know.

But it's hard being creative and trying to create art for an endless open void when you make art to make a connection.

I don't want your likes. I want your thoughts. I want your feelings. I want to know if what I have created has influenced you in any way.

I want a connection. It's why I even have an RP blog to begin with; writing collaboratively and telling a collaborative story is wonderful and amazing.

I don't know where else to go with this without being even more cyclical.

That's all for now. Maybe I'll post some more writings eventually.

[televisefur]

CW: Non-art tangent, Mentions of Twitter, mentions of hate speech

My opinion on Twitter and how we should use social media in 2023

I want to make this space a blog where I can express myself freely - so some posts will be art, and some will be like this. Thank you for staying with me!

Now, onto the topic of today's blog post.

Remember how we had tons of different social media websites, like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.? And now, most of the younger folk stay on Twitter, now known as X, and rarely ever go to Facebook, not to mention what happened to MySpace.

As part of this centralization, from 2012 and up until 2023 Twitter used to be my home online. Most of my followers are on Twitter and most of the people I know from the communities I'm in are from Twitter. I liked the convenience of having one platform where I could post art, talk to people, share my opinions.

As you know, Twitter, now X, has been irreparably damaged. As time went on, even before Elon's takeover, it became impossible to share your opinions without being supressed by the Twitter algorithm. I should've known I had Tumblr as an option where I could do so. Well, now as I've realized this, I'm making this post to talk about it. But things are so much worse now for Twitter when it comes to expressing your opinions or finding out what people think about things - which was Twitter's original intention.

When Elon came over, things became even worse. Elon started promoting alt-right hate speech, and made it much harder to get noticed or even talk to people in DMs without paying for Premium. But unlike Reddit, there was no giant tidal wave of people moving to Mastodon or any of the other alternatives (and people came back to Reddit anyway because some communities just stayed there or got reopened, and Lemmy has a host of issues that make it inconvenient for the majority of users).

Instead, the community splintered - Bluesky invites are flying off the shelves, Meta had their euphoric moment with Threads, and even Tumblr is trying to attract Twitter refugees by replicating its user interface, but most people stayed on the bird-turned-letter app- meaning we as artists or fans have to stay on our old Twitter accounts while at the same time spreading our attention thin between different platforms.

Tumblr used to be this extremely niche platform for artists, fans, various communities but it is becoming more popualr as a general social blogging website. I think that's a good thing, because I don't believe in gatekeeping, but I also don't like how uncomfortable existing Tumblr users are right now with the fact that a ton of Twitter users are coming into the platform.

Basically, I should've "switched" to Tumblr a long time ago and made that my priority. I should've just left Twitter a long time ago, when it started becoming the "only positive vibes" platform. The people behind Twitter manipulated it and the content you see on it for years, and that is the thing I dislike the most, second to the far-right push itself.

But now, the only thing I can do is get used to a splintered experience of social media once again. And I kind-of have a method for it, but I'm figuring it out. Like, for example, why should I use both Mastodon and Bluesky if both are virtually the same except one is open for everybody but more niche, and the other one is locked but is actually trending? Maybe it depends on which one is more popular at the current moment. Maybe it's based on how fun it is to use the platform. Maybe it is based on what I can do on it.

The thing is - I'm in the exploring phase. And that's the fun part.

[entesi]

A Proper Introduction

Self ship blog: entesi-selfship

Art blog: enttesi

Antis DNI

Hey there everyone! I was inspired by some friends to finally make a new introduction post, this one for me and my system. I am an endogenic soulbond system named the Dragon Soulbond System. I am married to my in-system spouse Vandarian, and we plan on sharing more of us and our system together!

About Our Relationship

Vandarian and I have been together since the 29th of December 2015 and married in May 8th 2018 (this is a guess since we were going through trauma at the time and don’t remember our exact marriage date) and we have three beautiful soulbond children! I’ve been host to a soulbond system since I was very young but didn’t know until recently that I was part of a system or what it was called, I just called things my own words until I learnt of the term soulbond and endogenic systems. I feel so much happier being able to connect to my soulbonds in a better way which is awesome! We thought we’d make a proper post for everyone to know about us :)

Stay tuned for our Carrd page that describes our experiences on being a soulbond system and how we met! This post will be edited with the link when it’s finished

Art by Physis Phyo on Facebook!

More about us is below!

About Me

Noven Hethreku | 24 | He/they

I am Noven Hethreku, but you can also call me Dragon or Entesi. I am a disabled, queer, autistic dragonkin boy from Australia who is a digital artist and character designer. I am obsessed with dragons and cats, and I love drawing characters based off of them and also other creatures that I like. I am a practitioning psychic and medium and I often practice my magical abilities with my soulbonds. I am in the process of making things such as a webcomic and a video game and I want to make content for people to feel happy about and see what I like to make. I try to draw where I can and when I want to I often commission others for art of me and my soulbonds. I treasure my soulbonds very deeply and I’m so happy to be able to share them with you guys!

If you want to see some of my other soulbonds, you can check my F/O and soulbonds page here!

I am always happy to talk about soulbonds! Feel free to send me messages or asks about them

About Van

Vandarian Rintzu Bluuven | 26 | They/them or fae/faer, occasionally he/him

I apologise for the old art, this is the only full reference I have of them that I’ve drawn, but I plan on redrawing them!

Vandarian is my spouse. They are from a species of alien called Bluuven (they don’t like being called alien by most people though as it has bad memories tied to it) and they are two years older than me. They are incredibly intelligent and can build almost any sort of technology, and can also grow sweet plants with their magic. They’re very sassy and have a lot of energy, and they’re very protective of me and my soulbonds. Van has DID, schizophrenia, autism, PTSD, anxiety and depression, and we help each other through the things that are upsetting us. They are very talented at many things such as dancing and singing, and they love showing off for others by looking good and showing that they’re very talented in the stuff they can do. They have tentacles in their back and they have mind reading abilities which are both from their species but they also have some unique abilities other members of their species don’t have. They are an absolute sweetheart and make me so happy

We are always happy to talk about our soulbond experiences so long as you’re being friendly so please feel free to ask us about stuff or share your own soulbond stuff! We always love meeting other soulbonds systems and we would love to see you guys if you want to chat! We give a big thank you to @liya-system for inspiring us to make this post for you guys so you guys can see what we’re like! Please let us know if you need anything

We hope you guys are happy!

[lady-of-the-upside-down]

Local indie publishing scene drama is crazy this week

A rough rundown (May not be super accurate but it gives you the idea) Also please bear with my grammar, it’s past 1am here as of writing.

Person A publishes under Company X in like 2014 or so, this was PA’s first novel. It doesn’t sell well.

Take note that part of the contract you sign under Company X states that you are responsible for your marketing (which is fair for an indie) and that you as the author have the final say on what version will be published even after their editors have done their own editing.

Eventually Person A offshoots and starts their own company, Company Y. It’s technically an imprint of the publishing company their parents run (why didn’t PA publish under there in the first place???)

During that time, Company X grew, getting more authors that succeed under them, and going as far as participating in international events like book fairs in Germany and the UK.

In the last week, Person A had been going on a tirade on Facebook over an alleged “scam publisher” that “doesn’t edit their books.” Meanwhile, many in the scene seeing the posts thought it was about an unrelated Company Z, who was outed for using AI art covers.

Just last weekend, Company X had an activity at a local chain bookstore that focused on a specific genre. It was a mini-convention with talks and signings and also the launch of an anthology of short stories of that genre.

The event wasn’t even bad, the only real complaint is that the venue was cramped for the unexpectedly sizable number of attendees.

Now back to Person A, they continues with their tirades online, all while bragging about an expensive deal they got with some TV network. Whatever, congrats I guess. (They were mentioning amounts of money that even a 4th grader would know not to post on social media as something you have, so it’s clear PA has piss poor social media skills)

The tirades continued in the past days and got more and more specific until she all but said the name. They still referred to Company X as a “scam”

Her claim seemed plausible as several other authors (Call them A1, A2) then began to come up with their own complaints about their works under Company X.

Turns out, upon the informal investigation done by some authors in our group chat, the commonality between the complainants was that their books didn’t sell well.

But remember, marketing was part of their obligations as Company X’s business model is less traditional and more collaborative between author and publisher.

Related to the last point, that was where A1’s complaint falls flat. It was his obligation to re-check the edited manuscript to check for any mis-corrections (such as editors removing intentional “mistakes”, amongst other things)

Person B, who started and runs Company X, had to address the private Facebook group of their authors and fans about the situation, giving us a clearer picture of what was going on and the likely reason how it began. (That’s where it was confirmed that Person A’s book really just didn’t sell well) It was a well-written statement and really helped ease our anxieties about the tensions, and also reminding us about how publishing under Company X was meant to be collaborative, which is something we willingly agreed to.

Person B also revealed that A2’s parent was stressing PB out in the middle of a busy book fair while they were nursing a mild fever all because A2’s mom was accusing PB of being connected to random politicians from the province PB came from, which PB denies vehemently in a professional manner.

A2 was also insistent on publishing once a month with different genres, which is, frankly, a stupid idea to begin with. So they shouldn’t have been surprised that many of those works undersold.

During that fair (and all fairs Company X participated in) there were authors who were present to promote their works, and even helping promote the works of those who weren’t there.

Bottom line: A1 and A2 didn’t due their due diligence in editing and marketing, respectively, and now Person A is using their “complaints” as part of a smear campaign against Company X.

It’s certainly been a wild few days of drama and honestly it takes a toll as someone with stake on the game. I am posting this here just to get it out of my system because frankly I’m still pissed about how Person A acted. I am saying this as someone who has met Person B in real life and even has mutual friends with her (one who knew PB long before she started Company X)

While we are generally happy about PA’s success with their company, it just leaves a sour taste in our mouths to see our feeds filled with their needless vitriol that could’ve easily been clarified with PB via email, rather than resorting to what is essentially slander(?) Also this situation really just caused a lot of anxiety to us, especially those of us who have works in progress under Company X.

Now, as a result of this, several authors who submitted stuff for Company Y’s calls for submissions are now rethinking the thoughts of signing a contract if they’re accepted.

Tried to be as vague as possible with the details to avoid further expansion of the issue.

Anyways here’s the dose of local hobby drama that I needed to get out of my system tonight before I go to sleep.