#or I can share it with a read more way early in because 15 pages probably becomes hellish to scroll through on tumblr mobile or desktop

[solarpunkani]

Good news: I finally finished writing the lost doll short story I mentioned awhile back

Bad news: 'can't write a story about a simple plot like a lost doll' my ass, this shit's 15 pages long and probably way too long to be a tumblr post

Neutral news: anyone wanna beta read it?

[got-into-worm-by-mistake]

Agitation 3.1 Live Reactions

(This is me, writing reactions as I read, because why the fuck not. They're not complete, mature thoughts taken after I sit back and evaluate what I've read. Consider them as such)

Bank Job Arc LET'S GOOOOOO!

(I Think?)

There was something appealing about being out and about before the city had woken up. 

There are many things I'll never be able to relate to wrt Taylor, I'm sure, some already, but this

Yeah. this has to be on top of that list. Becoming a warlord villain of the city? Sure what the fuck I'm all for that.

Liking being out and about at an ungodly hour? Fuck that noise.

It was like Brockton Bay was a ghost town, in a good way.

Taylor? One question:

What The Fuck?

 In February, Sophia had goaded some boys into trying to catch me, I think the goal had been to duct tape me to a telephone pole. I had escaped, helped mostly by the fact that the boys hadn’t really cared enough to run after me,

Huh. So that actually happened. I figured the fic I read here they do catch her (and then she accidentally goes wild with the Swarm, etc) just had that written as Sophia doing an escalation she didn't do in canon.

Christ, that bitch is just... someone really needs to stab Sophia. A lot.

(Like, yes, I can grant it's... not great when the story has so few black people and one of them is Sophia and she's written like... that, but still. Sophia - fucked up and vile)

Three and a half months had burned away the body fat, leaving me very lean, and had given me the stamina to run at a steady jog without leaving me panting for breath.

Lucky bitch. Three and a half months of jogging wouldn't do that for me.

(Maybe if I actually committed to it like she has, but I'm lazy so :rofl: )

There were only a few people out and about, which made it easy to find Brian.

Wait, you were here looking for Brian? Maybe clue is in sooner, Taytay?

“I want,” I said, then I felt dumb for the awkward lapse into caveman speak.  I blamed the early hour of the day.  To try and save face, I added, “Thanks.”

:rofl:

 “Don’t coffees there cost, like, fifteen dollars a cup?” Brian chuckled a little, “We can afford it, Taylor.”

And? Still a waste of money I'm willing to bet.

Also, like whomst the fuck, in 2011, was selling $15 coffee to go? Is Wildbow mistaking US and Canadian Dollars? Even in canada that feels like a lot for coffee?

Did Leviathan make coffee more expensive or something?

These guys were raking in thousands of dollars on a given job, and they had given me two thousand dollars up front. 

Yeah but you don't stay rich by just casually dropping $15 on your morning coffee.

I extended my arm, clenched my fist and relaxed it to demonstrate, “Only hurts when I flex it.”  I didn’t tell him that it had been hurting badly enough to cost me some sleep last night.

Trying to seem tough in front of the guy you're into, or just used to pretending she doesn't hurt as much as she does? Or both?

“Makes sense,” I said, then I added, “I read her page on the wiki.” “So you’ve got the gist of it,”

An accurate wiki!? LE GASP!

I spotted a crab scuttling across the beach almost directly below us.  I reached out with my power and stopped it in its tracks.  Though I didn’t need to, I extended my finger and pointed at it, then waved my finger lazily as I made the crab follow where my my index finger was pointing.  Since Brian and I were both leaning over the railing, and there was practically nobody on the Boardwalk that wasn’t busy with work or getting their store opened for the day, I was pretty certain nobody else would figure out what I was doing. Brian saw the crab dancing in circles and figure eights and smiled.  Conspiratorially, he leaned closer to me and whispered, “You can control crabs, too?” I nodded, feeling just a bit of a thrill at how we were huddled like this, sharing secrets while the people around us were totally in the dark.  I told him, “I used to think I could control anything with an exoskeleton or shell.  But I can control earthworms too, among other things, and they don’t have shells.  I think all it takes is that they have to have very simple brains.”

But there have to be other animals that also have simple brains she can't control? Some birds and mammals can, no?

It's time to say it again: POWERS

ARE

BULLSHIT

(I suspect I'll be saying that a lot. :rofl:)

Of course, it could be her powers run on what she conceptually thinks are bugs or buglike? Like, if she could convince herself that squirrels are bugs, could she control them?

I shook my head, “I gotta get home and get ready for school.” “Ah, right,” Brian said, “I forget about stuff like that.” “You guys don’t go?” “I take courses online,” Brian said, “My folks think it’s so I can hold a job to pay for my apartment… which is kind of true.  Alec dropped out, Rachel never went, and Lisa already applied for and tested for her G.E.D.  Cheated using her power, but she has it.”

It is kind of remarkable that Taylor doesn't just... give up on school, from what I gather she keeps going sometimes even well into her Villain career. I doubt Winslow would really care enough to reach out to Taylor's dad if she just... stopped actually attending.

“Ah,” I said, my focus more or less dwelling on the idea that Brian had an apartment.  Not the fact that Grue the successful supervillain had an apartment – Lisa had mentioned that to me – but that Brian the teenager with parents and schoolwork to focus on did.  He kept changing my frame of reference for trying to figure him out.

Villains are human and complex!

“That’s to our place,” he told me, “And I mean that.  Ours as in yours too.  You’re free to come by any time, even if nobody is there.  Kick back and watch TV, eat our food, track mud on our floor, yell at the others for tracking mud on the floor, whatever.” “Thank you,” I said, surprising myself by actually meaning it.

Well fuck. Yeah.

Fuck.

All this poor girl wants is a place to belong. A place to be welcome.

I mean, not all she wants, really, I suppose, but a huge part.

That wasn’t to say I didn’t like Lisa, but just being around her made me feel like I had the Sword of Damocles hanging over my head.

Understandable.

Heading back home and preparing for school left me with a gradually increasing feeling of dread, like a weight sitting on my chest.  I’d been trying not to think of Emma’s taunting and my fleeing from the school with tears on my face.  I had spent an hour or two tossing and turning in bed, the event replaying over my head while the throbbing of my wrist jarred me awake every time I started to drift off.  Beyond that, I had been pretty successful in avoiding thinking about it.  Now that the prospect of going back was looming, though, it was impossible not to dwell on the subject as I headed home, got ready and caught the bus.

Taylor "Repress Repress Repress" Hebert!

I still had to face the consequences of missing two afternoons.

Do you?

This wasn’t the first time I’d needed to psych myself up to going to school.  Deceive myself into going and staying.  The worst days had been back in my first year at high school, when the wounds of Emma’s betrayal were still fresh and I wasn’t yet experienced enough to anticipate the variety of things they could come up with.  Back then, it had been terrifying, because I hadn’t yet known what to expect, didn’t know where, when or if they would draw the line. 

Ooof

Or, I thought, maybe I could just look forward to hanging out with Lisa, Alec and Brian.  Outside of the part where I nearly got mauled by Bitch’s dogs, it had been a nice night.

I mean, that's like saying "Apart from the part where she mindraped and then actually raped her sister, Amy Dallon does wonderful things in Worm"

Okay, not really, not even close, but still. That is a very big 'apart from' to just... set aside. :rofl:

 it had been a nice night.  Thai food, five of us lounging on two couches, watching an action movie on a huge entertainment system with surround sound.  I wasn’t forgetting what they were, but I rationalized that I had no reason to feel bad about spending time with them when we were – for all intents and purposes – just a group of teenagers hanging out.  Besides, it was for a good cause, if it meant they relaxed around me and maybe revealed secrets.  Right?

Capacity for self-rationalization, thy name is Taylor. :rofl:

Even though I knew, rationally, that I probably wasn’t on the list of their top five things to talk about and that they likely weren’t talking about me, I felt my heart sink.  

No, you probably are. I'm pretty sure you live rent free in both Taylor and Emma's heads and always will. A year and a half of targeting bullying, day in, day out.

Honestly, like, forget the immorality and awfulness of doing that, just... committing to that much bullying to one person that consistently - It just feels like it would be exhausting.

 One of the other girls noticed and chuckled, leaned closer to Sophia as Sophia whispered something in her ear, then they both laughed.  My cheeks flushed with humiliation.  

Like I said. Rent Free.

 For one and three-quarter school years, I had been putting up with this shit.  I’d been going against the current for a long time, and even though I was aware of the consequences I’d face if I kept missing school like this, it was so much easier to stop pushing so hard against the current and just step in the other direction. My hands jammed into my pockets, already feeling an ambivalent sort of relief, I caught the bus back to the docks.

Life advice from Skitter:

"Drop out of school, and become a supervillain kids!"

:rofl:

(But also, good on you Taylor. In this case, quitting school is the better choice. Fukitol and all that)

[study-with-aura]

Sunday, March 31, 2024

I am posting this on Monday since yesterday was a holiday here. Easter went very well, and even though the sunrise service at the park was very early, I truly enjoyed it. We still had a regular church service afterwards for Easter Sunday, plus our Bible Study group, so it was a packed Sunday morning with church family and friends.

My mom and our other troop leader thought about canceling the meeting yesterday for Girl Scouts, but none of us wanted to cancel because we're starting on our Citizen Science journey badge, which will take several weeks to complete. Plus, we wanted to still get together and share candy because what else do you do with sweet treats? You share them with friends! So we worked on some activities while eating candy. It was fun. We also did a prayer for Easter Sunday as a group. All of us in the troop identify as Christian or we wouldn't have done it. Our parents are very respectful towards other religions and religious practices unlike some of the other homeschool families in our area unfortunately. It makes me sad, and I don't associate with those families much because of it. I think we can learn so much from other cultures and religious practices and Jesus taught love, so shouldn't we show that to those who may be different from us and respect their beliefs just as we expect our own beliefs to be respected. This was a tangent, and I apologize, but I also blog for myself like a diary, not only for any readers that might find my posts.

But it also makes me think of this current book that I'm reading. It was on my reading list already, but I chose to read it now because of it taking place during WWII and after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The amount of hatred in this book towards the Japanese, even when they are American citizens, is horrifying. I guess nothing should horrify me anymore after seeing a genocide taking place in my own lifetime, but it does. It makes my heart hurt. And now I'm getting ready to study the Holocaust in World History, although I've read about it before, this time is more in depth since I'm in HS now, but even watching the docuseries that I'm watching to supplement my learning and understanding. It makes me emotional to see actual photos and videos of some of what took place. Maybe I'm too sensitive, but I don't think so. I think everyone should be responding in a similar way. They should be disgusted and horrified that things like this happened so recently and are still happening in the present.

I need to get back to studying. The world is such a terrifying place, that I'm grateful I can still see the beauty in it at all.

Tasks Completed:

Duolingo - Studied for 15 minutes (Spanish, French, Chinese) + completed daily quests

Piano - Practiced for three hours in one hour split sessions

Reading - Read pages 158-239 of Beneath the Wide Silk Sky by Emily Inouye Huey

Streaming - Watched Hitler’s Circle of Evil episode 5

Chores - Put the dishes away

Activities of the Day:

Personal Bible Study (Genesis 1)

Sunrise Service

Church

Bible Study

Girl Scout Meeting

30 minutes gaming

Journal/Mindfulness

[compacflt]

do you have any book recs in general? i love your writing style and would love to know what inspires you! <3

four books that i can say really genuinely inspired me and my writing in terms of most to least favorite (of course these are all favorites but they can still be ranked)

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer — for masterful use of symbolism, epistles, the fact that every time i read it (over a dozen times at this point) i discover something new, and the fact that JSF was twenty when he wrote it—lends some belief that i might be able to do the same or similar. read this book when i was 15 and it is no joke the reason i am at the school I am at right now. long story but… this book makes up a sizable share of my soul

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque — for plot, character, and power of emotion. If you get a good translation, this book feels like a modern piece of war fiction akin to Kevin Powers’ The Yellow Birds or the first half of Full Metal Jacket. There’s a reason this book was one of the first to be burned by the NDSAP in the early 1930s. Absolutely superb & reading this book at 14 right after i had experienced my own sense of unparalleled loss and tragedy genuinely changed my life. A solid part of why i am interested in milhistory

American Pastoral by Philip Roth — for character, specificity of detail, and engagement with politics. I love every Roth piece I get my hands on. He’s gritty and gross and ahead of his time. This book was genuinely devastating to read. It’s so specific it HURTS. Proved to me that details are how you sell a story. There’s like a three-page monologue about how to make women’s gloves, and because of the context every word is more gripping than the last. One of the best ever American authors at the peak of his game imo. Which is not an unpopular opinion, this book is heavily lauded for a reason

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov — for plot, inventiveness of language, and character most especially. Lolita actually isn’t an all time fav for me because I didn’t particularly like the ending (i didn’t understand the role of quilty in the story) but I can definitely say it’s had a clear impact on the way i write and especially the way i narrate. Humbert humbert squeezes out the truth and is so ashamed of the truth that his shame and all his little lies bleed out through every word. He’s utterly absurd but he’s entirely believable. He’s just… I don’t know. He’s just human. In a way that all fictional characters have an imperative to be human, because fiction is a reflection of our own sick and shameful real lives… and that comes out in Nabokov’s diction and syntax. It’s less specificity of detail, like Roth—actually it’s barely specific with details at all because the details are so explicit and shameful—it’s more specificity of LANGUAGE. Beautiful writing for writing’s sake.

But pretty obviously what has affected my writing most is that i moooostly read only straight white men writing about straight white men problems. See above. So my reading list might not be applicable/enjoyable for everyone. i would like to think i write like a straight white man. that’s my goal. my strategy is not to follow in their footsteps or to break glass ceilings but to eventually beat them at their own game. we’ll see how that goes.

[linaket]

Monthly Update (Feb 6, 2024)

It has definitely been... a January. This year, I had a lot of plans and goals relating to my writing, but a lot of them are already not going through. One was to do weekly or monthly updates, kind of like when I did weekly updates while working on TS. But, it's still early in the year, so I figure its better late than never. Also still early in the month even if I didn't manage to get this out there at the end of January...

My personal life has been a bit hectic. First thing was that some major projects in the house I planned to have completed last year were finally finished this month--I have all new windows installed in my house now, and a new door, and while I didn't personally do the windows (I did install the door, though) it takes a lot of time to prep before and clean up after reno projects and get the house back in order, so I've spent the last two weeks on this. Additionally, I'd applied for a promotion at work, and then was coated in stress waiting for the results... (which I received a few days ago... and I got it! Been a long time coming, really.)

So this is the first one of these... just gonna throw things out here and decide on a format as they go.

Books Read

Finally completed The Fifth Season trilogy by N. K. Jemison. I wanted to finish this one last year, but the last book lingered into the new year.

All the Hidden Paths by Foz Meadows

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

The Dead Take The A Train by Cassandra Khaw & Richard Kadrey

Important Posts

I shared a summary of my 2024 writing goals/wips on instagram. I meant to bring this over to tumblr and do a bit more on it but... didn't. Maybe this month?

Shadow's Prey: Act 1 wip intro here on tumblr

Writing

30k on Mortal Teeth. 15 chapters done of.. ?? a lot probably. 40 something, at least, if not 50-60 range. This completed the second major arc/goalpost (there are about 5 of these at the moment)

Shadow's Prey: Act 1 formatting is moving along well, and so it's still on time for a March release. I may aim more for mid March, depends on how quickly I'm able to finish up the extras and get some promo in. I really wish I could figure out exactly what size image it takes to make a full-page image in ebooks, but I think I'm going to have to settle for the title page not being... perfect. Which. Does not make me happy. But there really isn't a way to appease every e-reader, as they are all different sizes, so I am finding there is only so much I can control here.

Favorite Excerpt

I wrote a lot of things in Mortal Teeth that I was proud of this past month, but one of my favorite things I ran across when writing was realizing that my writing has improved... massively. It's been a while since I've had a leap of growth that I can easily pinpoint, but the extra I planned for SP Act 1 was partially written, and I needed to work on it. I kept getting stuck on continuing because something about it felt off/forced when I tried, so I did the classic open a new doc and retype/rework as I go... and quickly realized why I was having trouble working on it. My style had shifted dramatically....

This isn't a major point in the short, but I wrote the beginning of this around the middle of last year and it went from this:

Whereas Kanna actively ignored Masao’s approach, Ira glared at him in challenge. “Here,” Kanna said, drawing Ira’s attention by offering Amon’s reins as a lead. “Find someone to tend him, and get me a count of the survivors.” Masao’s voice at her back carried a smirk she could feel between her shoulder blades. “What about the casualties?”

to this:

While Ira glared at Masao in challenge, Kanna actively ignored him. Though she was coated with the blood of those she’d killed, her hands to her wrists to her elbows with it, Masao delighted in his stain. Even here, with the smell of death in the air and the unholy silence that followed battle, he smiled. The joy he radiated amidst destruction unsettled her, something deep inside of her flinching from it. Kanna gathered Amon’s reins, drawing Ira’s attention by offering them. “Find someone to tend him, and get me a count of the survivors.” Masao’s voice at her back carried a smirk she could feel between her shoulder blades. “What about the casualties?”

Final Thoughts

I was excited to get through another phase of MT in writing, but I don't think the time I've allotted to finish the draft is going to be enough. This stresses me out a bit, because I gave myself a pretty tight schedule for the year with all the releases (there are 4 ebooks, and I was considering restarting Act 4 in the serial which would be 5 releases total....)

I'm actually... thinking once again that I won't go back to serial posting for SP. Tapas was/is my primary platform for it, and I am simply... no longer a fan of the platform, and not really interested in others, either. So that might be one of the things in the "coming this year" that ends up pushed to next year or later this year, depending, as it will likely be an ebook release instead of serial and... I'm still working on drafting the teeth wip and I don't see it taking a backseat for a while, until I'm truly stuck.

I've been trying not to beat myself up about not doing the things I said I'd do at the start of the year (daily journaling, more updates here and other platforms, etc) because it's simply... not great for me. And really, I'm not sure I would have had the aforementioned improvement in my writing if I'd continued to stress myself out about writing itself, on top of doing all these other things that I'm supposed to do. I took it pretty easy last year after a massive disappointment, shutting down a lot of my online presence and focusing on reading and writing for myself, and I think that's what allowed me to become comfortable again and led to growth. I don't want to feel as defeated as I had that time, because its the kind of thing that would have led to me completely giving up in my younger years, and I also don't want to get stagnant because I'm trying to do too much that isn't... the actual writing. So... I guess we'll see how this goes?

[eggtwobroes]

big post explaining/apologizing for my (eggtwobroes/theyhitthepentagon) behavior under the read more

sorry for maintagging this i just. think its important

i dont really kniw how to word what im thinking so im like. going to type it as im thinking. but i wanted to make a real genuine post explaining my behavior over the past year, because ive been a dick there is no avoiding it!! this post is going to be about how ive acted from june up until now. im mostly going to be explaining the situations and apologizing. if you see this please feel free to share it around, i know it most likely will not reach alot of people because i have like. a loot of people blocked. and alot of people have me blocked. idk please share this ok thank u

back in june 2022 (specifically one year tomorrow, june 16th) i got like. really worked up after i had foundout that most of my adult mutuals (and some people i followed) were drawing hlvrai nsfw! the only post i had made about it (at least from what i remember) is liiike a not Kind post that basically said "hey if u like hlvrai nsfw please block me i thought that was common sense". after i posted this a large hlvrai artist (either by chance or caused by me) posted like "hey if u shit on hlvrai porn ur homophobic! sex is an important part of gay relationships etc etc"

this caused a Massive out break of discourse over hlvrai nsfw and me getting alot of adults in my inbox being weird towards me. here i feel its important to mention that:

when i was 12, i was around Ex Friends that posted a lot of porn of media i liked. even though most of them were teenagers and not that much older than me it Greatly Impacted Me and how i act, both related to what i saw and how i was treated

i used twitter from ages 12-15 (recently left) and you know how they handle conflict there. its not good

i dont think either of these excuse how i acted (but they may explain it)

the combined pressure of getting a bunch of adults in my anons being (from my perspective) really weird about this 14 year old kid who doesnt want porn artists to interact, and the unhealed trauma of Being Exposed To Homestuck Porn When I Was 12 (a devastating situation that everyone goes though all the time) i didnt really. handle it in a Good Way. which Means i sent horrible anon hate to people.i dont clearly remember if i made alot of public posts about the situation at the time (beyond answering the anons i was getting) but if i did im very very VERY sorry.

i feel like. alot of how i acted during this time (june-early august, mostly) was extremely Dickish and rude. as much as i justify or explain why i acted the way i did, i was still causing issues and handling the situation in a way that was unhealthy for not just myself but for everyone else around me. for this i really genuinely do apologize as much as i can, to the people ive hurt (melonsharks, xenodogz, many other artists) and to the people who were annoyed by me rehashing 3 year old drama. ever since the situation i have been working towards learning to block people and move on if they make content that makes me feel nauseous.

As for how ive acted in recent months, mostly over characterization, im not going to pretend that im already a new person. because im not! as much as i say im trying to be less of an asshole im just Not. it takes effort that i feel like im not putting in.

for those who just Dont look at my pages often enough, i will occasionally make posts about how hlvrai fans treat or characterize the. characters. and lets behonest these posts are really rude and ive been working on at LEAST being more vague or keeping it in private or like. just Not Posting it. but of course i HAVENT done all of those things! ive been really unvague!

ive posted direct screenshots of authors writing (someone younger than me, ive recently learned) to shit on it for being mischaracterized. i should Not have done that. at the very least i should have kept my thoughts to myself, not even shared with my friends.

after reading how other authors and artists have felt about the things ive said, and looking at the way ive come to think of other artists or authors in the community, ive realized that even though i thought i was targetting mischaracterization and poor treatment of the characters, i was harming and discouraging artists and authors who are still learning and growing as creators.

for this, im VERY very sorry to all of the artists and writers ive hurt or discouraged with my posts. i want to personally apologize to joyflameball, for publicly posting about and hating on your writing and the discouragement i caused as a result. i should have never put mischaracterization over your own feelings, and i definitely should not have put your work on blast, especially because we are (i think) around the same age. i will be trying as best as i can to deconstruct the way ive come to think of other creators in this community and support other creators as best i can.

i dont expect to be forgiven for the way ive acted, since alot of this is VERY very recent and so far i dont think ive shown any signs of improvement. i am writing this post now because i want you all to know that i will be trying my hardest to become a better person, change the way i think of other people, and change the way i act in public. i dont think my actions can be excused, as much as i try my best to explain them from my perspective. ive undeniably hurt many people. if i havent addressed something important, or if you have any questions/things to say, please feel free to send me an ask or dm me at wretched yaoi lich#9564 on discord. im most likely going to be queueing this post alot so my followers see it. thank u for ur time

[modern-major-wonka]

LONG POST/RANT INCOMING (tl;dr - I'm shutting down my Patreon at the end of the year, but if you want to support my art, I've set up a similar structure of membership on my website which is now open).

I've made no secret of the fact that the Internet and Patreon are becoming more and more hostile to artists of all stripes. More and more restrictions regarding what type of work can be created and shared, crackdowns on work containing nudity, NFT and AI bullshit committing art theft all over the place...it's a tough time to be an artist in the Internet age.

I've also always lamented the fact that I can't share a large chunk of my work on Patreon without hiding it behind the paywall. And the places where I can share such work continue to get smaller and smaller. Most of you know my opinions on censorship and works containing nudity. Within the last month, the social media hub where I share most of my work deemed NSFW, Vero, has begun to remove dozens of my images, images that have been there for years, because suddenly they violate the terms of service.

Specifically, they violate Apple's terms of service. For Vero to remain on the App Store, they have to present a "family-friendly" image, which means much of the work I've shared there for years is being removed for containing "offending" bits like pubic hair, genitals, things every single one of us have. Apparently Apple, like many other faceless corporate entities, thinks that the nude human figure should be something to be ashamed and embarrassed over.

In an attempt to have a place where anyone can view my work without it being censored, taken down, banned, shadowbanned, subject to the mercy of the algorithm, or just flat-out not allowed, I will be closing my Patreon on December 29, 2023. I've also begun slowly reducing how much of my work gets shared on social media. Very few people see my work anyway thanks to the Algorithms (TM), and I don't have the time to try to figure out how to best please it for maximum exposure.

To that end, I've begun to re-focus on my website as being the sole hub for my work. I've created a Membership page on my website, and with it, I've created 3 tiers of membership, with perks and benefits very similar to how I have it currently set up on Patreon. There, you can sign up on a monthly or yearly basis.

While I've yet to decide on the final images, I'm going to be giving those who sign up for a membership between now and the end of 2023 a small photo book containing between 15-20 of my images as a thank-you. Look for me to start asking you for your mailing addresses in the early part of 2024.

All that said, you can now sign up on my website and support my art: https://bjfrenchphoto.com/memberships2

If you read all the way through, thank you so much.

[raguna-blade]

A bit of a rant/analysis below. Nothing super detailed I think but if you’re interested

Ok, so the benefit of looking at stuff tha’ts not quite as good as actually good is that you get to see what works and doesn’t by the mechanics of it, especially when they don’t quite match up.

In and of itself that’s fine and probably good practice

But I’m struggling to put into words WHAT exactly is the difference here between Kicked out of the A Rank party and Beast Master Blahblahblah.

They share similar overall shape (Capable character is kicked out of high ranking party, reveals that they’re actually quite skilled and powerful in their own right, gain attention of cute girls who join together with them as a team and they kick ass)

Easy straight forward.

Chapter lengths are also similar, being about 15 pages or so, a bit on the short side.

Genre is overall the same (fantasy, adventure guilds, monsters, etc)

Main characters have many similarities in this regard, and while I didn’t get super far in Beast Master, (I could only manage 10 chapters before my attention fell off entirely) there’s some pretty pointd differences there too which I’ll get to in a sec. Design Wise, Despite being similarly black haired stock LN dude, I favor A Rank’s a bit more, despite beast master being technically a bit more original looking (He hs brown hair as I recall)

Cute girls, as seen, are also pretty similar. Not super deep characterization, but nobody in this does really so that’s not really the biggest issue but there are differences as well so. Designs are also, similarly, pretty basic from what I’ve seen, although here to I favor A Rank over Beast Master.

Plots are, near as I can tell, about the same. Adventure, See weird stuff, continue. Beast master from what I’ve seen DOES get more complicated, and maybe my issues with it later get worked around.

And then the general magic systems don’t seem to be quite as different as they could be either…

So what’s the differences then?

The first and most obvious in my mind is that the Main Character in A Rank definitively has a Spine. There’s a small but critical difference of him actively leaving the party that he was a part of, because they were being shit heads. Compare Beast Master, who get’s kicked out.

In both cases, the parties do not recognize the amount of stuff they’re doing for them, but A-Rank’s hero (Yoke) saying hey you fuckers are undervaluing me And actually actively telling them to fuck off gives a stronger impression overall compared to Rain who is actually undervaluing themselves.

A further point in A-Rank’s favor for main characters, is that Yoke (despite being yet another example of stock MC uber badass in certain respects) also demonstrably is actively expanding his skills and abilities. While there’s definitely a certain point where it probably leans too far into hyper competence, there’s also the ready and actually completely reasonable excuse that This Man Was On A High Ranking Party. Of course he should know all this stuff, he’s been at it for years. Him expanding his range of skills makes sense, and the fact that the seems to actively go out of his way to do paints him in a better light.

By comparison, Rain, protag of beast master….Doesn’t seem to be doing that. He’s already very strong in a lot of ways, ut I think the thing that absolutely kills it is that he seemingly has no experience with OTHER normal beast masters (it’s made abundantly and explicitly clear early on in the few chapters I read that he has not met ANY other beast masters. Just no one else in his trade at all, despite being a high ranker). This undervalues his skills by a large amount, and rather than serving to be impressive, it just comes off as fellating the main character “Look how good they are!” rather than just being a build up of their skills.

Again, It’s not like Yoke’s a hyper well built up character either, but the fact that he IS aware of what he’s worth, the fact that he does seem to go out of his way to build up his skills, and the fact that the story ad setting in general DOES make it a point to show why some of his thoughts and drives for this make sense.

That is to say,Red Mages (Yokes class and power set) seems to be built around buffing and debuffing (and the debuffs seem pretty legit actually) but there’s a general devaluation of the class and skills, which seems weird at first, until the story encounters the first Big Name Monster and it’s pointed out “Oh yeah, these debuffs Stop Working Well against the big horrible monsters” and you suddenly get it, Oh That’s why they’re devalued. Yes he has a range of buffs that help out, but it’s made clear that LITERALLY all of the buffs can be handled with items, and while carrying them around is a problem, the questionable utility of a specific buffer debuffer when there’s items that can do the job just as well is a fair one to ask. It’s not necessarily a sensible decision, but it’s one that I could understand.

By comparison, Rain’s class of beast tamer is, in universe, seemingly pretty bleh at best, but again I didn’t get super far. But it IS made clear the differences between Rain and others is SPECIAL PROTAG RIGHTS more than Homie Worked his Ass Off and Doesn’t know it. Again, everyone who knows even a bit is constantly surprised at his antics, which get’s old fast.

And ok, in both cases, there’s the party that they get kicked out of. Let’s take a look at them.

Generally speaing, from both cases, both are scumbags. Like Unambiguously so, but there is the difference of Rain’s Party Being Righteous Scumbags (We’re the Hero Party!) vs just Greedy Dickheads (ala Yoke) which does give each a different feel. Not to mention, that while both parties are played as incompetent with their base knowledge, the degree of it for both comes across as wildy different.

In Rain’s Case, again from my limited read I might go back again to see whats up if it changes a touch, there seems to be a genuinely lack of skill, guts and so on, which makes their dismissal come off as well, they’re huge dumbasses. There’s a shallowness to their shallowness if you get me. By comparison Yokes party are SIMILIARLY dumb as a sack of hammers, and you do have to wonder why and how they got as far as they did, but you can at least understand that with the amount that Yoke was doing and he was doing a frankly freakish amount. Yes there’s the oh man look at how competent our hero is thing, but when you see his party go “Oh wait yeah that makes sense we should also do that” and then they do, you kinda start to realize that it’s less Yokes a Freak, and more Yokes the only one with common sense on that party. But in doing so, you can at least understand WHY it is that they’re lacking that knowledge, because they themselves actively undervalued that knowledge that Yoke himself had and made use of.

Like they’re serving the same fucking purpose as dumbasses who don’t know what they lost, but the difference of how it’s demonstrated makes a huge difference there.

Then there’s the element of the girls. Which, hey, it’s what the manga’s about fundamentally. Self insert dude with cute bevy of girls with him, haremy shenanigans, blahblhablah. There’s ways you can play that and be fun so I’m cool with it (and cute girls are cute, it must be said) but the difference of it is..

Again, I only got so far, but it’s made clear that the while neither party has particular depth, the catgirl vs the trio of adventurers who Yoke joins up with have…well…

It’s again a competence thing. Kanade (the catgirl) shows up needing to be rescued from a situation that to all indications is straight up her fault. Explicitly, she’s superhumanly strong, so there shouldn’t be a reason she’s not able to procure some food, even if it is the case that she needs to eat CONSIDERABLY more than a baseline person to keep herself running. Like yes starvation happens, I get it, but it feels like a you dumbass moment rather than a preventable fuck up. Even having her being actively harried by something she couldn’t actually handle would at least make it make sense, but at least in the manga she handles the creature on dregs pretty casually (even if it’s a single blow) so it’s a big ????

By comparison, the Adventurer Girls (Silk, Rain, Marina) are introduced in a considerably lower stakes situation, and more to the point it’s a social situation that by all indications they have…Not under control, but within their ability to handle. As a unit, their competence never actually get’s called into question, and in fact they’re sold as actually VERY talented rookies by our Much More Experienced Protag. They just need more experience and they’ll be golden, which in subsequent big monster fights you can actually see! They handle a monster WAY out of their league by ranking pretty handily (if with injuries) the first time we see it and also get to see our protag flex off his credentials, and the NEXT big monster they similarly get to flex against mostly by themselves and Successfully for the most part.

And individual characterization wise, they’re all simple characters, boy the A Rank and Beast Tamer, but there’s differences in how they’re handled that makes the difference. By introducing them (a rank) as a group, you get to see them bounce off differing characters sooner as compared beast tamer hwo only has the bland Rain to bounce off, and when you introduce Yoke to the mix, there’s an additional dynamic added to the vibe, which makes the simplicity charming rather than bland.

And I guess the last major point is the Romance angle, because of course there is it’s basic middle of the road stuff here, but the general vibe of it and how it’s developed actually feels well…A rank Explicitly has Yoke be an ex teacher of their, and he hasn’t seen them in years, which makes the dynamic of respect and admiration and school girl crushes feel well..Earned I guess. We know how competent Yoke is, he taught them, and they’re good at their jobs by all indications, and they remember that. You can get how that infatuation would develop and it’s cute. Not to mention that they’re on a more even playing field here both setting wise and position wise (he’s out a job, they have an opening, they know he’s skilled everyone wins) but I think critically, for A Rank, is that while it’s clear the girls are smitten with him, they’re also not like…It’s not a big deal? Like they playfully tease him here and there, and he get’s it and a lot of his vibe in regard to it is along the lines of “C’mon really? I mean you know me so I get it, but please be a bit more careful, what if I wasn’t as good a guy as you think I am?” which at once feels like oh yeah duh, but also we see that they DO actually have that common sense and clarity so it comes off as him being well…understandably dense, but also not updating his mental model that they’re young women instead of young girls now if you follow (and one of them is the same age he is, which alright sure whatever, this is not that serious a show and it’s not like they’re doing that annoying shit where it’s like oh they’re 14 or some shit)

Not to mention, for A rank yet again, the romance drama seems to be well…None. They’re all actively into him, and since polygamy is apparently just legal in their country they’ve just kinda seemingly settled into a polycule (which, given the general closeness the girls had already prior to meeting dude, not that I’m expecting anything in the manga to touch on this, does kinda give this vibe of them already being in one of some sort? Or else being close enough that the idea has been broached before which is…A weird consideration but feels right for them which is weird now that I think on it)

Meanwhile, and again, only so far in, There’s the basic rescue for Kanade and that’s…It and she’s already catching feels. She can just sense it you know? And sure fine, but at the same time it feels hollow and threadbare, and since we only have the two to bounce off it doesn’t really rate how good a read she has on things actually (and we, the readers, of course know that Rain is a goody goody sweet nice boy with no inner flaws or whatever)

There’s also just some panelling weakness in general but that’s getting into other issues I don’t particularly want to worry about since I’m looking more at the story telling of the characters than anything, but it’s…

I think I get why A rank hit’s better for me now at least. There’s a level of actual activeness going on for everyone, and while the characters are simple, they’re being allowed to interact with more people at once allowing edges of their personalities to be shown off more. None of the competencies rate as actually abnormal so much as yeah this dude is a skillmonkey in a setting where if you’re a top rank you REALLY should be or else have the aid of one. The setting actually set’s up the importance of this relatively early on, and the main character actually valuing himself set’s him up as being aware of things in a way that makes him immediately likable and personable, even if he is again very simple.

Meanwhile beastmaster things fall flat immediately because mc despite being DEMONSTRABLY a monster in skill and power, also doesn’t seem to realize this, and is more of a passive player in his own story early on. I will actually add here as an additional thing, with the protag being overpowered thing that infects this range of stories, that the difference in how they acquired that and how it’s demonstrated in story makes SUCH a huge difference in the feel of it, even if mechanically it plays out the same. It’s not like you can have I’m just built different as a starting point and it always plays out bad, but given the rest it’s flaccid in support.

Rain knows TOO little about his setting despite the fact that he should know more, and he’s a bit too passive in how he get’s his power (and the fact that his power is one of those ones that makes very clear that he’s going to be overpowered as hell in short order especially given the romance/harem premise just…sucks the tension out of things quick like)

[alekx]

As long as I don’t give up on the things that I love…

One of my personal resolutions is to stop writing about how I should be writing more and just write what I want, so that I can actually see myself write more. I also decided not to mind when my last post was and when it should be. Life happens. As long as I don’t give up on the things that I love, I’m okay. On that note, here are some updates about what I’ve been up to lately. Less reflection-y, more of a “hello, this is what I’ve been doing”.

I got a new job! I’m starting with this one because this gives context to some of the other updates in this entry. I am now working with the events team for a bookstore. Early this year, I decided that I was ready to go back to working full time. Professionally, the last three years have been a roller coaster ride for me to say the least, and while that time taught me many lessons, I am glad to have something stable to hold onto and build my life with right now. I’ve always been curious about what it would be like to work for this company, and now I get to find out. It’s also nice to be with more people again. This is the first time I’m in a job where there’s more than 15 people. The world feels big again, and if I were younger this would faze me, but lately I keep finding myself wanting to welcome new situations with open arms.

I’ve been reading more. I’ve already been trying to be more consistent with my reading in the last few years, but it definitely helps to be in a place full of books and to be constantly talking about books. I’m still a bit of a slow reader, but I’ve been reading at least a page a day, which is still good in my book and, ultimately, what matters. I’ve also been trying out some books that are outside my comfort zone (a thriller!) or books that I normally would pass up on. We also get news about upcoming books and authors and I think that too makes one excited to keep reading.

I met cool authors. Okay, this is kind of a given because it’s literally part of my job. But still! Another perk is I learn from listening during their talks and get my books signed from them, as well.

I started a bookstagram. At work, we are encouraged to keep reading and to hone our discernment for books, which I take to heart. Besides reading itself, I thought that starting a bookstagram is one of the ways that I could respond to that encouragement. Of course, there’s still the echo chamber effect, but nonetheless, it’s good for getting some sense of what others, especially young people, read and why they read what they read. Another reason I have for creating an account is because I want to keep practicing writing. I like writing about books because (1) it lends me some needed objectivity about what I write and the whole process of writing and having my writing be read, and (2) because I have to read books anyway to keep up with my job! Two birds with one stone! Lastly, I am keeping my bookstagram public because I am growing a desire to be read more. I’m trying to embrace the possibility that sharing about myself to others is a way to grow as a person, rather than simply a way to be judged. I mean, sure, that happens on the internet, but also I want to believe that as long as I stay true to myself, I’ll eventually find the people whom I resonate with (and who resonates with me). I don’t plan for this account to be a content machine kind of thing, though. I’m just going to share what I want to share. I have some small goals, but it’ll still be kinda sporadic. If that’s you’re thing, too, feel free to follow me @alekxreads.

I went to my friend’s wedding. Anna is my closest friend from college and she married her longtime boyfriend, Noel, last September. Me and her other close friends from school days threw her a baking-themed bridal shower (where I learned that I actually have potential as a baker haha!). I also reunited with one of my old college friends, Camille. Camille and I took a road trip to Anna’s wedding location and we got to catch up on each other's lives and milestones during the rides from and back home. It rained so much on the day of my friend’s wedding, but their celebration was so beautiful and heartwarming despite this.

I am swimming again. I already wrote about it here. I was primarily health-motivated when I started swimming, but I really started to wholeheartedly enjoy doing this every week. I think I grew up believing that anything worth pursuing must be turned into something profitable or professional, and so I never really sought things that I had no intention of deliberately turning into capital S something. This led to a lot of very stubborn career choices and put pressure on my dreams – which is an essay for another day – but I mention it because the moment I realized I was starting to really genuinely enjoy swimming, I decided to do the opposite and just do it for the fun of. One telltale sign for me was how I continue to absolutely dislike bathing in cold water in any sort of form or weather (yes, even in summer) and yet I have no problems finding myself in chilly pool waters at 6am at least once a week. I think we should treat our hobbies with care the way we treat our professions with attention, and swimming, to me, was a reminder of that.

I got sick. I had what was called reflex laryngitis. My doctor explained it to me as “your stomach producing too much acid that it rises up your throat which irritates it and causes your allergic coughs and sniffles”. It doesn’t help that allergies already run in my family. I hate taking meds so much, but I try to remind myself that needing to take bitter meds and forgetting when to take it are better problems to have than not having any meds or getting sick in a way where meds won’t work at all.

I turned 31. My birthday passed without much fanfare this year, but that’s okay. There were personal events that happened then that were reasons why I couldn’t make much of a celebration out of it this year. Nonetheless, I’m grateful for another birthday, and I’m hoping that I can celebrate it more next year. I’m still figuring out how I want the rest of the year to go for me — I still have to write my birthday reflections — but one thing is for sure, as summarized on my diary entry from that day: This year, “I want to give myself the gift of me, my life.”

[writing-for-life]

[Apologies beforehand there’s no alt text for the images, but I’m short on time and will add them at a later stage]

Okay, this one is tricky…

Bachalo only gives us a couple of panels with Dream while Hempel illustrated a whole arc (with so many talented artists in the pot, pairings like these were bound to happen).

Chris is, amongst Sandman fans, probably much more famous for his illustrations of the Death series (“The High Cost of Living” and “The Time of Your Life”) than the face he gave Morpheus. Everyone knows these, right?

His style is generally quite minimalist, sometimes slightly surreal (his work for X-Men/Generation X springs to mind).

And if we’re talking about minimalist, we’re also talking about Hempel. But while Bachalo’s style is generally much more rounded with fewer sharp edges, Hempel’s is usually angular, elongated and sketchy. But his faces convey so much with so little.

Personal anecdote (spoilers ahead, so read at your own discretion):

Morpheus was still alive when I turned 18 (I guess we can say he died in 1995?), maybe that’s why I had so many nightmares, entirely possible 🤣 Many of you lucky people’s sleep has been almost exclusively governed by Danny!

All joking aside: When I first read The Kindly Ones, I struggled. Not because of what was about to transpire—I knew that in my heart of hearts for a long time and had already cried my eyes out over Gary Amaro’s art in World’s End (can I just say I’m pissed off he didn’t make March Mania because he didn’t give us a panel with Morpheus’ face?). But I felt utterly disconnected from Hempel’s art. I honestly didn’t get it at the time and, dare I say, hated it? That panel:

…left me strangely unaffected. And it annoyed me to no end because I thought I shouldn’t be feeling that way. But at the time, there was something so emotionally distant about Hempel’s art (to me! Not suggesting that’s truly the case) that I just went, “Meh.”

Fast forward: Life happens, people die. Quite a few. Some in horrible ways. And on one particular reread (that was in 2009, so almost 15 years later, and I remember exactly why I read it, but that doesn’t belong here), a knot untied itself. I cried for the first time reading TKO. And I could feel Hempel’s art in a way I couldn’t before.

Is it still jarring, especially compared to the art that precedes and follows it? Yes. Its effect on me is similar to the art of Teddy Kristiansen, only that Kristiansen always connected a bit more than Hempel, at least to start with. There’s no right or wrong to the way art affects us—it just is, and it just does or doesn’t.

Is Hempel my favourite Sandman artist? Still no, but he has moved up rank considerably, and I appreciate his angular style (and especially the way he draws Dream’s face) a lot more than I used to.

I guess sometimes, we look at art differently because we change. So I choose Hempel because I learned to appreciate his art when I initially didn’t like it, and his Morpheus meanwhile is Morpheus to me.

Here come some of my favourite panels and artworks, some of which I’ve pulled out of my queue early (I wonder how many of you will post the bitchin’ coat and the pennies 🤣)

[There’s a sister piece with Delirium in Marc’s tag]

Walk walk fashion baby…

And have some more Hempel via his tag.

Here are the faces behind the art:

Who’s your favourite? Show them your appreciation via posting what moves you about their art, sharing a favourite panel or even some work that isn’t Sandman-related.

You still have until 6pm/London (we are changing to Daylight Saving in the UK, so depending on where you are, the schedule might have changed for you) to cast your vote for either Bachalo or Hempel before the next pairing lands.

Round One/6, Poll

Chris Bachalo, penciller #12

VS.

Marc Hempel, artist #61

Pitting these two artists against each other is a tough one. Whilst Bachalo only pencilled one issue for The Sandman, many will know him from his iconic take on Death in "The High Cost of Living" and "The Time of Your Life". Alas, it's only about The Sandman this year...

Marc Hempel created the art for The Kindly Ones (bar two issues), and we probably don't need to say any more since his style is so immediately recognisable.

If you'd like to refresh your memory:

Chris Bachalo: The Doll's House #12, "Playing House"

Marc Hempel: The Kindly Ones #57-61, 63, 65-69

And remember, you are voting for your favourite version of Dream, not the particular storyline. 

Who is your favourite and why? Let us know in the comments/reblogs. Share your thoughts about their art, your favourite panels from their issues, or even other art they created and help us turn this into an artist appreciation post. 

Here’s the poll to vote for your favourite if you want to see them again (you can find the whole bracket and some additional info here, and feel free to check out previous matches via the tag #sandman march mania):

Event organisers: @writing-for-life and @tickldpnk8 (who also created the logo)

[god-whispers]

jan 10

partakers of Christ

"Your words were found, and i ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart." jer 15:16

i got up extra early this morning.  God was speaking so many wonderful things to me and my mind was hoping i could remember them all to share with everyone.  i don't know if it's age that's hindering my remembrance, but as i lay in bed marveling at His preciousness, i suddenly began praising Him.  why?  because He had bothered enough to speak them to me, even if it went no further.  He had allowed me to share such intimacy with Him even if it furthered Him no more glory than just my current praise.

people, this is what God wants; to share intimacy with each of us.  heaven knows there is nothing special about me.  i'm just a nobody while God is a somebody.  somebody who cares enough to share His thoughts, His feelings with me.  "oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!" rom 11:33

we are all so blessed.  i know i am.  i think i have no less than twenty bibles in my home of differing translations and sizes.  i have a few very large ones with large print because my vision is under attack and i can't imagine living without being able to read His word.  He has said, "I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people." jer 31:33  i have all these while there remain many around the world who would risk death or gladly exchange a necessary body part to obtain just one book or even page.

i so admire those who can memorize scripture.  while i can recall the essence of something, i have trouble with the exact wording or where it can be found.  but i think i'm in good company.  when Jesus was tempted He also didn't quote scripture and verse.  there were no chapters and verses, only scrolls.  even though i'm sure He knew the word verbatim, more importantly, He knew the essence, the Spirit of the word.  after all, He was the word.  and because He is in me, that means the word lives in me as well.

people, when the Holy Spirit is writing on our minds and hearts, He's writing Jesus into us.  Jesus is the living word.  He's transforming us into His very own image.  He's putting His desires in our hearts.  being a beloved Son, Jesus is the Fathers desire.  and the Father desires more sons so "that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." rom 8:29  (how could one write about being partakers of Christ without mentioning romans 8?)

you know, of all those bibles i have in my house, there is one that i always go to.  it is battered and beat up.  many pages are teared stained and a few are even blood stained.  the binding is falling a little apart, so much so that one can tell how the sections were sewn together.  there are hi-lights and markings galore.  i hardly think any pages have gone unmarked.  (well, maybe leviticus.  i know it contains good truths beyond my comprehension.)  but you know, it's not the markings in my bible that will get me to heaven.  it's the markings in my heart.

i have gone through a few bibles and the time always comes when you just have to get a new one.  as much as i love having all the special markings and notes, it's a joy to rediscover each precious verse again and mark them all over.  it's strange, but there always seems to be more markings ending up in the newer ones.  more has grown precious to me as time grows nearer for me to meet my Lord.

i know there are those who think it is sacrilegious to mark in a bible.  i do not.  food must be consumed if it is to nourish our bodies.  it must often be cut up, chewed up and pass through one's insides.  and you know what?  it must be consumed daily.  the Word must be consumed daily as well.  it also must pass through many channels for nourishment.  it must be rightly divided as it passes from eyes to mind to spirit.

aren't i making you just a little bit envious; just a little bit hungry?  one needs to form the habit of daily reading.  from my early schooling i remember a teacher talking about the word "habit."  you take away the "h" and you still have "abit."  you take away the remaining "a" and you still have the "bit."  a habit is hard to break once you establish it.  form the habit of spending time with Jesus, of reading His word.  He will speak to you through it and you will be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  be a partaker of Christ.

[maxecv]

How to Write a Resume for a Promotion 2023

It can be challenging to distinguish between excellent and terrible resume advice, especially when it comes to resume writing 2023 that works for you.

I wanted to share what Ladders has discovered from evaluating millions of resumes and observing how those resumes performed in over 1 billion applications over the years.

I’ve produced 73 industry-specific resume templates with sample copy that can be downloaded and changed for free because I recognize how busy professionals are.

each with a different sample cover letter.

So let’s find out why experienced professionals like you benefit from job resume tips format.

The best format for your resume is the High Score Resume Tips for writing a winning resume focuses on highlighting your career-long accomplishments and “high scores” you’ve attained. You may promote yourself in the best way possible using this approach without having to worry about boasting. Additionally, it gives recruiters and hiring managers verifiable evidence of your abilities.

The High Score Resume also makes it extremely clear to individuals who are reading your resume what you want to do next, or what level you will be at. It is simple to describe what you are capable of doing next by demonstrating what you have previously accomplished. The High Score Resume concentrates the majority of your time and energy on the two most crucial portions of your resume: your work experience and your professional summary, even though there are other areas of your resume writing guide that will merit attention.

Write to the Future Make sure you’re putting yourself in the best possible position for the promotion you’re aiming for before upgrading your resume.

Your resume will have information about your experience, accomplishments, and qualifications, but it will also contain information about how, where, and why you include it based on your professional objectives.

You don’t only write about your past when you create a CV. Your letter is addressed to the future. You’re putting yourself in a position to get the promotion you want.

A CV is not a story of your past career. It is a tool for marketing. Your resume’s content should emphasise your goals rather than your current situation.

Titles and employment dates It’s time to be exact right now. No fibbing, tall tales, or tales of “fish that got away.” You must be meticulous in the way you convey the facts because you are working with historical material.

List your true title for each position, just as it was in your offer letter or any subsequent business promotion. As you are claiming to have held this title at this company at the time, it is crucial to be accurate. Promoting yourself to regional sales manager when you were actually an account executive is an example of a small exaggeration that might backfire. Titles are one of the few items that employers look at during background checks, thus it is both ethically and legally required to make sure that your resume precisely matches the employer’s records.

Company or role description The practise of putting a line beneath the company name that describes the business or the job duties has grown in popularity in recent years. This concise synopsis of crucial background details is a very efficient method to communicate the details of your role or the organisation. On this line, you can discuss things like staff size, spending, and recruiting conditions.

This sentence conveys your role or employer’s size, shape, or conditions succinctly and wonderfully. Although it’s not necessary, it can significantly boost the quantity of information you convey while saving valuable bullet points.

How to write resume bullet points You’ll have twenty-five bullet points spread across two pages for a typical, skilled expert with more than 10 years of experience to support your claim. Early in your career, you might only have 10 to 15 bullet points on a page. The High Score Resume approaches each bullet point as a limited, valuable resource that should be optimised for your success in either scenario.

The resume writing maximizes each bullet by providing concrete evidence of your accomplishments. Each bullet is made up of a success verb and a precise numerical achievement relevant to your profession or sector. This entices potential interviewers by outlining your accomplishments with measurable, verified results.

Jobs are given bullets on the High Score Resume based on how crucial they are to getting your next job. Since your most recent jobs are the most crucial, give the previous five years 10 to 15 bullet points. The next five are given five to ten. The next five receive a total of five. There are no bullets for dates older than 15 years. Simply put, bosses intending to hire in 2023 will not find it persuasive to cite “one of the reasons to hire me is the experience I had in 2003 with… “

The professional summary explains what your next job is The professional summary in the High Score Resume conveys your Next Level, or the position you hope to land in the future. Very importantly, it is a synopsis of where you will be in the future rather than a summary of your prior professional experience.

Your most persuasive, succinct, and effective argument for the job you want is in your professional summary. This portion of the High Score Resume stands out from the others in a dramatic and captivating way by using short words and succinct sentences. You’ll make use of that authority to let your potential boss know exactly what you’re capable of and what you expect from your next position.

Even though it takes up only 10% of the total space on your resume, you should devote at least a third of your writing time to the professional summary.

Your professional summary contains 12 to 16 phrases overall, divided over three to four lines. A list of the job titles you want is on the first of the four lines. Your professional qualifications are listed on the following line. The third is a list of accomplishments that demonstrate your superiority. The fourth line, which is optional, can be utilised to include additional talents and accomplishments or to specifically state the organisation, role, or industry you’re aiming for.

Job titles in your Professional Summary Since the first line of your professional summary is the best place to convey your expectations, list three to five job titles that you would truly accept as your next position here. It’s vital to note that these are the titles of the jobs you wish to apply for in the future, not the ones you currently hold or the jobs you have previously held. Your High Score Resume’s “Next Level” section is located here. It’s where you tell hiring managers about the position you want and think you’d be a good fit for.

It is vital to remember that although you may not have actually held this position in the past, it should still be a logical next step in your career. Instead, you’re promoting your goals to the person being hired for that specific position and title—the screener, the recruiter, or the hiring manager.

For More Details You can visit us- https://www.maxecv.com/blogs/career-guide/how-to-write-a-resume-for-a-promotion-2023/

[cat-denied]

I posted 1,857 times in 2022

That's 1,857 more posts than 2021!

24 posts created (1%)

1,833 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@catgirldick

@orcboxer

@magicalballerinaprincess

@gravitonbeamemitter

@natalieironside

I tagged 841 of my posts in 2022

#roadtripfaves - 178 posts

#goncharov - 55 posts

#art - 54 posts

#holy shit - 34 posts

#roadtriprefs - 32 posts

#fire emblem - 25 posts

#comic - 21 posts

#guilty gear - 21 posts

#fe3h - 19 posts

#<3 - 15 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#which is a red & black plaid flannel (it's just a collared shirt but whatever) buttoned up under a black pleather vest (also buttoned up) an

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

the next time a piece of fucking software forces me to choose between “yes” and “maybe later” i’m shooting it right between the eyes

4 notes - Posted November 9, 2022

#4

👻🎁✨ :)

👻 What is your wildest headcanon?

My wildest headcanon? That's a hard one. I don't really do a lot of headcanoning! Mostly I just turn stuff into actual fanfic rather than just headcanoning it, and so I keep a layer of separation between the canon and my fic, if that makes sense. I guess I have a lot of headcanons of Fire Emblem characters being lesbians in canon even while not strictly defined as such (like Minerva and Palla in fe11), but those are usually pretty common ones.

Here's a couple of headcanons for you:

Nico Minoru (of Marvel's Runaways and others) realized she was bisexual while on the team of A-FORCE (2016), i.e. while surrounded by gorgeous and powerful women. Because come on. (Context: in the original Runaways series from the early 2000s, Nico was portrayed as straight: in the new Runaways series from 2018, she had since realized her bisexuality.)

In Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, only characters who are lovers and characters with the Thief class can exchange gold. I think this is because the Thief (Dew in the first gen, Patty or Daisy in the second) characters happen to be people who deeply love all their friends.

I also headcanon...pretty much everyone as trans and/or gay. If I like them (especially for Fire Emblem, where characters often have very little character at all) they get the "YOU ARE GAY NOW" seal of approval.

Oh, here's a real wild one! Wolf (from Fire Emblem 11) is a trans woman! This is because YOU saw her and went "she's a girl" and I went "okay" and rolled with it. This may come up in my fanfic sometime, who can say

Putting the rest of this behind a read more because it got long.

🎁 Have a piece of a WIP you want to share?

I do! Here's a section from the first chapter of a Minerva/Palla haunted house AU I've been working on in the background.

The room is soaked in dust. At one point in time it had probably been a bedroom, and indeed a bed frame rots grayly in the corner. Rather than any mattress, however, it’s covered in boxes: boxes which have sprawled out to take over the rest of the room like an invasive species of plant. The walls are bare. The edge of the room’s one window can just be made out, the rest of it totally obscured by still more boxes. They stack five feet high easily, and though Palla is tall enough to circumnavigate the undergrowth they form with ease, and Catria at least tall enough to manage, Est can barely see over the box in front of her, and she complains loudly at this. Catria argues lightly back, and Palla smiles under her breath as she makes her way around, simply looking. 

None of the boxes are labeled: the lower ones have more the look of trunks, and Palla idly wonders when cardboard had been invented, whether this was someone else’s reshuffling of the Macedons’ remaining possessions after their departure. She cracks open the nearest top box to find stacks of books: unlabeled volumes in that old style you would see on the shelves of houses that had become museums. Carefully opening one, then another, to their title pages, she sees that they are books of strategy: for warfare and diplomacy. Interesting. 

I just love the Whitewings and Macedon and all that jazz! Also I should write more of this, I was having a load of fun with it.

✨️ Out of the comments you’ve received on your fics, what are two or three of your favorites?

! I love to receive any comments because it tells me that people enjoyed my work enough to tell me about it, and when you write for fandoms that are as relatively obscure as I do (in terms of fanworks), every little bit counts for a lot! The exception to the obscure fandoms of course is the Goncharov fic I wrote, which became hugely popular and now I'm considering writing a second chapter or sequel, just because of the absolutely hogwild response.

Here's a coupla specifics:

"Always happy to see the Nagi tag get a little bigger, and you have a fascinating version of her here! I thought your interpretation of the setting was brilliant and you really brought out the nuances of the characters you portrayed just before such a climactic final battle." from Oricalle on my fic Meetings, Manifestations, and Manaketes. (I have a lot of fun naming my fics.) They left this comment after I read through some of their works and left some comments, which made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Every comment on my Goncharov fic for being brilliantly in on the joke, but especially this one from tinuviel_tinuviel:

because not only did they call me out by name (blushes), but when I read and commented on one of their Locked Tomb fics, they called me out on it:

See the full post

4 notes - Posted December 1, 2022

#3

i think the best fire emblem game names are the jugdral ones, i.e. Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War and Fire Emblem: Thracia 776. let’s break this down.

1. Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War

this one rules firstly because it’s really long and weird. in a series with game names that evoke fantasy tropes and magic (like “blazing blade” and “shadow dragon” and “sacred stones”, or even something like “path of radiance,” or “mystery of the emblem,” which could be a nancy drew novel title), this game name easily stands out the most in the list. like okay, fantasy, fantasy, mystery, magic, artefacts...Genealogy. you know what i associate genealogy with?? my mom looking at ancestry dot com for fun and trying to collate our family history a few years back. i do NOT associate it with magic boys with swords and tragedy and pseudo-medieval political machinations. too bad that’s what you get!

secondly? it’s fully accurate. i mean i know game names are usually relevant to their games (because otherwise whats the fuckin point) but like. “shadow dragon and the blade of light” specifically calls out 1 character (the shadow dragon) and 1 magic artifact (the blade of light). three houses is about 3 houses but you only pick one of them and the only relevance it has to the story is “you pick between 3 groups” and “there are 3 groups in the game that fight each other.” big deal. that’s also true of, like, arguments i have with my family over what game we want to play at thanksgiving.

genealogy of the holy war? you cannot escape the fact that this game is a genealogy of a holy war. 100% of the game is dedicated to being a genealogy of a holy war. (if you’re not familiar: the first half of the game follows a dude named Sigurd as he gets embroiled in political conspiracy as a scapegoat by an evil cult that’s manipulating the government. the second half follows his son (and the kids of all his friends from the first generation) some ~20 years later as they go and fight the evil cult that’s now fully taken over the government.) you wield weapons blessed by your gods and use them to defeat a cult that wields dark magic and a weapon blessed by their (evil) god. this war is really fuckin holy. and hey two generations (AND the pairings in the first generation alter the stats of kids in the second) where it matters who your parents are - thats a genealogy baby! we did it! that’s the name of the game! and it’s Everywhere.

2. Fire Emblem: Thracia 776

what the fuck. what the fuck is this. “thracia”?? that isn’t a real word. all the other fire emblem titles are real words. why is 776 there?? is it seven hundred seventy six?? is it 7:76, the worst time of the day?? is it like 7.76?? it’s the fifth game in the series!! not the 776th one!! no other fire emblem games have numbers in the titles!! what the fuck is going on!?!?

10/10. no notes.

10 notes - Posted November 19, 2022

#2

HEY how come there’s only ONE other goncharov fanfic on ao3???? seriously??? this movie was REVELATORY and it came out 49 years ago i mean what the fuck!

so here’s a little katya/sofia ficlet to remedy that, and to bring more attention to my girls!! love a problematic lesbian relationship

this is set just after the boat scene!! because how else could katya have gotten bandaged up after that if sofia didn’t do it, right

13 notes - Posted November 19, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

See the full post

15 notes - Posted December 3, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[flightless-rising]

Made a new Flight Rising iceberg and also wrote an explanation.. man, this took way longer than it should have.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy :D

Iceberg explanation

( If there are any mistakes please let me know and I’ll edit this asap. Also, English isn't my first language so please forgive me for any grammatical errors)

EDIT 28/06: Added some new info! Thanks to everyone who tagged and responded with new stuff to add, I really appreciate it!

The Sky

Naomi

Back in the day, whenever you bought or sold something on the auction house a message would show up in your inbox confirming the transaction. These messages were sent by one of the dragon couriers: Pearl, Spitfire or Edgar.

On January 2016, a strange glitch occurred that replaced the images and names of couriers with the ones of a female fae named “Naomi”.

It goes deeper than that, though: if you looked up her name in the user search menu, a clan would pop up with over 15 million dragons.

It was quickly discovered that all exalted dragons had somehow become part of her clan. Naomi herself apparently didn’t exist, and clicking on her page redirected to an error page. This was later fixed and the original Naomi page can be now visited.

What exactly caused this glitch is still a mystery and today Naomi is still a well-known piece of Flight Rising history.

Missing Tidelord

In the official lore, the deity of the water flight disappeared in early 2018, as described in the short story “Hear Today, Gone Tomorrow”.

In the follow up story (Mixed Elements) posted in April of the next year it is confirmed that the Tidelord is still missing, but alive. This coincides with the fact that the Tidelord account hasn’t made any forum posts aside from festival announcements.

Emperors

Emperors are a type of unobtainable dragon that are formed when several Imperial corpses are left in close proximity to each other, which then fuse forming a multi-headed chimera.

Emperors are described in the lore as having an animal-like behavior and destroying everything in sight. They are extremely difficult to kill, which is the reason why in-universe Imperials have such strange burial rites.

An emperor named Luminax is first described in the Raising a Family short story, and their sprite can be seen walking around on the world map.

The Surface

Old color wheel

Originally, there were only 67 available colors for dragons. On June 8th 2016, 110 more colors were added, meaning that currently there are a total of 177 colors available.

When making a custom progenitor dragon, it is only possible to choose among the 67 original colors because it would be otherwise unfair for those who made their account before the new colors were added.

Imperial breed scrolls

Imperial breed change scrolls are one of, if not the most, rare type of item on the site. They were given only to those who pledged 30 dollars or more on the original Flight Rising kickstarter.

At the time, this was the only way of obtaining an Imperial dragon, which meant that the breed as a whole was pretty valuable. Now that Imperials are abundant this is no longer the case, but First generation Imperials are still extremely sought and probably the most expensive type of dragon on the site.

There were also other items that were only given to Kickstarted backers, namely Skycats, Bonefiend, Golden Idol and Cogfrog familiars, and those are also pretty much impossible to obtain.

Baldwin breed change

When Baldwin was introduced in 2015 he was originally a Pearlcatcher. On September 14th of 2016 however his site art started to gradually change, until his transformation was completed five days later.

In-universe, Baldwin started to change after a lightning strike hit his cauldron during an experiment, which made him slowly mutate into the breed we now know as Bogsneaks.

Trans Fiona

When Fiona was added as a trading post dragon people speculated that she was trans, because the female pose for Skydancers only displays two antennae, while the male one has four.

Since Fiona has four antennae in her site art, many wondered whether it was an oversight or actually intended. Aequorin later confirmed in a forum thread that Fiona is indeed trans.

Boolean

Speaking of rare items, the Boolean familiar was only given to a handful of Flight rising beta testers and as such is extremely rare and valuable.

Plaguebringer coli team

On the Plaguebringer’s page she is listed as being part of a coliseum team.

As of now we have no clue as to why this is, and even more strangely she is the only deity that does this.

Boston & Hope

This story is a bit complicated. I’ve scoured the forums in search of info but it seems like there are still some pieces missing. I’ll try my best to explain anyway.

So, for a long while the Lightweaver was the only deity that had other dragons aside from herself in her lair: these dragons were a Spiral named Boston and a Tundra named Hope. Strangely, they were both Earth dragons and apparently have been there since the beginning (?). When asked why (this happened back when deities would interact on the forums) the Lightweaver responded that they were having a dinner party together.

In August 2014 during a pretty heated dominance battle between Shadow and Light Boston and Hope disappeared from the Lightweaver’s lair.

The Shadowbinder now had them, and both their elements were alsochanged to Shadow. The two deities acknowledged this and changed their broadcast messages accordingly.

If I had to guess this was some kind of inside joke that the admins had, although some people got angry that the Shadowbinder now had both Hope and Boston. Some time later(?) Boston was returned to the Lightweaver and for some reason his element was changed to wind.

I don’t have any more info on the matter but if some of you do I would appreciate it if you tell me.

Shallow Waters

Eyepocalypse

On June 8th 2018 eye type variants were introduced. This update was pretty controversial for a bunch of reasons, and the topic is still discussed today. The majority of people(?) seemed to be upset by the fact the “best” eye types (primarily goat, primal and multi-gaze) could only be displayed on dragons that were born with them, and the fact that every dragon born prior to the update couldn’t have these eye types at all displeased a lot of users.

Another problem was the fact that most of the non-special eye types (i.e the only ones that could be applied to already existing dragons using a vial of Scattersight) were not clearly visible on the grand majority of adult dragons.

A smaller(?) complaint was that two of the primal eye types, Shadow and Plague, were seen as kind of disturbing by some people.

Three years later staff attempted to fix this issue by adding Eye type vials for every available eye type. This resulted in a market crash for special eye typed dragons, as now these eye types could be applied to any dragon. The value of Scattersights also tanked, and the people bought them and hadn’t used them yet lost money as now they were infinitely less useful.

EDIT 28/06: Goat isn’t actually obtainable via breeding, faceted is. Bad mistake on my part.

Also, Scattersights were given away freely by Galore on Flight Rising’s fifth anniversary in 2018 and could not be bought afterwards. I admit that I thought people could be able to buy Scattersights due to how upset people were that the value went down, but whatever.

Courier Breed

The courier dragons (Edgar, Spitfire, and Pearl) are part of an exclusive dragon breed that is currently unobtainable. Even though their eye color still reflects the flight they were born in, in-universe they are considered to be “neutral” and they are granted free access to all domains. This raises the question as to which deity created them, as every other dragon breed (Bogsneaks being the only exception) has been created by one of The Eleven.

Multiaccounting

According to the site’s terms of service, no one is allowed to have more than one account. This is pretty standard for pet sites, as having multiple accounts grants unfair advantages and can mess up the site economy. This doesn’t completely stop people for having more than one account, and the practice as a whole is called “Multiaccounting” or “having multis”.

Some people only do this to have multiple clans or reboot their account without deleting their old one. They mostly do no harm but it is reasonable that the site wouldn’t allow this because of how easy it is exploit.

The real harm of multis comes from a practice called “funneling” which is when someone creates multiple accounts only for the purpose of giving items to their main account. This practice violates the game’s rules and can result in a ban. Funneling is not limited to multiaccounting though, and having an account only to feed another is against the site’s rules whether or not the account in question belongs to another person or not.

Some people fear of being banned for multiaccounting even if they haven’t done so, especially if they share a computer with other people.

Purble

“he purble” is probably among the most famous Flight Rising memes.

In 2016(?) a rant was submitted to the original Dramarising blog by a very angry user that wanted to buy an XXX Purple Ridgeback back when triples were pretty expensive, but got beat by someone else.

I’m not going to copy paste it here because in my opinion it’s one of the funniest Flight Rising related posts ever and I don’t want to spoil the experience of reading it for the first time. You can find it pretty easily by searching it up.

Tert Picking

This is something that refaced recently, even though I’ve seen people talking about this for a while. Some people vividly remember being able to pick their custom progenitor’s tertiary color, even though the developers have made it clear that such thing would be impossible. This is without a doubt just one of those weird situations where a lot of people somehow remember the same thing wrong.

Still, it’s fascinating just how many people claim to remember doing picking their tert.

Swiftwings

Swiftwings were a dragon breed that was scrapped in development. The design was rejected because it didn’t fit the 2 arms 2 legs 2 wings format that every dragon design had to follow before the introduction of ancient breeds.

The reason for this rule is that otherwise it would mess up apparel placement. Although the concept was scrapped, echoes of the design were scattered throughout the site: for example, the empty dragon slots that were present prior to 2019 had the silhouette of a Swiftwings dragon. They are also mentioned in the April Fool’s update of 2018.

“Real” Lore dragons

Most people don’t know that some of the dragons featured on the lore stories are actually real, and you can visit their pages. This is the case for Tetra, Cracklinne, Velya, Liefa, Garote and Mirth, which are currently chilling in Aequorin’s lair.

All of the other dragons in the developers’ lairs are not canon and are used to test bugs and features on the site.

The Middle ground

True deity names

When the site first started the deities used to have actual names instead of titles. Some of these names were based off of the site founders’s usernames on other sites.

The names are the following:

Amogayvhi - Gladekeeper Xhaztol - Arcanist Rhenik - Tidelord Akiri - Flamecaller Thrage - Stormcatcher Undel - Shadowbinder Jhortanas - Plaguebringer Ghurab - Windsinger Artaios - Earthshaker Rhiow – Lightweaver

As you can tell, Xhaztol, Akiri, Thrage and Undel are the usernames of some of the admins of the site, and the flight they are a part of corresponds with the previous name of their deity.

No leg coatls

On January 16, 2015 an iconic thread was posted in the flight rising discussion forum, which displayed a photoshopped image of a coatl with its legs removed. Quickly the thread devolved into a general photoshop thread were people took official site art of dragons and modified it.

The thread was eventually locked due to spam and quote pyramids, but spiritual successors of the original “phoatlshop” thread still exist today.

Dress slot unlocking

A thing that a surprising amount of people don’t know is the fact that when buy an additional apparel slot, the slot opens for every dragon in your lair and not just the one you bought it on.

This is something I also discovered very recently and it’s kind of funny that so many people that have been on the site for very long don’t know this.

Clanbound scatterscrolls

I think the wiki explains it best, so I’ll just copy paste this here:

“Tri-Color Scatterscrolls suffered from an issue where they would only scatter a random range from colors 1-47 (white through sunshine) rather than 1-67 (white through rose). They have been fixed and are now functioning correctly with a random range within the 67 color set. The affected timeframe was from August 15th, 2013 until September 22nd, 2013. The admins allowed users who were unsatisfied with their bugged Tri-Color Scatterscrolls to receive the same amount of them back in the form of Clanbound Scatterscrolls to try scattering their own dragons again with the full color range.”

Beta Mirrors

Ever wondered why they’re called Mirrors?

According to Undel, the main artist of Flight Rising, mirrors originally were supposed to have every part of their body “mirrored”, meaning they had two sets of eyes, two pairs of wings, two tails, and so on.

This design ended up being too cluttered and looked weird shrunken down. The name was kept the same, even though the only mirrored part of the design are the eyes.

Dragons are evil

If you read the “Beastclans on the rise” lore bit, the dragons come across as… very evil, stealing territory from the beastclans when they have been living on Sornieth way longer than the dragons have and killing them for loot.

Furthermore, in the Bounty of the Elements lore bit the Beastclan rebellion guided by Talona is seen by the dragons as unreasonable and wrong even when in canon Beastclans are framed as the innocent party.

The Depths

Scroll of Divorce

In the alpha stage dragons were supposed to be monogamous and could only breed with the dragon they were “paired” with. To break their bond you had to use an item called “Scroll of Divorce” which even featured broken marriage rings in the art.

If I had to guess, this item and the concept as a whole were scrapped because the idea of dragons having “weddings” and needing to divorce before breeding with another dragon felt kind of weird, especially in a game targeted towards teens.

First Festival

The first Holiday festival in Flight rising history was the 2013 Brightshine Jubilee. The items that were available for this festival only are incredibly rare, particularily the Light Sprite which is one of the most valuable items on the site. Apart from that and the fact that the skincent contest only had 6 winners, not much is notable about it.

Offsite drama

Flight Rising has had its fair share of drama both on and off site, but due to the fact that it’s against the site’s rule to discuss user drama on the forums most of the notable drama happened off site (mainly tumblr).

Egg rot

Egg rot was a very early mechanic that was pretty quickly removed from the site. If you forgot to incubate your eggs, they would “rot” and no longer hatch.

It’s the reason why in the nesting grounds the text reads “Eggs healthy” and also the reason why on the stats section of the Account settings it says “Eggs discarded”. The mechanic was removed because it heavily punished casual players and the frequent downtimes of the site meant that even if someone logged in every day they could still have their eggs die.

Also, the images of egg rot look extremely cursed.

Pablo

From what I could gather, Pablo is a dragon which became somewhat popular after user “Desmondtiny” wrote a very long and detailed backstory of them being the Arcanist’s lost boyfriend.

I’m pretty sure it gues deeper than that but I couldn’t find any further information. As usual, if you know something more let me know.

Latest News

On November 12, 2014, a glitch(?) occurred that let anyone post in the Announcements thread. Anything that was posted went directly to the front page, which resulted in quite a bit of chaos.

This was fixed only half an hour later, but the screenshots people have from that time are extremely funny.

Lameforger

On the 2014 Flameforger’s festival announcement Undel accidentally misspelled “Flameforger” as “Lameforger”, which prompted the official account of the Flamecaller to respond aggressively. Lameforger is still jokingly used by users, even after the typo was fixed.

Festival of one (1)

On the first day of the 2014 Greenskeeper Gathering a glitch occurred which switched the site banner for the Starfall celebration banner instead of the Greenskeeper one.

It didn’t end there, in the coliseum Magical shards dropped instead of Bladed Flatleaves, even though skin chests dropped as normal(?).

The weirdest thing about it all was Joxar’s Space inventory, which didn’t display any items at all and had glitched dialogue.

The event was nicknamed by the fanbase “Festival of 1” and even the deity’s official accounts acknowledged the incident.

Vape Juice

As far as I know the original forum thread as been lost, but the vape juice fiasco will always remain cemented in Flight Rising History.

A company called Vape Daugz was making vape juice with Flight Rising dragons plastered on their packaging, completely violating the site’s policy.

The company’s site still exists, and browsing through their products I found that the products that previously had Flight Rising dragons on them still exist, but now feature completely different packaging.

I have no idea whether they changed the packaging spontaneously or staff did something about it.

I think there’s a potentially interesting story buried down there, but we’ll likely never the truth behind the Flight Rising vape juice.

The Abyss

Humans

There’s been some speculation over the years as to whether or not humans are canon in the Flight Rising universe. Some people believe that the “Mages” of the second age in the official lore are actually humans, but we can’t be sure because they are depicted with long robes that cover their whole bodies.

The idea of humans existing in canon has spawned a couple of memes, most infamously Thomas.

Plague healers

Again, I think the wiki explains this one better:

“According to Aequorin, Plague healers are an interesting bunch because rather than administer treatments that counter illness, they use a mixture of magic and contagion that stress the affected dragon further, allowing them to reach a stronger, healed, and resistant state faster than other elements. Plague healers will treat physical injuries with sutures, bandages, and braces, but they won't clean the wounds or apply ointments."

Akitla

As described in the original thread, Akitla was a dragon that user “qunii” saw on the front page, but noticed that she wasn’t accompanied by the username of the person owning them.

After clicking on her, an error page loaded. It was discovered that putting her color combination or ID in the search bar would result in an error page. This was later fixed, and both Akitla and her mate were now displayed as being exalted to the Arcanist. T

here are some theories as to what happened to the Akitla’s user, some think that she belonged to a deleted account, others that it was the result of an incomplete account creation.

As with a lot of things on this iceberg, it will likely remain a mystery forever.

Arcane sprite book

“what is the arcane sprite reading??” is probably one of the oldest still active threads on the forums.

On September 25, 2013 user “Kaadashi” started a joke thread were they wondered what exactly is the arcane sprite reading, and playfully suggested that it could be erotic fanfiction. People went crazy of course, and started to wonder what kind of juicy secrets were hidden within the pages of that book.

I don’t want to say too much because I really don’t want to spoil the experience of reading through this very cursed tread.

Sunshine

Sunshine is one of the most… interesting lairs on the site, and certainly one of the most well-known.

They(?) have a lair (almost) completely full of triple basic sunshine dragons, most of which are Tundras. So far they have collected about 320 triple hundred Sunshine dragons, almost all of which are also named “Sunshine”. They’re not all the same, some of them have apparel, some of them are gened and some have unique art and descriptions.

They’re dedicated and I respect that.

EDIT 28/06: Apparently some people seem to think that the sunshine-dedicated lair is based on a meme concerning the announcement of the color wheel expansion, which became so discussed that the itself site broke. The two things are unrelated however, as the Sunshine lair has been around for much longer.

The announcement of the color wheel expansion was cryptic, with only a few post showing off differently colored coatls and then 3 pages of reserved posts, with no explanation whatsoever.

Simple Farmer

Another very famous thread is the “I am but a simple farmer” thread started by user “someKindOfGenius”. It’s not really about anything specific, it’s just a rather silly thread were people photoshop flight rising dragons onto various crops.

Still, this thread is iconic so I had to include it.

Dragon Deaths

Way back in 2014 former flight rising programmer Thrage revealed on a forum thread that way back before the beta, dragons could actually starve to death if left unfed.

Yep.

Obviously they had to remove this mechanic because it would have been extremely harsh to casual players and make people frustrated with the game.

Zalvador

User “manojalpa” became fairly well-known for the extremely dark lore they(?) had written for their Clan, it was so dark in fact that every single one of their dragon’s bios had to moved to their tumblr where they couldn’t be easily seen by the site’s mainly underage usebase.

Their lore centered around their progen dragon, a tundra named Zalvador, which behaved and had the same powers as a flight rising user: buying dragons off of the action house, having “breeding projects”, exalting dragons, etc.

These things seem pretty normal when done by a player, but when taking them as actual real things that happen in universe… yeah, it was way too morbid for the site.

The Pit

Black linen neck wraps

For some weird reason, the apparel piece “Black linen neck wrap” when put on a male pose Coatl wraps around the dragon’s throat instead of it’s neck. It’s kind of subtle and hard to see, but if you compare it with the female pose the difference is clear. This is probably just an art error, although it’s weird that it hasn’t been fixed yet, since linen wraps are a very old piece of apparel.

Another weird thing about linen wraps in general is that the wing wraps just sort of… go through the membrane? This is not possible. These dragons are in pain.

Icewarden ears

Another very remarkably popular thread is the Icewarden ears thread.

In 2014 user “Llanai” simply makes note of the fact that the Icewarden has teeny tiny ears.

As we have come to expect from these threads, it quickly devolved into nonsense.

Forbidden Snapper lore

Snappers used to have a way different lore section that was changed because it deemed too similar to the lore of another petsite.

This is what the original section read:

"Snapper dragons do not sleep, but exist in a constant state of reverie. They receive and catalogue all experiences and stories told within their dreams. This persistent state of awakened dreaming awards them the longest memory of any dragon species. They are living encyclopedias, and any dragon who is seeking difficult-to-obtain information will have the most luck unearthing it from a Snapper clan - provided they have the patience for it. If you want two dozen quick answers, talk to a spiral. If you want a fully developed answer, camp out around a Snapper. These dreamers move at their own pace, which varies from dragon to dragon. For some, the awakened dream can prove to be more interesting than their surroundings. This leads to a focus upon the dream, and the waking world as filtered background noise. Interacting with these sleepwalkers can be a trying and repetitive task. Other Snappers may be fairly lucid, with a focus upon their surroundings and the constant hum of the dream pushed aside."

Bee movie script

I’ve seen this story around the forums a few times but I’ve never been able to learn the details.

From what I’ve heard someone copy pasted the entire bee movie script into their clan bio in a drop down text format, which completely broke the page for anyone who visited it. This was fixed, apparently, although I have no clue as to who this user is.

EDIT 28/06: Zeus

Zeus is an XXX gold g1 permababy imperial that used to belong to user "happywing".

Their account is now locked because Zeus was created with the use of a duplication glitch on an imperial breed change scroll, which is obviously not allowed (although I've heard some people say that the dragon was hacked in altogether). Before the account was locked, people speculated that Zeus was the most valuable dragon on the site, because an XXX g1 imperial is impossibly rare.

Wegg shaming

On July 2017 user “Dreamnorn” made a thread were they(?) claimed to have a dream where everything was the same except people used the term “wegged” when two dragons would lay only one egg in a nest.

Ex. Aw man! I’ve been wegged again! = Aw man! I bred two dragons and they only had one egg!

The dream ended up being prophetic, as the term catched on and people started to use it unironically.

The practice of “Wegg shaming” I think refers to the trend of people posting pictures of the dragons that “wegged” them in order to “shame” them.

Plague nest skull

The site art of the plague nest features an unique dragon skull that doesn’t match with any currently existing dragon breed or creature: It appears to have two sets of eyes, like a mirror, but also long and curled horns.

It’s probably just for decoration and it likely doesn’t have any significance whatsoever, but personally I believe it would be pretty cool if when they eventually release plague ancient it at least somewhat resembled this skull.

EDIT 28/06: On second thought, the skull doesn’t seem to have two pairs of eyes, It just has the generic shape of a carnivore.

Rock bottom

CAPTAINPLANET

…this is CAPTAINPLANET. Somehow, user “Decres”' managed to overlay a Fae skin on top of a Tundra, creating this horrifyingly fascinating abomination.

I have no idea how she did this, and she seems pretty adamant to tell.

EDIT 28/06: People have pointed out that this skin overlay glitch was actually somewhat common (although I still haven't found another dragon like CAPTAINPLANET). What you had to do was breed change a dragon while attaching a skin to them in another tab.

This glitch has been patched and such thing is no longer possible.

Lair 46264

A cursed lair.

Dreams

I’ve seen a lot of people, both on forums and on Tumblr, sharing dreams they had about Flight Rising.

A lot of people dream of just being on the site, while occasionally weird things happen.

I’ve read of people who dreamed the distribution of a new breed, buying an exclusive item, a new Fiona feat or Swipp trade, or just browsing the forums.

The most common type of Flight rising-associated dream I’ve seen however is being caught multiaccounting and having their account banned.

I’m no psychoanalyst, but I think it’s pretty clear that these nightmares stem from the paranoia of being banned from their beloved petsite instead of showing any actual intention of doing the “crime” in question.

Anyways, I think it’s fascinating how so many people dream about this site, and it reminds me of the dreams people claimed to have about Mario 64 where completely new levels were added or a scary monster appeared.

Dragon Slime

Dragon Slime was an infamous thread which was supposed to be start off point for an ARG.

It was deleted because it was considered too “spammy” and also because ARGs are banned from the forums. The thread has been lost, unfortunately.

EDIT 28/06: Thanks to @randompurple-fr for providing screenshots of the dragon slime tutorial! You can find them here

Cucumber

Cucumber is the only dragon ever to have been exalted with a skin, which is something that should not be possible. This raises some questions as to what exactly did the person that exalted them do to achieve this, but we have no way of knowing who Cucumber belonged to.

EDIT 28/06: Actually, we do know who used to Cucumber belonged to! Its owner was Osiem: an official flight rising artist. I couldn’t find the thread where they(?) acknowledged the glitch though, if someone has it please let me know!

[aelingalathyniusrailme]

Power recognizes power

A little power training gwynriel fic that came from me writing “if you find me at the edge, we’ll jump together.” and I was like this sentence deserves to be the title of something. plus throw everything (and by everything I mean that one sentence in the book) that you know about lightsingers away I’m just using the cute name. and yk there may or may not be some smut at the end. 

She was glowing.

She was glowing and Azriel did not mean she looked radiant or that she was overcome with joy, although she did and she was. Gwyneth Berdara was a living, breathing star. As if the spring equinox had come early this year.

Her skin lit up against the blackness of the sky and her hair burned bright with the ferocity of the hearth.

Gwyneth Berdara had stopped singing, the crowd was silent.  All eyes were on her but she was looking at him, her light, a beacon to his darkness.

His shadows yearned to go to her, he yearned to go to her. Instead, they both stayed stagnant, watching, waiting.

Azriel was had had enough, he dissolved from view and reappeared on the stage. Startled, Gwyn, took a step back and he stayed right with her, matching her step for step.

He gently tucked a stray piece of lit-up auburn hair behind her here, whispering, “It appears you glow, my love.”  

Gwyn, ultimately getting over her initial shock lightly pushed him on the shoulder, “Don’t do that.” She scowled.

Chuckling, he pressed his mouth to hers, in a soft, soothing kiss, forgetful of the audience behind them. As she relaxed beneath his touch, the glow became dimmer and dimmer until it ceased to be. Darkness returned and he stepped back. Gwyn took a breath and stilled. The nervous, passionate energy, that arouse when she sang, calmed for now.

Azriel turned to the crowd, “Due to the events that occurred here tonight, the performance will have to be cut short.” A soft boo drew his attention and immediately he isolated the noise. “Do you want to boo my mate again?” Azriel threatened coolly, his eyes narrowing.

Annoyed, she sighed and spoke to the crowd, “Oh ignore him, I truly am sorry for this interruption but I want to give nothing more than my best and right now I feel as if I can’t do that. the show will be rescheduled sometime next month, letters will be sent out with more information.”

He watched as the stunned and irritated faces slowly began disappearing. Some winnowing away, others taking the slightly more traditional door. Gwyn held her hand out to him. He took it, “So you’re a living lamp?”

“An astute observation.”  

“Is there any way I can convince you to rest now and figure this out later?”

She sighed, “It has been an especially long night.”

Azriel stared at her in disbelief, “did you just agree that you should rest?”

“Oh close your mouth, you’ll swallow a fly.” He responded by grinning at her and winnowing them away to their shared home.

Taking off his shirt he yawned not realizing how tired he actually was. It was still strange to him, being able to sleep so freely, without the looming fear of the past and what he couldn’t control. He stopped, realizing Gwyn had not moved from the door.

Gently he asked, “Are you coming?”

She looked at him blankly, lost in thought for a moment before she responded, “Um-yeah-later.” He was unconvinced so she tried again. “I think I’m going to stay out here and make some tea, maybe read a book.”

Azriel gave her a knowing look but did not push, “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight Az.” He tenderly kissed her cheek and walked to their room, immediately passing out on the bed.

—————————————————–

Azriel awoke at dawn and turned, unsurprisingly, to find the left side of the bed cold and empty. He sighed as he got out of bed, pulling on a pair of pants, mumbling. “Gwyneth berdara, you are going to be the death of me.”

Knowing there was no way she would be in the house but believing he probably should, he checked regardless and when he determined that she was in fact not in the house, he closed his eyes. When he opened them once again he found himself at the house of wind.

He nodded in acknowledgment, “Clotho,”

Shadowsinger. “The one and only.”

Is there something you require? “Just looking for that mate of mine. Any chance she’s here”

You know she is, and you know precisely where to find her. Ask what you truly want to ask. Through gritted teeth, he asked, “How long has she been here?”

Since 11 pm. Exhaling, he muttered, “Why can’t that damn woman ever rest.”

Over excursion out of only stubborn will seems to be a similarity between the two of you. Azriel frowned slightly before smiling pleasantly, “It’s been a pleasure as always, thank you for your help.”

Clotho only nodded and Azriel began the stairs to the 7th floor.

It took a moment for him to find her, the shadowsinger was a trained spy, forced to observe and retain even the smallest of details, yet he couldn’t find a bubbly redhead in a room full of texts and stories.

Ah, no wonder he hadn’t seen her. Gwyn was surrounded by hundreds upon hundreds of books. She was drowning in literature, her hair was tied loosely in a braid with quite a few pieces falling out, there were dark circles beneath her eyes, and she was sporting the slightly insane look that came from a lack of sleep.

“Gwyn.” Her head jerked up in surprise to see him.

“Oh Az, Ok Ok, I promise I will go to sleep soon I just need 5 more minutes. I’m so so so close. I think I’m going to skip training today. Ok how about 2 minutes. 10. No that’s more. 10 sets of 1 minute. I just need 10 sets of 1 minute. I’m fine how are you?”

“Gwyn, my love, you’re delirious.”

She brushed him off, “What no I’m fine. I’m fine. Did I already say that? I can’t remember.”

Logic was never the way to deal with her insane stubbornness, so he tried a different approach. He pushed down his worry for her, and curled his mouth into a smirk, “I bet,” She perked up like a dog about to be fed, “that you can’t summarize everything you learned last night into,” he checked the clock. “15 minutes.”

“I could do it in 10.”

“Prove it.”

“And when I win?”

“I leave you to research. But if you can’t you have to go to bed.”

“Time starts now.”

Gwyn took a deep breath and began. “First I looked into where light magic is supposed to originate: the day court. Their magic is described as warm and comforting. Every single text I read described the magic the same way, as a sort of yellowish-brown light, like the sun. But the magic that came from me was more of an icy blinding light, like the lights from the stars rather than the sun. Also, as far as I know, I don’t have family from the day court so I looked into the family I do have. My family from the autumn court. However, we know that autumn court magic is fire, and what manifested in me was light not heat. My grandmother was a nymph so I thought well what type of magic do nymphs have. And the answer was severely disappointing, with basic plant magic being the most a nymph was able to do. I was stumped for a few hours before I realized. I’m basing my research on what I believe to be true not what I know to be true. I was told that I am a quarter nymph and because that heritage would explain my non-high fae-like features I believed that, for there was no reason for me not to. But what if my nymph grandmother was not a nymph at all. I flipped through dozens of books on faeries that have similar features, light magic, and/or can live on land and water. For the most part, I could not find anything, but then out of the corner of my eye I found a small tome on the history of light magic, the majority being all things I’d seen a million times before on the day court, but a passage no more than a page long, referenced ‘the lightsinger.’ Now what is a Lightsinger, you may ask? Honestly, I had no idea what or who they were so I found every book and story I could on them. The lightsinger’s, instead of being a title for a way to manipulate magic, like shadowsingers or daemati, were a race. A long-lost fae race said to be able to bend and create light with their voices and song. It’s said that they died out due to a conflict with the shadowsingers but every so often there are sightings of unknown nymph-like creatures in you’ll never believe where. The autumn court. Now I would only have 25% of lightsinger blood but magic is a fickle thing and some sources believe that when bred with high fae blood the magic intensifies.” Gwyn exhaled.

Azriel grinned victoriously, “It’s been 20 minutes.”

“Goddamn it, I didn’t even get to the interactions between shadowsingers and lightsingers.”

Now he was intrigued. “Well if you want to continue I certainly won’t stop you.”

“No no,” she yawned, “I lost which means I will be going to bed. But I do want to alter our deal slightly.”

“Oh?”

“I sleep now, you train me tomorrow.” The set of her chin and the look in her eye were enough to assure him of how serious she was.

“You want a male who specializes in darkness to help you master your light?”

“Certain theories believe that the mother gifted the light and shadowsingers their gifts to balance each other out and to remain harmonious.” She reasoned. “So yes there is no one I would want more to teach me.”

“I will not take it easy on you.”

“Wouldn’t want you to.”

“Alright Berdara, we meet Sunday at dawn, do not be late.”

“I’ll be there.”

——————————————————————————————————–

Sunday arrived and Azriel watched as Gwyn came down to the training ring in her leathers, with a white ribbon tied in her hair.

“Good morning Gwyneth.”

“So formal.” He shot her a look. “Oh alright ok my turn. Good morning Azriel, shadowsinger, spymaster of the night court, mate of the most amazing female to grace this planet.”

“Training is serious.”

“Of course it is. Shall we begin?”

“I want you to light up the room.”

“What? is it not already lit?”

He smirked and let his shadows paint the room black. Azriel himself became smoke, nothing more than a voice in the darkness.

“Az, az come on this is not funny.”

“Good, because it’s not a joke.” His voice came from every direction and every way Gwyn turned she was surrounded by endless nothing. “You must learn to sing the song of light the way I learned the language of shadow.”

“Speaking in vague melodrama feels like it’s not going to be that effective.”

Gwyn tried to back up only to find what was once the training ring now bled together with the depth of the sky.

“Let the light speak to you. Coax it, nurture it. Burn through the darkness and find the light.”

“How am I supposed to do that.”

Gwyn thought of the way Nesta harnessed her silver fire, the way her eyes became the flame itself. She concentrated and searched deep within herself, searching and looking for the light she knew she possessed.

All she saw was a hallowed chamber.

“No.” The word echoed throughout the room. “Our magic is not like others, we do not create out of nothing, we manipulate what is already there.”

“How am I supposed to manipulate if I’m in a room with no light?” Gwyn huffed frustrated.

“Just because the shadows are masking it, does not mean it is not there.”

He was so damn infuriating. She tried calling the light to her, she flexed her hands, she even tried speaking to it, all to no avail.

“As you said, magic is fickle and our elements especially. Light and darkness do not want to be bound or controlled, let the light be a friend, a companion, let it want to help, let it want to be influenced by your will.”

But how the fuck was she supposed to do that.

“Think of the first time it came to your call.” He whispered ominously. “What were you thinking. What were you feeling? Power often manifests through emotion.”

Singing. She had been singing. Was it really so easy that all she had to do was sing?

Turns out it wasn’t.

For hours she sang hundreds of songs. From songs in the old fae language that she sang at the priestess services to ones she had written herself. Nothing worked. Azriel had let her have a singular break when she desperately needed to pee and even then he was skeptical.  

He had left her to her own devices leaving his shadows to watch over her progress. When he returned he found Gwyn clutching her knees, rocking in the shadows. Her gaze was unfocused and she was humming to herself.

“You have officially broken me. I’m done.” She wanted nothing more than to sit in the library with her sisters and a book.

“No.”

Gwyn’s eyes snapped into focus, her breathing steadied, and she went predatorily still. “Excuse me.”

“You heard me. No.” Azriel laughed, a cold vicious laugh. “You asked me to train you. Gwyneth Berdara has never quit before and she certainly won’t start now.”

Gwyn was seething, but she remained quiet. “What?” He was toying with her. “A little darkness too much for you. Light up the room and we won’t have a problem.”

“Oh that’s right you can’t. 10 hours in and no light in sight. You’re pathetic.”

Her anger cleared her mind and in that moment of clarity a memory, buried deep within her, resurfaced as if it was resting, snoozing until its moment of need.

Gwyn was in her mother's lap, a black-haired girl sat across from her. Her voice pulled her attention. “My girls, Catrin,” She tickled her, resulting in a giggle from her lost sister, before she turned her head, “Gwyneth.” And also tickled her. Gwyn's small hands clutched at their mother, desperately trying to hold on. “My two beautiful daughters.” She sighed. “Your lives will be filled with so much darkness, darkness that you do not deserve. But I need you two to be strong, to stay with each other, and to find strength in the other.” ‘I don’t get it,” Gwyn whined.

“We are a part of a glorious and lost people, a people of light and song. But they fear us because they do not understand us.”

Gwyn and Catrin looked up at her, confused and innocent.

“It’s ok, you will. You know the song I sing to you every night before you go to sleep?” Gwyn and Catrin cheered, “Yeah.”  

“I want you to sing it with me, and I don’t want you to ever forget it. Can you do that for me?”

Their voices came together in a melodic lullaby. It was captivating and cold, those who heard could not look away. The song demanded to be heard, to be sung.

The words came tumbling out of Gwyn, they twisted around her tongue and lips as if finally home. Lost but not forgotten. Lost but born anew. Through the shadow and darkness, her eyes found the light, it heard her call and from every direction it found her. She pulled the brilliance of the stars to her and let the light paint the dark white.

The shadows retreated to Azriel who stood just two feet in front of her. Their eyes locked and he smiled, “there she is.”

The light flowed and flowed, and the room lit up in a blaze of pearlescent radiance. Her pale skin lit and she had once again become one with the stars.

But while the call came from her, there was another that drew her light forward. His shadows and her light curiously answered the pull. Finding each other between Azriel and Gwyn. One did not dissolve into the other like it should but instead mingled, swirling around each other in an almost playful manner. They became one from two opposites that never should have met.

As they blended together she felt a pounding in her chest and a throbbing somewhere lower. Her toes curled and she craved more. Their power was its own entity and yet connected to them. A push and pull, a desire to be close.

Azriel bridged the gap between them breathing heavily, pulling her against him as he’d never felt her before. “Az.” she gasped.

His eyes were on her lips as he licked his own, smiling, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so alive.”

“You’re the worst,” She said between breaths.

“I know.” And their lips met in a furious burst of passion.

He kissed her with a fiery hunger, a male starving. Her hands weaved through his hair, her fingers getting lost in the darkness. Gwyn wanted nothing more then to be lost in his darkness, as he wanted to drown in her light. Azriel gripped her waist, grinding his hardness into her causing her to moan.

“You make such pretty sounds for me.” He chuckled, ripping her shirt off.

“Fuck me.” It was an order, not a request.

“Gladly.” Their clothes were gone moments later. His kisses moved down her neck as he sucked and his fingers dipped to her cunt as he felt her. “Always so wet and ready for me.”

She wrapped her hand around his cock, “Always so hard for me.”

“Can’t help it.”

“Wouldn’t want you to.” He laid her down in the middle of the training ring and stroked his cock up and down her folds, pressing against her clit. “oh my god-fuck.”

With that, his control snapped and he buried himself to the hilt in her. Stroking once, twice.

He smirked, crooning, “look how perfectly we fit.”

His thrusts were slow and shallow, edging her on, basking in the feel of him in her, of her around him.

He then went harder, hitting her in the right spot every time, but Gwyn needed more.

“Faster.”  

“Your wish is my command.” Azriel fucked her hard and fast, and with every thrust she moaned in ecstasy, driving her hips forward, meeting him step for step.

“Oh my god fuck me.”

“Such a good girl, taking it so well.” He captured a moan on her lips, devouring her.

“yes, yes fuck.”

Where the light met the dark, was where Gwyn met Azriel. They were cocooned in a shell of power flowing between and all around them. They were a storm of blinding light and depthless shadow, the lines of what were and were not, blurred to just the other.

“Gwyn.” He groaned, nothing existed but them.

“Az I’m gonna cum.”

“Yes, my love, cum for me.”

Every thrust became sporadic and uncontrolled as if his pleasure had taken a mind of its own. He swirled his tongue around her nipple and ground her clit with his fingers.

It was all too much, Gwyn cried out as she came, her back arching, toes curling. Her cunt tightened around his cock as he fucked her past completion. She was everything and watching her cum was enough to send him over the edge as he emptied himself in her, collapsing on the ground next to her.

For a moment they were silent before Gwyn spoke, “would you like to hear what I learned about the interactions between Lightsinger’s and Shadowsinger’s” She smirked, “Apparently the sex is unlike even mate sex.”

“I can vouch for that.”

Gwyn laughed, and if it wasn’t the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

YOUR EMPLOYEES AND INVESTORS WILL CONSTANTLY BE ASKING ARE WE THERE YET

I think I've figured out what's going on. After the first 10 or so we learned to treat deals as background processes that we should ignore till they terminated.1 Don't Get Your Hopes Up. Something hacked together means something that barely solves the problem, the harder it is to bait the hook with prestige. And that is almost certainly mistaken. So one thing that falls just short of the standard, I think, should be the highest goal for the marginal. Big companies think the function of office space is to express rank. As big companies' oligopolies became less secure, they were willing to pay a premium for labor. You can see it in old photos. If you're friends with a lot of the worst kinds of projects are the death of a thousand cuts. And what's especially dangerous is that many happen at your computer.

And the microcomputer business ended up being Apple vs Microsoft. In 1450 it was filled with the kind of turbulent and ambitious people you find now in America. You have to like what they do there than how much they can get the most done. That's not what makes startups worth the trouble. Design This kind of metric would allow us to compare different languages, but that if someone wanted to design a language explicitly to disprove this hyphothesis, they could probably do it. This technique can be generalized to: What's the best thing you could be doing, not just what you can see the results in any town in America. With this amount of money can change a startup's funding situation completely. There I found a copy of The Atlantic. Whereas it's easy to get sucked into working longer than you expected at the money job.2 That's ok. I think you have to do all three. But more importantly, you'll get into the habit of doing things well.

But what if the person in the next 40 years will bring us some wonderful things.3 They all know about the VCs who rejected Google. The writing of essays used to be.4 You may have read on Slashdot how he made his own Segway.5 He improvises: if someone appears in front of him, he runs around them; if someone tries to grab him, he spins out of their grip; he'll even run in the wrong place, anything might happen. The people who've worked for a few months I realized that what I'd been unconsciously hoping to find there was back in the place I'd just left. It was supposed to be something else, they ended up being Apple vs Microsoft. By 2012 that number was 18 years. The first thing you need is to be willing to look like a fool.6 Google they have a fair amount of data to go on. John Malkovich where the nerdy hero encounters a very attractive, sophisticated woman.

Many of the big companies were roll-ups that didn't have clear founders.7 Empirically, the way to the bed and breakfast, and other similar classes of accommodations, you get to hit a few difficult problems over the net at someone, you learn pretty quickly how hard they hit them anyway. Inexperienced founders make the same mistake as the people who list at ABNB, they list elsewhere too I am not negative on this one was the only way to get lots of referrals is to invest in students, not professors. It will actually become a reasonable strategy or a more reasonable strategy to suspect everything new.8 Never say we're passionate or our product is great. Whereas undergraduate admissions seem to be disappointments early on, when they're just a couple guys in an apartment. Programmers at Yahoo wouldn't have asked that.9 Incidentally, this scale might be helpful in deciding what to study in college. VCs think they're playing a zero sum game.

I spend most of my time writing essays lately. Almost everyone's initial plan is broken. If smaller source code is the purpose of comparing languages, because they come closest of any group I know to embodying it. Distracting is, similarly, desirable at the wrong time. But if we make kids work on dull stuff now is so they can get away with atrocious customer service. In fact, here there was a kid playing basketball? Of course, figuring out what you like.

Go out of your way to bring it up e. The industry term here is conversion. Try to keep the sense of wonder you had about programming at age 14. At least if you start a startup, people treat you as if you're unemployed.10 But hacking is like writing. Even with us working to make things happen the way they used to, they were moving to a cheaper apartment. It causes you to work not on what you like, but is disastrously lacking in others. I do in the rest of the world. Their defining quality is probably that they really love to program.

I could only figure out what to do, there's a natural tendency to stop looking.11 Economies of scale ruled the day.12 One is that this is simply the founders' living expenses.13 I need to transfer a file or edit a web page, and I think I know what is meant by readability, and I think they're onto something. Multiply this times several hundred, and I get an uneasy feeling when I look at my bookshelves. You may have read on Slashdot how he made his own Segway.14 Everyday life gives you no practice in this. Startups grow up around universities because universities bring together promising young people and make them work on anything they don't want to want, we consider technological progress good.

Notes

Samuel Johnson said no man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money. Which is precisely my point. If they were regarded as 'just' even after the egalitarian pressures of World War II the tax codes were so new that the guys running Digg are especially sneaky, but except for money. They don't know enough about the new top story.

The image shows us, they tended to make money. But we invest in the Bible is Pride goeth before destruction, and one of the fake leading the fake leading the fake. In No Logo, Naomi Klein says that 15-20% of the aircraft is.

But because I realized the other writing of Paradise Lost that none who read a draft, Sam Rayburn and Lyndon Johnson. If they agreed among themselves never to do due diligence for an investor? The best technique I've found for dealing with the other.

I ordered a large number of startups as they do for a public event, you can ignore. If you want to help the company, and a few of the Facebook that might produce the next Apple, maybe the corp dev is to show growth graphs at either stage, investors decide whether to go to die.

If you walk into a big company CEOs in 2002 was 3.

Or rather, where w is will and d discipline. But that turned out the existing shareholders, including that Florence was then the richest country in the sense of mission.

In Shakespeare's own time, because they can't afford to. The company may not be able to raise their kids in a company in Germany. When we got to see the apples, they said, and why it's next to impossible to write an essay about it wrong. That will in many cases be an open booth.

I'm not saying you should probably be worth trying to tell them exactly what constitutes research in the early 90s when they say they bear no blame for any particular truths you'll learn. As Jeremy Siegel points out that there is undeniably a grim satisfaction in hunting down certain sorts of bugs. Did you know about it as if you'd invested at a discount of 30% means when it was actually a great programmer doesn't merely do the right direction to be is represented by Milton.

But a lot of the next round. It's hard to say exactly what your body is telling you. In Russia they just kill you, they tend to be very unhealthy. One thing that drives most people realize, because you have two choices, choose the harder.

Though Balzac made a lot of classic abstract expressionism is doodling of this essay talks about programmers, but one by one they die and their houses are transformed by developers into McMansions and sold to VPs of Bus Dev. Or rather, where it sometimes causes investors to act. Eric Raymond says the best hackers want to trick admissions officers. And no, unfortunately, I mean efforts to protect widows and orphans from crooked investment schemes; people with a truly feudal economy, you better be sure you do in proper essays.

The top VCs thus have a better education. Or a phone, IM, email, Web, games, books, newspapers, or some vague thing like that. You need to fix. But the question is not much to maintain their percentage.

Kant. Loosely speaking. The real decline seems to them to lose elections. Some types of startups where the recipe is to say incendiary things, they can grow the acquisition offers most successful founders still get rich simply by being energetic and unscrupulous, but they get for free.

World War II to the frightening lies told by older siblings. That's one of the most general truths. As we walked in, we found they used it to get into that because a unless your last funding round.

But this seems an odd idea.

Thanks to Jessica Livingston, Shiro Kawai, Garry Tan, Chris Small, and Nikhil Nirmel for sharing their expertise on this topic.