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thesiltverses · 6 months ago

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A very big thank you

I posted this on Patreon, but really wanted to share it here as well:

Post-show life begins

For a long while now I’ve been getting up at 4.30 or 5am, grabbing myself the first coffee of four, and then coming to sit at my desk.

I open up the assembly cut of the newest TSV episode.

I listen to it, I try and pin down which scenes I need to be going back over today. I try and push through the entire morning without a break because when the momentum stalls, that’s what kills your release schedule. (I also worry endlessly about just how much of my hair is falling out, and how spending 12 hours a day wearing headphones could be contributing to that.)

Today was different. I still woke up early - it’s a hard habit to shake off, and probably a useful one going forward. But I didn’t go to my desk, and I didn’t put my headphones on.

I went to the rocking chair we bought for our son when he comes, and I sat there - gently swaying and trying not to spill my coffee all over it, because for some reason it’s fucking beige - and looked out over the city skyline.

I slugged back my coffee surrounded by all the stuff we’ve panic-bought for the baby, and I got to take all of it in - washcloths and the changing table and romper suits - with a sudden focus and a clarity and a rising excitement that I really hadn’t allowed myself to feel until today, because until today the work was still unfinished and there was still much left to be done.

All at once I felt very free, and fully sated, and happy and proud for everything that’s coming next.

There’s so much to feel grateful for from the past three years of working on this show. But what’s probably going to sit with me the most is being able to arrive at that moment and those feelings today, - and we have all of you incredible people to thank for that.

Not just in terms of listenership or financial support, although that’s been truly invaluable and a lifeline for us that’s enabled us to actually make the show - but also your enthusiasm, your passion, your jokes and comments and everything that’s helped to keep us motivated and working on it.

So - with as much feeling as words can convey, thank you so, so much for everything.

What’s coming next, in rough order

#1: Parentdom is going to take over our lives for a while! I also want to write the final Patreon episode commentaries in the next few days, while I have the time and the clear memories. #2: The next thing we’ll organise will be the post-season Q&A (we’d also like to do some kind of off-camera cast party if we can make schedules work, just to say thank you to our amazing VAs and celebrate with them). Please do ask us questions! #3: We have long-unfinished commitments to the Patreon which I need to complete: the last two episodes of So Long, Good Luck, and rounding off Sid Wright’s story. As ever, huge thank-yous for your patience with these; they’ve just been impossible to polish off while also working on the main show so much. #4: Something I’ve been thinking about for a long time is the possibility of going back to Season 1 and redesigning it from scratch to try and bring it closer in style to S2 and S3. We have the raw audio files - some of the mic quality will just be rough no matter what, but we can certainly try. This is something I want to be conscientious and careful about; I very much want to respect the sound design work that’s already taken place, and ensure we’re not overriding anything. But I do know that the initial quality still sometimes puts new listeners off; we were learning a lot about direction and mastering from scratch, and our designers were working with limited budget and a total lack of plugins, so there’s simply a lot more we can achieve now. (This would also be a good opportunity for me to finally rework the transcripts, another fallen hurdle). #5: A few months back, we were contacted by a literary agent in NYC who was interested in us adapting the show into a series of novels. There’s a long road ahead to actually get published, but I'm thrilled to say that I have signed with them and I’m really excited to hopefully start work on the first book once I’ve settled into dad-dom. I’ll need to check what’s possible, but if it doesn’t interfere with any contract condition I’d obviously love to share excerpts on here as it’s written. #6: Then there’ll also be another larger audiodrama project - we’ve spoken about the different possibilities before! Excited to get started on our final choice.

Just one last word about endings

God, endings are scary. Because endings are impossible.

How many serialised stories actually end in a way that’s received unequivocally well? People yelled at The Sopranos for its ambiguity and open-endedness. People criticised Breaking Bad for treating Walt too sympathetically at the end and relying on a generic mob of snarling Nazis to act as his final foe.

Endings are either too pat and neat, or too inconclusive to be satisfying, or too surreal and dreamlike, or they simply make what feels like the wrong choices for the characters we care about. We’re all caught in that barbed wire, creators and audience alike, weighed down by the baggage of what’s come before and we've already spent so much time anticipating the infinite possibilities of how it could all turn out - it’s like we can’t get free of the story that’s trying to end.

And the beautiful thing about these longform, iterative works is that they insist upon becoming completely ungovernable. No matter how much of a planner the creator claims to be, how much prepwork they carry out - they were never really in control. There’s spontaneity and surprises and dead ends and beautiful distractions that come spilling out along the way (I was baffled and delighted to learn that people really - at the end of the show, with such limited time to spare - wanted to find out what had happened to Eddie*).

So they can’t end. Not really. There’s too much wonderful mess in them to ever be reasonably disentangled.

And, of course, for every ending people remember with frustration or dissatisfaction, there’s another hundred endings that nobody remembers at all, because we lost our enthusiasm along the way and it feels better to keep going back to the start and avoiding the slow decline. (Who the fuck remembers how the umpteenth X-Files reboot ended? What increasingly tired post-modern antics was Alan Moore getting up to in the final League of Extraordinary Gentlemen books?). I really just didn’t want the show to end up in that latter category.

All of that probably sounds like I’m warding off criticism about the show's ending, but for me it’s actually been the opposite.

For an ending which is all about narrative dissatisfaction, and failed potential and missed opportunities, and how we need to come to terms with the lack of existential fairness and certainty and narrative control in our lives and keep ploughing forward all the same for as long as we possibly can, I’m massively stunned at just how positive the reception has been on here and elsewhere, and that’s something I’m actively having to process, because I think I was fearfully anticipating much more pushback.

But, look - the Eskew finale was originally quite poorly-received and then people came back around to it over time. So I’m not going to pat myself on the back too hard, because maybe it’ll ultimately be the opposite with this show, and that’s OK. For 200 years everyone was convinced King Lear was improved by having everyone survive at the end and get married. Endings take time to settle into their final condition.

For now, I am incredibly relieved that the ending we chose seems to have landed for most people, and I’m incredibly grateful for the lovely messages we’ve got about it and for the trust in us that you’ve all shown throughout the story.

So, yeah, let’s end with another thank you, because that’s what I feel so deeply and so forcefully at this point.

Thank you so much again, and speak soon.

Jon

*My take? We’ve established that the guy is in some kind of blue-collar job and has been pushed into constant overtime due to the reduced workforce. We’ve seen that the so-called ‘national holiday’ doesn’t actually rescue workers from their commitments. So I personally imagine that Eddie was working during the parade somewhere on the city outskirts, and is alive and well.

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theoccultmoon · 2 months ago

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Understanding the 3 Types of Sigils

Sigils are one of the most versatile tools in witchcraft, acting as symbols infused with your intention and energy. What makes sigils so effective is their adaptability, you can choose how to work with them based on your goals and needs. When deciding how to use a sigil, it’s helpful to understand the three main types: destructible, temporary, and permanent. Each type serves a unique purpose and adds a layer of magickal flexibility to your practice.

Destructible Sigils 🕯

Definition: These sigils are created with the intention of being destroyed, often as part of the activation process.

Purpose: Used for immediate, transformative, or highly specific goals. The act of destruction releases the energy.

Examples of Use:

⟡ Burn a sigil for quick manifestation.

⟡ Bury a sigil to symbolize letting go of something.

How-To: Draw the sigil on paper, charge it with your intent, and destroy it by burning, tearing, or submerging it in water.

Tip: This method is great for goals where you want to release energy into the universe quickly.

Temporary Sigils ✿

Definition: These sigils exist for a short time and are erased, washed away, or allowed to fade naturally.

Purpose: Ideal for ongoing but temporary needs, like a daily boost of confidence or protection during a specific event.

Examples of Use:

⟡ Draw a sigil on your skin with makeup or henna.

⟡ Sketch a sigil in sand or dirt before a ritual.

⟡ Write a sigil in chalk on your door for short-term protection.

How-To: Use materials that naturally wear off (chalk, marker, or skin-safe paint). Focus on charging the sigil when you draw it.

Tip: These sigils are perfect for quick and discreet magick, as they’re easy to create and remove.

Permanent Sigils 𓃠

Definition: These sigils are created with the intention of lasting indefinitely. They are charged to continuously radiate energy over time.

Purpose: Used for long-term goals or intentions, such as protection, abundance, or anchoring a space with positive energy.

Examples of Use:

⟡ Draw a sigil onto a piece of jewelry or altar tool.

⟡ Paint or carve a sigil on a doorframe for home protection.

How-To: Choose a durable medium (wood, stone, metal) Ensure the sigil is charged and activated with care.

Tip: Permanent sigils require deep thought and a strong intention, as their energy is meant to be constant and enduring.

⛥ No matter which type of sigil you choose, remember that their power comes from the energy and intention you infuse into them. Whether you’re releasing energy through destruction, working with short-term goals, or embedding your magick into something permanent, sigils can adapt to your needs and bring your intentions to life. ⛥

If you’re looking for more in-depth content check out my Patreon 🌙🖤

https://www.patreon.com/posts/easy-way-to-salt-116545319?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Have you worked with sigils before? I’d love to hear about your experiences or any questions you might have. Feel free to share your thoughts or favorite sigil practices in the comments! ฅᨐฅ

#witch #witchcore #witchcraft #witches #witch tips #sigils #sigil magic #grimoire

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cowboys-tshot · 6 days ago

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A Beginner's Guide to Epic: The Musical - FINAL Version!

Are you new to Epic: The Musical and overwhelmed by 5 years worth of content to go through? Yeah, that's fair. Although Epic: The Musical is now complete, there are many things that new fans may be confused about or just completely unaware of. This is a helpful guide for the influx of new fans coming in, or just people that are still a bit confused about some parts!

*There will obviously be some spoilers in this! The Odyssey is thousands of years old, but Epic: The Musical is a retelling, meaning many things have been changed. I recommend listening to all the songs in Epic before reading this - or at least before reading the 2nd and 3rd sections - as this guide is intended to clear up misunderstandings/confusing moments and provide context (as well as some fun tidbits). But hey, you do you!

**All of the underlined words are links to whatever it is I'm referring to. I've done my best to include sources for everything or at least indicate where I got certain information I can't find a direct link. Although Jay is most active on TikTok, I've used YouTube links in case TikTok actually gets banned in the US (there was one video that I couldn't find elsewhere unfortunately).

This list will cover (1) General Information, (2) Music-Related Information, (3) Explaining Unclear/Vague Moments, and (4) Fun Facts. This post is long as hell, but so is the musical, so... sorry! Enjoy my endless yapping and let me know if I missed anything <3

General Information

This is some basic information about Epic: The Musical as a whole. This includes where to find new information and content, some context, BTS stuff, etc.

First of all, here's a quick rundown by the creator himself. There'll be some overlap in terms of what I cover here.

Here is a link to the official Spotify playlist for all of the albums/sagas in order.

Epic: The Musical is created by Jorge Rivera-Herrans, often referred to as "Jay" or "Mr. Jalapeño" by his fans. This is who writes the songs, makes the music, casts the characters, and voices Odysseus himself (and also Polyphemus)! He's a very silly, creative guy. :)

Epic: The Musical was originally produced under Blair Russell Productions, but Jay has never been paid the royalties from the songs released under them (and they have yet to give back control of the Epic social media accounts last I checked), so Epic is now produced under Jay's own company, Winion Entertainment LLC (source). The Troy Saga and The Cyclops Saga were re-released under this new company, which included new vocals, music, cover art, etc. It's preferred that you listen to these versions of the songs, and NOT the originals, because Jay only gets royalties from the current ones.

Jay is most active on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. All videos that he posts to these platforms are generally the same, so don't worry if you can't follow him on all of them. He talks about several Epic-related things, including release dates, BTS, animatics, details about the music/story, snippets of released and unreleased songs, and also plenty of funny videos. He is very active within the fanbase, and you're likely to find him (and other cast members) leaving comments on posts by fans!

Here are Jay's other links, including the Epic: The Musical Discord server. In my experience, the Discord server and TikTok are the best places to get information as quickly as possible. He also has a Patreon for early content!

Epic was just completed in December 2024. There is no stage adaptation, as Epic is still technically a concept album. There are many things in the works (video games, stage adaptations, etc.), but nothing has been completed and a lot of it is still up in the air.

Jay takes many creative liberties with The Odyssey for the sake of this retelling. He even made a video saying to NOT use Epic as a basis for your knowledge of The Odyssey. Many of the things that occur in Epic DO NOT occur in the original story, and many parts of the original story have been cut out. Here is a video where Jay explains the purpose of Epic as an adaption and goes over some key differences between the two stories.

Jay held live listen-throughs for new saga releases, where he'd start at the very beginning and naturally transition into the newest saga. I believe only three of these are still available on YouTube (The Wisdom Saga, The Vengeance Saga, and The Ithaca Saga). These are where you can find all of the official animatics, animations, and artwork, all of which provide insights into character design and events within the songs. The lyrics shown during the streams also detailed events happening in the story that may not be clear just from listening (though I will go over these later just in case). You can just watch the premiere party for The Ithaca Saga here, as it includes all previous sagas and their animatics.

Music-Related Information

I'm not musically adept at all, and this is post is already very long, so I'm not going to list every specific detail - just some common themes and examples of them.

If you're having trouble understanding the lyrics and/or the meanings behind the lyrics, Genius Lyrics has the entire album and is full of helpful notes about the context within the musical, as well as details about the music itself. A lot of lyrics get misheard, so even if you think you understand what's being sung, I'd recommend checking just in case lol.

Many characters have their own musical motif(s). There are also other motifs that are more general, like the "Danger is Nearby" motif.

Many important characters have their own instrument that plays an integral part in the songs they're in. You can typically tell which instrument accompanies each character by listening to what is most prominent in a song that focuses on that character. (examples, examples, examples)

If you hear a character's musical motif or associated instrument in a song they don't play an integral part in, that can mean a few things (listed below). With the more general motifs, they have their own separate meanings outside of the characters.

A character's motif or instrument can indicate that this character is present, even if they're not singing or even mentioned. (ex. Hermes in "Puppeteer," signifying that he's listening to Odysseus' speech, which is brought up at the beginning of "Wouldn't You Like")

That character is related to whatever event/conversation is occurring. (ex. the same musical motif in "Ruthlessness" and "Storm," signifying that Poseidon is the one that sent the intense storm)

The kind of instrument being played can indicate the emotion or tone of a scene. This is scene primarily with Odysseus, where the use of a nylon or acoustic guitar indicates that he is not being ruthless, while the electric guitar indicates his ruthlessness. (source)

When background vocals are accompanying a mortal, there is always a physical, in-universe source for those voices (ex. Odysseus's crew as background vocals in most of his songs in the earlier sagas). When background vocals are accompanying a god or other powerful being, there does not have to be a physical source for those voices—gods can basically summon a choir of voices at will (ex. "Ruthlessness"). (video explanation)

Explaining Unclear/Vague Moments

Some of the plot points, characters, and events in Epic can be confusing at first, especially without the visual element. Some things have been depicted in animatics, some said by Jay in videos/comments, others were detailed in the lyric videos during livestreams, and others are just commonly misheard or misunderstood events. I'm just going to explain everything regardless, and I will go in order of the songs to make it as coherent and cohesive as possible. I've tried not to compare Epic to The Odyssey too much, as Epic is a retelling, but The Odyssey provides a lot of context.

This list will have MAJOR SPOILERS, obviously.

Throughout Epic, several characters are named in the lyrics but never referred to as such within the musical. I won't list them all here for the sake of space, but they should all be listed on Genius Lyrics whenever they have singing roles.

Generally, the gods don't really work the same as they do in Greek mythology. They are closer to "immortal humans with superpowers" than actual gods.

As far as character design goes, most characters look physically similar to their respective actors, and their attire often takes more inspiration from anime and video games than Greek clothing (at least for the gods).

The deep voice at the end of "The Horse and The Infant" is Zeus, voiced by Luke Holt. Zeus shows Odysseus a vision of Astyanax, the infant son of Trojan Prince Hector, and tells him to kill the infant because the boy will grow up to avenge his father (who had been killed by the Greeks). After a lot of deliberation, Odysseus drops Astyanax from the walls of Troy at the very end of "Just a Man."

"Warrior of the Mind" is quite confusing without context. It begins with Athena's ability Quick-Thought, which lets her have telepathic conversations with someone within milliseconds by pulling their mind into another dimension. The rest of the song is a flashback to a younger Odysseus, when he first met Athena and took her as a mentor.

Polites dies at the end of "Survive." He is the voice weakly saying "Captain..." after being hit with Polyphemus's club, and he is killed after the cyclops hits him a second time. (I didn't realize this for a good while when I first started listening to Epic.)

The lil' guys in "Keep Your Friends Close" are called winions (which are also the Lotus Eaters in "Open Arms", and they appear again in "Dangerous"). Jay describes them as "little wind creatures that dance when they get excited and then float away uncontrollably." They don't actually exist in The Odyssey, but they're pretty cute!

At the end of "Ruthlessness," the line "remember me" is said/sung by Poseidon (Steven Rodriguez), not Odysseus - he's basically sending his voice through the ocean fog, since Odysseus is very, very far away from him at that point.

In "Done For," the yelling and roaring you're hearing in the background is essentially a Pokemon/Yu-Gi-Oh battle. Circe summons a chimera, and Odysseus summons a cyclops using the moly plant given to him by Hermes. There is an animatic by mircsy to serve as a visual aide, which I find very helpful!

In "There Are Other Ways," Circe is holding a knife and planning to stab Odysseus as she tries to seduce him. When he pulls away and rejects her, she quickly hides the knife.

In "The Underworld," shades (souls) are in a constant loop, repeating whatever they were thinking when they died (which we see with Polites and Anticlea, Odysseus's mother). Tiresias is an exception to this rule, seemingly because of him being such a powerful prophet. (confirmed in "The Underworld Saga" LIVE listen-through)

In "No Longer You," there's a LOT of foreshadowing (for obvious reasons). The line "I see your wife with a man who is haunting / a man with a trail of bodies" refers to Odysseus, not any of other suitors. I won't go into the rest of the foreshadowing in that song, as I think it's fairly clear and you can find other posts explaining all of that.

The sirens in "Suffering" and "Different Beast" are not the same as Greek sirens - they more so resemble our modern interpretation of them. Here is a video explaining their powers and how they work within Epic.

Scylla is a monster with six heads on serpent-like necks, with each one only eating a single man at a time. This is why Odysseus tells Eurylochus to light six torches. In the official animatic, Eurylochus is shown to hand off his torch to another crewmember during the chaos, only to realize too late that he has doomed his own brother in arms.

In "Mutiny," after Odysseus is stabbed (in his side, I believe), he is tied up and knocked out before the crew sails to the nearest island. Right before he says to get to the boat and row away, he manages to untie himself.

The statue of the sun god in "Mutiny" is depicting Helios, not Apollo. They are two separate gods, and I won't explain further because that's its own post. The cows are Helios's cattle.

Zeus completely destroys Odysseus's ship at the end of "Thunder Bringer", but Odysseus somehow washes up on the island of the goddess Calypso. She immediately falls in love with him and traps him there with her for seven years until Hermes, at the command of Zeus, informs her she must release him (though this confrontation isn't depicted in Epic, only mentioned). In The Odyssey, Odysseus sleeps with Calypso (unwillingly, mind you), but this part seems to have been cut out of Epic.

There is a seven-year time skip between "Thunder Bringer" and "Legendary." Telemachus is around 20 years old at this point. The suitors have only been in the palace for around 3 to 4 years.

In the "Legendary" animatic that depicts Telemachus growing up over time, a dog is shown walking alongside him. This is Argos, Odysseus's hunting dog, and it is the only time he's depicted in Epic. In The Odyssey, Odysseus sees Argos lying in a pile of manure outside his palace. He has been severely neglected over his owner's 20-year absence, unable to walk and covered in ticks. Upon hearing Odysseus's voice, Argos wags his tail, although he can't stand and go greet him. Odysseus, in disguise as a beggar, can't greet his dog and risk revealing himself, but he does cry a bit before he enters the palace. Argos then dies. (I cried while typing this)

The gods' powers in "God Games" are explained here. Athena is seemingly killed at the end of the song by Zeus. A lot happens in this song, so I'd recommend watching the animatics.

Charybdis is a monster opposite of Scylla in the same strait of water. She is a monster that remains beneath the waves, gulping up water three times a day to create intense whirlpools that kill anything and anyone that gets caught in its current. In Epic, Odysseus essentially maneuvers within the whirlpool by surfing on his raft until she inevitably has to spit the water back out.

In "Six Hundred Strike", Odysseus manages to reach the wind bag just before he drowns. He straps it to his back and opens it, using it like a jet pack and having a mid-air anime-style battle with Poseidon where he, powered by the souls of his dead crew, strikes Poseidon 600 times in quick succession (absolutely none of that was hyperbole). His eyes are now glowing red, and they will be this way until The Ithaca Saga (they're always red from now on, but they eventually stop glowing). They both land on a small rocky island, where Odysseus proceeds to pick up Poseidon's trident and repeatedly stab him until he stops the storm.

That wet sound in "Six Hundred Strike" is a trident being stabbed through Poseidon's throat, not kissing noises.

A lot of people (including myself for a while) get confused about the “shoot through 12 axe-heads cleanly” bit in "The Challenge". It's possible that the suitors were meant to shoot an arrow either through (1) the holes that the axe handles would go through or (2) a hole through the middle of the axe-heads - honestly I'm unsure at this point. If they were double-headed axes that were lodged in place in a straight line, the holes would align and could theoretically be shot through.

The part with the axe-heads honestly doesn't matter because Penelope knew the suitors wouldn't even get that far - Odysseus's bow was a particular type of bow, referred to in The Odyssey as palintonos (translating to "bent," I believe). It's mostly speculation because Homer wasn't super descriptive about it, but here is an article detailing the bow and how it would be used. Needless to say, not only would it have required immense strength to string and draw it, but the suitors likely wouldn't even know how to in the first place - which is exactly what is depicted in the animatic at the beginning of "Hold Them Down".

At the end of "Hold Them Down", Odysseus shoots an arrow into Antinous's throat and kills him. It's assumed that Odysseus has been in the palace the entire time (at least for the duration of this song), and none of the suitors noticed him stringing his bow without any trouble as they started getting increasingly rowdier.

At this point, you may be wondering why in the world no one just kicked the suitors out before it got to this point. For that, I ask you to research the Greek concept of xenia - there are many posts explaining this in relation to Epic as well. Basically, Greek hospitality rules prevented Penelope from simply kicking the suitors out. It was only once they threatened to kill Telemachus and sexually assault Penelope that Odysseus got the all-clear to deal with them himself without violating xenia.

There are 108 suitors in total, though only a fraction of them have singing lines and only a few are named in the lyrics. The first is Eurymachus ('Old king, our leader is dead...'), who in The Odyssey was second to Antinous and was very much an asshole. He is accurately depicted here as being a manipulative liar. The second is Amphinomus ('Damn, he's more cunning than I assumed...'), who is actually a fairly decent guy in The Odyssey. Odysseus warned him to stay away from the castle that day, but Athena urged him to stay and he was killed. Lastly, there is Melanthius (the one that encourages the capture of Telemachus) who is actually Odysseus's goatherd but was seemingly rewritten to be a suitor in Epic. In The Odyssey, he's a disloyal asshole that is so accommodating to the suitors that they let him hang out with them.

Odysseus first stabs Melanthius from behind, then beheads him right after he says 'this will be your fate'. This may seem pretty brutal (or ruthless, you could say), but I guarantee you it was far, far worse in The Odyssey! :)

At the end of one of the animatics for "I Can't Help But Wonder", when Athena says the line "very well," she turns her head to reveal that the right side of her face is scarred, and she appears to now be blind in that eye. The shape of the scar pretty much confirms that this is a result of what happened at the end of "God Games."

Penelope's request for Odysseus to move their wedding bed in "Would You Fall in Love With Me Again" is both a test and a way of circumventing Odysseus's identity crisis. It's first a test to confirm that this man is, in fact, her husband and not an imposter - only her husband would know that moving the bed is impossible because it's built into a literal tree. This request also serves to convince Odysseus that Penelope still sees him as her husband - only her husband would know that, therefore Odysseus must be her husband.

Fun Facts

Circe is voiced by Jay's girlfriend, Talya Sindel. They met when she was cast as Circe and began dating a bit later. They are horrifically cute together.

When Poseidon kills off most of Odysseus' crew in "Ruthlessness," he says that there are only 43 men left. But in "The Underworld," the souls of his crew say that 558 men died under his command. Considering Odysseus started off with 600 men ("Full Speed Ahead"), this math doesn't add up. This is because in The Odyssey, when Odysseus and his men party with Circe for a year, a man in his crew named Elpenor woke up drunk on Circe's roof and proceeded to walk off the roof and die from the fall. He actually has a cut song.

Jay messed up the amount of years in "There Are Other Ways" - it had only been 10 years, not 12. This mistake is referenced in "Different Beast" with the line "We've been away from home for / about 12 years or so."

All of Jay's family play characters in Epic - his mother plays Odysseus's mother (Anticlea), his father plays Hephaestus (because he helped Jay build his sound booth/recording studio), and his sister plays the Princess Winion in "Dangerous"!

If you see people commenting "rawr rawr rawr" or "🦖" on Jay's videos, they're referencing his April Fool's prank before the release of The Underworld Saga.

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homestuckreplay · 5 days ago

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Webcomics at Day 100 #9: Dinosaur Comics

Pages read: 2/1/2003 – 12/31/2003 & 4/14/2009 – 12/24/2009 (about 400 pages), plus Ryanquest in the Unofficial Homestuck Collection (15 pages).

Reason for selection: Ryan North and Andrew Hussie were friends as of 2010, and both their websites link and make references to the other’s. In addition, Dinosaur Comics is probably the most famous text-only webcomic – Qwantz isn’t an artist, and uses the same images for every strip, with different dialog.

Current status: Ongoing since 2003 with no major hiatuses. New comics posted three times a week. North has a Patreon, but all new and archived comics are available for free, and North allows their free use for nonprofit purposes.

Content warnings: jokes about gender and other cultures in the context of “post-feminism” and “post-racism”

Overall thoughts:

T-Rexes having tiny arms is one of the most staple jokes of the internet to me, and by making comics with this punchline in 2003, Ryan North was probably a pioneer in this area. That’s my biggest takeaway from Dinosaur Comics – it’s a microcosm of jokes, debates and discourses that came from and spread all over the Internet. Its format is simple: panels one and two feature a T-rex making a statement. In panel three, he stomps on a house as a Dromiceiomimus looks on, and sometimes comments. In panels four and five, the T-rex stomps on a human woman and has dialog with a Utahraptor, and in panel six, the T-rex is once again alone to deliver the punchline. North has repeated this format over four thousand times across more than two decades, and against all odds, it’s still paying dividends.

North plays with the form starting very early on. Comic 12 (2/14/2003) allows readers to choose between two punchlines where ‘the first is for fans of character development and quiet moments of self-awareness’ and ‘the second is for fans of kickin' it post-modern style’. Comic 29 is a ‘choose your own adventure’ where the reader takes a different route through the panels based on their choices, and comic 30 is an infinitely looping subversion of the previous. Comics 35, 38 and 39 are set in a ‘mirror universe’ where the art is flipped, comic 42 riffs on adventure games (though is sadly not playable), comic 54 is styled as a fake history textbook, comic 119 is designed to be printed out for readers to write in their own final line, and comic 168 is designed to be read twice, with different intonation (and therefore meaning) each time.

Some early comics also feature ‘compressed’ retellings of other media – for example, comic 16 retells Jurassic Park, comic 199 retells Superman’s origin story, and comic 232 retells the Bible as though it were in Seventeen magazine. In many cases it’s made clear what’s being retold, but comic 1493 retells the movie WarGames without attribution, so there are likely other allusions I missed. North later went on to write choose-your-own-adventure and graphic novel adaptations of several famous literary works, in an expansion of this format.

But possibly the quintessential Dinosaur Comic is the one that tries to teach the reader something. The main character, T-Rex, is characterized as (essentially) a freshman philosophy student – a guy who wants to understand the world on a deeper level, but is new to it and typically comes to the wrong conclusion, struggling to think past his self-absorption, lowbrow humor, and base desire to stomp on things. The stomping is part of the clipart, which makes the whole characterization static like a sitcom character – T-Rex can’t ever do any self reflection or become a better person, because the images can’t change to match. But T-Rex is also a mouthpiece for North to convey information, giving lessons on discrete math (comic 43), genetics (67), computational linguistics (170), logical fallacies (184), a recipe for chickpeas in coconut milk (196), flatworm biology (1497), the infinite hotel paradox (1575), and various literary techniques (1466, 1558, 1622). As such, while T-Rex and his friends the Utahraptor and Dromiceiomimus do have some recognizable, consistent traits, they are more of a framework for North to convey jokes and information than actual characters.

Due to the identical art, panel size and formatting of almost all his comics, North can use overlays in a way that few webcomic artists can, and has made the most of this. I found this list of twenty-four possible overlays where the URL can be edited to apply to any comic. These include one that gives the characters pirate gear, one where every character is T-Rex, one where T-Rex wears various T-shirts, one where the dinosaurs are more scientifically accurate, one that replaces the final panel with the meteor impact that kills all dinosaurs on Earth, and quite a few that replace the dinosaurs with characters from other comics such as Achewood, Penny Arcade, Problem Sleuth, and Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff.

North employs hover text in every comic, which can be an additional joke, a personal anecdote, or a repeat of a line in the comic that he especially liked. The archive page, listing every comic posted to the site, contains a second, different comment for each strip – both of these read like how Tumblr tags are used. This combined with the wordiness of the comics themselves suggest that North has a lot to say, and struggles to fit it all within the format.

Although some fans mention finding the early Dinosaur Comics weaker, I didn’t notice a dramatic difference in writing quality between the 2003 and 2009 strips. The biggest change are the newsposts that now appear under most comics, which are revealing about how popular and widely read DC has become over six years. North shouts out other webcomics and fan projects (such as comic randomizers and transformative versions) which are phrased like ‘hey, this other person is doing something cool with the internet, go check it out’ and don’t mention any official sponsorship or reciprocity. North’s relationship with other creators can be humorously antagonistic, as in comic 1502.

In other cases, the commentary discusses interesting facts, articles about crows, upcoming talks North is doing at conventions and universities, reader responses and corrections, book recommendations, fanart, guerilla gardening projects, and warnings about octopods using tools. North is extremely willing to correct factual inaccuracies in his joke comics and ensure that he also spreads the correct information – in comic 1591 he states ‘I even got some emails from researchers working on this very problem, which was kind of crazy, because I hadn't expected that!’ In comic 1508, he mentions emailing with a professor of linguistics over a recent comic. North’s work isn’t just read by terminally online young men who like his Batman references (the stereotypical 2000s webcomic reader), it’s read by academics and scientists, and publicly stating this gives him more intellectual credibility.

Like with most online personalities, I’m sure part of this is North curating an image and wanting to be seen as intelligent and cultured. But in his case, I think it’s earned – North has a master’s degree in computational linguistics and several published academic papers (all available in open access on his website) and appears to live the academic ideals of experimentation, rigor, peer review, and free access to information. Dinosaur Comics was first created when North was given a random URL and a school assignment to ‘do something interesting with the Internet’. He wanted to make comics but couldn’t draw, so used clipart. Impressively, this original ethos has carried through to today – the DC website doesn’t use ads besides some unobtrusive ones for North’s other work, the comics are crossposted to Tumblr (formerly also Twitter and LiveJournal), and all comics are searchable and include transcripts (though these were originally user sourced).

Looking at his personal website, North has taken many interesting opportunities that have come his way, and talks about them on equal terms – he’s written for Adventure Time and Fantastic Four, but also took the photograph for Wikipedia’s ‘Toast sandwich’ article and reviewed the Back to the Future novelization page by page, writing more words than are in the book itself (shit, this is sounding familiar) and is equally proud of these achievements.

North’s only paywalled projects are physical books and comics he’s written for major publishers such as Marvel, and he encourages fans to print Dinosaur Comics in nonprofit publications – the University of New Mexico has featured DC in its campus newspaper, and others have likely taken the opportunity too. North said in 2023 that he likes being known as ‘the Dinosaur Comics guy’ and being defined by that work, and that if the younger version of him could hear about his life now, he’d want to be that guy.

Between 2003 and 2010, North held fairly regular ‘guest weeks’, where he’d invite other webcomic artists to produce a Dinosaur Comic with no limitations on art or themes. Some guests play it straight and use the clipart, while some draw the standard six panels in different art styles (84, 658, 1324), some poke at the fourth wall and the T-Rex’s awareness or otherwise of the comic’s format (73-77, 1326), and some go meta and make comics about North himself (655, 1484).

The first guest weeks, in May 2003, may have come about because of North’s college finals – and as it’s before the comic takes off, it features North’s personal friends, brother and dad as guests. Later guest comics feature big internet names such as KC Green (Gunshow; origin of ‘this is fine’ meme), Zach Weiner (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal), Randall Munroe (xkcd), and of course-

Relevance to Homestuck: [one minor spoiler for Act 6]

-Andrew Hussie.

On June 12, 2009 (yes, that date), Hussie posted an official Dinosaur Comic where each of the six panels rotates between two to five possible options. The whole comic loops every 84 seconds, and functions as a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure where the path of the story is dictated by how fast you read’. Hussie is also listed as a coauthor on comic 2546 according to the archives page, which also reveals that North and Hussie’s conversations inspired a couple other comics in the early 2010s. Following Homestuck’s end of act 2, North shouts out the comic in his commentary to 1571, claiming that ‘Dinosaur Comics and MS Paint Adventures take place in the same universe’ and that the dinosaur seen in ‘WV: Ascend’ is the same dinosaur then featured in Dinosaur Comics’ header image. (The alt text of this comic reads exactly like a Serious Business message). Several days later, in comic 1574, the Utahraptor drops a ‘We’re doing this, man. We’re making this happen,’ a rare grammatically correct Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff.

It goes further. Comic 1810 features a message directly to Hussie, calling them out for not moving to Toronto. Despite being busy with moving (elsewhere), going to conventions, and updating Homestuck at over ten pages per day at that point, Hussie immediately responded with the fifteen-page adventure Ryanquest (/ryanquest/000001 in the Collection), written in the typical second-person MSPA style. North is drawn wearing a ‘Batman is For Silly Little Boys’ shirt, referencing North’s Batman fandom (and possibly comic 1543), and Hussie is drawn wearing a shirt available in the Dinosaur Comics merch store. If there are other inside jokes, they went over my head – but Ryanquest is absurd, ridiculous, and plays into the same kind of unintelligible internet irony and one-upmanship that Dave and his bro have.

It seems that North and Hussie have similar senses of humor (as well as a shared computer science background), and North clearly likes interacting with other creators, so Dinosaur Comics might be the webcomic with the most explicit links to Homestuck. Besides the obvious references, comic 1505, published July 8th, 2009, features T-Rex rapping terribly. This comes only a couple weeks after Dave’s first bad rap in Homestuck (p.287, 6/22/2009). There may be other parallels and unintentional references like this, as (at this point) the pair actively read each other’s work and talk to each other. So it’s not surprising that themes like time travel, autoresponders, and the tension between science and religion crop up in both – they’re just shared interests. Finally, Dinosaur Comics and Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff are also the only two franchises I’ve ever seen official word magnet sets for.

Continue reading? I enjoyed reading what I did, and I have a lot of respect for North’s work, but Dinosaur Comics is a very dense archive due to the wordiness of many comics and lack of new visuals. I think it works best as something to read as it updates, one comic at a time – so I will be keeping the website bookmarked, but I doubt I’ll ever read the full history.

#webcomics 100 #dinosaur comics #spot the secret in this post!#chrono

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uchitpatel11 · 3 months ago

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SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

A social media blog for a human writer can focus on showcasing their personality, creativity, and insights into the writing process. Here's a guide on creating such a blog:

1. Define Your Niche

What kind of writing do you do? (Fiction, poetry, technical writing, personal essays, etc.)

Are you targeting fellow writers, readers, or a specific industry (e.g., marketing, journalism)?

Make sure your niche aligns with your long-term goals and interests.

2. Develop a Unique Voice

Your tone should reflect your personality. Whether you're casual, humorous, or more formal, let your voice stand out.

Consistency in tone helps followers connect with you and understand what to expect.

3. Post Content Regularly

Create a schedule for your posts (daily, weekly, bi-weekly).

Mix content: writing tips, behind-the-scenes of your writing process, your personal journey, writing prompts, book or article recommendations.

Share snippets of your current projects or short pieces of your work.

4. Engage with Your Audience

Respond to comments and messages. Ask questions to encourage discussion.

Host writing challenges or prompts to get followers involved.

Create polls to ask what readers are interested in and tailor content to those topics.

5. Use Visuals

Break up text with engaging visuals: images, quotes, or graphics related to writing.

Share aesthetic photos of your workspace or writing routine.

Use creative writing prompts displayed as eye-catching images.

6. Promote Your Work

Share links to your published work (whether on other websites, books, or writing platforms).

Celebrate your milestones like finishing a novel or getting published.

Create a portfolio or showcase of all your work in one place for easy access.

7. Collaborate and Network

Guest post on other blogs or collaborate with fellow writers to reach new audiences.

Share posts from others in the writing community that resonate with you.

8. Leverage Multiple Platforms

Use different social media platforms (Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) to drive traffic to your blog.

Each platform requires its own strategy: Instagram for visuals, Twitter for short thoughts or updates, and LinkedIn for more professional writing content.

9. Monetize (If Desired)

Set up a donation system (like Ko-fi or Patreon) where followers can support your work.

Offer writing consultations, editing services, or workshops.

Consider affiliate marketing for writing tools or resources.

10. Track Your Progress

Use analytics to see which posts perform well and adapt to what your audience enjoys.

Keep experimenting with new content ideas to keep your blog fresh and exciting.

#digital marketing services #socia media marketing #mobile marketing #google ads

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stucky-fic-idea-bank · 1 year ago

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K so I had this idea for a fic, and I would love to actually write it but it's so far out of my wheelhouse that I'd do one (or more) of the following: push off writing it forever, spend ages researching, write it but never end up being happy with how it comes out.

But I would love love love to read it if someone else writes it!

So my idea is a modern AU, and both Steve and Bucky are on tiktok.

Steve (stevegrrr) is Skinny!Steve and disabled; he mostly adapts recipes for different dietary needs (often by request) but also sometimes reviews disability aids or shows how different things (baking, but also household, community, hobby, etc. things) could be adapted. He's in New York, baking from his college apartment, and has a successful Patreon where he posts unedited videos, outtakes, and videos of his roommates (Morita, Gabe) guessing which versions of his bakes are the original or the modified recipes and rating them.

Bucky (callmebucky) is broody Post-Azzano!Bucky; he bakes recipes from the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. He's in Indiana, maybe isn't super happy there.

Steve's and Bucky's followers keep saying they should do a collab, and eventually Steve reaches out and invites Bucky to come to New York for that.

Bucky likes NY and Steve, moves to NY.

They don't do any more collabs but Bucky is there off-camera sometimes when Steve is filming, and vice versa. And their followers start noticing clues, like someone thinks they hear Steve talking or laughing in the background of Bucky's video, or Steve wears a sweatshirt he stole from Bucky and someone remembers that Bucky once wore it in a video X weeks ago. Then all their followers become detectives, e.g. "It can't be the same day as the collab because the calendar is turned to the next month." or "Can't be the same because Steve's bruise is a different color." (if Steve is physical fighty and not just words fighty on the internet)

Eventually, Bucky and Steve announce that they are dating (maybe with another baking collab that's too cheesy for Bucky's liking but he'd do anything for Steve and Steve wants to do it, so).

And yeah, that's it.

The biggest reasons why I don't think I could do it justice is because I'm not on tiktok or any other video-based social media platforms so know little about them, and also because I think it would be best told in part via video transcripts and comments on the videos, and [see reason 1].

Thoughts?

^^^^

holy shit this sounds so good. And you’ve already fleshed like 90% of it out!! Fingers crossed someone picks this up because it sounds like a banger of a fic

#stucky #stucky fic idea #thanks for sending this in!!

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asksoldieron · 1 year ago

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SO-18: Memory Bomb!

If there's a lot of engagement on this, this post is liable to get real long, beware before you expand.

No art, but hopefully my eyes will improve enough to add some later!

Welcome to the Engagement Lounge, for Peanut Butter Bubblegum (SO-18) an instalment! Short comments can go in the replies, but there's a 475 character limit. Longer ones will need a reblog. Remember to @asksoldieron if you're reblogging someone else's reblog, so I can see it too!

There! They got him! Well, sorta. That's definitely not Erik but he's in there somewhere. They'll get him out! Eventually!

I had such a cool idea for a musical comic but I can't do it. You'll have to read and imagine David and Hyacinth having it out, while what he is now is slowly subsumed by what he once was... Or while an imposter who made a very bad decision becomes permanently trapped in a web of his own lies. Maybe both at once!

*sigh* I'm struggling, but I don't get real feedback from the eye doctor. It's like they don't think I can't handle any negativity, so everything is all smiles and "you're doing great!" while I'm dealing with shit they should've sat me down and told me about before I even had the damn surgery.

You see, I had the impression the surgery was the best option for not losing any of the improvement I spent all last year making myself sick to gain. Heh. Maybe it was, but I've still lost ground and I'll need to put in even more work to get it back. I have a different issue now: stamina. My eyes get tired of focusing on detail, near and far, and in certain situations they'll just stop. I'll be straining as hard as I can and I won't be able to tell you if that's a D, C, O or G. It won't shift in and out of focus like I might be able to get it eventually, it'll just be a static blur until I rest my eyes and come back to it. (Kinda think the doctor thought I was faking or playing it up, since I could read letters the first time she asked me to, and then I couldn't. But the tech just listened to me describe what was happening and said, "Oh, yeah. Your eyes are just tired. Take a break.")

I don't have much trouble reading - as long as it's black and white or close to that. Much like Erik, I can get it from context. I've always read the shape of the word, because my damn eyes never worked like they're supposed to. But art is not like that. Hell, even reading a comic is harder for me right now.

I'm getting my Xmas computer soon. It has a bigger screen than my tablet, and I should be able to draw on it. I might not get so tired so fast with a bigger screen, but I won't know until I try. I found a good enough refurbished deal that I can afford a pen display with an even bigger screen, if it comes to that, but I'll have to give myself some time to strengthen my eyes in any case.

I thought I was just going to heal from this - it would only be a matter of time until the wound closed and my corneas cleared up - I certainly got that impression at the start. But now they say I'm not going to get better without more work. I'm stuck doing pretty much the same exercises, only now they're hard in a different way. The dry-eye does seem to be improving, but there's no guarantee it will keep doing that. I have nearly a year to wait for the dryness and light tolerance to stabilize, those things are the slowest to heal. Well, they would be the slowest, if I didn't have this stupid vision dysfunction. I have no idea how long that's going to take to adapt.

Anyway, this is all too many words. I'm trying to explain why I won't be able to come back with more story after a two week break, even though I have the next six-pack almost ready to go. I can write. I can reorganize the site (and I need to do that, the theme and the global colours are just stupid, and all my pattern blocks are malfunctioning). I can open a new bank account and put together a Ko-Fi page (after Patreon gets rid of my data - they only have a couple more days to do that within their 30-day limit!!). I can't illustrate. Nobody's going to stop scrolling and look at this shit in their feed if there's no images, and I'm not resorting to stock photos or AI.

I want to get to the point where I can spam my followers with something I'm proud of that looks nice, and send them to a site that I'm also proud of and which looks nice. I want more readers, but I don't feel right asking for them when everything's falling apart, including me.

So, I'll be here, but there won't be more story for a while. At least give me until the 20th, that'll be three months out from the surgery and I should be fairly well healed by then. It's just that I have this stamina issue nobody warned me about and no timeline for that. Almost like it doesn't matter. Hey, you can see without glasses! 20/20! Like we promised! Does it really matter if it expires without warning? It works when you read off the chart the first time and that's all you need, right?

No. I told you people I was an artist. You don't seem to be reviewing my chart and god alone knows if you even wrote it down, but you did ask me and I told you. This is not enough.

We'll see what the next few weeks will do for me. I hope like hell I'll be back soon with another six - words AND pictures.

[Back to Site?]

#tin soldier and soldier on #instalment #engagement lounge #eyes #updates #vent #didn't mean to vent but i don't know how else to explain #“you're doing better than you think you are!” the doc says #“welcome to my growing list of doctors i tolerate but do not trust” i would say if i could #but i don't have another doctor locally who can treat this at all #“hey didn't they tell you those eye drops don't work?” “what? but those are really good drops” “OK but they DON'T WORK”#“well just keep doing what you've been doing!”#FOREVER i guess?

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jacquelinemerritt · 2 years ago

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Dragon Ball Z: Abridged Episode 20 Review

Originally posted on October 30th, 2015

Conflating anime with wrestling is, unsurprisingly, an amazing decision.

“Namekimania 2011” is my favorite episode of Dragonball Z: Abridged, and it is my favorite for very good reasons: the episode is packed to the brim with great jokes, Team Four Star experiments with their approach to adaptation in it, and it even manages to find time to focus on the heroism and honor that are the crux of the source material.

In fact, “Namekimania” is so good that I could just list off all the great lines from the episode and end the review here. But I’m not gonna do that, because that’s no fun (though the strays are loaded with quotes this week because I have no self-control).

Let’s start with the key joke/device of this episode. “Namekimania 2011” has Team Four Star making the bold decision to reframe a somewhat inconsequential fight between Vegeta and Recoome (played by Ganxingba delightfully mimicking the staged charisma of a professional wrestler) as a live televised pro wrestling match.

And it works wonderfully, because Team Four Star commits fully to this device, incorporating an audience track of cheering and booing, having Jeice and Burter serve as announcers/commentators, and giving us “recaps” of what we’ve missed on the few times they cut away to other characters.

The “anime fight as pro wrestling” device also works extraordinarily well because it captures the ridiculousness of both of the mediums. Fights in anime are generally ridiculous affairs, with characters breaking the laws of physics and rules of the established universe very frequently, coupled with over the top blood, screams, and emotions. Wrestling similarly is over the top, with heroes and villains appearing as ridiculous caricatures, as well as allowing the wrestlers to clearly and blatantly disregard the rules in order to get an audience response.

When combined, the ridiculousness from both mediums complement each other, with the unreasonable action and caricatured fighters blending seamlessly, and it’s especially fun to see how the live commentary of Jeice and Burter serves to enhance the thrill of the fight itself.

“Namekimania” also finds time to embrace the hyperemotionalism of anime (its other extreme) in two scenes. The first is Gohan’s speech, as he walks slowly towards Recoome, broken and battered, that he is the son of Son Goku, the one man who can kick Recoome’s ass, and the second is the scene where Goku steps out of the spaceship, which pairs an 80’s rock song with a series of slow clips showing him gradually exiting the spaceship. With that scene, we know something is coming, and some serious shit is about to go down.

Rating: 5/5

If you like this review, please consider supporting me on Patreon.

Stray Observations

Recoome’s introduction speech is the greatest thing ever, and I will fight you if you say otherwise.

Gohan: “Who are you talking to?” Burter: “The audience.” Jeice: “We’re doin’ commentary, mate.”

Recoome: “Because the name’s Recoome. And it rhymes with doom. And you’re gonna be hurtin’, ALL…TOO…SOON!”

Recoome: “Silly Vegeta. The only thing Recoome sells, is merchandise!”

Spokesperson: “Spacey’s. It’s good food. In spaaace.”

Krillin: “Hey, Gohan, look! He picked Vegeta, like a…” Gohan: “Like a Vegetable, yeah.”

Krillin Owned: And we’re up to 12 with a lovely Recoome Kick.

Krillin: “Seems he threw my nervous system out of whack there. Can’t quite feel the pain. There it is. Owwwwww.”

#dragon ball z abridged #dragon ball z #team four star #dbza #film criticism #dbza ep20 #Ep20 is a great episode for sure #though it may have been replaced at this point as my favorite #what with though?#spoilers sweetie #(god making a river sing reference in 2022 is cringe af and i love it)

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perfectperfectiondaze · 1 year ago

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Building Your YouTube Cash Cow Channel: A Step-by-Step Guide

YouTube has evolved from a platform for cat videos into a lucrative source of income for content creators worldwide. If you're looking to turn your passion into profit, building a YouTube Cash Cow Channel could be your path to success. In this step-by-step guide, we'll explore the key elements of creating and growing a channel that generates consistent revenue.

1. Find Your Niche

Before diving into content creation, identify a niche that aligns with your interests and expertise. Your niche should be specific enough to target a particular audience but broad enough to create a substantial following. Research competitors and trends to assess the niche's potential for growth and monetization.

2. Create High-Quality Content

Quality is paramount on YouTube. Invest in good equipment, such as cameras, microphones, and lighting, to ensure your videos are visually and audibly appealing. Develop a content strategy that provides value, educates, entertains, or solves problems for your target audience. Consistency is key; establish a posting schedule to keep your viewers engaged.

3. Optimize SEO for Visibility

To stand out on YouTube, optimize your videos for search engine visibility. Use relevant keywords in your video titles, descriptions, and tags. Craft compelling thumbnails that entice viewers to click. Engage with your audience through thoughtful comments and encourage them to like, share, and subscribe.

4. Monetize Your Channel

Once you've gained some traction, it's time to monetize your channel. YouTube offers several revenue streams:

a. Ad Revenue: Enroll in the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) to earn money through ads displayed on your videos. To qualify, your channel needs 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the past 12 months.

b. Channel Memberships: Offer exclusive perks to subscribers who join your channel as members. This can include access to behind-the-scenes content, custom emojis, and shout-outs.

c. Merchandise Shelf: Sell your merchandise directly through your channel using the merchandise shelf feature.

d. Sponsored Content: Partner with brands for sponsored videos or product placements. Ensure the products align with your niche and are relevant to your audience. The scribehow has more information about the cashcow.

5. Build a Loyal Community

Foster a sense of community by engaging with your audience. Respond to comments, ask for feedback, and take viewer suggestions into consideration. Hosting live streams or Q&A sessions can help strengthen your connection with your viewers.

6. Collaborate and Network

Collaborating with other YouTubers can expose your channel to new audiences. Look for creators within your niche or complementary niches and propose mutually beneficial collaborations. Attend industry events and connect with fellow content creators to expand your network.

7. Track Analytics and Refine Strategy

Regularly review your YouTube Analytics to gain insights into your audience's behavior. Understand which videos perform best, where your viewers are coming from, and their demographics. Use this data to refine your content strategy and improve your channel's performance.

8. Diversify Your Income

While ad revenue is a significant income source, don't rely solely on it. Explore additional revenue streams, such as affiliate marketing, merchandise sales, online courses, or Patreon memberships. Diversifying your income can provide stability and financial security.

9. Stay Informed and Adapt

YouTube is constantly evolving, with new features and trends emerging regularly. Stay informed about the platform's updates and adapt your strategy accordingly. Be open to trying new formats and approaches to keep your content fresh and engaging.

10. Stay Committed

Building a successful YouTube Cash Cow Channel takes time and dedication. It may be a while before you start seeing substantial income. Stay committed to your niche, consistently create high-quality content, and adapt to the ever-changing YouTube landscape. In conclusion, creating a YouTube Cash Cow Channel is a viable way to turn your passion into a profitable venture. By finding your niche, producing quality content, optimizing for SEO, and diversifying your income streams, you can build a thriving channel that provides a consistent source of revenue. Remember that success on YouTube requires patience, persistence, and a deep understanding of your audience's needs and preferences.

#youtube

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colorguardsweetheartblurrsgirl · 2 years ago

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Please tell me I'm not alone:

#writers on tumblr

Going what is intended to be a maybe 1 or 2 hour story ramble that had a set purpose. Start talking about situations, forgetting or being caught in the midn as you record or just ramble to think through the story. End up going past two hours as you describe only to yourself for notes intricate plot details, random facts on other characters, or more world building. Next you check another two hours goes but you are on such a streak you promise to go and get soemthingntoneat to your growling stomach soon as this thought finishes which is almost clearly done. But then over explaining the plot to no one but yourself more of what you know but want recorded down. Going I promise at this time to turn it off. Next you check it's an hour past that point of stop time you set fir yourself. But your finally wrapping it up! Just a little more, few more minutes you tell yourself. Only to check the clock realizing there is no stop and it's agin two yours since you made that comment this sesh keeps going what you were enar wrapping up only found a way to add m.j ro plotted scenes to your mind and dekwelling on what if scenarios for a story that hasn't yet been released.🤣😂

Literally describes me making recorded note from 8:40 PM-6:40 AM.🤣😂😅😭😢

I've got a headache now!!! It worries me that my recording program says only 3:47 (hrs/min) but it was continually recording. Makes me wonder if I missed and or wasted more talking and it will come out as jibberish.😢😭😅😂🤣

Heres the art work that kept me company during these long periods.

Note comic is not the actual comic, but another proof of concept to a later scene I wanted to play around with for some time now, and I'm near writting the chapter out for, fully. I've written certain scenes for it throughout to keep plot details consistent of what has to happen. Before I have written it. Although most of the outline has been written story elements ahve changed from my initial outline. Just was jotting down on paper before I tried anything with it digitally.

This is mostly a mess & not in anyway my best drawing (looking to the weird outstretched hand. That was just a random quick drawing without reference jsut trying tonmoce through the drawing quick. But leaving enough deletsik for me to hbderstandbthebintetion should I go with the same story movement here when implementing the chapter. This was me just trying out a few things I wanted to see out on paper to make sure what I was seeing in my head would translate well in a comic. Not all are detailed slides but with enough detail to what I for myself am going for and wanting at said times to understand with a quick glance.

E.g the quickly drawn hand is so not the best drawn hand just a quick render to know what I wanted. Or for reference I had one short box presenting a dark area of thhe short dialogues pacing between frames. This I later returned and drew the figures standing instead over the current dialogue given instead the same impression the short dialogue gave using perspective to shape this and drawing over dialogue that may be unnecessary. But instead make it in between two more prominent frames a similarly long one added pulled back image of the scene. Allowing for more emotion to be felt through the black space surrounding the characters.

Similarly in my first proof of concept I hinted to a while bsck in a previous update shwoing some images from it. Where elements have since been added like this change and added slides as it is like yg to make it into the story, but the concept remained to ensure the way I was intending things would work to be added. But it in itself may be as is or in an adapted way make it in the comic or stay outside it maybe to be posted as a side story alongside a rest period or just something I show later patreons, etc . This is just a frame of reference to use as I get further along and a way for me to ensure directions I'm headed would work in the way I intend.

The below is related to S.T.R.Y.

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megafreeman · 1 year ago

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This post is fucking hilarious because these are insanely misleading and completely ignore user feedback in order to construct a gotcha.

So let's break it all down then!

Its a standard feature of a blogging platform. Tumblr DID not invent blogging.

Again, standard feature of a blogging platform. Would you prefer if we started saying you are copying Google's "Blogger" instead of Twitter?

3rd standard blogging feature. Any more standard feature expected from a blogging platform you wanna name?

The only premium upgrade Tumblr has is a paid ad-blocker. The announcement post for it is dated Feb 24, 2022, meanwhile the announcement post for Twitter Blue is dated Jun 3, 2021. That's 265 days before Tumblr introduced it. (In other words, this statement is a lie)

You both copied tabs from TikTok. You do not get credit for this. Its one of the most complained things yall introduced because it was a blatant attempt to be TikTok.

What was first on WordPress does not count since the topic here is Tumblr. Polls were on Twitter long before Automattic owned Tumblr, and the feature here on Tumblr isn't even a year old. I remember this very vividly because in August 2022, we had to host a Tumblr Sexyman poll on Twitter because this site didn't have a feature.

You copied this from Patreon.

This is the only thing Tumblr excels at. The search function is probably the best one remaining on the internet even with its flaws.

This point is completely redundant. The threat is supposedly about features Twitter copied off Tumblr. None of these features are on Twitter and serves no purpose being on this list. However, its extremely bad that yall are using custom themes and domains as a way to flex, when your new redesign is actively trying its hardest to phase out the personal site side of Tumblr, to the point where you can no longer even access custom pages feature from mobile (or even desktop, if you aren't fluent in Tumblr and know all the extra buttons you gotta click to open it because the site prioritizes the tumblr.com/username pages over username.tumblr.com, and there's no way to opt out of the former).

And the 4th standard blogging feature. God, remember when we could edit other people's responses? Or completely remove unnecessary comments like the parts of a reblog chain? (or speaking of that specifically, how yall removed the feature to go back in the reblog chain and reblog versions of the post without that comment)

Nice attempt tho! You missed a few other thinks Twitter also copied from you.

Banning people for posting about social justice (Here's Elon Musk doing it)

Banning people for criticizing the staff and decision making (Here's Elon Musk doing it)

Transphobia within staff (Here's Elon saying he bought Twitter because he hates trans people on it)

I don't even hate that yall are trying out new things, trial and error and all that. Whatever keeps the site functional in a long run. But this being a response to criticism just isn't it. Its not a competition of who did it first, its about who has a better functional site. The only thing yall are competing in with this attitude is whose site will get shut down first. Every lil bit of feedback is valueable, even the crazy loud ones, because all of them draw their opinions from their love for this site.

And the new layout just ain't it. A lot of people make amazing points about why, and they're all right. It's something that makes Twitter feel bad and bloated, and now it also makes Tumblr feel bloated too. Probably a bad idea to do a massive redesign before hiring designers though. I'd recommend listening to the massive amounts of feedback, find a proper designer (please no ex-Twitter or ex-Meta staff), stop pretending Twitter is copying you because you copied it off TikTok first, and stop copying bad features from sites and instead embrace the things that make Tumblr stand out. I promise you, TikTok users will never adapt to Tumblr because they're on TikTok for short video format, not blogging format and gifsets.

Twitter is Copying Us, not vice versa

I keep getting asks saying "stop copying Twitter." We're not! If anything it's going the other way with them copying us.

Long posts, which were on Tumblr first.

Mixing text and rich media, which Tumblr did first.

If we go way back, supporting images and embedding media in the first place, which Twitter didn't used to do. (Remember twimg and Photobucket?)

A premium upgrade, which we did on Tumblr first.

They copied our tabs.

Polls, which were on WP.com/Jetpack first.

Subscriptions to individual creators, which we did first with Post+.

Tags existed on Tumblr first.

We have Asks! And custom domains! And custom themes!

We supported editing first, you couldn't do that on Twitter until relatively recently.

Now obviously they have 20x the monthly users we do, so have executed better in a number of ways:

Their native ads provide much more targeting.

Per-post metrics.

Lists and communities.

Direct Messaging. (Though theirs is still not great.)

Much more robust and real-time search.

They did livestreaming first.

Their apps and web QA seem more stable. I've never experienced an app crash there.

It's easier to navigate RTs and comment/reply to them than reblogs.

What did I miss?

#long post #misc

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nx08h63bitchyobservationnerd · 1 month ago

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coconutsplit · 5 months ago

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Leveraging Open Educational Resources (OER) and the continuous output from creators on social media can be a powerful strategy for individuals entering the creative field. Here’s a structured approach to utilizing these resources effectively:

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Definition: OER are freely accessible, openly licensed materials useful for teaching, learning, and research.

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Structured Plan: Develop a structured learning plan combining OER courses and social media content.

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janetrayo · 6 months ago

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ankitkrsingh-blog · 7 months ago

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Unlocking the Potential: How Social Media Marketing Can Help You Earn Money

In today's digital age, social media has become a powerful tool for individuals and businesses alike. It's not just about sharing photos or staying connected with friends; social media can also be a lucrative source of income. This blog will delve into the world of social media marketing and explore various ways you can earn money through these platforms.

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