#ps if you don't know some of these but do others then CHECK 'EM OUT!

[eschergirls]

Dec. 2024 Update & Patreon Thank You!

Hi everyone!  November is over, so it's time for our monthly Escher Girls site update and to thank all our wonderful Patreon subscribers & others who have supported us!

No major updates this month, I've been dealing with a health thing, so major site changes were paused a little, but as a reminder, I have improved the submission page for those who don't want to submit or Tumblr or don't want to link their Tumblr to their submission. As a reminder, if you don't click that it is okay for me to reply to your email address, you won't get a reply if there's something wrong with your submission or I otherwise don't post it for not fitting criteria reasons/not being able to find a source.

As usual, I've spent a lot of time this month fixing up old broken posts, cleaning them up to fix formatting errors, adding sources to them, and adding screenreader descriptions to all the images. I've also fixed up the Tumblr versions of those posts, and linked them to and from the EscherGirls.com posts.

Some of the highlights that of what I've fixed up this month that people might want to check out are:

The cover of Spider-Woman pregnant and also in a Tetris/centaur pose from Spider-Woman vol. 6 #1

This screenshot from a knock-off "Barbie" dress-up doll game with an equally horrifying pregnant "Barbie" (and a creepy Ken)

Yet Another Unfortunate Avengelyne Cover from Avengelyne vol. 4 #3

A white-washed Tiger Lily in a painful boobs and butt pose from Grimm Fairy Tales: Neverland - Hook #3

Two Tetris girls washing a car from Grimm Fairy Tales: The Dreameater Saga part 1

Yet More Psylocke from Marvel Age #104

Boobs and butt Alice from Alice in the Country of Diamond

And two pictures from Dragon's Crown of the Sorceress and the Amazon

All the posts should be cross-linked between the Tumblr and the main site if you want to check out what the comments on the other site were, etc...

And now I want to give a big thank you to Escher Girls' Patreon subscribers for November! I really appreciate the support, especially during these times that are rough for everybody. Your support helps me pay for web-hosting, keeping the domain name, and for site upgrades and updates, as well as just helping me keep the site going in general. It also allows me to keep Escher Girls up even if something happens to Tumblr or their policies change again, so I really appreciate it. <3

So without further delay, thank you SO much to:

Anne Adler Cat Mara Chris McKenzie Em Bardon First Time Trek Greg Sepelak Karrius Ken Trosaurus Kevin Carson Kim Wincen Leak  Manuel Dalton Mary Kuhner Max Schwarz Miriam Pody Morgan McEvoy randomisedmongoose Rebecca Breu Ringoko  Ryan Gerber Sam Mikes Sean Sea SpecialRandomCast  Thomas 

And a very very special thank you to JohnnyBob8 again for buying me another coffee on Ko-Fi!!!

And also a big thank you to everybody who reads and interacts with the blog in general! Your comments, feedback and interactions like with the caption contest are really a highlight of my day every day, especially this month when I've been having a rough time irl. You're the reason this site is still going :3

Thank you and I hope everybody has a great holiday season,

Ami

PS: As a reminder, we added a button that links to the Escher Girls Tumblr and to our RSS feed for those who want to follow that way. (For newbies, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is basically a feed you can read using an RSS reader. Simply copy and paste https://eschergirls.com/rss.xml into an RSS reader and it will keep you up to date on Escher Girls!)

Make sure it is eschergirls.com and not eschergirls.tumblr.com, as that is Tumblr, and not the self-hosted site.

If you have any issues with the site or suggestions to improve it, please do not hesitate to contact me and let me know!

If you wish to support Escher Girls, you can subscribe to our Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/ami_angelwings or donate through Ko-Fi at: https://ko-fi.com/amiangelwings.

[sportsbianism]

Hi I was wondering if u have advice for dating profiles?? The concept of dating apps make me nauseous but I might boarder on desperate in the next couple of months for connection/a girl. It would be cool if I could make a friend especially if she’s a lesbian and then can introduce me to all her lez friends otherwise I might be interested in a hook up ?? As a regular thing. I would say a relationship but atm I can’t commit to that. For context I’m 20. I just have no idea what to put in a bio I know it’s not true but I fear that I am terribly boring and will come across as such. sorry if this is a strange ask 😅

ya my #1 piece of advice is that you should use the written bio to be funny. too many ppl are way too earnest and detailed in their bio. no one is getting to know you until you see them in person or at least really start talking. the bio is just the hook. the best way to hook a stranger into being interested in you is by being funny. if u get some interesting or flattering personal info in there while you're at it, great. for tinder, try for relatively short and sweet. for hinge, answer the prompts funny style, not literally. 90% of ppl on there are answering the same boring questions w the inane details of their personal lives and i promise u it's not helping them make friends or get laid.

it doesn't have to be the most hysterical thing ever written, just hopefully enjoyable to read and sets a good mood for the convo you will hopefully be having.

i used to have mine (tinder) set up as two truths and a lie. now it's set up like reviews. other times ive had it set up as literally just one sentence. honestly u can even check out the bios you find the most charming and emulate them.

in terms of pictures, don't put ones with a lot of filter, it's tacky and low class and makes a person seem like they have low self esteem. harsh but i gotta keep it real.

it's good to have a mix of flattering selfies and pictures of you with other people or doing something interesting. i often throw a meme in there near the back. and even if u think pictures where you are not smiling are the best looking!!!!!! you are wrong. u need to put mostly ones where you're happy. other ppl think you're cuter that way, i promise.

real talk, at the end of the day, most women are a little lazy and a little bit chicken when it comes to dating and getting out there. which is cute and it's ok it's just life. so i also wanna give u some tips for starting the convo.

if u can, u wanna find an interesting detail in her bio and say something funny or ask a question about it. try to get off the app and pick up her number or set up a date fairly quickly. u can do this at the end of a convo by saying something like "hey i gotta hit the hay/i gotta head out, but i absolutely want to stay in touch. could i get your number/are you free this weekend?"

unforch it is a numbers game and most of the time things just don't pan out, but that's ok! it's all just fun and games. Godspeed!

PS also wrt the bio, it's ok to leave a lot of shit blank. leave em wanting more.

[invisibleraven]

2024 Reading List

So as some of you may know, I am a big reader. I love books, and strive to read as many as I can in a year. I usually hit around the 40 mark, and this year I managed to get to 55. Below is my list of books with a short review.

This year I also challenged myself to read more classics, and a good deal of those are free from the Kindle store, so I managed to get loads to keep me in books for awhile. I also took advantage of Spotify having audiobooks now, so I devoured a good few on there as a result. I do prefer a physical book over either of these options, but they were way more affordable and accessible which was a plus for me.

PS: If you ever wanna be friends on GoodReads, DM me!

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin: I really enjoyed this one, even if I wanted to smack the characters upside the head more than once, and I think the major conflict of the book actually could have been solved by some polyamory. Melancholy in places, but so worth it. 4.5 stars

The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu: A Hamlet retelling set inside a lab, where Horatio is an AI, and his relationship with the Hamlet character gets weird. Interesting premise, okay execution. 3 stars.

School Age Care In Canada by Kevin Bisback: I had to read this for school, it was a boring textbook, as most textbooks are. No rating.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman: Man, this one was weird. I'm honestly not the biggest fan of Gaiman's writing and just found this one a little confusing and off-putting. 2.5 stars.

Check Please! Book 1: #Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu: One of my favourite webcomics in book form. If you've read it, you know. If you haven't, it's still up on Tumblr and being uploaded to Webtoons right now, so go give it a look. 4.5 stars.

Check Please! Book 2: Sticks & Scones by Ngozi Ukazu: See above, 4.5 stars.

Heartstopper Volume 5 by Alice Oseman: One of my other favourite webcomics in book form. It's great, go read it again before the next (and last) chapter finishes, or check out the really well done Netflix show. 5 stars

The Shakespeare Oracle Kit: Let the Bard Predict Your Future by A. Bronwyn Llewellyn: So a few years ago my sister gifted me a Shakespeare themed tarot deck. This is the book that goes along with it, explaining the meanings of the cards and the characters assigned to them. A little dry tbh. 3 stars.

A Match for the Marquess by Alexis Pryce: So this is a CaptainSwan fanfic with the serial numbers filed off, written as a WW1 era romance novel. It's enjoyable either way, though after reading the fic, you have a harder time reading it as it's own thing, and some of the conversion could have been better handled. 3 stars.

Egyptian Gods: Discover the Ancient Gods of Egyptian Mythology by Stephen Weaver: Basically an information dump on who the major gods of Egypt were. I found it pretty dry and not very engaging, which is a shame, because I think it's an interesting subject matter. 2.5 stars

My Antonia by Willa Cather: I am finding this book really unmemorable, which is a shame, because I think I enjoyed it while I was reading it. I don't think I was overly fond of either of the main characters though. I think Willa's writing is just not for me. 3 stars.

Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales by The Brothers Grimm: This book was a slog. It was over 600 pages, and I found a lot of the tales I wasn't familiar with repetitive, preachy, and filled with a lot of historical attitudes that today would be considered very Anti-Semitic and extremely racist. 2.5 stars.

The Rose Gate by Hanna Sandvig: A Beauty and the Beast retelling set in modern times with some world jumping and fairies. I usually love fairy tale retellings, but I wasn't wowed by this one, and I wasn't a big fan of the secondary characters. 3 stars.

Stone Heart by Katee Robert: A novella set in an overarching series about Greek gods set in a modern setting. This one is a story about Medusa and Calypso, where Medusa is a contract killer, and Calypso is her mark. I was really hoping to like this, as I want to check out the rest of the series but I left fairly disappointed. We'll see if I come back. 1.5 stars.

Snow so White by C. Gockel: A Snow White retelling, where the handsome prince is Jack Frost, and along with the evil queen, there are also vampires, and magic. A muddled mess of a book, with a cringey romance, and a very confusing subplot with the sister of Jack that I still don't fully get. 1.5 stars.

Animal Farm by George Orwell: I'd say most of you had to read it for school at some point, so you know the story. If not, it's an allegory of the fall of the Russian empire and the rise of communism there. I hadn't read it in probably 20 years, so it was a nice refresher on a story that I remember enjoying, but not loving. 3 stars.

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen: This was my first time reading this, and I was just kind of meh about it. I love the story, but I think I'd rather watch it as performed by Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant than read it again. 3 stars.

Caging Ella by Andie M. Long: A Cinderella retelling, with vampires! And oh boy does it suck! I had to force myself to finish it, the writing and story is so bad. Definite avoid if you like either genre. 0.5 stars

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: I set myself a challenge this year to read more classics and this was one of them. But I found myself disliking the characters, finding the prose overlong and boring, and the story itself not as engaging as I had hoped. A disappointment. 2.5 stars.

Across Dark Seas by Clare Sager: A prequel novella to a pirate series. I really liked this book-I found the setting and characters interesting, the writing well done, and I definitely want to check the series out in future. If you like a swashbuckling heroine, check it out, you can find this one free from the Kindle app! 4 stars.

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon: Woof, this book was long, and at times it was hard to keep all the different stories straight as there are multiple different POVs. However I really enjoyed the story, and definitely want to check out the prequel novel and anything else set in this universe. 4 stars.

Making It So by Patrick Stewart: Listened to the audiobook, but still counting it. Honestly this was a very interesting listen, as Sir Patrick has lived a long and interesting life. However, some of his stories made me lose a little respect for him as a person, so go into it with that warning. 3.5 stars.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath: To be honest I found this book kind of boring? Like I wasn't really engaged with it, or the characters, and have mostly forgotten it, which speaks volumes. 2.5 stars.

Mick & Moira & Brad by Gerald Everett Jones: Another romantic story where polyamory could have solved a lot, and I went into it expecting some polyam leanings, but nope! Stupid love triangle. However the characters are all so unlikable with so little chemistry I don't know if a threesome or more would have helped. 1.5 stars.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens: I am gonna confess, I am not a Dickens fan. I enjoy A Christmas Carol, but everything else by him I have read I have ending up not liking and this is no exception. Despicable characters, boring plot. 2 stars.

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry: Another audiobook, and god, that was a mistake. I found it so morbid listening to Matty talk about how he should be dead now that he is, and the slur to his speech made it hard to listen to. This book just made me so sad for the man that was and could have been. In need of major edits, and hard to follow in places. Go in knowing you will feel sad reading it now that he's no longer with us. 3 stars.

Ink and Incantation edited by E.V. Everest: An anthology of YA short stories surrounding books and/or libraries. I found some of the stories really engaging, though none enough that I wanted to read the worlds they were set in, as they focused on minor characters. I did skip one or two that the writing was just really poor. 3 stars.

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw: I enjoy My Fair Lady (aside from the end) so I wanted to read the roots of it. The musical definitely adds some much needed character beats, and makes everyone way more likable. The only point I will give this in its favour is having a better ending than MFL. 2.5 stars.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: There is no one great in this story. The characters are unlikable, the plot meandering, and overall, it wasn't for me. 1.5 stars.

Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell: I wanted to like this book, Rainbow is probably my favourite author. But god I couldn't fucking stand Shiloh, I found the smut to be very poorly written, and the timeline being all over the place very hard to follow. I am so disappointed by this book, a major miss. 2.5 stars.

Infants, Toddlers, and Caregivers by Janet Gonzalez Mena & Dianne Widmeyer Eyer: Another textbook I had to read for a course I'm doing for work. No rating.

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson: I think I prefer the Muppet version. Or the Treasure Planet version. But if you take a drink every time Silver says "By thunder" then you will be very drunk very fast, so maybe that will improve the dry writing. 2.5 stars.

The Tempest by William Shakespeare: A play by the Bard that I had yet to tackle. Wasn't great, wasn't terrible, would probably enjoy seeing it performed more than just reading it. 3 stars.

Psyche and Eros by Luna McNamara: A retelling of the classic Greek Myth, set amongst the Trojan war. Really well done, though I feel some Classics majors will not like the liberties taken with the story. Overall a good romance though. 4 stars.

The Love of My Afterlife by Kirsty Greenwood: The first half has a lot of second hand embarrassment, but if you can get through it you will get an enjoyable enemies to lovers romance in the end. 3 stars.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future by Michael J. Fox: Enjoyed as an audiobook. Written as something you would give to a recent graduate, full of some advice, some stories, and some reflections on life. 3 stars.

The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels: One of those books I read to say I did, the ideas are interesting, execution a little dry. 2 stars.

Make Me a Mixtape by Jennifer Whiteford: Honestly got this thinking it would be a good idea for a JatP Au (and it would) but found a delightful romance (even though I do hate the miscommunication trope) and a solid read. 4 stars.

Neon Gods by Katee Roberts: I am always here for a Hades & Persephone retelling, but this one was them in name only with a lot of kinky sex and a mafia undertone I could have done without. Doubt I'm coming back for more of this series. 3 stars.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky: Confession time: This is my favourite book of all time and I re-read it every year or so-well over 20 times by now. I still love it just as much as I did when I first read it over 20 years ago. 5 stars.

Dust by Alison Stine: A truly great coming of age novel with some climate change thrown in. I really like how the dialogue reflected the main character's deafness as well-really well done. 4.5 stars.

The Answer Is...: Reflections On My Life by Alex Trebek: Written as a series of vignettes rather than a true autobiography, and like it was written like it should be instead of the want to do so. Plus Ken Jennings is a truly boring narrator. 3 stars.

On Silver Wings by Sydney Winward: A very short little novella featuring enemies to lovers, mythical creatures, and a whole lot of snow. Could do without the instalove out of nowhere, but cute for what it was. 3 stars.

The Sun Also Rises by Earnest Hemingway: I felt like I got plopped into the middle of the story with no real explanation over who the characters were or why I should care about them. All I know is they like to drink, they are all pretty anti-Semitic, and in love with the woman who had no personality other than sleeping around. 2.5 stars.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller: Fuck Achilles. No seriously, I have no idea what Patroclus saw in him other than his good looks and massive ego. I enjoyed the story, but I found the romance kind of wanting, and thus the tragedy didn't hit me as hard. 3.5 stars.

Fangirl, Vol 4: The Manga by Rainbow Rowell & Gabi Nam: Fangirl is probably my second favourite book of all time, and I have really enjoyed the manga adaptation. Kinda sad it's over, and it's making me want to re-read the novel again. 5 stars.

Talking To Canadians: A Memoir by Rick Mercer: I have always loved Rick Mercer, so getting to read his memoir was a treat, but this was actually a re-read and I did the audiobook version this time, which brought it to life a little more. 4 stars.

Lore Olympus: Volumes 5-7 by Rachel Smythe: Lumping these three together, but if you like the Hades/Persephone myth, this webcomic is probably the best retelling of it there is. Definite recommend. 4.5 stars.

The Road Years: A Memoir, Continued by Rick Mercer: The reason I re-read the first was so I could finally get to this one. A continuation of Rick's life, though I felt the non-chronological order of the book turned me off a little, and it felt a lot lighter than the first book. Still a great read, but go in expecting less. 4 stars.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens: I re-read this one pretty much every year at Christmas, and this year was no different. Though this year I did do the audio book as read by Sir Patrick Stewart as Dickens December is behind an app and I couldn't be bothered to dig out my copy. 4 stars.

Hamlet by William Shakespeare: My favourite play by the Bard (Midsummer's Nights Dream is very close second) and I have read it about 7 or 8 times now. Always enjoyable, even if you wanna shake Hamlet most of the time. 5 stars.

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde: Ah miscommunication and mistaken identities at it's finest. It was stupid and silly, and I honestly enjoyed it more than I thought I would. 3 stars.

The Princess Thieves by Alexander Shaw: I listened to the audio drama, which I think is the superior way to enjoy this story. But if you are looking for a fantasy adventure story set in an alternate England, I highly suggest you check this one out. 4.5 stars.

[ofonespieceofmind]

Are We Being the Real Us?

"How to know whether we are being ourselves or not?"

If I could separate the inner self of my body and communicate with it, I probably ask the same question. And, I think it might take a long time to finally come up with an answer. To begin with, I would say that no humans know us better than ourselves. In some ways, we are the one who knows what we really want or in other words, how we would like to appear in this world. The expectation, the imagination of ourselves walking on the earth and even what kind of clothes we would like to wear every day.

Everyone is different in terms of everything. Well, maybe there's a bit of similarity between your preferences and my preferences but the differences are much bigger than the general preferences we are talking about. As in, we both might love spicy foods but maybe I hate to see chillies on my plate, but you love seeing chillies in your meal. That's the difference. Hence, to connect the dots to W's question above…

My little cents would be that if we are being ourselves, it means we are ready to;

“Check back our bucket lists, have we made it or not. If we haven’t, then why? What’s stopping us? Get the answers and rewrite our plans to achieve our goals.”

All the goals we set in our lives could be one of the indicators that can show us if we are being the real us or not. Why? It’s because we all have different goals in life. And, I'm repeating it, we are all different. People around us don't know our goals in life so how would they know if we're being ourselves or not. "What are my goals in this life?" This is a hard question that we need to ask ourselves. Flip back our diaries, go through our bucket lists again and see what we once set in our mind on how we would like to live our lives to the fullest. However, here I also would like to remind you that it doesn’t necessarily mean that we are a complete failure or totally not ourselves if some of the goals missed the targets. For example, I wished to become a doctor before, but now I'm on my way to becoming a teacher. That, that doesn't mean I'm not being myself (facepalm). This type of goal is likely depending on God's will. We planned, but God's plans are the best for us. We must believe that.

The goals I mentioned above are more on how we imagine ourselves one day and if in the present day, we are not like what we imagined, then we should reflect on what's stopping us from being one. Like before, I always imagine myself as a person who is calm and can manage my anger in a good way, but now I'm all the way too grumpy, too cranky, and too annoying. If it went like this then, I should ask myself what's stopping me from achieving that one goal of mine. As I dug further, I found myself trapped in dissatisfaction and unfair judgments that were made on myself, it turned me into a person I never wanted to be. And, that could be a slap on my face as I realized, I have turned into a monster that is not myself. But then again, should I just let go of the goal I set and continue being the grumpy one? Nope! For that! We will call it a negative change. And negative things should be flicked away from our souls. Hence, I should rewrite my plans in order to achieve the goals that I once set which is to become a calm person. Maybe, the plans could be like ‘I should tape my mouth when I want to vent out my anger. Or maybe I should walk away and do something I love to just let it slide.’ These might get you like “Em hello Nadia, will those work? Won’t it be worse? Suppressing anger could turn fatal.” But, Nah, it’s okay. I know myself as someone who is easily annoyed with someone who does things that are against my logic or things that happen really in weird ways to me. So, maybe by practicing those I could teach myself to be calmer in some situations that I could not control. This is literally like I smacked my head and said, “Not everything goes in your favor, you freak!” (◡‿◡)

Ps, we are all different, and you know who you are so of course, you have better plans for yourself. ^^

“Reflect our life goals and question ourselves, are these goals really me? Are these goals really good for me? Or is it just some delulus expectations?”

Sometimes when we set our goals, we tend to think highly of what the future holds. Well, we should believe in ourselves as Norman Vincent Peale, the author of The Power of Positive Thinking, once said, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.” I always heard people quoting this. And, by chance, I happened to know the name of the person who said these meaningful words when I was searching for it. Anyway, I agree with what he said. We shall aim high and believe in ourselves. However, we all know that we all have our unique capabilities in something. Everyone is not a genius who knows everything right in his mind. Some people know what you don’t and it’s vice versa. There’s nothing wrong with setting big goals but being realistic is another thing we should keep in mind. Some people give up on their dreams because they are too focused on the big dreams that they set till they forget the capability and the power that they actually hold on the other things that they are good at.

Nevertheless, I was once in that situation too. I have so many dreams and goals that I want to achieve ever since I was in primary school. I want to explore a lot of fields, be it medical, psychology, engineering, software, and many more. But, hahaha. I woke myself up and told myself that, it’s never wrong to dream but I should know where my real capability lies on. So, here, am encouraging you guys to set your goals and ask yourself if the goals are good for you. Or is it just some expectations? I would like to highlight this part as nowadays we tend to get influenced by a lot of things, especially from social media. When we scroll our timeline and we see people that have something we don’t have, we tend to mark our goals to be like them. And, the mistake we make is when we expect ourselves to be like them and from here the insecurities hit us! As I previously mentioned, there’s nothing wrong with setting your goals high but just remember your capability. It’s not like I’m saying no need to dream, you never gonna be like them. But here what I want to state is that, don’t push yourself too hard because only you, yourself know how you work things out. The goals are not only on materials and how you imagine yourself living in a big mansion in the future. However, it also involves your goals on how you want to appear on Earth. In a simpler way, you might look great when you use this product but maybe it could irritate my skin when I use it. Not everything is for everyone. And, expectations do kill because some things are not within our reach. :)

“Open up, be honest to yourself.”

Allow yourself to stop and ponder what is best for you. If you think it’s not, then it’s okay to change.

We all know if we do something against the borders. Like when we are in a country, we must follow the rules and laws. The same goes for Islam, we have the Syaria’ that we are obliged to follow. The guidelines that I believe all religions have lined out to the believers. The dos and the don’ts. Hence, don’t lie to yourself. Listen to your inner voice. Pay attention to the intuitions you have in your gut. We all know what’s right and wrong. If we are wrong, then how about we change the route on our ‘GPS’ so that we can achieve our life goals but on a better and safer path. For example, we would like to go to our dream palace, and it has many routes to reach there. One route filled with joy and fun, so we chose that. As we walked, we sensed that the route was filled with thorns and it was hurting us. You realize it might risk our safety, but we lie to ourselves saying “It’s okay. The thorns are nothing compared to the joys along the route.” And as we continued, we realized that our bodies bleed more than we thought, and it makes us weaker. Try to imagine if we stop when we start to sense something is wrong with the route we took and make a calculation again. We can avoid the thorns by choosing other safer routes to reach the palace. The route might fill with boredom and no fun but remember, the real joys wait for us later when we reach the palace. So, never lie to yourself. Be true. Trust your intuitions and hunch. We all make mistakes but the moment we realize our mistakes, embrace them, and come up with different ways to not repeat the same mistakes.

“Accept and stop dwelling in the past.”

This is a hard nut to crack. Accepting what we have done and experienced in the past is indeed never an easy thing to do in life. Sometimes we make a wrong choice and regret it, or we happen to experience some ugly incidents that haunt us like ghosts in our nightmares. However, one thing we should know is that when we dwell in the past, we are like pushing ourselves into the deep sea with a metal ball chained to our feet. It made it harder to swim back to the land as the heavy metal ball pulled us deep down the sea. Close your eyes and imagine, what would you do if you were in that situation for real? Imagine the heavy metal ball chained to your feet as the past you chained to your mind. In order to save your lives, are you going to let the metal ball chained to your feet? Or are you going to muster all the courage and try to unchain the metal ball off your feet though little struggles are required to do so? Which one would you choose? If you chose the former one, man, I’m telling you. You are insane (facepalm). But if you chose the latter, then I would praise you for your courage. What’s worth more than a try, right? To be honest, I also have a problem with letting go of my past, and that makes me insecure about everything in my life. So, what I mentioned above is for myself too. Maybe with some little courage, we can finally be free from our past. Let’s start putting a stop to all the miseries, shall we? ^^

“Embrace your differences and flaws.”

We all need to keep this one in the back of our minds. We all have our beauties and flaws in some ways. Maybe I have flaws in something that you excel at. So, again, we are all different. By the time, we accept our flaws, that means we are closer to being our real selves. As no one is perfect in this world and even if you think someone is perfect, maybe that’s from your perspective. And, by the time you start to compare yourself with others, that’s when you start to hate yourself. You start to hate yourself because of the flaws you have. That’s why, the world needs to normalize not to idolize something too much till it can lead us to question ourselves, “Why do I have flaws? Ugh.” The major standard is taken as if it is the big picture we must be. No biggie but I do believe that there’s nothing wrong with idolizing something if that could be a fire to ignite your spirit but it becomes all over the mess when you expect yourself to be exactly like them and when you start to downgrade yourself. That’s a no-no, okay.

“Shut your ears to negativity and insecurities thoughts.”

Have you ever heard your mind telling you that you are not good enough? Or maybe, it told you that you are totally below the standard. If we would like to know whether we are being ourselves or not, this could be other indicators too. The moment we can find a way to shut our ears to block those negativity and insecurities thoughts, that’s when we are being ourselves. Why? Because that means we are accepting ourselves the way we are.

“They hate me, but don’t worry, I love me!”

Keeping the best for the last one. Love yourself. You could put this as the top priority if you’re being asked what’s the reason behind all your efforts to get yourself back on track. When we love ourselves (in positive ways), it means, we truly love ourselves for being who we are. We accept the flaws we have, we accept our capabilities, and we accept our existence. It’s like when you love something, people might wonder why you love that but who cares, as long as you love it and that’s more than enough. In other perspectives. Initially, we all have the original state of ourselves. In deeper meaning, we all have our characters and personalities to begin our lives with. And, due to some other factors, we are influenced by some changes. Originally, we were strong and confident with being us, but, then insecurities hit. And, bam! Where have the strength and confidence gone? :(

Originally, we are calm but then the past haunts us, and we become a person with too many grudges kept underneath our breath. We began to question ourselves about everything that we do, and everything that we have. And when that happens people, we are likely to be said as, doubting. Doubting ourselves. We doubt our life choices, appearances, et cetera.

If we would like to be the real us then we should accept our life nature, our past, and our existence. We are all human beings; we are not superheroes who can change into other versions only by wearing costumes. To gather the courage and finally embrace the scars we have in our lives is not easy. The real key is never to give up on yourself. Never give up loving yourself. Give yourself time to deeply take a breath and exhale all the hurting miseries. One day, you surely can face the world with confidence and a smile.

With love, nadia.

28.07.20 | 2334 hrs

[butterfluffy]

“bitter end”

⠀⠀ੈ♡˳· tired of all the fights in this unhappy marriage of yours with your husband, you finally had enough, now having the courage to take your wedding ring off, putting a bitter end to your relationship.

⠀⠀➧ angst, pure angst | kid, law, zoro x f!wife!reader | multi-character oneshot/scenario

⠀⠀➧ warnings — swearing, arguing, slight violence, break-up (separation/divorce, really) and angstttt...! mistakes may be present too.. so do ignore them, thanks!

⠀⠀➧ requests are closed until further notice! but i do take requests here and there, though it'll take me some time to finish 'em..!

⠀⠀꒰ 🍨 ꒱ notes: mhhhmmm, good smell, angst. 🥰 i originally wanted this to be hcs but nah, this is much more painful~ alt title; taking your ring off after a fight.

ps. i can, and i will make a part 2, one day, but not today, hehehehehe. 👻

like this? then check this out for more pain~! :)

EUSTASS KID

“yo, i'm home..” eustass kid, your husband announced, arriving home at 3AM after spending his night partying with his friends, getting drunk and having fun—living a teenage life despite having a wife, which is you.

“wow, welcome back. seems like you're done enjoying your life to the fullest.” you said monotonously with an eye roll, sitting on the couch with crossed legs as kid snickered, wobbling to you with a stupid smile on his face.

“yeah, 'twas a fun night, such a shame that i gotta go home bacause your were bombarding my phone with calls and messages.” he says with a scoff, catching you off guard, head snapping to him immediately. “excuse you?”

“‘such a shame’? kid, what the fuck? do you not know that you're a married man—!?” “so what if i'm married!!? am i not allowed to have fun, hah!?” kid grumbles, cutting you off, frowning as he spoke. while you, on the other hand, gasped by his words. not being able to believe that your husband had said such response.

“kid, i'm saying that you aren't supposed to be always living a teenage life when you have a wife!” you defend, getting agitated. “it frustrates me that you arrive late and drunk, worse, i experience this shit of yours almost every day!”

“well why can't you just let me be!? you nosy assed woman!” shouts the male, pushing you aside before he stomped to the kitchen, getting himself water as you stood frozen in place for a few moments—soon following him with a teary, frowning look on your face.

“eustass kid.” you called, catching the annoyed tulip-haired man's attention. “i want to remind you that i am your wife. your wife who longs for you—but it seems like you don't feel the same, huh?”

raising his non-existent brows, kid then puts a ‘hah?’ expression on his face, looking at you before speaking up. “what the hell are ya fuckin' talkin' about?”

“you don't even treat me like i'm your wife, kid. and—and it raises a question in me; why? why did you even marry me? did you do so just for fun? but, you know, i—i don't think i can keep up anymore. let's.. end this. go ahead and live a teenage life as you wish, without me, your nosy assed wife.” you sighed out, taking your ring off and returning it to the now stunned kid who seemed to immediately sobered up, holding you by your wrist to prevent you from going anywhere further from him.

“fuck, no, you're not—we're—we're not ending anything, no, no. i'm not letting you go—i'm—i messed up, i know, so i'm sorry. don't.. d-don't give an end to us that quickly... please.” kid begs with a stammer, voice turning small as his chest heaved up and down, panting as he held his tears back knowing that you are serious with your words. “...sorry too. but i really can't anymore. so please, let's just put this to end, let's end this relationship of ours.”

TRAFALGAR LAW

“again. he's home late, again, and forgotten our anniversary, again.” you whispered to yourself, biting your lower lip in anger as you stood in front of the door of your shared home with your husband, trafalgar law who seemed to just arrived after you've waited for him for hours on your anniversary.

“trafalgar d. water law, you're home late, again.” you growled with a big frown on your face, arms crossed as you called your husband by his full name, only to be silently cursed by the raven-haired male.

“fucking hell... not now, y/n-ya. don't start a fight now. i'm tired, i want to sleep.” passing you, law headed upstairs to your room while you grit your teeth in anger, following him up with loud shouting, and stomping.

“law, i can't—i can't fucking believe you..!” storming in the room and swinging the door open to reveal your husband who you saw sitting up, preparing to sleep, rolling his eyes at you, looking at you in disdain.

“i told you, i have no time for this, y/n-ya. i don't wanna fight, i wanna rest.” he repeats, scratching his head in annoyance—while you, on the other hand stood like a stone by the door, a heavy sigh leaving your lips, and soon later, tears streamed down your face.

“what the—what drama is this now? i just arrived late because of work, it's not a big deal for you, since you're used to this right? so stop that crying and just sleep or something.” clicking his tongue, law then went ahead and laid himself down the bed to rest, brows still stitched to a frown.

“yeah, it's not a big deal, for you,” you said with a swallow, fist clenched tightly before continuing, “it's not a big deal that you're making your wife wait for you for hours every single day for your arrival, and today, which is our goddamn anniversary that is not a big fucking deal at all, yeah?” you croaked, wiping your tears away—your words striking a realization to law. shit.

“unhappy anniversary to you, law. don't worry, this will be the last time i'll be waisting my time waiting for someone who thinks that i'm not a big deal. now, good bye, law. enjoy yourself all alone on our anniversary.” you greeted, swallowing back your sobs as you took your ring off, causing law to shakily stand up, stumbling to you the instant he had grasped what you're implying.

“no, no, no, y/n-ya, honey—shit, i'm—i'm sorry, so please, don't do this. i love you, fuck. i'll do better, i'll change, please, please.” letting a string of pleads leave his mouth pathetically, law held you tight, taking the ring and trying to put it back to your finger as you shook yourself away from him.

“NO! this is the fucking end of us. you told me that you're tired, right? well i'm tired too, so fucking tired of keeping up with you, and keeping this marriage alive myself! i've been hurt so much, and i can't do this anymore, so let me go, trafalgar.”

RORONOA ZORO

slamming the door close after spending your day waiting for your husband, zoro, who never showed up for your date, you let a loud screech. tossing away your bag then stomping to the kitchen—greeted by the moss head who was drinking sake.

“oh my fucking god, zoro! where the hell were you!?” you exclaimed furiously, snatching the bottle of sake from your husband, pouring it down the sink before throwing it away, anger filling you up.

“what the hell's wrong with you..? i was drinking that, you know? and before you get mad, i was here, the whole entire day, you crazy bitch.” zoro grumbles, slumping himself against the wall as you gasped, totally out of words.

this is.. annoying, frustrating—rage, and sadness is eating you up as you stared at the moss head who was frowning, same as you who clicked your tongue.

“you're—this—this is absurd, zoro. i cannot with this! first, you refuse to spend your dearest time with me, your so-called wife. second, you missed our date that i arranged today, completely forgetting it. and third, you call me crazy bitch for wanting to be with you!”

“do you really love me or no!? because i don't think that you do, and it's painfully obvious!” you stated, tears streaming down your reddened cheeks as zoro looked down to the floor, seeming guilty.

“..i do, i.. i love you.” zoro mutters, avoiding your eyes while you frowned by his words. “do you, now? i don't sense any sincerity with what you had said.”

“i am not happy by this, zoro. i don't enjoy this unhappy marriage of ours anymore.” pulling your ring out of your finger, you sniffled, stopping your tears as you looked at zoro, his mouth agape.

“so please, let's just give this an end, okay?” you mumbled, extending your hand that held your wedding ring to zoro who's lips quivered, tugging downwards, shaking his head.

“no... no, i.. i don't want to. i—no. let's fix this, please.” “..i don't think we can do that anymore, zoro.” trying to return the ring to you as he turned your plea down, zoro's world spun as be thought of his life without you..

© butterfluffy 2022

[bawbara]

🇬🇧 Hello, guys. How are you doing? So, I'm going to share with my process to get ready for the new semester.

First of all, I compose my spreadsheet. There I set up all the information will save my life until the end of the semester, for example, deadlines. You can find an example of the spreadsheet I made for 2020.2 right down. 

To sum up this, all I do is: 

title the file with the name of the class, e.g. statistics; then the semester (2021.1);

After that, I fill up the row with some basics information that I will need later (the topic of the class, date, todo list, task status, notes and link to my google drive).

A tool that extraordinarily helps me visualize the amount of work I have to do is conditional formatting. Therefore I always use it in my spreadsheets. I also use this tool to identify the topic of the lesson’s day. 

Secondly, I check out the appointments calendar, which is available on my University site. It's a time-saving since all my college-related appointments will be already planned on my Google Agenda. So I'll never be caught off guard when my exams arrive. Besides, I don't know about you, but I always forget where I have to go, I mean which classrom, when I am at University. Once all information is together on my Agenda, all I have to do is check it out when I arrive at University. 

PS: I guess knowing all my appointments wouldn't safe. Hope you all understand. #qotp holidays are usual in Brazil. I think the most known one is Carnival, right? But, there are many others. How often is there a holiday where you live? 

The last task I will share with you today is to organize my files. It's quite simple since all you have to do is choose where you will storage all them. I always you Google Drive because my University offers all students a premium account. I was thinking about migrating to Notion, but I don't know. I think Notion isn't the best choice for me. I will let you know what I decide to use for the next semester. 

Thank you so much if you read until the end. You are absolutely amazing and have a beautiful soul. See you, guys. Have a nice week ♥

---

🇧🇷 Olá, pessoal. Como vocês estão? Então, vou compartilhar meu processo para me preparar para o novo semestre. 

Em primeiro lugar, eu faço a minha planilha. Nela eu coloco todas as informações que vão salvar minha vida até o final do semestre, por exemplo, prazos de atividade e provas. 

Para resumir, tudo que eu faço é:

coloco um título o arquivo com o nome da aula, por exemplo, Estatística; 

depois o semestre (2021.1);

Depois disso, preencho a linha com algumas informações básicas que irei precisar mais tarde (o tópico da aula, data, lista de tarefas, status da tarefa, notas e link para meu Google Drive).

Uma ferramenta que me ajuda muito a visualizar a quantidade de trabalho que tenho que fazer é a formatação condicional. Por isso sempre o uso nas minhas planilhas. Eu também uso essa ferramenta para identificar o assunto da aula do dia.

Em segundo lugar, verifico o calendário de compromissos, que está disponível no site da minha universidade. É uma economia de tempo, uma vez que todos os meus compromissos relacionados à faculdade já estarão planejados na minha Agenda do Google. Portanto, nunca serei pega de surpresa quando minhas provas chegarem. Além do mais, não sei você, mas sempre esqueço para onde devo ir quando estou na universidade, quero dizer, qual sala devo ir. Uma vez que todas as informações estão reunidas na minha Agenda, tudo o que tenho que fazer é conferir quando eu chegar na Universidade.

 A última tarefa que compartilharei com vocês hoje é organizar meus arquivos. É muito simples, pois tudo o que você precisa fazer é escolher onde armazenará todos eles. Eu sempre uso o Google Drive porque minha universidade oferece a todos os alunos uma conta premium. Eu estava pensando em migrar para o Notion, mas não sei. Acho que ele não é a melhor escolha para mim. Eu vou falar para vocês o que decidirei usar no próximo semestre. 

Muito obrigado se você leu até o fim. Você é absolutamente incrível e é uma pessoa incrível. Até mais, pessoal. Tenha uma ótima semana ♥

[jaanwangji]

Hello!!!! My day was fine till i started scrolling through louis' twitter to make an edit for 12dol and i became so emotional. it's just the way he talks to us, about us and how regularly he checks up on us and how constantly he thanks us tells us he's so grateful. I also cried a little when i saw the s*co tweet, ok that's a lie i cried alot!!!but hey they were happy tears so.....no regrets.

Sooo.... My life is just a series of embarrassing events to an extent i can't think of anything. So I'll tell you two things, one is slightly embarrassing (only slightly plzz don't think that's the most embarrassing moment it's just something at the top of my mind) and second a memory i think about and laugh(its cute i swear).

So when i was tenth and we just started trigonometry (it's hard whenyou start yk sm to remember) so i was sitting with two of my friends sitting on either side of me. Sir gave us a question we all started working. But both of my friends were being so annoying. One of them just kept asking me small questions and the other one was saying all the formulas out loud. In short annoying me I was having a hard time concentrating and i like maths so i get competitive. So i cery loudly told them to stfu!! And literally every one heard me. And sir looked at me laughed and said yeah you tell em. My tenth grade self foungld it really embarrassing believe me now I'm just shouting things in class all the time.

The second one was when i was really young. I was the youngest cousin and i was visiting my oldest cousin. So yk he treated me like really nicely. Always used to carry me around in his arms and stuff. So he had a dog a bitch might i say. She used to get soo jealous of the fact that I'm recieving more attention than her so she used to bark at me and stuff. But the funniest thing she used to do was sit really close to my parents. And my dad was some what scared of dogs so that used to be really funny. And little me had a hero syndrome. So i wanted to "save" my dad but i used to be scared of her too i mean i was like soo small she was bigger than me in size😂😂 I got over my fear of her when i was 11 😂😂

And I'm really curious about this poem stuff?!! What were you writing?? Like both of them😂😂 god this one got soo long maybe I'll add a fact later🙈~ ❄

DBDJDJDKKDKKDBDJDJJ who hasn't cried a river while thinking of louis? I sure have more times than I'm willing to admit jkkd its just he is everything lol can't even describe what exactly he means to me yk

bdkdkks i wish i had your teacher lol he sounds dopeee. i hate maths actually, that's the bane of my freaking existence like where tf would i need trigonometry in my future?! pls explain ew

omg i LOVE dogs i want one soooo bad but my mom hates pets and says they're too much work for my lazy ass djjdkd i plan on getting one when i move out for good but we'll see lmao EJKSKKKEKE i imagine that would seriously be very very hilarious oof dogs are amazing nfkddk

I can send u the poems later lol but the one i was writing was kindaaaaa abt sex fjdjkd well not really but it had that sexy undertone yk too many metaphors and what not but still very blatant if you know what to relate it too djdjdk idek why i was writing that i generally don't write about those kinda things but sometimes my mind just goes "boom you gotta write" and im like "but what" and it goes "you gotta" fbdjjbb (also I've no experience of sex lol djdjdk)

the one my teacher read was a sad one i think i wrote it when i was really down or something and it was frankly concerning just how much i wanted to end it all, i don't blame her for being worried about my health coz like that shit is concerning but i think it was more of me pouring out my feelings than yk writing about what i wanted to do but she didn't know obvio fjfjfk

ps: most of my poems are veryyy depressing lol i can't help it

okay do i need to share an embarrassing story now since you shared two? Xbdbndb

[vetyr]

do you have an idea of a checklist for learning how to create digital art? like i know practice is essential, but i don't really know where to start or where to go from there. thanks so much xox

I think I can toss some stuff out here that might be of use.  Assuming an artist learning digital art starts from the beginning–owning a tablet & drawing program but not knowing how to use them–here’s an inconveniently long list of stuff that could help them.

TL;DR: 1, mess around till you’re used to drawing digitally. 2, study and create ad infinitum. 3, a bunch of tips that are pretty hard to TLDR so you should probably just go over em.  Step 2 is basically what you asked me NOT to tell you (“practice”!), but unfortunately it’s all I know how to do :,(

1) If you own a tablet that you plug into your computer (i.e., you don’t draw directly on the screen), feel free to spend a few weeks or even a month+ just getting used to it.  When you first start out, it’s really freaky drawing in one place and seeing things appear somewhere else, but trust me in that you won’t even notice the disconnect after a few months of consistent digital drawing.  I’ve been painting digitally for about 2 years now, and it’s actually slightly easier for me to draw digitally than traditionally.  [If you have a cintiq, or you use an iPad with Procreate, or something similar, then you probably don’t have to spend as much time in step 1.]

Keep in mind that it doesn’t matter how good you were with traditional drawing when you start digital; the mental disconnect you have will make it very difficult to think about proportions, values, edges, colors, etc.  You’ll probably notice yourself making mistakes that you wouldn’t normally make on paper.  Don’t worry about them, just keep drawing as you usually would.  Digital you will catch up to traditional you in time.  

For now, get used to blending colors, drawing somewhat steady lines that go in the correct direction, and fooling around with brushes and brush settings.  If you come across a brush that you like (easy to work with + pleasing results), it may help to stick with it as you continue to learn.  Digital doodles and sketches are good for this stage; though try to keep doing traditional work so your base art skills don’t atrophy.  

If you’re just starting out with Photoshop or Sai or Krita or whatever software you’re using, you’re gonna be intimidated by all the funky buttons and settings that you first see.  If it makes you feel any better, I use maybe 0.1% of the tools that Photoshop offers me.  When you start, all you need to worry about is the brush tool and control-z, maybe the eraser too.

2) Do studies as well as pieces from imagination.  You can move into step 2 as early as you please; you don’t have to wait until you think you’ve become “skillful” at digital drawing (in fact, this step is what will probably help you become the most comfortable with digital).  It’s alright if your colors are icky looking and your values are off (tip, occasionally turn the saturation of your drawing to 0 to check the values), because as long as you keep studying reality and appealing art & continually learn from your mistakes, you’ll get better. 

Always remember to study or at least appreciate the qualities of art you enjoy.  It’s the same thing that people always tell writers–you have to read a lot to write well.  You probably shouldn’t shield yourself from the influence of other artists; while you may think that this action would help you develop artistically in the manner most true to yourself, in reality the vast majority of the process of learning art will be honing in on what you find visually pleasant so that you may, in turn, express your artistic taste in your work.  If you look at other people’s art, you can pick out tiny aspects of it that you like and incorporate that into your style.  It’s a bit trickier to build a style without the “help” of other artists, though you can always turn to nature for help. On that note, I also recommend referencing nature as much as you can, because we as human beings are sort of wired to find natural designs, colors, and structures beautiful.  Look at nature for the universally beautiful, and look at art for the subjectively beautiful (i.e., enjoyed uniquely by you).

If you find yourself getting burnt out pretty quickly, then just paint/draw simple and small things for period of half an hour to 1 ½ hours a day (and switch back to traditional).  You can spend this time mapping out proportions, creating thumbnails of values/colors, drawing linework, or whatever.  Add complexity to your pieces as the months go by, and if you already have a decent foundation in drawing aim to create somewhat finished pieces after maybe four months to a year.  Please note that the second part of that sentence was something I completely made up out of my head, because I’m trying to quantify pretty unquantifiable concepts such as a “decent foundation in drawing” and a “somewhat finished” piece of art.  If you find it unrealistic, or just too easy of a goal, disregard it entirely.  It can take you half a decade to learn to make finished digital art, or you can get it down in a couple months.

3) Fun fact, there’s not really a step 3 as you stay in 2 forever, always studying and creating.  But there’s a few other things about digital art that you ought to know, so here they are:

• If your computer doesn’t make a fuss about it, I’d recommend working on a decently large canvas (at least 3000 by 3000; I personally prefer 6000 by 6000). You’ll get less defined edges and colors if you go below 1000 by 1000, from my experience.

• If you have a tablet with pressure sensitivity (you probably should otherwise digital painting is kinda hellish), go to your brush settings and set ‘transfer’ to ‘pen pressure.’  This is what makes it possible to blend.  

• If you’re having trouble matching colors while studying, you can always color pick the ref (in photoshop: bring the pic into PS and use the eye dropper tool) and compare its colors to your colors.  Some people add too much red to their skin tones, some people draw their highlights with overly desaturated colors, some people make trees and grass in their landscapes too green; whatever the case, take note of and correct errors that you consistently make.  

• Get used to using the transform/warp/liquify tools (liquify is technically a filter but you get what I mean).  They’re lifesavers for fixing proportion mistakes that you’ve only noticed 8 hours into a piece. 

• Give layers a shot.  I only work on one layer, but I’ve heard from people who divide their piece up into multiple layers that they’re damn useful (until you draw on the wrong one). 

• Flip your canvas horizontally every once in a while to make sure stuff hasn’t gone awry. 

• Screw around with color modes; they can do some really fancy things that are difficult to duplicate with normal digital painting, let alone traditional.  On the topic of colors, don’t be afraid to use somewhat desaturated colors (near the center of the color picker square in PS). There are some very aesthetically pleasing color combinations that you can make out of somewhat dulled colors.

• If you’re using PS, bind ‘step backward’ to control Z, not ‘undo.’  This is under keyboard shortcuts.  Set up a bunch of shortcuts that are the most convenient for you–personally, I only keep my left hand near the lower left region of my keyboard (my right hand is away from the keyboard and off to the right, drawing on the tablet), so I have all of my necessary shortcuts in that area.

This was a bit longer than I expected, but I figure that someone out there can get something out of it.  Cheers to you, if you do.

[6ad6ro]

i recently gave doom 2016 another shot. back when i first played it, i... hated it. to me it was "false advertising", pretending to take fps back to basics while being anything but that. but i always kinda felt like i musta been overly harsh on it back then, so i'd been meaning to give it another shot.

i first played it on ps4, but this time i grabbed it for $5 to play on my steam deck. it feels a lot better, and it's faster/prettier. and i don't have to worry about the shitty ps+ requirement for online... you'd be surprised how much online subscriptions completely ruin my fun. well anyways, here's my re-review:

i started with online. to oversimplify, it's good. reminds me of old quakeworld mixed with newer stuff. and it has botmatches! they're limited, and require playing real online matches to unlock basic stuff... but they're there. def worth the $5 i spent on the game alone. the actual online, though a ghosttown, was way more fun than i expected. def helps that the remaining fanbase seems chill as hell, which was a surprise.

but okay now on to the main game. it's a lot better than i remembered. maybe that has to do with my current mindset (more positive), or maybe because i'm going in just taking it for what it is and ignoring all that stupid hype it had back then. i love how it looks, and the guns feel fun. the "story" is cool while remaining basic. it's fast when it wants to be. i like the environments a lot. it reminds me a lot more of quake than doom, but that isn't a bad thing.

tho as i get further into the game, i'm starting to remember some if the issues i had with it. the navigation sucks. old doom didn't have me checking the map THIS much. all the climbing is cool for fights, but sucks for actual exploration. and i already hate how they handle "secrets". if it was optional that'd be one thing, but you gotta scour the map for necessary basic upgrades. shoulda just tied most of that shit to kills etc. i've already decided to set the game down to easy just to negate having to look for shit (which hurts the combat a bit tbh). oh and ruin trials can blow me. what a pile of unfun. what a shitty way to take you out of the game. i put the game down mid-trial to write this review, actually. i hate em that much.

the rest is just nitpicking, like how the autosaves could maybe be better? no manual or quick saving is shit design. but besides all that, it's a fun game. a couple paragraphs ago it prob sounded like i hated it, but i really don't. it's nothing amazing like people used to say, but it's fun. of course it DEFINITELY has a bit if an identity crisis... it's not throwback at all even if it pretends to be. like if you want an ACTUAL new "boomershooter", go play stuff like dusk etc? i think that's probably why i hated this at first... it was presented to me as a lie. pure fake hype.

but now that i've looked past all that? i've found a cute lil game that meets somewhere a bit passed halfway between quake and halo. and it has a fun multiplayer, too. so i'm definitely glad i revisited it. it certainly wasn't as good as people hyped it up to be, but it DIDN'T deserve the hate i gave it.

oh, i'm gonna try witcher 3 again too. same situation as doom! there's other stuff i wanna revisit someday too. i've just been... seeing things differently lately, you know?

[seenashwrite]

Again! Sorry for another question, and I hope this doesn't bother you... But I was wondering what a one-shot word count average is? I usually end up doing about 1000 - 1500 words as I get caught up in my writing hehe, but is that too long? Should I stick to around 500 or so? Hope this doesn't bother you too much!

Oh Spookster, you are not a bother in the least. I am glad you ask. Because I - and please, everyone sit down to hear this - did not know the complete deets on these by-word-count categorizations off the top of my head. I have a ballpark idea, of course, but still I tasked the interns with doing a lil’ digging.

Ah - while I’ve got ya - the interns [we’ll call them “Sham” and “Green”, the former who professed proficiency at research & the latter who appears to not know how to collate it at all] clarified some word vomit & added a point on Beta Readers which was left out in the answer to your first query. Moving on.

Let us take this moment to ask the fanfic writers of Tumblr their thoughts/what they were taught/what they’ve seen because TL;DR: there isn’t a formal, organized, academic-type fanfic-based collective with enough of a population of experts [and there would need to be criteria for what that means] for peer review and the like, ergo there cannot be any substantive consensus.   

WHEN authors label/categorize their work on word count around here, these are the ones *I* have personally seen + what the “sources” below have claimed -  

Drabble = 100 [some say “Exactly 100!” & to that Nash says “Suck it!”] 

One-Shot = N/A [it’s one-and-done, length is irrelevant]

Multi-Part = N/A [length of each chapter irrelevant; know your audience’s attention span, cater to that]

Series = N/A [reasoning same as above]

Poem/Poetry = N/A [reasoning same as above]

Big Bang = a minimum is given by organizers; may be 20K, may be 50K, point is it’s the… um…. biggest

Prose = ya got me, because “prose” is just “story”, it’s not some special sub-type [”the ordinary form of spoken or written language, without metrical structure, as distinguished from poetry or verse”. And, PS? A secondary take can also be “dull, ordinary, commonplace, plain”, even “tedious”. I’d hesitate to call something of mine “prose” unless it had a qualifier like “melodic prose” or “poetic prose” or something] 

This was a nutters hunt, right up there with crazed insects & sperm-donor poor-excuse-for-amazon daughters & the like. And you’re talking to a deep-diving, source ‘em if you got ‘em, just-the-facts-ma’am research hound. If it’s to be found, I can more often than not sniff it out. 

My nose might have gotten bent on this one. 

First things first: in the field of academia to which I am accustomed, anything at the five-year mark is pushing it, anything beyond that should likely stick to referring to it in a study/article/etc. as a “here’s what we knew then” sort of thing, in order to set the scene for the current hypotheses/results/etc. That’s why I include the dates when able, just FYI.

⦁ Trickster.org - “symposium article” from 2006 - “When Size Matters: Story Terminology as Determined by Word Count” 

Opener: “Drabbles are a bit of a hot topic, and I’ve run across a few debates started by people who don’t like them. Now, this is nothing unusual in fandom, there seems to be at least one person who doesn’t like any given thing, and I usually just shrug my shoulders and move on. The problem with the drabble debates, however, lies in how people are defining drabbles.” 

[Nash Note: Seems to be a transcript of a speech, but it was a horrific, rambling eyesore, I’d never recommend anyone go through it, and the fact that this person was considered expert enough to give commentary on the topic of writing is bone-chilling disturbing. I am not exaggerating this, it is one of the most poorly-conveyed run-downs of what current standings/thoughts are in a given field that I’ve ever come upon. I hope there were some kickin’ visual aids.]

C&Ping the main points that were stated with some sort of conviction:

A drabble is a story of exactly 100 words 

“It’s debatable as to whether or not the title is included but the limit itself is not debatable” 

“the common definition I’ve seen allows for one to fifteen extra words for the title ”

[Nash note: in various spots, they then proceed to tell about how these things *are* debatable in the fanfic community - much as they noted right off in the intro. Which is the topic. Fanfiction. Not “pro-lit”. Which should’ve been there just for touch-and-move-on comparative purposes. Not the bulk of the talk. Which it was.]

A drabble and a half is exactly 150 words

A double drabble is 200 words, and anything over that really stops being a drabble, but in fandom, any story in increments of 50 words is often still referred to as some permutation of drabble, i.e. double drabble and a half, triple drabble, triple drabble and a half, quad-drabble, etc. 

Even in fandom, however, the key is that your word count is exactly on that 50 word increment mark, otherwise you are not writing a drabble of any kind

“In the pro-lit[erary] world…”:  [just knock me out now]

any story under 500 words is flash fiction. 

fic under 500 words that is not exactly 100 words, the term you want is flash fiction. Or even flashfic, or minute fic, or sudden fic, postcard fic, fast fic, quick fic, and a few others. 

none of those alternatives are drabble.

over 500 words, but under 1000, is generally known as a short short. 

Some magazines and anthologies actually use short short and flash fiction interchangeably, because of space constraints

1000 and over, up to 17500, is a short story

“So, just to review….”  [sigh]

100 words = drabble

500 words and under = flash fiction

500-1000 words = short short

1000-15000 words = short story

17500 = novella/novelette

40000 = novel

vignette = nothing to do with word count; typically under 1000 words; the significant thing is theme - meant to give illumination - one character or the relationship between two or more characters; typically don’t involve a lot of action; some have limited dialogue

[Nash co-signs “vignette” definition]

⦁ Save the Drabble - 2005/6

This one has 2 sources and one of them is the person above - the other is another LJ community. This is a circle-jerk. No new info given. We move on.

⦁ Fanlore

This is a hodge-podge that made my eye twitch a bit, but at least they have more info and background on the terms.

They re-hash the “drabble debate” of it having to be precisely 100 words.

They are the first that brought up another term I see around T-Town which is Big Bang 

“A Big Bang is a specific type of challenge usually involving long fics and accompanying artwork.This type of challenge is a reprise of the old zine tradition of collaboration between artists and writers for internet fandoms.” 

They note that back in ‘zine land it was a minimum of 50K, then in another place they say “the consensus” went to a minimum of 20K

[Nash Note: I gotta eschew my formatting, I’ve met my allotted time for this answer, as more peeps lie in wait for their Dear Nash to be addressed! I linked the blogbelow the other day because It. Is. Fantastic. This is what I was able to find for fanfic related terminology on lengths, threw in a couple other goodies, too - go over there and see if you have better luck pulling up with other search terms, entirely possible I wasn’t hitting the nail on the head with mine]

Writing Questions Answered - Tumblr

One result for “drabble”:

http://writing-questions-answered.tumblr.com/search/drabble

Doesn’t talk about length

One result for “one-shot”:

http://writing-questions-answered.tumblr.com/post/45179836171/fan-fiction-how-to-write-a-one-shot-fanfic

“A one-shot fanfic is a standalone story that is one chapter long and focuses on a single situation or event, usually from just one character’s point-of-view. There is no official length for a one-shot, but typically they are between 1,000 and 8,000 words long.” 

Length in general in the published world:

http://writing-questions-answered.tumblr.com/post/108997534333/advice-short-chapters-not-sure-about-word-count

Target length depends on what you’re writing:

Short Story - 1k - 7500 k

Novella - 20k - 50k

Novel-

Middle Grade 25k - 40k

Young Adult 45k - 80k

New Adult: 60k - 85k

Adult 65k - 120k

….and reinforces that nobody should or really does [in the pro world] care about chapter lengths - depends on what’s going on in the chapter. Nash side note on this? Know your audience. The younger they get, the less attention span - not that they can’t or won’t knock out a big book in the long-run, but you don’t want them to grow frustrated along the way, possibly checking out or worse, stopping altogether.  

Talks more about standards for professional lengths:

http://writing-questions-answered.tumblr.com/post/62254683880/advice-story-feels-rushed

Really good piece on “nevers” and “always” when it comes to “dos” and “don'ts”.

http://writing-questions-answered.tumblr.com/post/147225002823/a-quick-psa-about-writing-rules

I agree. And for me, there’s certainly lots of good advice out there, you’ll find some of it is objectively true, but on the other hand, it may be worth trying your hand at various things to see what (a) sticks with your target audience, and (b) speaks to your personal style. 

Plus - in my experience - there’s some “nevers” that I suspect got popular due to propagation by people who just don’t do whatever it is terribly well. [shrugs]

Chuckspeed, my friend. So sayeth the Nash, so say we all.

[mindofadistressedme-blog]

Just a kid

Just a kid from Brooklyn  Better yet known as crooklyn Where the apartments smell like piss And misses jones's cooking Walk down 2 blocks and you'll get jumped just for looking  Ps 6 was where I balled at  I remember the night I got my ball jacked Man I want my ball back The other park was where my boi got threatened with the mack but we don't speak on that cause it made him move and he never came back  Down the block in the church parking lot was where I got jiggy  Dropping buckets and making dudes look silly Then there was that day shet iggy  Asian dude from the projects was false claiming  In Brooklyn there's no respect for faking He got G checked with a 9 inch knife  They almost took him off this earth over some stupid shet what a life Making kids look dumb as I shake left and they go right  Another defender shaken out of sight  Another sore loser who wants to fight Brooklyn B R double O K L Y N The place of sinful zen Too cool to be in the shadows But too weird to be in the spotlight Ain't got the newest Jordan's on so that mean I ain't hot right...sike  See that's what wrong with us Wanna reject the message cause the person giving it ain't flossing enough Yea he speaking truth but the clothes he rocking ain't cost him enough So what's the price? What I gotta rock so that I can be liked? Maybe if I sell my soul then I'll be allll the ladies type  Ha Nah  gotta give em something different Something they gon end up missing  But what if what I'm doing is only different cause as a race we lost the vision  What if Fred Hampton was right What if it's not about black vs white What if the reason people are so submissive is because they believe in Jesus Christ  I mean am I right? They preach to turn the other cheek but how will the perpetrators know what they're doing is not right  I say we forgive but don't forget  400+ years of slavery but we forget we were kings and queen in Kemet Go to church every Sunday  But back to work on Monday   See we put the focus on fvcking bitches getting money and not doing our own dishes What do I mean by that? We go out on dates Hoping to get laid When instead we could be at home together sipping on champagne  But back to the topic What's weird? Is normal only normal cause that's what we give the light What if weird is what was hyped Then maybe the spotlight  will just be something we recognize as not tight  Is our desire to be normal just an addiction Like those chips you can't avoid late at night when you walking up in the kitchen You see the weird kids give us something different  Something we know is missing I'm from the city where Buildings scrape the sky Police shoot and kill an innocent child But don't bat an eye Arresting someone  Just trying to get high Putting cuffs on the dealers  Who just trying to get by  But where'd they get it from Who gave them their supply Never mind that because policy is to just worry about hassling who you can see with your eye  Officers know they can't touch the head honchos the one they call the guy Cause they know their department will reign hell on them and their job will go bye bye  What about morals? What about what's right? Ain't no time to worry about that when the only thing on your mind is making sure you put food on your kids plate tonight Gotta do whatchu gotta do out here in these streets  It don't matter if what you do makes mothers weep Everyday you patrol the streets Looking for a young teen to beat What's your reason this time? He had a gun? He reached for his pocket?  He fit a description? He doesn't fit the demographic of the neighborhood so he must be up to no good right? Haha see you got it wrong though Cause while you doing what you gotta do to put food on your kids plate What you're doing to the world is breeding more hate And before you know it'll be too late Cause the same kid who you buss your ass to put food on their plate  Will be the same kid who's body ends up on the news tape  Now who you feeding? Why stand for the anthem For the red the white or the blue I say if you stand for the anthem Then you a damn fool Who wrote the anthem I ask Mr Francis Scott keys a ku klux klan member without the mask What does it stand for this red white and blue  White signifies purity and innocence  What's more pure and innocent than a child  Somehow that didn't stop officers from shooting one  Red for hardiness & valor  Valor meaning courage in the face of danger  Something black(melinated?) people have had for a real long time  The danger coming from the ones who have sworn to protect us  And finally my favorite color blue Signifying vigilance, perseverance and justice Justice Doesn't justice mean? The definition being just behavior or treatment Fairness Morality Honesty All synonyms for justice Do we really feel justice is being served in this country I don't  So I say again  Why stand for the anthem For the red the white or the blue I say if you stand for the anthem Then you a damn fool Ddougbe@baypath.edu And if you're sitting here thinking well what about the vets? My father is a cop what about him? Blue Lives Matter What did the vets fight for? Not for the first amendment? The freedom of speech Of course blue lives matter there's no disputing that cause all lives matter on this earth That includes the animals and the mammals that we choose to consume as if it's our right to take there life force  but can we really say all lives matter when it's black lives that are being unjustly taken  How can you justify shooting and killing a man who has his hands up in surrender? How can you justify choking someone out while they plead for their life saying I can't breathe? Should we not be for the preservation of life? What more do you want? But we can take a shot for harambe right? Tits out for harambe tonight? I find it funny that some people take more pride in a gorilla being killed than our own race And I do mean race cause there is only one And that is the human race Forget all the dark skin vs light skin Black vs White Keep life simple 1+1=2 Out of the womb Out of the womb I fall Some unknown hand smacks me so I ball Can't walk yet so I crawl In the blink of an eye old enough to go to the mall After high school go to college that's where we send em all Who's we who's all The successful black kids of course anyone who doesn't go must be a Neanderthal  Graduated college still haven't gotten a call I have to go to college? Humph don't make me lol Would I have a job by now if my name was John dick or harry? Better yet maybe I should just marry Marry a girl named sally Maybe drop everything and move out to cali I can't stand being stagnant  This feeling of floating  Nowhere to land just adrift Fvck it I'll do a radio show like professor griff Maybe work for a guy named Biff Who's family came over to America and was able to get a business loan in a jiff Meet a wombman named tiff When I'm down she'll give me a lift  When I'm up she'll give me a kiss But what's the point of all this Feels like something laid out for me so that when I get desperate I'll see it as the only way out of the mist Now 30 years later I have regrets of not sticking it through and believing in my gift Depression  Anger Sadness You get the jist  But hey maybe ignorance truly is bliss and I should just settle for this Bliss