#sticker is another good example

[aroaceofthesea]

Ive been spending these weeks like 12/13 hours x day with the same ppl and we have very recurrent inside jokes and im scared that i will keep doing that with other random ppl

[lovlidollie]

daddy kenji headcanons ☆ｏ(＞＜；)○

kenji sato x fem!reader

rules! super strict rules that he expects you to follow. you’ve got a curfew, a specific bedtime, screen time limitations, he treats you a lot like emi.

he’s got punishments for you as well. for example, if you’re being bratty and don’t want to listen to his warnings, he gets fed up real quick. he’s rolling his eyes and throwing you over his lap before you even know it. you’re left a blubbering, wet mess by the time he’s done with you, ass burning red and face covered in tears.

he knows you don’t drink enough so he has a literal sticker reward station for when you met the water goal he’s set. he rewards you with star stickers, which when you reach a certain amount you can trade for a special prize ;)))

loves marking you up ! hickies, bruises, bite marks are the more primal offences, but he also loves littering you with jewellery. his favourite is a dainty little necklace he got you for your birthday with his initials on the back :3 he wants to make sure everyone knows you’re his !!!

on that note, has a kink for you spending his money. he’s got so much of it, there’s only so many cars he can collect before he’s bored of them, so he’s given you full reign on his card ! you’re allowed to buy whatever you want, so long as you always give him a lowdown on what you’re getting, (he wants to know what his little girl is interested in !!!) and that you purchase all the expensive, skimpy lingerie that he wants to see you in.

on another note, he loves it when you make him cute little bracelets ! he wears them all the time, especially when he’s batting because he knows the camera zooms in on them.

has your initials painted onto the side of his helmet with a little heart.

when you’re over at his house, he wants you only wearing skirts :3 proper pants are banned !! only short, tiny skirts that make it easier for him to bend you over in.

drenches you in designer ! he doesn’t care it you don’t need or want it ; only the best for his baby !!!

he expects ice baths to be ready for him whenever he comes home from a particularly hard match, whether that’s because he’s lost or gotten into another fight. you always give him a shoulder massage, helping uncoil his tense muscles, but it’s not long before he’s asking you to strip and get in with him ! leads to rough bath sex almost all the time and water splashed all over the ground.

needs to let out his frustrations after losing a match, and his favourite way to do it is you ! he’s high on adrenaline and anger, filling up your pretty holes with his big cock and leaving bruises everywhere. he’s so mean with it, so degrading, treating you like a literal sex doll.

harshest, meanest sex with the softest, most loving aftercare !!! “look at your pretty cunt sucking me right, baby. ‘s fuckin’ pathetic. love takin’ daddy’s cock dont’cha? yeah, that’s right, fuckin’ whore.” to “my sweet girl, perfect girl. did so good for daddy. c’mere angel.”

call him ‘daddy’ and pout while looking up at him and he will fold. he’d do anything for you when you give him that face.

fucks your throat hard n fast. his cock’s big, so thick, that when you try wrap your hands around it there’s still a gap. he fills up your mouth so good, forcing himself all the way. you gag and choke around him, cheeks wet and red from how hard you’re trying to be good. he does that thing where he taps the head of it on your lips, telling you to “open up,” with a smirk.

he has a size kink. loves seeing how small you are in comparison to him and his cock. he’s so huge that the first time he tries to fuck you, there’s so much resistance that he can’t even slip the tip in. ends up having to stretch your holes out with his fingers and toys for weeks on end, trying to get you to open up for him. “c’mon sweetheart. you wanna take daddy’s cock one day, don’t you?”

loves fucking you in his jersey. it’s like a physical branding, he’s making you completely his. seeing the ‘sato’ on your back makes him downright feral.

so forward with pda you wonder half the time how he hasn’t been written up for something. he has no problem with shoving his tongue into your throat in public. if he wants to taste you then there’s nothing that can stop him 🤷‍♀️ it doesn’t get much further than a little bit of light groping because you’re still his and he’s still an insanely jealous man ; no one else deserves to see you in that state but him.

let’s you wear whatever you want in public (to a degree). he can fight. he has no problem showing others that you’re his and his alone.

[honeytonedhottie]

pretty girl handbook⋆.ೃ࿔*:･🧁

♡ double cleansing in the evening for gorgeous skin

♡ body glitter

♡ exfoliating ur skin on a weekly basis (2-3x) for baby soft skin

♡ incorporate pretty words into ur vocabulary

♡ sweet smelling body butters and oils and lotions

♡ sunscreen on ur face and body (neck, hands, chest etc)

♡ buy a cute journal and journal with scented glitter pens and stickers

♡ carry around ur favorite lipglosses because glossy, soft lips 24/7 is an absolute MUST

♡ jewelry makes you GLITTER. things like belly rings, waist chains, bracelets, earrings, nose rings, nail gems etc

prioritize sleep (sleep 8-12 hours a night)

drink at least 1L of water a day

eat a fruit or veggie with every meal to glow from the inside out

use coconut oil/castor oil on ur lashes and brows every night

facial massage everyday and practice mewing

move your body in a way that feels natural (for example, i go to a school where we have to walk a lot bcuz the campus is big so subconsciously i do LOTS of walking without even thinking of it)

if ur wearing ur hair up/in a protective style, use a hair mask

HOW TO GLOW ;

♡ prioritize hydration

♡ sleep 8-12 hours of sleep a night

a hot tip...from me to you, in the morning as soon as u wake up have a glass of lukewarm water and before bed drink a cup of spearmint/peppermint tea. also another good drink for skincare is chlorophyll. i drink a 16oz of chlorophyll a day or sometimes i'll just have a little chlorophyll shot and its good for ur skin…💬🎀

♡ apply lotion onto slightly damp skin, not completely dry skin. also if u have, use a body oil before the body lotion

♡ smile, duhh :)

♡ try slugging ur body + face before bed

♡ take ur vitamins/supplements. i recommend collagen for hair skin and nails and other vitamins like vitamin C and E. take ur wellness shots and dont eat garbage

SQUEAKY CLEAN ;

♡ double cleanse ur body when showering. the way i do it is i use a bar soap/dr bronners and then i use a liquid soap

♡ when ur washing and exfoliating ur feet do not and i repeat DO NOT. use the tool that looks like a cheese grater. idk what its called but it makes the skin on ur heels grow back 10x harder so just stick to the exfoliating rock thingy

♡ dont sleep on oil perfumes, personally i find them to be very rich and SO LONG LASTING?? they're absolutely amazing

♡ when applying fragrance onto ur body dont ever rub, bcuz then ur just blending in the scent notes

[galoogamelady]

How do you draw inorganic things so well your guns and armor and metal stuff is just so gosh darn good like i need tips i fail hard at inorganic matter every i every draw looks so soft and fleshy

The thing about hard surface items is that you have to be at least a little bit anal about perfect straight lines and ellipses in relation with perspective. I was really bad at descriptive geometry (my teacher sucked ass but that's another thing), and okay at best at drawing still life of objects in high school, but I recommend dabbling in the latter at least, if you can, to strengthen your foundations. How and where shapes connect to each other, how corners are formed, how a pattern or sticker translates on a flat surface we see in perspective all matter in selling your drawing.

Unless you're going to simplify shapes a lot, don't rush it and just refine the drawing as you go. This is my process. Again, I'm not a perfectionist, I know this final drawing is not a 1-to-1 to the reference, but it's good enough for this practice. If the gun was the main focus of an image, I would make sure the tip of the barrel looked sharper and nicer.

You can see me using this method in this old speeddraw and in a recent twitch stream (footage of which will be in my next youtube vid).

I recommend using rulers even if you trace over images of items. And be mindful about where and how you weather or detail shapes. For example, I could have drawn horizontal lines on the upper receiver here, but the short vertical lines help convey its roundness better.

If you're drawing different materials, you can forego the ruler on soft materials but still use it for the hard ones. (eg. a couch that has a wooden base/legs vs the cushions):

[atley01]

Tips for all of my alternative & Chronically ill/ disabled friends!

A big thing that's helped me feel more comfortable accommodating my disability is finding accessibility tools that reflect my personality / interests.

I should put a disclaimer that making disability "aesthetic" should not be the most important thing about your health! I do this where I can to help me accept my disability.

Here are some alt accessibility tools I've found / made & utilized for myself!

1. If you're prone to nausea:

Anti-nausea meds work, but I also find that peppermints work just as well! I always have mints on me. At home, I've stored them in this coffin container!

I do keep a few of these mints in my bag, as well as ginger hard candies (they taste very strong, but are VERY efficient). I got the peppermints at Dollar tree, and they've genuinely been a life saver.

Alternatively, I've found this adorable ouija board altoids container that has mints in it!

The mints are even fun-shaped! I also saw other horror-movie themed altoid containers in-store as well. Since they're tiny, they dont work well for severe nausea, but they are still helpful!

2. If you struggle with temperature-regulation:

For me, my hands and feet are always FREEZING, but my core will be super warm. What has helped me a lot has been gloves and fuzzy socks!

I have a lot of spooky gloves like this, but I prefer the fingerless ones because I can still use my phone and be warm at the same time! I've also heard my friends who are wheelchair users say gloves can help protect your hands if you use a manual wheelchair. Another added bonus is that certain gloves can help limit mobility for those of you who struggle with hypermobility in your hands.

3. Do you have noise-canceling headphones? Decorate them!

I decorated my N/C headphones in shark stickers because sharks are my special interest!

These are Soundcore Life Q30's. I have gotten compliments on the stickers many times! You could put halloween stickers on yours or decorate your headphones in other ways! I've seen people crochet horns onto the headband portion of their headphones.

4. I would recommend any chronically ill person carry a cup around to stay hydrated:

ESPECIALLY If you need electrolytes. You can either have a drink like propel or powerade in your cup (or any drink of your choice, and you could put electrolyte packets in there).

This specific cup isn't the best at keeping my drink cold, but it holds a decent amount of liquid! And it's spooky. If you're someone who struggles to drink enough water, I've found that getting a fun cup helps me a lot!

5. Make communication bracelets!

If I'm having a difficult time voicing my needs, or I'm in a verbal shutdown, these bracelets can come in handy for me.

I'll either wear them on my wrist when needed or present them to my friends so they can read the bracelet and understand what I need. I keep them on a keychain that way I dont lose them and can transport them easily. An example of some of the phrases I've turned into bracelets is; "No spoons," "spoon debt," "verbal shutdown," and "flashbacks," (for when I'm having a PTSD episode.) You could make a bracelet with the medical condition you have as a DIY medical-alert bracelet. I added tiny spoon charms to some of my bracelets because I thought it was funny.

5. Mobility aids!

Decorate your mobility aids with things like stickers, kandi, lights, etc! Pinterest, instagram, and tiktok have a lot of good ideas. You can easily customize your mobility aids to look spooky or look however you want them to!

6. Bags!

I know that for me, I NEED to carry a bag around whenever I go out because it has important medical items that I need, but it also keeps all my important items like keys, id, ect, in one spot so that I dont forget / lose them. SOME spooky bags are expensive, but you could find a plain black bag at a thrift store or walmart and accessorize it with patches, keychains, and pins! I've seen people paint designs onto their bags before as well.

• You dont have to spend a lot of money on your accessibility tools!

Find ways to DIY them, or get them secondhand! You could even try working with household items you already have! A lot of these items, or items very similar to it, can be found at the dollar tree - even the materials needed to make the beaded bracelets! (Outside of the spoon charms)

Thats all!

If I think of more, you'll see me again! Be spooky, and be kind to yourself!

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Logical Fallacies

A logical fallacy occurs when an argument is not adequately supported.

This can be the result of errors in reasoning, a lack of evidence, the author’s use of irrelevant points, or other reasoning moves that do not logically support the argument.

Advertisers, salespeople, politicians, and others might use logical fallacies to manipulate you.

Argument to the People (Appealing to Stirring Symbols)

Involves using a visual symbol (the American flag, pictures of babies, “Support the Troops” bumper sticker, etc.) of something that much of the public finds hard to reject but that has little relevance to the argument.

Example: Political candidates often use the American flag and other patriotic symbols in TV ads to appeal to and persuade citizens to vote for them.

Appeal to Pity (Ad misericordiam)

A verbal version of Argument to the People.

Example: A political candidate may tell stories about their life that are not connected to their platforms.

Like Arguments to the People, Appeals to Pity are fallacious if they are irrelevant to the argument in question; pity for the candidate should not be a reason why citizens vote for them.

In some cases—for example, when soliciting money for people whose incomes are below the federal poverty threshold or for the Humane Society—appeals to pity may be legitimately used.

Erroneous Appeal to Authority

Example: Years ago, a commercial for Bufferin Aspirin used Erroneous Appeal to Authority by featuring people on the street lining up to ask Angela Lansbury, a popular actress at the time with no medical authority whatsoever, questions about the pain reliever.

Ad Hominem (“to the person”)

Involves a personal attack on the character of the opponent rather than on the argument itself.

Example: Criticizing a restaurant because the chef is “too skinny,” rather than focusing on the merits of the restaurant’s food, service, atmosphere, or other relevant aspect is an ad hominem attack.

However, an ad hominem argument that is relevant to the issue (“Rinalda Gooch will not make a good President because she faints every time she tries to make a speech”) is not a logical fallacy.

Shifting the Issue (Red Herring)

Refers to the arguer’s changing the subject to avoid dealing with an unpleasant aspect of the argument.

Example: When a reporter questioned candidate Stone about her past marijuana use, she responded, “Why haven’t you asked my opponent about his drinking?”

Hasty Generalization

Means to argue on the assumption that an entire group shares the same traits as one or two examples of that group.

Example: “Women should not be considered for high political office because they’re too emotional to make thoughtful decisions.”

Appeal to Popularity (Bandwagon)

An argument based on the premise that an idea or product has merit just because it is popular.

Example: “All the cool kids are wearing Stinko sneakers this season,” the saleswoman told the boy. “You don’t want to be left out, do you?”

Begging the Question

Involves “supporting” an argument by stating the argument in different words.

Example: “We need to bomb evildoers because they are guilty of horrendous acts,” basically restates the claim (evildoers are people who do evil) instead of stating a reason why bombing the “evildoers” is a good thing to do.

Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc

An argument that uses Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc (“after this, therefore because of this”) illogically suggests that because one event followed another, the first event caused the second to occur.

Example: “The fact that students cut their hair over the weekend and their test scores were higher on Monday shows that shorter hair leads to good grades.”

False Dilemma or Dichotomy (Either/Or)

This argument attempts to sway opinion by making it seem as if the only alternative to a proposed argument is one that is obviously unacceptable.

Example: “We must fight the enemy in their land so they don’t follow us to ours” suggests -- but does not attempt to show -- that one country’s aggression is the only way to decrease another country’s aggression.

The Slippery Slope

This argument attempts to dissuade people from taking or allowing a specific action because it might cause a particular condition to spiral out of control – no matter how far-fetched.

Example: “Legalizing same-sex marriage could lead to legalizing marriage between people and their pets!”

If these notes are helpful in your writing, do tag me, or send me a link to your work. I would love to read it!

[femsolid]

"Women are still choosing to opt out of work and stay at home to raise children, and women are still taking pole-dancing classes, saying it is good exercise. Women are still painfully removing all of the hair from their bodies and pretending to be morons so as not to threaten their male suitors. They are still giving their money and attention to musicians who tell them they are worthless pieces of ass. Women are still watching blockbuster films and aspiring to be the supportive wife or the sexy girlfriend who needs rescuing, rather than the one (man) saving the world. Women in Hollywood are still producing films where men save the world. They still love and support and marry wife-beaters, rapists, and misogynistic trolls. Women are still voting Republican.

You can, they insist, still be a feminist and shave your legs, fuck men, consume misogynistic culture. Look, we’re doing it, we call ourselves feminists, you can too. The political and sociological understanding of the pressures under which women attempt to live their lives is replaced with personal choice. For example, everything about our culture may be pushing women toward marriage—from romantic narratives in movies and television to health insurance policies and tax benefits granted by the government. And marriage has historically been a way to control women and reduce them to being property—the visuals in marriage ceremonies and the words of wife and husband are still heavy with this symbolic meaning. Yet, if you want to get married and you choose to get married, and you identify as feminist, then your getting married is automatically a feminist act.

So we have books called Sexy Feminism, scientific studies about whether feminists have a more satisfying sex or romantic life, personal essays about how feminism helped me get that promotion/have better orgasms. And while there is a vague notion that there is something called the Patriarchy keeping you down, there are few ideas of how to counteract it, except through individual achievement.

Now that we have removed all meaning from the word feminism, our ranks have swelled. A woman can now take up the feminist label without any true political, personal, or relational adaptations whatsoever. It’s just another button on her jacket, another sticker on her bumper."

- Why I Am Not A Feminist by Jessa Crispin

[reasonsforhope]

"Of South Korea’s countless kilograms of annual food scraps, very few will ever end up in a landfill. This is because of two reasons—the first is that it’s been illegal since 2005, and the second is because they have perhaps the world’s most sophisticated food waste disposal infrastructure.

While representing a significant burden on the economy, the food waste disposal nevertheless produces ample supplies of animal feed, fertilizer, and biogas that heats thousands of homes.

As the New York Times’ John Yoo and Chang Lee reported from Seoul, South Korean cuisine tends to lend itself to creating food scraps, since many staple dishes come with anywhere from a few to a few dozen sides.

With the culture erring on the side of abundance rather than restraint, many of these small dishes of tofu, kimchi, bean sprouts, and other bites would be tossed in the landfill if it wasn’t illegal to do so.

The government put the ban hammer on it because the mountainous terrain isn’t ideal for landfill construction.

Instead, restauranteurs and street hawkers pay the municipality for a sticker that goes on the outside of special bins. Once filled with food scraps, they are left on the road for collectors in the morning who take 90% of all such waste in the country to specialized collection facilities.

At apartments and among residential housing areas, hi-tech food waste disposal machines are operated by a keycard owned by residents under contract with the disposal companies.

Once taken to the recycling facilities, the food is sorted for any non-food waste that’s mixed in, drained of its moisture, and then dried and baked into a black dirt-like material that has a dirt-like smell but which is actually a protein and fiber-rich feed for monogastric animals like chickens or ducks.

This is just one of the ways in which the food scraps are processed. Another method uses giant anaerobic digestors, in which bacteria break down all the food while producing a mixture of CO2 and methane used to heat homes—3,000 in a Seoul suburb called Goyang, for example. All the water needed for this chemical process comes from the moisture separated from the food earlier.

The remaining material is shipped as fertilizer to any farms that need it.

All the water content is sent to purification facilities where it will eventually be discharged into water supplies or streams.

While one such plant was shut down from locals complaining about the unbearable smell, many plants are odorless, thanks to a system of pipes built into the walls that eliminate it via chemical reaction.

It’s the way South Korea does it. Sure, it costs them around $600 million annually, but they have many admirers, including New York City which hopes to implement similar infrastructure in the coming years."

-via Good News Network, June 15, 2023

[cocogum]

Reassuring proof that the sadidas are very much alive and well in the Waven era:

In the Lance Dur webtoon, a sadida appeared in the 4th chapter called “The Sickness of Lance Dur”. Lance Dur is far older than the last time we saw him in Season 4, meaning that more than a decade had passed which was after the wave had happened. (Waven happens 10 years after the Wakfu era)

In Waven, if we look around on Astrub Island, we can see a female sadida gardener looking for some shrubs. Her quest info does not reveal her race but her skin complexion as well as her hair color matches the sadida race perfectly.

(this woman was looking for some sentient shrubs by the way...don't ask why...)

We also notice a male sadida and a female sadida eating together in an inn in Amakna.

One of Waven’s quests has Renate, an (iconic) sadida, asking you to help him with the smells of a temple. He is not only a sadida but is also a royal servant of Amalia.

Renate doesn't seem to be near Canar this time around but looks to be well. He’s even joined one of Waven’s four cardinal clans, which in his case, is the nature clan.

In Waven, we can see a small music sadida band playing in Amakna.

When we take a look at Waven’s emotes skin shop, we can see three Sadida god reaction stickers. If Sadida had lost his godly status (meaning if he died), then his stickers wouldn’t have been present in the shop. The emotes skin shop currently has three reaction stickers for Iop, Cra, Eniripsa, Ecaflip, Enutrof, Sram, Sadida, Xelor, Sacrier, and Feca.

*Reaction stickers are not available for Osamodas and Pandawa at the moment*

In the Bestiale teaser trailer, which is a show that will take place in Waven, two sadidas can be seen in the background when Yrehn, our osamodas main character, is visiting a market.

One of these sadidas, however, seems to be someone we already know: the one on the left is Chamberlain Thicktuft, the counsellor or advisor (?) of the Sadia kingdom. He appeared in every season (excluding Season 3) and has even been seen in The Great Wave manga attending the banquet for the male sadida and female eliatrope marriage.

So why is he in the Bestiale teaser? No idea.

Aside from the Sadida proof listing above, another thing people noticed were the cras in Waven. Or rather their weapons.

When we take a look at each cra and their types, none of their weapons remotely look like the ones we’ve seen in Wakfu or Dofus anymore. Back in Wakfu, the cras were in an alliance with the sadidas which is why their bows were primarily made of special wood. Evangelyne was a good example of this.

So when we compare Wakfu to Waven, the cras now have more than one choice of weapon :

Arcarius Paladir replaced their bows with a much more efficient trajectory leafy-like weapon.

Blunderbust have adopted a steampunk style and chose to use guns that shoot arrows.

Buneblade have abandoned long-range weapons of any format entirely and opted to use boomerangs instead.

Piven Bow might just be the only type we know who still uses the old cra style by keeping the bows. Their name even has the word “bow” in it.

Shaden Shiru just like the Buneblade, threw out the bows to use knuckle ring-looking weapons as their main source for fighting.

Zandiezer Zo relies on a stoned glove in the shape of a crossbow that can emit long-range shots.

Given that most cras have preferred using other weapons than the bow, this leaves us to speculate that the alliance between the cras and sadidas is indefinitely over and might have possibly ended after the Necrome war or a bit later.

Other than that, it’s reassuring to know that the sadidas have at least survived the great wave since the tree of life had to have been protected and now resides somewhere safe and hidden from the world.

Waven is currently in progress, so there is still a lot to discover and learn about what happened after the great wave struck. When more updates drop, there might also be more islands to explore which could reveal more about the sadidas’ situation.

[cb-writes-stuff]

Hey.

So, uh…

Remember that art thing I said I was working on?

Well…

It’s still pretty messy, but… Here you go.

ISAT-STYLE HAT KID.

Look at her! She’s so energetic! And not depressed! So unlike Siffrin!

She got that cape! And that umbrella! And her signature hat!

I think I did pretty well at capturing the ISAT art style. Certainly for my first time. A colored version does exist, but I’m saving that for another day, when I can post the finished versions. To talk about the art itself, I used Bonnie as my primary reference, since they’re the only one who’s not an adult. For example, Hat Kid has blush stickers and no nose shadow, since that seems to be a kid thing. I also borrowed Mirabelle’s rapier to get an idea of the perspective on the umbrella, which helped out a lot. I also decided to keep Hat Kid’s thicker upper eye line and her eyelash-thingies, since I feel they make her more distinctive from the other characters, in a good way. They’re also pretty satisfying to draw, not gonna lie.

For those of you who don’t know, this is part of me demo’ing an AU idea I had, called In Hats and Time. As you might guess, it’s a combination of In Stars and Time and A Hat in Time. (I just realized I could call it “A Hat in Stars and Time”, or “AHISAT”, but that’s a bit wordy.) I don’t have a story, like, at all. Not set in stone, anyway. But I do have a few ideas. I’ll probably post about it later.

AAHHH! I’m really excited to share this. It’s a new kind of art project for me, doing this kind of style swap, but I’m really liking how it’s going.

Edit: I should’ve done this earlier, but here is a similar drawing I did of Siffrin in the AHIT art style, also grayscale. Figured I should plug that.

[boxturret]

How to get Stickers/Tape off of boxes

There's nothing worse than spending money on a sealed Bionicle set, or just tracking down one with the box, only to find that some criminal went and stuck things all over it.

This is a problem that I've faced a lot, and have found a pretty good solution to!

First, blast the sticker with a hair dryer. This will soften the adhesive and allow you to get a small knife underneath an edge

Then you can start carefully peeling it up. Ideally you would use some tweezers to grip the sticker, but none of mine have enough grip so I just end up sing my fingers. My fingers are very sore afterwards from all the hot air...

Now while this removed the sticker itself there's probably a lot of adhesive left on the box.

You could try washing it, but water and cardboard don't mix...so recently I found that Blutack works amazingly well!

You simply roll it over the surface gently, and slowly but surely the blutack will stick to the adhesive and pull it off!. It will take quite a while, and its a bit hard to roll it with burnt fingers, so maybe don't do the two steps back to back...

But eventually your work will be rewarded! A nice clean box to enjoy.

Here's another example. Note: near edges or parts where the cardboard has torn you have to be very careful, as the blutack is strong enough to tear the cardboard up. But a slight dab of glue on the underside is enough to repair it.

Also: This specifically is an English brand of Blutack, the north american version is different so I'm not sure how well it would work, so be ware.

[alithographica]

Re: Redbubble & Alternatives

Redbubble is doing some nonsense and I've deleted my account. I barely bothered with it anyway, was mostly there for people who've asked for specific images as posters.

Anyway in doing that I sacrificed the $4.35 that was still sitting in my earnings. They only let you cash out at $20, so rather than drum up sales and therefore make Redbubble more money, I'm gonna do what I feel is $4.35 in anti-publicity for them. 🥳

tl;dr there are new fees that hurt artist income at all sales levels. Redbubble is either looking to cut costs and raise profits for funsies, or is in serious financial trouble.

About the new fees:

Redbubble offers their services to artists by allowing artists to control their profit margin above a certain baseline manufacturing fee. This was pretty cool! There's now an additional fee that will be charged starting May 1, 2023. It is not an upfront fee that requires you to pay out of pocket, but it does directly cut your profit margin. How badly? Well...

By Redbubble's own example, if in one month you sell $300 in products that you had set at a 25% margin, you'd previously earn $75. Under the new structure, that earnings level means you pay a $28 fee, so you will now be paid $47. That $28 represents a 37% cut off what you were supposed to earn.

There's a full fee table in that link, but other highlights include a $1 fee if you earned $2 (aka 50%!) and big sellers who'd expect to take home $400 will now receive $320 (an $80 fee, 20%).

It also puts you in a weird spot that earning $1 more in a month may bump you to the next tier, causing you to actually take home less money. Make $1 more, end up losing $11. Make it make sense. 🤨

About the new tiers:

Each shop is evaluated and labeled Standard, Premium, or Pro. Premium and Pro shops are not subject to the new fees, but there's no clarity on how to move from one tier to another. Redbubble says it's under your control but it's clearly not. Many artists are reporting that they have accounts with next to no sales that have been labeled Pro, and accounts with thousands of annual sales that are labeled Standard.

Action items:

Look, I'm not gonna tell other artists that they have to close their shops, or tell buyers not to buy from Redbubble if your favorite artists have chosen to stay. What you do with the above info is up to you.

What I will say is that many artists are leaving because the new pay structure sucks. I encourage people who buy from Redbubble to expand their support to other sites.

Attrition is arguably their goal here—they know people will leave over this, and that'll probably lower their costs and lower competition for the remaining accounts. But goodwill is lost easily and they're playing a dangerous game on betting how many stay vs. leave. I'm out.

Feel free to leave your feedback on Redbubble's feedback form here, but it feels slightly like yelling into the void.

Alternatives:

tbh I don't have a good read on things. If you do know of any recommended (or unrecommended) print-on-demand sites, speak up!

I will say that as of now (April 2023), based on my research:

🟢 INPRNT sounds like a winner if your game is art prints and stickers. Does not have any wearable products like t-shirts.

🟡 Etsy + Printify/Printful might be viable? Etsy always had higher profit margins than POD marketplaces, but it's a bit more work and they also do weird things occasionally. Also has a listing fee so if you're the type to upload a ton of designs, pricey.

🔴 Teepublic is owned by Redbubble. Doesn't have the tier/new fee structure as of now but might be imminent. Have also heard their customer service sucks.

🔴 Society6 is going to charge artists shipping costs, and there's going to be a (mandatory?) subscription service launched in the fall, so that's not a winner anymore either.

[lemniscate-graphics]

Help a disabled bi enby pay for car repairs!

Hi guys!! Life has been kicking me in the shins the last few months, but today I went to get groceries and this is what greeted me!

That's my engine *and* transmission oil! Mechanic has quoted me 1400 total to replace the oil pan gasket, transmission gasket, and valve cover gaskets, which all decided to go at the same time! Granted, my Cherry Bomb is an '07 so we were expecting to have to shell out for something soon, but this hit us between paychecks, and the next check also needs to pay rent and a psychiatrist visit I cannot resechedule because it's related to my disability claim for work!

I'm opening unlimited simple sticker commissions between today (Aug 20, 2024) and September 5th 2024, $10 per sticker, up to 8in/10cm length and/or width, max two colors (I know the Ghostbusters sticker has three, but I am limiting this run to two colors to keep it simple.) Here are some examples:

I prefer to either use existing IP logos like the ones here, common slogans or phrases (like 'Fuck The Police', 'Eat The Rich', or 'Be Gay, Do Crimes'), or work with you to create a unique design, unless I can directly ask an artist if I can use their work for a one-off sticker. For example if you show me a fandom sticker designed by another artist from like Etsy or something and want me to duplicate it, I MUST be able to OK that with them.

I am not taking shirt commissions at this time.

Not only can I not afford to buy the shirts, but I don't have a way to guarantee good-quality prints at this time. My aim here is to churn out something I know I can make quickly and at a good quality, and I cannot do that with shirts right now.

My paypal is rlmckin@gmail.com. You can also just donate if you don't want a sticker! If you want a sticker, DM me or send me an email at lemniscatevinyls@gmail.com so we can get things sorted! If I do not get a DM or Email, I will assume you just want to donate and will NOT make you a sticker!

Thanks in advance, every cent will help!

[howlsofbloodhounds]

Have i said this already

I cant remember 💃

What if nightmares spouse was still alive, or like...became alive AGAIN when nightmare has killer

Like, killer can see nightmare being affectionate with his spouse and vice versa

Basicallg what im saying is what if killer used that as an example of how to show affection and did it with color

Imagining killer just cooking a human heart for color and giving it to him, or like... purring loudly whenever color is near because he could always faintly hear nightmare purring when his spouse is near

And gifting the limbs of someone who bothered color, because nightmares spouse would frequently kill and make little artworks of the bones of someone who bothered nightmare

Hell, maybe even try to make a little artwork too. Or like carve something out of the bone that he likes, like a lil cat

Bone cat

That idea is both hilarious, terrifying, and cute. I mean, he already keeps entire jars of souls for study and presumably scoops up blood and monster dust also for study.

Realizing that some of what he’s already doing can be used as affection would be a prime light bulb moment lmao.

Like, he spends hours of his days making color the perfect jar—carefully placing the souls, blood and dust of Color’s enemies (or at least who killer thinks are color’s enemies) into a jar and decorating it all pretty with glitter and ribbons and of course placing little upside down heart stickers on the jar (don’t ask him why it was instinct) and its beautiful and killer is sure color would love it because the boss and the boss’ lover love it.

And like the jar is probably heart shaped and looks something like this

So from Color’s perspective, Killer walking up to him with the jar is the equivalent of something like this

Until Color actually gets a good look at it and then just stares, and killers like “do you like it? 🙂” and he’s all squeezing his hands together in front of his chest like this

{art by rahafwabas, edited by me.}

And then Color has to ask why he gave him this—souls and hearts and blood and dust specifically—and then killer explains about nightmare and then color’s like..”yeah, okay. That makes sense. Of course they’d do that.”

And then Color has to explain that Nightmare and his lover are not exactly the picture of a typical relationship nor what’s considered appropriate to give others, and if killer gave this to anyone else they’d probably be creeped out by it. (Which killer of course keeps in mind, because he loves creeping people out lmao.)

But then Killer’s like..

“..so do you not want it?”

Now here im not sure how exactly color would react—his souls would probably have a lot to say on this. The fact that Killer hurt and killed people for this gift, that Color has to set an example and maintain his integrity— but also how killer very obviously put a lot of thought and hard work into this gift for them and it’d be rude to throw it away.

And yet another part of color is mindful of the fact that this could very well be another of killer’s little morality and boundary tests—trying to test what color is going to do, chose kindness and not hurting killers “feelings” or maintaining his integrity.

And i think maybe a good compromise would be color giving the jar back with a kind, patient smile, and requesting that he hold the jar for him—keep it safe for him. And instead, he’d like to show him something he likes to make as gifts. (And therefore likes to receive as gifts.) and then maybe color makes use of the jar stuff to make like, some of those sand container jewelry like these:

Or perhaps Color further compromises by making one of those blood vial necklaces, appeals to killers idea of a gift with something more consenting and harm free because its vials of killer and colors blood freely given.

Something like this, but imagine Killer’s blood is something more thick and dark like Determination, while Color’s blood is like a darker version of his flames; changing colors and glowing softly in the jar.

{ @brokenramunebottle }

[beespaceprogram]

Sticker Cutter Research

I was looking into getting a sticker cutting machine, and I decided to start by looking into cricut which is a well known brand. I had a look at what models they had than their feature etc, but what I was most concerned about was their software. Printer companies like to lock you into a defacto subscription to support hardware you don't really own, and as I was to discover, cricut are operating in a similar way.

The cricut software is online-only*. To cut your own designs you need to use their software to upload your art to their server. There's no way to cut a new design without a logged-in cricut account and an internet connection. At one point in 2021 they flirted with limiting free accounts to 20 uploads/month but backed down after huge community backlash, as far as I can tell.

The incident spawned several community efforts to write open-source firmware for cricut hardware. Some efforts were successful for specific models/serial numbers, but require cracking open the case and hooking in to the debug contacts to flash the chip; not exactly widely accessible. Another project sought to create a python cricut server you can run locally, and then divert the app's calls to the server to your local one.

I restarted my search, this time beginning with looking for extant open-source software for driving cutters, and found this project, which looks a little awkward to use, but functional. They list a bunch of cutter hardwares and whether they're compatible or not. Of those, I recognised the sihouette brand name from other artists talking about them.

I downloaded the silhouette software to try like I did w the cricut software, and immediately it was notable that it didn't try to connect to the internet at all. It's a bit clunky, in that way printer and scanner software tends to be, but I honestly greatly preferred using it to cricut's sluggish electron app⁺. Their software has a few paid tiers above the free one, adding stuff like sgv import/export/and reading cut settings from a barcode on the input material. They're one-off payments, and seem reasonable to me.

This is not so much a review, as sharing some of the research I've done. I haven't yet used either a cricut or a silhouette, and I haven't researched other brands either. But I wanted to talk about this research because to me, cricut's aggressively online nature is a red flag. Software that must connect to a server to run is software that runs only at the whim of the server owner (and only as long as it's profitable to keep the server up). And if that software is the only thing that will make your several hundred dollars worth of plastic and (cheap, according to a teardown I read) servos run, then you have no guarantee you'll be able to run it in the future.

Do you use a desktop cnc cutter? What has your experience been like with the hardware and software? Do you have any experience from home printers with good print quality and user-refillable ink cartridges?

* Cricut's app tried to connect to more than 14 different addresses, including facebook, youtube, google analytics, datadoghq.com, and launchdarkly.com. Launch Darkly are a service provider that help software companies do a whole bunch of things I'm coming to despise, for example, they offer infrastructure for serving different features to different demographics and comparing results to control groups. You know how at various times you've gotten wildly different numbers of ads than your friends on instagram? They were using techniques like this to work out how many ads they could show without affecting their pickup/engagement rates. Scummy stuff.

⁺ Electron apps are web-pages pretending to be applications. They use heaps of ram, tend to have very poor performance, and encourage frustrating UI design that doesn't follow OS conventions. Discord's app is a notable example of an Electron app

[argumentalist]

I'm building another Witch from Mercury kit this week - the Gundam Lfrith Ur.

Out of curiosity, how are folks pronouncing "Lfrith"?

Elefrith? L-F-rith? Lifrith?

Seems to me that it sounded something like "rubris" in the anime.

I'm slowly working my way through my HGWFM backlog. These are all truly fantastic kits. I haven't honestly been disappointed by one of them yet.

I decided, right off the bat, to use the stickers in this kit. I wasn't very happy with how my attempt at painting the Lfrith Thorn went. I didn't want a repeat of that frustration.

The good news is that if you do a halfway-decent job of debossing the stickers they actually look pretty good. I used a wooden cuticle-pusher and it's great for pressing the stickers into all the little recesses. Here on the chest, for example, there's some actual depth and dimension to those stickers in the shell.

The head is just impressive.

There's 10 separate bits of plastic in there. The eyes and that front head camera are green plastic - they would've been very easy to paint if I wasn't using stickers. That tiny bit of red for the chin - also separate plastic. There's a bit of black plastic around the eyes too, not the usual black sticker.

And I love how everything layers-up with the bits of white showing through the teal.

The arms are another example of the fantastic color-separation.

Remember that Thunderbolt Full Armor Gundam I built a couple weeks back? How there were all those tiny color-correcting stickers for those little thrusters everywhere? The thrusters in the shoulders here are separate bits of plastic. No stickers needed.

In fact... Basically all the stickers are shiny foil stickers for the shell effects. No color-correcting stickers at all.

This kit feels a little light on the accessories... There's the phased array cannon on the back, the beam gatling gun with its shield, and a couple beam-sabers.

I like how the beam-sabers store on the shield. And the shield can be attached either to the beam gatling gun or right to the arms. The weapons are all completely ambidextrous - they're not stuck on any particular arm.

And, even better, the kit comes with a couple open/expressive hands in addition to the closed/holding hands. Always a nice bonus.

While there's obvious similarities to the Lfrith Thorn... Unlike something like the Gundvolva the ties back to the Lfrith aren't real obvious. I haven't looked up a lot of info about this suit... But I wonder if that's because it was developed from the Pre-Production model, rather than the actual Lfrith.

Like I said at the start - this is a fantastic kit. It feels nice and sturdy. Despite its bulk, it's well-articulated. Poses well and stays where you put it. Despite the size of that beam gatling there's absolutely no problem holding it.

I'm going to be sad when I run out of new HGWFM kits to build.