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kanohivolitakk · 3 years ago

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On Teridax’s destiny

One simple change that would’ve made Bionicle’s story much better would be this:

Ditch the idea that Teridax’s destiny was to become the Great Spirit Robot to begin with and instead make it explicit that the Plan was a result of Teridax acting on his own machinations and desires rather than something he was destined to do.

Because, while I do like the idea of that Teridax’s destiny was to restore Spherus Magna with Mata Nui as there is a sweet sense of irony in it (not mention how it calls back to Teridax and Mata Nui being “equals”) I don’t really like how Teridax’s destiny was to pilot the GSR as it essentially makes his takeover feel obsolete. Since like. The whole thing with the Plan was Teridax wanting to break of his assigned role and destiny because he saw himself becoming more than just a servant. He wanted to become god so badly that he made this whole elaborate 50 000 year long plan to 6D chess the whole universe, playing by it’s rules and using the concept of destiny to his advantage. Teridax played with the will of the universe itself and used it laws so he could bypass them and achieve godhood. Teridax did it all by himself which is incredibly impressive.

So saying that “Teridax’s destiny was to take over the GSR all along” not only diminishes Teridax’s accomplishment, but also robs his agency in the narrative and makes it feel that Plan was something that was always supposed to happen. Now one could argue that the concept of Destiny robs the characters agency in general. But like in most cases I’m actually fine with it since not only Destiny is moreso a subconcious action, the characters arguably lack a complete free will due to being cogs in the machine, so it’s more understandable. (though I have much more to say about Destiny as whole it’s better saved for another day.)

Thing is though, with Teridax specifically his character works much better had his destiny not been taking over the GSR because it goes against Teridax’s gambit. Because the Plan was a result of Teridax’s work of understanding how the GSR operated and playing the long game to gain control. It required Teridax understanding how Destiny functioned and manipulate each destiny to play how he wanted. Teridax carefully figured out an elaborate scheme to seize control, and did all that just because he saw himself as a better ruler. So just going “well actually his destiny was to take over the robot” makes it feel that the Plan was always part of Teridax’s Destiny and the Destiny of the Matoran Universe which just...doesn’t fit with me. It’s much better had the Plan been something that was well..unplanned and essentially Teridax rigging the system, the very laws of the universe he belonged to for his goals.

In addition, had Teridax’s takeover of the Matoran Universe been unplanned as opposed to it being destined fits much better with the original concept for Makutas character. You see, according to a document comprising the original plans of the story, Makuta was supposed to be an outsider force invading the GSR, an entity unknown to all as if a virus. Yet at the same time he was supposed to be the Dark Half of Mata Nui, the inner darkness of the Great Spirit himself. Even Christian Faber, the man behind Bionicles concept himself, once echoed this sentiment on his blog:

“Takanuva had to merge with Makuta to defeat him. Light and darkness are connected and Makuta actually did good by securing that only the right heroes reentered the giant robot to restart it. Just like the body actually grows stronger and more immune after a virus.”

Of course, many things were drastically changed from the original plan, one of which was was Makutas character. But still, this idea of Teridax being essentially virus worming his way in feels like a deliberated callback or a reuse of the original ideas for the character. Not only that, Teridax’s plan being unplanned also fits with the cancer allegory. It is well known that Bionicle was conceived as a a story about white bloodcells protecting a sick body to some extent and that Teridax was essentially a tumor, a cancer in this allegory. An infestation that was hurting the Great Spirit. So, Teridax taking over the GSR being unplanned feels much more aligned with the original plans for the character and fitting with the anlogue the story wanted to tell. He was always meant to be this outside factor, an anomaly. Teridax's betrayal works the best if it was something the Great Beings didn’t really count on or even see as possibility (heck I do have issues with Terry being created by Great Beings but that’s besides the point I’m trying to make with this post).

With all that said, I wouldn’t necessarily change Teridax’s destiny being to help Mata Nui restore Spherus Magna and being his equal in some fashion, I would’ve kept that detail. Like I said in the beginning, I genuinely love that concept. It is a cute little callback to the brother motif and a perfect usage of dramatic irony, but it also tragically reminds of what could’ve been between the two and how it could've been much better. Now one could argue this goes against what I just said about Makuta being an outisder force invading but the truth is it doesn't. In fact, both Alistairs original plans as well as Faber’s quote indicate Makuta was always intended to be the other side of Mata Nuis coin, his dark half. The yin to his brothers yang. The destruction to his creation. Mata Nui and Makuta were always meant to be linked, whether it being the same being or as equals.

So what I wouldve done? Really like I said, you only need to change Makutas destiny to be more vague and make his takeover of the GsR something that wasnt explictly his destiny. It led to his destiny for sure, but it wasn't something the Great Beings planned to happen.

#Kirika Talks #Bionicle #Makuta #Teridax

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samflir · 3 years ago

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Calculators

This blog post is the start of a series I want to do about all of my hobbies and interests. My new year's resolution for 2022 is to be more creative and finish and publish content creation projects for platforms such as tumblr and youtube.

I have always been interested in calculators for as long as I can remember. As a young child I had a white Texet calculator that was as much a toy to me as anything designed to be a toy. I'd take it with me everywhere and could do simple maths problems with it.

Some time later on, I got my first scientific calculator (A casio model) and my mind was blown by the sheer amount of stuff it could do. It had a blinking cursor!!! and displayed the whole expression before evaluating it!!! I had no idea what SIN, COS and TAN meant, or pretty much any other scientific function for that matter, but learned them intuitively from just messing with it. I was still in primary school and still had absolutely no educational need for this, I just found calculators interesting in their own right. Really any special-purpose portable electronics are, to me.

In high school I ended up buying a new scientific calculator that could do basic calculus stuff, but I didn't use it for very long as I saved up my pocket money to buy a fx-9750gii, which is now the calculator I've owned the longest.

It was my first graphing calculator, and that was awesome. I drew terrible pixelart pictures on the screen and plotted loads of functions, before learning CASIO BASIC just through experimenting with it. I wrote game of life and many other games and programs, as many high school students do. But my high school's curriculum never required it. I just used it because I liked it. I also had another calculator, a slightly more basic scientific model. I had all three because all three had functions that the other two did not. I carried all three calculators to every maths class, but I avoided using the 9750gii for exams, as I didn't want to be accused of cheating.

At some point I got a second-hand 7-segment Texet scientific, a calculator I didn't use much but appreciated for adding some diversity to my collection.

I also owned two calculator watches. One was cheap plastic tat from one of those "MEN'S GIFTS" shops that you see all over shopping malls in the UK, so it unsurprisingly didn't last very long. The other is a casio CA-53W-1ER which I still have but no longer wear after buying a smartwatch. It is the only basic 4-function calculator in my current collection.

I gave away all of my calculators but my graphing calculator, watch and Texet calculator after high school as I felt like I no longer needed them. This is all the ancient history of my calculator collection and it stayed like this for a few years. Until covid-19 hit and I got extremely bored in lockdown...

My calculator collecting restarted when I found out that HP have been forced to sell the 12C, a design of calculator they released back in 1981, into the present day as it has become the standard calculator used by financial professionals. I was intrigued and immediately bought one. It was my first time trying reverse polish notation and my first ever financial calculator. That latter aspect is completely and utterly wasted on my usage, as I'm not even remotely interested in that sort of work, but learning RPN with it made me wish all calculators worked that way.

If you don't know, reverse polish notation (RPN) is an alternative to the input method used by the vast majority of all calculators, called algebraic entry. In RPN, you don't press "2 + 5 =", you instead press "2 ENTER 5 +". ENTER has some subtleties to its usage beyond this, and there's differences in how it works between various RPN calculators, but what it does is place the number you just entered on a stack. The stack gets populated by the numbers 2 and 5, and pressing + immediately adds the two numbers together, placing the result on the stack again for further calculation, if necessary.

Unless you've used a RPN calculator, it's hard to convey how much better this is. The calculator doesn't make any decisions for you. You don't have to split complex formulas into multiple sums. Intermediate values are always displayed on the screen. Brackets are unnecessary as the calculator does operations in the order you press them. It's the manual transmission of calculators. The logic of pressing the SQRT button after the number you want to square root is extended to every function. :3

Another thing that surprised me about the 12C is that it is programmable. Until now I assumed that any calculator with a programming language would at least need a dot-matrix display or some sort of alphanumeric one, but no, HP decided to cram in programming capabilities to a calculator with a 10-digit 7-segment display.

How the hell does that work? Well, using the P/R (program/run mode) button, the calculator opens the program editor, which can be used to step through and edit the program, one line at a time. The language of the calculator is keystrokes, with two conditional skip instructions thrown in for turing completeness. Using keystrokes means knowing how to program the calculator is essentially the same as knowing how to use it, and it's very easy to create macros that run calculations that you have to repeat. It's a very crude form of automation. Oh, I nearly forgot to mention, the keystrokes you've entered are displayed as numbers, referencing their row and column (in that order!) on the keypad layout, like so:

See if you can work out what "43 40" means. Hint: the keypad is 1-indexed, and 0 is actually 10. Numbers are thankfully referenced by their actual values as single digits, so 4 is actually 4.

It's very clear that HP never intended this functionality on the 12C to be for anything more than a little bit of automation for repetitive calculations, like maybe doing tax stuff? idk what financial professionals do all day. So of course, I wrote long programs with complex functionality, like a decimal-binary converter, HMS converter (the easiest) and two versions of square roots without the square root function.

Doing this is actually so much worse than you were probably already expecting. The program editor cannot insert instructions. Instructions must either overwrite existing ones, or be added onto the end where there's empty space. Even if it could, it'd be a very quick way to break any program with GTO (go to, unconditionally jump to another place in the program) instructions in it because you can only jump to exact program line numbers! This means doing literally anything involving branching and looping demands that you write out the program using a notepad of some sort, before keying it in, like you're a machine code programmer using a KIM-1 or something.

Discovering the joys of RPN led me to discovering SwissMicros, an awesome Switzerland-based company making clones of old discontinued RPN HP calculators for hobbyists. The first calculator of theirs I purchased was a DM42, an advanced RPN scientific calculator. It is probably the best calculator for plain arithmetic that doesn't demand textbook output or a CAS. It has absolutely ridiculous precision and range in its floating-point implementation. Finally, I could find out what even bigger factorials than 69! were. Nice.

The DM42 has the best screen of my whole collection. It's a black and white reflective LCD with great contrast and the ability to retain images when switched off, which SwissMicros have used to display an album of .bmps when the calculator is switched off. "Off images" as they're called on the SwissMicros forums, are incredibly fun to design and make. My DM42 has over 100. Shown is a particularly meta example:

The DM42 is a very open device. It's refreshingly different from highly locked-down calculators made for the educational market. This is because it's made by hobbyists for hobbyists. It regularly receives software updates, my favourite of which is the one that added an unlimited stack that grows as needed. This replaced the fixed 4-level stack that the HP 12C and most other RPN calculators have.

People have written alternative operating systems for it that add extra functionality, and there's currently an ongoing project using the DM42 platform to make a new calculator unrelated to anything HP has ever done. My bank account is really going to feel it when that calculator releases.

Its programming capabilities are disappointing. It's possible to display text, but only in one area of the screen. It's possible to display numbers on the screen, but only if they're in the stack. There's a pixel screen but pixels can only be plotted. The only way to rub out a pixel is to erase the whole screen completely. It is hard to make interactive software, but this is kinda to be expected. The calculator it's based on had only a two-line display. Fortunately though, not only can the DM42 insert instructions, it can name programs and have named jump labels within programs, which makes it very easy to write programs for. Unfortunately though, it has no comments.

My favourite program is a deadline tracker that can be used to track repetitive tasks, like completing words in a memrise course, or reading pages of a book. It takes advantage of the real-time clock in the DM42 to display all sorts of cool stats. This actually evolved from me doing the same calculations manually on the 12C, which has calendar functions but no built-in clock.

Overall the DM42 is a great calculator, and still the one I mainly reach for when I need to solve a quick maths problem. The next calculator I got was a DM16L from the same brand. The DM16L is based on a unique calculator from HP, the 16C. The 16C is a programmer's calculator.

The basic idea behind a programmer's calculator is to simulate a computer architecture you're working with, in order to debug or write code. This is mainly of use to assembly programmers who have to deal with hexadecimal a lot, which is the main reason programmer's calculators died out. The DM16L and 16C allow the user to set the word size to any value between 1 and 64, set the interpretation of signed numbers and if there are signed numbers at all. Something that both calculators can also do is simulate processor flags used by some architectures to indicate overflow. The DM16L is an exact clone of the 16C's functionality.

This calculator feels like it was custom made for me. One of my other hobbies is making virtual machines that are programmed in assembly and the DM16L has been essential to developing all sorts of programs for them, especially a library that does integer maths on 64-bit integers. I'd use it as a reference for what the result of a calculation should be, and compare it to the result I actually got.

In terms of programming, the DM16L is in between the DM42 and HP 12C. It can insert instructions and use labels, but instruction labels have to be a single hexadecimal digit and instructions are still displayed in cryptic number form like on the 12C:

The program line pictured above is LBL C. The enhanced features of the DM16L's programming mode make it perfectly usable without a notepad and paper, making it almost feel like a tiny little hand-held computer. I wrote a program that calculates collatz numbers on a train once, with just the device itself.

Although it's not very powerful, and basically unusable outside of its specialist use case of writing assembly, the DM16L is by far my favourite calculator in my whole collection. It’s the only one I carry everywhere with me.

The next calculator I got was the fx-991EX classwiz. This casio calculator almost replaces both of the Casio scientifics I had in high school, and beyond that is not very interesting. It's not programmable and cannot draw graphs, despite its menu system being the same as that used on graphing calculators. It is a very nice looking calculator though, aesthetically a huge step up from previous Casio calculators.

I usually buy calculators because they can do something unique that my other calculators can't. For example, the classwiz can factorise numbers and display textbook input and output, and is the first calculator I got that can do that automatically since high school.

The next addition to the collection was an impulse purchase. One time, when browsing the second-hand electronics retailer CEX, I found a TI nspire CX-II T calculator! It was on sale for ~£60 iirc, which is much cheaper than they go for new. I gave into temptation and added the first Texas Instruments calculator to my collection.

Aside from missing the packaging, it may as well have been brand new. Recently I found out it was manufactured in May of 2020, so its previous owner therefore must've had it for less than a year before selling it at CEX. Didn't seem like they got much use out of it.

This was a first in a few ways. It was my first colour calculator with a backlit screen, it was my first calculator with python and my first with dedicated letter keys.

Too bad it's not a very good set of letter keys. They're arranged alphabetically and are so tiny that you almost need a stylus. I wrote a typing trainer in Python for it and got reasonably fast at it, but found programming it to be uninspiring. All I need is a monospaced grid of characters on the screen! Anything else is overkill.

I was also not too impressed by the UI of the nspire. Unlike any other calculator I've seen, the interface prioritises documents over apps. In order to do anything other than calculate and graph, you need to create a Word-like document to place the appropriate app into, and then use it from there. I can understand why they made it like this, but would prefer some way to opt out of it completely.

The scratchpad functionality of the calculator results in the amusing design quirk of a calculator with a calculator button:

I feel sorry for Americans who have to put up with TI's calculators being pushed everywhere. Everything about them is a massive rip-off. Their calculators are too expensive, and they demand basically the same price of the calculator just to buy software that lets you connect to it, and good luck putting anything on it without that software because they also lock everything down in proprietary file formats! They're like an evil SwissMicros.

The next calculator I got was a vintage calculator. I found it in a local second-hand shop and immediately bought it because it was cheap and seemed interesting to me. The fx-7700G is an early graphing calculator by Casio. It had a very primitive interface and I could totally see how it evolved into the menu system on my 9750Gii.

Outside of being of historical interest, there's not much going for it though. It is just barely programmable, in a way that makes it useless for anything other than automating away repetitive calculations. The screen also fades away almost to nothing when the CPU is busy, something I thought a fresh set of batteries would fix, but unfortunately didn't.

Not mentioned in the introductory paragraphs was a vintage calculator I had for a while. I wish I still had it. It was brown and cream and had a glowing green 7-segment display and had fun quirks like displaying a bunch of decimal points on the screen if you pressed down more than one key at once. It was much cooler than the 7700G, but I still like owning my 7700G.

I then decided to extend my Casio collection temporally in the other direction with a CG50. This is a much more advanced version of my 9750Gii, adding colour and an improved resolution. It also supports python, something I've used on it to make an Ackermann function program.

I was a bit disappointed to find that my CG50 and 9750Gii cannot communicate with one another. I was hoping to be able to send over all of my programs and run them on the CG50, but I could not.

The CG50 replicates Casio Basic with extensions for colour display, but also has an unofficial C API used to develop programs. When I have the time, I definitely want to look into this. It's been used to develop some cool software, such as this Game Boy emulator I have on mine:

It also has textbook input and output, but I already had a colour graphing calculator that could do that in the nspire.

And finally, I bought a calculator that combines basically everything I like about these colour graphing calculators with RPN and a programming language with great potential, the HP Prime. I’ve not used it much yet, as I’m busy with a lot of other things than calculator programming, but PPL (Prime Programming Language) seems very powerful, and allows for programs that other calculators would need a C API or assembly for.

The HP Prime has a capacitive touch screen and unfortunately the designers went to the Early Nintendo DS Game school of touch UX and forced touch in arbitrarily all over the user interface in gimmicky ways. Don’t get me wrong, it’s cool that I can scroll through and zoom on graphs just as I would on a phone, but there are options in a group of six at the buttom of the screen that I’d really rather not be forced to touch in order to use! Maybe I’m missing something, but it seems like you need to use the touchscreen in a lot of settings and menu screens on the Prime, and that’s annoying because I want to touch a screen that isn’t adequately coated against grease as little as possible.

The Prime does have a very, very good keypad though, putting ENTER on the same side as the four basic function keys, where I personally feel it belongs.

The Prime has a Computer Algebra System, which basically means it can do algebra just like a human would. It’s my first CAS calculator and it’s really interesting. Included in the CAS featureset is the ability to find divisors of a number, which in my collection is unique to the Prime. Setting Home (non-CAS) mode to RPN allows me to switch in and out of RPN with one button on any screen, which is excellent. As much as I love RPN, it’s got its drawbacks that will sometimes push me towards using textbook input.

A good example of a UI fail pictured below. Please HP, just give us six function keys below the screen!

The Prime also has just one button for both opening and closing brackets, which is awkward as hell and a very questionable design choice on a programmable graphing calculator. It makes more sense on a simple calculator, perhaps one with a 7-segment display, but not this. At least it still has trig buttons! *cough* nspire *cough*

So that’s where I’m up to with my calculator collection. It’s a kinda expensive hobby that doesn’t make sense to most people, but I really enjoy collecting calculators. They’re so diverse and special-purpose electronic gadgets are getting rarer and rarer in the age of smartphones. I could do just about everything my calculators can do with Eclipse, Maxima and Free42 but nothing beats real hardware and the convenience of not needing to interrupt work I’m doing on a computer to open its calculator app.

There are plenty of other calculator collectors out there with far more impressive collections than mine. I’m in a discord server with a lot of them (Calcverse discord). They collect for a variety of reasons, often interest in vintage calculators, which is why despite the DM16L being ~£100, that was preferable to tracking down a HP 16C, which was never that common to begin with.

I just like expanding whatever functionality my current collection has, because no calculator is complete. Every calculator has functionality that others don’t, and that alone makes them a worthwhile thing to collect, in my opinion.

#samflir's hobbies #calculators #infodump

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vg-sanctuary · 3 years ago

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Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling

Moonsprout Games - Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC - 2019

I don't like the core gameplay of 99% of all RPGs, but the ones I do like have been some of my favorite games I've ever played. case in point, Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling, a modern interpretation of the classic Paper Mario formula and an ideal example of indie developers adding to the legacy of a cult classic. its main feature is turn-based combat with action commands, like old Paper Mario or the Mario & Luigi series, and strategy in its intentional design and small health and damage numbers that goes way beyond "spam damage and heal every third turn, use mana items as needed". (in case you want to be 100% blind for your playthrough, past the Keep Reading link are some very minor spoilers: an item a specific cook can make after a side quest, some basic enemies, environments that are about halfway through the game, and the names of some medals.)

“wow, vg-sanctuary posting about a game that's not even two years old at time of writing? and it's an RPG? are you not a retro/legacy blog anymore? who are you and what have you done with the writer?” I still am a retro/legacy blog, mostly, just this time I thought I'd share something that its developers still get money from, and whose developers aren't mega corporations. and I just beat it, enjoyed it, and really felt like writing about it because it still doesn't have the popularity it deserves even after that puppet guy on YouTube talked about it. not that this post is going to reach any significant number of people, but still. I'll write about some more indie games sometime in the future. (and indeed I am writing about another RPG and you better believe it has a lot to talk about.)

anyway, Bug Fables starts with a brash little bee called Vi and a polite and honorable beetle named Kabbu wandering into an explorer's guild and not having a partner to join the guild with. they reluctantly decide they're going to fight together because companionship is a requirement for this guild, foiling off each other and sometimes off their third friend Leif, a blue moth they find in a cave, for the whole game. every character has a distinct personality and all the party members get some valuable character development through a side quest, which I really liked, but I'm no connoisseur of RPG stories. while I'm on story, people that come here looking for a well-made world will get what they want from the many optional lore books hidden around the world.

the plot becomes more complex and compelling as the game continues, though it generally lets gameplay take the spotlight. which is great, because the gameplay is also mostly great. about a third of it is doing puzzles on the overworld using the abilities of each character to move forward a la the Mario & Luigi series. they generally make use of whatever your newest overworld ability is, and some areas early on have inaccessible things you have to come back to, sort of like a Metroidvania except it isn't required to do this for progression. some puzzles take longer they could because they involve using Kabbu's horn to repeatedly fling an ice block many times over a distance. it's never egregious, but it could have been faster if the guy would use his arms. this is a minor caveat and not a majority of the game.

a lot of people probably don't know how the combat for this or Paper Mario works, and it's really important to Bug Fables, so I'll explain that here. it's turn based, which is typical, but basic attacks and skills need you to time a button press to do as much damage as possible. you can also time a button press when an enemy attacks to take less damage. Paper Mario and Bug Fables also both have medals instead of other equipment that give characters higher max HP or a new skill, for example. you have limited medal points and stronger medals require more points.

this is going to sound like a lot, but any RPG's combat will sound like a lot if you try to detail it in a single paragraph. the game introduces these things slower than I am here. in Bug Fables specifically, the character standing in the front of the group does one extra damage but is more likely to be attacked, and you can pass turns from one character to another in exchange for that character dealing one less damage (which is a lot because basic attacks only deal two damage by default). certain enemies can only be hit by certain attacks; some enemies fly, so Kabbu can't hit them until Vi knocks them down with her beemerang. not a typo, beemerang. and many of Bug Fables' status effects have upsides -- being paralyzed reduces damage taken everything by one, poison has many medals that make it a good thing, and being asleep heals the sleeping character every turn. there are others that are straight up bad things, though, and usually don't come until later. all of this adds up to even small encounters having strategic depth, which is great, and if you don't feel like small encounters you can just avoid them. skills that would typically be relegated to one character, like healing and support skills all going to one, are instead split between party members to make decisions more difficult in a good way. there's also a lovely medal that instantly kills any enemy the game deems too easy for you, sort of like in Earthbound.

I figure I spent more time doing housekeeping like cooking (simple A+B=C or A-becomes-B crafting), buying items, and arranging medals in Bug Fables than in any other RPG, which is because it was designed that way. by the way, cooking recipes start hidden, but a foodie at each restaurant will share some strong ones for free, which is a big help early on. anyone who's played The World Ends with You (i.e. me) will be spoiled by its excellent quality of life: no consumable items and you instantly heal to full after every encounter. it makes items seem like a ridiculous formality that RPGs only still have because they've had them for years, but in Bug Fables any item that isn't simple healing -- a lot of them aren't simple healing -- has great strategic use, and the exact way you spend your medal points can determine whether you win or lose any fight, especially bosses. for example, one character having one extra damage for two turns when they typically only do two is pretty important, especially when they use an attack that does multiple hits, and having it in item form saves valuable medal points and skill points. part of that time was kind of a waste, though, because I generally had one set of medals I use for multiple enemies and one I use for single enemies like bosses. being able to save loadouts would have helped a lot. I would like to compliment Bug Fables on allowing you to restart any boss with different medals without having to repeat cutscenes, and commend it for letting you do-over your level up bonuses late in the game when it starts to matter.

it's not like spending a lot of time on strategizing before fights is strictly mandatory. I was mostly playing on hard mode where enemies have more health and more difficult attacks, and mostly with a medal called Hard Hits that makes all enemies deal one extra damage in exchange for extra money after each fight. it can be less difficult if you'd like, but it's never mindless; even if you're doing a strategy that manages 20 or 30 damage (again, a lot in this game) in a single turn, it takes effort to choose your medals to do so much damage and actually play the strategy out in combat. the combat strategy is the best part of Bug Fables, and it makes each fight almost like a puzzle. I've typed some form of "strategy" six times so far, which is fair because it's the best part of Bug Fables. don't let it put you off, though, it's RPG combat strategy, not chess-like or RTS or something, so if you've enjoyed any other turn-based RPG it should be easy to get used to.

it's also worth mentioning the ample side content. each chapter of the game unlocks a handful of side quests, some about trading, some about combat, and almost as many bonus bosses as main bosses. you're allowed to fight them fairly early on, and a few become available after the final boss that are actually a bit harder than it in classic Paper Mario fashion. basically, if you like Bug Fables, there's a lot of it to play. there's even a trading card minigame because of course there is. it's fairly fleshed out, too, and unlike the one in Chocobo Tales the animations between turns don't take six years. the reward for the whole card side quest isn't something that's important for combat, so you can skip it if you don't like it; I didn't especially like it so I think that was a great decision on the developers' part.

rewards for some of the other side content, though, are so good it's kind of a wonder they can be completely skipped. it doesn't make the game harder to not have those skills or medals, but they are some of the best in the game and undeniably really useful. they make great side quest rewards in that sense, but it's important to know for the people that usually wouldn't do side content. I don't know if that's a common kind of player, but just in case. (this game's 100% achievement has been earned by a sky-high 5.9% of players on Steam. usually it's more like 2% or less. the point is none of the extra content is overly obtuse.)

I will complain about the forced stealth sections though. and be astounded that they fixed the main issue with them in the last stealth section. these are minor caveats and take well under an hour total unless you're really, really, really bad at sneaking, but they bothered me when I got to them. I mean, I understand why they're in the game, I understand why Zelda has them, but I didn't really like them. the main issue for all but the last stealth section is that there's no vision cone or other indication that "if you stand here they will see you" or even an opportunity to recover from mistakes which are incredibly important for playable stealth. the last stealth section does have a vision cone and does have an opportunity to recover from mistakes, which is a great step up. I would like to use even more italics to remind you that these sections total less than an hour of gameplay. Zelda: Breath of the Wild's forced-ish stealth was much worse than this.

I don't know where else to put it, so I'll add here that the soundtrack is great and the graphics are perfectly Gamecube-y and the sprites capture the cuteness of Paper Mario really well, even though they're, you know, bugs. each environment is distinct and themed well, and each one’s music matches well. I really wish I knew how to talk about music because there are a lot of different songs in this game that work well for what they go with. boss music sounds intense and boss-y and appropriate for each boss you're fighting, the not-music hits just right, and everything else feels good. some songs use Nintendo 64 MIDI instruments, which I loved. and the bee boss music has a synth that sounds like bees buzzing.

anyone that likes RPGs -- and even some people that don't -- will probably enjoy the story and strategy that make up the excellent Bug Fables. it goes beyond being a homage to Paper Mario and becomes its own thing entirely, though its roots are obvious from the art style. not that this takes away from it -- Paper Mario is a great legacy, and this manages to be even better. for all its little bad things there are a dozen great ones. I admit I haven't played the classic Paper Mario games, but this made me want more -- I guess I'll have to go back while I hope for Moonsprout Games to continue forward.

#bug fables #bug fables the everlasting sapling #my writing #this was also on amazon luna but i didnt figure anyone would care if i omitted it #also screenshots i took myself wow

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wildlyminiaturesandwich · 6 years ago

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It’s time we talk about SimsDom again.

Most of you probably already know who and what Simsdom is but for those that don’t, Simsdom (or SimsDomination) claim to essentially be a CC finds website, which in essence I suppose they are... But don’t get your hopes up for a Lana replacement because they are SO much more than that. And not in a good way.

I know this is an old subject, and most people probably thought it was all over and done with, but Simsdom is still around and what’s worse is that I’ve noticed a growing trend among my fellow Game Changers who create content for Youtuber and Twitch/Mixer of promoting the site by using it to do CC shopping haul videos and streams, which is encouraging their viewers to use Simsdom. I’m not going to name names or point fingers but it made me realise that maybe some people don’t understand just how bad Simsdom is for the community in general, but especially for the amazingly dedicated CC creators of Simblr. And it’s just so disappointing to see people that some many in the community, including myself, look up to promoting this garbage site!

If you’re curious to know why this is a problem, I’ll explain under the cut. If not, keep scrolling... But don’t say I didn’t warn you.

If you visit the Simsdom website (which I’ve purposely not provided a link to because you absolutely shouldn’t visit it) you’ll notice a whole bunch of custom content is available there, more than likely you’ll even find quite a bit from some of your faves like @peacemaker-ic, @nolan-sims, @storylegacysims, @crypticsim, @renorasims, @savvysweet and MANY more. My stuff is even on there as well and if you’re a creator, the chances are high your stuff is too; whether you want it to be or not.

But don’t be fooled, myself and most of the other creators whose content appears on their site did not give permission for our content to be shared on there. In fact, most of us have specifically asked Simsdom to remove our content from their site. I say “most” because there are some people who willing uploading their content there (god knows why). The easiest way to the tell the difference is to look at who posted the content. If you see this:

That content has been shared by a bot, without the creator’s permission and more than likely against their many requests that Simsdom NOT share their content. If it says the name of the actual creator instead of “Exchange”, that creator uploaded it themselves.

You might also ask why anyone would care if their content was shared on a CC finds blog, after all, it means more traffic to our blogs and content, right? First of all, whether it brings in more traffic or not, is beside point. These creators have specifically requested Simsdom not share their content and they have been ignored, disrespected, threatened, and harassed. Simsdom claims that their users make up 30-90% of Tumblr creators traffic, but I call bullshit. I check my Google analytics every single month for traffic coming in to both my Tumblr and Blogger from Simsdom and I can tell you that LESS THAN 1% of the COMBINED TOTAL traffic from BOTH BLOGS comes from there. And when you understand how they operate, you’ll understand why that is.

- UPDATE -

In reference to Simsdom’s response to this post, they linked 5 creators that they claim meet their crazy statement that their site provides creators with 30-90% of their traffic. So I just thought I’d point out some interesting facts I noticed while looking at those sites.

One of those sites is dead; literally, it doesn’t exist anymore, if it ever even did. Another, @simiracle, is a fellow Game Changer who reblogged this post, so I’m guessing they don’t have support there. And the other 3 are alpha CC creators, none of whom have ever uploaded any of their CC to Simdom, nor have they ever mentioned Simsdom on their sites in any way. However, all three earn money on their own content via either adfly, adsense, patreon, or some combination of the three; my guess would be they wouldn’t be too happy to find out Simsdom is making money off them too.

You see, Simsdom might sometimes link back to the original creators site, but often times they don’t. I’ve noticed quite a bit of the content of my own on their site directly links to the file on SimFileShare, completely bypassing both my Tumblr and my Blogger. This might not seem like a big problem, but what about if the creator has put specific instructions, requirements, or notes on the original download page that if the downloader doesn’t read could result in broken/unusable CC, or worse, a broken game?

- UPDATE -

In reference to Simsdom’s response to this post, they linked to SimFileShare’s page on SimilarWeb and claimed that I was lying about direct-linking to my files there because their site does not appear in the list of referring sites. What they failed to mention is that that list only shows the TOP 5 sites that link to SimFileShare regularly. There are still 385 other sites that aren’t shown and can’t be seen without having an account with SimilarWeb. Convenient, huh?

I also said they only direct-linked SOME content. With my content it was only about 4 or 5 things out of the 15 or so they have on their site and I didn’t check anyone else’s stuff but I have heard other creators say the same thing. So of course they’re not going to show up in the top 5 if it’s only SOME links.

But wait, there’s more.

Anyone downloading from their website without an adblocker is forced to wade through potentially harmful ads as well. Notice the blue button that says “download” at the top? That’s not a real download button and if you click it, it will instantly begin shoving pop ups in your face claiming you have a system error or that your local law enforcement agency has detected illegal activity from your IP. Yes, I clicked it. There is nothing of importance left on my HDD (it’s all stored safely on an external drive that isn’t connected to the PC at all) because this drive has been slowly dying for weeks and I’m destroying it tomorrow and replacing it with a brand new one, so I decided to take a chance.

These ads, which are on pretty much every page of Simsdom, are what’s called “Ransomware”, and it’s whole purpose is to distract you with fake pop up “warnings” when you click on it so that you don’t realise it’s actually downloading a very harmful file to your computer in the background. It’s designed to be next to impossible to close the pop ups, so that even if you somehow became aware of the download happening, you couldn’t get past the pop ups to stop it before it’s had time to finish downloading and automatically begin running it’s payload when it’s done.

What payload? That’s the scariest part, you won’t know until it’s too late. It could be something as simple as a trojan that will force your PC to mine bitcoins, which is still harmful because these mining trojans are resource hogs and put a massive strain on your CPU. Or a trojan designed to target and encrypt specific files on your computer (usually sensitive ones) and demand you pay a literal ransom (usually either in bitcoin or pre-paid cash) and if you don’t, your files will either be complete erased or leaked.

Or worse still, it could be something even more sinister such as a key-logger; a piece of spyware that is designed to track and log EVERY. SINGLE. KEY. you touch on your keyboard. So every password you use, every online banking key code you enter, all the conversations you have via Discord, Twitter, Tumblr, or any other form of instant messaging, that fanfiction you’ve been working on that you are too scared to show anyone in case they think you’re a pervert, your credit card and bank account number you use to shop online, what porn you look for, even your Google search history (regardless of if you’re incognito); all of it will be no longer private and in the hands of someone who could use it to steal your identity, empty out your bank accounts, charge thousands of dollars worth of goods to your credit card, or expose every little strange thing you do on your computer that you thought no one would ever find out about, unless you pay their ransom.

Scary huh?

Also notice that those Get Famous recolours I made don’t say that they actually require Get Famous? Why is that a problem, you say? For most people it’s not, you see “Get Famous Recolours” and you automatically know you need Get Famous to use them, but what about people who are new to using CC and don’t know that for my recolours to work you need the pack they came from? Yeh, that’s a problem, because that particular download is one of those ones that leads straight to SimFileShare:

It leads directly to the merged file, which is NOT the only file available for download in that set, just the largest. But no one who finds my content on Simsdom will ever know that will they? Nor will they read the part of the download page that clearly states Get Famous is required to use the recolours.

I hear you saying “But adblockers are a thing”. Yes they are, but that doesn’t solve the issue of them linking straight to the file. And also, here’s what happens when you try to download something from Simsdom with an adblocker enabled:

You’re forced to wait 180 seconds before the download button appears. THREE WHOLE MINUTES in which you cannot move from that page or the counter will stop, and it will only restart when you go back to that page and stay there for the entire three minutes. Even Adfly isn’t that gross.

So, all of that isn’t enough to discourage you from using this vile site you say? Well, let me introduce you to the person/people who run the site. There are plenty of examples floating around Tumblr of how disrespectful, arrogant, immature, and disturbing the owner/s are (just search for “Simsdom” and you’ll see) but here’s just a few posts showing “receipts” of what happened to creators when they ask for their content to be removed from the site: Here, here, and here.

They have threatened to doxx several creators, tried to blackmail others, threatened to shut down some people’s sites, and even actually refused to remove people’s content unless they say “please”; as though these creators are six year old children who need to learn a lesson for not wanting THEIR content on someone else’s website!

All of this was said AFTER they made a post on their Tumblr saying they would respect creators wishes to not have their content on their site. I myself had a run-in with them as well but I don’t have the receipts because as soon as they finally agreed to remove my content (after almost 4 days of arguing with them and being threatened several times) they blocked me... and they continue to share my content to this day. That’s part of the reason why my motivation to create has been so low lately; I know its just going to end up over there, locked behind a paywall making money for these disgusting people and tricking simmers into thinking they have to pay to access my stuff.

But back to the story! Once they realised 99% of Tumblr creators — the people they get most of their content from — were going to ask to have their creations removed however, they changed their mind and instead started refusing to remove content. In fact, if you go to their website and use the contact form and choose the option “Remove my Content” they literally ask if you are Tumblr creator or not, and if you say you are, this is what you get:

And that “Our Rights here” link? That leads to this nonsense that literally contradicts itself with almost every single sentence:

“Creations can’t be uploaded without the creators permission... but we do not need permission to share your creations” “Feel free to contact us to ask to remove your content... but actually don’t bother contacting us asking to remove your content because we won’t” “SimsDomination is a free website... We don’t steal any content... *literally has other people’s free content locked behind a paywall and charges people membership fees to remove said paywall*”

And as for the EA terms part... I have news for you Simsdom, YOU are the only one breaking EA’s terms of use by putting content behind paywalls. I’m an EA Game Changer, I have actually read the terms of use AND spoken at length on the topics of earning revenue from CC, and why paywalls/memberships/exclusives are against EA’s terms of use with the Sim Gurus, have you? Didn’t think so.

If you had, you’d realise that we are allowed to earn revenue from our CC by having ads on our blogs/sites provided they aren’t deceptive — you know, like that ad with the big blue button you have that shows up on every single page of your site — and don’t lead to anything malicious, which yours do. I clicked several of the ads on your site and they all either lead to disgusting 18+ websites, started producing ransomware pop ups like I described earlier, or tried to download a mysterious file called setup.exe to my computer (which was most likely a trojan as well). We are also allowed to earn revenue via donations and Patreon early access systems provided the content is also made available for free to the general public within 14 days.

We are not, however, allowed to lock content behind Patreon exclusives, memberships and paywalls such as Adfly; which is exactly what you are doing. Like Adfly, you are not only potentially exposing underage children to 18+ content and risking the safety of people’s PCs, but you are also forcing them to wait to click a link and charging membership fees to avoid having to wait to download said content that isn’t even yours; content that you have been asked REPEATEDLY to remove. That is the very definition of a paywall. It is NOT the same as Pinterest or Facebook AT ALL, they might have ads but they aren’t malicious and they do not force people to wait to view content.

- UPDATE -

In reference to Simsdom’s response to this post, this is probably one of my most favourite Simsdom lies, because it never changes but it’s so easy to prove false! “Users don’t need to pay to download any content and don’t need to wait to download them” Oh really? Shall we take a look at your site on the old SimilarWeb that you love so much?

How strange. If you don’t make people wait, then why do you need adfly? And if no one has to pay, then why do you need premium memberships to get rid of the ads and wait time you don’t have? Odd.

Also, lets talk Adsense. I never said I had a problem with you having ads on your site; I said I had a problem with the TYPE of ads on your site. If you seriously don’t think your ads are in any way harmful, I’d suggest you take another look at your Adsense, because either it’s been hacked or you seriously don’t know what you’re doing. Oh, but that’s right, “Google will never display suspicious ADs“... Mmm hmm, you just go right on believe that. Yeh, it’s definitely not possible for Google to be hacked... Nope, definitely not.

Also, if you use your Adsense revenue to pay for your site.... what happens to the extra? Because based on your SimilarWeb page I can take a rough guess at how much you earn every month through Adsense alone and there’s no way your site costs that much to run. For that matter, where does all the extra revenue from Adfly, Short.st and this mysterious “other” go? And all the revenue you get from your premium subscriptions that you totally don’t charge people money for?...

Is that fish I smell?

You are not doing anyone any favours here, so stop pretending that you’re in this for anything other than money. Stop sharing content you’ve been asked REPEATEDLY to remove/not share and breaking EA’s and many creators TOUs!

If you’ve managed to make it this far, congrats lol I know this has been long and probably boring but thank you for taking the time to read the whole thing. All this post was meant to do was explain why people should not support Simsdom, and why I’m so disappointed in other Game Changers for promoting it, but it kind of got away from me a little.

Oh well, now you know what Simsdom is and why I will NEVER support them or willingly allow my content to be shared on their site. And if you do decide to still use their site, just... please be careful. My content will always be free and safe to download, just like the majority or CC creators here on Tumblr. Don’t pay for something you can get for free from the original source.

Also, if you’re looking for a Lana replacement (aka a good CC finds blogs that isn’t shady af like Simsdom) check out @maxismatchccworld!

- UPDATE -

This isn’t in relation to anything specific, just the situation as a whole. It seems Simsdom has just removed the search box from their website completely:

I’m sure it was totally legit reasons and not at all because they didn’t want anyone searching for their own content on the Simsdom website. Just like it wasn’t for that reason the last time too...

#VERY IMPORTANT #DownWithSimsdom #Boycott Simsdom

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nintendroid · 4 years ago

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Everdrive X5 for Nintendo 64 - A Month Later

A month and some change ago, I bought an Everdrive for my Nintendo 64 and never looked back. With 50 hours invested, what do I think of it? Should you get one?

About a year ago I heard about these awesome things that allowed you to load any N64 game you wanted on a single cartridge (with the aid of a mini-SD) and play them on your actual N64. The issue at that time was these things are not cheap - as of this blog entry, the newest model is almost 200 bucks.

I mentally debated on it, watched videos, read reviews and just couldn't justify spending that kind of money on myself. I even considered a Chinese knock-off at one point for 50 bucks, until I heard that they could fry your console.

Stone Age Gamer was offering official versions for a few bucks cheaper with some pack-in games included so I took the plunge and bought one - I can safely say it was everything I wanted. Want to Play Clay Fighter: Sculptor's Cut on your own console without shelling out a cool 1K? This is for you.

The Everdrive is an N64 lover's dream come true. A way to play the entire N64 library on your original console - no questionable and glitchy emulators, just the authentic, original experience.

Every game I tested with the Everdrive worked 100% how I remembered and for all it's faults, low framerate and slowdowns in some cases. Keep in mind, this isn't an enhancement device, so all the original hiccups and blemishes of the old days of N64 gaming are still here.

If the original library isn't enough, you can also play mods on this sucker. I tested out the Goldfinger 64 mod, Smash Remix and Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 - Freem Edition and all of them worked fantastically. Since I mentioned the Japan-exclusive Virtual Pro Wrestling, I'll mention that you can play games from other regions too! For example, I like the game Quest 64 but the American version butchered the ending. The European version (called Holy Magic Century) has a much better ending so I can just play that one instead. For whatever reason though, it changes my TV's aspect ratio and doesn't change it back unless I restart my console.

The Everdrive also has a built-in GameShark cheat engine so you can cheat your little heart out if these old games prove to be too much. As mentioned in an earlier entry, I used an infinite ammo cheat to knock the hell out of the first boss in Earthworm Jim 3D and I don't regret it one bit. That guy sucked. That whole game sucks but whatever.

The only game I couldn't get to work was the Japanese-exclusive Animal Crossing/Animal Forest and that's because this version of the Everdrive doesn't have a battery back-up the game requires to run. It sucks but if I really wanted to play Animal Crossing 64 that bad, I'll just buy a reproduction cartridge.

Any problems? The only one that kind of sucks is that to save natively in-game, you have to be sure to reset the game before turning it off. Say you save in Super Mario 64 after earning a star, if you just turn your console off after your done, the save won't save. instead before you turn your console off, you have to reset after your session. I've not had any problems with it, but it's a minor annoyance.

The emulator also supports NES roms, but I haven't tested it. It's a nice feature if you want to play NES games on your N64 for some reason.

My overall thoughts...the Everdrive 64 has made me a hardcore N64 gamer. Even at the steep price, I don't regret the purchase and for the quality and functionality, I recommend it to anyone on the fence about it. The creator - Krikzz changed the game with these devices and the guy definitely deserves his praise.

Stone Age Gamer has the hook-up if you're interested. They also offer a game bundle including Glover and the recently-released 40 Winks port. For 115 bucks, with 5 free games included that's a heck of a deal.

#stone age game #blog entry #everdrive #nintendo 64 #n64 #nintendroid

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lideria · 5 years ago

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Chaos. | Johnny

➥ request: can I ask for a fluff fic wherein popular johnny and introvert y/n shares a love for photography and bonds over it

➥ pairing: johnny x gender-neutral reader

➥ genre: fluff literally only fluff, college!au bc i miss it

➥ warnings: none other than a few swear words i think? as always, there might be errors because english is my second language!

➥ word count: 3.3k

➥ summary: it’s awkward all around, but somehow you get a friend and a model out of an encounter.

➥ author’s note: this is so late and so bad, i’m sorry. i literally struggled with this so unnecessarily much and i don’t even know why exactly, because this is such an interesting concept. please excuse my bad writing in this and my lack of knowledge in photography, i have done some research but i know it probably isn’t enough. i hope the anon is still around and sees it! have a great time lovelies, and i hope you enjoy this little.. chaos heheh 💕 (i hate it here i do)

“Hey, can I talk to you for a second?”

The room was scorching hot, and you were just trying to leave.

The club’s meeting had started around three hours ago for the last meeting before the big competition. One that was international and people had taken their sweet time getting ready for; a few months of preparation to potentially take the photograph that would grant them money, a lot of press, an opportunity to photograph the cover of a photography magazine and overall pride. Members had been taking about possibly restarting commission work and whether the club should do commission work as a society, free of the school, so that they could have a chance at getting better coverage from local blogs and newspapers, and requiring better payment for their work.

Nothing about the competition, really. Everyone was talented, and everyone was confident. They did not make a big deal out of it. Sure, they had been preparing for months on end as well and they had taken countless potential shots that would end up in the competition— but at this point they had long selected the one.

So when Johnny, the club president (who everyone on this campus that is home to thousands of students knows and has conversed with one way or another) stops you instead of them, the ones who could actually use words of encouragement and what not, it feels kind of weird. You stop before you can go out anyway, instead of pretending not to hear him. “Uh, sure. What about?”

Johnny makes eye contact with you when you turn around, and smiles apologetically before lifting a finger up signaling one second, and moves to close the door. He starts talking before he can come back to his place in front of you, where he had ben leaning against a desk. “I was looking over the last submissions for the competition and I couldn’t see your name,” And he is back, leaning against the desk again with his hands on either side, and a straight face. “You really won’t participate?”

Oh, so he had noticed. You thought nobody would, because you thought it probably would not matter if anyone decided not to take part in it. It would be a weird move to do so, yes, but considering free will and everything it was not undoable. “Ah, it’s just,” You shrug. “I don’t have a camera right now? It outlived its lifetime, and a couple months ago it thought it would be the right time to say farewell.”

He looks at you, crosses his arms on his chest, and furrows his eyebrows a little before lifting one up. “You could’ve just asked someone for a camera.”

“Yeah, except I couldn’t.” You chuckle, which prompts Johnny to look at you more questioningly than anything. So you explain yourself. “I didn’t want to be an inconvenience to anyone— plus, I don’t think most people would want to help a rival.”

“Well that’s just jumping to conclusions.” Despite how his words sound, he smiles. “You could borrow my camera if you’d like.”

“Johnny, there’s like a week before submissions start. I don’t even know if you have the equipments I need, or if the weather’s in my favor.” Upon your words he laughs slightly. “I know for a fact you’ve seen my astrophotography. You were looking at them last semester in the gallery,”

He then nods, just once, reassuringly. “Just look at the forecast. I wouldn’t mind.”

That had been the end point, really.

You went ahead and protested further saying you did not even know if what you wanted to appear on the photos were aligned and visible anytime soon, but Johnny had protested back saying you could just find something else to photograph; just take his camera and do something with it. When you asked him why he only told you that he liked your photography and somewhat and somehow related to it— which was a little mind boggling, considering you were not friends. Only acquaintances, and he could still compliment you and tell you something somewhat vulnerable looking into your eyes just like that and wholeheartedly, coming from his chest.

It got you thinking: maybe that was why everyone seemed to like him. He just meant things he said, and he did not really hold himself back from saying things.

He lets you use his computer to check the alignments and the forecast and the cloud formations for the upcoming days and surely enough, the day after the next the sky would be something you could work with. Not ideal, but better than nothing. “Where do you want to shoot the thing?” He asks over your shoulder, perhaps a bit too into your personal space than you are used to with an acquaintance, but it does not feel weird somehow. Probably because you know that he is not a creep that is peeping over your shoulder.

“You know the little beach at the lake?” He nods. “There.”

“Okay.” You close shut his laptop, and get ready to hand it to him, but he stops you midway. “Where do we meet?”

Wait. “We meet?”

That makes him chuckle. “Unless you want to shoot the sky in the dark all by yourself.”

In all honesty, that is what you usually do. Is it fun to do? Definitely not, because the quiet of the dark can get incredibly boring especially when you are not really seeing what you are shooting. The Milky Way was so hard to spot— it would take at least half an hour of your eyes adjusting to the dark before you could see any of it, and even then it would just be a mess of dark purple, blotchy gas with stars sprinkling over. Without any exposure and brightness it was not the most exciting thing, although it still held its magic to it.

The planets were, yes, definitely more visible than the Milky Way could ever be but again: they basically just bigger stars without proper effects. And considering the shoot usually went as setting the camera up somewhere, turning on all the necessary settings and toying with them until the view looked right enough, and leaving it for hours on end by itself and only getting up and taking stills a few times throughout the said hours; looking at and sitting under the night sky with naked eyes all alone proved to be very boring at times.

“Just give me your phone number.”

What you actually end up settling for is meeting at the lake because you realize you are living much farther from each other, at least compared to what you would have expected. You have to use different buses to be able to meet, and unless there were campers on his bus, he was also one of the only people that would take the bus to the lake at the dead of the night. Dead of the night being literally 2 AM in the morning.

When he arrives you are already there sitting on the sad excuse of what must be sand but is more of a weird mush, looking at your phone, checking the forecast last minute to make sure everything would be as what you expected throughout the night. The beach was fairly small and you were the only one there, except for the couple of abandoned beer bottles that had not been thrown away in the trash most likely out of laziness and lack of respect for the environment.

Johnny sets the camera bag down next to you before he drops down as well, setting his other bag next to him. “Hello there,” He greets you, and you mumble a greeting in return. “Getting here was so hard, why don’t you shoot at the hike trails? There’s a clearer view of the sky.”

“Mm, light pollution’s worse there. I can’t deal with that.” You still mumble and shake your head slightly, biting at your hangnail as you look at your phone. Johnny does not like that, the fact that you will not look at him and that biting a hangnail is often a nervous thing for a lot of people— it nerved him, made him think he is somehow unapproachable even though that is the last thing he would want to seem as. “Let’s set up the camera?” He suggests in hopes that it will get you moving or looking at him.

Which it does, because you lock your phone and look at him. It is a bit hard to see you in the dark, but he does not mind. “Thank you for letting me use your camera, Johnny.”

It is not what he expects. But he takes it as the reason of your seemingly nervous antic. “I forgot to thank you for it before, so.”

A smile plants itself on his face before he can even realize it. “It’s no problem. Now, come on.”

Johnny helps with setting the camera up, letting you fiddle with the lenses and the lights while he deals with the tripod and the height. He lets you walk around with the camera in your hands and waits for you to find a reasonable place where the sky can come out good and the environments can enhance the shot, and it happens to be a few feet away from where you were first sitting. He secures the tripod right then and there, and watches you deal with the settings for a good few minutes before he can catch somewhat of a smile.

Though, he knows that it will take a lot more than just a few minutes to find your ideal settings, and it does. You fiddle with the buttons and the settings, take a few test stills, go back and middle some more, bend your back and stretch since you are leaning down the whole time and it is hurting your hips a little, take a few more stills and… It takes a lot of time before you can actually start your time-lapse. Throughout all of it, he waits for you in silence.

And when you are done, he smiles at you. “All done?”

“Yeah,” The relief is both audible and visible as you breathe out. “There’s Saturn and Jupiter tonight, looks super nice. I just hope I can get good stills out of this.”

“I’m sure you’ll be able to.” He clears his throat before continuing with his words. “I brought a few snacks, if you’d like some.”

You look out at the lake a little and frown at how it is wavering a bit, presumably because it would make it harder to take stills later. He hears you huff for a short second. “Sure.”

He does not necessarily like the way your voice sounds when you are supposed to be agreeing to his suggestion, but you walk around the camera and go sit down with him next to his bag anyway. Johnny takes the snacks out only hoping you would like what he has, and takes some napkins out, thinking you would need them if anything melts in your hand and everything gets a bit sticky.

An idea strikes him then, something he had learned from his friends way back in high school when he was in yet another photography club. After handing you the snacks and a napkin, he holds out the pack of napkins again. “Take another one.”

“What for?” He shrugs and pushes his hand further to emphasize. “Just take one.”

You do, and do not think much of it because you turn to your bag and take a thermos out, taking the cap off and filling it with the liquid inside. The grey trail of steam and scent makes its way to his nose; it is coffee.

Johnny just about becomes friends with you when you hold the cap out to him. “Thought we could use this to stay awake.”

“This is a saving grace,” He chuckles, and does not hesitate to take a sip. A dark and heavy brew, the way he loves it. “Thank you. Now, do me a favor and tear one of the napkins up.”

You chuckle a bit as you take your own sip, which results in you choking up a little. “What, why?”

But Johnny does not answer that question of yours. It prompts an awkward silence, both of you sipping your coffees once more. It proves to be unbearable, though, so you end up doing what he asks of you. Even though it sounds extremely weird.

When you are done with tearing the napkin up, there are dozens of unusable pieces in your hand and it feels somewhat dusty. “What am I supposed to do now?”

He looks at your hand for a brief moment, and lets out a laugh that sounds like a puff because of the way it is stuck between his lips. His shoulders shake, although not violently. “Well,” He starts. “You’re supposed to say a truth for every piece you have, it’s kind of a game.”

Your face must have morphed into such a shocked and taken aback mimic that Johnny actually bursts into laughter this time. “I’m not telling you this many truths, the hell?” Because, in all honesty, you do not think you ever told anyone that many truths in a game before. All of the truth-and-dares combined.

Johnny does not care about that a whole lot though, so he just shrugs. “Better start telling me. You can just stop when you get bored with it, I guess.”

With a huff, you start.

At first it is just you admitting doing sets of embarrassing things in your childhood and teenage years, how you wasted two semesters in the debate club dreading absolutely every competition and club meeting since you are more of an introvert, how you are most definitely going to fall a couple of classes but it is okay since you had taken extra credits last academic year, how although loving photography you do not want to do it for a living, how the coolest thing about it would be you starting a blog that thousand of people would follow— just for your astrophotography.

After that point it turns into a mutual conversation about photography. You tell him how astrophotography never fails to be amazing even though the things in the sky never change, and how every time you take a shot it will look just like the others but so much more different which is what pulls you into it when he asks you why you do it in the first place. Johnny also asks you if you should be doing a simple sky shoot for such a competition, and you answer saying you are not really aiming for first place already; you know for a fact that while looking at the submissions, people will stop scrolling the website just to look at your shot and that is what matters. Because they will find it so interesting, even though it will be just like any other night sky shot they have seen before, and it will be so interesting because it will be something far from what they can see with their naked eyes. They will try to memorize everything about that photo before moving onto the others.

And that is what matters to you. The fact that they will pay attention means much more to you than getting first place.

He, although jokingly, calls you a true artist. It somehow feels true to you.

Then, you proceed to compliment Johnny on his astrophotography, because some of his shots are in your all time favorites. There is a way in how he lets the light spill in his shots, how he links the city and the sky together that you respect so much, and you really wonder if it is all camerawork or also a tonne of editing. “It’s mostly camerawork,” He says with a smile on his face. “I can teach you someday if you want me to.”

You take up on his offer, of course, because you can grow with every bit of knowledge— plus he was fun to be around. The conversation just seemed to flow.

The conversation seemed to flow so fluently, in fact, that you almost did not realize that the lake water was about to drag the tripod away and tumble it down if it was not for the waves hitting your shoes after the wind picked up.

Both of you made a run for the set-up, but one of you were not all that lucky to be able to make it.

Johnny slips when he runs and falls backwards on the mushy, weird mix between dirt and sand, sending you into a hysteric laughter as you hold the camera. The laughter doubles you over probably because of your sleepiness (no, the silhouette as he fell in his clumsy moment was too funny to not howl over it), but you make it a point to ask in proper etiquette. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” He stands up, laughing just as much himself. “But I’m muddy all over.”

“Just go in the water.” At that he looks at you as if you are crazy, so you argue further. “You can either be wet, or muddy. It’s up to you.”

Johnny runs into the water and properly dips in this time, sending the two of you back into your fits of laughter.

Considering lake mud is the worst type you can get stuck on your clothes, you think he does the right thing. While he cleans up, you take some more stills— not caring too much when he walks into the frame at some point while making his way back to his bag.

Well. You actually take rapid photos of him at some point because you get a potentially great idea, but you would never admit to doing that. He would learn about it if it worked your way anyway.

You wait for him to squeeze his clothes so as much of the excess water is out as possible, and do him a favor and take the set-up down all by yourself, taking the memory card and putting it into your wallet as well. The footage is way shorter than how they usually are for you, but considering it is nearing five o’clock in the morning and Johnny would be freezing if he stayed more, you decide it is whatever. Any still would do the job according to your policy.

What really proves to be hard, though, is finding a taxi for Johnny. There are at least a few of them that pass by before you can convince one to take in your ‘drunk’ friend, telling them the address Johnny had told you for the second time after deciding on this little plan for him to be able to go home. Unlike him, taking the bus back is much easier for you especially after the sky ever so slightly starts lighting up, giving you the prettiest view to watch with your headphones blasting music, craving sleep.

Both of you do not really hear from each other until the next week, with you being too busy editing the still you had chosen trying to get it to be splendid, and him simply too busy with seminars and classes and the last bit of feedback he is giving on people’s submissions. You can only text some nights, but that is about it.

That is, until he calls you less than five minutes after you send him your submission. “Why this?”

You look at the laptop in front of you and the still you have just sent him— the silhouette of Johnny and his hair being flicked, sending droplets of water everywhere; because of his tall stature perfectly on and in between the stars, capturing the purple of the sky and the silver and red and green lights of the stars, and some of them just shine like how water does. Saturn and Jupiter are at the tip of his nose, and somehow his silhouette emphasizes them. Again, somehow in this weird state of him just walking away from the frame and the weird state of his arms and overall body, everything looks merged well together.

Chaos above in the sky, and chaos just down on the ground. “Well it’s pretty, isn’t it?”

#nct-writers #nct imagines #nct scenarios #johnny #will it post i am NOT hopeful anyway this sucks bye

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forgottenpnffacts · 5 years ago

Note

how long does it take to find all these facts? do you focus on one character at a time in chunks or just pick them up as you watch them?

In terms of the facts I post every day (via queue), I started this blog out by just considering what facts first came to my mind and posting those. While I still sometimes remember a particular fact that I want to post, I largely do just take dialogue screenshots for facts as I watch episodes (oftentimes I will remember a fact, go to the episode to find the dialogue, and end up watching/fact capping the whole thing anyway). To set up a ~30 day queue, it takes me a few days (meaning free time between eating/sleeping/classes/whatever) of watching episodes/collecting dialogue screencaps (some episodes have more facts than others), and then one full day of pasting the dialogue boxes onto high quality screenshots (since my iTunes is weird and I can only take screenshots in true HD mode if the captions are off, otherwise the screenshots come out black).

In terms of the factual answers to the questions you guys ask about the show, those range anywhere from an hour to several days. This time range depends on how in-depth of an answer is required or how much digging I need to do (and then proofreading it to make sure I didn’t miss anything and that the wording is clear), whether I need to take screenshots or make gifs (since I don’t like posting a bunch of separate screenshots that could be captured in one gif), and whether or not my iTunes decides to freeze when I try opening it (which is 90% of the time)/requires me to restart my whole computer.

#i would be SO fast if my iTunes wasn't so goddang wonky honestly #the pasting dialogue part takes forever since i have to pause at the exact same time as the original shot to match the box's background #i actually try hard to not focus on one character at once since otherwise i'd gravitate to facts just about my personal favorite characters #(since i more easily remember facts related to them) and that wouldn't be fair to the other characters or my followers #asks #anon

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junoquxxn1 · 5 years ago

Text

Points-Based Week-Long Challenge

So, since I’ve had so much trouble with my ruins and my edging schedule lately, I’ve decided to do a little challenge this week to spice things up, especially for my readers.

Starting tomorrow (12/11) I’ll be following a challenge similar to this one, a points-based challenge to be completed this week, with some changes to the original.

I want to make sure this is especially challenging and that the stakes are high to really encourage myself, so I will be required to earn 80 points this week to “win” the challenge. If I win and manage to make it all week long and earn the required number of points, the number of edges I am required to complete to be able to cum will be lowered by 40, which will make my edging much easier to get through by New Year’s. So essentially, I’ll be going from 240 edges to 200- a good thing to shoot for!

But, on the other side, if I go over in any way and ruin, or don’t reach the required points, the point counter goes back to zero, and the number of edges I have done towards this challenge will not count towards my total at all. I’ll have to punish myself for the ruin by adding a painful agent to my clit (open to suggestions). If I’m feeling brave, maybe I’ll do it on camera. In addition, I’ll have to start the challenge over again the next day, effectively restarting my progress from the beginning. The number of edges that I can earn off are reduced as well. So if I win, they go down from 40 to 20, and if I lose a second time, I don’t get any edges off at all.

And remember, if I don’t get through all of those 240 edges by my cum day on New Year’s, I don’t get to cum at all until my new January challenge is complete.

It’s a fairly sadistic little challenge, don’t you think? Just imagine, one tiny little bit of pressure too far can ruin the whole thing.

Hopefully this post will make the challenge more interesting for all of you, and it will help to keep me a horny, desperate girl all day long instead of just for set periods in the day. Because of course, good girls stay wet and needy!

I know Tumblr has a problem with linking to posts sometimes, so here is how I can earn points this week (including my changes):

Pain (if they pop off, 5 minute break, then time restarts).

-1 point per day: wear a clothespin on each nipple for fifteen minutes.

-2 points per day: in addition to the above, add four clothespins to your labia.

-3 points per day: in addition to the above, add one clothespin to your clit and one to your tongue.

Public:

-1 point per day: go commando

-1 point for flashing outside in discrete public location.

-1 point for wearing rope bondage under clothes.

-3 points per day: Strip and stay naked outside for at least 10 minutes.

-3 points for flashing outside with people present in the background

-5 points for flashing in a busy public location.

-5 points for masturbating in a discrete outdoor location.

-5 points for being gagged in public.

Body Writing: (if they fade, you MUST rewrite them.)

-1 point: Write blog name on yourself and use it as your profile picture

-2 points: write three demeaning words of your choice

-3 points: cover your body in at least 25 different dirty words/phrases

Spanking:

-1 point: Spank each ass cheek 20 times throughout the week

-2 points: Spank each ass cheek 20 times and smack genitals 5 times daily.

-3 points: Spank each ass cheek 30 times and smack genitals 20 times daily.

Edging and Denial:

-1 point for each edge that you deny yourself.

Bonus points:

-1 bonus point for keeping pussy completely smooth and hairless this week.

-1 bonus point for each picture of these tasks posted this week.

-3 bonus points for lasting the week without cumming with at least 3 edges per day.

-5 bonus points for lasting the week without cumming with at least 5 edges per day.

-10 bonus points for lasting the week without cumming with at least 10 edges per day.

So, can I do it? We’ll see. If not, you’ll be hearing all about it! ^_^ it starts tomorrow, wish me luck.

#task #here we go! im excited

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the-online-marketing-alliance · 5 years ago

Link

How To Write an eBook in 7 Steps15 min read

Ebooks are a great way to start selling your ideas, skills, and experience online. It’s often the gateway to creating a complete online information product or membership site. They’re also an excellent way to grow your email list, by offering an ebook as a download in return for subscribing to your list, it’s called a lead magnet.

Whenever I talk to people and ask them what’s stopping them from writing an ebook…they tell me it’s the design, or the cover, the layout, images or technology.

The reality is that’s the easiest part, which I’ll cover at the end of this article.

The hardest part is actually the first part of the process…the writing. I don’t mean the typing – what I mean is producing something that actually works. Yes…something that people will actually read, get hooked on and engaged until finally you get them to take the next step. Which is when they will buy something more from you.

This article has 7 Steps: Step 1 to 6 is Creating the Content and Step 7 is Producing the Ebook.

What’s great about this method is it also helps you lay the foundation on how you will sell your ebook…or at least incentivize people to download it.

Table of Contents

How to Write an Ebook Ground Rules

Step 1) Make sure there is a market for your ebook

Step 2) Define your Avatar/Persona

Step 3) Devise the hook

Step 4) Create your ebook outline

Step 5) Fill-in the blanks

Step 6) Editing your ebook

Step 7) Convert into an ebook

Conclusion

What should I write about?

What is the ideal length of your ebook?

How long should it take to write the book?

Is there search traffic for what you’re writing about?

Is the keyword trending, declining or seasonal?

How to identify Personas

Persona template

How can you find and add hooks to your ebook?

Here are 3 methods to inspire your hook title or subject line:

2) Using Buzzsumo

The outline formula explained

Introduction

Who are you?

Describe the problem, outline the solution, paint a picture

Repeat above 5 times

Summarise what you’ve learned

Add Call to action for more information

Ebook best practices

Make it concise and review any reiteration

Checking for grammar, spelling, style and structure

The 5 Step Method

How to Write an Ebook Ground Rules

First of all…some ground rules.

What should I write about?

In the steps below, I’ve outlined a formula for getting results…but it’s useless unless it’s a topic you know something about, or you enjoy it and you have some interest in it. This is important because when you’re writing if you have no interest, you’ll get bored. Combine that with an online world that’s specifically designed to get your attention – your project will live a short life.

What is the ideal length of your ebook?

People won’t read a 500-page ebook, your readers cannot digest it and they’ll get fed up. You should plan to produce between 10 to 100 pages.

If its a lead magnet, then 10 pages is enough – it should get the key points across clearly and efficiently.

If you’re selling it as an information product…then it should be closer to 100 pages, because you will need to provide more examples to support your points.

Overall, the quality is what matters…so don’t add fluff or filler content.

Here is a book I put together with the For Dummies brand. It’s 48 pages long. It covers the key points of content marketing. Provides a framework to follow. Plus, it leads on to a course and software that we sell to help make content marketing easier.

It’s positioned like this.

It’s a 48-page ebook to wet the appetite, grow the list and get the key framework points across.

The book promotes our marketing course PICASSO, which is video and example-driven training. The PICASSO course then, in turn, promotes our software tools Kudani, Designrr and Headlinr.

How long should it take to write the book?

As fast as possible. The longer you take…the longer it exponentially takes to complete.

This means you need to focus less on getting it perfect and simply get the words on paper…or into Evernote, Google Docs (my preference) or Word.

This means you should start NOW…and take MASSIVE imperfect action.

Forget about grammar, spelling, layout…complete sentences, etc.

Get as many words down as quickly as possible.

Switch off Facebook/Email/Phone to stop yourself getting distracted. (Hint: Install Facebook News Feed Eradicator – and you’ll gain 1 hour a day back into your life.)

https://designrr.io/NewFeedEradicator

Get in the zone…and focus.

Set a timer for 40 minutes to focus and do nothing else.

Stop and walk for 10 minutes…then get back and restart timer.

Even if you do just 3 iterations of 40 minutes – you’ll find you’ve accomplished more than you probably do in a whole day.

With all that done, let’s get into the meat of this method.

Step 1) Make sure there is a market for your ebook

Sounds obvious but it’s probably the biggest mistake people make. If there is no market – no-one will buy or download your ebook. For example, let’s look at the diet niche. Should I focus on Paleo or Keto diets?

To establish this, you can follow some of these techniques:

Is there search traffic for what you’re writing about?

You can measure this by going to Semrush.com (Free registration required) and typing in the top level keyword for what you’re writing about. For example: “Keto Diet”

Obviously, a huge volume market with over 1m searches worldwide. Paleo Diet produces 368,000 volume, so still a great market to write for, but Keto is clearly the biggest right now.

Is the keyword trending, declining or seasonal?

To check this – go to Google Trends.

With this tool, I can actually compare values Paleo vs Keto.

And all diets have some seasonality as shown here, but the overall trend shows Keto is the one to go for.

Step 2) Define your Avatar/Persona

Put simply – who are you targeting this for? You’ll want to be able to relate with your target audience to meet their needs and help find solutions to their problems.

An avatar is a representation of your ideal customer. Take some time to understand and define this, so when you put your book together you can write in a way that they will understand. Using marketing personas makes websites 2-5 times more effective and easier to use by targeted users and drive 18 times more revenue than broadcast emails.

An example for Keto could be:

A Mom, aged 35-45, who needs to lose 50 lbs quickly and has been struggling with diets that are difficult to stick to. She’s busy with her family and has little time to cook.

Focusing like this on the avatar also helps define your hooks and design style. For example, a feminine color scheme would work better than a masculine black.

I often give them a name, which helps you focus even more. Let’s call her Susan.

How to identify Personas

The easiest way to identify the persona, if you have a website already, is looking at Google Analytics for data. You can identify where your visitors came from, what keywords were used, and how long they stayed on your site. Plus, demographics such as age, gender, location, interests, etc. Learning about your current visitors just became a lot easier to create personas for.

Here are a few more effective methods you can use to identify your Persona:

Monitor social media talking about your brand or keywords

Spy on your competitors and see what they have done

Identify complaints, comments, compliments

Questions on Google Search

Questions on Quora or Reddit

Persona template

It’s easier to write an ebook about someone you know. If you already have an idea of who you want to write your ebook for, great. If you don’t have an idea, I hope that this persona template can help paint your persona picture better:

Persona name: (example Susan)

Job title

about their company (size, sector, etc.)

Details about their job role

It could also be a family role (mom, dad, brother, sister, etc.)

Demographics

Age

Gender

Salary or combined household income

Location

Level of education

Family size

Goals and challenges

Main goal

Secondary goal

How you help your persona reach these goals

Primary challenge

Secondary challenge

How you can assist in resolving these problems

Values and fears

Main personal values

Common objections during sales process

Add images and color

Use an attractive color scheme that’s indicative of your persona’s characteristics

Icons and graphics can help in understanding who they are

Of the persona: it can be a photograph, a cartoon or a sketch – create a non-bias image

Psychographics

Behaviors

Attitudes

Opinions

Motivations are what make your personas human

Brands

Help provide great insights into the user’s likes and hobbies, which may even include competitor brands

Last but not least, understanding where your persona is at in the buyer’s journey. Here’s an example of what a buyer’s journey might look like:

https://venngage.com/blog/user-persona-examples/

This will help you fine tune your ebook and create a targeted objective to where you want your readers to end up.

Step 3) Devise the hook

The hook is what forms the title, headline or subject line. It’s designed to catch the reader’s attention by promising a result for the reader. Think of them as cliffhangers. They give readers a powerful sense of what they’ll get out of your ebook without giving away everything.

How can you find and add hooks to your ebook?

Go through your ebook, and note down every solution your book provides. Then ask yourself: What is the big problem you’re trying to solve and what are the pain points of your audience?

What will your reader’s life look like, or what will they be able to do, when they implement your solution? You want your readers to say “Yes, that’s me!”. If you can create that sense of identification, relation, you’re already close to securing the sale.

Now we have our avatar defined, this step starts to become easy.

We said that Susan needs to lose weight fast and has little time to cook with a busy family. She has also struggled to stick to diets previously, probably because she’s demotivated.

So the hook should focus on words like:

Quick, fast and easy to implement methods

Quick results so you’re motivated to stick

For busy people

Here are 3 methods to inspire your hook title or subject line:

Use Amazon Advanced search, and order by bestsellers to search using your core keyword. Look at the titles that are in the top 3-5 places.

Look at the results and analyse the bestsellers:

Using ‘Keto’ as our example, the titles that appear at the top are:

Simply Keto: A Practical Approach to Health & Weight Loss with 100+ Easy Low-Carb Recipes

The Complete Ketogenic Diet for Beginners: Your Essential Guide to Living the Keto Lifestyle

Keto Diet: Your 30-Day Plan to Lose Weight, Balance Hormones, Boost Brain Health, and Reverse Disease

The Easy 5-Ingredient Ketogenic Diet Cookbook: Low-Carb, High-Fat Recipes for Busy People on the Keto Diet

Keto Diet Cookbook For Beginners: 550 Recipes For Busy People on Keto Diet (Keto Diet for Beginners)

KetoFast: Rejuvenate Your Health with a Step-by-Step Guide to Timing Your Ketogenic Meals

What are the key things that standout for you?

Best selling titles:

Use numbers. These always work well in titles as they indicate that there is an end to the information. i.e. There is only a number of things people need to know.

Use Words like Easy / Simple / Step by Step / Cookbook / Plan. All these words say that there is a simple process to follow.

Are Benefit driven. (For Busy People / to lose weight / boosts brain health) – How does your title help or solve a problem for the reader.

While you are on the Amazon page, look at the 5 and 1 star reviews for specific information that people are looking for. Here are some examples:

It’s clear from the above that the author didn’t deliver on the title’s promise and needed to put more photos in the book.

2) Using Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo is a great tool to analyze what’s currently out there and the sentiment of what’s performing well. You can search your key term in Buzzsumo for free.

Here are some tips to help you:

Analyze top performing headlines

Competitors headline

Filter based on content type

Type of words and phrases people use

Create headlines that:

Tell readers why they should care

Make a clear promise

Hook readers’ emotions

Provoke curiosity

Provide explanations

Appeal to a tribe

3) Ask questions of your customers and/or your email list

Join a Facebook group – and create a poll.

Title it: “Hi, I’m creating an ebook for XYZ, and I want to make sure I’m on point. Can you help?

What are the 3 Biggest problems you have in doing XYZ right now?”

One or two sentences for each solution is plenty. These are your hooks, and you’ll use them later when writing your book description, title, headlines, chapters, etc.

Step 4) Create your ebook outline

In this section it’s important to be concise yet provide enough information to illustrate your point.

Remember you don’t want your ebook to be too long.

The outline formula explained

Try and cover the top 5 key problems and solutions. If there are more…that’s ok too.

Introduction

Outline what the reader will learn. Tell your story and use the pain points identified. Reveal your secret right away. When you start big and reveal that one secret right in the intro, this will make your readers trust you and expect even bigger results.

Who are you?

Why should people listen to you?

Tell a story on how you came about this knowledge.

Position yourself as an expert.

Describe the problem, outline the solution, paint a pictureRepeat above 5 timesSummarise what you’ve learnedAdd Call to action for more information

Critical – Most people forget this step

Step 5) Fill-in the blanks

Once you have an outline, you’ll want to start filling in the blanks to help expand and explain your ebook. Simple way to explain how to do just that is to:

Make it a “You and I” and just write. Use the persona to have a normal conversation and explain to Susan about your thoughts on keto diet.

Don’t stop to correct, instead get everything out of your brain. You’ll want to dedicate a separate time to correct any grammar and spelling errors later. Put your focus on getting your ideas down.

Ebook best practices

Once you’ve added all your thoughts into your ebook, you can start adding more insightful information. Some of this consists of:

Adding quotes

Adding images

Importing and highlighting stats, relevant sources, etc. (Great source is Statista https://www.statista.com/ )

Place appropriate calls-to-action within your ebook

Curate paragraphs from other sites and sources to strengthen your points

Step 6) Editing your ebook

After you’ve filled in the blanks with every idea you have, you’ll want to trim, add, and edit your ebook. One of the most important parts of your ebook is to constantly add value and engage with your readers. Creating a successful ebook is to make sure not to reiterate. Being concise and to the point rather than exhausting your readers. You’ll want to review some of your explanations to see if you can create snippets of information.

Make it concise and review any reiteration

With the paragraph above, let’s see how we can make it concise and optimized for engagement.

“Once you’ve filled in the blanks with your amazing idea, you’ll need to trim, add, and edit your ebook. Focus on creating snippets and watch out for any reiteration. Read your ebook to identify what might make your readers stop reading. It’s all about creating engagement after engagement.”

You can always reread and see if there are ways to make it shorter, concise and to the point.

Checking for grammar, spelling, style and structure

This is where you can spend your time correcting spelling, sentences, style and structure. However, instead of trying to fix everything, there are two rules to follow:

Focus on the big picture, so you don’t get overwhelmed.

And then the details like typos, tweaking sentences and grammar.

Seeing the big picture will help you spot things you’ve written in Chapter 3 that shows up in Chapter 1. During the first phase, you might make the introduction shorter, remove a whole chapter, merge two chapters into one so it feels cohesive with the rest of your ebook.

Using grammar tools like Grammarly is a life saver. However, be cautious when you replace every single error, because it might try to correct that one word rather than the whole sentence structure. No tool is perfect, so read your ebook out loud so you can notice poorly worded sentences or even check the tone of the sentences. If all else fails, there are proofreading services that might save you some time.

Whatever the path you want to use, be sure to not leave this up to the reader! So make sure to check off these:

Check spelling and grammar.

Check the length of each chapter, ensure the description flows well.

Brush up the voice and tone.

Step 7) Convert into an ebook

The 5 Step Method

Part 1: Import using Designrr

Designrr can import and create ebooks from your blog, Microsoft Word, Google docs, Medium, another PDF, Facebook, or even an Audio or Video file, including a YouTube link.

In this case we’ll be using a Google Doc.

Grab the share URL from the Google DOC. (Make sure is accessible to ‘Everyone’)

Import the link into Designrr using the ‘Import From URL’ option.

Alternatively, you could also use the ‘Import Manually’ option.

Just copy and paste your Google Doc into the draft editor.

Part 2: Choose a Template

Then choose a template. There are literally 100s to choose from.

Part 3: Tweak, Customize and Tailor Your Look

Start by checking that the layout is ok – and that there are no grammar mistakes or typos.

Then begin the design process.

Adjust fonts, colors or style of your book:

A table of contents is generated automatically:

Change the template colors, headers and footers, cover image, or even add more images from your computer or the built-in library of thousands:

Select one for a new cover:

Then click ‘Publish’:

You can publish to PDF, Kindle, ePub or to your blog.

Once your ebook is created – you can also add a 3d thumbnail to use on your website to encourage people to download it.

Conclusion

Writing an ebook can be a lengthy process if you don’t know where to start or understand the steps you need to follow. We went over how to identify if there’s a market for your ebook idea and that creating personas can help fill most of your content. Knowing what to write about is one thing, focusing on one person and engaging with that persona is another. Creating the actual ebook itself, making it beautiful, is the easiest part when using a software like Designrr.

If you received value from this post please Like & Share this post so that we can serve and help others keep and build their business, income, so that they can sustain with the tools necessary to make an impact during this time.

Yours In Knowledge - Peace & Wellness

The Online Marketing Alliance

#ebook #how to create an ebook #how to build a email list #lifepreneur #chris record #how to get more customers #designrr

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breezethegame · 6 years ago

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Dev Log #1-ish?

Seeing how I missed like two weeks of mini blog posts, I’m deeming this one an actual “Devlog” (fanfare and such yada yada). I'm just going to call it a Dev Log.

So much has gone on the last few weeks that I’m struggling to piece it all together, so here is an attempt:

Computer Adventures:

So, I don’t haven’t built a dev machine from the ground up for years now, (maybe since college?) and typically just upgrade parts as I see fit (graphics card, ram, processor, etc).

Well, my motherboard has been giving me problems for close to a year now, where it occasionally decides “yeah, don’t really care about your boot device today”, as well as other miscellaneous things that required me to do things like removing the CMOS battery or main drive. I was also running out of upgrade options, so I got a bit fed up and decided it might be time to replace it.

I wasn't going to be cost-effective to get another LGA1150 board and CPU, and I try to build computers with future-proofing in mind. I was also looking to get a smaller case too. I already had a nice GPU (GTX 1070) that I got a couple years ago before cryptocurrency “did the thing” and graphics card's prices got ridiculous, so didn’t have to worry about replacing that.

Ultimately, I decided to do a "completely new" build.

I’ve been building computers for friends and family for many years, so I literally woke up the next day and said, “I’m about to build this thing blind”.

Well, kinda learned the hard way of the hassle of going at it that way (along with committing a couple noobish mistakes)...

Shopping Time!

Lesson 1: Double check store inventory before heading to a store that's 20 miles away

Well, I choose the nearest Fry's Electronics (it was Saturday, and I really wanted to get a machine built the same day). I get there and start looking for all of the cases and motherboards (severally disappointed that they only had one Micro ATX board in stock, something I was looking to get for the more compact build, but not as restrictive as a Mini-ITX, which they had several of). Impatient as ever, I decided I was going to pick it up.

While looking at other things, I hear another customer talking to sales rep, and the rep mentions that they don’t have a certain CPU in stock. After listening even more (I’m noisy, sorry), he mentions that they have NO Intel CPUs in stock. I decided that I had to get in on this convo.

He informs up that as of late, their store may receive like, 10 at a time, and also mentions that their other location doesn’t have any either (both of these locations are 20+ miles away from me in Dallas).

I also find out that they don’t have the specific ram I was looking for either (I ended up getting something a little pricier). He ends up informing me that the Micro Center 10 minutes away from where we were should have some CPUs.

So I end up at the Micro Center and they did have the CPUs, as well as a case that caught my attention. They also had a lot of other nice things too! Kind of wished I would have known to go to Micro Center first, despite it being much farther from home.

Building Time!?

Lesson Two: Get a head-start of figuring out your plan for wire management and how pieces will fit in your new case

I got home and was ready to build. I spent a lot of time trying to get the interior wire management together since it’s a much smaller case than my last one. I ended up spending a couple of hours getting it just right (I don’t intend to go back into this machine once it’s complete since I’m nearly maxing it out spec wise for now), before moving out to everything else.

Getting my old water-cooling radiator in was a bit tough (a very tight squeeze), but after that, adding in the ram, etc was a Breeze.

Hours went by, I installed Windows, software, etc…

I go to shut it down (after having done several restarts for the software installs prior), and it doesn’t want to power off. After 10 minutes of waiting, I manually power it off. Whatever, I’m super tired at this point.

The next day (Last Sunday), I’ve encountered several other smaller issues. Updating the BIOS didn’t help either. Great…

Okay, Building Time For Real

Lesson 3: Kinda make sure things boot up and work before you get too early to clean/tighten things down in your build

After taking the whole thing apart, I ended up swapping out that mobo for another of the same kind (since Frys didn’t have any others), but then ended up ordering different board on Amazon. So waited another day or so and the new board arrived (it’s now Tuesday evening).

I rewired/rebuilt the computer once again, installed the software, etc. I spent most of Wednesday day checking in with the team and catching up with emails and such. Then Thursday as I was beginning to do some work, I noticed that the computer was saying that my Windows wasn’t activated. I go to my Microsoft account to retrieve my key, and the page wouldn’t load to provide me the key and would only show the transaction.

Lesson 4: Make sure to keep your activation key(s) somewhere other than online/digital if you can

It’s super late and the option to speak to someone was obviously closed, but they had a chat option, so I reached someone through there. After back and forth for a while, and him remoting into the machine to check the activation status, he tells me that the key might not be showing up because it was an “upgrade”, so I would need to buy another copy of Windows 10 again.

Lesson 5: Tell "Aaron" from Microsoft no over and over, and don't fall for possibly sketchy things like sales pitches that come out of nowhere

I originally bought Windows Home and upgraded it to Pro on the same day back in 2015, so I told him that and he kept insisting that I buy Windows 10 again. I refused and told him that I wouldn’t and that I’d take care of this in the morning, and he then offered that I could pay a smaller fee to reactivate my Windows 10, but it would be a one time fee of like, $40. (I refused again).

When I go to end the remote session, he then informs me that he “Really wants to help me out” and ends up activating it anyway. (This whole thing seemly suspicious, I ended up recording it). I watched him activate Windows for over 10 minutes through some manual process (it's almost 2am, and I had work in the morning). He eventually finishes and thanks/apologies. Not sure why I even had to go through all that, but whatever...

I ended up spending Friday wrapping up installs and doing a fresh system backup afterward, before moving along with pulling down the Breeze project from source control, and reminding myself of where I left off…

Anyway, long story short, I tried to get a system built in a day, and it ends up taking almost a week!

Okay, but did you get any dev done these last two weeks?

Yeah, somehow!

Health Bar and Health System:

First thing the team and I did was evaluate a few things that are critical, but we’ve been bouncing back and forth on: The Health System

(WIP of a concept we're working on for his health bar)

The reason for this is mostly for game balancing purposes:

Is this a game that focuses on having Breeze (the player) overwhelm his opponents with an array of abilities (think Devil May Cry/Bayonetta, Kingdom Hearts, God of War?)

Or is this a game where Breeze must focus on finding openings to deal damage and avoid an onslaught of danger (think Hollow Knight, Ori, Megaman, pretty much most NES/SNES platformers)

Game design… is hard at times. Sometimes you think something will work well in theory, but when you get down into the specifics, you begin to question how certain things will balance out.

You’d think something like designing a health bar isn’t too trivial, until you realize that the Health bar represents the player’s health, and the player’s health influences the character’s survivability, which is then tied to other factors: what options does the player have to “survive” and what threatens that?

Anyway, not going to get too deep into that because I lack the PhD.

Basically, there was a bit of a rift in the UI design process that led to really evaluating game design items, and I’ve been working towards seeing what Breeze’s options are and how to limit them in areas, or how I can build the world and it’s inhabitants in a way that will make this all work out.

It’s not going to be something that will likely be answered quickly, but nevertheless, that’s Game Design™ sometimes...

Frame Data:

[Insert Craig of the Creek frame data meme here]

I used to have a really convoluted way of tackling this in which I would have events in the animation that if given an ID, it will look for a set of “Frame Data” and then look for a specific frame and then load that information up.

It would then pass that frame information into the active hitbox and if something is in it, math and physics and stuff would happen.

I didn’t change this up too much, but I did reduce the setup process by allowing you to just drop the FrameData right into the frame of the animation (no more extra array and ID lookup stuff!)

New Particles:

We’ve got new particles! There’s one for jumping/landing/dashing dust, as well as one for wall sliding.

In the last update, I added a feature that generates “points” at the edges of a character’s collider box (as well as other “checks”), so this helped in making sure that the particles are created in the right place. This was especially challenging with the wall sliding particle.

Also, with the wall sliding particle, I needed to implement a way to have a “looping” particle effect, as well as making sure the particle effect follows Breeze as he’s moving down the wall

Developing Sprite Model Sheets

We've got models sheets completed for just about all of the cast members, though, since there's several artists on the project, as well as animators (including I), I wanted to get some sheets together that would work as a base for animators to use, and to eliminate elements that aren't needed in the sprites (minor details that would be seen in promotional art or more detailed art in general), as well as get a proper size for the characters in-game.

Misc. Features

I’ve done various other quality of life code changes to make it easier to do certain things, like creating new attacks, making the screen pause/slow-mo when Breeze changes forms, and updated my Debugging Manager so that I can hide/show certain debug messages.

I’ve also been working on a RoomManager, and writing features to look handle what happens when the player enters a room (like starting a cutscene, showing UI, spawning things, etc)

I’ve also been looking into updating the game’s Music Handler, mostly for how to handle looping a song after it's intro plays, as well as finding ways to add effects to tracks!

Other Breeze things:

I’ve been working on getting shirts done through Teespring, and I would have loved to show off some of the shirts I ordered, but Teespring shipped them using DHL, and somewhere between DHL and USPS, my shirts have been sitting in shipping limbo for 5-6 days, despite being like a city or two away from me… Maybe tomorrow ~

Also, working on a couple of enamel pin designs! Haven’t figured out the maker yet, but designs are coming along nicely!

Quick Test Build Coming

So, a week or two ago, I planned on releasing a quick build for the Drop Tier backers and above. There was a lot of features and such that I wanted to get done... before my computer stuff happened. Our goal was to have one out before the end up March, so....

I’m going to release one anyway. Maybe tomorrow?

I’ll be creating a post for those in the eligible tiers once I’m done compiling/building it! Please keep in mind that this build will be very minimal and exists to test out controls/physics. I wanted to make a strong first impression, but I'll chill on the whole "striving for perfection" thing for now!

Also, I'm on vacation this week, so I'll be cramming on Breeze stuff this whole week to make up for lost time!

#Breeze in the Clouds #game development #Indiegame #patreon #Breeze #sodo

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kaylewiswrites · 6 years ago

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So we’re coming to an Anniversary...

Tomorrow is the 13 month anniversary of the time I accidentally deleted restarted my blog, and I’m going to be doing something for it, but I wanted to have a chat first.

So follower milestones are a great way to thank the followers and mutuals who are with you on this mess of a website. I love them, I love watching people have them, I love participating in them.

But when I first started on tumblr, back before I accidentally deleted my first one, I very quickly got caught up in just having a follower count. Its all I was focused on, to the point where I was just not having a good time. I never thought I’d be that sort of person, since I rarely get jealous, but as someone who is unhealthily competitive at times, it was probably something I should have seen coming. The why doesn’t matter as much as the outcome: I cared more about getting higher numbers than anything else.

Which is...not the point of writeblr. I don’t know if its the point of any part of tumblr. It took some serious mental work and accidentally deleting my own blog I still can’t believe I actually did that but it was probably for the best now that I think about it before I could be present on here in a way that matters. Wanting to connect with other writers, supporting their work, getting feedback on mine, making jokes and spreading positivity, getting advice here every day, that’s what the core of this community is about, and that’s where my focus is.

But I didn’t make that change in thinking in a second. I had to do certain things, one of which was banning myself from having follower milestone celebrations. I couldn’t let myself get hung up on the numbers again. I couldn’t mourn, when my count was at 99, waiting desperately for it to get to 100. I had to stop letting those numbers define something about myself, it I was good enough, if I was better than I was before, so now they’re just...numbers. Meaningless. Floating in the wind. I don’t celebrate them, they just exist.

But I still love milestone celebrations, and giving back to the people who surround you in this community. So, I celebrate anniversaries instead. Or I used to. Then I started forgetting. If you’re starting to get a sense of who I am as a person...good luck. Tomorrow’s a big one. A whole year! and a month, because I forgot last month! Slightly unrelated, but if you want to be tagged in it, let me know.

But seriously, if you relate to any part of my story above, know that it’s ok. Humans have emotions they don’t want to have. Remind yourself that it’s not helping you, it’s not helping those around you, and if you came here to have a good time, this isn’t how it’s going to happen. Consider doing what I did. Consider banning yourself from checking the follower count for a while. Consider taking a break from Tumblr or other social medias if it’s stressing you out. Do whatever you need to do to actually enjoy your time here.

Anyway, just wanted to explain all here before the anniversary post comes out. But definitely check it out! I haven’t exactly decided what I’m doing, because that would require any sort of planning, but it’ll be fun!

#writeblr #writing community #did anyone else have this problem?#also this is not to say anything negative about people who do have follower celebrations like I said I love them and celebrating with people #it was just toxic for my mindset when I first joined tumblr

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dwightkschrute · 6 years ago

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In 2014 and 2015 I did a my year in review kind of thing where I, of course, reviewed it and accompanied it with a picture from that month. I somehow forgot to post 2016 (until now) and forgot to do it at all for 2017 but unfortunately, I am back with a really disappointing year. I was debating not putting myself through the legit pain of “reviewing” this year but I think of how I love going through my 2009-2010 posts and seeing how much I’ve grown so this is for you, successful and cooler future me.

2016 and 2017 were amazing but 2018 was my most promising year. My boyfriend and I were going to move in, I was going to start my dream job; everything was perfect. It definitely started out as one of the best years of my life! Then exactly halfway through the year everything changed and I was left having to pick up the pieces and completely restart, making it one of the worst years of my life.

I started January in Mexico, which was the best, but my family and I got home early in the month. I had quit my job the month before so I dedicated the entirety of this month to job hunting. Our friend (my bf’s bff who became mine and my brother’s bff early on)’s dad got a boat so it was like we got a boat too because despite the cold, we lived on it. (My boyfriend couldn’t go on the trip with us, which he was super bummed about (and that we had to spend like 10 days apart which was killer then), so he was the one to pick us up at the airport and he greeted me with a bouquet of flowers. Out of the many gifts/gestures he gave me, that was one of my favorites.)

February I started my amazing new job so life was back to 40 hour work weeks and not having much time for much else. I was always attached to the hip to my bf so almost every day after work entailed going out with him or having dinner with my family or his. That was my month. My favorite part of every February is Valentine’s Day and this one was as amazing as the rest. I don’t even have enough space (of the allotted space I give myself for each entry at least!) to describe that day. (My bf at our Valentine’s Day dinner. We finished our long day at this restaurant (so, so cool, once popular with Old Hollywood stars) on Hollywood Blvd and it was dreamy and romantic and amazing.) Oh man, I don’t have a lot of interesting things to say about March. Oh, my parents got Influenza (A/B/idk tbh), so it was two weeks of my brother, bf, and I taking care of them. My dad has a serious chronic disease so it was especially dangerous for him so it was a stressful time. Once we weren’t in hazmat suits anymore (no but really, we were gloved and double masked around them and kept them quarantined), I’d be at work or with my bf. I also started to get close with a co-worker, who I quickly became close friends with! (My bf’s two huskies. I’ve just loved that picture since I took it! I’ve never been loved by a dog more than the one in the back of this pic. Not even by my own! He has a special place in my heart.)

April was barbecues at my house or my bf’s, trying every brewery and bar around, hikes, bike rides, beach visits, baseball games, boat rides, late night cooking and baking. It was lots and lots of love and happiness and I would give absolutely anything to go back to those days. (My brother and bf grilling on Easter. This was a familiar scene, I have so many pictures of this exact scenario, yet looking at it just now made me so emotional! Stop! They’re just grilling!) May was so exciting! Very first day I got a new car! I was so happy! It was long overdue because my finicky, expensive Volkswagen had to go and I’d fallen in love with the new Honda Civic (I’ll admit I have basic taste but I don’t care!) so I finally bit the bullet and did it. This month my bf and I, after a long time of “oh wouldn’t it be nice!”, bit the bullet as well and decided to finally get serious about finding a place together. So the apartment search started, but we soon realized our home, Orange County, was super expensive. My bf, in that “ha ha jk but I’m down if you are” way, suggested we pick up and move to Oregon and I immediately agreed. It just felt right and despite us being the most careful and non-spontaneous people ever, we decided to do it! So we began to research, look for apartments but most importantly, jobs. (My car the day I took it home!)

Uhhhhhh, well, June hurts to think about! We went to visit Portland, where we decided we’d want to live because that’s where the jobs were, on a quick trip since it was strictly “business.” Portland was everything I imagined and more. We loved it and I think we loved playing house in our airbnb more than anything about the city. Back in LAX we came to the easy conclusion that though we lived Portland, that’d require a lot and for our first time moving out we’d like to stay close to home and above anything else, we just wanted to live together as soon as possible. We immediately started to look for places in LA, we spent the month apartment hunting, and towards the end of it, decided on one we really liked, one he begged me to please say yes to so we can move in already. I was so, so, so happy this month but what made me happier was seeing my bf, I swear, even happier than me. I seriously felt unstoppable and was beyond excited for our future. (I had a lot of Portland pictures to choose from but my bf and I liked this one because it reminded us of Always Sunny for some reason.)

In July, everything changed. To start, I left my job. I thought, new chapter in my life, new job coming, I’ll live really far, I should leave now. So I did. My last day was an emotional day because I loved my job so much and every single person I worked with. That very same day, my bf and I broke up. For unrelated reasons to my last day, to our moving in, to our relationship, etc. We had an amazing, amazing relationship but he has a lot of demons and issues/insecurities he has to deal with and conquer, and though I was aware and was there for him and would continue to be by his side no matter what, he decided that this was a battle he had to handle by himself and I figure before he got into a more committed situation. It didn’t have to happen, though. I hadn’t talked about the specifics of the breakup on my blog so sorry for changing the mood of the post, but yeah, July happened and it felt like my world stopped. Really regret quitting my job now, huh? I was hit by two huge losses and changes right at the same time. (I took this on my friend’s boat 20 tequila shots in, drunk and sad as fuck. Not to get fake deep but how sad. Literally on a boat, beautiful sunset, would rather die.)

August was a blur and I’m still not convinced I didn’t just dream it. God, alright, here we go, the rest of the year is a mess so get ready. I fell into a deep depression fast. It also didn’t help that my dad had to start getting radiation/infusions for his illness shortly after the breakup. I couldn’t believe how much my life had changed. I started dating someone else and then I dated another guy shortly after. I wanted to replace and/or forget and I really thought that’d be the solution. I was miserable when I was with them. I took absolutely any opportunity to get really drunk or high, and the opportunity came often so I spent most of my days desperately trying to not feel anything. The only time I’d feel okay was when I was extremely high and I couldn’t even think. Since I had a lot of savings for my out of state move, I had a lot of money to blow, which I did. I realized I even liked the feeling of the temporary “high” of spending a lot and receiving the stuff. I’d hang out with any friend who offered (out of boredom? loneliness?) and even ended up on a mess of a Vegas trip. Worst month ever. Maybe. (Here’s a positive! I like that bathing suit and my tiddie looks so round!)

When September came I realized two months had passed and all I had done was be a huge depressed mess. I no joke forgot about work. I just straight up forgot. I started to look for a new job, which hurt me so bad because I had to face the fact that it wouldn’t be my Cool LA Dream Job anymore. I stopped dating. Most importantly, I completely stopped drinking and smoking because it’d almost always make me sadder but also it scared me that I had no self control nor did I care. I saw a whole lot of my close friends and they, along with my immediate family, kept me afloat this month because time felt like it was going so fast. I couldn’t believe that at a blink of an eye it was night again and then a new day. Time had no mercy for me, please let me hold on. (Me at a baseball game. Tbh I’m looking at this thinking, did this really happen?)

October started out nice because my best friend of years, who I unfortunately had a falling out with three years ago, reached out to me. I’ll always give her all of the credit for doing that. I can’t begin to explain what this meant to me. It was a nice, bright shine of light that managed to shine through the dark clouds. Having my best friend is exactly what I needed. I’m a big believer in the universe acting in mysterious ways and though I had grown disappointed in its little surprise for me lately, this was the kind I always appreciate. I spent a good part of that month with her, catching up and doing things just like we did back then. It was like nothing had changed. That’s all I remember about this month, and a super fun Halloween! That day was probably one of the best days in months. (My best friend Rylee and me the first time seeing each other in 3 years. We’ve had our blogs for 8-9 years so please follow her for quality content)

November was rough. I was frustrated because surely things should had been better by then. I was still feeling so low, I was going to job interviews to no avail, I “relapsed” and had a high/drunk off my ass on a boat messy moment.. To make matters worse, I accidentally drove up on a cement divider in a parking lot and my airbags deploy, which is so expensive to fix, so my car was out of commission for a month. Then I got so sick and I rarely ever get a small cold. I seriously felt like I was cursed, even the smallest thing felt like an insult towards me. The one good thing is that since July I had been forcing myself to go to the gym five times a week. My mom said exercising was the only thing that’d help her feel that sweet release of seretonin, endorphins, dopamine, and all that good stuff when she was depressed so, though I enjoyed going to the gym before, I did it just for that reason alone. It worked and as another result I got like pretty fucking fit. Revenge body, you’re one of the few good things in my life right now. (I literally had no idea what to choose so I said fine, here’s a pic of the scene of the crime. Whatever.)

In December I turned 26. Which I hate, naturally. I went to a million more job interviews. I’m seriously so embarrassed to admit that but whatever, it’s the truth. (I have a degree, experience, and an awesome cover letter..I’ll keep blaming the curse!) What kept me sane was that we had different family members visiting from the very beginning of the month. Playing with an energetic, adorable baby kept me distracted and happy. Having so much company around also distracted me (slightly, but it helped!) from the fact that the holidays and my birthday would be quite different now. I’m one of those annoying Christmas lovers, usually at least. This year everything just happened and I didn’t care. But I survived December! (I don’t care. This is the appropriate representation of 2018 and how I feel at the end of it.)

Jesus if you’ve read all of this.. I’m sorry you had to read about the mess of my year but really more like the mess that is ME. Yknow those like “people my age I went to HS with vs me” memes? I seriously went from being that bitch with a good paying job, brand new car, a serious, great relationship with a promising future together (Like. We would color coordinate outfits! LMAO. We would have dinners with both of our families together. We were obsessed with each other. You’d roll your eyes if you saw any of this. I can’t get over how perfect we were, it’s hilarious what happened to us.) and then at the blink of an eye I went to not having absolutely any of that, casually dating (something I’d NEVER done) anyone who resembled my ex and sadly and drunkenly puking off the side of a pier. Who is she? I don’t know, I got whiplash. (Queen of parentheses and side notes, I know. But another thing about me is... I’ve never been affected by people leaving my life. I’m used to it. I’ve never been anywhere as affected as I was when my ex and I broke up. This isn’t normal for me, my ENTJ/Capricorn ass doesn’t know what this feeling is.)

Please curse that has been put on me, release me. Whoever is attacking my voodoo doll, calm down! Please! I’ve gone through enough sadness and loss. If 2019 is even slightly as bad, I’m going to be like that pigeon I reblogged the other day that’s like “fuck this I’m just going to sit here.” I can’t even make a cute but corny, hopeful “hope 2019 is great!” comment. I’m literally begging you...pleading you... I don’t believe in karma but after all of this shit, I better have something much better in stock for me. “Good things are coming!” I fucking hope so. Like, I’ll be even more annoying right now and say that it’s not fair that I didn’t get to have the future I was about to have. I don’t care about any cliche you may have for me. One door closes, everything happens for a reason, God has a plan, etc. No. Why did all of this have to happen? What can be better than the future I was going to have? I felt so unlucky. It all feels like a nightmare and I’m just waiting to feel whole again. Oh shit I got really intense. I know I’ll get over it and life will be good again eventually but for now, I am still so mad. I would have never in a million years guessed this is how my 2018 would go.

So fine, I’ve accepted things now, so now I’m impatient and say please prove me wrong, 2019. I’m THREATENING you to be amazing!

#2018 #OMFG MESSSSS of a year..#and i acted so embarrassingly sigh but that was 2018

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