#the new stuff is already made with for-printing settings so those would not be a problem

[zelkams-art]

Hiiii! Your jayvik art inspired by The Kiss just crossed my dash and the noise I made when I saw it even made my partner looked up from their game lmao

I saw just a glimpse of it the other day but then couldn't find it, and I've been waiting for it to appear eventually. No joke, it was instantly my FAVORITE piece of jayvik art the second I saw it. And I swear it's not just because of the art it's inspired by.

I love your take on this, it's gorgeous and I could stare at it forever. Which I'll happily do if you ever sell prints of it, but you won't hear me rushing or pushing you, even just seeing it on tumblr is a treat already. Thank you for sharing it <3

Hii hello!!

First of all, aahh thank you so much!! And I'm happy you managed to stumble upon it again hahah (honestly it's been receiving a lot of love and it makes me feel so warm inside, thank you so much)

As for the prints, it's actually a work in progress!! I decided to push myself to finally set it up, right now I'm waiting for the test prints to arrive to me via mail to see if I am okay with the quality (long story short, most of my older art was made with quite non-print friendly settings so I've been trying to make them more printable these days with re-exporting/upscaling etc). So I might be able to launch a print shop somewhat soon!! 🤭

[thomaskong]

I did something silly….. I made QL guess who!

About a year and a half ago I had the idea for a custom ql guess who game but I had no one to play it with so I just put it to the side until I (hopefully) would. Fortunately that day came this weekend when @pondphuwin and I got to play a few rounds (they beat me 4:5 actually lmao)!

Some of the questions we asked were stuff like “is it from gmmtv,” “does your show have a branded pair,” “is there a love triangle,” “is there a debate over whether your show is a bl or not,” and more personal ones like “am I crazy over one of the main actors,” “do we have beef with the way this bl went,” “did we watch this live together,” and so on. Rlly fun stuff!

Since this is a custom guess who I had to make all the pieces manually. At first it seems fine and easy bc there’s already official posters right? But the difficulty is that almost every poster is a different size. So I figured out how to get the proper guess who face piece measurements and manually resized each poster to fit, with a slight gradient in the background where the remaining space isn’t covered by the poster. You can see those gradient bars on the top and bottom in the closeup of the last twilight piece, for example. Also it’s just really funny to hold mini posters of qls lmao (using my hand as a reference)

There’s 190 ql poster pieces in total (based on approx. how many I’d seen as of the time of printing) (yes I will add more as time goes on) and they were all put on one big google doc that covered about 10 pages and looked like this!

After I had them all set I printed them out on cardstock so they were thicker & more sturdy and then I did a lot of cutting. And since both players need the same posters I had to cut it all twice

Are there easier ways to do this? Maybe. I’m not sure. Honestly I just did whatever like this is my own gay little art project lol

Once I had them all cut and held them in my hand I felt quite proud of my work and now that I’ve actually played it I really do

Here’s just like a pic I took when we were playing a round. Since there were so many, after every round we took out the two qls we just selected and replaced them with new ones and we never ran out lmao. It took quite a bit of effort but it was totally worth it hehe

[ellabsweet]

[ੈ✩] 𝐅𝐄𝐓𝐂𝐇 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐎𝐋𝐓 𝐂𝐔𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒 • 𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐁𝐒

synopsis: in which you’re fooled.

pairing: rockstar!ellie x reader x rockstar!abby

warning: mentions of cheating and drug usage but i believe that is all ! let me know in case there’s anything i just wanted to put this out already because of the traction this is getting which is making me sososo happy thank you everyone i love you <3

authors note: ——

← previous part | next part →

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐎: 𝐑.𝐈.𝐏 𝐓𝐎 𝐌𝐘 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐇

approximately two years earlier…

“Who’s the pretty girl?” Ellie asks after snorting a line of powder from the small bathroom’s sink, a banging to the door from an urgent adult being dismissed by her and the dealer.

“You’re gonna have to be more specific than that”

“Oh c’mon you know the one. Sad eyes girl who watched the whole show from her seat at the bar like we were a band worth shit, like we’re going to be someday”

“They call her bunny around here. ‘Cause you know, a cute shell for a sex addict, y’know some misogynistic shit. She’s a regular to all The Deadbeats show on this shitty bar, you only want to fuck her now? Get on some fan service?”

“You’re fucking gross, man. I just digged her vibe, is all”

What Ellie meant by that was, she saw her soul reflected in your eyes and it scared her shitless but not enough to go untouched by the exchange, drowning in curiosity and magnetism the drugs made sure to intensify your face in her mind as though a printed sticker inside her brain. What Ellie meant was, she thought God was a girl with sad eyes and skimpy top watching her band in the corner of a loud bar piercing right through her like a Heaven and Hell collision midst a guitar riff.

Daniel took one last sniff of cocaine before he slammed the door open, the yell in his throat setting off a headache in Ellie: “Bunny! Come meet your rockstar!”

“I like your songs-“

“We’re gonna get married” You errupt in laughter with that, the sad eyes Ellie had attatched to the memory of you suddenly disappearing in bright amusement, she felt as though she could use your happiness as a new kind of high “I’m not joking, I would carry you in my arms straight into a chapel right now”

“Does that line usually work with the girls you go for?”

“I don’t know, you’re the first I tried it on. Is it endearing enough to convince you to elope?”

“You know every single person in this goddamn bar wants to get in your pants after that guitar riff, right?”

“I’m gonna be fully honest with you right now. I’m fucked out of my goddamn mind today, if I stare at you too long from the mix I took you’re gonna start having two heads and still I might dig it. But God, even then you look so fucking sad”

“Jesus” you scoff “alright junkie well I’m gonna go now-“

“You look so fucking sad and I see you. It’s like I’m seeing an angel cry, like I’m watching God in a party outfit wandering around and listening to my band, like a little bunny eyed daydream fucking painting on a museum wall that makes critics bawl into tears listen, shit, what I’m saying is you’re a fucking tsunami and I feel like I’m flooding and we haven’t even kissed and you don’t even seem to like me all that much right now but when I was up there?” Ellie pointed at the stage “You felt it too. My lyrics. You felt my stuff I know you did, like some soulmate shit like you feel my pain too like we’re both just trying too damn hard. I’m not insane yet, you’re something let me be something to you, I think I can be”

You didn’t answer her. You just kissed. Crashed your lips into her like you were coming up for air because something in your booze made something about her nonsense make sense. You thought you saw her in a dream when she first went up on stage, thought her to be one of those blurry faces in good nights of sleep that passed right through you, familiar in a mystical sense, in the stupidest way. Her lips on yours tasted of pure alcohol and it made you dizzy, weak in the knees. She knew her way around your body, waist and neck like a map engraved itself to the palm of her hands and you melted straight to them.

For two months you believed she was right that day, onto something. Talked about grief and music and love and death and space and leace and thought you knew her forever. Then The Deadbeats got more traction, moved to the spotlight. Then you caught her fucking a fan in the studio.

“All of Ellie’s girls think they’re special”

“Listen Abigail I don’t want to fucking hear it so you can fuck right off” You grabbed your bag, tears prickling in your eyes as you did so before the blonde grabbed hold of your shoulder, instinctively having you look back at her, perhaps the first time you truly looked at her all this time.

“But you really are.”

taglist: @abbysvictim @lottiematthewsceo @sadeyedsugar @digit4lslut @r0ckgoblin @machetegirl109 @scatapple @elliesgirlll @madelynie @emothurman @p1llowthoughtss @scottstre3ted @thatonementallyillsimp @rockyroad-is-bomb @spaceshipellie @toesorhoes @callmewhenyoukan comment to be added!

[crispyanonartnsfw]

sorry, still no new art, work has me tired af and I can't keep posting rushed sketches that I'm gonna end up hating (I'm SSSO tempted to delete some stuff lmao) but I have lots of wips and I'll be patient with myself and concentrate on those !! anyway-

Today I'm here to blabber about one thing that I've basically already storyboarded but Idk if it will ever see the light of day: a Sambastian coming of age(?) comic. I'm just going to put this idea into the world..

Mind you, it's really nothing crazy, but it's long enough to require a lot of commitment - that would mean not drawing anything else for a while, and idk if I'm able to do that while having the attention span of a goldfish when it comes to drawing only one thing at a time.

I could post page by page as I finish them, but my original (maybe too ambitious) idea was to make a Sambastian-centric fanzine to publish all at once, with the various chapters interspersed by some miscellaneous content. I looove the idea of creating an old-style printable zine, I'm just a big nerd for these things and I like printed paper. Realistically thought, the single-page posts are more accessible.

Technically it's an AU because it diverges slightly from the canon SDV universe, mostly in the timeline of the various families moving to Pelican Town. Also it adds to the relationships that all characters have with each other, to what school/uni they attended and stuff like that - which aren't as in-depth within the game.

The story per se is very simple: it follows Sebastian and Sam going from teenagers to adults, their struggles, the ups and downs in their friendship and eventually their romantic relationship. Basically it's the lead-up to Older!Sambastian. It also features other SDV characters such as Alex and Abigail (I would love to have them all if I ever expand on it). It's obviously SFW until they are adults, even if their experiences get mentioned and questioned...just know there is some Seb/Alex and Sam/Penny action lol. It's also quite different from what I've done up until now because this story it's angsty, like, very much so. TW worthy. Uncharted territory fr.

By the way I know I said it's long but it's not actually THAT long for now (15 pages?). The story is made up of snippets from different moments, like little windows in their life (for example there are a couple of scenes set in their first year of high school, but the following one it's set in their third year - some jumps are longer than others). At the same time this type of narration allows me to go back and add missing moments very easily if I ever actually finish this comic and wish to further expand on it.

I don't even know if anyone would be interested in this - except for me and like three darling mutuals who tolerate my ideas - but it would be such a cool thing to dooo ughh 😩😩😩 anyone who volunteers to be my benefactor so I can focus on fictional characters like god intended?? Maybe on a beach with a Campari?? I don't ask of much tbh

[genderqueerdykes]

Ditch Etsy for Good: A Disabled Etsy Seller's Experience

i started my Etsy store in August of 2022. I was in desperate need of income at the time, as I am disabled, and waiting for my full disability payments to come through. I currently make $245/month off of a general assistance program that's meant to "help" while you're waiting for those payments.

I needed, at the time, $900/month for my studio apartment, because I was on a month-to-month lease, and could not re-new it, as I was the secondary renter, and my abusive ex whom I could not contact was the primary renter. They needed his signature to renew the lease, or else I was on month-to-month status, which meant they could increase my rent to whatever price they saw fit at any point.

I was struggling to stay alive. I had a bunch of kandi supplies I had gathered over the years, pony beads, string, all that kind of stuff. So i accrued some extra supplies to make other types of necklaces and chokers. Keep in mind my level of poverty, and the level of inflation in 2022. I was having to accrue supplies secondhand, from thrift stores. Everything I bought and sold was upcycled, save for the few times I could afford things to fill in the gaps from craft stores.

After I gathered supplies, I went to work. I spent countless hours making all types of jewelry. Not really sleeping. Just countless hours of stringing beads, if I woke up in the middle of the night from a bad dream or stress about homelessness, I would go back to work. I've been homeless before. Several times. Never lived on the street or in a shelter, but I have lived in hotels, cars, crashed on couches and have run from getting kicked out for making little money endless times.

I drank a lot of coffee and ate very little. Eating consumed time, time that I didn't have. Once I was done making things, it was time to photograph every. single. item., then edit them, and upload them to Etsy. I had to create listings for each individual item, all of which cost $0.20 to create, and again to renew when it ran out in 3 months if not purchased. There was already a start-up cost.

Shipping made my life a nightmare. Etsy charged me for each and every single label. I tried free shipping at first, as it's a huge draw for customers, but labels were around $3.69 from my state to the mainland United States at the time, creeping ever closer to $4. For anywhere else it would easily come to $10 or more, international shipping was easily $20 - $40. Even if the customer paid for shipping I still had to go through the process of purchasing a label.

This didn't account for the fact that I had to purchase printer, ink and paper at some point to keep printing these labels. Ink is wildly expensive and your cartridges run out faster than they should. They are rigged to flag as empty when they're not. This also does not account for ink and paper lost when the printer does something in error, which is often. The office at my apartment complex was willing to print labels and packing slips for me for a while, but they cut me off after a few months.

The biggest kick in the teeth was the processing time for my payments. Because I shipped my first few orders without tracking labels. Etsy put a hold on my money for the next 3 months. They would take a random amount of time to process each payment. I could never figure out the schedule. My money would sometimes take days or weeks to arrive when I set Etsy to a "daily" payment schedule. It was torture. I was sweating over not having money constantly, and missing payment deadlines left and right.

I was getting orders at every hour of the day. I didn't "clock out" of this job. I had to change the notification sound of the Etsy Seller app on my phone because when I heard it, I would panic. I wasn't excited, I was filled with dread. It was never ending, and I was constantly stressed about getting orders out on time. I never had time to rest. I didn't get days off. I was on the job 24/7. Unless you completely uninstall the Etsy app and refuse to check it fora while, you can't really clock out of this job.

This isn't even touching the fact that Etsy also takes a cut out of every single sale you make, meaning you have to jack up your prices wildly either to make free shipping reasonable so you're not losing money on each sale, or you have to play a dance of figuring out what the best balance between shipping and item costs are, which is time consuming. It's a lot of math and comparing against your niche's market.

Etsy has an ads feature, which you must again pay for, where they will run ads for your products in random banner ads and whatnot. You are charged if one customer clicks the ad, not purchases something, meaning this is a complete fucking scam. The minimum is $1/day and you are forced to subscribe monthly. You can cancel at any point, but sometimes it takes a full day for this to cancellation to go through. The Etsy Ads feature sucks ass. I received exactly 2 orders through their service and kept it on for a few weeks here and there. It's horrid. You do not receive a significant enough boost in traffic to make the investment worth it. Also consider how many people use adblockers these days. This isn't hard to see.

The amount of time you have to spend promoting and boosting your own shop, buying supplies, creating and photographic products, uploading them to the website, and everything else in between is not worth the amount of money you make. You do not turn a profit unless you are selling very high end products like fine jewelry and antiques. Anyone else in the bottom rungs loses money through one avenue or another, Etsy finds ways to make the entire process draining and expensive for the seller.

The also will not provide you a 1099 document to file your taxes for your earned income unless you have made over $25,000 in one year on Etsy, which is literally impossible unless you make, as I said, fine jewelry. The average Etsy seller does not make this much in one year. We do not make a liveable wage, yet Etsy pretends like we do.

I didn't realize how draining it was to run this store until I put it in vacation mode. I'm shutting it down as soon as I'm able to. I could not handle the pressure of orders coming in in the middle of the night. I could not handle the pressure of not being able to remember which bracelets I could wear, and which ones were up on the store. Or which ones I could give to friends freely without having to issue someone a refund because I made a mistake. The worry of sending the wrong customer the wrong product was constantly on my mind. Every review that came in made me scared I had fucked up or provided an inferior product. I was distraught, broken and scared.

Now I'm much more free. The piddly jackshit amount of income I made was not worth it at all. I don't think I made back the cost of supplies and I definitely was never compensated for the sheer amount of labor I put into my products and orders. Etsy just kept kicking me while I was down and now that they have made it so that you are unable to file a class action lawsuit against them, they are only becoming more tyrannical.

Etsy does not care about their small sellers. They only care about the big cash cows who bring in big views and line Etsy's pockets with the Etsy Ads program. If you're too poor too keep up they'll chew you up and spit you out. Fuck Etsy. Fuck the lack of respect for their sellers. Fuck them for holding my money randomly for 3 months because I didn't know tracking labels were REQUIRED in their eyes. Fuck Etsy for never letting me know when I was getting paid, and for paying me on such an irregular schedule. Fuck Etsy for the fucked up fees and expensive shipping labels.

Fuck Etsy for everything. Let them go. Cut the cord. Navigate to Ko-Fi or somewhere else. Let this horrid site fucking die.

[madfantasy]

New 3 things that happened:

*I got my new ID, my id expired and to renew it I had to get photographed, and since I just opened my bank account a year ago it depends on it so already I was giving up on the idea to keep the account but by miracle a photographer agreed to picture us at home, and it turned to us cuz I wanted all my sibs to have theirs taken with me too and because I had to argue first time to get my ID forever, so i didn't have the energy to keep doing it for the rest of my sibs so now it was the chance. The day of the photographer coming I was shaking with fear and I thought I would never leave the bathroom gotten ill. I fear seeing people more than dyin so I don't know how I held it together, I literally don't remember how it went or how I did, but I recall my sibs looking the same as I felt but it was finally done. parents too taken their shoots and because one needed their passport renewed to renew their id, them alone costing 1k$ and the appointment was set 6 months ahead, we R now close to it anyway, and the thought of how we have to pay to exist some more costly made me think of my worthlessness and helplessness even more, making me ashamed of still living.

The thing that blinded me, me the first to be tested on lo

*my eye is better, I still see a dark spot looking in a certain direction, getting an eye mask surprisingly helped keeping my eyes less dry cuz they be the most when I wake up and I had the driest time before it got infected and swelled, and already I'm used to the spot and can ignore it..

*I'm still drawing, literally it's making me live love and laugh, I don't care about improving or drawing my best constantly, ai can get poisoned for all I care as it continues to dehumanise the whole point of art-- keeping humanity alive ( btw use glazing ❤️🖤)

I realised that I don't have any physical collection of my art & since I can't look at the screens forever just to browse, nd printing all my stuff isn't feasible, then I came across those mini albums Nd I got the idea to just print one sheet = 9 pics! They look good too for trashy quality, I love it 8' and yes, purple and silver is the 10% obsession to my 90% red and black pallets, thanks to remembering Freeza c'x

But as usual posting my drawings never cease to eat me alive with anxiety, but I think I'm slowly becoming indifferent to it, even if the thought of that no one actually sees my art but me, which is the main case cuz I am living in isolation and being drawing in secret till few recent years because of my conservative surroundings, I feel much calmer when I'm not seen and maybe it's self destructive in a way cuz to stay posting I need to be commissioned cuz net bill, but it became irrelevant cuz I accepted that i can't have the mental capacity to be a social media person or chase anything that I already knew I can't maintain, I had an art block for a year I almost believed that was it for my art drive and me cuz it my sanity— cuz burning out so bad. If my post has a description it was in my drafts for months cuz I plan for every piece I share, but if can't form words I allow myself to let it be captionless, I draw faster than I form words and that's why art is important to me on a personal level, it's my first way of express even if its indirect, the only bit of human Mani left to live in me to put through lines and paint splodges. Even if no one sees it, and to be honest with myself, have very weak chances of being seen on a level that benefits me financially, I'm on the other side of the world, never seen the sky beyond my schooling days, nonverbal irl and know that I can get taken advantage of easily in social manner because it either I don't get the social cues or can't say no..

I'm grateful that at least I got the chance to experience being in a loving nurturing fandom like Sev's that made me experience genuine human goodness and care I never thought possible, made me have some self worth, personality beyond a made for marriage caretaker, and allowed me to get art tools and clothing that I was never allowed or could afford, and many first time small life pleasures like perfumes, food and toys, even if I only recognise 5 or 10 of you dears now, by DP liking my posts- (I suck at remembering names sorry)

I'm also grateful to have a room after endless years of couch and house movings, I have a safe space to still be able to draw and be cool under an AC in this 50° weather..

I think realistically that's the best it can get having spent all my life trying to get anywhere but isolated, and nothing working. At least I'm indifferent and fine of being the caretaker of my disabled guardians and siblings, I need them as much as they need me, even if it caused me the same cycle of mental anguish and earth leavings hehe

Wish U all the ease and peace and yummy peas 🫶🏽

4 am, sleep deprived

[thehotelpod]

ONE MORE WEEK OF DOUBLE STUFF OCTOBER LETS DO SEASON 5 OF IZZY'S EPISODE ART

5.1 Merp and Burble

Our first Big Named Event arc! "BEHIND THE CURTAIN" which I'm almost certain I picked because we could do this cool ass curtain frame device. Izzy continues to bring the pain here with photo bashed curtains, a modified Madam Hotel horrifyingly cartooning about like bugs bunny to reveal our almost Trevor Henderson-like trail cam timelapse photo of Merp. He also gave me a number of color options on this one, maybe we'll have a section in The Guestbook Vol. II of bts sketches? I'll ask Izzy. This one holds a special place in my heart because Merp is, as devotees will recall, just Scary Slar.

rest of the season under the cut! (it's long, you've been warned)

5.2 It Watches and It Smiles

look! The curtain connects at the top! It's gonna be one long picture!

This monster was actually based on a 3 foot tall hard foam statue we had in our house growing up. It is actually scarier looking than you are imagining, made every one of my cousins cry, and is not only something I had nightmares about but also one of the main reasons so much of my horror is "something weird is Over There but looking at you". Full disclosure, one of the reasons I put this monster in this episode was so that Izzy would have to draw a postcard of it and maybe someone would recognize it and tell me what the hell it is because I have not so much as a single photograph of it. BUT then Izzy showed me this drawing, which almost completely hides the monster but it's just so so good I couldn't pass it up. The implied shape and DYNAMITE bloody palm fronds make this look so much like a 90s book cover I fell in love right away. We always try to keep those season and episode numbers in the postcards now too, but I think we forget sometimes?

5.2 Nothing Can Kill That Which Glowers

LOOK AT THIS ONE. Madam Hotel rotting in the reflection of the bubble (she was supposed to show up more in those episodes and sort of be in the process of rotting but she ended up being a single light instead.), I'm crazy about the Owner here, Izzy loves to always keep a little monster in the mix when he draws the Staff. And miss Manager POPS like an 80s music video. Lot's of subtle layers and textures here that can get overlooked, but just like the lake the Owner sinks into, it deepens the longer you linger (did you find the episode number?)

I also like to remind everyone that 'That Which Glowers' is the Grimace and this episode title is a reference to the Clerks cartoon.

5.4 We Are...Watching You...

But are you really LOOKING at it? Do you SEE Izzy's MIND? Lined up you get back to back Managers mirroring each other as well as Madam Hotel in the wings of the now completed curtains--these doubles ALSO frame what is hopefully implied to be the Lobby Boy's hand reaching for his Manager. All of this duality and connection not only reinforces what we know about the characters and show already but set up beautifully the new mirrors about to arrive...

5.5 The Bellhop

THERE SHE IS! There's my goblin girl. You get the bloody vision of the Hotel as Hop sees it as well as the framing for a triptych of the New Crew, each on their own floor. The New Crew stands apart from the Staff in that they have canonical designs immediately, so there tends to be less variation on their fan designs. However there was like ONE WEEK or so before this episode dropped where people were drawing Hop ALL KINDS OF ways. She's one of my favorite designs Izzy's done for the show and I think it's partially because she looks a little like ET.

5.6 The Concierge

Shut up. Shut UP. Look at those colors. Look at that face. Look at those shoulders. Look at those colors! THE COLORS DUKE! THE COLORS!!!! and those printing spots breaking up the lines, all layered over starlight?! It should be, at this point, very hard for Izzy to outdo himself but...he just keeps on outdoing it. We jump down a floor here and the Concierge has slightly more brick surrounding him than the Bellhop did so my pattern recognizers in the crowd can probably guess what's coming next--

5.6 The Auditor

It's been pointed out that Aud has gotten the most detailed description of the main characters on the show. I try to always keep it vague so everyone can imagine whatever they like , but the Auditor is so weird I just wanted to play a little. I saw this scary looking, lonely monster begging to be seen in all white surrounded by nothing. Even the brick and mortar of the Hotel doesn't seem to want to be around her much. One thing I love about Izzy's work is how well he combines whimsy and fun with actual scary imagery. She looks really scary. That is a scary looking monster he drew.

I also think she kind of looks like this alien from Star Trek IV (hey look Star Trek showed up)

5.9 Tenaj Druh - 004 Moor

Oh how I wish I could have a full set of New Crew postcards from Izzy seeing season 1 from a different perspective (for that matter I'd love a full set of season 1 from Izzy, but one thing at a time). Getting to not only see Janet Hurd, but see the NEW CREW checking her in is so so exciting. And the Manager's TV's re-imagined as giant bloody eyeballs is expressed to it's grossest perfection here. Even the Goosebumps frame is tinted sickly green. (the rest of the season also has Goosebumps frames but I'm trying to show off Izzy's art I want you all to have a good look)

5.10 Tnurb Yrrah - 002 Moor

this one's bonkers. The Hubble's ultra deep field on the left, brains on the right but both halves of one face with the broken illusion between them that is just the building of the Hotel herself?? It's got poster folds and teeth for doors! This is a really stunning one that I feel like deserves a little more attention than it gets. Also maybe I spoke too soon on the Goosebumps frame, I don't...this one doesn't have one but maybe I just saved that file somewhere weird.

5.11 IT'S NEW YEARS EVE, JUDY BLASHY!

This is i think the first one we did that had a Goosebumps frame baked in. You can see the 5 and 11 on the clock give us our season and episode number, but that gets a little lost on the printed version so here it is in all it's glory. Love to get to see Judy here her FACE is so EXPRESSIVE and sharp. Notice how Izzy does NOT draw her with a gap tooth. Is that gap battle damage, or some aesthetic flourish the Hotel likes for her bodies? You'd have to ask Izzy. Also love getting to see him draw the things in her furnace room, which are like huge and imply a much larger elevator inside the box. Always reinforcing that boundaries and rules do not apply at the Hotel

they are also based on the family from Mac and Me

what the fuuuck?? why are they so scary??? why are they like that?? why did they make this movie this way?? I was a child!

5.12 The Reaper's Envy

Finishing up the season is this gorgeous party poster that would be right at home in the 90s. Other than the colors (THE COLOR!) I want to point out the confetti that breaks out of the border that also quietly includes some vermin (all up top, letting your eye drift down to the New Crew being reflected in what hopefully everyone assumed was Judy Blashy's eye. Of course we know now who's eye that is and what it's connected to (nothing its nothing it got cut out)

And that's season 5. Now we have entered the @filthyguts desert and must wait once again for the rains to return. I've got new ideas for season 6 that are gonna completely change how we do the art for the show and maybe we can even squeeze some button designs out of him when we launch the next wave of stuff we're launching.

I've said it before and I'll say it again and again and 100 more times, but Izzy's art is a hugely important part of the show, a source of inspiration not only to the fans who listen but to me myself (especially in my lower moments) and I am so so happy that his art and his style has come to define the show.

[hms-tardimpala]

Ficbinding: A Poison Tree by @mildredmost

A year and a half ago (ish), I was getting started in bookbinding and one of my first projects was A Poison Tree, a Poldark fic I loved. I was proud of it at the time, but I've learned a lot since then and thought it was time to have another go at it. (long post ahead)

The fic: Poldark, Ross Poldark/George Warleggan, E, 50.6k

What happened between Ross and George at school that began their life-long feud?

The reason I like this fic so much is that it surprised me. I was looking for Ross/George fics and this is one, but not only. George's character is so well-explored here that you can't help but be on his side (while understanding why the things he does offend Ross) and wish him to be happy. I'm not usually into OCs, but the one in this story is so good I loved him as much as the other characters. I went in expecting something specific, the author went another way midway through, and I loved it. The atmosphere is perfect too, it's faithful to the time period and the show/books.

The bind: I kept some ideas from the original bind, such as the color of the cover, headbands and bookmark, and the paper type, but I improved the general quality and added details. I used blue and green because they're the Warleggans' heraldy's colors in the books. The endpaper is a florentine design with golden touches, the kind of luxurious-looking stuff a 1780s nouveau riche would love. I added the Blake poem the story takes its title from at the beginning because it's one of my favorite poems ever.

New things I tried:

This is the first time I combine several elements for a cover. The green strips scared me because MATHS but they turned out good in the end. I'm still not interested in putting titles on my binds, but I think I'll keep exploring decorations of that kind.

Real endpapers. Up until now, I used paper that wasn't made for bookbinding because the thinness of true endpapers scared me, but it holds up perfectly. The book still feels strudy. And look at it, it's so FANCY.

Free vector images to make decorations. There's a wealth of free resources out there!

Huge positives:

I printed, folded, sewed, glued and trimmed this a first time, but wasn't satisfied with the cut. If you've read more than one of these posts, you know I'm desperately wrangling my guillotine into compliance. The second time, I trimmed the texblock before sewing and gluing, which is scary because the signatures are LOOSE, but it worked perfectly. The result is so fucking neat. I was ready to sandpaper the edges but didn't have to.

Look at this snuggy fat boy. This is the thickest book I've made at the A6 format, and it sits very nicely in the hand. The spine is round, the leather is smooth, and it's still very light. A pretty baby.

Details:

The typesetting: I tried many fonts (what's new) before I landed on the right one. It had to have serifs to fit with the period context. I already mentioned the decorations (I looked up georgian-period books to get inspired and discovered they weren't all that decorated, so I made those up). The drop caps are very nice.

The tree: I decided to get the most out of my printer and, after fiddling with the settings a little, got it to print in color with magnificent quality (which you can't see because of the cold light. It's cloudy today, I'm sorry).

Negatives:

The cover boards should have been wider. The pages are very close to sticking out from the edge of the cover. They're not, but it's a tight fit. I think that from now on, I'll use a 5mm "overhang" (is that the word?) instead of a 3mm one like I've learned. I like my spines too round, 3mm are not enough to compensate.

That's it this time. I don't want to brag, but I'm getting good at this (it's been a year and a half jesus).

Characteristics: Fonts: Castellar (title), Colonna MT (author name), Bell MT (text), Apex Lake (drop caps) Materials: blue and green apple leather and endpapers from Schmedt, 80g/m² Clairefontaine ivory paper, pre-made headband and synthetic ribbon.

Feel free to ask me more about materialsand fonts (or whatever), it won’t bother me at all to tell you what I used, but I’m too lazy rn to write it in this post that’s long enough already.

--

Comparison (because why not):

[sempsimps]

toga head cannons + dating bits

so mha what a show i have been violently thrown back into it and currently re watching it along with another 4 animes anyway here i am ready to make this since I have like *checks notes * 16- nope 19- nope hold on 24! drafts and I can see more on the horizon so I'm finally letting my bisexual self get some crazy girls on my list

headcannons

She likes Hello Kitty. I think she would love Kuromi (I don't know for sure, as I've never watched it. I'm not really into Sanrio stuff.)

she has some skills with drawing but nothing too major. maybe a really good sketch once in a while, on some important documents (definitely got into a lot of trouble for doodling on her school books or anything like that. ik i did)

She chews on pens or pencils. possibly hoodie drawstrings, just anything, to be honest.

I feel like she loves dinosaurs, like at least knowing some random facts from like stolen picture books or remembering an interesting thing from a museum, and I guess the Internet exists

Dating stage

she has been rejected a few times, which is obvious, so when she finds you, she is nervous about falling fast yet again and getting left. again. but she can't help it, and when you say you feel the same, she could happily fight and die for you x10 more than she already felt like she would

Blood jewelry absolutely 100% like a pretty heart-shaped pendent that's suspiciously liquidy and a beautiful red like take all my money (I will for the precious bean)

She is a criminal, so getting more domestic dates is kind of difficult. so there's options 1 she drinks someone else's blood to disguise and just dresses different from them, so it's less obvious and go to a coffee shop or something. OR 2 screw the domestic stuff! and go out to steal sweets or candy and idk steal a shopping cart, go spray paint some rich guys house, and do stupid shit like getting arrested only to call dabi or shigaraki for help as you both laugh at how stupid that was.

She would love it if you knew how to style hair or let her style yours and be matching

Speaking of matching toga would absolutely have pj's/ onesies for the both of you. examples I can think of would be the night and light furry ones (I think they neat) also those two peice ones so sharing two sets like, skull top and pink short and then having pink tank top and skull trousers.

Love language is physical touch, words of affirmation, and gift giving all the way. Holding hands? "Ah! We're holding hands haha, suck it, dabi your bitchless!". she needs soothing words during a cuddle session like fr tell her she's an amazing girlfriend. Anything you get her stuff like that is definitely her new bragging right, new hair clip? It's on, and she refuses to take it out until you do it yourself. A little pin it's going on her skirt, a keyring? She's putting at least two of those on the handle of her favourite knife. You made her a painting/ printed a photo/ wrote a poem or anything? It's getting framed and hung above her bed

She probably had lots of photos before you dated, but now she definitely has. 2 folders one is a digital file on her phone, and the other is stashed away, filled with secretly taken ones that she looks at when she misses you

If you're a hero, she'll make it a point to watch you and look at all your fan base online. "It's my turn on the TV my adorable partner is on." She would also want to go on every mission close to where your agency would be. If you have any merchandise, she has it already. If she sees other people wearing your clothing line, she would either compliment it or want to stab them (I can't decide)

That's all i can think of, and i want to do more, so anything else in the comments would be nice. im trying to ease my way into writing female characters. i might be bi, but i can't talk to women, so this was fun and a little difficult for me

[petite-ursus]

I finally dragged my butt to the thrift store in pursuit of garlands and wreath. Found a garland and admittedly all the lights don't light but I don't care because the entire length is lit still so it doesn't look silly. Found the wreath. It needed some fake red foliage pruned off where the outter shell had cracked and revealed the styrofoam core, and I added on some jingle bells.

And then. I found this tiny tree and also these mountain bookends that I'll be able to use year round. The tree needs no sprucing. The bookends could get a paint touch up, but they're really not noticeably dinged up.

I also snagged some ornament hooks, some christmas themed bags for presents AND a few ornaments. One of those "sticks" you can stick into your tree with spme pinecones and glittery foliage at the tip. A slightly cracking styrofoam ornament ball encased in a shell of this sweet robin print. The print looks reminiscent of a little vintage bird I have already for the tree and the cracking is not pronounced. A little clear/crystal bead snowflake someone must have made, and an almost full box of gold vintage ornaments balls. Also. A metal christmas card "wreath" with a nice pair of metal deer as part of the design.

9 new for me things. All for $24. Most of the stuff was between $1 to $2

The coziness has increased so much, especially with that garland in the bathroom. It feels like something my grandma Judy would do.

I love thrifting. I love treasure hunting and not paying full prices. Love it.

I did resist a little Santa and a snowman because they were both $5 which felt steep for things I hadn't set out to find, and I just couldn't picture where I'd put them so they felt more like clutter for the sake of clutter... but... they WERE cute and I'm still thinking about them... honestly a big reason I left them is the snowman was cuter than the Santa so if I had to pick one I'd get the snowman... and I technically have a longstanding beef with the concept of Frosty as anything but an evil djinn, and sometimes we must stick to our principals even if the object of them has a sweet smile and adorable hat. 🥲✊️

[practically-an-x-man]

trying to plot the story so thought I'd ask my first question now XD since you know more about this kind of forensic stuff, if you were Ricki what would your next steps be? :)

Oooh, good question!

(fair warning, this got LONG)

(and again take all this with a grain of salt since I'm not a professional forensic scientist, it was just my major before I dropped out of college. If you plan on going deep into the science/technical side of things, I'd definitely suggest asking people who are active in the industry)

So I think there are two sides of this: how the case will proceed, and how Ricki will proceed. Those are two different things, since Ricki absolutely defied crime scene protocol in that first chapter and the forensic scientists will have a different protocol. But let's get into this!

The case: At this point, further law enforcement will be called to secure the scene. Extensive photos of the scene will be take both before any changes are made and after the evidence is identified and labeled, and these photos will include close-ups, mid-range shots, and shots that encompass the whole scene from various angles. They also will investigate well around the scene in order to identify any further evidence or directional clues. Because the scene is outdoors, they don't necessarily have a set size to make the active scene (it's a little simpler with indoor scenes, since they'll close off the room, floor, or whole building), so it'll depend on the size of the event and where potential evidence may be found. Sketches may also be drawn of the scene, as a second measure to identify interacts between pieces of evidence.

Anyway. Since Ricki and her partner were first on the scene, they should be the first to call it in as a crime scene, and should stay to keep watch over the crime scene until other enforcements arrive and the scene is closed. Technically, they should have avoided tampering with the scene entirely upon discovering it, since they aren't forensic scientists (the one exception would be if they were able to save the victim's life - medicine can supercede preserving the crime scene if it's time-sensitive), but since they haven't...

Ricki and her partner will both be fingerprinted (they should already have prints on file, but a new set will probably also be taken in case of temporary changes such as cuts or calluses), and will likely have DNA samples taken (so their DNA can be ruled out when other evidence from the scene is sampled).

Assuming it's known that Ricki entered the crime scene herself and came in close contact with the victim, she will absolutely have her DNA and prints taken, and her clothing may be confiscated as evidence for analysis (especially if there's visible blood, toxin, or other evidence staining her clothing). She will be questioned about her role in the scene, and will likely be reprimanded for diving right into the scene the way she did. She may also be given a physical exam - those are typically given to victims, witnesses, and potential suspects present at the scene when the crime occurred, but since Ricki entered the scene before it was closed and the age of the scene could not be fully determined when she did, they may choose to give her an exam as well.

As for the scene itself, all points of potential evidence will be identified and assigned a specific number. Photographs will be taken, using numbered plastic "tents" to label them as well as small rulers placed near (but not touching) the evidence to get an approximation of size. Small pieces of evidence, such as hairs or clothing fibers, will be given a number and a written description, and will be placed into a bindle. Liquid evidence will be swabbed and placed in a sealed container, which will also be labeled. Wet or bloodstained clothing will be wrapped in paper, taking care not to touch or wipe off the evidence any more than is necessary - liquids that are still wet are easier to identify than dried liquids, especially when it comes to blood or other biological substances. Evidence that cannot be transported, such as footprints or those claw marks at the scene, will be extensively photographed and logged, and will be left as intact as possible for the forensic scientists to examine more thoroughly at the scene. If possible, a small portion of the sample may be removed for lab testing (i.e. a bloodstained patch of carpet from a carpeted floor), but this depends on the substance.

Everyone who enters and leaves the scene will have to clock in with an assigned manager (someone whose only job is to record everyone who enters and leaves, and when). There is no food, drink, or smoking allowed on the crime scene for risk of cross-contamination, and all who are in the crime scene are to avoid coughing, sneezing, or even talking more than is necessary to avoid biological contamination. All evidence will also have custody forms, detailing who had the evidence at what time - you want as few different people handling the evidence as possible, to reduce the risk of loss or cross-contamination. Evidence will be given to lab technicians as needed for analysis, and the scene will remain sealed until all analysis is complete (it's important that more samples can be collected as needed without the risk of cross-contamination).

The body will be strictly photographed, verbally described, and labelled before it is removed from the scene, but once it is removed it will be sent to a coroner or medical examiner. Those two are NOT the same: medical examiners have a medical degree and extensive training and are the ones you WANT to have examining the body, while coroners are elected positions that require minimal to no training.

In a city like Gotham, I'd expect MEs rather than coroners. They will determine the identity of the victim, assess any damage done to the body and label all injuries, and assess the age of the body based on rigor mortis, livor mortis, forensic entomology (for example, blowflies can colonize a corpse in as little as 5-10 minutes when undisturbed!), and other means. They will almost certainly bring in a toxicologist to examine the poison on the knives. The victim's clothing, as well as the knives themselves, will be taken as evidence for analysis as well.

Particularly if it's a large crime scene or will draw a lot of attention (this would qualify), a defined area for journalists will be assigned OUTSIDE the active scene. The information released about the case will be extremely limited at first, but news personnel are still given their own area for whatever information they are allowed to gather.

It's a PROCESS, and you can see how long this got even when I'm trying to simplify it. And of course, this is the best-case scenario as well - even with these guidelines, evidence may be missed or cross-contaminated, detectives may bring food or drink into the scene, and other fallacies may happen. Hell- one already did, with Ricki jumping into the scene, and that's bound to have some repercussions both for her and for the analysis of the scene. But that brings me to the second part:

For Ricki: She has her own piece of evidence, doesn't she? Now, technically speaking she SHOULD NOT have done that, for a variety of reasons. For one, that wasn't standard collection or identification procedure, and it could make that substance harder to identify (due to cross-contamination, age, being stored improperly, etc.). And on top of that, depending on how observant the other technicians on the scene are, they might notice that the blade was tampered with after the crime was committed, which is a wrench thrown in the plans. Either Ricki needs to fess up and face the consequences of tampering with the scene, or she could be sending the other scientists on a red herring. And it's not just the knife - her footprints, her fingerprints, lost hairs, fibers from her clothing that got caught on the scene, and any accidental nudges to other pieces of evidence could also throw off the analysis.

She needs to get this chemical identified. Forensics labs are not standardized, which is a problem with the system as a whole but benefits Ricki individually here. The Gotham City Police Department likely uses a city-wise, state-wide, or federally-sponsored forensics lab, but Ricki could take her sample to a private lab and have it analyzed... well, not off the record, but at least without the police department getting involved. There may still be contact between labs, and having analysis done on the same chemical from the crime scene could still stir up some trouble for her, but she reduces that risk by going to an independent lab.

I'm honestly not sure where she should go from there. It depends on what she wants to get out of this - is she trying to solve the case, or just get a lead on who did it so she can Nightwing up and take them down? There's only so much information she can get from having that chemical analyzed, even if the analysis turns out to be successful. I'd say from here, her best bet is to try and lay low, follow the forensic examiner's lead, and get her story cleared - being reprimanded or written up is still better than having her cross-contamination misinterpreted and being seen as a potential suspect. It helps that her partner saw her interact with the scene, having that witness strengthens her alibi even if the situation is a little messy overall.

And of course... this is Gotham. It's a fictional city, and a city that's known for having superpowered crime on the regular. They may very well have differing procedures and responses to the ones we have here in the real world. Forensics as a science is constantly undergoing revisions and is subject to human error in a vast multitude of ways - it might benefit your worldbuilding to think about how analysis may differ in a science-forward, superpower-adapted world like this.

[pbandjesse]

It was fun sleeping in peeps mill last night but man was the mattress terrible. For one it was entirely to narrow. For two it was a bad texture so I kept sliding off. So I decided when I woke up that I would wait until breakfast and then go and take the mattress from the block house. It was the perfect crime. Mostly because I had already gotten permission to get a second/better mattress.

Besides that it was a pretty find sleep. I did wake up at 530 a little to warm. So I would take my sweatshirt off and go back to bed. I don't even remember falling asleep but then all of a sudden it was 730 and I was getting up.

I washed my face and got myself ready. And I felt good. I felt cute. And I liked being down here in the morning. I'm really glad that this move over here worked out.

I would gather myself and my stuff and walked up to the office. It was unlocked but no one was there. I washed my hands and got some water and continued on.

I went to breakfast. The fridges broke so it was only cereal. If the milk was better I wouldn't have minded but the fat free always tastes sickly sweet to me? So I only ate my cereal because I needed to eat something. I chatted with Antonio and Aaron and thought about how I would accomplish everything I needed to do. And then I was off.

I would start with the stealing of the mattress. I drove my car over to get it. It was a little difficult fitting it in the back of the car but I moved the seats up all the way and made it happen. No one was the wiser.

I drove to peeps and carried it in and set my new bed up and it's a little bit bigger then the frame but honestly it's perfect for my needs and way more comfortable. So I was very happy.

I would leave my car parked at the mill and then went back to arts to actually do my job. I would set up some bins and spent most of the next hour rinsing all of the tyedye tshirts. I actually wore gloves so my hands weren't miserable and painful. I had my headphones on and was having a great time just rinsing and singing. And it kept me cool working with the water from the spigot.

A few people would walk past and chat. Say good morning. Offer help. But I was in the zone and having fun. I let them know I appreciated them.

Once I was done I would spend the next couple hours in the office. Printing and laminating and getting program materials ready. I would get to overhear the "counselor draft" where the village directors bargained for their desired staff members. And it was fun hearing them talk about who they wanted and why and it was fun to listen in.

During that Charlotte also pointed out that I hadn't made any real differences between steam at the stream and nature skills. Oops. So I would spend a little time writing out the differences there. And just printing printing printing. It was a lot.

Louisa and Aaron would help me out by putting things in lamination sleeves. And once everything was actually on those sleeves I called it break time. I was so tired and my body aches hardcore. I wanted to go eat lunch.

I wasn't sure what lunch would be like so I decided to check it out and if it wasn't great I would go get pizza.

I made a stop at the art building before going to the lodge and there I caught a toad! I would put him in a box and brought him to lunch.

Where everyone was so excited to see a toad. It was so cute. People taking pictures and cooing and being so cute. Lindsay decided that it was to small to keep. So I would return it to the art building to eat the bugs there after lunch.

I would eat lunch outside with Callie and Blanche. It was fun. The food was not my favorite but it was filling and I'm glad I had it. I just would have preferred it on a roll.

I would go back to art and hang out in my hammock for a few minutes. I would also make some piles of the materials to be delivered. But then Callie was up there and we were discussing getting her a bed. She called Joe and he would tell us to come to the shed to get one of the new beds. And after him and Callie decided what beds were best I would run down to my car to pick it up. Then we would drive through camp to the hadia house to get a mattress. Callie said she was surprised I would drive that far into camp but honestly I did it a ton over the winter. My Subaru is built for it, it's pretty great.

We drove over to peeps and carried everything in. And spent the next hour building the bed and being silly. It actually came together pretty quickly and while there was some leaning issues we were able to put some cardboard under the legs to help it level out. We were very proud of ourselves.

After we finished we would lay in our beds talking and laughing and it was just really fun. We would eventually have to go back to work. So after a little break we headed back to the office to continue laminating.

It was busy busy in there. I would have to get my chair back so I could work at my desk. But I would still end up sitting on the floor to laminated when Callie left me to help with another task (organize walkies). But I would finish all the work and would start walking to hang up my signs.

I had done a little bit of that walk before lunch. Hanging signs at the low ropes course and zip. I felt bad stapling to the trees so I would say "thank you tree" every time. And I continued that on this walk.

I went to every site. And hung schedules and dropped off packets and thought about how I was going to move this and that over. I would need the gator but it's in high demand. So I wasn't sure when I would get it. But then as I was finishing at the Adirondack I saw Kieran and Tony and Merin on the gator and they were finishing their tasks so I asked if they would help me and they agreed.

So they slowly drove behind me as I walked to the art building. Where I would give them three sites worth of material and instructions and then they were off. I was so happy that that was taken care of.

I made one more pile of stuff to go to the Adirondacks and as I was walking to the office Jeci and some of the boys were walking on the field and asked if I needed help and so they would go and take all of it for me and I was so happy. So much weight was taken off my shoulders. Like there is still a lot of set up to do over there, but I am really happy with what has been accomplished.

I would join Tony and Merrin on a trash fun. Josephine was there too and it was fun bopping around with them and chatting. I also got to show them our pretty little cabin and they were nice enough to help gather the boxes the bed had come in. Which lead to us then doing a recycling run. It was nice to get the breeze from driving around. But eventually we were back at the office.

It was not quite dinner yet. I would go sit in the office and talk to Mirren and drink some ice tea and I was just in a really good mood and very chatty. But eventually Elizabeth made us help carry the boxes with the tshirts. Which were very heavy!!! Me and Sophia would carry it together and Elizabeth tested us. Meanie!

But soon me and Mirren would walk to dinner together.

They were finishing a talk with the group though so me and her went around the back. I would chat with the kitchen staff and invite them to swim with us this evening. I'm glad they want to hang out with us. One of them later on would tell me that their bosses said they weren't allowed to interact??? Ridiculous.

Dinner was good. The biscuits were a little to close to hardtack but we're better with butter. I enjoyed talking to friends. But pretty soon I was running off again.

I would end up running into a new person, Hannah, who is from Camp Spencer and is going to be overseeing the SSC and CIT and YLP programs. We would end up having an excellent conversation and going to the office together to look over my evening programs I had written. At the office though we ran into Slim! Our Appalachian musician who was performing this evening! I would introduce myself and texted the group chat to make sure everyone knew he was here. He also asked if I had a fan available because he was going to get very hot performing. And I said of course and would get him my fan from our cabin.

Me and Hannah would get the fan and walk over to the council ring. Chatted with Slim. And then we went to see where they were with training.

Running late of course. Finishing up but running late. While we were standing there a car drove up and we were all confused. But it was the family letting us borrow their rabbit!! How exciting. This bunny was huge! And her name was Todd. Everyone wanted to go see her and that was just so sweet.

I would go and tell Alexi everything I had done and was planning on doing. And then we were going to see Slim perform.

My legs hurt to much to dance. So I would take videos and eventually joined the jug band and played some instruments which I really enjoyed. It was fun. But I would dip out with about half of the staff. I was just a bit to tired.

I would go to the cabin to change. I also grabbed my shower stuff. And I would be the first one in the pool (after the life guards).

And the water was amazing. No more body aches. I jumped in and it was perfect.

I would get a noodle and just float for a long time. Jamie joined me first. And we hung out by the cove. Eventually others would come. The boys were being so silly and flipping and diving and it was a lot of fun. Even if it made the water very rocky.

Callie had gone home to get some of her stuff but she was back and joined us. I was in the water for more then an hour. But I started to get cold just floating there. So I would get out and dried off in my new tery cloth hoodie. It was nice.

I would get a shower. And felt a lot better after that. But I very much wanted to go back to our room and lay down.

I didn't have a light to walk there though so it was a little scary!! But I did not fall and would call James because I missed their voice. I have to walk back home towards the road to get enough service to hear them but it was worth it. I miss them greatly.

After we talked I came back and put on my jammies. But then Callie was back! She had to make some trips to get everything and we keep laughing and screaming and it's so fun. Like I never lived with anyone. Besides James I've never shared a room before! This is a neat experience for me. Like not even in college! And she's so fun and kind and already told me the things other people have been annoyed about in the past and it's nothing that bothers me. I am just happy to have my friend here sharing this experience with me.

But man am I ready to sleep. It took me a long time to write this because we keep laughing. But she has mostly fallen asleep and I am going to brush my teeth and sleep too.

Tomorrow is the last day of training. There still feels like there is so much to do. I have to believe it will all work out and be okay. And then at the end of the day I get to go home and see my husband!! I am thrilled about that.

I hope you all have a very good night. Sleep well. I love you all!!

[afleetingmuse]

Hi everyone!

To fix a duel ended problem I'm having as a DM, I've made a thing! Lol

The Flaw:

Sometimes if I have a/any new player(s) who wants to try D&D but finds it intimidated or overwhelming. Traditionally, I have a one on one character creation session or a group game 0. All pretty standard stuff and while I don't mind doing this, it can be very time consuming. Especially if I have new players that are just doing a one shot(the ending always has flexibility to morph into a campaign).

The Background:

The last one shot I did was for a my best friend, her husband, her brother and his girlfriend. But because the four of them lived in another city and I was only visiting for a few days I asked them if they'd like to pick their race, class, and background, and I'll fillout their character sheets for them so we can just go over some smaller details and jump right into the game. They all agreed but while I was filling things out and choosing some basic and versatile spells. I realized I'd still have to go over background features, racial abilities or all the things they would have on hand. So I handmade little cards that explained things like dark vision ect. I then went to the dollar store and bought some of those plastic card holders that go in binders. Set it up for them, so that all I had to do was hand them a few of these sheets and everything they needed was easy to read and straight forward(luckily for me others on Reddit had blank spell cards which was a real time saver).

My players loved it, and after a quick explanation of the basic of dice rolling and where to find information they needed we hopped into the game. It was great but very time consuming on my end for a one shot.

The Inspiration:

I have another one shot coming up in a few months and while my sister lives in town(Hi Sister, I technically haven't asked you yet if you wanted to play but Cousin's Husband is really excited) , my cousin and her husband live out of town. So when I showed up to work early today I couldn't find my new campaign notes on my Google Docs. I didn't want to try and remember what I had already wrote down so I started thinking about making some blank cards that I could fill out the information and get started on all the behind the scenes work. When I had the idea to make a printable sheet so that I'll never have to handwrite it out again. It took a few tries to get a basic look that I liked. What would be easiest to print out and not waste paper ect.

The Idea(Couldn't think of another character sheet reference that would work):

And I have this first draft to show for it. Basically I made a few of these sheets in Excel the top three rows are all the same, since they are the three most common Kits. Then the forth row has a different Kit on each page.

I wanted a space where they could erase and change the amount of what they have, like ball-bearings, rope, string, pitons and rations. If they ever get broken, lost, used or cut. Then I added how much the flat rate of price so you wouldn't have to look it up if you wanted to sell it. Finally I added a spot for a base weight incase you ever want to play a game where your strict on your carrying capacity but left it blank so again if something was to happen to your gear you can change it.

I know this has probably been done before I didn't think to look before I got started but regardless tada! Feel free to ask any questions or tell me what you think.

(I also posted this on Reddit, but figured I'd share it here too)

[thewatermelloncat]

Six Weeks and Stuffed Wombats

Week One

Summary: The weekly sessions start, and her counsellor seems nice enough. There is only one problem: more homework.

Author's Note: This chapter is a bit short and slow, but things start to amp up after this one.

Prologue

Six weeks was all it needed to be if she took it seriously and answered honestly. After that, if her counsellor saw her well enough to continue navigating life on her own, she could. Unless she wanted to continue with her sessions, which is something Rosé highly doubts she would want to do.

The system was supposed to be built on trust, which is why the school counsellor, Tamisha, had led the introductions before letting Rosé follow. Except Rosé has never been good at talking about herself, so she took prompting to answer basic things like her age and the things she likes to do.

“I see you’ve found your file.” Tamisha follows Rosé’s gaze down to a folder on a low table beside a stuffed wombat. “I’m not supposed to tell you what is in there, but I’m a little unorthodox. What do you think it says?”

“Fights a lot, self-isolating and talks back at every opportunity.” Rosé smirks a little.

“Nothing positive?” Tamisha inquires.

Rosé shakes her head.

“That’s what it did say,” Tamisha confirms her answer, “until about a year ago. Do you know what changed?”

“I uh… I made some new friends” Rosé answers. “Doing all that stuff didn’t seem like such a good idea anymore.”

Tamisha smiles warmly. “What do you think it says now?”

Rosé shrugs.

“It says that you’re intelligent but lack application beyond the subjects that you like” Tamisha begins. “But it also says that you’re resourceful and you show initiative, independence, and good leadership… There are also concerns about your homelife, but I don’t think I need to explain those to you.”

Rosé sighs deeply and shifts uncomfortably.

“I won’t lie to you, Rosé.” Tamisha folds her hands and leans forward in her chair. “From what I’ve read in this file, I don’t think it should be you sitting on that couch.”

“What do you mean?” Rosé asks before she can stop herself.

“A lot of this is speculation” Tamisha admits, tapping a finger against the folder on the table. “But from what it seems like, you’re not the one causing problems in your household.”

Rosé says nothing.

“I can’t promise you that after these sessions you’ll have a happy homelife” Tamisha confesses. “Though what I can do is help you find strategies to process and cope in uneasy situations. But I need you to trust me for us to do that.”

“I’m not a very trusting person” Rosé warns.

“That’s okay” Tamisha accepts. “We’ll start slow.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  

“How was it?” Denali asks as Rosé approaches the other side of the cafeteria table she sits at.

“Do you know they give out homework?” Rosé says bitterly as she drops a notebook and some papers she was carrying onto the surface. “As if I don’t have enough already.”

“What do you have to do?” Denali asks.

“Journal” – Rosé touches a hand to the notebook on the table before pulling some papers out of it – “thermometers.”

“Why? Do you have to record the weather or something?” Denali jokes as she looks at the graphics printed on the paper.

Rosé scoffs a laugh, shaking her head. “My feelings” she dramatises. “Have to fill out three a day: one for homelife, school, and just in general.”

“Oh, kind of like colouring in?” Denali smiles. “Fun.”

“Except I have to think” Rosé huffs. “And I have to cut three of these out and stick them in the book every day. Do you know how time consuming that will be? I don’t even know if I have a glue stick.”

“I have one!” Denali bounces in her seat and reaches down to pull her bag up on the table. “Why don’t we just cut them out and stick them in the book now, so you don’t have to worry about it later?”

“That’s actually not a bad idea” Rosé admits, and she begins to search through her own bag for a pair of scissors.

“Were they nice?” Denali asks about the counsellor as they set to work.

“Yeah, I guess she was” Rosé considers. “Apart from how I feel like a lab experiment every time she looks at me.”

“What about if I started looking at you like that?” Denali looks up to stare at her, still cutting the paper with her scissors.

“Stop it, you weirdo.” Rosé rolls her eyes before she nods to Denali’s hands. “You’re gonna cut yourself.”

[owltypical]

super long dump post about various irl things

a coworker of mine passed away at the beginning of the week. he’d actually left the company back in september, so i hadn’t seen him in several months, and i wouldn’t say we were super close, but. he was on my team, and we saw each other and talked and interacted and spent time together at work hangouts pretty much constantly over several years.

he was only 29. not sure how it happened, just that we heard from his family that it had, and his memorial page and viewing/funeral times were shared with us. it was definitely a great shock to us, i hid myself in the bathroom for a bit and cried. hadn’t cried properly in a long time due to my brain meds, so i had a sadness headache for a couple days.

he was a very pleasant, polite, and nice young dude. politics rarely come up at work though i knew he came from a religious catholic conservative background, but he was pretty socially conscious and angry/disillusioned about a lot of the shit he saw going on; i saw him grow from those roots over that time and i wonder how he’d turn out in the end if he’d been given proper time to finish growing. one of the kindest, most patient phone voices i ever heard.

it sucks so extra hard when somebody suddenly dies young like that. technically he was already out of my life when it happened, but that’s the closest to someone’s death i’ve been in ages, possibly ever, other than i suppose my cousin who passed away a few years ago. i’ve never been to a funeral, the few deaths i’ve encountered have been very distant and slightly unreal, even with family. but this was someone i knew and saw irl and who was part of my everyday life for quite a while; now he’s just suddenly gone, he’s ceased to exist. just memories and pictures.

literally the next morning after that another of our team members had some sort of medical episode at work; paramedics came and took her away in an ambulance. not sure what happened, she seems to be fine now thank god, but it was very scary at the time. that one-two punch in less than 24 hours made for a very mentally and emotionally strained week for us; so far 2023 for me has been kind of muted and spent grieving.

speaking of brain meds: started a new mixed dosage of stuff just today. the previous prescription was helping, but not enough, and had side effects that i felt were hampering my progress elsewhere. hopefully this new combo works out! i want more energy during the day, i want to sleep better at night, i want to have this dumb brain in a more orderly shape. i want to feel artistic and draw again.

not sure what i’ll do if i start feeling better about art again, though. i keep fretting that i just don’t have it in me to do big detailed print-ready longform comic stories, and never really have, despite how many times i’ve tried over the years. maybe i really do just need a partner to work with, i don’t know. i’m also second-guesing myself about the overall setting of outliers. i was always very tickled by weird/background stuff in comic book superhero settings since my youth, but the last few years i’ve completely soured on exactly that; the absolute glut of comic book movies and tv series have been overwhelming and tiring and obnoxious, it’s made me very jaded about the whole thing. and i don’t want to be seen as part of riding on that particular bandwagon either.

kind of trying to figure out what the hell to do in general. i make enough to survive just fine, but not enough to actually grow or go anywhere or make any real changes. affordable housing is nonexistent these days, absolutely everywhere, not just the places i would actually be interested in moving to. wages suck, everything costs way more now, good luck getting where you’d like to go without selling a few organs and cramming into some hole with three other equally desperate roommates. i’d donate plasma but apparently one of my arms has bad invisible veins so i got told to go away.

it’s real existential crisis times over here, i guess. i’m less than two years away from 40 now; i thought i had more time to figure some things out but an injury and good ol’ covid stole a large chunk of my prime 30s away from me. i want to move and improve my station in life, but how? i want a partner, but dating’s hard, especially the older you get and especially when you’re ace. i want to draw, but i worry that i don’t truly have the stamina and time to do everything i want to do, and that i’m running out of time in general. it’s stupid, i know it’s just youth-oriented culture and the world’s aggressive ageism messing with me, but it’s hard to feel like the countdown to 40 isn’t some sort of doomsday clock terror. too late for love, too late for family, too late for careers and making something of myself artistically. brains are stupid.

well. here’s to the brain in question getting better via updated meds, and here’s to 2023 having something good happen during it, i suppose. i hope.

[os2warp]

We had computers in our classrooms as early as first grade. Some early macintosh, I'm not sure on the specific model we didn't use it much. In third grade we got to go to the computer lab which was more early macs and some apple IIs. In 4th grade they replaced the apple IIs with those clear imacs. Up until this point we basically just learned how to turn the computer on and open one or two specific programs, and even then stuff was usually loaded up ready for us when we got there. i cant remember what we actually did on any of these lol.

It wasn't until middle school and 6th grade that we really learned how to use computers. Windows 98. We already had a computer at home with windows 95 so I was vaguely familiar with this. We never had any actual computer classes, except for keyboarding "because typing is done on typewriters". Closest thing we had to a computer class was when english class taught us how to use microsoft word 97 and powerpoint. We got to get on the early internet and do research and how to use this fancy new thing called a search engine. askjeves or altavista are usually the best but there's this new thing called google that shows promise. We got to save our work on a floppy disk that we had to bring from home. typing class never worked for me, I still can't touch type. well, I kinda can but not the correct way. If we finished our keyboarding exercises we could get on the internet and do whatever we wanted. i also remember occasionally using some kind of like laptop form-factor word processor things occasionally. they would print to a central printer via ir. i think apple made them they were green and had a fairly small monochrome lcd. i think there also may have been like one mobile classroom set of laptops that all had to be strung together with ethernet cables. also a couple desktops on carts with huge old projectors on them the teacher would use.

In high school we got windows XP. The keyboarding classes were gone and they mostly expected us to know how to use a computer by this point. there were a few computer-centric classes mostly focused on document processing or design but they were all electives. i took a class to use autocad that was fun. Every student could save their files their own network drive that automatically connected when they logged into the computer and was accessible from any computer in the school. (supposedly accessible from any school in the district) and there was usually another network share for the specific class you were in, but generally you were expected to print things out to turn them in. this was before the cloud was really a thing, It's impressive the networking stuff worked as well as it did especially on the laptops. there were a couple sets of laptops that could be wheeled into the classroom so that we didn't have to go to the computer labs or library to use those computers. All higher level functions were blocked, we couldn't even change the desktop background easily. The computers reset every time you turned them on. (though i found a workaround that allowed me to install fonts lol)

by the time i graduated high school all the classrooms had smart boards and projectors in them although only a few teachers figured out how to use them, most still relied on transparencies on the overhead projector. if we were watching a movie it would still be on the 20" crt tv with the dvd/vcr combo on the wall shelf.

During my brief time in college the computer's all ran windows 7 and like office 2013 I guess. By that time the only people who really had trouble using the computer were the old people who were going back to college in their 40s or 50s

In all that time, apart from the keyboarding classes, I never remember any time when we specifically learned "these are the functions of a computer. this is how you do this" They just sort of organically grew that knowledge into us in a case-by-case basis as needed.

that post about how young people use computers these days (or rather, how they don’t, instead preferring to use their phones) got me wondering

by computer skills i mean basic skills like typing, navigating menus/directories/folders, using word processors or other programs, using removable storage, etc. NOT computer science or programming.