#the way tumblr immediately nerfed my new blog.

[weirdestwebizen]

it works! :D

OH THANK GOD

[shinelikethunder]

Some feedback from a longtime user that's hopefully a bit less reflexively hostile than most of what I've seen:

A couple of your devs have made reassuring posts on their own blogs that chronological feed isn't going anywhere, Tumblr is just expanding on alternatives to it that might be friendlier to new users. I'm going to take that at face value and assume y'all already know that fucking with the availability of chronological feed would be tantamount to waging GLOBAL THERMONUCLEAR WAR on your existing core userbase. But if you didn't, uh, here's yet another heads-up: don't fuck with the availability of a pure chronological feed.

I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing for Tumblr to be branching out into a wider variety of algorithmic feeds and recommendations, as long as it doesn't nerf existing functionality. I sometimes check out the "For You" feed when I'm bored and all caught up on my "Following" page, and it's surprisingly OK. It'd be nice to have some ways to signal "stop recommending stuff like this to me" or "remove X topic from my recommendations" that don't involve blocking users or globally filtering tags, though. And that'll become more important if this does lead to an uptick in active users and more people start getting aggravated, both by being recommended stuff they hate and by having their posts paraded in front of hostile eyeballs.

But my main comment here is: please, please, please, for the love of god, try to reel new users in by enticing rather than coercing them. And PLEASE minimize the amount of coercion that's going to blow back on existing users. Biggest concerns:

Login walls. Stop. Just stop. Everybody fucking hates them. They drive people away out of pure spite. Just LOOK at what Elon did to Twitter recently. If I can't give a logged-out friend a link to my own blog or my own post without them getting login-walled halfway down the page, that massively reduces Tumblr's value to ME, an existing user who wants a place I can host some of my shit where people will actually be able to access it. Login-walling the blog archive was already a dick move, tbh, but further encroachment is just going to drive people away.

TUMBLR IS ALREADY TOO AGGRESSIVE ABOUT PUSH NOTIFICATIONS. I have them turned off across the board because I already access Tumblr for an embarrassing amount of time almost every single day! And yet every time I pull up the Activity page on the Android app you're wasting my attention AND screen real estate with some passive-aggressively thuggish "Looks like you forgot to turn on push notifications for this blog, you silly goose!" banner that has no "dismiss" option or way to say no to it. (Even fucking DoorDash has the decency to take "no" as an answer!) The only way to make it go away is to pretend to agree with it and then immediately exit out of the push notification settings. That's some resentment-stoking dark-pattern shit and it gives me road rage just thinking about it.

Not to mention HAVING PUSH NOTIFICATIONS AS BLOCKED AS I CAN GET THEM somehow doesn't even STOP Tumblr from spamming me with them every single time I create, edit, or reblog a post. So please, please, please, if you're experimenting with this to improve new-user retention, spare a thought for the people who have EXPLICITLY OPTED OUT of as much notification spam as they're able. Don't make them hate you. Don't make your app a liability to them. Please.

By contrast, I'd love to be able to opt into notification emails about replies, reblog comments, asks, and other text interactions on my posts or blogs, to peruse them at my leisure and have an archive of them for later. But for some reason whenever I've tried in the past they never seem to reach me. (And PLEASE DO NOT spam me with emails about daring to have push notifications turned off, for the love of god. No, I don't want to be auto-subscribed to your fucking mailing list, and if there's no unsubscribe link that actually works, your emails ARE gonna get reported as both spam and violations of US federal law. By me, if no one else.)

Tumblr’s Core Product Strategy

Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on reorganizing how we work in a bid to gain more users. A larger user base means a more sustainable company, and means we get to stick around and do this thing with you all a bit longer. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. The @labs group has published a bit already, but this is bigger. We’re publishing it publicly for the first time, in an effort to work more transparently with all of you in the Tumblr community. This strategy provides guidance amid limited resources, allowing our teams to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr’s future.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience. 

Tumblr’s competitive advantage lies in its unique content and vibrant communities. As the forerunner of internet culture, Tumblr encompasses a wide range of interests, such as entertainment, art, gaming, fandom, fashion, and music. People come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this culture, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless connection between people and content. 

To guarantee Tumblr’s continued success, we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content. This involves attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Tumblr’s usability, we must address these core guiding principles.

Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Retain and grow our creator base.

Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Improve the platform’s performance, stability, and quality.

Below is a deep dive into each of these principles.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr has a “top of the funnel” issue in converting non-users into engaged logged-in users. We also have not invested in industry standard SEO practices to ensure a robust top of the funnel. The referral traffic that we do get from external sources is dispersed across different pages with inconsistent user experiences, which results in a missed opportunity to convert these users into regular Tumblr users. For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up. 

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages. We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. Our current logged-out explore page does very little to help users understand “what is Tumblr.” which is a missed opportunity to get people excited about joining the site.

Actions & Next Steps

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get” Tumblr and entice them to sign up.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product.

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

Being a 15-year-old brand is tough because the brand carries the baggage of a person’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr: it is a vibrant community with lots of untapped potential. We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant. 

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content each time the app is opened.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are. 

Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds. 

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr’s charm lies in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the clever remarks found within reblog chains and replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless.

Unfortunately, the current way that conversations work on Tumblr across replies and reblogs is confusing for new users. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the inability to easily follow threaded conversations make it difficult for users to join the conversation.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion within replies and reblogs.

Improve the conversational posting features around replies and reblogs. 

Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs.

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread. 

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads. 

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed. 

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.  

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Actions & Next Steps

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it. 

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral.

Expand ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts.

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery. Our strategy of reaching out to you, the user, should be well-coordinated across product, commercial, and marketing teams.

Our messaging strategy needs to be personalized and adapt to a user’s shifting interests. Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events.  

Most importantly, our messages should be thoughtful and should never come across as spammy.  

Actions & Next Steps

Conduct an audit of our messaging strategy.

Address the issue of notifications getting too noisy; throttle, collapse or mute notifications where necessary.  

Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages. 

Test what the right daily push notification limit is. 

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

The stability and performance of our mobile apps have declined. There is a large backlog of production issues, with more bugs created than resolved over the last 300 days. If this continues, roughly one new unresolved production issue will be created every two days. Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Improving performance, stability, and quality will help us achieve sustainable operations for Tumblr.

Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.

Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users. 

Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs.

Conclusion

Our mission has always been to empower the world’s creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that prioritizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

[trickstercheebs]

Prompt? Concept I think you’d like? Borrower!Benrey trying to play with/braid Gordon’s hair 💙

While I like this idea to hell and back, weirdly enough this showed up in my notification feed as being asked by a blog named “Undefined”

...weird cursed ask. maybe Benry them self asked for this and hacked my tumblr for gay prompts?

*shrugs* anyways

It was late at night, Benry couldn’t sleep for the fourth night in a row..Not like it really mattered that much to him, he could nap later on and it’d be fine....But it kinda sucked being the only one up at this hour of the night with nothing to do or anyone to talk to.

It was one of the many reasons he kept finding himself in Gordon’s bedroom, not for really creepy reasons no..Something about being near the human helped the hours pass by somewhat faster, and he did look kinda cute sleeping like he did.

Tonight was one such night again, Benry was seated near Gordons sleeping face, hair cascading down all around his head...Benry always secretly loved seeing Gordon with his long hair down..it made him look...ethereal if he remembered the word Coomer used once for some gayass shit he was saying to Bubby one day last week.

The deep auburn curls and waves framed his sleeping face almost lovingly so, making Benry secretly wish he was big enough to just reach out and brush them behind his ear, maybe kiss his temple? Shit he was blushing crimson thinking about it now. It made him want to reach out and just touch his hair, it looked so fuckin soft.

“...this has gotta be some...some sorta torture man...God nerfed me too hard to allow this shit to fly. So fuckin uncool bro.”

But..nerf or no nerf...Benry still found himself inching closer and closer until he could feel the heat radiating off of Gordons skin, making him reach out to press a small hand against the others cheek. He wanted to do so much in that moment alone, most of them impossible because of his size.

But one stuck out that seemed doable..and possibly kinda fun? Reaching out he gently took a handful of the loose hair and tugged it towards him. It was as soft as he thought it’d be, almost slipping through his fingers like silk. There was one thing on his mind that he could do that maybe Gordon wouldn’t immediately notice..or maybe if he did he might like it?

Only one way to find out.

Shifting some he gathered a bit more hair until it pooled about him, the residual warmth seeping into him and making him drowsy as a result, shit better work fast then.

Hands moved on their own, the methodical and repetitive movements making him calm and zoned out as all fuck, slowly watching his own body create the finished product...a simple french braid. It wasn’t anything special but Benry couldn’t help but smile, if he had more time or fuck he was bigger he’d gladly braid Gordons hair while he was awake too..

He learned from Tommy during a few....darker nights as a means to keep himself grounded and focused on something productive, and ever since then whenever he had nothing better to do and wanted to feel a bit more fancy, he had braided his hair and Tommys too when he wanted to of course.

And before he knew it, the long braid of hair was done..Not that it’d likely last the rest of the night or when Gordon woke up but, least he could appreciate it here and now for both of them.

“Heh....lookin...uh looking good Gordon..whoever did your hair’s a genius. Real fuckin da vinchi.”

“mhn...gh..”

Gordon huffed softly in his sleep, shifting some and damn near pinning Benry to his face. Not that he would ever mind that, but he had to be able to get away if Gordon woke up...So with a bit of a panicked roll to the side, he dodged the impromptu cuddle session with a grunt.

“Damn Gordon, you likin my braiding skills that much? Kinda...kinda real gay of you...”

He honestly wished he’d stop being so damn gay by himself one day..but that wasn’t today. Getting up with a yawn he scurried off to find a place to sleep, the warmth and comfort he had obtained had finally killed off the insomnia for the time being.

Morning came and as Gordon slowly forced himself awake once more, he was too damn comfy to bother getting up just yet and decided to lounge in bed for a while longer on his phone..As he shifted to grab it and his glasses though, he was suddenly aware of some of his hair being.....in a braid? There’s no way in hell that was a coincidence... But then how the fuck did it end up like that then? He was the only one in the apartment right?

There was no fucking way it was ghosts....probably? Ghosts could touch shit right? But why did a ghost braid his hair then? Did it have a crush on him?

It was way too fucking early in the morning to bother thinking about such silly shit...though he did decide to keep the braid in, even going farther and braiding the rest of his hair into a loose copy.

Gordon paused when he heard something that sounded like a bird song nearby and smiled...Must be a new nest outside somewhere..He completely missed the soft minuscule orbs of pearlescent pink floating from under the couch as he went about his day.

[beyondthetemples-ooc]

Oh NO!

There’s a MEETING on the fifth! HECK.

As soon as I got the message saying “May 5th”, I was like “huh, that sounds familiar, why”. And then I looked in my calendar. And saw the blank square. And stared at it.....

And then I realized THAT’S WHEN APOKOLIPS WAR COMES OUT.

HHHFFFFFF

Highest priority for me about seeing it is seeing is AS SOON as possible so I don’t get ANYTHING else spoiled! I don’t even want to see a single gif before I see the movie for myself! I’m really genuinely excited about how Constantine and Raven are going to be in this whole situation, and how the HELL they’re going to get out of it with their two strongest on the meta and mystical side nerfed so hard!

So, I’m starting my new job on Monday. Which means I’ll have worked on Tuesday, May 5th. And I was planning to get home, get food, and get watching...

And then I was thinking, okay. The meeting doesn’t start until 8pm. Maybe I can do what I did with the SU finale, where I watched until IMMEDIATELY before the meeting began, spent two minutes putting on my business jacket+foundation, used the bathroom, and slid right onto Zoom. Then did all my Post-Viewing Celebration and Liveblog Posting and fan-content consumption after the meeting. until like 3am, as is my custom.

So, maybe I could get home, watch the movie Immediately, and go right to the meeting after?

But here’s the thing. The bus ride home is an hour long. (It’s not even from transfers or anything, it just takes an hour for the bus to make a fifteen-minute drive down the street.) My work schedule is until 5:30pm. With current events, the buses are on a reduced schedule, so the first bus home doesn’t leave until 5:50... Best case scenario, I don’t get home until 6:50. 

Amazon won’t tell me HOW LONG the movie’s RUNTIME IS.

But by the time the meeting is over, after the training and everything, it’ll be like 11. Sometimes it goes until midnight. And I’m not gonna want to start watching a movie that’s going to utterly FUCK me up emotionally at midnight. Especially not when I’ll have work in the morning.......

...Mmmmmmaybe... I could dip into the post-emergency-fund-savings stimulus check leftovers, and take a Lyft home? That’s a fifteen minute drive, I could be home by 6. I have bags of popcorn in my room, I could just grab a carrot and some hummus for dinner and get right to watching when I get home, and theoretically watch the movie by 7:45, though that would depend entirely on its runtime, how often I pause to take notes on commentary, and how the internet connection is.... nyyyygggghhhhh, for a full-length movie, that’s super risky, though. And even if I do get through the movie by 7:55, if the meeting miraculously only goes until 10:30, I’ll still have to get up for work in the morning and won’t be able to spent HOURS seeking fan content... Heck.

I’d hate to watch the movie and not have time to Process it before I have to go to bed-- I won’t be able to sleep after an emotional high without Processing it. And I really don’t want to be a zombie the next day, if I stay up late consuming fancontent... (Besides, sleep deprivation is really bad for your immune system. And I’m going to be on public transportation with gloves and no access to masks.)

So I guess, while I could theoretically watch the movie, I’m also going to need time to RECOVER from the movie. And that’s going to be a multi-hour process..... so as much as it pains me to realize, I’m going to have to avoid Tumblr on Tuesday (in order to avoid spoilers because people don’t tag reliably in this fandom-- plus there are so many different ways people phrase that movie’s tags).... and so, I just have to resign myself to wait until Wednesday evening to watch.

Damn it.

But really, that’s only one more day. And I’ve been agonizing over this movie since like February fricking 25th. Another singular day won’t kill me....

I’ll probably hop on Tuesday to make a brief LOA announcement, writing it from my blog’s page instead of the dash so there is Zero Risk of being spoiled, and just... Try Really Hard to get through the day without going on Tumblr. That’ll be interesting, but I can take a walk, browse new music, search for my muses’ music tastes. Generally just fill in the time before the movie.

And then let the entirety of my Wednesday evening be completely dedicated to JLD:AW!

I think that’s the better choice, anyways, because for a whole movie with Such a cast and So Many Things promised to happen, there’s probably going to be a lot to comment on.

i gotta know what the FUCK raven and damian are talking about in the freaking med room though! I gotta! I GOTTA. knowing them it’s going to be murderously vulnerable and force me to Feel Things. I’m definitely gonna need time for my damirae heart to heal over when I finally know what they’re talking about. And if, you know, Something Shippy happens. Because I was a hard sell on that ship, but once I fell for them, I completely PLUNGED.

So anyways, waiting ‘til Wednesday, final verdict.

My new Countdown Date for JLD: Apokolips War is Wednesday, May 6th.

[sarakuper]

Santa Marta & Tayrona National Park; the coast of Colombia

Stop #8, January 28-February 5

We arrived in Santa Marta on Tuesday night with little expectation of what Santa Marta had to offer. Blog’s I’ve read had mixed reviews about this city, as were the reviews I heard from friends and other travelers. Either way, we had such an exciting month that took lots of planning up until now, and now we have no plans other than where we are sleeping at night.

We stayed at La Guaca hostel and got a private room. The hostel is really nice and clean and overall just has good vibes! This place quickly became my favorite hostel.

Wednesday was our first full day, and after sleeping in and taking our time with breakfast we headed into town. It turned out to be a really wonderful day. We wandered the streets of Santa Marta, both the touristy and non touristy spots. We picked up fruit and water at the grocery store to help out some of the young Venezuelan refugees in the area. We stopped in a suuuuuuuper hippy dippy cafe that was so beautiful; an entire wall was covered in plants! And, I swear, I recall a waterfall.. and mist spraying from the ceiling. Its so hot here in Santa Marta, the mist was a pleasant surprise! We continued to walk around and then we explored the free gold museum which was actually quite lovely. It showcased the lost golf of the indigenous Taironas. Lastly, we walked along the bay before renting chairs on the beach for the last 2 hours of sunlight. We were continuously asked to buy things from several vendors, but I only said yes to a young pregnant woman selling massages. I’ve been wanting one anyway, and I totally have a soft spot for pregnant women!! She is from Cartagena originally and already has one child, but the competition is too high in Cartagena so they now live in Santa Marta. Once it was over I stripped down to my undies, not expecting to swim today, and went for a dip. Luckily for me I was wearing granny panties so this time my white behind wasn’t blaring at everyone.

About an hour later we starting chatting with the family that rented chairs next to us. They are Colombian, living in Medellin, and are on vacation. It was a husband and wife named Oscar and Elisabeth, and their 18 year old daughter Mariana. The family was immediately welcoming and were really impressed with our Spanish. We talked about our favorite foods in the country and when I mentioned the delicious coconut rice in the caribbean coast, Elisabeth immediately invited me to her house in Medellin to teach me how to cook it. Hers, she says, is way better than any restaurants. :) We ended up hitting it off with this family so well that we exchanged numbers and planned to go to another beach together, the next day.

The next day we met at a bus stop at 11:00am to get on the local bus to Tagana, the neighboring fishing village with their own beach. Once we arrived we chatted with the boat companies at the dock and arranged for a transfer to Playa Grande. The boat ride was about 5 minutes, and we appeared on a blue beach with many other locals and tourists. We spent the day reading, drinking, swimming, and snorkeling with Oscar’s basic snorkel gear. I was so surprised by how many fish there were right along this beach! It was a great day with our new friends, and it was especially enjoyable to experience Santa Marta like locals (from Colombia) instead of gringos :)

For the next day, January 31st, we decided to splurge on a tour to a beach in Tayrona National Park. The park will be closing for the month of February, so unfortunately we won’t have time to explore it. They close every year for one month for restoration, and also so that the indigenous people living there can have time off from the tourists to connect with their roots. Our hostel offers a day trip to one of their many famous beaches, and so thats what we did!

Our early morning transport to Tyrona came at 6am. I slept on most of the journey, but once we finally arrived to the coast we took a boat for about 5 minutes to Playa Crystal. There were more people than I thought there would be, but it was a stunning beach none the less. The water is crystal clear (hence the name), and there was fantastic snorkeling. Sean bought some basic snorkeling gear at the grocery store the night before so we didn’t have to continue paying for rentals. It was a smart move, because even if we don’t take them with us once we leave it still saved us money. We made some friends on this tour as well, a couple from Spain and another Colombian couple that live in England now. We shared the cost of beach chairs in the shade and enjoyed another beautiful day on the beach. This beach was definitely the most beautiful one we were able to visit.

The next day we did absolutely nothing! Well, we actually did a lot of important things, but from bed. We had been so sun kissed and tired from the snorkeling this last week we decided to take the day off! I worked on my Colorado license for teaching, booked our next flights, organized our next hostels, uploaded photos (and worked on my tumblr posts), etc. Sean completed both our applications for a visa extension which was more complicated than it probably should be! He also went food shopping for us, buying lots of guacamole ingredients which I planned to prepare for the Super Bowl. We also both did a ton of Duolingo; we’ve been super into it lately, as its the only Spanish class we have at the moment! It was actually a very productive day, and in the evening we took a taxi to meet our Colombian friends Elisabeth, Oscar, and Mariana, for beers and people watching on a busy strip of beach in Rodadero. We danced, ate, drank, chatted, and really just continued to enjoy each others company!

The next day, Super Bowl Sunday, we slept in, went out for lunch, and then headed back to La Bahia de Santa Marta, the bay of Santa Marta. We met our friends again, swam, played Uno (which they gave us as a gift), and headed back with plenty of time to shower and watch the super-bowl pregame. Did the Super Bowl half time show have a lot of Spanish!? We watched the same show, right!? I thought it was a great coincidence that Shakira was one of the performers, because she is from Colombia! And I also loved how JLo held the Puerto Rican flag during the show. YASSSS QUEEN! 

On Monday we finally made it to Sisiguaca, a tiny beach close to Playa Grande in Taganga that the receptionist at the hostel told us about. We took a boat from Taganga beach about 5 minutes to Sisguaca where we shared a small beach with maybe 15 others. We sat in the shade close to the water, relaxed, and snorkeled. At this point our Colombian friends had flown back to Medellin. They invited us to stay in their home whenever we get back to Medellin; we look forward to seeing them again! Anyway, back to Sisiguaca. I ordered my favorite dish, arroz de coco (coconut rice), with a side of patacones at the tiny restaurant along the shore. The snorkeling was fabulous, as was our quiet surroundings. After throwing the nerf football around as the sun began to set, we headed back to Taganga via boat and then bus to Santa Marta. 

As per usual, we stopped at the grocery store on the way home to pick up some ingredients for our go-to dinner at “home”... pasta! But by this point we’ve gotten into the habit of buying water and bananas for the Venezuelan refugees seeking help outside the grocery store. Its became part of our routine in Santa Marta. Bottles of water and bananas/some other food is the least we could do and cost very little. The women with their baby girls were always happy to see us, as was this one disabled man that Sean helped out, every time we visited the store.

Next stop is Minca where we plan to stay for 4 nights before coming back to Santa Marta for a flight.

Thanks for reading fam, love you all. <3

[thesoftdumbass]

Yallneedtrek’s Writing Anniversary Challenge

Hi you guys! So, I’ve been wanting to host a writing challenge for a while, and now seems like a good time to do so. November 30th marks the 2 year anniversary of when I started posting my fanfiction, starting out with a whopping 649 words on this Charles Xavier fic. Things have changed since then, I’ve written a lot more and joined a few fandoms since then, made some friends, and all in all enjoyed my time here on tumblr.

So if anybody would like to join my writing challenge, here are some things to remember while entering/posting:

~To enter the writing challenge, you must send me an ASK with a character or ship, and AU, AND a prompt from the lists below. (If you send anonymously or have multiple blogs, make sure that I know which blog you will be posting on)

~All entries are due by November 30th, 2018. There is no cut-off date to enter the challenge, as long as you think you can finish, you can enter whenever. (I will post occasional reminders and tag everybody who signed up!)

~Characters/ships can be used multiple times, as can AUs, but prompts can only be used once.

~If there’s a character/ship not on the list but that belongs in my fandoms, you can message me if you’d like to write for them and get my okay!

~You can use any writing genre: fluff, smut, angst, whatever. I would prefer angst-y fics to end happily, though!

~Important! When posting, please include Warnings, Word Count, and a Summary. Also, add a “Read More” if your fic is over 400 words so we don’t clog up everybody’s dash!

~When posting your fic, tag my blog and use the tag #yallneedtrekwritingchallenge, and send the post to me directly to make sure that I’ve seen it. I will reblog all of the fics and add them all to a masterlist to be shared when all entries are posted!

Have fun writing, lovelies!

Characters and Ships - Choose one:

Star Trek-

Jim Kirk

McKirk

Montgomery “Scotty” Scott

Spock

Pavel Chekov

Wonder Woman-

Steve Trevor

WonderTrev

Avengers-

Steve Rogers

Stucky

Bucky Barnes

Sam Wilson

Loki Odinson

Thor Odinson

Urban boys-

Leonard “Bones” McCoy

Gavin Magary

Siberius Vaako

Black Hat

Eomer

John Kennex

Any Karl Urban character, really

Other-

Dean Winchester

Sam Winchester

Lance Tucker

Carter Baizen

Wynonna Earp

Doc Holliday

AU’s - Choose one:

Soulmate

Firefighter

Royal

Fake dating / fake married

Supernatural (any supernatural creature/phenomenon)

Neighbors

University / Fellow Professors

Artist

Flower Shop

Vikings

Called / texted the wrong number

Body Swap

Bartender

Motorcycle Club

Roadtrip

Book Shop / Library

Office

Coffee Shop

Arranged Marriage

Roommate

Writing Prompts - Choose one:

1. “But I’m not wearing pants”

2. “Why were you in a dumpster?”

3. “Just give me the ____ and nobody gets hurt”

4. “Lick me all you want, I’m not moving my hand”

5. “I did not kidnap you! I anything, I adult-snatched you.”

6. “Didn’t you ever stop and think that there’s a reason I’m here?”

7. “Next time you come in my room to scare me, try picking a better hiding spot than behind the curtains.”

8. “What do you suggest we do?”

9. “Are you okay? I’ve never seen you turn down food.”

10. “Are those my underwear?”

11. “Will you just stop talking?” “Make me.”

12. “Did you just make a joke?”

13. “And you say I’m the dramatic one”

14. “Don’t get your hopes up”

15. “Subtlety is not your strong suit”

16. “My mind does not immediately jump to murder. Oh who am I kidding, of course it does!”

17. “Do you smell something burning?”

18. “No you are not Batman, stop saying that!”

19. “If you don’t stop talking in song quotes, I swear I will end you”

20. “Who ever said that I hate you?”

21. “Who thought it was a good idea to give (him/her/them) coffee?”

22. “What is that incessant beeping?”

23. “Here, take my jacket”

24. “Say hello to your cat for me”

25. “Who are you talking to?”

26. “Stay, please”

27. “Are you dead?” “Yes.”

28. “Next time you need help, don’t come to me”

29. “Can anybody tell me why my house is on fire?!”

30. “Are you crying?” “No! Shut up.”

31. “Stop screaming, it’s just me.”

32. “Jealous is not a good look on you”

33. “Is my leg supposed to bend that way?”

34. “I would rather be stuck on a deserted island with literally anybody but you”

35. “If you get ‘Let it Go’ stuck in my head one more time, I will never speak to you again.”

36. “I am too tired to deal with your happy disposition today”

37. “That line was so cheesy, it hurts.”

38. “Can you not be sarcastic just for once?”

39. “I told you this was a bad idea”

40. “Do not throw up on me”

41. “I’m just gonna keep talking until you smile”

42. “If you’re trying to seduce me, I would reconsider.”

43. “Can I kiss you?”

44. “I must be going crazy”

45. “Do I spy a tattoo?”

46. “Am I turning into a vampire?”

47. “No, you cannot borrow my laptop! You remember what happened the last time.”

48. “Just hug me before I put someone’s head through a wall.”

49. “If you can’t tell, I am very angry.”

50. “Are those little unicorns on your boxers?”

51. “You dropped something”

52. “You must be new here”

53. “Can we watch movies and cuddle?”

54. “I love you, I hope you know that.”

55. “I need you to stop laughing and come help me”

56. “Next time, I pick the music.”

57. “Can I kill (them)?”

58. “If you can go one hour without talking, I will kiss you”

59. “Stop saying that”

60. “You’re ridiculous”

61. “I’d hate to ruin such a sweet moment, but we have to go.”

62. “Oh, I almost forgot you were here”

63. “Is it true what they say?”

64. “Is that what I think it is?”

65. “You’ve got no sense of self-preservation”

66. “You’re worrying me”

67. “Get away from me”

68. “Don’t say that”

69. “Sometimes I wish I never met you”

70. “Can you stop poking me?”

71. “Don’t tell me to calm down, you’re covered in blood!”

72. “Will you tell me a story?”

73. “There might be a small…large…dent in your car, but please don’t kill me, I can explain!”

74. “I just want to drink chocolate milk and take a nap.” “You are a grown adult.”

75. “Are you drunk?”

76. “It looks like there was a train wreck in here”

77. “You lost the bet, you know what that means”

78. “I shouldn’t be here.” “Then why are you?”

79. “I’m not going with you dressed like that”

80. “Who else is going to save you from yourself?”

81. “What kind of name is that?”

82. “That is a lot of- what even is that?”

83. “That doesn’t look like fun, it looks like a death trap”

84. “So this is what betrayal looks like”

85. “Who started the food fight?”

86. “What, my poetry isn’t good enough for you?” “You just recited Dr. Seuss.”

87. “I’ve been shot!” “Relax, it’s just a nerf bullet.”

88. “You’re trying too hard, you need to just relax.”

89. “You look like the poster-child for bad decisions”

90. “Could you be any more oblivious?”

91. “Shut your whore mouth”

92. “Say that to my face, you soggy piece of pizza”

93. “You are such a moldy shower curtain”

I really hope you guys have fun writing, and I’m looking forward to reading all of your amazing fics! If you have any questions, feel free to message me or send an ask. Love you all!

I’m adding everyone on my tag list and Urban Shitposting group just in case you want to join or signal boost!

@deanxfuckingadorablexwinchester @mad-girl-without-a-box @cd1242 @space-helen @izzy10718 @feelmyroarrrr @bookcaseninja @musikat18 @kickingitwithkirk @auduna-druitt @garnet-redtailedhero @bubblegum-star-trek @reading-in-moonlight @cuddlememerrick @loststarlight @fireboltrose7559 @lauuerodz @bkwrm523 @fearofdeathkeepsusalive @goingknowherewastaken @annathewitch @outside-the-government @queenmismatched  @thefanficfaerie

[sevenmothz]

my kh3 experience

howdy guys, been a long ass time since i’ve written any of my own posts on this here blog. part of it is because i just haven’t gamed a lot in the last few months, and part of it is i also haven’t used tumblr in a long time too. xD

anyway, i played through the story of kh3 the week it released and while i was doing all that gaming, i pretty much liveblogged on mine and my friend’s discord with all my immediate thoughts/feelings of the game (whether she as awake to lol @ my nonsense or not xD).

so, of course, i went through and typed up most of that shit and am copypasting it here for random strangers’ enjoyment!

naturally, there will be spoilers, so don’t look if you care about that shit.

AAAAHHH HIT ME WITH THE FEELS WITH JUST THE MUSIC Y’ALL the title PAIGE PAIGE PAGE FUCK

oh my ggooooodddd the new dearly beloved fuuuuuuck

ooh this place is pretty

oh boy there’s water oh man i bet this white place is gonna be a pain in my ass to get through fucking hollow bastion all over again

sora you’re so beautiful 😭

oh jesus do i really gotta do this stupid tutorial shit again at least now we are finally rid of that awful KH1 Sora model

hey it’s the tsunami from the frist game!

am i playing a diddly dang prequel of 3? are those FUCKIN’ LOADING SCREEN PAGES FUCKING INSTAGRAMS also lol sora got nerfed

aahhhh learning curves i hate have to get used to how this game handles

uh oh sora is worried about what xigbar said to him

eat shit, titan

also i’d like to say sora runs ridiculously fast now

sora’s such a brat “awww what about new clothes for meeeee??”

i can’t computer

SEA SALT ICE CREAM freaking lea looks amazing DONT CRY LEA HE WANNA GO BY AXEL NOW???

stop being a bitch, buzz buzz killyear

oh yeah so when playing olympus hades was all “IVE BEEN PLANNING THIS FOR 18 YEARS” it’s been 17 years since KH1 came out 18 since it was in development god kingdom hearts is a junior in high school

gdi rex stay put oh no buzz oh noes i’m in a video game lmao

omg a cactaur

yeah you go woody

oh how i miss timed events/reaction commands. makes dealing with these fuckers you gotta climb on top of a lot easier to deal with

square why don’t you have the gotdamn kh3 soundtrack on itunes i need to be able to listen to this title screen music ALL THE TIME

sully just fuckin’ chuck vanitas through a door like “NOT TODAY BITCH”

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH” — Sora

DON’T BE TALKING ABOUT YOUR CONNECTION TO POOH BEING WEAKER ; A ;

of course they’re gonna do let it go.. they really did the whole thing

climb all the way up the mountain and larxene blows us off of it rude

wow are they really gonna do all the songs or wut

keep forgetting i can switch keyblades

annnnd back down the goddamn mountains lmao sora is so done

srsly we’re going up again

damn this boss fight is epic makes the slog through the world worth it unlike the fuckin’ toy box boss hated that fucker oh no marshmallow

fuck off larxene let people be happy

lmao stfu ventus keep volunteering sora to resque aqua

demyx :<

oh hello piercings dude

these pirate nerds little pirate sora is so cute

yeesh that elizabeth voice is terrible

guh it’s always a slog getting through the disney story stuff cuz it’s just worse rehashings of the movies at least fransokyo will be new content never seen big hero 6 xD

o mai assassin’s creed lite

jack you dumb bitch

oh man davy jones voice is bad too

jesus that second luxurd battle fucking terrible

god i never through elizabeth’s speech could sound so terrible how can you let someone butcher one of the most iconic moments from the third movie so bad?

oh thank god the kraken is easy to beat

lmao luxurd taken out by jack’s breath

eat shive, dave

lmao vexen “gdi it’s a real heart organ” “WE NEED A METAPHORICAL HEART YOU ASSHOLES”

damn sora throwing hands i was wondering how sora woudl react to one of his disney pals dying wasn’t expecting bodily assault

oma lea axel* whatever i wanna see his new dudes

ansem gonna talk to ansem oh god kids do’t get killed oh boy what happening now nobodies fightin’ ansem the bad WHO DUN IT GDI oh it was vexen DOUBLE AGENT??? or is he. filTHY LIAR they’re not gonna tell me pricks

“omg a robot :D”

keyblade hero 3 omg sora why

omai visor oh wow chill music

baaah sora showin’ off

holy shit i found me a new fav strength weapon the keyblade from caribbean love it even more than the toybox one xD the fuckin’ formchanges are amaze

THAT AIN’T SEA SALT ICE CREAM <gasp> roxas rude

replica riku~

damn microbot was a pain in the ass

AQUAAAAAAA 😭😭😭😭😭

WOT WHAT NOMURAING THIS SHIT ALL UP is this groundhog day i s2g

is that gotdamn terra

yen sid can actually do shit

damn this a long endgame

ITS SORA AND RHE SORAS

ah there we go. good ol’ Plot Device Kairi and there i thought she’d be useful lmao man tho i seriously rolled my eyes when xehanort struck an unconscious kairi down i was just like “yeah that seem about right..” storywise, sora has such a stronger connection to riku barely talks to kairi lea talked to kairi more in one game than sora ever did in 9+ i’d ship kairi and lea if there wasn’t such an obvious age gap lmao and WHO THE FUCK IS THIS CHICK THAT DIAPPEARED ON LEA AND ISA? like is that answered in this game or was it answered in a previous game?

anyway

Roxas is a REAL BOY now

gotdamn those dudes were tough

fuck man barely gives me time to block stupid goat head lemme guess tho that isn’t the end of course not because kingdom hearts can’t just let us defeat him c’mon man let me reload my potions at least man fuck off with this boss shit motherfucker did you really just force me into rage form “I AM MORE POWERFUL EVEN THO YOU KILLED ME LIKE 2 TIMES”

omg donald and goofy’s voices from the controller speaker

just fucking die already

this bitch really thinking he was the good guy the whole time

jesus the x-blade is bigger than sora

mickey and donald finally get to be hoooome

axel and xion in their new clothes~ EVEN ISA

wut WUT SORA BOY DID YOU REALLY SACRIFICE YOURSELF FOR THIS BITCH

maleficent is gonna find that fucking box isn’t she and we’re not gonna see what is in it i’m guessing its the box the Master of Masters gave to his apprentice cuz that’s the only notable box in the series i can think of

but yeah this game this game was supposed to bring an end to the Xehanort saga so they fully intent to make moar games so we’ll get a new annoying big bad and more weird dumb lore

ok we’re getting into the dumb credits like PR manager and shit so i think they’re coming close to the end ihope never know until you start seeing the gotdamn logos

logos!

that fuckin’ xigbar THE OLD MASTERS fuck it is i knew it I KNEW HE HAD SOMETHING GOING ON i was betting he was master of masters but no it’s luxu

fak FUQ fuck off with your games eraqus

HELLO SORA and Riku THEY”RE IN INSOMNIA no wait verum rex GAH

ok the verum rex stuff was the secret movie I JUST HAVE MORE QUESTIONS AND VERY LITTLE ANSWERS DISAPPOINTED

what if Demyx is Master of Masters

Final Thoughts: me: there were pretty much no FF cameos so 0/10 AzuraSpyte: lol I give it a 5/10 for Axel alone me: lolol minus 1 for making him wear the organization coat the entire game