#they each take about 1-1.5 hours

[gayestcowboy]

THUNDERWAVE 💥💥💥

[coolcatsodalite]

The thrilling conclusion! All socks used!

See them on dolls here

Sock sweaters rock!

[deramin2]

A Quick Guide To Getting Caught Up On Critical Role Fast

This guide is for people who want the fastest way official to get caught up on all 3 Critical Role campaigns without seeing the full actual play episodes. They're all made so that the AP will still be enjoyable later even if you know what happens. There's no "right" way to get into the series, and already having an idea of what happens can even help make the APs more enjoyable and easier to understand.

Summary:

The Legend of Vox Machina

Crit Recap Animated

Exandria: An Intimate History

Critical Role Abridged

Guide:

Campaign 1:

The Legend of Vox Machina on Amazon Prime is the animated adaptation of C1 by the same creators. Sam Riegel said the creative approach is this was the version in a later play. All the important bits are there, but they get to those moments differently.

The Legend of Vox Machina has 3 seasons out now that cover events up through at least episode 85. A 4th season is in the works and will probably cover the final arc.

Campaign 2:

An animated adaptation for Amazon Prime called "Mighty Nein" is in the works, but not out yet.

Crit Role Animated is an older comedic summary series presented by their Lore Keeper that covers the whole campaign in 10 videos. Great if you want the gist.

It's like a history crash course history video meant to get you curious to learn the full story later. Great way to get a sense of who people are and what they've done. Available on YouTube and their streaming platform Beacon.

Exandrian History Review:

Exandria: An Intimate History is a timeline review of key events in world history, starting from the creation.

It was released before Campaign 3 as bonus content. It represents what the average person in Exandria knows about world history up to that point.

Campaign 3:

Critical Role Abridged is the Campaign 3 AP condensed down into 1 to 1.5 hours. It mostly cuts down combat to the narrated results and reduces table chatter and indecisiveness. It's a great way to experience the full campaign.

Critical Role Abridged is coming out 1 a week at a time on YouTube and 2 a week on Beacon. YouTube is currently up to episode 25. Beacon is up to episode 47. The AP is at episode 109. At some point you'll have to switch to full episodes to catch up.

Wiki:

There's also 2 world-class wikis where's you can look up extensive and meticulously cited information about anything you need. I prefer The Encyclopedia Exandria.

Viewing Notes:

An important thing to know about "continuity" in Critical Role is that it takes a more realistic view of how history is passed down through the ages and even dedicated academics will never know the full story or be fully correct. They know versions colored by in-world biases and lost knowledge.

Which is great for you the viewer because any campaign you comes into, the characters don't know most of what happened in past games. What they actually know will come up in game. The players have above table reactions and some subtle in jokes, but try not to act on meta knowledge.

It's structured a lot like reading one history book and then wanting to go back and read more about past events that set the stage for all those things to happen. They've tried to make it easier to come into the story happening now.

I certainly enjoyed watching the full APs from the beginning, and I think you can get a deeper understanding of the story from them, but it takes thousands of hours to catch up on the story that way and it isn't realistic for everyone. Each series builds on the consequences of past events more than they rely on unexpected twists, so already knowing what happens just helps you notice all the little things that led to them. Similar to how Shakespeare's plays are often more enjoyable to watch unfold if you already know the basic plot points going into them.

Happy viewing, and I hope this helps you or someone you know get into this very rich and interesting story!

[adviceformefromme]

Personal health hacks that have completely changed my life in the last 9 months.

Absolute number one is removing carbs from my diet. I had THE WORST crashes and lethargy every single day after my morning oat meal, after my carb heavy lunch, and carb heavy dinner. Despite being vegan my body lacked nutrients and calories from under-eating being plant-based and carb-overloading. 

Introducing grass-fed meat and high quality eggs into my diet. Red meat gets such bad press in the media, but personally it has given me energy, strength and I feel much better eating this in moderation. 

Little exercise each day. Not killing myself with a hardcore workout and then not being able to move for rest of the week (which I was doing previously). I now do a little each day. 1.5 - 2mile run most days, and daily stretches and weights at home. Nothing crazy, but a little goes a long way and I find it much easier to be consistent doing smaller bouts on my own schedule daily. 

Hormone health, ensuring I am keeping my hormones balanced. I make watermelon juice daily with 1.5 heaped tablespoons of flaxseed. Alongside that. I take omega 3, DIM, Selenium, Iodine, Vitamin D +K2, Evening primrose oil for womens health. I eat foods that support healthy hormones, broccoli, carrots, sunflower seeds and removed the foods that cause imbalances (carbs, sugars).

Removing all stress from my life. Including moving overseas, deleting social media and keeping my circle small but wholesome. 

Quit drinking alcohol. Initially I thought I would have the occasional drink but I truly have no desire anymore. My life is significantly better for not drinking. My body never responded well to booze. 

Sleeping properly for 7-9 hrs per night. Meditating for 1 hour before bed usually puts me in a completely zen mode for relaxation. That means my phone is switched off, I use a lavender pillow spray and light candles to set the mood for a goodnight sleep. 

Zeolite detox for heavy metals (currently in the process). I have Zeolith Med powder each day with water to flush out any toxins. 

Learning about gut microbiome, and probiotics..in the process of obtaining kefir grains to make my own batch. Making sauerkraut on weekends and introducing a wider variety of foods into my diet. 

These are completely personal and I can honestly say I feel better than ever. I wish I had done the above years ago, especially the carbs! I got a continuous glucose monitor of Amazon to see how my body was responding to carbs before I completely cut them off and I recommend doing this if you want to know more about how your body is reacting to glucose. 

*this all took time and effort, but once I removed the distractions, the meaningless socialising, the boozing, the scrolling I’ve had time to invest in myself + my health

[boxturret]

One Tenth Scale Mata Nui

Mata Nui is a cool place, but did you ever feel that it was a bit...big for what it was?

The official maps put the island at 357 kio long, which if you take to be a stand in for kilometres¹, would make the island 357 kilometres long.

This lines up roughly with what we can see in the concept art: they say that Mata Nui is around the size of Denmark, the real measurement being 368km, and it matches with what we see in the Mata Nui Rising cgi video.

So that's all well and good, Mata Nui is 357km long, the GSR itself is 3300km tall, all hunky-dory, as long as you ignore some guy named Greggory yelling about how the robot is actually much bigger, but its fine to ignore him.

But now, actually consider what this means. Denmark is by no means a small country, it has a population of 6 million and would take hours to drive across by car on modern roads. Now that isn't an issue really, but in most media depicting the island its shown to be a place that can be traversed by foot or on animal back in a reasonable time frame.

But now let us look at this earlier map:

Initially the most interesting thing to me on this map was the 3rd measurement: the height of the Mangai volcano²

Now on the one hand, this was cool, now I know how tall to make the volcano, on the other hand... 23km seems pretty big.

It is. 23km is higher than Olympus Mons, the largest known volcano in the solar system, standing at only 21.9km. So that's pretty big. This made me start thinking about how far various things are apart and how long it would actually take and using some very VERY generous numbers I started plotting out how long it would take to actually get from place to place.

It wasn't very pretty. In the Mata Nui Online Game it would have taken Takua roughly 5 hours to walk from the beach to Ta-Koro, and another 18 to get to Onu-Koro using the highway. Now this would be fine in an epic like Lord of the Rings, but in Bionicle Mata Nui is consistently treated as a place people can pretty quickly get around on.

The Toa are running all over the place and bumping in to each other. Kopaka getting in to the Caldera at the top of the Mangai volcano isn't the equivalent of climbing 3 Mt Everests in a row, its just something he does [correction: It wasn't the caldera, but a lava pool half way up the mountain, so just 1.5 Mt Everests]. Takua travels all over the island in a pretty small amount of time, unless we're supposed to insert day long journeys in between every screen transition.

But then I noticed something. Something very interesting.

Now lets look at the two keys for the sizes on the released and the early map:

Seems pretty consistent, the sizes of the island are the same, a Toa is 1.6 bio on both (incidentally a real Toa figure is approximately 16cm tall), everything seems to match.

But then I counted the zeroes.

The old map has a kio being not 1000 bio, but 100!

You can even see it on the other version of the map.

Now this is incredibly interesting! This shrinks Mata Nui to 1/10th of its commonly accepted size! It goes from being the size of Denmark to being the size of the Isle of Man.

Which....really works a lot better! This turns Takua's trip from the beach from a 5 hour hike to a short half hour walk. This turns the cable car to Mt Ihu from a massive 70km mega structure to something that's dwarfed by real world constructions.

I don't think this is a mistake either, looking at the details of the map.

You have much finer details, such as these ice shelves collapsing in to small icebergs, whereas on the full sized map some of the larger chunks of ice are kilometres across.

One of the major things it includes are the mesas that can bee seen in many of the promotional renders set in Le-Wahi which are nowhere to be seen on the final map. At this 1/10 scale the plateaus seen would match up well with the massive mesas seen in monument valley in terms of size, but with the final size they would be absolutely massive (10 times as big if you can believe it!)

So suffice to say, I don't think this is just a case of a zero being dropped, it really seems to line up with the level of detail on this earlier map.

But what does this do to the GSR? I hear you cry, well it varies. Going by the earlier numbers it would simply be 1/10th the size, so 330km tall instead of 3300km, so still very large, but depending on the size relationship between the robot and the island it could be as "small" as 180km

The island in this picture is roughly the same size as normal, just covers more of the GSR. The final GSR's head is so proportionately tiny compared to its body that the Mata Nui island had to be very small to cover it. But in any case, a robot "only" 180km tall standing up is still going to tower over anything, its many times higher than airplanes fly, its taller than most clouds, really it would be quite consistent with this render:

So, in conclusion, an earlier concept of the island of Mata Nui has it being 1/10 of the size of the final, and that size seems to work better with what we see in various media from the time, and works better with the story.

Personally this is what I'll be going with in terms of the scale of the island going forward, as it really fits with my vision of the setting and works well with all the story and media from that time.

¹-I don't care about someone saying a bio is 4.375966487787¾ feet, feet aren't real and neither are you. ²-Mt Ihu is NOT the highest point on the island, the GSR isn't Pinocchio with a big pointy nose, this has never been reflected in any visual media.

thank you for reading/have a nice day

Update: I have made a companion post with many renders of George visiting places on the island to hopefully better illustrate the scale.

[syndrossi]

Just wanted to let folks know that I'm back home after being discharged from the hospital on Monday and resting up so that my lungs can heal.

For those curious to hear the incredibly lengthy narrative, see below.

It likely started before Saturday, but that's when everything went to shit. The day began pretty normally, honestly, though I'd felt a little discomfort in my upper right lung (near the shoulder blade) when breathing the previous night. I wanted to catch up with my BFF who lives in another state, so we scheduled a gaming session to hangout over discord and play Civ together. We played from 11am-4:30pm(ish). Most of the session I felt fine, but towards the last hour, I got hit with what felt like heartburn and a really bad headache. We ended a bit early, and I went to the store to pick up some tums.

By the time I got home, the heartburn was gone, so I drank a bunch of electrolytes for the headache. I noticed what felt like a sore muscle in my lower right ribs, more towards the back. Since I'd been using my boot more at home, which left me with a slightly hobbled gait since it was higher than my normal shoe, I figured it was just muscle strain from the uneven walking. I took a shower, hoping it would help with the muscle ache / tightness in my chest.

I felt briefly better in the shower, but once I got out, I felt crappy again. I tried lying down, but I couldn't get comfortable. Taking a deep breath made that upper-right-lung pain intensify my "muscle strain" in the rib area spasm. I got back up, dried my hair, and tried some light stretching to see if that would help (it didn't).

Since I felt so awful, I figured I'd try going to bed early (10:30 pm). I changed into my PJs, and where before it had been uncomfortable lying down, now it was outright painful. Every breath, even shallow ones, caused my rib muscle area to spasm, triggering a jolt of pain. I shifted, trying to find a comfortable position, but all of them hurt (the pain made me cry out each time, much to my doggo's concern).

Finally, close to 11, I gave my parents a call. I still thought it was a muscle issue, so I was mostly workshopping ideas of how I might get some sleep so I could go to urgent care in the morning to get checked out. My mom insisted I go to the emergency room, though, worried about the prospect of a pulmonary embolism. That felt super unlikely to me (I hadn't felt any pain in my legs or arms that would have been a blood clot), but I knew I wasn't going to sleep and wanted peace of mind, so I swallowed my reservations about the likely cost of an ER visit (yay 'murica 🫠) and my dad drove me there.

It was about an hour wait after check-in (my heart rate and blood pressure at check-in were definitely elevated--my heart was about 20 bpm over my usual resting rate--but higher is less concerning than lower), and I was uncomfortable even sitting. Only the shallowest of breaths were okay, which meant that getting upset (crying, etc) was not an option. I don't know why, but I decided that Viserys was my no-crying distraction for some reason. Whenever I felt myself getting upset / near tears, I would stare at this raised dais-like area of the waiting room and pretend it was Viserys's throne and that I was annoyed at him. It was pretty effective, honestly.

Once they finally called me back, I went through the process of changing into the ER gown. They poked an IV in me and then drew some blood for tests, as apparently there's a blood test than can tell when you likely have a pulmonary embolism (PE). The ER room became waiting room #2. Over the next 1-1.5 hours, I waited in increasing pain and discomfort for the results. The ER bed that I was supposed to be on had been inclined into mostly a sitting position, but the pressure was still painful. I could only breathe so carefully and shallowly without triggering a muscle spasm, which would then trigger an incredibly painful breath.

My dad stayed with me, distracting himself by asking ChatGPT about my symptoms. I just stared at the room's curtain for most of the two hour wait. Once again, Viserys was my distraction. The faux-dais was gone, so this time I used the tiles on the ceiling. I pretended it was a game of Memory and mentally "flipped" over a tile to reveal Viserys whenever I felt myself nearing tears.

At this point, I was still 100% convinced it was a muscle spasm, even though the muscle relaxant they'd given me over the IV hadn't done anything to help. The ER doctor finally came by with the results and noted that my blood test showed that I likely had a PE. The next step would be having a CT scan (they scan your chest as a baseline, then inject you with iodine and scan you again to look for blockages).

I was still in denial, but agreed that it was better to be safe and do the test. The tech who does the scan came in, and that's when I figured out that I'd have to be lying down. Remembering the pain of it earlier, and how much it hurt even to sit now, I finally broke down. Just heaving sobs, and each one of then was agonizing--which meant that I kept sobbing harder. Every breath, I was basically strangling a scream, until I couldn't strangle it anymore. The nurses hurriedly started a line of morphine, and upped it until I calmed/eventually settled. I tried to explain that it wasn't anxiety that had triggered it, it was just that I had to remain calm/collected at all times or else I'd risk the chain reaction of sob-PAIN-more sobbing-more pain, and my limit had been reached.

Once my pain had subsided a little, they took me to the CT scan. The tech was incredibly nice, helping me ease down as slowly as possible and bringing a pillow for my feet to take some pressure off. It hurt a lot, but was just doable with the morphine. The CT scan finished, and I was wheeled back to my ER room.

Another 45 minute wait ensued (I think it was nearing 3-4am at this point) before the results were finally done. The doctor came in and explained that I had multiple blood clots (PE) in both lungs, though they were not immediately life-threatening, and would need to be admitted and go on blood thinners.

There's a side story that I don't feel comfortable sharing the details of but the TL;DR is that I was on some other medications in preparation for another procedure and had to keep calling the other doctor's off-hours line to figure out what to do. Ultimately, I had to cancel/stop that treatment/prep, which was gutting, honestly.

I was given an injection of the blood thinner into my stomach (the nurse was not gentle), and offered a top-up of morphine before heading over to the hospital / my hospital room. My dad talked me out of it, saying that it would be easier to have it done in my room, and left to fetch some things for me so I could have a more comfortable stay (and to care for my dog, as I live alone).

Unfortunately, once I made it to the hospital room, they claimed that I was only cleared to have Tylenol for pain (which does nothing for me). I took it, because I had nothing else, and a long 6-10 hours ensued. I was in too much pain and discomfort to sleep, and the hospital was noisy. My nurse popped in briefly at the start to tell me she'd "tuck me in" once she finished with her current patient. An hour passed, to the point where I wondered if I was supposed to call her myself, and she finally came in--mostly just to hand me some Tylenol to swallow and make sure I was hooked up properly to the machine.

5am-1pm were miserable. I couldn't sleep, I was in pain, I could barely breathe without triggering extreme pain. And the side effect of having to "remain calm" was that I had to speak in a low, measured voice whenever asked about how I was feeling. I couldn't honestly talk about the pain without breaking down so I would take long pauses. I probably understated my pain too much for that reason (because admitting how much it hurt made me want to sob). It took my parents visiting in the afternoon and my mom raising a stink (I say lovingly) to finally get something that would actually help with the pain. At this point, I had clarified with my other doctor that the other procedure was off and therefore I could have NSAIDs / whatever they wanted to do to me.

I got an NSAID + an opioid, and finally, for the first time in over twenty-four hours, I could speak more than a few words at a time, and exist in something other than pain and discomfort. My sister visited, and managed to finally tempt my appetite (I had been refusing all food) in the evening with some french onion soup she'd brought from Panera. She was such a morale boost; she visited me twice, my brother-in-law joining her for the second time with the soup when I was finally in manageable-pain, and they kept me sane.

My parents brought the most important supply of the night: my noise-canceling headphones. After not sleeping for the past 36 hours, I finally had the tools to do so.

Unfortunately, the hospital had other plans. My nurse would check in every 6 hours to re-up my meds (and at a different point to give me that day's blood thinner injection). On a different cadence, someone would come every 4 hours to check my blood pressure. And there were two other ad-hoc interruptions for more blood draws. And the changing of the nurse shift. Every time I finally managed to fall asleep, I would be woken within an hour by someone. My blood pressure grew too low overnight, so they stopped the opioids.

Still, it was enough "rest" to survive the day. They did lots of tests on me--an echocardiogram to make sure there was no heart damage, ultrasounds on my legs to make sure there were no other lurking blood clots, general blood tests. I passed them one by one. My heart was fine. There were no signs of clots in the ultrasound. My blood tests were otherwise good (minus some low hemoglobin/red blood cells due to having my blood constantly drawn).

Finally, around 2pm on Monday, I was given my discharge papers and allowed to go home.

With pulmonary embolisms, especially the "mild" form that I had, the treatment is basically just blood thinners. The idea is to prevent additional clots and give the lungs time to heal the existing clots/damage on their own (apparently they're very good at this and heal minor/tiny blood clots all the time). If I only ever have this one incident, I just have to make it through a six-month period of blood thinners. If I ever have a clot again, I'll have to be on blood thinner medication for life.

The doctors couldn't tell me definitively why I ended up with PEs in both lungs. I have no family history of clots/PE. The ultrasound didn't show any remnants or new clots. I had been in a boot for my busted ankle, and much more inactive, which could have contributed. I also had started birth control a month before, which is another risk factor (specifically estrogen). My ER doctor said that she sees a lot of PE patients who recently started hormones--from people treating menopause or going on birth control, to pregnant people, to people using testosterone. Specifically, it's at the "start", typically, when you've gone from your previous baseline and have the influx of hormones.

Or it could have just been a "silent" clot in my legs from the boot.

I'm slowly improving day by day. I can breathe more deeply without pain. I can lie down...mostly flat (I have 3-4 pillows to prop me up) to sleep. Advil does the trick for most of the pain management, though I have to take a prilosec equivalent while on NSAIDs because of the blood thinner. I could barely walk more than a few steps on Monday without getting winded, but I'm able to walk around the house reasonably well now. Bending down (compressing the lungs) hurts, and I'm constantly coughing due to the inflammation in my lungs, but those are all things that will improve over time.

Although I didn't have the same "something is wrong, I need to go to a hospital" certainty that I did when I had appendicitis several years back, I'm glad my instincts were still enough on point to agree with my mom that it was the right course of action.

So yeah, talk about a week from hell.

I didn't mention it, but I was also laid off on Wednesday last week 🫠. Which means over the course of a single week, I was given a boot, given the boot, and then had my body try to kill me. I'll be fine, job-wise, it'll just take me some time to heal before I can start looking again.

Anyway, though I'd share the saga for anyone who is interested and as educational material for what a PE might present as. Boiling the warning symptoms down, it was basically (for me), pain in the right lung when taking a deep breath. Although my left lung also had clots, it didn't hurt, or not enough to register. My heart rate had been elevated for a week, but especially on the day-of: roughly 20-30 bpm above my normal baseline. It's hard to say if that was stress from the pain or related to the clot itself, however.

Finally, I'd like to thank Viserys for being an incredibly effective distraction to keep me from breaking down. Not his usual role in Resonant! (More often he's causing breakdowns...)

[wakebymoonsleepbysun]

Doey Patches!!

These took so long to make and they're gonna be on etsy soon, but I wanted to show off now! Hopefully tomorrow I can figure out what I need for shipping and get some better pics, and get the listing up.

Each of these takes about 1-1.5 hours to make, though my success rate seems to be about 50%. Thread gets messed up or tension is off. So in theory I could make a patch in just under 1.5 hours but in reality each of these probably represents about 2-3 hours of work, not including the work put into making the pattern itself.

Though "work" is a bit generous, most of that is the machine running itself with minimal supervision, but it's also hard for me to focus on much else while that's running so really I'm not sure how to tally the level of effort on that, haha.

Development (not including a patch or two that got started, messed up, and didn't finish):

First one if the one I'd already posted. The thin line between the mouth and the edge of the face was worrying to me in terms of the pattern getting messed up so I shrank his mouth a bit. Second patch had some incorrect settings as far as stitch count and line thickness. Third patch, finally figured out line thickness but there's a stitching error in the hat that's baaaarely visible in the pic. So yeah, basically...10-12 hours of R&D resulting in a usable pattern, before even starting work on any of the sellable patches.

[agirlwithglam]

this will stop your addiction to scrolling.

do you even realise how long an hour is? 2 hours, 3 hours, and it goes on.

in this post, we will be chatting about all things scrolling. learnings from a book i read, sciences, information from articles, the negative impacts of it, and ways to fix it. grab a snack and a warm cozy drink, because this is gonna take a while! ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚

many times i sit at home thinking that that i "haven't got enough time" to use a whole hour of my day just doing one thing. but then i open my phone, i impulsively go to youtube shorts. "one video" i tell myself. but its never just one video is it? i ended up on my phone for a bit over 1 hour that day. it was disgusting. it made me so mad. i could have spent that time on a hobby, a skill, with my sibling, going for a walk, reading, doing something, anything else! but i didn't. i was so angry i immediately put my phone on airplane mode and switched it off.

see, the thing with scrolling is that you dont even realise how much time has passed! at first it may just be 2:30 but then the next minute you look at it, its already 4pm. and boom. 1.5 hours of time, valuable time has just been gone, evaporated, into thin air. do you not get disgusted of yourself?

the amounts of negatives to scrolling will easily outway any value it brings. whether its youtube, instagram, tik tok, twitter, etc. whatever value or thing you're trying to achieve from these, there will ALWAYS be a better alternative!

this is one of the concepts in the book Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. it talks about the philosophy behind reducing the time you spend on technologies. see your time as money- say an app charges you by the minute. would you use it as often? you'd probably try to find different ways to getting that same "value" you think your receiving from these addicting apps.

example (for more older people):

you may tell yourself that by being on twitter for hours on end is useful because it can help you get knowledge, news and new connections with people, but that same value you can get- if not more- from just attending monthly or quarterly events, or having a conversation with people, or hand picking a few honest and effective articles to read for a couple minutes each day. as you see, immediately you start to get the same effects you'd be getting from twitter- but more + with much less the amount of time.

or an example from platforms like yt, tiktok, etc.

if it is planned and you've actually told yourself "i have worked very hard, i deserve having a bit of down time to scroll and switch off." , go ahead. (of course there are ways to get that same brain switch off feeling like doodling/ colouring, writing a diary and letting your mind wander, reading a fiction book, taking a bath, etc. but if you've intentionally made this choice, if you truly think this is whats right currently, go for it.)

but lets be real. a lot of the time, its unintentional. even if we have chosen to do it thinking that it is the best thing to do, are you really willing risk hours of your valuable time? "one more video" we ALL say that. its not new. so dont you ever get tired of your excuses? tired having your time thrown away just because you couldn't control yourself? what is that pleasure we get from scrolling?

dopamine.

scrolling activates the brain's reward center by releasing dopamine. every new mini video, like, comment is always keeping us hooked, making us want more and more until it never ends. until its 10pm at night and you're still here. on your phone.

ok so i know i've yapped on a lot. in fact you're probably too lazy and have to less of an attention span to read it all. (yep, also the effect of scrolling.) so,

heres a list of all the harms of scrolling: to enlighten you, not to scare you. (okay maybe a bit to scare you)

lesser attention span. as i mentioned earlier, scrolling reduces your attention span which means it reduces the amount of time you can spend reading, walking, just sitting idle. or you even may not be able to watch a movie without having something on the side like your phone to scroll on! (guilty😬). when that happens, you know something is seriously wrong. if you want to be able to watch a movie without needing all these different distractions, keep reading.

makes you more bored. yeah! i was surprised by this as well ngl!! this also applies to the point about attention span. scrolling can make you feel more bored because all that scrolling, and your brain being super hyper will make you feel bored at the things you used to feel excited by (ex: watching a movie! , reading a book)

increased anxiety and stressed. imagine not being able to stay away from your phone for even a few hours without feeling stressed. thats just so sad but also a truth for many of us. not just that but it can also leave you feeling overwhelmed and hopeless.

sleep disruption. this isn't new. we all know that scrolling late until night not only can affect your sleep schedule/ sleep timings, but also the blue light from your screen stops your brain from making melatonin (a hormone that helps you sleep), which then also affects your sleep. and we know what that can lead to.

on top of all that, it can make you disconnected from real life, nature, increase comparison, harms relationships, productivity and focus and the list goes on.

but you probably don't want to listen to this anymore. you're here because you may be feeling angry. angry at yourself, at your phone, at the internet for taking away so much time that could be spent living a happier life. you have actually felt the harms and now want a change.

[disclaimer: not all of these tips can apply to you depending on your job, your situation, career, relationships, etc etc. take and apply whatever you can.]

tips to stop scrolling (as much):

delete all the social media apps. anything that you scroll on frequently, delete it. this isn't to say that you can't access it at all, you can have it on your laptop or ipad. but the point is that it will increase the friction between you and opening that app.

switch up your feed. this is the very least you can do. start by pressing "not interested" on anything that isn't providing you any actual value. start following people who do provide value. slowly, change your feed to a more positive, motivational page which just makes you feel more inspired/ better every time you leave from it.

set a screen time limit on your phone + set the password as "i failed". this is something i got from online a while ago and its such a good idea! not only will the screen time limit prevent you from further usage, but also setting a password like "i failed" makes you really feel the impact of betrayal to yourself which will make you refrain from doing so!

slowly by slowly, work to reduce the amount of time you scroll everyday.

find the alternative!! okay so now you arent on your phone, aren't scrolling. now what? if you dont already have things that you can do in this immense amount of free time you have, then of course you'd surrender back to scrolling. fill your days with hobbies, new skills, being with other people, with nature, with meaningful and fulfilling activities. "do more things that make you forget to use your phone."

linking back to the earlier point, GET A HOBBY. ngl, it is SAD to only spend your days, vacations, weekends on the damn phone. get off of it! is your life that sad an empty that you have literally nothing better to do then scroll on your phone? thats actually pathetic.

switch off notifications / put on do not disturb- so you dont get constantly reminded

find out why you start in the first place. for me, it used to be an escape to bad things happening in my life/ around me. once you get to the root cause of why you actually start, work back from there. is there away you can remove that trigger from your life? if not, find a different activity that can help you with that trigger.

keep your phone away from your bed. i do this its actually really helpful because it gets me out of bed to have to turn it off which means i dont go back to sleep. also: if you can get a alarm clock which isn't your phone, even better!

things you can do instead of scrolling:

read a book (if its fiction it may be more enjoyable, but its your choice!)

have a shower

set some goals & a to do list for the day

do a puzzle

wordle

try a new skill/ hobby: crochet, guitar, writing

paint/ draw. and stop making thinking it has to be perfect!! if you see it as perfect, it is.

journal / diary writing

hang out with a friend/ someone

cook/ bake

go for a walk or run

learn something new

put a facemask on

listen to a podcast

sleep

yoga/ exercise

write thankyou notes to people

gratitude list

skincare/ a fun grwm of you!

go to a restaurant

style your clothes

make a wishlist

clean out your camera roll

listen to music & just chill

dance

scrap book- phsysical or digitally!

clean/ organize a space

watch a TV show/ movie- WITHOUT your phone.

go swimming

learn about plants so you can start gardening

other things to read:

Psychology behind it, neuroscience, etc.

why you can't stop mindlessly scrolling + tips

BOOK: Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport

reddit

[jamsandsuch]

advice for first year uni students from a uni senior

the roommate(s) will always be more important than the room

+ for roommates, SET. CLEANING. EXPECTATIONS. EARLY. don't wait until you're uncomfortable with how much mess is in the kitchen for you to start thinking if you should bring it up or not. set standards and make them clear.

put your key on a lanyard and hang it from your doorknob when you’re at home so you don’t forget it on the way out

if your dorm has a shared laundry room, set your timer for when your laundry finishes ~5 mins early to give you time to walk from your room to the laundry - especially during weekends/evenings/finals people wont have the patience to wait for you - even if your load just finished

If you have noodle arms like me, buy yourself one of those collapsible grocery carts you drag behind you like a luggage - best purchase i've ever made

Or if you're lazy, order online - but order on a free day because even if you schedule a time they're always gonna come stupid early and you dont want any frozen items to get spoiled or have your groceries stolen

DONT BUY ANY TEXTBOOKS/MATERIALS UNTIL THE FIRST WEEK/CLASSES ARE OVER. sometimes you’ll have early access to the booklist or syllabus and go ahead and start buying textbooks, but increasingly often you’ll buy the materials and show up to class just to find your prof has uploaded scanned copies of everything. *save your money*, wait!

BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS - look at your class schedule and walk around campus to find each classroom. you will probably get lost on day 1 and so will many other students so this will save you a lot of walking around bumping into other lost first years

trust me after a few weeks you won’t be waking up for that 8am class. i know you did it 5 days a week in high school, but there’s a reason uni students are allergic to morning classes. know your natural energy/attention levels and take advantage of the freedom to build your schedule around your energy fluctuations

compress/stack your class schedule as much as possible. if you absolutely do need breaks, make them at least 1.5-2 hours long or you probably wont get anything productive done and minimize these long breaks as much as you can so you can just get your day over with sooner

work smarter, not harder - when school starts note each course’s assessment type by quizzes/finals/essays. if i ever have a course thats just essays, i only do lecture notes + write my own annotations about readings rather than taking notes on them which saves time i can dedicate to textbook notetaking for courses with frequent quizzes + finals

if your school has benefits/discounts/insurance - know what it is and USE IT.

most clubs wont be like high school where there are regular meetings you attend. unless youre in the exec team the membership fee you pay/when you sign up for membership it’s just for access to their events when they happen. if you want to be involved in a club in a way thats as involved as high school, look at their social media pages for hiring.

+ as someone who has had to hire before - if you’re nervous, literally just do it. i was in an exec position for our student union services and once only had like 3 applicants to pick from

if you want to be noticed by a professor, sit in the front row. and always answer/ask questions - it doesn’t matter if you said anything of substance or not, they will remember that you contributed

that and also always make the point to say hello and goodbye! eventually (in my experience) if you come early enough and are just waiting for class to start, a conversation will happen - make these regular enough and you could have an important connection!

disclaimer: of course, not all of this might be something that resonates with you/possible for your course or school, so in the words of my cousin - take what resonates

+ anyone else is free to add on!!

[so-much-for-subtlety]

a small community of ~12 adults is such a perfect size for sustainable living. A single family (2 adults) creates such a huge workload that you end up working 10-12 hours a day in summer.

but with 12 people you get the benefits of efficiently of scale, and each person would need to work 5-to-8 hours per day at peak during summer and maybe just 2-to-4 hours a day in winter.

and that 5-to-8 hours isn't 8 hours labor in the fields, that includes everything, here's what a schedule for one person might look like in summer:

1.5 hours milking goats, feeding chickens, watering high-need crops (seedlings, greenhouse)

1 hour harvesting crops, checking for pests

break for breakfast (30 mins)

2 hours food preservation (canning, fermenting) or making cheese/yoghurt

1 hour random tasks, maybe collecting firewood, repair fence, move goats

break for lunch (60 mins)

1.5 hours weeding, pruning, mulching

0.5 hours wrap up

end of work day (7.5 hours worked over 9 hours) and then you have the rest of the day to do hobbies, rest, socialize etc (people in other shifts would be making breakfast, lunch, dinner, cleaning etc).

even with this schedule you don't spend more than 2 hours on a single task before switching to something else.

in winter you might work 2 to 4 hours because you're not harvesting and preserving food.

when we work 8 hours a day 5 days a week (which doesn't include everything additional on top of that like cooking & cleaning - which is work too!) that labor is going to other people.

this is my latest fixation, so I'm kind of biased, but I feel like the world would be so much easier if we were organized around groups of around 12 adults each.

and of course if each of these groups of ~12 adults are reasonably close to each other, then some groups can specialize, you probably only need 1 person for each two groups to take role as a teacher, not every group needs to make honey, or know how to make furniture etc, those can be shared within the broader community (it's kind of funny because personally the idea of making furniture as a skill for me would not even be work - I would love to do that as my hobby!)

and I know from experience that cooking for 12 people is about the same amount of effort as cooking for 1 person, and 12 people you get the additional benefit of less waste.

for example if I had a decent kitchen set up with just 6 standard ovens I could easily make bread for about ~800 people (5 slices each) in a single 2 hour shift (which would include prep for the next days batch while bread was baking etc).

[sharp-silver4795]

Hello, I reread your post about NSFW and if you Don't want to do this, it's totally fine! But my request is EJ x Liu, ik it's a ship you like so wanted to make it easier for you

EJ x Liu 🔞 HCs

*insert giddy man-kisser screaming*

Alright! Listen, there’s warnings, ofc. But there’s too many- Mostly about kinks n shit, but there is one section that goes into a bit of trauma.

Anyone <16 needs to get the fuck outta here!!

General

They’re more of a morning sex kinda relationship. Morning or midday, night time is too much for either of them.

Neither of them particularly like quickies because they like to take their time on each other.

If you thought this was vanilla, you are sorely mistaken….

EJ is top by default. I think I mentioned this in his anatomy before, but he doesn’t go to the bathroom or anything, so he doesn’t have a hole. So, he tops by default.

Liu is power bottoming 80% of the time

They take a while- like 1-1.5 hours at least blame Jack

They like to try out new things all the time, but more so on EJ’s end because he doesn’t wanna risk things with Liu buddy, Liu is freaky as hell, he can handle it

EJ

I talked about this before, demon man’s got 3 cocks. But they do have a function! One is a bit bigger than the other two, it has one main function- sperm. On most guys, that’s the testicles’ job. But EJ needs a bit more help. That one has a lot of extra pressure so it’s a lot more sensitive and Liu takes full advantage of this

He can also stop himself from cumming by folding the shorter two on opposite sides of the bigger one.

They’re more like tentacles, so be can move them freely as long as he’s aroused enough.**

EJ isn’t kinky on his own, Liu needs to be there for that. Normally, EJ would just fuck his partner raw- but with Liu he has to be more strategic cuz Liu’s not done until he can’t think properly.

He refuses to admit that he loved pet play when Liu gave him a collar and a leash later a muzzle

He really doesn’t need to, the purring gave him away

The man has ruts but they’re kinda predictable. I think if similar to a menstrual cycle, as in, it’s hormone/chemical based.

One of the few times EJ is a complete top is when he’s drilling Liu into the mattress like his life depends on it and Liu enjoys every fucking second of it

He likes to bite, no duh-

He hates hurting Liu, but he didn’t think he’d love getting “hurt”

It’s honestly not even pain to him, because demon and all- it’s more of a power trip sort of deal

Humans find this painful?

*Taunting Liu* “How many more strikes until I feel it?”

Bud really likes being the biggest one in the room, until he’s taken down a peg… but he finds that a turn on too

His hands are cold, but the rest of him is hot- those hands feel really good on Liu’s hot and hard dick tho~

His tentacle-members are also pretty cold-

In this case, temperature is a given, not a kink

EJ‘a favorite positions are: against a wall, doggie, eagle, 69, and 68 (idk what else to call it all- one is getting a bj the other is getting eaten out)

Definitely would want Liu to choke him on his dick if it weren’t dangerous- oh well, he’ll just have to choke Liu instead* 🤷

He likes “choking” Liu (pressure on the sides on the neck, safe sex, people!!!) because Liu likes it too

He’ll eat Liu out or have him sit on his face, he knows those tongues work wonders if he uses em right

Gently pulls (more like nudges) Liu’s eyelids open so they can make contact when they kiss- it’s hot and sensual.

Whether he’s topping or “bottoming” completely, it’s a whole new ballgame!

As a top, he’s a beast~

Can reduce him to a mess in mere minutes, though he usually doesn’t.

He likes it when Liu works for it- sort of taunting back at the man who whipped his chest to a deep noir.

He doesn’t feel the need from ropes or anything when he’s in charge, his hands will do just fine and ropes tend to be triggering for Liu

Boy can and has broken the bed frame and mattress!

✨cock warming✨

He’ll stick all 3 of em in there and just chill. Liu can be patient for a while- but he breaks eventually.

If he chooses not to listen and tries to get himself off- EJ’ll let him… but then he’s gonna screw him senseless until he’s done- which is gonna take a while

When the mark on Liu’s shoulder starts to fade… perfect time for a nice cock warmer.

For complete bottom (or as close as he can get) he’ll do anything and everything for Liu.

Come on, EJ put on a muzzle for this man- what would they NOT do for him??

This demon boi would see Liu cum 4 times on his dick and still not let himself release when Liu says no**

*completely out of breath* “Fuck! You’re doing great, sweetheart”

“Yeah? May I cum now? Please?”

“Mmmmm….”

*a complete mess of sweat, cum, eye-socket-fluid, and desperation*

“Yeah. Yeah, you can cum this time.”

Liu

Liu loves experimenting.

It might be because his experience was stolen from him or maybe he was always like that. Who knows-

Liu is really chill and cuddly for the most part, but not once he’s in bed with Jack.

He has to get EJ going enough to have all 3 of his dicks to slide out of his “cock pocket” (as he says) and he can get pretty creative ~

He’s gone the route of making out until Jack gets impatient or just teasing his fingers on the “cover skin” and edges of EJ’s slit

Liu has zero shame for him. He wanted to try wax play once after a round and he just-

“Would you be willing to put hot wax on the bites you give me?”

*Jerks up* “What the hell? It’s 4am!!”

He was very curious with EJ’s anatomy when he started visiting Liu’s window. He would just let Liu play with him and try to figure him out.

Because of all that ⬆️ he knows all the things that makes EJ tick

*Despite his lover having at least 3x the size of any man, he can still give head like a champ! If Liu doesn’t feel like full sex he’ll give EJ a blowjob.

He likes teasing in one of two ways: presentation/show or surprises

By “presentation” I mean this man will get himself (or have Jason make him) some lingerie, tie himself to the bed frame, and wait for EJ. He’s kinda teasing himself but, hey! it gets the job done. This man loves himself some bondage

It could also be sending nudes or just shirtless pics with his V-Line a lil emphasized and the bulge being obviously visible

“Surprises” are when he’s kinda horny, but will just spend time around Jack while his head rolls out all the things they could be doing…

EJ can smell his lust the entire time

He always masturbates in front of a mirror. If EJ’s watching, so be it! For some reason though, he just doesn’t like mirror sex I’d chalk it up to trauma

He likes “hurting” (eh…) Jack because it gives Liu his own power trip: a demon that could rip him to shreds is completely under control just by his words and whip

He likes pet play ofc. He likes having control over a literal demon.

EJ only misbehaved one time, and now he’s got a muzzle. At least he learned~

He low key wants to get EJ a special collar, but he doesn’t know if that will be pressing too far it won’t

Liu’s favorite positions are: lotus, doggie, bridge, and heart (idk what it’s actually called)

He likes to be bent out of shape by the end of it. If he isn’t, they’re gonna keep going.

Chronically edges

EJ doesn’t let him use sounding rods anymore and he’s still salty about it.

Cries during sex. Always. Doesn’t matter what’s going on, he always cries. It’s almost never a bad thing tho.

I dont have the time not energy to fully explain how kinky this man is

General pt 2 (Romantic/Sweet Sex)

If they want to just spend time together, they usually go for heart or lotus.

Romantic sex isn’t exactly common with these two, but it is prominent enough.

EJ usually initiates sweet sex. It’s usually whenever Liu is pushing himself to do something he doesn’t wanna do.

Ej will stop him, pin his hands together and to his chest and kiss down Liu’s face, cheeks, neck, and all the way to his hands.

“You’re safe here. You will do nothing you do not wish to do… understand?”

*now in tears, nodding*

“Good. Now, let me love you for a while.”

Silly and sweet takes the longest for them. It’s an act of love and admiration. To them, it’s like setting up a row of candles and roses to the dinner table.

This is the only time they’ll have sex at night.

General pt 3 (sex with a side of trauma)

Aftercare bellow this in pink!!!

Sometimes during this, one of them can have a bit of trouble cuz of trauma.

For EJ it’s the bite marks- he remembers Selcra and still feels guilty over it and his head immediately goes to

I won’t be able to save him either. I couldn’t protect a DEMON… how will I save him?

Liu is never ready for those moments when EJ randomly pushes him away. Ofc EJ explains after a bit, but still

For Liu it’s SA and abuse in general. It isn’t often that it happens, but he has randomly- in the middle of it- burst out crying because he feels gross

“What the hell am I doing? This is so fucked up.”

“Why am I doing this? I’d be stoned for this- WE would be stoned for this!”

“DON’T! Don’t touch me. I want you out! Now!!”

EJ is never ready for those moments.

Both of them are completely aware that things might happen. They have safe words (Liu’s is “lighthouse”, Jack’s is “Armadillo”) but they also have it where- if they say “stop”, “out”, or “Off”- it’s over. They both take those words very seriously. “No” can sometimes be playful for them, but tone matters as well.

Aftercare!!

You would think these two went to war with how they look afterwards-

Liu is being carried, but it’s worth it.

Liu nearly falls asleep in the bath every time, so EJ has to hold him up.

It’s really bubble baths (yes, plural), changing sheets, sweet nothings, and resting on the couch.

Jack is getting pets the whole time and he can’t take his hands away from Liu’s sides/back.

I hope this is Alr!

[bluedalahorse]

I mentioned wanting to write a fic about how things become a little more functional between Simon and August in their 20s, so here’s the scenario I want to write the fic about:

Simon and Wilhelm are close to graduating university. Felice is doing studies abroad in some capacity, and Sara is on the other coast of Sweden. August has just returned from university at Georgetown and is taking up some crown prince duties.

Simon and Wilhelm didn’t go to the same school—they each ended up in a school that fit their study needs—but they’re about 1-1.5 hours apart by train. They try to see one another relatively often, maybe on the weekends. They each have their own set of friends at their own school. In the final semesters of university, Simon gets involved in some particular, career-related project I haven’t decided on yet, which takes up a little more of his time. Their relationship is a little more “long distance” than usual but they still care for each other.

Wille’s having a rough go of it, though. In part he’s struggling academically, in part because he’s feeling the identity pressure of, who is he exactly? He’s done a lot of exploring over the past years, after leaving the crown, because trying to find yourself after a life of being told who you need to be is an ongoing process. He’s still trying to figure things out. There might be some Gender in the mix, too. (I am a they/he Wille truther.) Anyway, some of Wille’s university friends use recreational drugs, never in a way where they’re pressuring him but in a way where he’s around it. And with things being tough, Wille uses a few times in a “just for fun, just this once” sort of way, and then it begins to escalate.

Simon obviously notices that Wille is using, because his life story and what he remembers of life with Micke means he will notice. And immediately he knows he wants to get Wille help, but he’s also terrified of this becoming a situation where he feels like he has to handle everything by himself. He enlists the help of Sara and Felice from afar, he talks to Linda about it, but he realizes he also needs help from someone in Wilhelm’s family. Someone who sort of knows the upper class pressures and the way Kristina and Ludwig can be and all those insider things. It’s the kind of thing he might go to Erik about if Erik were alive, but Erik isn’t alive, and who was Erik anyway?

Well… over the past six or seven years, Wilhelm and August have been doing their best to have some kind of relationship. It starts awkward and hesitant at first, but becomes something over time. They try to check in on the phone once a week, and they try to coordinate their plans going in to family Christmas and such. They know what they are going to say if Kristina tries to pit the two against one another, they know how to cover for the other if one of them just wants to duck out of the fifth course of dinner and just scream. They can talk each other through panic attacks now and grieve together. Maybe Erik was the brother each of them wanted. Maybe they are also becoming the sibling each of them needed, inch by inch.

And Simon knows this, and has been okay with it happening because Wille respects his boundaries around it and has kept his Simon sphere and his August sphere separate so far.

But now Wille is in danger, and Simon knows he wants someone from Wille’s family (the part of Wille’s family he’s not part of, anyway) to help him.

So he calls August at an awkward time of day and says, “Hi. I didn’t want to have to do this, but I need your help.”

And August has noticed the signs of a growing addiction in Wille as well—of course he has, he has watched his father, he has dealt with this himself—and was about a day away from calling Simon in desperation.

“I need your help, too,” August says.

So they end up banding together to help Wille, to make sure Wille feels supported by both of them, to handle as much as possible before Kristina can swoop in (or before they have to call her in, in a careful and coordinated way.)

Simon and August end up talking about their own fathers, and realize they share some experiences, that they can relate to each other’s hypervigilance, even if they came from different social classes. How would things have been different, they wonder, if they had known this from the start?

As Simon opens up to him, August comes to realize the extent to which Simon still lives with the aftermath of the video. August realizes that yes, Simon is getting incredible grades and gaining people’s respect and presenting at music conferences around Europe as an undergraduate, and that still coexists with the pain and the fear. August has always loathed himself for posting the video, but his remorse takes on a new texture, one that is more inclined toward positive action steps than wallowing.

As August opens up to him, Simon comes to realize that August loved Sara, that August still regrets not loving Sara the way she deserved to be loved. Simon has to some extent rationalized August’s falling in love with Sara as fuckboy manipulation tactics—that’s easier to believe—but he notices the similarities between how August loves and how Wilhelm loves, how they both burn so bright for another person that they sometimes can’t see that person clearly. Simon starts to see how August tries to care for other people and make them feel like they belong, even if it doesn’t always look the way he expects.

We were all so young then, Simon and August think.

Wilhelm looks at these two unexpected people who love him and want him to be well (who love them, they tentatively suggest, as August and Simon each hold one of their hands.) Wilhelm is surprised and a little afraid and also a little… hopeful?

We are all so young now, they all think. And yet we are still growing.

And together they build something new.

[mackdizzy]

Own It All. [a Traffic!GoodTimesWithScar Song Cycle]

[my gift for @crowsarttrove for @mcytblrholidayexchange | part 1! ]

Hello, giftee! I hope you enjoy this song cycle! The cycle is in 5 acts, one for each of the first five seasons of the Life Series. The acts are pretty short--6 songs or about 20 minutes each--but if you put them all together, you end up with a playlist that takes a little over 1.5 hours to listen through. I'll post the graphics, song lists, and Spotify playlists (there are 5 separate playlists) in order, but if Spotify isn't your jam, isn't accessible, or if you'd rather all in one go, at the end of this post (along with some more info about the cycle) is a Youtube playlist that contains all 30 songs all at once!

Act 1: Fate of the Stars

Nobody's Soldier (Hozier)

Everything Moves (Bronze Radio Return)

Lapis Lazuli (The Oh Hellos)

DEBT COLLECTOR (Jhariah)

Heat Lightning (Mitski)

Fate of the Stars (Tally Hall)

Act 2: Magic Mountain

Catch Me If You Can (Set It Off)

True Friends (Bring Me The Horizon)

Enemy (Imagine Dragons)

Mad IQs (I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME)

You’re Nobody ‘Till Somebody Wants You Dead (Saint Motel)

Fate of the Stars (Tally Hall)

Act 3: Let's Break Some Hearts

You & Me (Tally Hall)

Allies or Enemies (The Crane Wives)

Everyone (Mitski)

forwards beckon rebound (Adrianne Lenker)

Little Dark Age (MGMT)

Scars (The Crane Wives)

Act 4: Go Out With A Bang

Metaphor (The Crane Wives)

Until It Doesn't Hurt (Mother Mother)

Clocks (Coldplay)

Bang! (AJR)

Anything But (Hozier)

Earth (Sleeping At Last)

Act 5: The Guy With No Friends

I Ain't Done (The Crane Wives)

Aspiring Fires (Mother Mother)

Eyes Closed (Imagine Dragons)

Falling Up (Will Wood)

New Person, Same Old Mistakes (Tame Impala)

Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Lorde) ━━━ ➼ ━━━━

I tried to make the playlists as cohesive as possible; the cycles are aesthetically, musically, and lyrically consistent, and I tried to pick songs that matched Scar's vibes as best I could. The intention is for you to follow along with traffic!Scar and his journey as you listen through, from Monopoly Man to Villain Arc and beyond, in between, and back again. I hope you enjoy, giftee and anyone else, and have fun listening! Youtube Link. (ps; sorry for all the Crane Wives, but this is a traffic song cycle, I feel like I'm allowed.)

[h50europe]

9-1-1 - Black Hawk Down

(Helicopter crash, Angst)

It was supposed to be a routine flight. Tommy climbed into the cockpit of the UH-60M Black Hawk and immediately felt like he had never left. He put on his helmet, grabbed the checklist and started to run it. Tommy remembered his tours in Afghanistan and Iraq and how this beast had become one of his closest comrades. Beast, he chuckled. That was Evan's nickname for him. He owned it to their first night together, where Tommy surprised Evan with his stamina and some other tricks that had left the younger man craving for more and sending him into the stratosphere as he came hard while a multiple orgasm ripped through him.

Tommy bit his lower lip as his blood rushed south, reminding himself that he had a job to do and needed to focus. He flipped switches, checked the tanks, and meticulously followed the entire list. When he was done, he placed it in the co-pilot's seat and hit the start button. The twin General Electric T700-GE-701 turboshaft engines, each rated at 1,560 shaft horsepower, roared to life. The sound of the mighty blades was like music to Tommy's ears. He wished Evan could be with him, but he got a call about an hour ago and was ordered to the station. A fire at an industrial plant was threatening to get out of control. Dispatch had ordered all available engines to the scene. Tommy's only mission today was to fly the Black Hawk to Renegade airfield near Vegas. It should be a smooth flight. The weather forecast promised clear blue skies. A little turbulence was expected, but nothing troubling.

Tommy felt the familiar vibrations caused by the whirling rotor blades. Flying a Black Hawk was so different from the helicopters they used at LAFD Air Operations. Tommy radioed the tower and asked for a VFR departure: "Echo Lima Foxtrot, VFR departure east at or below 1,500 feet."

The tower replied: "Echo Lima Foxtrot, stay east of runway 10/28 at all times, east departure approved. You are cleared for takeoff from taxiway Bravo."

There was a static crackle, then a familiar voice came on and said, "Ground Control to Major Tom, have a save flight."

Tommy cackled, "I have no idea how you did that, Hen, but you rock."

"Copy that," she replied with a big smile on her face.

Hen was sitting in the tower next to one of the controllers. She had been training some of the employees in first aid today and had heard about Tommy and his Vegas trip. Grinning, she leaned back and watched him take off and then transition.

The estimated flight time was about 1.5 hours. Tommy felt relaxed and looked forward to the upcoming flight. He knew that flying over the desert could be challenging due to the absence of reference points and the constantly shifting sand caused by the wind. However, he was prepared to rely on his instruments to navigate through these conditions.

As the routine flight progressed, the atmosphere changed when the Black Hawk's responder signal was abruptly lost, and the helicopter vanished from the radar. Strangely, there was no distress call from Tommy. Meanwhile, Hen was packing her bags when she suddenly became aware of the chaos unfolding in the tower.

[freeeggbailiffcash]

This promptly would be great and I mean alot. It is about naim and Beja have to work together to make sure their little bros that are dating each other because broken up but all their ways end up in failure due to them can't resist the puppy eyes from said little bros aka fakhri and kahar.

Naim wondered if there is such a thing as going too far, as he stared into the well made presentation on the Samsung tab on the table.

Reza stared expectantly across from him with his usual pristine professional look in spite of taking a slower route of a humble environmental lawyer instead of a malicious businessman warlord that Naim expected when he first saw the regal second son of Dato’ Abu Yamin in Kudrat.

Back then, he barely interacted with Reza, having newly joined the prefect election, most of his tasks were handed out by the Form 4s. Reza was an outlier higher power that Naim never associated with back then.

Funny how it worked out when Kahar had taken the reins, and Naim had curry favors in order to social climb.

Life was…..weird, wasn’t it?

“Habis tu Naim? Kau ada cadangan lain tak?”

Back to the issue at hand, Naim stared dumbly at the meticulous planning Reza had concocted to—wait for it….

To break their little brothers’ relationship?

And just to prove that Reza was absolutely serious, Naim took note of how the entire presentation was in Times New Roman 12pt, 1.5 line spacing.

The proper professional font for something as ridiculous as planning to sabotage their younger siblings’ ill advice relationship.

Naim wonders when he stoop so low.

Just as he thought of that, both their phones ‘ping’ed and Naim found himself mirroring Reza as they both pocketed their phones.

Naim was happy at first, seeing as it was a message from Fakhri.

Until he opened and saw it.

A picture of Kahar and Fakhri feeding each other cake, linking their hands as they stare into each others’ eyes.

Assholes.

Judging by the scowl on Reza’s face, he assumed that he had received the same image.

Honestly, Naim was upset at first when he heard the news of Fakhri and Kahar’s cohabitation.

He knew both of them in separate occurrences, and saw firsthand the disastrous consequence of them butting heads. Both of them were like stubborn mules, too thick headed to admit their faults and too reckless to think far ahead.

So he cautioned Fakhri against it.

He didn’t think Fakhri was still in his rebellious phase where he wanted to do the opposite of whatever he told him to do.

Case in point; the sudden announcement of his and Kahar‘s flaky romantic relationship.

Naim sincerely thought Fakhri was bluffing and that it was some sort of passive agressive counterattack against his two hour lectures of why he should stay a good 10 feet radius away from Kahar at all times.

But Kahar and Fakhri—like the little shits that they were—went above and fucking beyond by, well, fucking each other.

Naim couldn’t look Fakhri straight (ironic, he knows) in the eye for weeks.

As retaliation, he had flooded their apartment with various flyers and pamphlets of safe sex but even he knew it was a weak attempt.

And Fakhri repaid him back by purposely coming to Naim’s own apartment with his neck scattered with purple bruises.

“Kau tak rase ke…. Yang diorang couple betul-betul?” Naim argued weakly.

Reza raised a delicate eyebrow.

“Tak.” Was the immediate answer.

Naim exhaled, fuck, and denial was a fucking river in Egypt.

Nevertheless, he took the tab, swiping to the several other stages of Reza’s sabotage plan, silently wondering why the hell couldn’t Fakhri choose to date literally anyone else?

₊✩‧₊˚౨ৎ˚₊✩‧₊

Step 1: Highlight their different palates.

The only advantage that existed to this was that both Naim and Reza supposedly knew their baby brothers best. Ergo, they knew what it was that tick both of them off most.

The key to sabotage was to use their own nature against them. And if there was one thing both Fakhri and Kahar were, it was stubborn.

Their tastes were another story entirely—polar opposites that somehow coexisted. Until now.

Which was why Naim found himself sitting across from Jay and Prakash at a nondescript mamak, arms crossed as he explained their role in this plan.

“Soo… kau nak suruh aku mintak Fakhri and Kahar…masak untuk kitorang?” Jay asked, eyeing both Reza and Naim skeptically.

Naim nodded, hand waving off vaguely gesturing, “kau cakap laa teringin nak rase makanan tradisional ke apa ke?”

“Are guests typically allowed to make demands from their host? Especially since Fakhri and Kahar never invited us to come in the first place?” Prakash deadpanned.

Naim shot a glare at Reza but ultimately tried to persuade his batchmates. There was another simultaneous ‘ping’ notification on both his and Reza’s phone which means their asshole little brothers was either sending another photo or nauseating video.

Naim had cleared his gallery twice that week.

“Fakhri dalam fasa dia nak baik-baik dengan semua kawan dia,” Naim insisted, remembering Fakhri’s turn over the cheek was the very reason he got in contact with Kahar in the first place, “so kalau korang kata nak lawat diorang, konfirm diorang terima.”

“Lepas tu, apa jadi sebenarnya nanti?”

“Lepas tuuu,” Naim replied, enunciating his words carefully, “Fakhri mesti nak masak something yang mama or papa kitorang pernah ajar. And Kahar pon akan masak dia punya lauk sendiri—so nanti diorang gaduh.”

It’s clear that Jay was still dubious about the plan but both Reza and him shared a look.

They both know that Fakhri and Kahar, to some extent, enjoy cooking but there were a lot of heritage differences as well as habitual factors.

Fakhri hated seeing things pile up in the sink, while Kahar leaves the kitchen like a world war one battlefield each time he finished cooking.

Another thing was that Fakhri likes spicy food. Kahar could barely tolerate anything that wasn’t doused in sugar.

It was those little things that should create some visual chasm for the two dumbass to accept that their relationship shouldn’t work out.

But explaining all that to Jay and Prakash would be such a hassle. Suddenly, Reza cleared his throat before flashing a menacing smile as he carefully asked Naim to leave for a minute.

It was the tell-tale sign of Reza finally losing his thin string of patience and Naim willingly left, with a heartfelt wish if luck to Jay and Prakash who were about to receive the older man’s wrath.

₊✩‧₊˚౨ৎ˚₊✩‧₊

The plan was simple. Jay would casually suggest that Fakhri should show off his so-called hidden talent in cooking, a point of pride the younger boy rarely got to display.

With Naim’s subtle nudging, Fakhri took the bait almost immediately, agreeing to cook. Kahar, not one to be outdone, immediately insisted he’d make something better.

(See! How can Fakhri and Kahar stay in a relationship if they still compete against each other in everything)

And thus, the stage was set.

“Asal laa kau suka sangat masak pedas-pedas,” Kahar grumbled, arms crossed as he eyed the pile of chili Fakhri was dumping into his dish. “Appendix siot—dah lah nanti lidah terbakar je, last-last kembung air je.”

Fakhri scoffed. “Habis tu kau—sume bende kau tambah gula, tak ke potong kaki, manis je. Sampai gulai kari pon kau nak tambah gula, gilo lak aii.”

“Ehh?! Kari aku sedap kot!” Kahar snapped, gripping the handle of his ladle like he was prepared to use it as a weapon. “Tak macam kau, habis sepeket Babas kau pakai.”

“Kau yang degil! Aku suruh kau beli rempah Adabi, yang kau beli lain apehal?”

“Dah tuu je yang tinggal. Takkan aku nak pergi samlai dua tiga kedai—”

Jay and Prakash exchanged glances from their spot at the dining table, wondering how the hell were they roped into becoming the children of future divorce.

“You think they’ll actually break up over this?” Jay whispered to Prakash.

The Indian man glared at him, fingers numbly writing down the situation to report to the evil overlord who blackmailed them.

“We wouldn’t be here if you were more careful,” Prakash retorted.

“Mana laa aku tahu Reza nampak kita dating kat Maid’s cafe tuu!” Jay cried out indignation.

From a cafe nearby the apartment complex, both Naim and Reza listened to the recording of Fakhri and Kahar’s escalating argument with mild satisfaction.

Step 1: Success.

[frodo-with-glasses]

COMMISSIONS OPEN!!

Heya! Wanna throw money at me to make me draw something?? Well, for just $20 an hour, now you can!

Read below for price estimates and FAQs, and if you’re interested, please email me at FigTreeIllustrationsLLC@gmail.com to get started!

PRICING INFO

Because I’m too lazy to come up with complicated price structures, I’ll just be charging a flat rate of $20/hour for any work I do on the art piece. The clock starts when I pick up the pencil or digital stylus and ends when I put it down.

This does mean that prices will vary, depending on how time-consuming each art piece is, but I can give you some rough estimates.

Upper Body Sketch: Approx. 30 min = $10 for one

It takes me about half an hour to draw a bust or upper body sketch. This time can be shortened if I’m already familiar with the character design, or lengthened if I’m drawing an unfamiliar character or doing some weird perspective stuff.

Every additional figure would probably take another half an hour, adding about $10 each.

Full-Body Sketch: Approx. 1 hour = $20 for one

Drawing an entire figure is a little harder than just drawing the upper body, so this one might take longer. Again, this time can be shortened or lengthened depending on my familiarity with the character, how complex the design is, and whether I’m doing any complicated posing or perspective.

Adding additional figures can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour, adding $10-$20 each.

Animals: Approx. 1.5 hrs = $30 for one

Animals are not my strong suit, though I have gotten better at drawing them over time! However, the extra time studying reference photos and trying to get the anatomy correct can stack up quickly, so you’ll want to be aware of that if you’re commissioning something with an animal involved.

Posters: Minumum 3 hrs = approx. $60

Posters take a little extra time—and usually some trial and error—to plan the layout in a dynamic way. They also take up an entire sketchbook page and tend to include multiple people and some extreme perspective to add visual appeal. You can expect a poster to take about three hours minimum to complete.

Multi-Panel Comics: Minimum 4 hrs a page = $80

Drawing a comic big enough to cover an entire sketchbook page can take me anywhere from 4 to 6 hours of work. If drawing a long-form comic, I will probably divide the work over several days. Brainstorming will happen on the first day, when I’ll plan out how many panels I’ll need for the comic, and then I’ll get in contact with you to tell you an estimated price before I proceed.

Digital Coloring: Minimum 1.5 hrs = add approx. $30

Coloring things digitally takes about double the time it would to sketch; I’ve noticed it takes around two hours to color a simple image, with another hour added for each figure involved. This first image took me about an hour and a half to outline and color, while the second took about five hours.

Add to Redbubble Shop: Subject to Redbubble Pricing

If your commissioned artwork is Lord of the Rings-related, I can put it into my Redbubble shop, where you can have it printed on stickers, t-shirts, journals, mugs, and lots of other products! I won’t charge any extra fee, but you will have to pay whatever price Redbubble asks. Full disclosure: I receive only 10% of the profit from Redbubble sales; the rest goes to the website to cover manufacturing and shipping costs.

FAQ

No NSFW

No nudity or sexual content

Canon ships only

Will draw gore/injuries

Will draw OCs (please provide references)

Will draw for other fandoms (please provide references)

The artist reserves the right to reject any commission without disclosing the reason

The artist will give price and progress updates over the course of the process

You, the commissioner, have the right to terminate the project at any time and for any reason

If the project is terminated halfway, you will be charged for the artist’s time, but the artist might give a discount for incomplete work

Payment will be calculated at the end of the project and rendered using PayPal

Once again, if you’re interested, please email me at FigTreeIllustrationsLLC@gmail.com!