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garyfischy · 1 year ago

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regardless of what mediums you wanna use how you wanna draw ever heres what you need to do

-if youre a cartoonist be very specific with anatomy studies. if youre gonna stick to really stylized cartoony shit then keep anatomy studying to just basic forms, joints etc and focus on figure drawing. id reccomend 'figure drawing methods for artists' but for fucks sake just go on youtube, watch a couple videos they all say the same thing anyways. as long as you're not getting blatantly incorrect info from a guy that doesn't actually know how things work and cuts corners. it's better to sweat and bleed learning how to draw basic forms like the torso and pelvis than do what i did (go through as many shortcut pinterest guides as possible, develop a flawed and stiff understanding of anatomy, use it as a crutch) .

but yeah figure drawing is useful because learning how to set characters up in different poses and composition are useful. for every cartoonist!

-2... i ran out of points to make. Think about artists you like, you don't even have to make long rambly analyses , just jot down why you like their art and what appeals about them to you. anything from that vintage mustang poster you saw the other day, to a 'fine art' artist you'd see in a museum to your favorite blog

3: study practically.

read artbooks, look at tutorials online, watch youtube tutorials from a variety of sources: but remember, regular practice is the goal here. don't get too hooked on watching tutorials or studying and just go outside and draw a little. try and apply those skills bit by bit.

4 here are my (amateur guy that draws online and isn't going to art school)'s random advice bits

supplies i think are a godsend no matter what: one really good pencil. doesn't matter what kind it is. i got fancy ones but in all honesty light or dark you just need one that feels comfortable to write and draw with. practice those artist grips! consciously think about lines: do i want thick or thin lines? and what can I do to change it? Are my lines unsteady? and am I unhappy with that? sure, then try a different grip, or see if a thicker, more bulky pencil works! but hey, i'm just some guy on the internet telling you to do things.

ironically, even as I wax poetic about how fun it is to collect wood/mechanical pencils, my favorite thing to draw with is a #2 pencil.

I could go on and on about art supplies and practical applications but all I can say is if you really like something, splurge on it and if you're not sure about it get cheap ones. It's not really about the subtle intricacies of each medium but if you even like it in the first place. Cheap vs expensive watercolors aren't gonna matter if you don't LIKE using watercolors.

..that being said I think color pencils are the exception to this as each brand varies in quality regardless of price.

here are some artbook reccomendations to finish off this jumbled, disjointed and haphazardly written post

-Sketching People by Lynne Chapman: I tend to lean towards the more practical when it comes to any advice. something that really boils down the way you do something and why to its core. This book is really good for that.

-Figure Drawing Methods for Artists by Peter Boerboom and Tim Proetel: it's a really fun exercise book.

-Space Drawing and Perspective by Superani: once again, practical, well translated , and really fun to do. Don't get superani's anatomy book though it's racist and pervy as fuck

-and so many more that I can't even list here. Just go to your local library and open up one of these babies, grab a sheet of paper, and just jot anything down that seems interesting to you. Capiche?

#im on fever medication right now because I am sadly once again sick so this might be incoherent #but this post is really just my contribution to the discourse around instagrammable marketable clean and palatable art and #expensive art supplies and confusion and #just in general a lot of online spaces have made artists feel like their art has to be super palatable all the time #so a lot of people forgo learning the bones and joints and MEAT of art #ie structure and foundational skills #in favor of getting a cleaner product out faster #so this is just kind of me ranting on my lawn chair about how I THINK is the right way to do it and git gud faster #dont rb #fish talks

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impossiblemakerfire · 1 year ago

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How To Build Your Own Shipping Container Home

https://www.youtube.com/embed/QA5fh29rhLs

This guide unveils how to build a Shipping Container Home. It's packed with tips, tricks and techniques that we detail thoroughly here. You'll learn everything you need to know! The Original Creative Home Building "HOW-TO-BUILD-A-SHIPPING-CONTAINER-HOME" How to Build a Shipping Container Home The choices for buying, renting, or selling a home have never been more abundant for prospective buyers. Despite having such a large selection of architectural styles to choose from, prospective homebuyers often want something that offers them a great functional window and shortens their budget. While many people are going for the most common style of home, some opt for unique or trendy designs. One option that is growing in popularity is converting a shipping container into a house. According to a recent study, the global shipping container home industry will reach $73,070.5 million by 2025 from $44,768.6 million in 2017 Buildings that are used for housing purposes come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. In this blog, we'll discuss some of the benefits and advantages that come with building a home from shipping containers. We will also provide a step-by-step guide on how it can be done. There are a lot of things you need to know about shipping container homes. Learn more about them in this blog article. You’re in search of a perfect container. From design to cost, be sure to include these tips in your search for the very best catering for your next event Shipping containers are an essential part of the world economy. They used to be the only option for transport, but nowadays they're replacing more and more methods that used to be dominant. Architects have been using shipping containers in their structures since the mid-2000s. Some designs are simple—a container outfitted for living simplifies and takes up less space. Other designs are more complex and integrate multiple containers with other structural components. So, what exactly goes into building a shipping container home? And can they be as economical, sustainable, and livable as claimed? We break down the key points below to help you understand more about shipping container homes. A shipping container home in Livingston, Montana at dusk; it's raised off the ground and has a pitched roof. Instead of the average boring white walls, this home showcases sleek design with a customized shipping container. The unique living area is located in Montana, where the view is worth lingering over with a glass of wine.

What is a shipping container house?

A shipping container house is a structure made with a shipping container. There is quite the variety of structures that can be made. Shipping containers come in two sizes, either 20 feet by 8 feet or 40 feet by 8 feet. The smaller size equals about 160 square feet of living space, while the larger one gets you 320 square feet. There are also two height options: regular (8.5 feet tall) or the high cube version that provides an extra foot in vertical living space. Some shipping container homes stop here, using these compact spaces as standalone tiny homes or offices. Multiple containers have popped up in different places, such as this one in Missouri. In homes with multiple containers,cargotecture, walls are often removed to create more spacious interiors and traditional construction methods add exterior materials and additional rooms. Some containers are stacked in a row, while others can be twisted and turned Jenga-style to create architectural masterpieces.

Rendering of shipping container building.

Sculptor David Mach approached his first building with a creative eye, assembling 36 brightly-colored shipping containers into an artful, jumble of sorts. Assembly Studios Who decides where the shipping containers come from and how do you purchase one? You might be tempted to buy a brand-new shipping container, but there are a lot of factors you need to consider before doing so. We've explained some of the pros and cons of buying an empty one in this article that we wrote. And if you want to buy used, you should care about a few more things. Make sure you know what type of certification it is stamped with and understand how much different kinds of containers cost. Buyers looking for a good deal on reusable containers should consider “one-trip” or “as is” options. These containers are identified based on whether they've been used to transport dangerous chemicals or if they are damaged in any way. Buyers should not use these options for food prep; these types of vessel may be hazardous to your health. While used containers can be found from either national dealers or local sellers, there are advantages and disadvantages to each option. National dealers have a larger inventory and more locations to deliver, but local sellers often have better prices and don't offer delivery. The typical 20-foot trailer size can be moved using a forklift truck, but 40-foot containers usually require a specially designed crane truck. There are new compact shipping container homes on the market to suit your needs and budget! These homes range from 8 footers with living area to six-footers perfect for tiny surprises. They come in a variety of styles and prices, so there's something for everyone. Missing the convenience of a one-stop shop? Consider these fresh additions.

Shipping container architecture is a new way to maximize efficiency in today's world.

The great thing about shipping container houses is that you can order them right now. There are five different designs to choose from, many with unique features like skylights and faux brick walls. These two designs were inspired by two different eras in American history. The midcentury home is light and airy with a modern style that draws inspiration from the desert, while the desert retreat captures the rustic, natural feel of its setting with clean lines and neutral colors. A company is using shipping containers as temporary housing. Function: Uploading Custom Components Previewing your complete content with preview text Managing form submissions View a shipping container turned ski resort lodge.

What do you need in order to build a shipping container house?

Before you start constructing a shipping container on your property, it's important to take the time to research local laws and regulations. You need to ensure your construction will fit on the land, as well as meet building codes and zoning restrictions. Building codes set standards for what structures must have in order to receive an occupancy permit, which is necessary for your building permit. Zoning regulations also dictate where a home can be built. Some codes and regulations explicitly say whether shipping container homes are allowed, while others group “non-traditional” structures-- like tiny houses or dome homes--together. Shipping container homes are more likely to be allowed in more remote or less trafficked areas, but you really need to check with your city or county planner for the specifics. This shipping container house in France, built with $135,000, lets its owners live mortgage-free. Shipping containers can have many drawbacks in terms of construction and building materials. The primary benefit of shipping containers is their stability and waterproofing abilities. However, there are some downsides to using them for a home. First off, many shipping containers are eight feet wide with an interior room width of just over seven feet. This dimension means that some people may find it hard to fit comfortably in a container. Although it's possible, two parallel but separate containers may provide a more comfortable living space.barndominium, The good news? Building around the edges of two containers will give you wider walls without removing any walls! The possible drawbacks of shipping container homes are that the metal of the containers can make it hard to install insulation, while wood walls with studs typically have partitions for insulation. Installing large-scale projects like this also requires extensive steel reinforcement and might increase overall costs. Ben Uyeda is an architect and designer, who recently built an easy breezy "Joshua Tree compound" out of three shipping containers. Ben used a metal roof to make the third part of the compound the perfect summer getaway for fun with friends. This personal project was accomplished by transforming three shipping containers into one single piece of homogeneous architecture that's creative yet clean.

Are shipping container houses more sustainable than traditional homes?

As climate change intensifies, it becomes more imperative to take advantage of these sustainable solutions. Carbon emissions are low in shipping container homes because they're often built on recycled materials, ensuring better sustainability with less CO2 emissions. Advocates for shipping container homes applaud them for giving unwanted containers a new life. The vast majority of unused shipping containers are recycled and reused, saving substantial amounts of money in the long run. Reusing a safe shipping container is an excellent example of using recycled materials to build. Container homes are also eco-friendly and encourage a smaller footprint, giving homeowners a way to downsize without compromising their quality of life. While there may be a version of used, eco-friendly containers out there, some still have more than their share of issues—they may hold chemical residue or corrosion-resistant chemicals that alter our quality of life. It's difficult to say which container is the best, so perhaps it's best to just pick one and make sure the company you partner with is focused on providing something safe and appealing. However, the energy required to make the steel boxes habitable in a recycling plant erases any benefits. According to an ArchDaily article, the average container produces nearly a thousand pounds of hazardous waste before it can be used as something other than a structure.

Wooden shipping container house

A tiny home was built from two refurbished shipping containers. The two were stacked to create a two-story walk-out terrace, one on top of the other. Would you consider a different type of housing because they are more affordable? Some experts claim that shipping container homes are cheaper to build than traditional stick-built homes, but the situation can vary depending on different circumstances. tiny home kits, diy shipping container home, The cost of building a shipping container home will vary based on a range of factors, such as the size, design and location of the project. The cost of buying a container for yourself can vary depending on the size, with smaller containers costing around $1,400 and larger models costing up to $6,000. Newer containers may cost more than older ones. You’ll have to spend money on transporting the container, insulation, and interior finishes. These are just a few of the things that come with a shipping container. You’ll also have to pay for the flat metal roof, exterior walls and metal frame. Container homes, like their steel-framed counterparts, have a lot of benefits. They can be built on only a fraction of the land space regular houses require, and they often don't need any expensive excavation in order to construct. In addition, they're built to last much longer than traditional construction. build your own shipping container home, However, the cost of shipping container homes is usually substantially higher than their steel-framed brethren. Since shipping containers are affordable and modular, they can be bought as small as $33,000 for the smallest, most basic version of a container home. A black shipping container makes for a perfect home for those who need space or want to get around better in and around their home. Not only will it save space, but you'll have easy access to the outdoors so you can enjoy nature. Alternative Living Spaces offers custom designs and finishes for their container homes.build your own shipping container home book, They began with a simple business idea, but their products have made a huge impact on the market today! One of the benefits of using shipping containers for home and commercial buildings is that they are quicker to build. Shipping container homes are far faster to build than traditional stick-built houses. Some of the designs can be completed in a few days or weeks, with more complex ones taking at least a few months. On the bright side, shipping container houses are still subject to normal construction delays. There are many factors to consider before choosing a shipping container home. Take the time to evaluate your needs and choose the shipping container home that best meets your needs. These prefab-style homes tend to be smaller and quicker, but sometimes provide more space than traditional houses. When you ship a container home, the material becomes smaller, lighter, and less bulky. The percentage of distance traveled is increased by over 70%. While building a shipping container home is not a DIY project,youtube build your own shipping container home step by step comprehensive guide, there are several practical benefits and advantages that make the unique style so popular. These include: Shipping container homes are a great option for those who don't have the means to afford traditional housing. Most are built using 40-foot containers, which can be bought used for about $2,500 or purchased new from a dealer for around $5,000. build your own shipping container home pdf, They're typically more cost-effective than conventional housing because it requires fewer building materials and labor to construct. In just 15 days, your shipping container home will be ready for the foundation. To find out more about how to build your own shipping container home, speak to a Dakota Custom Homes representative today. Modular homes like these are easy to modify. They're particularly well-suited for smaller urban spaces, as they produce less impact on the environment. A modular home can be built out of a mix of 20-foot and 40-foot containers. It's also easy to combine multiple containers to create a larger home with extra bedrooms, a second story, or even a guest house for guests in each container. Shipping containers are durable and low-maintenance, can be transported overseas easily and have a stronger ability to stand up to inclement weather conditions than traditional housing. They're typically made with Corten steel. These containers can be customized with patio doors, windows, and a range of other accessories. Shipping containers are versatile and can be used for just about any type of business. Suppose you need to relocate, and your only option is to make your container a home. That's when you should consider getting shipping transport service. You'll get your container moved anywhere you want. Shipping containers made of steel are environmentally friendly. As much as 90 percent of the steel content is recyclable and no energy is needed when constructing the building.

STEPS TO BUILD A SHIPPING CONTAINER HOME

Now that you're convinced that a shipping container home is the way you want to go, how do you get started? how to build your own shipping container home book amazon, Making this new dream home a reality will take some planning, preparation, and purchases. Step 1: Permits and planning The construction part of the project can be easy, but the paperwork part is difficult--something you might not have considered. Before ordering a container, make sure to get the proper permits and planning permission from the local entities. You need to ensure that a container meets building code requirements and local and state policies. When you're building container homes, it's important to get an architect and structural engineer involved. They'll be able to help you make sure that your floor plan will be structurally sound. It's not recommended that you hire a designer with little experience with container homes because the method of construction is entirely different than standard wooden, steel, or brick structures. And remember: Anything you can put into a custom home, a container home can accommodate as well. Step 2: Purchase a container There are many smart ways to buy a container, but the most popular way is to purchase a 12-pack of these containers or bags. So, you are allowed to build a shipping container home. build your own shipping container home - step by step comprehensive guide, That is great. Now you'll need a shipping container. The size of the container and its state will depend on your plan. The most common size is a 40' high cube which offers about 320 square feet of living space. This is enough for one bedroom, one bathroom, and a decent-sized kitchen/living room combo space. Before you decide on a company to work with, consider the quality of their shipping containers. Think about what they're like and whether they have warranties, feedback from past clients, and how much it'll cost if something goes wrong. Learn more about buying a suitable shipping container for your home here. You've got lots of items to ship and need help finding the best carrier to meet your needs. Why not check out these shipping containers? They can be the perfect solution! Step 3: Prepare your land Before you can make changes to your blog, you'll want to prepare your blog by setting up analytics and content management systems. Doing the things that lead up to building a shipping container home is simply steps in the right direction. One of these important steps is deciding where you'll build your home and preparing the foundation. Once this is done, you're in good shape. It will give you peace of mind knowing that your new home won't be effected by moisture because it's elevated from the ground and protected from corrosion Some foundations require support, and others don't. If you're unsure of what type of foundation your building will need, it's important to consider which style fits your needs. When deciding on a concrete foundation, you'll need to plan on embedding steel plates into the concrete where all the corner blocks are placed. Read the full article

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number5theboy · 2 years ago

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Top 5 gif sets you made for TUA? (btw I love reading your metas, it inspires me to write ramblings of my own)

Thank you, Anon! I'm glad my ramblings inspire your ramblings, I do think writing one's thoughts down trying to make them understandable to others is a really productive way of sorting out said thoughts the meta on the whole founder stuff is coming, I swear, I just keep re-evaluating and re-thinking the entire thing, the thoughts are many and they are jumbled

Also that top 5 is difficult as hell, I tried, but I did have to cheat on these, just a little bit.

I. Comic-inspired Gifsets

I don't know how this came to be, but these are very much my favourite sets I've made, connected by nothing but the red thread of the comics being the basis for them. They're three very different gifsets where I tried different and new things, and I love all three of them dearly.

Comic Five & Show Five: Maybe this is the ultimate gifset for this blog. A parallels gifset that looks into mannerisms and compares them. I really do love this gifset, inspired by a post by an art blog that is sadly no longer active. I really do think that the casting for Five is so incredibly spot-on despite the showrunners not letting the kid go more comic-Five even though he clearly wants to, and it was fun to make that point in images. It was also fun to adjust the colouring of the show to the comics, and I just think it came out great.

If the show won't give me Allison & Five interacting, I will do it myself: The point still stands. Five and Allison are THE sibling dynamic in the comics, to me, their relationship is very interesting to me, it's just two chaotic neutral tending towards chaotic evil people enabling each other, and they're great. So I had a lot of fun trying to find scenes that I could feasibly make look like they were the same and that would sync up with dialogue I adapted from the comics. I am very happy with the result, all things considered.

The Gazelle Speech™: I think this is my most experimental gifset, the one that I made myself push outside of my comfort zone the most, making big gifs and typography and blending, to try and do justice to the madness of the gazelle speech from the comics, and sync it to imagery from the show. It drove me up the walls, and by the end I was just happy to have it done, and then it did what I expected, which is to gather very few notes, but looking back, it's a gifset I'm very proud of this.

II. Parallels

I do feel like gifsets with parallels are kind of my thing, they're a staple on this blog, because I like consistency, and I like red threads throughout stories and characterisations, so I gravitate towards these.

Viktor & Five / Five & Reginald: These were very similar, process-wise, in that they were INCREDIBLY easy for me to make. I spotted most parallels during watching, and it was just a thing of writing them out and finding the footage to really hammer my points home. I love it when characters that are perceived very differently have many similarities, it's great and gets me every time, and people really took to both of these gifsets, albeit in very different ways that were both massively satisfying ('op i love this' vs. 'op i hate this').

Five smiling threateningly vs. Five smiling gently: I genuinely think this is the easiest gifset I've ever made. I have said this so many times before, but I love Aidan Gallagher's performance as Five, and I especially love how consistent he is across seasons in his physical acting, the little ticks and mannerisms of the character one picks up one if one gifs one character as much as I've giffed Five in the last two years. And this is a little appreciation post for that, the way his smile differs drastically depending on the intention behind it. So this was just me picking up these moments and putting them together, and it's a gifset that makes me smile whenever it pops back up into my notifications.

Common family traits in the powers: This was super fun to make and probably needs amends after Season 3, but I liked scoping out similarities in how the siblings' powers present, it was fun to to, and I really, really love the look of how this gifset came out in the end, it's very neat and clear.

III. 567 Gifsets

"You made me a killer! You were always a killer.": I believe this is my first gifset that became kind of iconic, that I really remember resonating with people. It's again something with my knack for parallels, but nobody had ever done this comparison between the high number Hargreeves before, and people really liked it in one of those really painful, 'fuck you op for making this it's so good' ways. I'm still really proud of this one.

Viktor & the brothers that came back to him: I have a lot of thoughts on Viktor and helplessness about both Five's disappearance and Ben's death, and I again noticed some parallels between the two situations. I specifically wanted to include the parallel of Viktor reaching out to Five to take care of his wounds after he mercilessly slaughtered a bunch of people and Ben reaching out to hold Viktor's hands as he is spiralling and killing FBI people. Something about a sibling loving you enough to reach out in tenderness even at your worst. Something something.

"A monster is not such a terrible thing to be.": Honestly another recreation of the first gifset, some more paralleling. As the two gifsets above prove, I really like to think about the 567 and how they were slipping, how they were toeing the line between gentleness and monstrosity. Out of these three, this is the one I like the look of the most, it turned out very pretty with the typography and the grain and the red/blue colour scheme.

IV. Klaus & Viktor

"Who I am is not a disease.": I'm just really proud of the typography and blending and choice of scenes for this gifset. It's on the list to get a remake to include Viktor coming out, but even still, I really do love what I made here. Shout-out to the lovely anon that requested this, it was a joy to fulfill.

V. Diego & Luther

"Wanna know what's different this time? You got me.": This was full-on fueled by these two becoming friends in Season 2, and I really like the concept I came up with, taking the colour-coding from their clothing in S2 and try and mostly succeed to incorporate it into a gifset. Particularly the colour-coded typography against black and white gifs showing their progress that brackets the gifset I really love, I thought it was a nice touch.

#Replies #Anonymous

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a-froger-epic · 4 years ago

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Interview with a Queen “groupie”

Cross-posted to AO3. I encourage you to leave any comments you have there.

---

I compiled this interview following a long email exchange with J, a very sweet lady who went to Ealing Art School between 1972 and 1974. She knew all four members of Queen personally and was part of their larger circle of friends.

First off, you may find this hard to believe. I don’t blame you. But I assure you I’m not pulling your leg. As well as the pictures I share in this post, I have seen current pictures of J (which I will not share to protect her privacy). There is no indication as far as I am aware that she isn’t who she says she is.

Nastally, hold up. How exactly did you find this lady?

She found me. It turns out that she has been following my story Dawn of Aquarius for quite some time. The story is set in 1969. A lot of research about the era went into it, because I wanted to portray that time period - and Freddie’s and Roger’s surroundings - as accurately and realistically as I possibly could. That was what drew J in. She tells me it brought back a lot of memories for her. One of the reasons I love DoA so much is the nostalgia, she says, which genuinely means the world to me. Eventually, she talked to me in the comment section. Of course, I freaked out!

And then, I asked her for an interview, to which she replied: I will give it a go, but you must remember that I am 65 and there were great drugs in the 70s, and at 16, away from home, I had a lot!

And so...

Here’s what is IMPORTANT TO KEEP IN MIND when you read this interview.

These are one woman’s 50-year-old memories and subjective impressions. J has been incredibly kind to let me pick her brain, trying to recall everything as best as she can. In her own words:

Just remember that when I answer the questions, it is from a 16-year-old who is 9 years younger than Freddie and a little girl with no family and friends in a strange country trying to fit in. The only reason I was there, was because some hippie thought I had a unique art style.

---

J as a teenager.

[I have edited the interview together from our long, and somewhat messy at times, email exchange. Typos have been fixed and some punctuation added for clarity, but I have not changed anything J has written to me. Again, bear in mind these are personal opinions and impressions.]

So, J, how did you end up at Ealing Art School in 1972 and what was it like?

This was the painting done for the Australian school-leaving certificate.

It placed first and gave me a scholarship. I could pick France, the USA or England. As a dual citizen of the UK, the choice was easy. The scholarship paid for board and fees, so had to be and sell whatever for spending money.

This picture is from the dorm. We all had a 10pm curfew and a very thick rule book that, I am proud to say, I broke every one of them, one by one. The rooms were on the 1st and 2nd floor. We were on the first floor, rooms one side and admin staff the other end. We had two bathrooms for 18 girls. One of them had two baths. The walls were your standard half wall, so it was a given that if you had a bath you run the risk of having a bucket of cold water dropped on you. Downstairs was the kitchen and lounge room.

I want to ask you a few things about life in London in the early 70s, to get a picture of what it was really like. For example, was there alcohol at the music gigs you went to?

If it was a school, church or community hall, no. If it was a pub, yes.

Did you and your friends drink as much then as young people tend to drink now when you all went out?

No, we didn't. I think it had a lot to do with money. We didn't have the disposable income, and it was unheard of to still be living at home with the parents after the age of 20.

Was weed and LSD as big and easily accessible as depictions of the 60s and 70s would have us believe?

The drugs! Got to have drugs. Pot (weed) was easy to grow, very cheap. Used to smoke it in bongs rather than joints, more bang for your buck. Trips [LSD] were cheap, I think. About 2 pounds and you were on the high for over 24 hours with no sleep. My drug of choice was hash. Either the oil or the block. It was a nice high, but you could not function well. But if you listen to the music of the time it really does reflect what it was like, to have a group of friends over for a session. Having said all that the most outlandish and shocking drug I ever saw anyone use was the birth control pill. Didn't you have to hide that stuff away?!

Can you tell us some 70s slang that isn’t really in use anymore? What in the world does “ultra-blagging” mean? (As written in a letter penned by Freddie to his friend Celine in 1969.)

Abso-bloody-lootely!

Man, I thought I was the bees knees to be on a scholarship in London. But that didn't stop me from jigging or having a skive day. They were the days that I blagged my way into a pub, had too many lagers and ended up chundering in the gutter. That was how you knew your night was ace. I would get a right bollocking if anyone found out. It would be a bugger when all that you could find at a car boot sale was chavtastic, but sometimes you could be Jammy Dodger and tickety-boo you find something brilliant. Bob's your uncle. Anyways, I need to see a man about a dog.

[It seems to me that J uses a bit of Australian slang here, like chundering, which makes sense because she is, after all, Australian. She also provided the translation:]

Cheers

It would be my honour.

I felt very privileged to be given a scholarship that let me study in England. But being so young and having no family to guide me, it was often tempting to not turn up or give a false excuse for being sick. (I had a lot of food poisoning). These would often happen if the night before I had been drinking beer and ended up vomiting outside the pub. But in my young mind that was a good night. If any of the teachers found me drinking I would be in a lot of trouble. Often I would have to say I was holding it for someone else. Not having much clothes with me, I would buy them second hand from church jumble sales or other students and, yes, Kensington market (the market). Some of the stuff would not be very tasteful or in good condition. But sometimes you would find something that was cheap and in good condition. I will stop this text now as I must go to the toilet.

PS: Ultrablagging sounds very Freddie. Blagging was used, but not ultra, meaning to persuade someone to do something or act better than you are. They were always rock stars.

Sincerely

[It was at this point that I realised I was talking to an absolute legend. She also told me then that the majority of her old photographs had sadly been lost when her house was flooded in 1988, including most of the photographs from her stay in London. Noooo! :(]

When you went out to dance, did you have only live music? Were there DJs yet?

You know, that is hard. We did not have a DJ. Sometimes there would be a band. Often we looked for places with a band or the jukebox. I think pubs closed at 10pm and some stayed open to 12 or 1, but public transport stopped at 9. So if you had not arranged a lift then you had to make the last bus. Most of the time we would be heading back to someone's place to get stoned and then crash there. In the morning you would have to work out where you were. When I got back to Australia, the discos were all the rage. They could have been in London too but it was not cool to like disco.

How many people would show up to Queen’s gigs when they played in pubs or at, for example, the Imperial College?

Depending on the location and the night: 10 to 1000!

So how did you first meet the Queen boys?

I was at the pub talking about a band we saw last week when Brian stuck his head into our booth telling us he knew a better one. Thinking about seeing them at the stall... Roger not often, Freddie quite a lot. Often on different stalls, I think that is why I can't remember the name. [The name of the stall. Other sources confirm that Freddie also worked at Alan Muir’s stall, for example, selling shoes.]

How well did you know them?

Just looking at your tumblr account. [she has had a look at my blog, where somebody asked if ‘groupie’ meant she had slept with the band] No, I never slept with the boys. I would not say I was a close friend, but I started at Ealing Art College in ‘72 and moved in the same circles. I loved the music and could be called one of the first groupies. I had to sneak into the pubs because I was 16. Roger always teased me for being so young. They all did seem to be one very large family, not just the band. It was a group of about twenty regulars, both male and female. Everyone knew that Fred was too gay to function. We were all at the gay rights march in London in 1972, had to run after the march. Lots of sharpies [Australian slang: youth gang, thugs] wanting to bash us. Back then I was in every protest that was going, student union rights, even the secretary protest. Just part of the times, stick it to Man or Woman. I left London in ‘74 for Australia, been here ever since and lost track of the boys but have never stopped being a fan.

What do you remember about them? How would you describe their personalities?

Don’t let the trolls hate me, but I did not like Brian. I found him to be rather full of himself. Space was a subject you never brought up around Brian or you would die of old age before he stopped talking. He was always the first to speak and start a conversation and then quickly passed you off to John, who was always tired and shy. Roger was also quite shy at times. He was very self-conscious of his looks, as he felt being pretty, nobody would take him seriously. Fred, well, he was not yet the big star, so I think he was working on his stage persona. When talking to groups at parties, he had the best stories of things that had happened to him or close friends. They were very funny and very descriptive. He was the life of the party. When he had a few to drink or was the centre of attention, he would take a cigarette out of the closest person’s hand and start smoking. Now remember this is the point of view of a 16-year-old girl that was a fish out of water, trying to fit in and not having much worldly experience.

It is said that Freddie and Roger were very stylish. How did they dress in everyday life?

Fred would do his hair and makeup to check the mail. Yes, he was always turned out, but so were a lot of people. Freddie did go over the top with hats, scarfs and jewellery. With Roger, it is a surprise he was able to have kids his jeans were that tight. And his shirts were always open unless he was in a jumper. I think it could have been so that you knew he was male, as it was the start of the unisex clothing. When I travelled out of London I realised it was a London thing. When I got back to Australia everyone thought I was a show-off.

There are some disagreements about how tall especially Freddie was. I know this is a difficult thing to try and remember accurately. But do you remember?

Freddie was taller than me but everyone was. Roger was shorter than Fred, but I never saw Roger in platform shoes. I did meet up with the band by chance at Sydney airport in 1984, said ‘hello’ but they did not remember me, or if they did then they did not say anything and I did not want to be a dork. At that time Fred was the same height as me (5ft 8in/1.72m), Roger was taller than me. It made me think at the time that he had a growth spurt! John was shorter than me and Brian has always been tall. [I have a feeling the platform shoes - or lack thereof - played a vital role here! Although 172cm for Freddie seems likely.]

You said everyone knew Freddie was “too gay to function”. Attitudes towards homosexuality have changed so much that it can be hard for us, now, to fathom what exactly people must have thought of him. Was it more of a joke that he was so camp? Was it something he would have been teased for? Also, he had a girlfriend. Did you ever meet Mary or the other girlfriends?

In 1972 a whole group of us - and I am pretty sure that Fred, Roger, Brian and Tim were there - were in a gay pride march. [Since then, J has found and showed me a picture of a boy she thought was Tim Staffel, and it wasn't, so Tim was most definitely not there. Whether Freddie, Roger and Brian really were there or if J is misremembering, who knows?] Us youth believed you could not choose who you fell in love with and if it was same sex, so what? However, if it was two girls then it was every guy’s duty to change her!

It was also a time that the gayer the guy was, the more the girls were interested. Also, if a guy was gay then you did not have to worry about him and he was a good person to take with you if you were going out drinking. However, the police, parents, teachers and anyone of authority were horrified and treated them badly. I did meet Mary a couple of times at pubs and once after a gig. This is just my opinion, but I found her a bitch. It could be that I was so young. It could be that I was very Australian. It could be that she felt threatened as my accent was a magnet to people around. And the boys (Queen) were no exception. Brian had a cousin in OZ and was always asking questions. I remember that my close group of friends thought that Mary made the perfect girlfriend for Fred as they were as fake as each other. Having said that about them, I often wonder if I would think the same now and if my perceptions were just because she would not give me the time of Day. Chrissy and Jo were a lot of fun.

This was before your time, but I read that Freddie's nickname at Ealing Art School was ‘Freddie Baby’. Any ideas how this came about? His showmanship or maybe personality traits?

I don't think so. There were an older crowd that would talk like that. I think the slang ‘baby’ was a 60’s thing, like groovy baby.

How long, roughly, did Roger and Freddie have their stall? I can't find anywhere when it closed down. What did it actually look like? Was it a sort of wooden stall type of thing? Or an actual room? What were some of the other things people sold at Kensington Market? Mostly clothes or all sorts?

The markets were little divided shops. The back was brick and the walls wood. I have been trying all day to remember the name. [Of the stall.] I think it was something hard to say. More often than not it would be Freddie's dad in the store. It was still open when I left. Roger and Freddie were both in the store on Saturdays and some Sundays. There was a girl, I think Jill, who was in the store more. And during the week it could be anyone. You name it and you could get it at the markets. Second hand or designer clothes, shoes, jewellery, pot and assortments. Hair cuts, food, bric-a-brac.

Wait, wait. What? Freddie’s dad? Really now?

Yeah, it was an older Indian man. so we just assumed it was his father. It was my understanding that he started the stall then the boys would work it as the whole markets were set up for younger people, but if needed he would work there. I don't think the boys would be able to pay the rent on their own. [I have since found out that the stall closed in late 1971, and Freddie continued to work at the Market until '74, for Alan Mair and possibly others. So the stall J witnessed wasn't their original stall - explaining all the different people she saw there - but she had no way of knowing that it wasn't.] They always had incense burning that was very big in the 70s. I still occasionally bring out the sticks, but it does not last like the candles and diffusers of today. If you could get in touch with Robert Daniels, he ran ChaChaDumDum it was the stall across from Freddie. He would know the dates.

[J says it’s this look, in a picture she happened across while looking at my tumblr] Yep, that is the one. It usually means that he does not believe or agree with something that was said and is working out how to respond, or he has lost the plot.

You mentioned Roger seemed shy to you at times. Was he also quite charming? We read a lot about what a chick magnet he was. Was this the impression you had?

My favorite subject! I had a thing for Roger. Everyone has a type and mine is the blue-eyed blond. Now, before you ask, was he brunet? No, he was a mouse/dirty blond. If it was summer he would have blond streaks mostly at the ends. He knew he was pretty and was always dressed in the latest fashion and had the current hairstyle. So, being my type I was constantly watching him. Everyone slept around during that time. I did not notice Roger doing it more or less. 80% of the time he was with Jo. Yes, he was a chick magnet, but he did not do the chasing. He was always very polite to everyone. If it ever looked like there would be any conflict he would be the first to leave it. It was not that he was a coward, just not into conflict. If he saw anyone that needed help he was right there, and often had to have Freddie's back. I never saw him in a fight. He could always talk his way out of things. He was also very patient and would listen for hours to other people talk. However, he would get this vacant look in his eyes at times.

And Freddie would either click his fingers, change the subject or just give up. I don’t think that Brian noticed, and it would be fair game for John, he would see how far he could push it. Roger liked to drink a fair bit and when drunk he would be hanging all over Jo. If she was not there then he missed Jo. If, however, he thought that he or his friends were not being respected, then look out! It was a verbal volcano heading your way. That is what happened to me one time. I was trying to talk with my friends close to where a drunken Roger was and I yelled at him to shut the hell up, you wannabe blond. We/I coped a mouthful back, all in the same sentence, that finished with: Sorry, I didn't realise you were on your rags (period)! I have to have the last word, so I told him the truth: I don’t get them yet! (I was a late starter.) He went so red in the face and called me JB [jail bait] from then.

You also mentioned Roger’s cat Ziggy having kittens. I read about this but never when exactly it was. Do you remember?

I think it was winter ‘73. I remember being cold when he was asking around the pub. [To find homes for the kittens, I gather.]

Is it quite strange reading fictional interpretations of real people you knew? When did you first find out there was Queen fanfic?

No, we used to make up stories about people all the time, a verbal fanfic. Was looking up Adam Lambert and came across the fanfics. Some had me in stitches! Others, like DoA, had me hooked.

Please, allow me to be a little self-indulgent at the end. What's one thing I got totally RIGHT in DoA?

All the Ibex stuff.

What's one thing I got totally WRONG in DoA?

Roger did not have a temper, and I don’t know what the go with his father was, but he would talk about him quite a bit and was always visiting his mum. [Absolutely fair, not only did I change the timeline of Roger’s parents divorce in DoA - for lack of information at the time - but also created a completely fictional narrative around it for the sake of storytelling.]

J, thank you so much for all this, sincerely. Can you tell me a little more about yourself? Are you still an artist?

I don't paint or draw any more. At the age of a 50 the doctors operated on an aneurysm or three, and now my eyesight is very bad, I have no fine motor skills and a tremor. I was married in January 1984 and have just celebrated our 37 year anniversary. I have one daughter who is 30 and two great, although tiring grandkids. A girl, 11, and one boy, 5. I have lived my life as the average middle class Australian with great memories. Talking with you has helped me a lot to remember a time when the world was mine for the taking. When I returned to OZ I started nursing, met my best friend, and we planned that once we graduated we would go back to London to study midwifery. But I fell in love instead.

J's wedding in 1984. As you can see, she found her own blue-eyed blond.

---

Upon request, J has shared some of her past and present artwork with me.

These are from her time at Ealing Art School:

These were done later, back in Australia:

J: Did this just before Christmas as you had inspired me. It did not require fine motor skills!

So there you have it! I hope you found this little glimpse through a 16-year-old girl’s eyes as much of a fascinating read as I did. I urge everybody one more time to remember that J did not have to share any of this, and I think we all owe her a big thank you for delving into her memories. She is likely to see the responses on AO3, so I have comment moderation enabled there as I will not let anybody harass this lovely lady. The tumblr she created is @since72, but she isn’t really an active user and also very new to it all. Again, I can only urge everybody to be respectful.

If you have other burning question for J, feel free to leave them in the comments on AO3. I will either pass them on, or she may want to reply to them herself directly.

#Queen band #Freddie Mercury #Roger Taylor #John Deacon #Brian May #interview #i am so excited about this #so much into #information #JB

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transmissionsfromthebattlefield · 2 years ago

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10/16/2022

I’m blogging...OUTSIDE. The weather here has been bearable, even though snow is scheduled for Tuesday. I’m sitting in this chair outside the Honors College that has “fuck you” faintly carved into one of the armrests. There’s a name also craved underneath, but it’s too hard to make out. An extremely yellow leaf just blew off the tree a few feet away from me and smacked me in the face. It’s quite a rainbow looking at all the nature around here. They don’t call it Tree City for no reason, unless they decide to make everything Esplanade flat and perfectly mowed and boring.

Taylor Hall is a glance away. I was sitting on Blanket Hill facing the old victory bell a few minutes ago, but I couldn’t concentrate on blogging just sitting on the ground. Quite a few people have been walking by looking at the unfinished memorial and the May 4 informational signs today. It’s pretty much always older people, no matter which side of Taylor you’re facing.

I think about that a lot, and the more I see how this campus functions, the more I feel that urge to enact some change. Things feel frozen in time here, and to be frank, it’s not in a good way. The weather might be okay for a cardigan, but I feel like too many people here are frozen in ice cube trays of apathy and acceptance. When people are encouraged to take action, they rarely do. On a general level, depending on the world view of whoever you’re asking, the only way to make change is to either vote for someone who doesn’t truly represent you or risk your life marching in the street and relying on buzzwords. They rarely tell you that there’s room for sneaky introverts in that process. And that sneaky, introverted work, the subversive work, the work that fits my style the most, is often the hardest.

Hell, half of the time the people who are rallying the most for change seem dismissive of the prospect of change actually occurring. There’s an exhibition of letterpress prints in Taylor right now, and some of them are truly amazing. There’s something so satisfying about a good letterpress design, with the jumbled remixed letters and strong colors. There’s just nothing better. But when I was walking through the exhibit the other day, one of the posters on display, frankly, made me angry. It was very post-Roe hopeless. All the text was about how women have the “freedom” to die of an ectopic pregnancy and be incubators and the like, topped off by the declaration, “so much freedom!” Like I’m going to let anyone tell me what I can do with my body. You make change by just not letting people do nefarious things to you. Or, alternatively, you make it by letting yourself do the things that you know are the best, even if they are unpopular. Both of these types of defiance can be very hard, especially the last one, and neither get you many political brownie points. You get those points by beginning and ending at complaining. That changes nothing. Speaking, writing, creating art and music, holding events, educating others, proving other people wrong is how you change things. You have to show that you own them when they try to own you.

With this in mind, no matter how hard it is to accomplish, I’m really hoping to skew the ratio.

#blog #college #life #ranting #change #freedom #apathy #complaining #fall #Kent State #Kent State University #Taylor Hall #May 4 1970 #letterpress #art is cool #post-Roe angst #SKEW the RATIO

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sunsteez · 4 years ago

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HellO!!

Wow okay so it has been 2 years (almost 3)?? I feel like Tumblr is a very different place now and 3 years a lot of time so if you’re wondering who the fuck this even is popping up on your timeline I FULLY understand SCROLL ON MY FRIEND

If you’d like to continue reading an extremely long and jumbled stream of consciousness, keep goin under the cut

I’ve been wanting to post an update like this for a while, but it’s been really hard for me to sit down and write something because of how disconnected I am at this point to the Haikyuu community, and how guilty I was feeling for just sort of..leaving abruptly? But I signed into my account recently and realized that after being inactive for years I was still getting the kindest, most warm hearted messages- not just about art, but people saying they missed me popping up on their feed, that wherever I was, they hoped I was doing well, or that I was happy, and folks just checking in and genuinely concerned and wondering if I was okay. I also realized that it was pretty uncool of me to just sort of peace out like that without an explanation, so I thought I owed you all at least that much.

*Things are about to get a little sad here (just a warning, in case you’re not feeling up for that)*

Basically, around the time I left, a very close childhood friend of mine passed away in a very tragic and unexpected accident. She was like a sister to me, someone who was always there and was always supposed to be there- we grew up together, shared so many first experiences side by side, and of course we annoyed the shit out of each other to no end. She was supposed to be there for my other firsts, but now I have to do them alone. Losing her broke me like nothing I’ve ever felt in my entire life. The pain was both terrifying and debilitating, and I had to take a break from EVERYTHING for a while. I went backpacking for a month in the woods with a couple of friends to get away, no service or anything, completely detached from everything and days of just walking, eating, sleeping, and being in nature. It was very healing. And I guess I never really came back.

This blog was a safe and happy escape for me, a place to just have some laughs and fun, and that’s what I wanted it to be for everyone else. My life on social media was always pretty separate from my real life (though y’all got a weird ol chunk of that in the tags), but this especially had no place on my account. I didn’t want to bring something so unpleasant and painful into my safe space, but that resulted me in completely abandoning this blog altogether since that loss is something I’m still learning to cope with.

I am finally feeling ready now so I’m here to say: I am okay!! I’m still picking myself back up, but I’ve come such a long way. I’ve been seeing a therapist for almost 2 years now who’s helped me deal with not only the grief of losing my friend but making sense of past traumas I’ve experienced and teaching me to learn how and why I’m feeling the things that I do. I’m still the same fucking weirdo with maybe a bit more emotional depth. I’m now a full-time freelance animator and illustrator, and currently thinking about making the jump into comics!! And you know what, I don’t think any of that would have happened had it not been for the wonderful experience I’ve had on here.

Concerning the future of this account and contents: I guess it goes without saying but Full Eyes Full Hearts is officially being discontinued- thank you for the love and support for this comic, even if it was short lived. I know how frustrating it is to become invested in a story only for it to be discontinued, so I am sorry for those of you who were so looking forward to it. But here is a big

*SPOILER ALERT*

They love each other. They always loved each other. WHAT A TWIST THAT IS HUH I BET YOU DID NOT SEE THAT ONE COMING??????

*END OF EXTREMELY HUGE SURPRISING SPOILER*

I have no current plans to return to this account, but as Justin Bieber once said, “never say never.” Who knows, maybe someday I’ll get back into haikyuu (I heard my BOYY came back in some of the latest chapters and if there is oikawa content to consume I WILL consume it), maybe I’ll join another fandom? Maybe this brief resurfacing will awaken the tumblr child inside of me. Even I don’t know. For now though, I’ll be doin my own thing, working on my own projects and maybe one day you’ll find my work again!

I’ll also be popping in and out in the next week or so in case anybody has any questions or comments or wants to talk, ANYTHING

The world is wild right now, so I also just want to send some love to everyone. Things are not always happy, and that’s okay. Something that my friend taught me that I hold dear to this day is that: it’s important to laugh, and play, and cry when you’re sad, and just enjoy all the bad and good the world has to offer you. Because feeling means that you're alive.

I cannot thank everyone enough for the love and support you’ve given for me and my art, my mutuals for being there to inspire me and teach me and push me to do more, honestly I would not be where I was today without any of that. I never took art seriously until I realized how much I enjoyed it on here. Maybe that sounds silly to some people that Tumblr Dot Com changed the course of my life, but it really did.

Thank you!!

#asks #replies #a whole big life update #did yall think i wouldnt have something #extremely weird to say here in the tags after an uncharacteristically serious message #wrong #i had a dream last night that my butthole disappeared #and i looked at my arm and realized i was growing a new butthole on my arm #and when I woke up I though for a solid 5 seconds i was actually growing a butthole on my arm #it was the most confusing and concerning 5 seconds of my life #happy to report there is no asshole growing from my arm

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somegirlsnerdywords2 · 4 years ago

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Anime i’ve Watched

That begin with a H (Part 4)!

Yep this is how i’m going to bring over all the anime and manga i’ve watched and posted about on the old blog. It’s not so detailed but it will have to do. Anything new I watch or read from this point on will have their own posts.

Hoozuki no Reitetsu:

Genres: comedy, demons, supernatural, fantasy, seinen

Synopsis: Hell is a bureaucracy, and business is running smoother than ever thanks to the demonic efficiency of Hoozuki, chief deputy to Lord Enma, the King of Hell. Whether offering counsel to the Momotarou of Japanese folklore or receiving diplomatic missions from the Judeo-Christian Hell, the demon who runs the show from behind the king's imposing shadow is ready to beat down any challenges coming his way into a bloody pulp. Metaphorically, of course... The poster boy for micromanagement and armed with negotiation skills worthy of Wall Street, Hoozuki no Reitetsu follows the sadistic and level-headed Hoozuki as he spends his days troubleshooting hell. With an abundance of familiar faces from popular Japanese legends and East Asian mythology working middle management positions, this referential and anachronistic dark comedy brings new meaning to the phrase "employer liability." Just how hard could it be to manage employees from hell, anyway? [Written by MAL Rewrite]

My Rating: 9/10

Finished airing in 2014 with a total of 13 episodes.

My Thoughts: A comedy set in hell! A very, very good comedy at that! Occasionally educational and always fun. One i’d recommend for sure!

Hoozuki no Reitetsu 2nd Season:

Genres: comedy, demons, fantasy, seinen, supernatural

Synopsis: Just as in this life, the afterlife needs a calm troubleshooter to deal with the bureaucratic headaches that come from keeping things in order. Enter Hozuki: a cool and collected demon who’s badly in need of a vacation.

(Source: HIDIVE)

My Rating: 10/10

Finished airing in 2017 with a total of 13 episodes.

My Thoughts: Even better than the first! Also I have a crush on Hoozuki and want screaming goldfish plants...

Hoozuki no Reitetsu 2nd Season: Sono ni:

Genres: comedy, demons, fantasy, seinen, supernatural

Synopsis: The second cour of Hoozuki no Reitetsu season 2.

My Rating: 9/10

Finished airing in 2018 with a total of 13 episodes.

My Thoughts: Still loving it. So pleased this one managed to get so many seasons! A very pleasant surprise.

Hoshi no Koe (Voices of a Distant Star):

Genres: OVA, sci-fi, space, drama, romance, mecha

Synopsis: Hoshi no Koe, using full 2D and 3D digital animation, is a story of a long distance love and mail messages between a boy and girl. Set in 2046 after the discovery of the ruins of an alien civilization on Mars, man has been able to make leaps in technology and is planning to send an expedition into space in the next year. Nagamine Mikako and Terao Noboru are junior high school students. However, while Noboru will be entering senior high next winter, Mikako is selected to join the space expedition. (Source: AniDB)

My Rating: 4/10

An OVA released in 2002.

My Thoughts: Interesting concept that went downhill fast. I had strong negative feelings towards much of the art/ animation and never wish to speak of it again. Overall this just did nothing for me and I suggest it to no one.

Hotarubi no Mori e:

Genres: drama, romance, shoujo, supernatural, movie

Synopsis: Intrigued by the tale of a mountain god, six-year-old Hotaru Takegawa loses her way in the ancient forest while visiting her uncle. Exhausted and desperate for help, Hotaru is thrilled to find a masked forest spirit named Gin. She learns the hard way that she should not touch the boy, or he would disappear. In spite of this, Gin leads Hotaru out of the forest and warns her never to return when she promises to come again with a gift. Paying no heed to his cautionary words, and despite being separated by both distance and planes of existence, Hotaru and Gin become close friends as she visits him every summer. However, their relationship and resolve are put to the test, when romantic feelings conflict with the one and only rule. Based on Yuki Midorikawa's manga of the same name, Hotarubi no Mori e is a tale of friendship and compromise of two people who should never have crossed paths, as their lives become hopelessly intertwined. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

My Rating: 9/10

A film released in 2011

My Thoughts: Just tear my heart out throw me into a deep vat of feels. Seriously though this movie was a delight.... an emotional delight but a delight all the same. Also the music was stunning! Highly suggest.

Howl no Ugoku Shiro (Howl’s Moving Castle):

Genres: adventure, drama, fantasy, romance, movie

Synopsis: That jumbled piece of architecture, that cacophony of hissing steam and creaking joints, with smoke billowing from it as it moves on its own... That castle is home to the magnificent wizard Howl, infamous for both his magical prowess and for being a womanizer—or so the rumor goes in Sophie Hatter's small town. Sophie, as the plain daughter of a hatmaker, does not expect much from her future and is content with working hard in the shop. However, Sophie's simple life takes a turn for the exciting when she is ensnared in a disturbing situation, and the mysterious wizard appears to rescue her. Unfortunately, this encounter, brief as it may be, spurs the vain and vengeful Witch of the Waste—in a fit of jealousy caused by a past discord with Howl—to put a curse on the maiden, turning her into an old woman. In an endeavor to return to normal, Sophie must accompany Howl and a myriad of eccentric companions—ranging from a powerful fire demon to a hopping scarecrow—in his living castle, on a dangerous adventure as a raging war tears their kingdom apart. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

My Rating: 10/10

A film released in 2004.

My Thoughts: I love this movie and I know i’m not alone! If you haven’t had a chance to view this one yet and have Canadian Netflix (or any other country that also has this title) I highly suggest you watch this film and truly enjoy the ride!

Hyouka:

Genres: mystery, school, slice of life

Synopsis: Energy-conservative high school student Houtarou Oreki ends up with more than he bargained for when he signs up for the Classics Club at his sister's behest—especially when he realizes how deep-rooted the club's history really is. Begrudgingly, Oreki is dragged into an investigation concerning the 45-year-old mystery that surrounds the club room. Accompanied by his fellow club members, the knowledgeable Satoshi Fukube, the stern but benign Mayaka Ibara, and the ever-curious Eru Chitanda, Oreki must combat deadlines and lack of information with resourcefulness and hidden talent, in order to not only find the truth buried beneath the dust of works created years before them, but of other small side cases as well. Based on the award-winning Koten-bu light novel series, and directed by Yasuhiro Takemoto of Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu, Hyouka shows that normal life can be full of small mysteries, be it family history, a student film, or even the withered flowers that make up a ghost story. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

My Rating: 7.5/10

Finished airing in 2012 with a total of 22 episodes.

My Thoughts: Sunning art and cute characters but ultimately not an anime that left much of an impression on me. Not every beloved anime will be a hit with every single person, that being said I know this anime has quite a few fans and a rather high rating so it can’t be all bad, right?

#hoozuki no reitetsu #hoozuki no reitetsu 2nd season #hoozuki no reitetsu 2nd season sono ni #hoshi no koe #voices of a distant star #OVA #movie #hotarubi no mori e #howl no ugoku shiro #howl's moving castle #hyouka

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toziers · 5 years ago

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can you explain what's going on right now? i keep seeing big IT blogs talking about some discourse or something but i have no idea what they're talking about other than it involves you lol

alright i like. i truly do not like having diScOurSE out in public because i’m not one to air out my dirty laundry 24/7 but seeing as how it was brought into public against my will i feel like the least i can do is clear up the situation for those who’ve been seeing the posts.

i’m putting this under the cut bc it’s long. tws for some biphobia, brief mention of transphobia and, at the end, a rape mention.

so if you don’t know: hi, i’m migz, i’m an it fandom blogger. its okay, i know, its really cool. part of my shtick here is that i like to turn normal thirst tags into works of art for the sake of comedy. perhaps you’ve seen some of my highlights from my “fhg” tag - perhaps your brain has been spared. either way, it became kind of “my thing” around the third or fourth week (mid nov) of me having this blog. at first, i tagged just about every ask i got mentioning the thirst tags with “bill hader” - they had to do with him, so why not tag him? it would draw more like minded people! about two days into that i got a message asking me to tag my nsfw. i am a big dumb idiot, and apologize for not initially doing it. i havent had a following bigger than like 10 in several years and completely spaced on basic etiquette. so by the end of november i was tagging everything applicable with “notsfw” and “bill hader”.

now you’re caught up.

on december 1st i got this message from user billhaderanti:

now i want to start by saying i absolutely was in the wrong here. i didn’t even think about how many people were being subjected to the asks i was getting - especially ones who had no idea they were all jokes. i don’t track the bill hader tag, so it just didn’t even occur to me - that’s ignorance on my part, and to anyone who was subjected to the terrors of me before my tagging system: i am genuinely sorry. i relay the same sentiment in my response, though you can tell i’m on edge.

and they replied:

clearly they Were offended by it but thats.. not the point. at this point, im feeling Really weird about the whole interaction, but still understanding, because again - i GET it. i know my posts are gross - that’s the point. it doesn’t make it excusable, though, which is why i understand why people are offended. so i responded with the only solution i Knew would keep us both safe and happy posting on our own blogs.

so i thought this would be the end of things! i’d been pretty anxious lately already since i’d started to receive anons telling me i was gross and whore-ish for thirst posting in this way (i delete all of those, so if ur thinking about sending one, i guess no one’s stopping you but it won’t be seeing the light of the dashboard). i’m unsure if it was immediately or a few hours later, seeing as how i have a bad concept of time and the post-dates are right on the edge between nov 30 and dec 1, but i went to their blog - because anyone who has been on the internet knows the opportunity to vague post is near irresistible. and...what do ya know

fair! it’s their blog. however i am an emotionally fragile egg girl and immediately got freaked out. the odds that they were the only one who thought this were low. and, again, i’ve been very open on my blog about how important it is to respect boundaries; my posts are absolutely prone to breaking those boundaries people have created for themselves.

so i made my own, semi-vague post, letting my following know (and i’m pretty sure i’d answered asks about it before, but this is going to be long enough w/o me searching those up too) that i understood if they wanted to block me or unfollow or whatever - people need to create their own safe spaces. the tension is pretty clear in the tags, i’m not trying to hide that. i felt that the way this woman slid into my dm’s was pretty abrasive (just my opinion/how it made me personally feel) and i let myself be a lil emotional about it in the tags of my post.

alright! maybe this is the end. maybe we both go our separate ways and post happily on our own blogs... except it’s not the end. later in the day (some of this was happening like 1/2am, so now its Day day, i believe - again, not good w time passage lol)

clearly, i’m upset. my groupchat double checked that i didn’t get too emotional in my response - did i mention im anxious about discourse lol - and apparently.. it did the trick. she didn’t message me again. great. it was over.

at this point, i decided i needed to make an even bigger change. so a few days after i’d calmed down i created an entirely new tag for my thirst posts so if people hadn’t already hidden the notsfw posts or just blocked me outright, they’d have a third option to escape the madness. at this point, id had my blog about 6? weeks, but there were still 2k posts for me to sift through - some of them were completely untagged. i also had to do it post by post, because one of xkits features - the mass re-tagger - was getting blogs deleted for some reason, and i wasn’t going to do that. so i spent a few days going through all 2k+ posts, adding the “fhg” tag.

YEEHAW! a brand new tagging system, no more hopping into the bill hader tag (minus one or two really funny, not super explicit asks, like the bill hader farquaad meme), and, tbf, i’d completely put this woman out of my mind. i don’t seek out drama and do my best to stay in my lane. yesterday, i checked my activity for the first time in awhile since id put out a couple new original posts that had started to get traction and i Love reading tags. i noticed a mutual had @’d me, and realized i havent checked my @’s in...ever, maybe. i see a post from my good pal billhaderanti.

since i dont follow them and never check my @’s, i’d completely missed it. however, once i did see it, i was horrified. id gone through all that fucking work to keep my blog My Blog and also respect everyone’s boundaries and it still hadn’t been enough. i’d been awake for almost 24 hours and went. a little crazy. and i didn’t reply immediately because i just had no words. i sent it to my friends because i... i just wasn’t going to be able to figure it out myself.

there’s a lot to unpack in this post alone, but whatever, i’m gonna put my own grievances with the immaturity of 1. making a callout post to begin with when i’d been nothing but civil 2. making a callout post about something as (in the grand scheme of Life) minor as some tags where i refer to a someone’s genitals as a “whack pack” and 3. making a callout post in such a rude way - aside. at the end, she calls me (and whoever else!) a demonic mlw (man loving woman, we assumed, and then later confirmed with a post further back on her blog).

which - yeah, we started scrolling. at first we were looking for more vague blogs, and then we just...started finding things. billhaderanti is a self proclaimed lesbian separatist, which... fine. but it’s already pretty clear that this woman hates me on some level simply because i am a bi woman (demonic mlw, remember!) which is just. damn man i can’t believe we are still fighting the biphobic fight lol. so the more we scrolled, the more we uncovered - and not just the biphobic / vaguely mtf transphobic things they posted (or put in tags), but we also found that they had their OWN thirst tags. certainly not as hyperbolically comedic as mine, but they were there, talking about his body and his person the same (and, frankly, a bit creepier for other reasons) as mine.

there’s one post in particular that snatched my wig in it’s creepiness - and i say creepiness in the sense that it feels personal. like this woman feels like she knows bill to some degree where she can say these things. my tags have always had a sense of distance, as they’re written for humor. and maybe this particular post was written for comedic purposes, but it doesn’t read that way, and if it WAS, then she has no right to call ME out for MY comic tags and posts.

i’ll let it speak for itself, mostly because i don’t want to read it again.

i also won’t be going through her blog again to find the posts with biphobic and other Interesting:tm: tags because there are plenty and i just really! want to be done with the whole ordeal! her blog is public and i’m sure you can all find it and look to your heart’s content.

feeling a bit feral and a bit pissed off now that we knew the depth of how rotten this woman’s vibes were, a couple of my pals made a post or two similar to what my tag’s are like except turned up to eleven (if possible) - and tagged them with “bill hader” (and notsfw!!). yes, a bit childish, but at this point, the entire situation was childish, and making jokes was truly the only way we were going to get through it. another vague post went up on her blog soon after.

talking down to us, calling us children, and then for whatever reason calling us virgins... whatever, weird post. around this time most of us (est) went to bed, because it was nearing 3 or 4 in the morning.

and then today happened. i woke up fresh and ready for the day after a wonderful 4 hours of sleep and found that jane had made an incredibly intelligent post in response to the situation. i won’t ss it, but i’ll LINK in case you missed it. attached there in the reblog is my own response. i think they can speak for themselves.

after that, things were kind of jumbled, since i wasn’t online a lot and when i was i was Not checking my activity simply because i was afraid of what i’d see. for the most part, it ended up just being support (which i am very grateful to all of you for - it means a lot that you all enjoy my content to any degree).

there was some more vague posting from both “““““sides”””””” of the “““““argument”””””” - mostly just people restating the fact that this is a public space and we should All be aware of how we effect others. i still hadn’t heard directly from billhaderanti, so i assumed we’d all be dropping and disengaging and moving on. i still wasn’t blocked, though, so who really knew what would happen.

eventually, it culminated in this last post. tw for mentions of rape

i’m going to start by saying that

1. there are nearly no teenagers that were involved in this. im turning 23 in january and most of my friends are 20+. maybe one or two are 19.

2. none of us sent any sexually violent asks - most of us didn’t send asks at all. i believe one or two of my friends admitted to sending asks however they assured me their nature wasn’t bad; as far as i know, everyone remained civil in whatever went on (again, unclear to me as to what was being sent; no one was actively posting or talking about it. if billhaderanti wishes to elaborate, they can, but i don’t have anything to put in).

3. before i finish this, i would like to apologize to billhaderanti. as a comedian - not just my stupid tags, i mean in real life, too - i know that humor can hurt. it’s not always funny, it’s not just stupid hahas. sometimes things that are supposed to be jokes just hit people differently and cause bad things. i recognize that. i never meant to trigger you (if you’re reading this) or cause you any severe mental/emotional harm. i apologize for my humor bringing up your trauma, and i never meant for that. regardless of my own thoughts and opinions about the nature of my posts/the thirst tags themselves, they hurt you, and i’m sorry.

anyway, i’m going to wrap this up (i’m bad at endings, what can i say! steven king and i took the same writer’s class!). if you read all this... sorry. i probably won’t be taking any asks about it, because i find the whole “drama” of this to be stupid and rooted in some seriously biphobic issues this fully grown woman has.

tldr; i attempted to contain my blog so this woman could exist and function safely on her blog, but it wasn’t enough for her, so she called me out, and then some of the fandom called Her out for being biphobic and mean and overall just immature about the situation. as of now, she’s yet to block me, though her and her wife have blocked a few of my friends. her wife continues to clown on my friends. this post was made for clarity’s sake. the end, i’m getting a drink.

#discourse #biphobia tw #transphobia tw #rape tw #ok goodbye im done with this im back to #only posting gay clown movie #Anonymous

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macabrexpastels · 4 years ago

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I haven’t drawn Kou is so long....my poor baby. I wanna work on my comic more, and i hope with season two of beastars the spark will light again.

About the comic (and the future of Kou and her business minded mama Yua) and small venting below. For comic info skip to ctrl+f ✿

Also sorry if it’s jumbled, it’s 1 am and idk why I’m awake

The ending was kinda...disappointing to me? I really loved the series and how in depth background characters got and all the build up but then..? It wasn’t even the Melon arc that made me upset, it was just the final showdown all together. There were still pieces I liked (Legosi in drag ONCE MORE we applaud a king) but the rest? The ending was rushed. I wish she wouldn’t have forced herself (or did the editors make her?) to end it so soon without wrapping things up properly. Compared to a lot of other series endings that were disappointing (y’all..Naruto, need I say more?) at least I was satisfied? This ending left a LOT to be desired and honestly, I kind forgot the starting point of the series. Teen love was the main drive, with kind of a background murder mystery then it just went NUTS

A lot of people attribute this to Paru’s dad, Baki’s writer, but the thing is I LOVE Baki! It’s crazy and insane, but the concept works based on the suspension of disbelief, whereas Paru had so many ideas and concepts that never reached that point of believability because of the lack of time to execute them properly. There’s a lot there that could be amazing WITH TIME that she DIDN’T GIVE

One of my friends (R) got into the series, and the manga even, and...she didn’t know it ended. She just kinda...read it and waited then realized...Oh...it’s...done? I went along with it, and I would still recommend it as a series, but I would warn people that the ending was not satisfying (but not everything can be Wolf’s Rain Anime let’s be real)

✿

So for the comic, because Paru went off the rails, my comic (already an au I was going to try and keep close to the original source material) is going to be a MASSIVE au (alternate universe). I don’t like the ending, and I would like a different one. As a content creator, I kinda realized...I can do that myself? I plan to focus the comic with my OC’s, but I had already planned on having canon character cameos, I just may do that MORE and try and show a little bit more of the ending I would have liked. It wont be focused a lot on the canon characters, but I may pull in side characters in (Arlo, I haven’t forgotten you buddy!).

I also plan to keep Kou’s family the same, except I am adding a younger sibling in for Kou. While Kou is a few years older than the main cast of beastars (being in her early to mid 20′s) I plan on having the younger sibling being within Legosi’s age range, just to pull more canon characters into the story. (the species will be aa surprise, I have a few ideas but I’d love to hear anything else you guys may have just based on what I have so far) I ALSO plan on doing a small redesign of Kou, just to nail down her mixed species and design.

Thank you all for reading, for those of you who made it this far. If you DID read this and follow me, and want to send me a reference of your oc (original character, from any fandom) feel free and I will do a smol chibi for you. Because I love you guys (keep in mind I am slow and will finish as quickly as I can, go to my submit). Having you follow this blog and my art makes me so happy, because I’ve never been confident with my artwork and knowing people like it is HUGE for me

Thank you

#kous comic #rambling and teh future of the comic #the* WHY AM I AWAKE

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wicked-storybrooke · 5 years ago

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Is Alice Jones Autistic?

I’m not entirely sure where the autistic!alice headcanon originated. It might have been from an Autistic Headcanons blog or it might just be from the observations of individuals.

I can’t speak for everyone because my main reason for believing she’s autistic is that I’m autistic and I relate to a lot of her traits. Now, some of those traits could be explained by her being forced to grow up in isolation or even by a mental illness (I do see her as having co-morbid mental illness(es)) and some of these traits are headcanons themselves, so it really just depends on how you see her.

I’ll list some of the things that lead me to believe she’s autistic and not all of these apply to every autistic person:

Has a possible special interest in painting/drawing, chess and maybe even parkour. Take for example in 7x13 when she needs to play chess to help her relax. She likely wanted to play chess a lot more than Rogers could keep up with and I bet she talks about it and art a lot.

She can talk in a very abstract way. It’s a way that makes sense to her but not necessarily to anyone else and I don’t just mean when she’s talking about the curse. It’s the way she talks about the curse: “See something? I see everything. Now I’m ten feet tall!” “There’s still time before the pills make me small again.” (I know it’s an Alice in Wonderland reference but say, in her cursed memories someone read the book to her, this could be echolalia). And I’d be willing to wager she makes up her own words.

She thinks outside the box. Like myself, she seems to have trouble thinking inside the box and doesn’t so easily conform to societal norms: “What’s the point of a solvable one (puzzle)” and she made a heart-shaped beignets that was literally heart-shaped. She also seems to have difficulty telling that some things are wrong (not that all autistics do this, but it can be an issue): “Weaver said it was for the best, and I can’t always figure that out for myself.”

Her father brings her things that could be seen as sensory aids (I know this was to help her experience the outside world but it’s an additional way of looking at it.)

Doesn’t have a great sense of danger. I know she’s got some mad skills, but still she doesn’t hesitate to jump out of the window of a goodness how many stories-high building. She’ll happily fight a jabberwocky, befriend a troll (that, at the time, she didn’t know was of her own creation) and defend said troll in front of angry dudes with weapons and she rolled out of a freaking moving car. She also walked across the road without looking in 7x14 (#relatable). That incident could have even been chalked down to her not being a good judge of distance or to her being over-stimulated by the traffic. When you get overstimulated your whole sense of exactly where everything is around you just goes out the window. It’s probably not the only time that’s happened. God knows how much trouble she got herself into in Wonderland and the other places.

Has a connection to creatures and and an attachment to objects like Mr. Rabbit and she even slept next to the viles of sand her father got her. It’s understandable that she would be attached to the inanimate objects that were her only company for years, whether she’s autistic or not. She seems to relate more to creatures, such as the troll and maybe even some creatures in wonderland (goodness knows if she was out-running the bandersnatch for fun or what).

Doesn’t like to sit still for long. Sometimes seen stimming with things in her hands.

Seems to be fairly selective with what she eats. Eating the same thing everyday is not an uncommon autistic trait (I literally have beans for breakfast, lunch and dinner) and it seems that marmalade sandwhiches are the thing for Tilly. It could be a sensory issue. She seems to have a preference for sweet food as salty food might be too strong for her or it could just be because we love routine. It brings a sense of much needed security in an otherwise over-stimulating world.

Likes routine. I’m sure her father liked to make sure they had a routine in the tower but as Tilly she seems to have her routine of going to the troll, playing chess with Rogers, talking to Weaver and eating marmalade sandwhiches. She doesn’t seem to be completely averse to spontaneity however, since she was willing to go to Wonderland and other places but then and again, she was desperate to find a cure.

Is more vulnerable to manipulation. Listen, I love Alice & Rumple’s frienship as much as the next guy but you can’t deny that he was manipulating her at first in 7x18. It seems she doesn’t have a brilliant sense for figuring out the intentions of others. The same goes for when Weaver tricked her into eating the pill-sandwhich.

Has what can be seen as autistic meltdowns. This is a difficult one to assess because her sometimes erratic behaviour is likely due to a mental illness but there are many co-morbid conditions that can come with autism. But if we are to look at her outbursts as meltdowns, then we can see that they are triggered by things not goin the way Alice expected. If an autistic person has pre-planned their day then any disruption to that can cause a meltdown or shutdown i.e. Rogers saying no to the game of chess, Rogers and Weaver not listening to her pleas for them not to talk to Eloise coming as a shock, Weaver giving her her meds and not remembering his life in the EF and the incident at the hospital. Nothing was going as Tilly expected and there was no way for her to fix it. She tried to calm herself down by pacing or swaying slightly from side-to-side. It could have all been further exacerbated by the bright lights and in some cases loud noises of the traffic/the hospital lights/the light in her shipping container. Her outbursts were completely out of her control. I’m sure she would have never pointed a scalple at Rogers and Weaver if she weren’t in that state. The fact that she didn’t remember how she got to the hospital could be because of her meltdown, often after or during one you don’t know what’s going on, what you’re doing or why your doing it. This could also explain why she loses time like she explains in 7x14. This could also be partly down to the fact that she might have poor short-term memory which is common in autistic people.

Could the fact that the curse couldn’t completely erase her memories be due to her having a very strong, photographic long-term memory? Just a theory!

Seems to prefer to socialise in small groups (this could be due to circumstance).

Is seen as ‘weird’, ‘eccentric’ or ‘odd’ by others who don’t understand her way of engaging with the world.

Sometimes repeats phrases “Something’s bad, something’s broken, something’s wrong.”

Has difficulty with conflicts, arguments and being yelled at.

Sees the world in a special way according to her father so it’s likely she’s not like other people he’s been around.

Is okay being around other people but may 'play’ on her own e.g. when she was in Rogers’ car with the mushrooms. She was content to be around him while doing her own thing.

In some situations she may be masking e.g. at first with Margot, so that she could pass for allistic.

Can sometimes get her words confused: “You know me better than anyone. I can't have done it, could I? Or I could've done it, can't I?”

Difficulties communicating her thoughts and feelings, in words, to others, especially if anxious, stressed or upset, hense part of the reason she ends up having an meltdown.

I personally think she’s undersensitive to movement and touch so she might have issues with personal space and it could be why she isn’t often still and moves around alot.

May have issues with executive funtion e.g. time management, orgazisational skills, inhibitions, working memory and problem solving which she may have been helped with by Rogers once she moved in. It makes your mind a freaking jumble so I wouldn’t be suprised if she has issues with this.

Seems to have some trouble in social situations. This could be due to all those years in isolation but there are definitely times where she will just speak her mind or do things that might be seen as socially inappropriate e.g. the situation with the troll, her just popping up in Victoria’s car and scaring the shiitake musrooms out of her. She sometimes seems a bit confused by what other people are saying e.g. the whole “Targot” thing and others seem confused by her.

I could honestly go on about this for days. Like, there’s so much more I could talk about. I might make another post expanding on this, but this is just my perspective! As I say, a lot of this could be down to her years alone in the tower or a mental illness but this is just one way of looking at her traits!

#alice jones #knightrook #curious archer #ouat #once upon a time #ouat s7 #ouat meta #meta #alice jones meta #s7 meta #i finally made the post!

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beingdaniellarebecca · 5 years ago

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How to Make Imposter Syndrome a Thing of the Past

Imposter syndrome: A fancy savy turm for feelings of severe inadequacy and self-doubt regarding one’s skills and achievements. You may have heard of it?

Recognizing Imposter Syndrome

My own experiences with imposter syndrome can be traced far back. One memory stands out really clearly in my mind. I am 15, clad in black sweaters and eyeliner, lying in my bed, listening to My Chemical Romance. I feel depressed and hopeless, and here is the thought causing those feelings: Woe is me, l will never be able to be the frontwoman of a famous emo band because neither of my parents were drug addicts.

I’m super serious. I legitimately thought that because my life did not look like Gerard Way’s, I would never be able to create music the way that he did.

Years have passed, my music taste has evolved and rotated, and this imposter syndrome I speak of has lessened. Actually, these past few months, it’s lessened so much, that I can look back and fully recognize the state of imposter syndrome I was once in. At the time, it felt so real, like all my fears were true and there was no other option but to believe them. Like a fish who doesn’t know what water is because he’s never known anything else.

Exposing Imposter Syndrome as a Jumble of Untrue Thoughts

In retrospect, I can now put a name to that cloud of confusion that surrounded me, the fear that I'm not good enough, that I don't know enough, the paralyzing self-doubt that I was doing everything all wrong. The absolute conviction that I do not have what it takes.

In my opinion, this is really the essence of imposter syndrome. This conviction that we are lacking something that other’s have, like they are all ‘real’ artists/musicians/entrepreneurs, and I am only an imposter. Be it a specific education, more money, a different nationality, we think we can’t be like them cause we aren’t them.

These days, when imposter syndrome comes for a visit, I politely direct it towards the nearest exit, reminding it to take a mint on it’s way out. You see, I’ve figured out how to see through imposter syndrome's cloudy veil. I've found out how to unravel all the little knots it has tied up around me.

I have a friend who draws and paints. Often when we talk, my friend and I, she brings up all her insecurities and self-doubts regarding her art Instagram account. She wants to someday have lots of followers, and make money off of her art, and share it with the world. But she sees other artists’ accounts, the kinds with 15k followers, and she compares herself to them.

"I don't have a consistent style like them."

"I'm not interesting like them."

"I don't have the confidence that they do."

(Enter imposter syndrome.)

Let me tell you something about my friend. Her art is really good. She posts consistently, just like all those other people do. When I open up her account and look at it from an outsider's point of view, it looks like a blooming art account, with all the right stuff happening in all the right places. High quality art. Consistent posting. I look at her account and see no difference between hers and that of one of those famous people she mentioned, content-wise. She’s doing everything right.

So I tell her that. I say, “Dude, from where I’m standing, your account looks just like all those other accounts. I know you, so I know about all your overthinking and indecisiveness, all of your insecurities and self-doubts. But if I was looking at your account and I didn’t know you, I would see a flawless account and assume a flawless creator. So aren’t we doing that to all those successful artists that we don’t know personally? They probably are thinking exactly what you’re thinking. That they aren’t good enough, that they aren’t consistent enough…you just can’t see it from their account. Someone below you is probably looking at your account thinking ‘I’ll never be where she is.’”

BAM.

Do you get my point? Did I make it clear enough?

If not, let me clarify that for you: Imposter syndrome is a trick of the mind, misinforming us and coming to mythical conclusions based on the little we know of other people.

Here's another example. My mom started doing Facebook lives lately, to promote her mind-body chronic pain coaching service. One time, literally in the same house as her, but in a different room, I went on Facebook and tuned in to her call for a few minutes.

From my computer, it looked like any other Facebook live. It could've been Joe Dispenza talking. (Super famous mind-body guru. Look him up.) Except it wasn’t, it was my mom, and there weren’t as many people watching. But again, content-wise? Same quality.

What I knew about my mom, that all of her viewers didn’t, was that she had a glass of wine before she went live, to calm her nerves, and that as soon as it was over, she was anxiously overthinking all the things she said, cursing herself for whatever unnoticeable mistakes she made. I don’t know Joe Dispenza personally. But I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that he goes through a similar ordeal, unknown to his viewers. Or that he did, at some point in his early beginnings as a New Age sensation.

We see what others do from the outside, and we think it was all smooth sailing for them. That they were born with a 300k fanbase and a soaring talent for whatever it is. We see their posts, their videos, their finished projects, and for the most part, we don't see their thoughts, feelings, fears, self-doubts....and we believe that we are different than them. We think they have it all together. We think that because of that, we can never succeed because we don’t have it all together. But neither do they! Or at least, they didn’t in the beginning! And that is perfectly fine and natural. It’s just part of being a creator. Everyone experiences it. (Maybe a few people don’t. I’m not sure where they come from or what they’re doing here.)

Now I’ve shown you the untruth fueling this notorious imposter syndrome. Now I’ll tell you what is true.

Feeling the Fear and Doing it anyway

What is true is that you definitely will not succeed if you don't try. The difference between those who are out there creating content, music, films, art, and those who aren't, is that the first group feels the fear and does it anyway. While the second feels the fear...and maybe gives it a little too much space.

I’m all for giving your fear a little space. See it, allow it, accept it, acknowledge it. And then do the thing anyway.

Realizing that there is nothing significant that separates me from the people out there succeeding has helped me lower the volume on my imposter syndrome. And now I have a blog, where I write articles that I don’t feel so confident about, but I keep working at. I know now that most people started exactly where I did, and if I keep at it, I have a chance of getting to where they are. Because the only difference between them and me is time and experience. Skill is aquired. (If you think talent is something you’re born with and have no control over, than read Daniel Coyle’s The Talent Code. Basically, it’s not, but that’s for a whole different article.)

I hope that I’ve helped you open your eyes a little bit more to the reality that you have everything you need to get started. Or maybe you already knew, and you just needed a little reminder. Go out and follow your dream. Go do the thing. Feel your fear, call it by its true name- a false thought- and do it anyway.

#self help #fear #imposter syndrome #self love #self improvement #growth #inspiration #psychology #thoughts

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artmwrites · 4 years ago

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How I Write Blog Posts and Why You Need a Writing Routine

A lot of small business owners want to start writing blog posts for their business. Writing takes one part discipline, one part research, and one part art with a touch of psychology to do. I’ve written this post to help those starting out building their own writing habits. Writing is like any other skill, it takes practice and dedication. We all start somewhere and every one of us can become pro bloggers.

Planning

The first step I take to write my content is to sit and plan the post out. Writing isn’t like the movies where you sit by a sunny window and type away building a million dollar blog. Writing quality content takes practice and planning. You can achieve both over time.

Planning your post starts with your topic. Planning topics can be a huge roadblock and many people quit writing before they begin. Develop categories for your blog based on your products or services. After that develop topics for each category. Try to develop 10 to 20 topics to start. These topics can be further broken down or developed into long-form content.

Once you have a topic you know you can write 300 or more words for, start to plan out the post. On a Word document or Google Doc, start with a basic title you'll build-out later. Make a section for keywords to help get your post ranked. Make a section for SEO meta titles and descriptions. Finally, outline the actual post with headings for each point you want to make in your post.

Research for Your Blog

Researching key aspects of your blog before you write will help you create content that brings value to the people that need to read it. Researching before you write will refresh your memory and help you back up your facts. With researched data and info, you boost your authority and trust with readers. People that trust their information sources are more likely to convert.

Persona

Personas are a fictitious person that represents a segment of your target audience. Building an in-depth profile for your persona including a name, family, job, and pain points humanize your persona. Personalizing personas give you a “person” to create your blog post to read.

Having these personas allows you to write like you are having a conversation about your company to a friend. Knowing who you are writing for is a huge step in creating great blog posts.

Keywords

Keywords act like triggers for search engines when people are looking for specific topics. Finding keywords can be tricky if you don’t know where to look or how to use them. How to do keyword research is an entire post on its own

Brainstorm a list of words that you would use to search for the topic of your post. You can use a tool like Google Keyword Tool or a free tool like Ubersuggest by Neil Patel to get an estimate of how much traffic those keywords get. Once you find a handful of relevant keywords, search them on Google, and look at the “People Also Asked” section. This is a great way to either find new topics related, refine your post, or find your alternative or long-tail keywords.

Authoritative Sources

The last thing to research to create your post is several sources to back your content and show trust and authority. Trying to find at least one credible source per point will help with readers and your SEO. You can also learn something new about the topic you’re writing about. If you use someone else’s work to back your post then it’s only right to give them credit.

Blog Writing

Now comes the fun part. Many people, myself included, get stuck in the writing phase. Here are a few suggestions and tips I use to start and finish a blog post.

Make Time to Write Like it’s Your Job

You need to set aside time to write. Create a block of time in your workday to just sit and write. Write one or two blog posts for practice and to publish later. Writing can be a very Zen-like activity once you start to develop solid writing habits. You’ll get better at writing as time goes on and you’ll start writing more and faster.

If you write your blog post a little bit a day, eventually you’ll find it takes 2 months to finish and by then the entire thing could be outdated or look like a jumbled mess. You need to sit and get your thoughts down while everything is fresh in your mind.

Find a Place to Write

Finding a comfortable place with little distractions is the next step. Unrestricted writing is key to getting your post written quickly. Find a space to call your own and camp out to build your writing habits. You need as little interruptions as possible to get all your thoughts on paper.

Don’t Stop to Edit or Think

One of the biggest contributors to writer’s block I run into is when I stop to correct grammar, spelling, or anything that doesn’t look right to me. I’ll fix all those little red underlines from Grammarly and next thing I know, boom there goes my train of thought.

When you start writing, don’t stop until you’re finished. Get all your thoughts out and in a logical order for your blog post. You’ll have time after to edit, add, or take whatever you want away. This is why large publishing companies and marketing agencies have editors. Their job is to fix errors and make sure the post is readable. Don’t let imperfections stop your progress.

Blog Editing

My process for editing my blog posts is waiting a day until I even look at the post again. By waiting a day to read and edit the post, I give myself a fresh set of eyes and detach from the post. I can make sure the post is accurate and conveys the message I need it to.

The first thing I do is make sure grammar, spelling, and punctuation are correct through an app like Grammarly. I use the free version which works great for me. Using another app like the Hemingway app will help you when you’re starting out to keep your post readable.

Next, I read through and make sure the information is organized and makes sense. I may reword sections or even completely remove anything I don’t see as relevant. Sometimes on more complex posts, I’ll ask someone to read it and make sure they understand what I wrote.

Blog Publishing & Distribution

Once the post is edited, it's ready for publishing. Before you publish, find a few decent and relevant images to add to the post including a featured image. These can be stock images or photos you took for your business. Your photos need to look professional and you need to be able to size them appropriately.

Once you’ve entered your post and images into your preferred platform, optimize it for SEO. Make sure you have one H1 and the other headings follow suit according to importance. Use ALT text on your images. Add your meta title and description. Any links need to be semantic for Google. Finally, make your URL short and descriptive for Google and readers.

Once you publish your post, decide what platforms and when you’ll distribute your post. Just writing a post won’t get eyes on it. The more traffic you get to your post, the more authority your post will get. Decide how you want to section your post for social media. Do you want to publish to Medium? Maybe you want to repurpose the post into a video for YouTube. There are a ton of possibilities. The most important thing is to get your post out there.

Repurposing Blogs

Repurposing your posts is something to consider down the road. There are several key ways to repurpose content that works great. Repurposing allows you to take an existing blog, build it out or fix it, and keep your existing link and SEO juice.

Pillar Posts

Pillar posts are for posts you can easily make into 3,000 plus words and create a web of links between smaller posts. Pillar posts are a comprehensive, long-form post that acts as the hub for a web of similar links. Pillar posts are amazing for boosting SEO.

One downfall is you need around 10 posts on the same topic you can tie together to start your pillar post. Once you have a good amount of posts on a topic, it's truly something you need to consider.

Updating Blog Posts

Google loves when content is updated with new information. I’ve seen client posts skyrocket and do extremely well with SEO once they were updated and given a fresh headline. The best part about updating posts is you get to put a new perspective and eyes on it while keeping the SEO you earned for the original post.

Alternate Media

Making your post into different media types is a great way to create funnels with video, infographics, podcasts, and other content types. Having your message out in multiple formats gives you a great opportunity to get more eyes and ears on it. The more funnels you get out there, the more traffic you get back to your site.

Social Media Posts for Funnels

This isn’t so much repurposing but a way to build more funnels with your post. I usually add this as part of a content marketing strategy. Planning to take stand-alone parts of your post with custom graphics make great social media posts. If you have a post with enough info, you can have months worth of social media posts from one piece of content.

Conclusion

Writing a blog post can be daunting and sometimes writer’s block will hit you and you’ll give up. Hopefully, this post will give you a little light on how someone who does this for a living handles it. With planning, research, and practice, you’ll become a pro in no time.

If you find yourself stuck or just don’t have time to start building your content, feel free to contact me to learn more about how I can help. I’m a content marketer, writer, and SEO specialist helping small businesses build an online presence for more conversions and sales. Contact me or email me today.

#digitalmarketing #writers #blog #seo #business #freelance

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bloodym3lody · 6 years ago

Text

Homestuck

Please know that I’m probably not going to proof read this and it’s going to be very jumbled and probably make no sense. I’m just putting everything out there. I’m sorry.

So my relationship with Homestuck is a weird one. I got caught up on it right when Terezi was introduced and stopped reading a little while after the alpha trolls were introduced.

I was instantly in love with Homestuck and quickly joined the fandom. Homestuck was the first fandom I ever joined. I started on deviantArt and then made Skype accounts as Terezi and Gamzee. I would add other accounts and RP with them. That’s how I met 2 of my best friends at the time. One of them I eventually started dating and they are still my longest relationship. But more on that later. They convinced me to make a tumblr. It was very embarrassing. My url was applebees and my title was Welcome to Applebee’s. It was a Sollux and Dave blog for a while where I made way too many personal posts, like this one, and reblogged way too much Homestuck and aesthetic posts. I guess not much has changed besides the personal posts and the fandoms I follow. Anyways, I’m getting off track.

Homestuck helped me get out of my shell so much. Before it I would never imagine going to cons or cosplay. I could dream but I was never comfortable enough so do so. Terezi was my first ever cosplay and she will always hold a special place in my heart. Anime Expo was my first convention and it was amazing. That year was absolutely perfect. The fandom was still good and really close. There weren’t that many of us still. I still have my video of Bowman singing How Do I Live for the fans. I cried so fucking much. I love that song still. More on the fandom later. Homestuck helped me so much so I can never completely get rid of it. I still want a Homestuck tattoo just because it had such a huge impact on my life. It kind of made me who I am today. Comfortable enough to cosplay and go to cons and just walk up to people at cons and talk to them. Take pictures at cons hell just asking to take a picture of someone at cons. It got me into photography more. It made me want a better camera to get better cosplay pics. I now don’t do that as much but I still love it. Cosplay photography is one of my favorite things and I would love to have a career in it.

Homestuck changed my life in such a short period of time it’s crazy. Like I still get a craving for Faygo and the occasional slime pie. I still want to reread it even if it brings back bad memories. I still love the characters with everything I have. I still fight for it and the good parts of the fandom. I still own all of my cosplay pieces for every character I cosplayed. I still make dumb references. 4/13 is still very special to me. I still have all of the fan art I’ve bought over the years. I still have my fan troll and love her. I still own the first 2 books. Hell the first one is signed. Even though it’s an awful trash fire I love it. Even if Hussie does problematic things I still love it. There’s just so much this comic has done for me that I can’t forget about it and throw it out of my life.

Now for the negatives. That relationship I mentioned earlier was one. We dated for 9 months and knew each other for about a year before we started dating. I can’t look at Karkat or Tavros without thinking about them. There are things I can’t do without thinking about them. They were god I don’t know. Emotionally abusive I guess is the term. But they also helped me realize things about my sexuality. I realized I was bi when I started dating them. They taught me what asexuality was. They taught me what demisexuality was. They taught me so much about what it was like to be genderqueer and trans. They taught me a lot about sexuality and what to look out for in a relationship. They made it hard for me to talk to people online even though I’ve been doing it since I was 11. They gave me trust issues. They made me scared to ask questions. They gave me a lot of issues that I don’t want to get into. I still think about them.

The fandom is a hard point for me. I got into it when it was still a baby. Barely a baby but still a baby. It grew so much right after I joined the fandom. A lot changed. The people that started joining gave it a bad name. They did bad things. They started fights. They ruined property. They harassed people. The second Anime Expo I went to there was this Gamzee that would go around and randomly honk a horn in peoples faces. Just anyone they saw. Another instance happened at ALA the year after. A group of troll cosplayers decided to go into the pool with full grey paint on. It was coming off in the water and messing up the system and they just didn’t care. They stayed in the pool and just let it happen. Everyone was mad at them and told them to get out but they didn’t. Like who knows which brand they used but it wasn’t a good one and they obviously didn’t seal it or anything. At least use water proof stuff if you’re going in the pool or ask if it’s ok with the staff. They weren’t even doing it for pics just getting drunk and having fun. Like I understand if your an Eridan or Feferi wanting cosplay pics in the pool but they at least do it properly. Like the pool was shut down for the rest of con. It was bad. There’s more stories but this is getting waaaay too long.

People started avoiding Homestucks and calling them names. They would shun Homestucks at cons and want them gone. It’s very understandable. I was ashamed to be in the fandom. I didn’t want to be associated with it anymore. I stopped cosplaying the characters I loved. I stopped going to meetups. I stopped following the fandom. I just stopped all together.

I just have a lot of love for Homestuck even though it caused a lot of bad things in my life. There are so many other things that I’m not putting on this post, it’s just getting way too long and causing way too many memories to resurface.

It made me never want to be in a fandom again and I’m still not actively in a fandom. I mean sure I reblog things but I don’t make theory posts anymore or things like that. I don’t actively talk to people in fandoms anymore either. Like I love having online friends. Hell, I don’t even like calling them online friends but for the sake of this post I am. The last true online friend I had was 5 years ago and I really miss it. I have people on here that I would love to talk to and I’m sure one day I will but I just need to get over the anxiety of online talking again.

When Homestuck ended I couldn’t believe it. Everyone was talking about it again. I rushed to watch the end flash even if I had no idea what was happening. I cried. I laughed. I had relief. I had closure. I was ok. I was not ok. Just so many emotions happened that day. Now there’s an epilogue and I’m not sure if I can read it.

Oh my god all of the jokes and reference and weird Homestuck things. I still can’t believe buckets were a thing. Also all of the relationship stuff. I still have it all memorized.

It gave me confidence, joy, friends, community, love, freedom, and many more good emotions and things.

It gave me fear, pain, confusion, heartache, disgust, resentment, and many more bad emotions and things.

Homestuck has truly changed me life forever, good and bad. I love this comic and will until I die.

Happy 4/13. Happy 10 year anniversary to the comic that changed and impacted so many lives.

#my post #just some rambling #homestuck #4/13 #im sorry #once a homestuck always a homestuck #theres just so much this comic has done for me #this day is just very special #ive already cried a lot today #im not ok #this post is ridiculously long and it still doesn’t have everything #god i hope at least some of this makes sense #also this is on mobile so excuse any mistakes #im sure theres a lot

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