#this is from the sample on amazon btw

[letcaleslack]

And the name changes persist ...

"Jed" instead of "Zed"

PLEASE, translators and staff at Seven Seas, I know you want to differentiate between the fan translation and the official translation, but does every minor character's name have to be changed?

Also interesting fact: The translator has changed.

The first novel lists Henry Shin and Lauren Na as translators. The second one Henry Shin and two others:

No idea what this means or if the change will even be noticeable when reading the book.

[transman-badass]

I'm self-publishing a novelette in the next week or two. It's called The Darkness in Old Bellblack - you can find the WIP introduction for it here. This Lovecraftian horror story is about 12.5k words long, with found family and a trans protagonist. I'm trying to decide how to price it.

That's in USD, btw. No 'I can't buy it' or 'I wouldn't buy it' options - answer it like you could or would buy something this long from Amazon, Itch.io or a similar website.

Reblog for sample size, please?

[13eyond13]

Do you read paper books or do you prefer to read on screens?

Hmm, it kinda depends! My preferences and methods for this have sort of changed over the years. I normally do love to own and read a physical copy of a book, but lately I've mostly been reading books on my phone.

I'll just lay this all out very methodically (I'm sure you probably already know about many of these sites and methods of gathering books and such, but just in case you don't, here you go):

What I used to do back when I didn't read a whole lot (up until my mid-twenties I'd probably normally be reading less than 10 books a year): I'd just go to the local big chain bookstore in my town and buy my books brand new/order them online. My local library didn't have that great a selection, and I was also bad at returning my borrowed library books on time, so I'd usually just pick something out that looked interesting at the store instead and buy it brand new and hope that I liked it.

I very rarely do that anymore, mainly because I am constantly reading now, and it quickly gets expensive to buy that many new books. I also own quite a few books already, and books can get pretty annoying to lug around from place-to-place when you move, so I'm trying not to hoard as many of them anymore.

Here is what I do instead nowadays (I am in two book clubs now, so constantly reading something new, and have averaged reading 50-100 new books a year for the past half a decade or so)

FOR NOVELS: -I keep a list of all the books I want to read on GoodReads and also track all the ones I've already read there -I download a free sample of a new book I'm interested in on my phone, either by searching for it on Kindle/Amazon, or just by downloading the entire book as a pdf/epub file on my phone (here is an excellent site for finding pretty much any book as a pdf/epub for free, btw: [oceanofpdf]) -I read the first few pages of the downloaded book to see if it's something that I'd actually like (I can normally tell after about 5-10 minutes of reading if I'm gonna vibe with the writing style and the premise of the book) If it's something that I'm still interested in reading after previewing it, then I'll either:

(1) try to find a physical copy of the book at a local used bookstore or a thrift store (I don't mind paying a few bucks for a used paperback, even if I might not keep it forever or ever want to read it again) or: (2) search for the ebook on the Libby/Overdrive app on my phone that is synced up with my local library. (You can link your Libby account up with multiple library cards on the app, btw. I have a friend from a much bigger city with a much better library who shares their card with me, so I have access to all the books from their city's library as well... if your local library sucks then I def recommend sharing library cards with a friend from another city, if they're down with doing that) or: (3) just continue reading the book as the pdf/epub I already downloaded on my phone, if it was one that I downloaded from that site

FOR MANGA SERIES: I always either read them online by googling until I find a good quality scan on a site to read them on, or I check out the manga volumes electronically from my library. When it comes to these super lengthy comic series I definitely prefer not to buy the entire series to read it, unless it's something that is not overly long and also is a huge fave for me that I want to own (like Death Note, for example). I also find reading manga on my computer much more enjoyable than reading it on my phone because I can see the art better that way, so I keep a folder of bookmarks on my browser of the manga series that I am currently wanting to read, like so:

I will also usually open any manga I borrow from the library in Libby on my pc's browser instead of my phone so I can read it on a bigger screen, too. ONCE I'M FINISHED READING A BOOK: I will either keep it if I really liked it and think I'll want to re-read it someday, or I'll get rid of it! If it's one I read on my phone as a pdf/epub that I end up loving and wanting to add to my personal collection, then I will keep an eye out for it in the used bookstores and thrift stores, or I'll just buy it new! But nowadays I only add a book to my permanent collection after I have already read it and already know that it's something I will someday want to read again.

I get rid of the books I bought and read and don't want to hold onto anymore in those mini free libraries that people put on my local neighborhood street corners, or else I just donate them back to a thrift store for somebody else to enjoy. AN EXCEPTION TO THIS:

I will often also preemptively buy books that I know have been sitting on my "to be read" list forever whenever I come across them at a good price in a used bookstore, even if I'm not planning on immediately reading them. This is the stuff like the classics that everybody hears about growing up, but that I have not read for myself yet, and am curious to see what all the hype is about. Once I finally read them I'll either add them to my permanent collection or get rid of them if they really weren't my taste. Here's a picture of my bookshelf that's mostly the books I've accumulated second-hand over the years but haven't fully read yet. They're the ones that haven't quite made it to my permanent collection yet (not including the stuff in the picture like the box sets and the graphic novels/manga, which I already read and then bought new). I have another couple of full bookshelves' worth of books that I've already read and liked enough to keep, but they're all packed away in storage atm:

[unhingedhearties]

This Is Embarrassingly Stupid

Trigger Warning: You will feel second hand embarrassment from witnessing this. Please be in a good mental head space before continuing.

The ornament in question:

Hooooooooooly crap...

Okay first, you'll need this

to pry yourself off the cross you nailed yourself to.

Second, and I can't believe I have to explain this to adults, Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments have NOTHING to do with Hallmark shows. Their ornaments are almost all licensed properties from movies, video games or comics. Basically whatever pop culture thing is relevant that year (or was relevant 5 years earlier. Some of these are a little outdated). Here's a quick sampling of what's available this year:

Oh hey, here's some ornaments Hallmark probably made specially for the Unhinged Hearties:

I have a hunch that dumpster fire ornament is probably a copyright-circumventing way of referencing this 10 year old meme drawn by artist KC Green.

Ha ha. It is relatable!

Hallmark appears to be doing the same thing that Amazon

and eBay

are doing. BTW, all I typed in for both sites was "cute dumpster" and got all this same-looking merchandise. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Hallmark wasn't trying to murder Team Lucas fan's hearts with cheap plastic.

Of course you did. Of course you bought not one, but TWO. God forbid you not open up your wallet and buy the trinket you've made part of your identity. Be a good little consumer and eat from the trough, piggy.

I thought you all were boycotting the show? You were going to show TPTB what a grave mistake they made. How's that working out?

I'm sure Hallmark will be drying their tears with dollar bills.

Keep giving them money and keep making the show trend on social media. It's the only way they'll learn.

Found Out zone

YOU SURE SHOWED THEM :D

How's that slop taste? Be sure to wipe your chinny-chin-chin when you're done.

[wuxiaphoenix]

Book Review: Wildfire Griffin

Wildfire Griffin, by Zoe Chant. Yes, this is a paranormal shifter romance. Yet if you like urban fantasy in general I encourage you to at least skim the sample, ‘cause I give this a 4.5 out of 5 stars for characterization, plot, and realistic wildland firefighting settings, equipment, and techniques. Also it has a truly creepy, sneaky, and believable fantastic villain that would fit right into a Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode. Cool.

Warning, spoilers.

We open with our heroine, Edith, on firewatch in a wilderness tower, when lightning strikes out of a clear blue sky....

And here’s where this story succeeds, and too many UFs fail. Edith has plenty of real-world problems. But she’s made a good life despite that. She’s on firewatch because she’s not good with people, but she is a qualified firefighter. Which means when a fire out of nowhere roars toward her tower, she has the skills to save herself.

That the fire has supernatural causes and won’t give up that easily... well, there’s no way she could have known that. Fortunately (and this is another purely human element) there’s a team of hotshots heading her way, ready and able to tackle a fire a lone firefighter can’t.

Yes, the team is actually shifters. Which ends up coming in handy. But they are trained firefighters, legitimately some of the best - and we learn much later in the story that they are here because a regular human firefighter chief has been tracking the supernatural arsonist, and realized that it tends to steer clear of shifters.

The hotshots hit the scene, their leader Rory briefly meets Edith... and promptly falls down the tower stairs. All of them. (Even with shifter healing, ow.)

The story goes on to strike a pretty good balance between supernatural and normal problems. Body-swapping evil monster? Supernatural problem. Trying to fit into a new firecrew? Normal problem! Trying to sort out a relationship when one of you is a supernatural critter and the other autistic, and neither of you knows how to break that to the other? Good mix.

BTW, one review on Amazon fumed that a lot of drama could have been avoided had Edith mentioned she was autistic right from the start. To which I can only say, dude. Dude. Based on people’s real-world experiences, if you can get away with masking, if you’re not absolutely sure you’re safe, you don’t tell people. Especially not people you work with.

Because managers find reasons to fire you. Always. And the guy in charge has already made an obvious threat to Rory’s career for hiring her....

For those with younger readers: there is lusting, but I think only one actual sex scene, and it’s pretty much PG-13. “Zoe Chant” is a pen name shared by about five or six writers, so some series are much more R-rated than others. But the Wildfire Shifters series is one of the only slightly naughty ones.

And I can’t stress enough how refreshing that balance between magical and mundane threats is; something way too many UF samples I’ve discarded seem to miss. Writers, think about it. Who’s the truly evil villain? The guy sacrificing virgins in fire and pain to summon demons? Or the guy who does all that and reports your building for code violations?

So. Nice story, I like the other samples in the series, and plan to get them eventually!

[itmightrain]

Dracula Daily starts again May 2nd btw!

The book version is coming Sept 19th!

the book includes:

the full text of Dracula arranged by date

each days’ email subject lines

a sampling of favorite memes, jokes, text responses, and artwork, that you generated during last year’s run of Dracula Daily. Included with permission from the OPs!

Preorders are open on Bookshop, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble

[jeanie-g]

you rock btw :)

for the spotify wrapped thing, could i get #94 (if it hasn't been taken yet; the back up is #58 if it has been)

Jamie and Trevor (must keep those two alive lol

YOU rock! 💖 we the people have the responsibility to keep this ship alive! (also i have a happy tzjd fic on deck i PROMISE)

[#58] Taking What's Not Yours (TV Girl)

And as the smell on my pillow fades / Her cigarettes might stay like a Roman Colosseum / A dry and worthless monument to our love

Jamie had to pack quickly, was the thing, so Trevor couldn't expect him to remember to take everything.

It still didn't make it hurt any less when Trevor entered his bedroom after saying goodbye and spotted Jamie's mug on his end table. It was red, with this lopsided smiley face and a caption that read, sunny side up.

Trevor had his own mugs, but he remembered when Jamie brought it over, claiming it was his favorite. He was spending 90% of his time at Trevor's apartment anyways. Why not make it official?, he'd said.

Trevor's mouth went dry. It still had the teabag in it.

He didn't know what to do with it at first. Jamie was already on the plane, so he couldn't return it. He could've mailed it, but what if it got lost or broken?

Trevor resolved to store it in an old Amazon box he'd set out for recycling. Then, he shoved it under his bed and forcibly pushed it from his mind.

That wasn't the end, though. More of Jamie's things kept popping up over the next few weeks—spare phone chargers or skate guards, bags of branded chips Trevor would never buy. It struck him like a viper every time, making his brain stall and restart, reopening the wound of the trade when it was just starting to scab over.

One rare rainy night, digging through his closet to find his umbrella (he was pretty sure it was still in its original packaging), he happened upon one of Jamie's toques. It was never cold enough to wear it in Anaheim; he could've probably used it in Philly. Without thinking, Trevor brought it to his nose and smelled it. The sweet tang of Jamie's cologne still clung to it, and Trevor sank to his knees and cried.

Whenever Trevor found one of Jamie's belongings, he just put it into the box and moved along. He even took the care to wash it if it was dirty—a crewneck or a dish. He even kept the dented lid to a candle Jamie bought for airing out the room of sex, even though the candle itself was missing.

He was still finding things months in, however small and insignificant, in the nooks and crannies of his apartment—receipts from In 'n Out with his regular order on them, half-drained moisturizer samples from when he got really into skincare, the cut-out tags of shirts because he hated the way they itched his neck.

In all this time, though, Trevor never reached out to let Jamie know. He couldn't bring himself to. On late, lonely nights, he thought it was because they were the only pieces of Jamie he had left, the only proof that what they had was real at all. On other, more bitter ones, Trevor convinced himself that he was just waiting for Jamie to ask for them back.

But if Jamie ever missed his dog-eared copy of Watchmen or worn-in pair of moccasins, he never told Trevor as much—though he didn't tell him much of anything these days. Because of all the things he left behind, haunting his apartment like a hundred little ghosts, Trevor felt like the biggest one of all.

Jamie had said forever at one point. It felt like a million years ago, and Trevor knew he had to let it go, but he couldn't. He was weak when it mattered.

So, Trevor kept the box under his bed and told no one. He dusted around it, but wouldn't look inside. He kept it pristine, just in case Jamie ever came back.

[theabstruseone]

BTW the indie bookstore thing is important. While I'm pretty sure Dr. Tingle doesn't get more money from indie bookstore sales per book sold (it's unlikely but it would depend on his publishing contract), indie bookstore pre-orders are WAY more important than Amazon other online pre-orders.

Most stores stock books based on whatever they believe demand in their area is. I managed a bookstore in a small town, so we by default got 1 hardcover or 2 paperbacks of anything new (it was a really small town and this was before Twilight, 50 Shades, Hunger Games, Game of Thrones, etc. drew more mainstream interest in reading). If they didn't sell, we could return them, but we did take a small loss on it (I think we got 40% of the cover price back when we paid anywhere from 40-60% depending on price breaks for bulk orders? It was over 20 years ago so the exact numbers faded from memory a while back). But if they DID sell, we'd special order a replacement copy that would take a week to get in. If that sold, we'd order double for the next one that would take another week to get on our shelves. And so on.

Notice that's staggered a LOT. One or two books every week for most of the month of release. Meaning only that first book shows up for the initial release week charts.

However, if someone pre-ordered a book coming out, that's an extra copy we'd order. So instead of 1 hardback, we'd get 2 - one for the customer who preordered, one for the shelf for other customers.

And if multiple people pre-ordered the same book, that's a pretty clear sign there's a demand. So if five people all pre-ordered the same hardcover, we know there's probably going to be a lot more people who didn't think to pre-order but will want it on release. So best to stock at least that many on the shelves. So instead of ordering just one hardcover, I'm now ordering 10.

And if I'm ordering a bunch of books, I'm going to want to make sure people are aware I'm getting them and they'll be on the shelves. I'm more likely to recommend it. "Oh, I see you like horror books. Did you know there's a new Chuck Tingle book coming out?" I'll make sure to put any promotional material like posters and cover samples in more prominent places. We used to have a whiteboard telling people about new releases and the bigger the name, the earlier we'd list the book on the board and the more prominent we'd make it (bigger text, little drawings around it, stuff like that).

If it gets big enough that I'm ordering a bunch of books, I'm also going to look into more promotional methods. Like contacting agents to see if the author is doing a book tour and if they'd like to come to my store for a signing.

This sort of thing is CRITICALLY important because, despite doing our best, we never knew precisely what was big and popular. Again, this was before the internet where the only sure-fire way to tell a book was going to be a big hit was if the author previously had a bunch of big hits or Oprah mentioned it. But even with the internet, I would only really be active in communities for fiction I was interested in. For example, I don't read a lot of romance fiction so the only reason I knew Nora Roberts was a big seller was because people would pre-order her books to make sure they got them on release.

The same applies pretty much across the board for the people in charge of purchasing for a bookstore - you can do as much research as you like, there's still miles difference between "This seems to be trending online" and "A bunch of people have specifically requested to buy this book from us." Bookstore managers are pretty good about realizing that internet memes don't translate to sales (if for no other reason than memes rarely make it as far as a physical bookstore - most people who would buy it probably buy it off Amazon).

And here's the kicker - NONE OF THIS APPLIES TO ONLINE SALES.

While this may carry over a bit to physical stores for chains like Barnes and Noble, a lot of their purchasing is done at a regional level (though I've heard they've backed off that because they realized it's a bad idea and letting managers serve their own customers in their area works better?), for online sales and for Amazon in particular, pre-orders aren't as big of a deal because they already know they're ordering so many hundreds or thousands of copies of the book for their warehouses and all a pre-order does is let them know which warehouses to shuffle the books to.

That's not to say pre-orders on Amazon do nothing. In fact, it is helpful as those pre-orders count as day-one sales for the book and is how books skyrocket in both the Amazon rankings and on bestseller lists. However, there's a difference in how sales are reported between the two. Big caveat first: This is how things worked when I was in the business 20 years ago and things might have changed since then and I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

Sales tracking is done at the distribution level. If my indie bookstore orders 100 copies of Dr. Tingle's new book, that's counted as 100 sales even if they're still on my shelf waiting to be sold. Amazon is their own distributor. So if they order 1000 copies of the book, those don't get counted until they're bought by a customer.

This is why pre-ordering at indie bookstores is so important. With Amazon, your pre-order only counts for 1 book sale. But at an indie bookstore, your pre-order can count for SEVERAL book sales because you're showing the store there's an interest in their community for this title. So they'll want to carry more copies to make sure they're available.

hello! I would love to pre-order your book, but which of the pre-order options is the best for you, and gets you the highest cut of the book price? I want to choose the one that will most help you continue to spread love and joy and chaos in this world

here is a little INSIDE BASEBALL. bestseller lists are very important in way of marketing and way of how much bookstores order of your book. when camp damascus came out it was very close in NUMBERS to certain highly talked about best seller list but that list is not just numbers it is also WHERE and WHEN and HOW things are bought and it is also partially editorial (and very complicated). however this time BURY YOUR GAYS could possibly get higher than camp damascus and land on this list who knows but it is within realm of possibility on this timeline. WHOA COOL. i understand this is shrouded in mystery but i think buckaroos can read between lines.

anyway first step in making this happen is PREORDERS. i know buckaroos are used to video game preorders which is a very bad situation, but in world of BOOKS preorders are everything. it is honestly number one way to support a writer for many reasons but top reason is every preorder over year counts towards first week sales which means BESTSELLER LIST PLACEMENT and THAT sets of whole chain reaction into 'mainstream trot' (i like to picture this as queer dinosaurs and bigfeet and living concepts kicking open the doors to a board room in a high rise but you can imagine whatever you would like)

so NUMBER ONE thing you can do is take the time to actually preorder and not just wait even if you want to get it later.

however to answer your question direct: that certain bestseller list mentioned above only counts HARDCOVER SALES not ebook and not audiobook. this is tough for chuck because audiobook is my personal trot however you asked so i will answer directly: this most important thing is FORMAT

so i would say if you want to have the biggest splash as we kick open the door of this boardroom as shirtless dinosaurs bigfeet unicorns and living objects, it would be:

a HARDCOVER that is PREORDERED. and if you can, from an INDIE BOOKSTORE

preorder here

[verfound]

12, 14, and 16

12. If a genie offered you three writing wishes, what would they be? Btw if you wish for more wishes the genie turns all your current WIPs into Lorem Ipsum, I don’t make the rules.

...does Thought to Screen count? 😂 Faster typing speed if that's not possible? A dimensional door to a Writing Nook where whatever mum's watching on the TV isn't attacking my ADD and I can just focus?

14. Do you lend your books to people? Are people scared to borrow books from you? Do you know exactly where all your “lost” books are and which specific friend from school you haven’t seen in twelve years still possesses them? Will you ever get them back?

I will never lend my books out again. I used to trade books off with Sarah Brown Eyes all the time, and it was no big deal. The problem is the friendship deteriorated, and she still has five of my books - including my copy of Changeover, Diana Wynne Jones's first book which is out of print and damnably difficult to find. I lucked out when I got my copy (at the time it was going for $300-400 dollars on Amazon; someone threw up a copy for $25 - it's the most I've ever spent on a non-textbook book but I snatched it up so fast), and over the past year or so I've seen the price fluctuate anywhere from $400 to $9,000 (for a copy someone said was an original 1970 hardcover, which...don't exist anymore, to my knowledge). Right now, because I was curious, Amazon claims it has used paperback copies going from $12-20 - but if you click on it the link takes you to her book Chair Person. SBE has about five of my books still, even though hers have been returned and I asked for mine back, but the one that really pisses me off is Changeover.

It's not a great book, but it's DWJ's first book, and it was important to me. SBE knew this, and she's a book person herself - she knows what she did. I doubt I will ever see my book again, and because of that I refuse to ever let anyone else borrow my books. (I even got twitchy when mum wanted to borrow my copy of Songbirds and Snakes, and that would have been stupidly easy to replace - and we live together.)

16. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever used as a bookmark?

That...is an excellent question. 😂 Idk? My bookmarks are pretty standard: old receipts, sticky notes, corners of paper ripped off, a piece of yarn, those paint sample cards, tags from Torrid (like the Outlander tag from a skirt I got a while back), a...oh! I have a florescent orange 3x5 index card with the corner burnt off from a time I was playing with fire (...don't do that kids I'm a horrible example) that I use all the time. Does that count as weird? 😂

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

I'm arguing with a friend about if Rihanna has or has not Disrespected Islam (I know Ideas. Don't have right neither they deserve our respect) here's a quote from a news site about the topic

"Rihanna is under fire from the Muslim community who have accused her of disrespecting the values of Islam during her recent Savage X Fenty fashion show.

During the show which premiered on Friday on Amazon Prime Video, “Doom” a song which reportedly samples vocals of a Hadith being read in Arabic was played as models dressed in lingerie strutted around."

We're still discussing it. Now she doesn't think Lingerie is inappropriate and says Islam is about Modesty. I think it's dishonest to say "you can't play it in a lingerie show" and to say "I don't think it's inappropriate to wear it" what the fuck is islamic modesty.

Btw she's also feminist Lesbian (which is not meant as an Insult rather than a description) which makes her a professional mental gymnast.

Whether or not Islam has been disrespected is a red herring. The more important question is why does that mean anything? What can’t anyone claim to be offended or disrespected about in order to get special treatment? Nobody has the right to not be offended. Why we should change our lives to tip-toe around the easily triggered sentiments of a religion which gets “offended” at the slightest thing? Like the youngest child who’s learned to manipulate the parents with crocodile tears and that tone (you know the one). And why is it that intent appears to be irrelevant?

"If someone tells me I've hurt their feelings. I say 'I'm still waiting to hear what your point is'." - Christopher Hitchens

You should ask her if she objects to Madonna’s “Justify My Love (The Beast Within)”, which is essentially a recitation of the bible’s Book of Revelation mixed with the chorus of “Justify My Love.”

”Justify My Love (The Beast Within)” single

”The Beast Within” concert performance #1

”The Beast Within” concert performance #2

Performance #1 above features what might be regarded as an erotic gay dance routine, and certainly not something the Pope would endorse.

If she doesn’t object, then she needs to consider why she thinks different rules should apply. Why is her concern for religious sensitivities conditional and inconsistent? Is it the soft bigotry of low expectations?

It’s not a racial issue, because Islam isn’t a race. It’s not a cultural or ethnic issue, because Muslims are not a homogenous collective hivemind; the country with the largest Muslim population is Indonesia. It’s religious. If replacing the word “Islam” with “Christianity” causes the concern to look suddenly quite stupid and pathetic, then well done for spotting the problem.

The rules of any particular religion only apply to those who follow it. As Helen Pluckrose explains:

“I don’t believe what you believe, and I don’t have to. I defend your right to hold, express and live by your own belief system, but you have no right to impose any of it on me.“

This statement is the essence of secularism and it is absolutely central to liberal democracy. In a secular, liberal democracy, we mandate tolerance of a plurality of worldviews and we encourage a positive attitude to diversity of thought as productive of greater understanding and broader knowledge. Restrictions on what others may believe, say and do are reserved for behaviours that directly harm other people or prevent them from believing, saying and doing what they believe to be right.

The freedom Muslims in secular countries - like the US, UK, etc - enjoy to not have other religious beliefs imposed onto them, is the same freedom non-Muslims in secular countries enjoy to not have Islam imposed on them.

Believers in any religion can adhere to whatever restrictions their belief system dictates. (Although they’ll also opt out, under the cover of “it’s a metaphor” or interpretation” or “no longer applies”.) But they’ve no right to impose their religious restrictions onto others.

“Islamic modesty” is arresting women on Instagram for not wearing a hijab. You know, because “hijab is empowering”.

Iran Daily: Women Arrested for Instagram Dance Videos

Iran’s Instagram arrests: Cyber police target women for not wearing their hijab online

Father, son plead guilty to Aqsa Parvez murder (Toronto, Canada)

Muslim girl filmed ‘twerking’, in public receives horrifying death threats (Birmingham, UK)

It’s weird how eager this self-described feminist is to gate-keep women’s bodies, and what they can and can’t wear. And what a woman like Rihanna can’t or can’t say, in deference to a rather oppressive belief system. Again, put bible verses into a song and play them during a lingerie show, and see how ready she is to bow to accusations of it being obscene, un-Xtianly and sinful.

I can’t help wondering whether she regards quoting hadith in a song as being a more troubling or less troubling issue than honor killings of women, and execution of gay people, as prescribed and endorsed by Sharia. How, exactly, does she apportion her outrage? And why does it seem to stop at the borders of her first world country?

Iran rocked by three honor killings in one month

Saudi Arabia beheaded 5 men ‘proven’ to be gay under torture

These 6 Countries Execute People for Being Gay

Why is Rihanna’s struggle session regarding hurt feelings over a belief all over the internet, but there was only scant coverage of the horrific atrocities and grisly deaths of real people in the name of this same idea. Is it because we don’t expect any better from those people? Is it because we’re terrified of the bully?

(On silencing criticism of Islam with accusations of “Islamophobia”) “Yeah, it’s tiring. It is absolutely ridiculous. I feel like the double standard with speaking about Islam versus speaking about any other religion is just so nonsensical to me. And I feel like it comes from a place of people being scared of the bully.” - Yasmine Mohammed

It’s my experience that people’s principles evaporate the fastest when the topic of Islam comes up, and despite claiming to advocate for the rights of people, retreat to complaining about petty shit, quietly and tacitly throwing the people who need the most advocacy under the bus in the name of “sensitivity.”

The religion of peace need never worry about being short of apologists clamoring to bend the knee to its demands. But I’m not willing to treat it any differently than any other religion or belief, and I think it’s bigoted to do so.

[rubykoncubes]

Yo, hi, so; I dug up this flower photograph i downloaded (once upon a time) for digital art class, but i never got to use it. Now given i'm making this series, i found a purpose for it! I thought it'd be interesting to coordinate it with my imported drawing like a some sort of collage.  ┳━┳ノ( OωOノ)

{Comments, Reblogs & Likes are very appreciated! ♥}

The trickiness lies in the fact that i had to find the line of flowers in which i could "clip" the drawing conveniently. On the top half, it was fairly easy; for the bottom half though, i had to resort to franken-dolling the image to create the line i need.

The drawing itself isn't very detailed in terms of coloring and shadowing though, because with the collage, the whole thing seemed already pretty loaded to me.

Also, there’s some poetry too. Dunno, i like corny liners like that. (*´ω｀*)

The whole collection :

♥ Analog feelings ...

♥ Bubble bath ...  

♥ Crawl under the flowers ...

♥ Dear hologram daydream ...  

♥ Endless spiralling mistakes ...

AAAAANNND-- I’d like to hold your attention just a bit more. The thing is : this piece has a spinoff version!

It stemed from the fact that i couldn’t see very well while i was tracing on the lineart paper, so i had to make an in-between step. I resorted to tracing paper, to make a more visible version of the og sketch :

But how are two tracing paper components making any sense here? Well, thanks to a specific course i had at uni, i’m now quite likely to turn drawings of mine that i find interesting into screenprinting stencils, hence the use of tracing paper.

Yes, that’s right. Screenprinting. The more minimalist spinoff of this piece comes as a screenprint. Of which, here’s a demo version with very dark blue lines and lighter more vivid-ish royal blue shadowing :

Btw, since i have an account on Amazon, i was wondering about selling exclusive samples of this piece. Would anyone be interested? :3

Either way, now that you’ve reached the end of this exceptionnally long post, I wish you a good day! <3

[travelinglowcarb]

His & Hers Keto 👫

(warning ⚠️ mushy post!)

Aaron is back at work in the city, so we can talk about him now. 😉😁

We both self-isolated for more than 30 days so we could safely spend time together. ❤

He was here helping me with painting & car things n stuff this week - and you know, movies & cuddles too. 🥰

We're watching Bosch on Amazon Prime Video, btw - great series! 👇

I've mentioned he doesn't eat beef or pork - so when he's over we have turkey bacon. 🍳

He did bake me an entire sheet pan of pork bacon while I was working though. 🥓😍

We're otherwise VERY food compatible: we're both sugar free, keto, eat super simple, and both LOVE spinach and eggs. 🥚

Those are 2 staples in a lot of our meals.

He really likes to raid my pantry (keto stash) too. 😅 His favorite brands are ChocZero, Perfect Keto, Good Dee's Mix and Legendary Foods.

* I have discount codes for all those, feel free to message me or comment if you ever need a code to save money💰 on your order. ✔

You can also mix & match all of those in one place if you want to try singles & samples 📲

https://www.travelinglowcarb.com/27348/low-carb-groceries-keto-delivery/

The man could LIVE on my keto pancakes. 🥞🤣 Breakfast though - just coffee ☕ then a mid morning bite. Same! 🙋‍♀️

Lately it's been a Salted Caramel bar for him and a Lemon Poppyseed bar for me. 🍯🍋

Same but different. 😉

Speaking of, I found a sweet deal on the PK Cinnamon Roll keto collagen bars today (I hide those from Aaron 😁) - and ended up saving almost 50 bucks AND scored a freebie with my order!

📩 Here's the screenshot of my order and the special link + code combo I used. SWEET deal! 👌

The code is LOWCARBTRAVELER and the deal is found on this page (PLUS a free nut butter will magically appear in your cart!):

➡️ Now that Aaron's gone I'm eating low carb pepperoni pizza 🍕 , making spinach sausage balls and pulling out the ribeyes... 🥩🥳😁

Next time he's over, we're reviewing low carb ice creams. ❣

We fell in love over the original (good) Halo Top Creamery ice cream 3 1/2 years ago. 🍨🥰

One of my favorite dates was when he drove two hours out of the way on a road trip... to have a Halo Top ice cream picnic with me on the beach. ⛱🌊

That kinda sealed the deal. 😉

You can see more pictures of us together and read a quick story about our quarantine decision here 📲

~

[saulbarlowe1-blog]

How To Convert DRM WMA To MP3 For Apple IPod

Convert protected WMA to MP3 with Protected Music Converter. We're in Smallsville, Texas. A younger boy escapes from his squabbling mother and father into his own world after they buy him a toy glider equipment. As he begins work on the plane, the Top 5 Hits" seem on the TELEVISION display behind him. At No 5 Stardust, wanting very cool in metallic suits and shades, standing on a cloud, a rainbow behind them, performing a tune called Music Sounds Higher With You; at No 4 it's Samanthra (sic), with Luv on the Seaside; No three is Dave Stavroz, with a track known as Hotlipz; Monstarr Band are No 2 with Step On It; and at No 1 are Boogee Brotherz, performing Inferio. The boy is so absorbed in his process that he takes no notice of the present, or his dad and mom' continued bickering.

Some people may need to extract part of the audio file from a complete video file, or if you simply wish to minimize the unnecessary part of the WMA audio file, you should use "Clip" function for assist. Click on "Clip" button at process bar of the principle interface and then open the "Clip" window, here you may trim the audio length by dragging the slide bar to vary the beginning and end time. Or if you want reduce the audio more precisely, set the worth of start and end time in the corresponding box in the "Clip" column. After which save all of your operation. You might must convert an audio file to another format for varied causes (e.g., to make use of as voicemail message, to switch to an MP3 player). Depending on the file varieties you are using, you should use either Audacity or Adobe Audition. Both can be found from CedarNet. Audacity is positioned under Language & Literature, and Audition is positioned beneath Com Arts. Splitting the output recordsdata based mostly on chapters stored within the supply files. Converting and transferring are performed at the same time, which saves you a lot time. All of the incompatible recordsdata will be routinely transformed whereas transferring. BTW, for extra in depth dialogue that has been ongoing, take a look at the forums at and the Ogg-specific forums at Hydrogen Audio I sustain with each boards, and the folks there are inclined to make prerelease construct binaries accessible for people to play with. For up-to-date detailed data without the overhead of the Vorbis-dev listing, those are the locations to go. Click on "Convert" to convert WMA to MP3 format. You can convert any audio file supported to Audacity to three recordsdata varieties: MP3, WAV, and Ogg Vorbis. That stated, I think a hundred and sixty is one thing you'll remorse in the event you're doing numerous songs. I originally used 160 on my 800 CDs, and it sounded positive - till I hooked the digital out on my soundcard to my dolby digital 5.1 system. On good speakers with a clear connection you can undoubtedly hear the compression artifacts. I went up to Xing VBR 192-320 and have been very pleased with the results. As you stated, disk house is not a problem, so I'm comfortable utilizing what i feel had been probably overkill settings. RealPlayer works as a media participant and converter which can perform varied multimedia conversions. Easily flip any audio or video file into MP3 through the use of this program. It's a fashionable program for audio conversions as it can convert any audio file into MP3 within few minutes. It also maintains the audio quality. You too can modify the audio settings to boost its high quality. For high-quality changes or deciding on a profile that's not pre-configured, simply click the button with the two arrows pointing upwards. You will then see a menu containing a number of output codecs such as M4A, WAV (for burning to disc), OGG and FLAC.

Even structurally speaking, ‘Music Sounds Better With You' broke markedly with dance music conventions of the day. There have been no bombastic construct-ups, no mammoth breakdowns. No drop. Reasonably, the ‘Destiny' sample may theoretically loop on fortunately forever, extending a state of hyper-stasis" — one other of Reynolds' neologisms that usefully describes the stressed shuttling forwards and backwards inside a grid-area of influences and sources, striving frenetically to find exit routes to the beyond." The quaint past" that Stardust strove for was concurrently retro and futurist, organic and plastic, a perfect symmetry of simulacrum and the simulated. Hearing Born in the U.S.A. on CD did not make both man a digital advocate. Clearmountain and Ludwig say that early analog-to-digital converters had an industrial sound, which made CDs sound brittle. However when Apogee Electronics — a company co-based by Clearmountain's wife, Betty Bennett — developed the primary excessive-quality converters in 1985, the sound got here into focus. Free WMA MP3 Converter is an free WMA to MP3 converter which helps you convert WMA to MP3, MP3 to WMA MP3 Converter gives optimized default settings. Effectively, CDrs are a special kettle of fish to the "sound of solder", or the "sound of power cables". Cheaper CDrs can result in more burn errors than correctly manufactured CDrs, and due to how CD gamers operate, uncorrectable errors (ie E32, not BLER or BURST) are sometimes "glossed over" on-the-fly with some form of algorithm so that you just get steady sound reasonably than potential glitches. Each time an error is auto-corrected in real-time, what the player spits out isn't exactly what was meant to be on the CD within the first place. So technically speaking, it is true that sure CDrs may present higher sound quality than others, free wma to mp3 converter for mac some older players will flat-out refuse to play a CD that contains too many errors, and www.audio-transcoder.com certain CDrs will degrade extra quickly over time. Related things apply to CD-burners and players as well. This WMA MP3 Converter is suitable for both newcomers and superior users as a result of only a few clicks can end the operation. Spotify uses the lossy Ogg Vorbis (OGG) format to stream music via its desktop and cell apps, and you may convert a WAV file to OGG utilizing a trusted audio converter software program, instead of counting on Spotify to make the conversion for you. Apple Music makes use of a format referred to as AAC, and Amazon Music uses MP3. Tidal and Deezer stream music on the highest high quality utilizing the FLAC format.

[akathecentimetre]

first take on Wedding Things

our house at the beach had an Alexa (super fucking creepy generally btw) and I stared at it for about half an hour on the first night before Attempting The Meme I felt so cool

[it didn’t work because we weren’t logged into Amazon Music but it played a ‘sample’ and that was almost funnier]

Maine is Beautiful and the Best

having @agarthanguide and @jackmarlowe there in my wedding party was such a blessing <3

it’s true what they say about not being able to concentrate on or remember or eat or drink on your wedding day, thank god for the pics

[we are so cute you guysssssss I don’t look good in photos and lo and behold we are so cute]

my Dutch Professor whom we cooked Thanksgiving for last year came with his family and everyone was crushing on them all so hard by the end of the weekend, I predicted it from the second they turned up tbh

my dad dancing with us to Nicki Minaj’s ‘Starships’ was the funniest thing in the entire world and I’m so glad there’s video

Tanglewood is amazing and also made me flash back to high school orchestra camp in Maine so hard

spent most of our honeymoon in the Finger Lakes and we came home with a self-wedding present of two incredible champagne flutes from the glass museum in Corning and more. than. thirty bottles of wine?? plus a few six-packs of cider??? we have a Problem

we have already degenerated into calling each other ‘hubby’ and ‘wifey’ who are we

pics in a second (I’ll be deleting that post after it’s up for a few days which is why this one is separate)

[darksideofthemic]

Blog: Turning the the XM8500 into a mini-SM7B

At £15 in UK the XM8500 is an incredible bargain, competing with or downright beating lots of mics in the sub £100 category. It would be a no brainer for Behringer to release a broadcast style version with a SM7B-style yoke mount for say £35-50 and they would absolutely kill it. The last year has seen a new wave of similar mics from Rode, Presonus, MXL, Samson and a few others. None of them sound that great, but they’re selling. The fact is handheld dynamics, no matter how good they sound, don’t seem to have the same kudos in the YouTube podcast world where how you ‘look’ is all important, maybe too important. I find that sad, personally, but that’s the way it is. You can mince about your bedroom, bathed in neon all you want, but if you’re rocking a handheld you might as well have virtual COVID.

The Dark Side of the Mic · Audio Blog: Behringer XM8500 rehoused into mini-SM7B style body

Searching for a Yoke So that got me searching for companies and products that could make it possible to ‘rehouse’ a handheld dynamic, cheaply. It’s gotta be cheap - no one wants to disassemble a cheap already decent sounding mic and spend a fortune on a ‘Blue Peter’ project. My searches came up with nothing until randomly I was investigating mic capsules and came across this on eBay:

On eBay It was advertised as '743 Microphone Capsule Internally Mounted DIY Microphone Cartridge' (all links btw are down below). You can also get it on Aliexpress even cheaper. Now there is no capsule or cartridge of any kind in the picture and I wasn’t sure what I’d get for my £16. Was it everything in the picture or just a random bit of plastic mounting part? I took a punt and sure enough everything arrived that was in the picture. Nice! The kit is not what you would call high quality, there were a few scuffs on the mic shell body and the yoke, but I thought I’d roll with it. 

You don’t need to use everything in the kit, It comes with the actual body, sturdy base, XLR port, the grilles, inner pop foam and the yoke mount. So in essence all you need to do is remove the Behringer capsule, fit it inside the shell/body and solder the XLR.

Mounting The main challenge was mounting it in the shell. I decided I would keep the Behringer middle housing section (the stubby bit where the capsule is fitted) since I thought that might offer better RF interference protection (who knows?). To mount it I used 25mm x 4mm thick foam tape stuck to the inside of the shell, it needed 2 layers to make a kind of effective shock mount (patent pending :D) for the capsule. So I guess that means 8mm sponge around the inner diameter of the shell. I had to push like crazy to get the capsule through the hole, kinda like giving birth in reverse! But once it’s in there, the fit is super tight, no movement, and it sits dead centre.

‘I got my Philosophy’ Part of the design philosophy of this endeavour was to sit the capsule a bit back from the end address grille (I don’t know of any other mic manufacturer who does this :D). This means you can be right up on the mic but still have the capsule recessed in the body, which really makes a difference in how it handles plosives (one of the major problems with the stock XM8500). Additionally, as part of the migration to the new body, I ended up using the Behringer XLR port since that one has gold plated connectors unlike the plug that came with the kit, but it fitted perfectly into the end base. Once that was soldered in, it’s just a matter of fitting the grilles, inner pop foam and screwing it all together. Really quite simple. The front end grill just kinda squeezes on so I may sugru it for a permanent solution - it isn't super solid at the moment. I added a foam windscreen designed for an AT2020 on front, which really helps tame the mid to high sizzle in my voice, but judge for yourself in the audio samples above (There are timestamps on the player to let you jump back and forth).

So how does it sound? The sound of the modified mic seems slightly more open to me than the original, but it think this is due to the way the capsule is recessed into the body by about an inch, so you can never recreate the proximity effect you can with the handheld, which can at times sound a bit boomy or muddy if you bring it too close. The Behringer is a great budget option because it runs fine without a cloudlifter on practically any preamp. It seems to have a sensitivity of about -50dB re 1V/Pa (Behringer’s publicised measurements seem a bit wacky) which means in practical terms it requires about 4 or 5dB less gain than my SEV7 (-54dB re 1V/Pa) - That’s pretty good for any dynamic. I’ve recorded a separate clip showing how I would EQ my voice through my Rodecaster Pro (my typical podcast recording device) which has pretty good preamps up to a point, but you definitely don’t want to be maxing them out:

The Dark Side of the Mic · EQing The Broadcast Behringer XM8500 (SM-BB1)

Links to buy

Mic kit on eBay

Mic kit on Aliexpress

Shockmount foam on Amazon

Foam Windscreen

I plan to use the new mic, which I'm calling the SM-BB1 (Behringer Broadcast!) on a podcast series im producing in the next few months, so it will be nice to hear it on some other voices. I will update this blog with some new samples as I have them, as well as some further thoughts as to how its held up on actual projects. So what do you think? Is this a mod you would want to attempt? Can you improve on what I've done? Would you like to see Behringer do this properly with the XM8500? Listen to the audio samples and let me know! Take care for now, Mike.

Buy me a coffee! While I love testing out microphones, keeping this site up to date takes up a lot of my spare time, so I need bucket loads of coffee! Please consider buying me one if you can :)

[blankvirtue]

June 20, 2020

- 1:23am  -

So not long ago I got a hold of 8GB of RAM, fresh from amazon, and installed them . Everything works and all. but it still didn’t perform like I hoped it would. This was how I started June off btw. Either way, all that RAM is no good if I don’t have a good processor to help keep my CPU usage steady. So why buy an old processor and upgrade an old PC? My money is better invested in building a new one, and thats exactly what im gonna start doing in the upcoming months. I’m very excited to see that come to fruition. I’m not sure if should buy speakers before that or after. Hmm. . .

Lately, I’ve been investing a lot of money into this. I’m kinda shocked that Ive spent about over $1000 on software and samples already, and that’s because I want more still smh. After I bought ProQ3, I’ve just kinda gone on a software shopping spree. Now I am a proud owner of FL Studio 20, ValhallaRoom & Delay, Shaperbox2, Serum, ProQ3 and TRacks5. Not to mention about 1000 new splice samples I’ve gotten. Along side with everything that I’ve come to learn in these past 6 months, these have been game changers. Besides dropping all that money and installing RAM, I started off the month trying to apply my new knowledge to old projects. Most notably, Oddessy is looking good. I managed to really improve it from its older project versions as of now, but that that’s the only older track I worked on really. I didn’t take too much time doing that because I got caught up setting up the new PC for usage and producing. It took awhile, but I’ve settled into it pretty snug for now, at least until I upgrade. But after that, I got really in my head and into a writer’s block for a couple of days. It really sucked xc Eventually I got the idea to do a 2 Day 2 Song Challenge to help me overcome it. This was on June 11th - June 12th by the way. Despite not ending up with two fire ass beats, this challenge got me to write one good one. I loved it so much that it’s gonna be on the EP. It’s safe to say that it’s the best track as of now too. It’s not like anything I’ve written either. Its got this like dark glitch trap feel, but at 120 with these deep vocals. After I wrote, it’s given me a sense of direction to take the EP with. I was kinda confused which direction to take with this EP for awhile, that was until I wrote this song. It felt like looking at a blank canvas versus looking at a drawing on a canvas. Here’s what I can take from this: after you’ve got an idea on the paper, you have a point of reference that can be used as a source of inspiration versus looking at nothing. I think that’s what makes writer’s block such a self-induced phenomenon. I decided to take today to sharpen up my mind and do some more studying on FL & production .In hindsight, I’m kinda glad I did. It gave me time to write this and recollect everything. Plus, im pretty tired today. That being said, I think this is a good use of my low energy self. Here’s what I managed to learn today: - Learned how to separate mid & stereo from each other using Fruity Stereo Shaper. I finally can make sounds strictly mono/stereo or even split them now! - Learned about newtone’s capability to pitch correct, pitch bend, and waveform shape vocals. I see that’s it’s mostly good for pitch correction. - Learned about monophonic voice manipulation through Billboard’s stream. Plugins such a Manipulator and Little Astroboy use this to harmonize and customize vocals to greater extents than Newtone. - Learned about sidechaining using Fruity Balance, which is better on my CPU usage and it’s easier than setting up Shaperbox. - Today I also learned that Fruity EQ2 doesn’t display any stereo frequencies. I knew that it didn’t EQ them, but I didn’t know it doesn’t display them. Wow Out of everything I learned today, I think the stereo shaping tip is gonna make the biggest difference in the longrun. It was weird mixing the stereo and mono signals together in one channel. Now that I’m able to separate them, I’ll be able to work on refining my stereo image in greater detail. A close runner up is the use of fruity balance to sidechain. By setting the volume to 0% it allows the initial transients of the drums to ONLY be heard as the ducked instrument creeps up right behind it. This gives the drums a perfect customized pocket to slam into, giving them more presence in the mix. Seeing things from an external point of view, I find myself overthinking things too much, that’s whats hurting me the most. I just gotta be bold with the ideas that I truly vibe with. I can’t get caught up with trying to guess how I will be perceived by others and with thoughts of not being good enough, or being afraid of working on a bad beat. In the words of Ed Sheeran, making music is like opening an outdoors faucet, you’re gonna get some murky water in the beginning. But if you keep going, eventually you’ll get some clean water. Every once in a while, some murky water will come out again, but most of the time it’s gonna be clean. In lesser words, keep on writing. Eventually you’ll get something good. Until tomorrow. . .