#tips for family

[snapshotsandportraits]

Klook Staycation: Seda Nuvali

✨𝑺𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 ✨ 𝑆𝑒𝑑𝑎 𝑁𝑢𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑖 – 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑦𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑦! 𝐹𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑦 𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑚𝑠: 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑜𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟 𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑚𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑠𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑛’𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑠, 𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑒. 𝐾𝑖𝑑-𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠: 𝑇ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑙 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑑𝑜𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑜𝑜𝑙, 𝑎 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎 𝑔𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑚 𝑡𝑜 𝑘𝑒𝑒𝑝 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑛 𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑑. 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛: 𝑆𝑒𝑑𝑎 𝑁𝑢𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑖 𝑖𝑠 𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑁𝑢𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑖, 𝑎 𝑠𝑝𝑟𝑎𝑤𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑖𝑥𝑒𝑑-𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑝𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓…

[gallusrostromegalus]

Move To A Darker Place

This is a story of Man Vs. Machine.

---

Last March, my father attempted to file his Taxes.

My beloved father is a Boomer. Unlike most Boomers, my father is rather handy with technology because he was one of the people that had a not-insignificant hand in Developing a hell of a lot of it. He was studying Computer Science at Cal Poly before the computer science degree existed. I have many fond childhood memories of skipping through the aisles of various electronic and computer part warehouses while Dad described something that either terrified the staff or made them worship him as a God.  He taught himself how to use his smartphone.  Internationally.

So when he saw the option to file digitally with the IRS through the “ID.me” program, he leapt at the chance to celebrate the Federal Government finally entering the Digital Age.

It was all going swimmingly for about six hours, until he was ready to file and the system told him that it needed to verify his identity. 

“Very Well.” said my father, a man unafraid of talking to himself and getting something out of the conversation. “It wouldn’t do for me to get someone else’s return.”

The System told him that it needed him to take a “Digital Image ID”.

a.k.a: A Selfie.

“A-ha!” Dad beams. Dad is very good at taking selfies. He immediately pulled out his phone, snapped one, and tried to upload it.

Please log into your Id.me Account and use the provided app to submit your Digital Image ID. The System clarified.

“Oh. You should have said so.”  Dad pouted, but used his phone to log onto the ID.me account, do the six security verification steps and double-checked that the filing looked the same as it did on the desktop, gave the IRS like nine permissions on his phone, and held up the camera to take his Federal Privacy Invasion Selfie.

Please align your face to the indicated grid. Said The System, pulling up a futuristic green-web-of-polygons approximation.

“Ooh, very Star Trek. Gene Roddenberry would HATE this!” Dad said cheerfully, aligning his face to the grid.  My father is a bit… cavalier, when it comes to matters of personal information and federal government, because he’s been on FBI watchlists since the late 60’s when he was protesting The Vietnam War and Ronald Regan before he’d broken containment. Alas.

Anyway, there is very little information the federal government does not have on him already, but he’s as good at stalking the FBI as they are at stalking him, and had worked out a solution:  He has something approaching a friendship with the local Federal Agent (Some guy named “Larry”. Allegedly), and got Larry hooked on Alternative Histories and Dad’s collection of carefully-researched “there is very likely buried treasure here” stories, and Larry is loath to bother his favorite Historical Fanfiction author too much.

But I digress.

After thinking for a minute, The System came back with an Error Message. Please remove glasses or other facial obstructions.

And here is where the real trouble began.

See, my father wears glasses that do substantially warp the appearance of his face, because he is so nearsighted that he is legally blind without them. His natural focal point is about 4 inches in front of his nose.  While Dad can still take a selfie because he (approximately) knows where his phone is if it’s in his hand, he cannot see the alignment grid.

He should ask someone to take it for him! I hear the audience say. Yes, that would be the sane and reasonable thing to do, but Dad was attempting to do taxes at his residence in Fort Collins, while his immediate family was respectively in Denver, Texas and Canada.  He tried calling our neighbors, who turned out to be in Uganda.

He looked down at the dog, Arwen, and her little criminal paws that can open doorknobs, but not operate cell phones.

She looked back at him, and farted.

“Well, I’ll give it a try, but if it gives me too much trouble, I’ll call Larry, and Larry can call the IRS about it.” Dad told her. 

She continued to watch him. Arwen is an Australian Kelpie (a type of cattle-herding dog), going on 14 years old, deaf as a post and suffering from canine dementia now, but she still retains her natural instinct to Micromanage. She was also trained as a therapy dog, and even if she can’t hear my dad, still recognizes the body language of a man setting himself up for catastrophe.

So, squinting in the late afternoon light next to the back door, Dad attempted to line his face up with a grid he could only sort-of see, and took A Federal Selfie.

The System thought about it for a few moments.

Image Capture Failed: Insufficient Contrast. The System replied. Please move to a darker place.

“...Huh.” Dad frowned. “Alright.”

He moved to the middle of his office, away from the back door, lit only by the house lighting and indirect sunlight, and tried again.

Image Capture Failed. Please move to a darker place.

“What?” Dad asked the universe in general.

“Whuff.” Arwen warned him against sunk costs.

Dad ignored her and went into the bathroom, the natural habitat of the selfie. Surely, only being lit by a light fixture that hadn’t been changed since Dad was attempting to warn everyone about Regan would be suitably insufficient lighting for The System.  It took some negotiating, because that bathroom is “Standing Room Only” not “Standing And Holding Your Arms Out In Front Of You Room”.  He ended up taking the selfie in the shower stall.

As The System mulled over the latest attempt, Arwen shuffled over and kicked open the door to watch.

Image Capture Failed. Please Move to a Darker Place.

“Do you mean Spiritually?” Dad demanded.

“Whuff.” Arwen cautioned him again.

Determined to succeed, or at least get a different error message that may give him more information, Dad entered The Downstairs Guest Room.  It is the darkest room in the house, as it is in the basement, and only has one legally-mandated-fire-escape window, which has blinds.  Dad drew those blinds, turned off the lights and tried AGAIN.

Image Capture Failed. Please Move To A Darker Place.

“DO YOU WANT ME TO PHOTOGRAPH MYSELF INSIDE OF A CAVE??” Dad howled. 

“WHUFF!” Arwen reprimanded him from under the pull-out bed in the room. It’s where she attempts to herd everyone when it’s thundering outside, so the space is called her ‘Safety Cave’.

Dad frowned at the large blurry shape that was The Safety Cave.

“Why not?” he asked, the prelude to many a Terrible Plan.  With no small amount of spiteful and manic glee, Dad got down onto the floor, and army-crawled under the bed with Arwen to try One Last Time. Now in near-total darkness, he rolled on his side to be able to stretch his arms out, Arwen slobber-panting in his ear, and waited for the vague green blob of the Facial grid to appear.

This time, when he tapped the button, the flash cctivated.

“GOD DAMN IT!” Dad shouted, dropping the phone and rubbing his eyes and cursing to alleviate the pain of accidentally flash-banging himself. Arwen shuffled away from him under the bed, huffing sarcastically at him.

Image Capture Failed. Please move to a darker place.

“MOTHERFU- hang on.” Dad squinted.  The System sounded strange. Distant and slightly muffled.

Dad squinted really hard, and saw the movement of Arwen crawling out from under the bed along the phone’s last known trajectory.

“ARWEN!” Dad shouted, awkwardly reverse-army crawling out from under the bed, using it to get to his feet and searching for his glasses, which had fallen out of his pocket under the bed, so by the time he was sighted again, Arwen had had ample time to remove The Offending Device.

He found her out in the middle of the back yard, the satisfied look of a Job Well Done on her face. She did not have the phone. 

“Arwen.” Dad glared. It’s a very good glare. Dad was a teacher for many years and used it to keep his class in order with sheer telepathically induced embarrassment, and his father once glared a peach tree into fecundity.  

Arwen regarded him with the casual interest a hurricane might regard a sailboat tumbling out of its wake. She is a force of nature unto herself and not about to be intimidated by a half-blind house ape.  She also has cataracts and might not be able to make out the glare.

“I GIVE UP!” Dad shouted, throwing his hands in the air and returning to the office to write to the IRS that their selfie software sucks ass. Pleased that she had gotten her desired result, Arwen followed him in.

To Dad’s immense surprise, the computer cheerfully informed him that his Federally Secure Selfie had been accepted, and that they had received and were now processing his return!

“What the FUCK?” Dad glared. “Oh well. If I’ve screwed it up, Larry can call me.”

---

I bring this up because recently, Dad received an interesting piece of mail.

It was a letter from the IRS, addressed to him, a nerve-wracking thing to recessive at the best of times.  Instead of a complaint about Dad’s Selfie Skills, it was a letter congratulating him on using the new ID.me System.  It thanked him for his help and expressed hopes he would use it again next year, and included the selfie that The System had finally decided to accept.

“You know, my dad used to complain about automation.” Dad sighed, staring at the image. “Incidentals my boy!  My secretary saves the state of California millions of dollars a year catching small errors before they become massive ones! He’d say. Fought the human resources board about her pay every year.  I used to think he was overestimating how bad machines were and underestimating human error, but you know? He was right.”

He handed me the image.

My father was, technically, in the image.  A significant amount of the bottom right corner is taken up by the top of his forehead and silver hair.  Most of the image, the part with the facial-recognition markers on it, was composed of Arwen’s Alarmed and Disgusted Doggy face.

“Oh no!” I cackled. “Crap, does this mean you have to call the IRS and tell them you’re not a dog?”

“Probably.” Dad sighed. “I know who I’m gonna bother first though.” he said, taking out his phone (Dad did find his phone a few hours after Arwen absconded with it when mom called and the early spinach started ringing). 

“Hey Larry!” Dad announced to the local federal agent. “You’re never gonna believe this. My dog filed my taxes!”

Larry considered this for a moment. “Is this the dog that stole my sandwich? Out of my locked  car?” he asked suspiciously.

“The very same.” Dad grinned.

“Hm. Clever Girl.” Federal Agent Larry sighed. “I figured it was only a matter of time before she got into tax fraud.”

---

I'm a disabled artist making my living writing these stories. If you enjoy my stories, please consider supporting me on Ko-fi or Pre-ordering my Family Lore Book on Patreon. Thank you!

[fanaticalthings]

important family group chat discussions

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[slfcare]

When I was younger, I was in love with the idea of moving out to a lone island and never speaking to anyone again. I wasn’t good at talking, physically, nor did conversations come easy to me, so I kept quiet and I was totally fine with that. But while the people closest to me rolled their eyes at my wishes (again, lone island), nobody told me how talking to people was fun. Nobody told me how nice of a feeling it was to feel a new friendship blossom, to have inside jokes with people, to hand out compliments and get them back, to ask questions to people who are excited about having the answers, to remember something that someone mentioned last time and make them feel heard, to flatter people, to share slightly embarrassing facts and be able to laugh about them, to have people to say hi and bye to. It took me years and years and years to gather the courage to speak, but it was so worth it. It’s so much fun.

[luna-azzurra]

Family Secrets Prompts

A character discovers they have a sibling they never knew about. How does this revelation change their family dynamics?

Your protagonist finds a box of old letters that reveal family secrets. What do they learn, and how do they handle it?

A family heirloom is discovered to have a hidden power or curse. How does this impact the family?

A disowned family member returns with shocking news. How do they reintegrate into the family?

A character learns they were adopted. How does this change their identity and relationships?

The protagonist discovers their family is secretly wealthy. How does this affect their life?

Uncover a hidden romantic relationship between family members (e.g., a grandparent had a secret lover).

[catedemia]

19.11.24 — tuesday

i’m aware most of my study desk looks the same but it is the same subject 😭 family law

— anyways, completed hindu marriage laws and by tomorrow i will complete the rest as well

let’s achieve our goals for today ! 💌

[incorrectbatfam]

Hi! You seem like a good person to ask. I'm working on a fic and I heard that Americans in the North are meaner than the South? Is it true? How do I write it?

From a New England perspective:

We're not mean, we have a different standard of courtesy. And this is also an urban vs. rural divide along with North vs. South.

Life in the South moves at a more lax pace. Of course it varies individually and you have big cities like Atlanta or Dallas, but in general, there's more space for towns and populations to spread out. For a number of people, the only interaction they might get all day is when they drive to the bank or grocery store, where the employees are probably also their friends and neighbors. Over there, curtness is rude and uncaring. (I also noticed this in rural areas in the North, like Montana.) In a fic, the grocery store in Smallville might only get 10 customers per day, so the owner will come out and ramble on about all the freak tornadoes they've been getting. Because outward politeness is the norm, people are also more passive-aggressive in order to avoid rocking the boat—we've all heard the "bless your heart" coming from a suburban evangelical.

Up North, especially in the mid-Atlantic and New England states, it's the opposite. We have a ton of people packed into a smaller geographical area and our cities are closer to each other (a lot of people live in New Jersey and work in New York). Life moves faster, so our directness and tendency to keep to ourselves is our way of saying, "I care about you and I know your time/energy is valuable, so I'm not gonna waste it." You'll see it in cities like Chicago too. It's rude to start a conversation with the barista when there are 20 people waiting in line behind you. So if you're writing a story set in Gotham, it's perfectly acceptable for the Batburger cashier to be like "What do you want?" In that same vein, we don't beat around the bush when we're upset. If you're being an ass, I will tell you to fuck right off.

[xiaq]

Your first pride story was touching and all but you still married a man.

Yeah, bisexuals do that sometimes.

[aerequets]

I absolutely love the way you draw eyes when they're soft and so AUGH I LOVE THE WAY YOU DRAW YOR'S EYES ALL SOFT AND BABYGIRL HOW DO YOU DO IT???

WAUGH THANK YOU??!!! I can try my best to explain but no promises for anything good HDUAJA

I've started drawing her eyes as more of a diamond-y shape, which is more apparent in the picture on the right. I think when I want to make her look Soft ™️ all it takes is to narrow the eyes a bit (but point the ends more down than up, so she doesn't look murdery) and make the iris larger. Depending on the mood I want to show (like the left pic is happy soft, while the right pic is more sad/pensive) I'll color the eye accordingly. more romantical or happy vibes will have a little shine to the eye, as well as a darker top and pupil (pupil larger as well), while a sad or pensive look will have less detailing like that.

with these pics, there's two other things I wanted to point out;

1) sometimes I'll do an inverted look (like a white pupil) to show shock or surprise. it works more for serious content than comedy but like you can do whatever u want lol

2) I think the lines around the eyes are equally as important as the eyes themselves if that makes sense! like there are a lot of muscles around that area and they push and pull accordingly. the best way to show emotion is to let go of the fear of facial wrinkles I think and just give ur characters those features

[bi-hop]

so happy for her

[timblrdrake]

all you have to do to get rich quick is to be born to wealthy parents and be adopted by an even wealthier family when they get murdered

[moonhibs]

Au where Julian is a child of divorce

[writerthreads]

How to write a found family

By Writerthreads on Instagram

The found family story is a type of YA trope where individuals from different backgrounds come together to form a family, possibly to make up for their lack of true family. When it’s done well, found families can be so wholesome and heartwarming, and I simply adore this trope. Here's a guide to help you write a compelling found family in your WIP:

Create a diverse group of characters

The key to writing a successful found family story is to have a diverse cast of characters with different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences. This diversity will make the story richer and allow you to explore different perspectives and themes from different points of views. It also allows for a wide range of readers to find a character that they can relate to.

Establish a common goal

In a found family story, the characters come together to achieve a common goal. This goal can be anything from surviving an apocalypse to starting a business together. It is essential to establish this goal early on in the story, as it will help to create a sense of unity among the characters.

Themes

Using themes can add depth to a found family story by providing a framework for exploring the emotional and psychological growth of the characters. Here are a few examples:

Belonging: The idea that characters finally have a place where they fit in, and the struggles that come with feeling like an outsider previously.

Identity: The idea of self-discovery when a character finally becomes part of a family and has the time and people to communicate with to understand themselves.

Acceptance: Characters accepting themselves and others for who they are, overcoming previous prejudices.

Family: What makes a family, and the classic tropes associated with families and variations of them. Eg. the "mum" of the group who also doubles as the "wild child" at times.

Explore each character's backstory

A found family story is all about the characters' individual journeys and how they come together, and this can be done by giving each character a backstory that explains their motivations and desires. This can justify bad choices that characters may make or simply allow the readers to relate to them more. You can also use flashback scenes or dialogue to reveal important details about each character's past, however, I think flashbacks can be used more sparingly and only if they serve a purpose.

Create conflicts and obstacles

Like any good story, a found family story needs conflict to keep readers engaged. You can create conflicts within the group or create some external obstacles that the group must overcome. These conflicts challenge the characters and force them to grow and change through adverse situations. It’s especially interesting to see how characters with conflicting personalities or life views have friction with each other.

These are some of the tips I could think of for creating a found family in your story. As always our tips are just guides to help you with your book and definitely not a set of rules to follow. Good luck and have fun! :)

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

one thing i really wish people wouldn’t forget when it comes to suguru’s character is that his core desire is just to have a family. not in a nuclear family way, but in a “i want a place where i belong / i want to protect the ones i love” way…… literally everything else is just an extension of that desire. a means to meet that end. he broke down after being forced to realize that staying with his family meant having to watch them die, so he left and made a new one. and he got stronger. and his core wish was always, always always to create a world where he’d finally be able to protect them :(((((((((

[dragon-gem]

Sometimes I’m normal. Other times, I’m internally screaming about the brotherly relationship between Kai and Lloyd and giving myself a whole Ted Talk I’ve been developing for like three years about why I love them so much.

[that-other-lesbian-ellen]

List of activities considered the worst:

Loom warping

List of activities considered the best:

Weaving

After some issues figuring out which way is S threaded and which way is Z threaded, and having to flip over the entire project, finally got this going! Then I accidentally flipped the pattern vertically 🙃 But now it's recognizable! I just hope the yarn doesn't fray completely apart before I finish.

Pattern I was going for and pattern I ended up with below. Intended for gradient of 10 colors and a neutral, designed by me using Tablet Weaving Draft Designer.

(The rainbow yarn was a present from someone who bought the first thing that came up on Amazon when he searched "yarn." The experience of tablet weaving with it is 0/10. It's using up the yarn, though. There should be one more diagonal of light blue, instead of the left most dark green diagonal, but I ran out of light blue. The neutral is leftover from another project. The loom was handmade by me.)