#yes i am aware that tumblr is available on a desktop

[teaforwizards]

anyways, probably done with the worst of the court of fey and flowers spam. see y'all when i next find a new thing that i have to re-download a social app for

[purity-town]

Little late getting to these -- that's fully the fault of a class project I spent all of Monday/Tuesday and most of Wednesday working on -- but I finished my project and wrote up some long replies to these!

(Apologies for any funny formatting -- I'm trying out the beta for the new post editor!)

Absolutely not.

Nope! There are a few people who do know (other guides Andrew's met before, the Dryad, and I'd imagine the Witch Doctor knows something's up even if he doesn't know why), but none of them live in Purity Town proper, and the Dryad and Witch Doctor aren't the kind to participate in rumors or spread what isn't theirs to share. The old man is also aware just because he and Andrew have talked about their curses, but he's 1) not currently in town and 2) not going to share even if he were.

Most folks don't know much about Andrew in general; Becca probably knows the most out of the townsfolk, knowing a little bit about his family and where he's from (he has some pretty specific skills as a hunter that betray this, but he doesn't talk about his exact town of birth), but no specifics and certainly not time periods.

Andrew is good at keeping things quiet; he has to be.

I would actually appreciate if you didn't post to Pinterest -- usually I'm fine with people reposting with credit (several of the things I've posted to my DeviantArt have found their way to Instagram, for example) but Pinterest has something of a reputation for stolen art (things being reposted from another Pinterest post without credit this time, or credit being hard to view for users not logged in or just viewing through Google). So reposting elsewhere is fine (though if you repost to Reddit or Instagram, tag me at u/Ariibees or @Ariibees)! I'd just prefer my works stay off of Pinterest.

The terminology related to The Guide/Andrew/The Guardian/The World’s Core/The WoF is all confusing because on some level, they’re all the same being. Kind of like trying to talk about Jekyll and Hyde -- same guy, different looks/actions, haha.

For all intents and purposes, references to the WoF being the barrier/core/whatever behind or within which the spirits of light and dark are contained is equivalent to saying “these spirits are held trapped by the magic of the Guardian, who when summoned appears as the WoF.” I do break slightly from the official lore in how the WoF/Guardian/thing holding back these spirits works (mostly because I don’t really like the idea that the Hallow is a “temporary guardian” or whatever), but the basic concept of “these are trapped by [thing that makes up the WoF]” remains unchanged.

If “loony cultist” is a reference to something, I’m so sorry, but I’m lost on it. If you’re just talking about the lunatic cultist in a funny way, then yes, they’re in here as a very plot-significant character!

I had to google what meme you were talking about, but it did make me laugh.

Andrew’s most annoyed by the nickname because people do like to call him Guide, and for someone who’s dedicated his whole life to his role, it can get tiring. He doesn’t really *mind* being called Guide -- it’s fine, that’s what he is and as long as people are respectful of his job he’ll take what he can get -- but at the same time, he’d like for people to stop thinking “Aah! Monster!” or “Weird academic know-it-all” and just...treat him like a normal person sometimes. So he fights to be called Andrew. And...Malik comes along and gives him a nickname that he doesn’t like and doesn’t allow others to use, save for maybe a small group of people of which Malik is not a part. So, not cool, man!

People love to overcomplicate explaining shading/lighting, and if you wanted to you could certainly go on and on about reflections of light off the ground and shading colors and all sorts of things, but as I’m writing this at 1 AM I don’t really care to.

If you really want to get into shading, I see nice ones on DeviantArt or Tumblr from time to time, or you can always watch a YouTube video on it. Really, though, just keep at it, think about how the shadows should look and work, and you'll get better at it eventually and pick up new ideas on how it all works. (And this is coming from someone who is new to making comics and actually started as a painter.)

Purity Town’s shading comes down to this: simplicity. As much as I’d love to spend hours and hours redrawing the panels I don’t like and carefully shading every fold of fabric and painting detailed backgrounds, I’m a full-time college student and will be working full-time over the summer -- I don’t have the time. So, I cut corners: I reuse backgrounds or use brushes (see: bricks, trees, clouds) that make certain details easier, and I try not to obsess too much over panels I’m not fully happy with. Shadows go where they feel right, and light on the opposite side.

For shading, this comes down to making things quick and easy. For these last few pages, character shading/lighting has only been five layers. One hard light layer for the bluer soft shadows, one overlay layer for darker soft shadows, one linear burn layer for hard shadows, one soft light layer for soft lighting, and one overlay layer for hard lighting. I’ll often also make use of glow dodge layers for lighting, or change the color balance or add more hard/soft light layers if there’s a very heavy color filter on the scene (such as a celestial event, blood moon, or outdoors at night).

Using all the different layer types is essentially a cheat code to fancier lighting -- don’t want to use flat black? Boom, hard light or overlay or burn will give you colored shadows. Want to make your light brighter? Glow dodge will make it burn your retinas.

Sorry that this isn’t a very comprehensive guide, but in my mind, shading and lighting is really something that you pick up over time and it’s hard to sit down and write a guide for it without making it into a massive essay on art theory that I don't even know proper terminology for because I'm not an art student. Of course with some googling you’ll find *proper* guides for this sort of thing from art majors and the likes, and those can be super helpful and technical! But for Purity Town, I just sort of go with what feels right and what's easy to replicate.

Firstly, I’m happy to hear you’re liking the comic!

Secondly, those buttons are actually there due to the theme! (For those on mobile who can’t see it, I have the theme set to only display on desktop as I prefer the current mobile layout on phone.) I’m using the simple webcomic theme (a quick Google should tell you how to install it for yourself) -- except I’m not actually using it for the webcomic features; rather, it’s a case of “this is the most simple, nice-looking non-default theme I could find.”

The previous/next buttons are added by the theme with the intent that the blog is being used as a typical webcomic website, with nothing but comic pages being posted. However, I post asks and other art here too, and I do so with the intent that people looking at #Terraria or their dashboards in general will see it. So...I use html formatting to make the first/previous/next/last links, along with an index and chapter-by-chapter viewing (using /tagged/chapter##/chrono) so that no matter where you’re coming from, you can still navigate just the pages!

If you want to add just the previous/next buttons, I can’t really help you -- web development is not my area of study in the slightest. But you can check out the theme that they come from and if you want to install only them, you can surely find a tutorial on it somewhere!

(As a side note, the comments section is not from the theme, it’s from a site called Disqus. I don’t expect many people, if anyone, to leave comments, but since I link back to this site a lot and many folks don’t have Tumblr accounts, it’s an option I like to make available.)

Hiya! My hike was pretty nice; it was a short and easy one, but that was quite appreciated as the trail is unmaintained from November to April, and the trail was covered in fallen trees and quite rocky. Still had fun, though!

And for backgrounds, it depends! For indoors scenes (or outdoors scenes with buildings) I don’t tend to use references, outside of looking up things like “which side of a door is the handle on.” I will, however, integrate real-life textures (see: the quilt and rug in Guide’s house, the wood walls on the building in the background of this week’s page), and paint over paintings from the Terraria wiki.

For outdoors scenes, for simple backgrounds (such as foliage-heavy) ones, I typically don’t need references. I like the difference between detailed, lined indoor/man-made object scenes vs. painted, messy outdoor scenes. But for things like mountains, I do sometimes look up references to help with color choices and the likes.

The town’s layout is a bit strange in that depending on the scene, the background could be drastically different. One side of town faces more mountainside, one side faces the orchards/open hillside, and the other two sides face various degrees of open space and more mountainside/forest. References taken on top of mountains are helpful to get an idea of what degree of foliage I should include between the characters and the sky.

Though this is very specific to the town of Purity -- other towns/villages will have significantly different-looking backgrounds, even the foliage-heavy ones.

That said, what's even more helpful than looking at photos is looking at paintings. Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron is really good for getting an idea of how to draw grasslands and distant mountains, plus Studio Ghibli movies in general!

[builder051]

hi!! omg i just binge read all of ur fics and they’re so amazing. you’re style of writing is so emotional and you’re honestly so talented. i was wondering if u take requests?

if not, i still want to say that as someone who’s dealt with sort of similar things as natasha in ur fics thank you for spreading awareness and making me feel not so alone🤍

Wow, thanks so much! You’re so kind, and I’m glad you feel connected. I like my stories to be relatable, though I’m sorry trauma and distress have been parts of your life. You’re right, you’re not alone, and please know I support you. You can always feel free to contact me.

Just to make sure you catch all my connections, (NO pressure, and hoping I don’t sound like a salesman, here), my fics are logged in my master fic list (available in the link in my bio here on Tumblr) where they are cataloged by subject (OC and fandom, then by ‘verse w/in each fandom) and in my AO3 (username Builder). I know there are stragglers :(. Doing what I can to catch up. I also have a published book, which you can find out more about @llcupp-author , and that’ll point you to additional ways to read my other works and get in touch.

I DO TAKE REQS. However, I have a lot of “rules” based on triggers/preferences. If you want to send a prompt, feel free to do so, but you might want to poke around on my blog (maybe read the “what kink?” and “Starbucks Sunday” —aptly named so you can tell exactly what I’m talking about, yes, I know— articles, which you may have to pull up on a desktop or on your phone in desktop mode in order to read). Sorry to send you on a wild goose chase. But in short answer, yes. I will read message that hits my inbox. I don’t promise to write it, though. But my “undesirables” are specific and generally easy to edit out, so if you’re familiar with my work, it should work out alright. DM me before you send your ask if you want to workshop it.

Also, I fill prompts for free if you let me edit the prompt to fit my liking, make it as long/short as I want, and take as long as I need (including burying it in the back of my WIP pile and getting it out sometime in the middle of next summer). If you want the controls, I charge $0.01 a word (comes to $10 per 1,000 word story - or more or less as you please). I’ll tell you more if you choose this option. Right now, just letting you know it exists.

One last thing, because I feel like I have to say it, I am an adult, and a lot of the things I write about are, well, adult. If you are under 18, please take care with this relationship and the content you are exploring. I do not create or support the creation and spread of content determined to be illegal/criminal/age-restricted. And also, I would appreciate it if you would kindly continue to assist me in keeping my Tumblr/AO3 content separate from my professionally published (Amazon) content.

[yourultraarchive]

Reply to @prurientpuddlejumper​ on this ask:

I’m sorry you’re frustrated or if I offended you somehow, but to be frank I don’t appreciate the tone you’re using here. However, to answer you anyway:

> they def meant the links to these alleged "online generators," because I am in the same boat as anon

First of all, unless you ARE that anon, I don’t think you can say they “def” meant anything, since they never came back to clarify, and I did try my best to answer them the first time, and I seemed to have helped since they didn’t come back to report any problems with my answer.

Second of all, “alleged”? That’s very rude. Just because you cannot see them on tumblr mobile, does not mean they do not exist. Plenty of other people have used them just fine, as evidenced by the many posts submitted to this blog. And as the last two people who’ve asked about mobile access before never came back with problems, I can only assume they simply went on the desktop site to use the generators instead of accusing me that it’s not accessible at all.

>  post after post about how you updated the UI or whatnot with no link to the thing you updated

It was only two posts (so far anyway), and if you read them closely, you may have noticed I said I was only working on new updates, that they weren’t done, and that they aren’t out yet. And also that “the current generators are still up” so that people have a fully functional version of the generator to use, even if it’s not as pretty as the update is going to be. So no, there is no “link to the thing I updated”, because it’s not done yet. And as the point of the post was about the updates-to-come, I saw no need to promote a link to the generators that are currently available. Seeing as you want that though, I shall go correct those posts and link it, for your and future readers’ convenience.

I apologize for the misunderstanding, if I wasn’t clear enough about the updates being a work-in-progress. I was just trying to update my actual followers (of which I noticed that you are not one) that I was working on stuff, since this blog is usually pretty quiet.

> I REALLY wanna see it, and am growing increasingly frustrated about how much work you're pouring into this *thing* without giving mobile users any way to *access it*.

Again, I’m sorry this is frustrating to you, and you do bring up some legitimate feedback about the mobile accessibility. As I mentioned, I’ve answered at least two asks about this issue before, but since it’s been a few years and phones have definitely gotten more powerful I can look into developing a proper mobile version. But a lot of issues come up with making a mobile version, namely UI and responsive design (because I’d have to account for both vertical and horizontal orientation, and again I reiterate that UI design is hard), dynamic coding/image generation/data input/font importing and styling/etc., and how to save the actual generated image or at the very least the export/import save data for later use on a desktop browser. It takes a lot of work (more than most people realize, I imagine), so if you would like to help with that, let me know, otherwise you have no right to shame me for not making a mobile version, taking my time, or doing any of this.

As it is, you can actually still access the generator on mobile, just not tumblr mobile. You just have to go to a browser on your phone (there’s a reason my URL is so simple). However, as mentioned above, the template was not designed with mobile in mind, so all the fonts and effects and arrangement on the template itself just looks... not like it’s supposed to. Which, again, is part of the issue with the design, but at least you can access it on mobile, against your claims that you cannot.

Also, I mainly made this a desktop site because of how large the dimensions of the template are, in order to make sure the text is visible/legible even in the downsized preview image. Even when I view the template on my phone, I have to zoom in a lot, and with the current live version of the online generators, it would have made scrolling around to input data annoying. The PSDs, as well, would be inaccessible on mobile as far as I know (if Photoshop Mobile has improved enough to handle all the layers, masks, and effects, I’m unaware) so it was a conscious decision to make this whole thing desktop-only when I first started this blog several years ago.

> Even the "downloads" link you just shared just redirects back to this same page. Which is probably because you've hidden all the links away in "pages" which are completely invisible and inaccessible on the mobile app

It’s very much tumblr’s fault, and I really should have thought of that at first, but again, it was a conscious decision to make this a desktop site. Even if I made rebloggable/viewable posts with the links in them (which I plan to do soon, if only to satisfy mobile users like you), only the PSD download links would work (but again, not sure how well downloading PSDs work on mobile devices), as the tumblr app will still loop back to the blog, since the online generator is still one of those blog “pages”. And that is not changing for as long as I don’t have the time or money to host it on its own domain.

I can’t change the fact that tumblr mobile doesn’t automatically open blog pages in an external browser, so the only solution I can offer you is to take the extra step to copy the url and go into your mobile device’s actual internet browser, or just go to your browser and type in my URL manually.

If you actually couldn’t access the templates at all (which should not be an issue if you “REALLY wanna see it” given that not only did I offer you explanations and solutions for the tumblr app problem, but also that it IS accessible on desktop and you reasonably could have just gone on a computer) or had any other problem with them, I have made no stranger of myself and have always been open to help people. They have been polite or nice when they do talk to me, and I’ve always tried to be cordial in return. Your feedback is legitimate, and I appreciate it, but you really could have worded your implied suggestion a little better. And to be quite honest, I was offended by the rudeness of your reply, especially when you called my hard work a “*thing*”. Those asterisks imply a very negative tone, in case you weren’t aware.

I get the impression that you think that your demand will be fulfilled right away if you make enough fuss about it, but I’m not going to be manipulated or guilt-tripped because you feel bad. Maybe you don’t mean it that way, but you can “grow increasingly frustrated” all you want, because not only am I working on this for free, on my free time, and by myself, but I am also not doing this for you. You’re right that I am pouring a lot of work into this, as much work as any fan artist or fanfiction writer will put into their own works, and I’m very proud of it (both as it is now and what it will be in the future) and I have fun working on it, but this is not my job. And you’re not paying for a service.

I’m not working for anyone, and I have no reason to have made more than I originally did--originally I only made the student template PSDs for some friends, and the generator (which seems to be my most popular template, even though my original focus was on the PSDs) only came about because one of my friends didn’t have Photoshop. And I wasn’t even going to release either of them to the public, but I did, and the villain ones came over a year later because of this blog and the people who follow it. No one asked for a user interface update (in fact, more people have asked for a pro hero template), but I’m doing it anyway because I can and I want to. That’s all this boils down to. Also my free time (if you hadn’t noticed, everything on my blog runs on a queue, and when I do queue stuff it’s usually like 3am or so--including right now... it’s currently 5am actually) and motivation (I’m well aware of how few people actually use the templates compared to how many people follow and reblog the posts, and honestly it’s a little discouraging). So if I do make a mobile version, be aware that it won’t be coming out for a very long time. (Also, I think you’re the only one in several years who has complained about it, and you are literally 1 in... what, 3000+ people? Judging by the number of notes on the original post I made when I started the blog and my current number of followers. And again, you’re not even one of them. So to be honest, I’m really not motivated to work on this quickly.)

If you want it faster? Being nice when you show your interest helps, it’s how I got encouraged to make the villain templates. Though I never asked for much other than patience. Or at the very least, the respect any fandom content creator deserves--I may not be cranking out fanart daily or new chapters of a fanfiction weekly or anything, but I am still providing the fandom with something they can enjoy at no cost. And like reviews on fics or comments on art, many people have expressed that they’re grateful the templates and generators exist at all, unlike you, which is really the reason this blog continues to exist and the generators/templates to be updated with new and improved features. I could have just left my original template generator up there and abandoned it, but I know how it feels to find out a fanart you loved years ago was deleted or a really good fanfic was discontinued. So I’ll continue to work on it, and yes I’ll put mobile compatibility for the generators on my to-do list, but I’ll do it at my own pace.

Also I’m not making money off of this, but hey, if you wanna give me incentive that way, hop into my DMs or something and we’ll talk, but I’ve never asked for donations or anything and I don’t plan to. The generators and templates are free for use, and most of that is because of tumblr, which gave it a platform and a home. If I hosted it on its own domain, I’d need a means to pay for that, and I’m personally not invested enough to do that when tumblr is free and works well enough.

If you or anyone else wants to help change that, come talk to me, the ask box is always open.

Otherwise, please visit this blog page on a desktop browser or at the very least something that isn’t just the tumblr mobile app, because nothing can be done about mobile compatibility right now, and I’d hate for you to miss out on seeing the templates. Hopefully I can look forward to whatever you will create with it.

-archivist

[sunnyoongi]

FAQ - mobile version

Important pages

About = What this blog is about.

Tags = Where we have all our tags accessible.

More Melanin = Where we promote other anti-whitewashing sources/blogs.

Explanations = Contains links to answers we give to complex questions/topics.

Fansites = Page/s that contain fansites.

Fansites to avoid (for bad behavior) = Page/s that contain fansites that are sasaengs, stalkers, scammers etc.

Fan Ettiquette = Rules by BTS Official Fan Club on how to interact with/respect BTS.

Whitewashed or Lighting? = Tips on how to tell if a photo is whitewashed or not.

Make Up = What we assume their foundation shade is.

Sunny Yoongi Merch = If you want to support us/wear our stuff.

We also have an "faq" tag you can look into as well.

Restoring

1. What does “Restored” mean? Please check this ask

2. What program do you use to restore? (Tutorial included) We currently only restore on desktop: all admins are using Adobe Lightroom Classic CC, which is a more advanced and professional software. And rarely we would use Photoshop when we need to layer things. We also used to use Photoshop Express for desktop, we made a tutorial for restoring with this application.

When we used to edit on mobile: we used the free app Photoshop Express. You can also use camera360 and facetune. To be honest though, the photos are not going to be as high quality as the ones on desktop and might come out really noisy.

Further help and assistance for restoring: assist tag

3. What kind of process do you go through while restoring? Here is a short explanation of what we analyze in order to restore and here is a post discussing the rules we have to follow during the process.

4. How do you know your restore is accurate? Please refer to this ask.  And this one.

5. Can I restore too if I am not East/Southeast Asian? Not by yourself, no. The reason why is linked to this ask and this ask. If you would still like to restore by submitting your restores to us, please refer to this ask.

6. Can videos be restored? Yes it's possible. We don't do it because it's too much work and a very tedious one. We don't feel that it's very necessary since there are usually other unwhitewashed videos/content available.

7. You're making them too light. You're whitewashing them just the same! Please check this ask. If you have an issue with a certain restore , please politely tell us about it and we will look into it and possibly redo the restore. Don't be a dumbass and wait to the last minute before sending us hate. 

8. I don't think you're doing an accurate job! This ______ restore doesn't look good.  If you have an issue with a certain restore , please politely tell us about it and we will look into it and possibly redo the restore. 

Skintone

1. How do you know what their natural skin tone looks like? Please check this ask.

2. What make up foundation might they wear? Check this page please.

3. How do I know my own undertone ? Check this ask please.

Whitewashing

1. How does a picture get whitewashed? Please check this ask.

2. I don’t know anything about whitewashing / colorism ? Please check our Explanations Page to look for discussions regarding complex topics within whitewashing / colorism / restoring / racism / etc.

3. How are you so sure the pictures are whitewashed? Please refer to this ask.

4. I can’t tell when they have been whitewashed or not? This page might help you.

5. How do you know it’s not just the lighting? Please, check this page.

6. Why do people whitewash? Please refer to this ask.

7. Can videos and gifs be whitewashed? Yes they can. Please check this post.

8. What about just lightening photos? Is it whitewashing as well? Please check this ask.

9. Do the BTS members whitewash themselves too? Yes and no. Please check this ask.

10. Is it possible to whitewash pale skinned individuals? Yes, it is. Please check this ask. 

11. Can pictures be whitewashed accidentally? Yes, they can. It's due to inappropriate camera settings. 

12. Is there a difference between a whitewashed picture and a picture that was edited (brightened) because it originally had bad lighting?

Please check this ask.

About SUNNYOONGI

1. How do I use the search bar? Just type the words you’re looking for, like a member’s name or a tag.You can search on multiple tags just by typing them down separated by the space bar (ex: “taehyung daw” - when looking for restores of taehyung during dark and wild era). Tags for eras are the abbreviations of it’s names, check the Tags Page for all of them.

2. What do all of your “uww” tags mean? UWW is an abbreviation for the word unwhitewashed. So all posts on that tag are considered unwhitewashed or “natural” by the admins.

RUWW = Reblogged Unwhitewashed, unwhitewashed content that we reblogged.

OUWW = Original Unwhitewashed, unwhitewashed content that we posted ourselves on this blog. 

Here is the Tags Page if you need other tags.

3. I’m looking for references that have not been whitewashed/restored? Just use the uww tag or the fansites with the sun symbol or go to @sunkissedbts.

4. Do you have permission from the fansites to edit their content? Hell no. Here is why we won’t reconsider.

At the very least, we will give credit. But we also refuse to link their content. We have only started giving credit recently. We might go back through our old posts and credit old edits, only when we have time to do so if it doesn't halt this blog's activity or our lives.

5. Can you restore selfies/selcas? Sorry, but we won’t restore selfies. Check this post for more info.

6. How many pictures can I submit for restoring? As many as you like! We just ask that you pay attention when submitting the pictures or giving us links so that what you’re giving us is in high definition and not cropped or furthered edited by the fandom (after it was released by the fansite etc).

7. Why haven’t my submissions been posted/ restored yet? Sometimes we take a while to restore them cuz of personal issues and just life in general.There’s always the possibility of Tumblr eating your message. If you submitted a selfie, it won’t be restored.Or if you submitted a Black and White photo or any graphics editing. Unfortunately, not all whitewashed pictures can be decently restored. Sometimes we just can’t undo all the damaging previous editing. Here are examples of photos than we couldn't fix at all. Some pictures actually do not need to be restored even if they might look like they have been whitewashed. In such cases we will post the picture and explain it.

8. Can we use your restores for icons/headers/graphics editing etc? (Plus tips) Yeah, sure! This ask may help regarding how to edit without whitewashing plus additional resources. We are here to spread awareness, provide a safe space, and educate others. We will focus more on the social aspect. Aesthetics or graphics is not our goal. It is up to the individual person on how they want to edit it/crop it. Whether they give credit to us or the fansite is up to the individual’s own choice. We will no longer ask for credits for photos, graphics, or any of our restores. We just ask that others do not whitewash the photos.

9. Do you know about fansites that don’t whitewash? / Any fansites I should stay away from? 85~90% of fansites whitewash. It would be easier to focus on the ones that don’t whitewash rather than the other way around.

Please check our Fansite Compilation Page.

Also please follow@sunkissedbts for fansite/news/official/endorsements photos that are not whitewashed/minimally edited photos.

10. Do you recommend any other restoring/melanin/anti-whitewashing blog(s)? Actually yes, we do. Check in the More Melanin page.

11. Can we know more about the admins of this blog? Despite choosing to remain anonymous for the time being, you can find out some things about us on our About Page and we also take personal asks.

12. Did you call Yoongi ugly? Yes we did, please check this ask. 

13. Are you guys on twitter? We only have personal accounts, nothing sunnyoongi related. You are welcome to share our stuff there if you want!

[hey-look-im-doing-it-blog]

Self-evaluating why I’m lazy and what I can do about it

This is a self-evaluation entry, where I evaluate why I’m screwing up, what I’m succeeding in, and what I should do.

A major philosophy when I do these is that I don’t rely on just “trying harder” or expect to “stop being lazy”. The evaluator me treat my Regular Me as though I’m dealing with a group of children – sometimes I can get the Responsible Kid to stop the Lazy Kid, and sometimes the Responsible Kid wants nap time. I influence these kids to do what needs to be done through clear instructions, enticement and just taking into account that sometimes the Lazy Kid will be the one leading.

More below.

Here’s the summary:

Have a routine.

Have a tidy desk with a timer, pen and paper, a 15-minute time table, and makeshift bullet journal.

Use a 15-minute time table to record how you spent your time, to be more time-aware.

Don’t eat snacks between 2 PM – 5 PM

For Russian: Focus on Anki, then Learning with Texts and Clozemaster

For exercises:

Just do a bit more today than you did yesterday.

Have a timer for breaks.

Problem: I haven’t been updating my daily checklists and uploading them here.

Analysis: Because I haven’t been doing them. I’ve been lazy the whole time. Next!

Problem: I don’t refer to my checklists (which includes studying Russian, exercising), rules to abide to (like sleeping early or waking up early, and taking computer breaks), and even my makeshift bullet journal (where I wrote deadlines like clearing up my computer so that my cousin will use it already, dang he’s patient).

Because I don’t refer to my checklists, rules, and deadlines, I don’t follow them.

Analysis: Already wrote part of the analysis, but it seems like I need to be able to have easy access to it – so I guess physical reminders? I also keep forgetting where I place my planner, so I think I need an actual desk that I’d like to use (instead of my bed or messy table or desktop desk I’m going to give up anyway). Everything I need to refer to will be there.

I remember in Homestuck Jade keeps reminders in the form of colorful strings tied on her fingers. I just made in my makeshift bullet journal a physical list of daily tasks to do for my goals. The rules are easier for me to remember –

Possible solutions:

I need a desk.

Problem: I don’t make accountability reports anymore (aka reporting when I’m about to break my own rules, or already have)

Analysis and possible solution: I need a paper readily available.

It’s easier to write down what I’ve done wrong, or what I need to do, on a piece of paper right after I do it, rather than accessing Tumblr with mobile problems then procrastinating.

Problem: I’m physically and mentally weak in exercise. Doing 30 squat thrusts without giving into the feeling of quitting is beyond me.

Analysis: I’d like to think that’s because I’m doing the form right but that’s a dumb excuse. I asked my friend who used to be in varsity for advice. He’s just used to pushing himself, he said. I gotta be realistic and accept that I’m relatively weak, and I can’t earn grit in one push.

Possible solution: Just do a bit more than you did yesterday. Just one more squat thrust than yesterday. Just ten seconds longer in running than yesterday.

Problem: I get lazy waiting for nothing when I’m exercising but get too tired.

Analysis: Is the problem the need to make the break useful, that I’m irritated at myself for getting tired easily, or am I just too impatient to wait?

Possible solutions:

Use an interval timer app for exercising.

Play exercise music.

Problem: When the wifi stops working I start to procrastinate.

Possible solution: Have a back-up offline task to do when these things happen.

Problem: I have too many conditions that won’t allow me to run and exercise.

Analysis: Running outside in the heat often leads to heatstroke for me, and frankly I’m not willing to test my grit or safety (or my dogs’). So I really only have two times I can run outside: before 6AM and 5PM-6PM.

I don’t exercise if I just ate a couple of hours ago, and unfortunately that’s often the case. Worst thing is they’re chocolates and chips and stuff. I need to implement a new rule to follow.

And there’s also the rain. I’m not willing to get another injury, so I guess I should just exercise at home when that’s the case. As for my dogs…is it all right to skip a day?

Also guys, don’t get more than two dogs unless you live in a huge or responsible household where there’s always someone to walk the dogs, or if you weren’t really the owner/s but there’s no place for them anymore.

Possible solution:

Don’t eat between 2PM-6PM.

If it’s raining, exercise at home.

Problem: I often take longer than I anticipate when doing various tasks, like this thing you’re reading, yes, I took two damn hours, how do you do that.

Analysis: I completely forgot until now that I also spent an hour printing something and making a few physical reminders. I guess I’ll need to use a time table not to plan things but to record what I’ve done and be aware of how I spend my time instead of just how much time I use.

Possible solutions: Have a time table for recording rather than planning, and make more “deadly deadlines.”

Problem: I haven’t been practicing Russian.

Analysis: I know I can’t just stick only to Anki to learn vocabulary, or Learning with Texts (aka free LingQ) for training my Russian reading / listening skills, or watching videos or practicing with Russian forums or memes – I gotta do all of them. And that confuses me, because I don’t know which one to do. I think it’s safe to say that I should do Anki almost every day, at least. Always been the most reliable in terms of progress, even I use isolated vocabulary words.

I also can’t. Do. Verbs. And grammar. How do you verbs. How does one practice?? What are conjugations????

So I searched it up and found Clozemaster, which I have not tested but am thinking about investing my time in.

Possible solutions:

Anki every day. Once you’re done with Anki cards, Learning With Texts and good ol’ fashion randomly reading memes and people’s blogs.

Try Clozemaster.

Will analyze this more once I actually start to stick to a routine.

I have more, but most of them seem to be solvable with a tidy desk that has everything I need, and a routine.