#A lot of times you can find things for free or very very cheap. Once again; I’m poor. I learned how to make the very limited funds I had | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

netherworldpost · 11 months

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With the various rumors and releases of Tumblr possibly changing how they do things... (gestures to the vague rumor mill)...

Zines.

I really think we as Folks Who Make Things and Folks Who Like Art Writing Poetry Music Comics Other Things need to explore zines. And I mean ZINES. Nothing glossy. Nothing fancy.

Very. Cheap. Zines.

I've been threatening mentioning I was going to create a guide on how I'm going to approach this -- and I'm going to -- but I am also realizing in the writing I Do Things Highfalutin because I am who I am + had a career in graphic design.

Let's talk about how you can make a zine very cheaply and very pretty.

STEP ONE: SUPPLIES

Very bright paper. I like "Astrobrights" because they are absurdly bright. Here is a link in a store I like. I buy a lot of paper and envelopes from them. You can generally find Astrobrights in big box office stores. It prints on laser printers and ink jet and photocopiers.

Very bright envelopes. What's that? Astrobrights has envelopes?! AM I SOLVING PROBLEMS let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Letter paper is 8.5" x 11" and is the most common size in the united states (overseas folk will have to use this advice with a grain o'sea salt and search yer own waters).

A9 envelopes are a letter sheet folded in half.

A2 envelopes are a letter sheet folded in half, then folded in half.

#10 envelopes are your common long envelopes, letter paper folded in thirds.

Pick the size you like.

If you want to get big and fancy, Tabloid is 17" x 11" -- so double a letter sheet. This gets tricky to work with but is neat in sizing.

STEP TWO: ZINE CONTENT

Do you know how to use InDesign or similar program? Use that.

No? Use Google Docs or Word or whatever other program and ramble.

Want something special? Write out some or part with a sharpee or pen.

Mix and match both.

If you are feeling fancy, design it like a booklet -- mock up a sheet of blank paper as if it were a brochure. If not, just design it straight up and down like a letter. There are no zine laws.

STEP THREE: ZINE PRINTING

Print at home on your home printer.

Don't have a printer at home? Print it at work (don't get fired)

Can't? Your local library may be able to help.

You need 1 copy on white paper.

FedEx Office has photocopiers. Your local library may too. Or your job.

Print 1 copy of your zine on white paper and then photocopy the rest onto colorful paper (or white paper, it be yer zine seadog).

Or print everything on the color paper if you have access to free printing, that's fine too.

The photocopy setup is purely "printing tends to cost more than photocopying."

If you want to slash prices, print 2 per sheet and have FedEx office cut them for you, this will cost $1 - $5 depending on how many sheets you are dealing with. This is for when you're doing a LOT of zines at once.

Or use their manual paper cutter yourself for free.

STEP FOUR: ZINE STAPLING

"Long reach stapler" is what I recommend. There are a few varieties. They tend to be $20 - $30.

Or just use 1 sheet!

STEP FOUR: ZINE POSTAGE

A single first class stamp for 1-2 pages. If you get up to 3+, go to the post office and ask them to weigh a comp you have assembled.

This is a guideline.

It's a really good idea to check at least once how much your zine weighs just in general. Post offices have scales. And are pretty. And have stamps.

OKAY ENOUGH LUSTING FOR THE POST OFFICE FROM THE GHOTS POST OFFICE BLOG BACK TO WORK

STEP FIVE: ZINE MAILING

This is actually the most difficult part. Label printers exist with various costs -- if you're starting out? Go with printable labels.

Your office supply shop will have them and they'll have templates you can drop in the customer addresses.

Save yourself time by using this label as the thing that seals the envelope -- don't lick envelopes.

A key tenet to staying in business is constantly reviewing physical (and mental) labor and stressors and reducing them as much as possible.

Return address labels are intensely cheap in literally every online printer, google "return address labels." Make sure you have this because at least a few of your shipments will come back to you.

STEP SIX: ZINE PRICING

Okay here is where we get uncomfortable because we're talkin' coins.

Prices are based on above links. You can get whatever paper you want, so this is guidelines. All numbers rounded up.

Payment processing ($0.30) + $0.05 sheet + $0.15 envelope + $0.66 first class postage = $1.16 base cost

$1.16 + 2.9% of $1.16 payment processing = $1.20

Plus taxes. I'm not getting into tax figures YOU DO THAT (just say 30% for easy math, this is not saying "your taxes are 30% or that mine are" I am saying "I am going to factor 30% for this equation to complete this guide".)

I did not include the mailing label (it will be $0.01 - $0.05 depending on how fancy and how many you buy) because you have the option to just write things and also it fits into the rounding of the above.

If you use Patreon, include your fees. Probably replace the above processing fees with your patreon processing... fees? I don't use patreon I don't know how it works.

Retail option 01: $1.50 - 1.20 = $0.80 gross - 30% = $0.09 / net / zine.

Retail option 02: $2 - 1.20 = $0.80 gross - 30% = $0.56 / net / zine.

Retail option 03: $3 - 1.20 = $1.80 gross - 30% = $1.26 / net / zine.

Should it be $1.50? Should it be $3.00? MORE? LESS?! That is for you to decide. Base it on what your zine contains, how long it takes you to write/draw/etc. it and how you want your flow to be.

STEP SEVEN: ZINE FREQUENCY

When my shop launches, it'll have a zine once a month. We are going to offer a subscription option + a "I just want 1" option.

You can do a zine monthly, or every few months, or whatever.

Keep in mind that the purpose of doing this is to break the dependency on social media marketing.

KEEP IN MIND AS AN AUDIENCE MEMBER TO A CREATOR YOU LIKE THAT THEY ARE DOING THIS TO BREAK THEIR DEPENDENCY ON SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING.

If you have a lot of energy and an audience that comes to your shop a lot? Consider doing a zine monthly.

If you do not have a lot of energy and/or your audience is tapped for cash frequently? Considering doing 1 zine per season.

Consider 2 zines a year if that works better for you!

NO RULES ONLY JOY

Not sure? Experiment! Be upfront! "This is new. I'm figuring this out. Billionaires are tinkering with these things and we gotta figure something else out."

BONUS STEP: NETHERWORLDPOST.COM

so hi I'm atty and I'm your loud long rambler today

Netherworld Post Office used to be @evilsupplyco and now we are rebranding in prep of relaunching. Same person behind the rambles and comics, new name with a more focus (mail instead of mail + seemingly everything else in experiment)

if you enjoyed this ramble and/or like ghosts, monsters, witches, mermaids, and fun stories and projects focused on cozy Halloween, you may like us when we finish the rebranding and relaunching in autumn 2023.

email sign up (the zine will come when we are open)

WHETHER YOU JOIN MY LIST OR NOT

I really, really, really hope you consider doing a regular, or irregular, zine. Something outside of email, something outside of social media, something that connects I MADE A WEIRD THING and the people who say I LOVE THIS WEIRD THING YOU MADE.

The walls are closing in on free social media as a platform for people who make weird things to build audiences for free or very cheap.

And with that...

netherworldpost.com as one final hat pass

good luck folks

thanks for listenin' to the ol' ghost

#small business #small business marketing #small business fun #zines #zine #making zines

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hatsunemitskislobotomy · 4 months

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“…𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙞 𝙝𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙤𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙗𝙞𝙧𝙩𝙝𝙙𝙖𝙮..

𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙮 𝙗𝙞𝙧𝙩𝙝𝙙𝙖𝙮, 𝙗𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙮…”

╴╴⊹ꮺ˚ ╴╴╴╴╴⊹˚ ╴╴╴╴˚ೃ ╴╴

well that was one way to be broken up with.

she couldn’t even be mad at the guy. he had been very sweet and patient but she had spiraled and started missing texts that turned to missing calls— which turned to missing dates. wasn’t the first time either, she just was that much of an exhausting person to keep up with.

in the sense that she was always behind.

she let out a sigh as she rid herself of his footprints, deleting his texts, deleting any photos, unadding him on socials— the whole nine yards.

but when it came to that dreaded voicemail.

her finger hovered over the red trash can button, taunting her.

and then she pocketed her phone, she supposed it would serve as a reminder.

that it was always her fault.

she rubbed at her face before emerging from her room.

“ah, you’re awake.” her raven haired roommate looked up from his book

“and to think we thought you were just about to sleep through your date.” her snowy haired roommate chimed in from his position laying across the raven’s lap

“ah, about that… i just got broken up with.”

“…”

it was quiet between the three of them, then again when was it not? she never made much efforts to communicate with them past their typical chores and roles in the housework.

the two in a friendlier than most relationship were seeking a third person to help take up the lease and that’s exactly what she did, nothing more nothing less.

and when it got awkward…

“yeah…” she murmured looking at her hands

“do you… want to talk about it?” it was a cheap attempt, she appreciated it nonetheless

“i’d rather not, i think my first proper conversation with you two shouldn’t be me bitching about my ex.”

satoru’s airy laugh sounded as he got up from his lover’s (?) lap.

“please, we wouldn’t be opposed.”

“speak for yourself satoru, only you are a fiend for other people’s affairs.” suguru tsked, closing his book slightly

“but please, if you need someone to talk to— we’re both willing.”

“i thought i was the fiend suguru—”

“you are, i’m offering as a concerned roommate.”

“i’m fine.” her words a lot harsher than she intended

and then came the unconvinced, concerned glances.

“sorry.”

and then she retreated back to her room.

if she kept this up she’d find herself out on the streets.

she let out a sigh, it was what she deserved right? no boyfriend, no roommates, no friends, nothing.

on her birthday no less.

she let out a sigh, she might as well distract from this pitiful day.

————————————————————

nothing beat rearranging your room instead of confronting your feelings.

she shook her head, she didn’t have a right to feel anything more than empty. the only thing that she felt was the need to rearrange her room and rearranged it was.

she needed a new change of scenery, after all she was another year older.

and yet still none the wiser.

the brutality of reality seemed to sting more as one got older.

she sighed, at least she can mope in a clean room.

a knock pulled her from her thoughts.

“it’s open.”

and then there stood her two roommates.

“i don’t think we’ve ever seen your room—ack! ow…”

“seriously satoru?”

“what? it’s true…”

she stared at the two bickering before the raven sat his eyes on her.

“y/n… we wanted to see if you were free later—“

“please, she’s always free—“

a smack, then a whine.

“we’ve realized that you haven’t been properly introduced to the area… we’d love to do you the honors.” he offered a half hearted smile

she supposed it was true, aside from her dates once in a while— she never really was familiar with the area.

“i suppose i can accept.”

“i told you suguru now we have to drag her ou— wait what?”

she chuckled, for the first time in a long time, a genuine chuckle tumbled out from her lips.

the two men were in awe.

“i’ll join your endeavors to wherever, i… i could use the fresh air.” she swallowed

the bright blue eyed man seemed ecstatic as he left her room pumped, the more subdued raven gave her a soft smile before leaving her to get ready in peace.

“thank you for humoring us.”

she should be thanking them, but she wouldn’t say that part out loud… at least not yet.

—————————————————

she couldn’t help but feel a bit awkward as she was wedged between the two men who insisted.

something about her being too small and easily losable in the crowd.

apparently these parts were known for having winter night markets where the cold winter streets would warm to life with street food and vendors.

she hardly had a chance to process the sights and the atmosphere as they dragged her from stall to stall, sampling food, eying trinkets, playing games.

she’d be a liar if she said she wasn’t having fun.

“wait guys— i’m gonna get some of the dango from earlier.” satoru was bouncing away before the two could even respond

“well his dentist certainly has their work cut out for them.”

suguru had to process her snark words a little before letting out a chuckle.

“believe it or not, satoru has the most elaborate brushing routine that I’ve ever seen. he’d rather die than develop any sensitivity to sweets.” he hummed

“i see.” she hummed, starting to rub her hands a bit

“getting cold?”

“a little, it’s fine— i’ll probably invest in gloves one of these days…” she sighed a little

“here, let me.”

he gently took her hands in his, letting her much smaller hands rest nice and warm in his own.

“your hands always this warm?”

“i’d have to say quite the opposite for you, and here i thought satoru’s was bad.” he chuckled lightly

“speaking of— if it’s within my boundaries… what are you two?” the words just tumbled out of her mouth

they weren’t married, and they seemed very comfortable in each other platonically as well.

it was obvious that they loved each other, but she couldn’t help but wonder in what way?

he tilted his head slightly.

“perhaps soulmates, life partners. he’s practically my everything.” he smiled

“oi! quit being so cryptic!” suddenly satoru was back with his dango in one hand and the other around the raven

“he’s my person— not much else to it.”

“that wasn’t any better than mine in the slightest.”

“yeah but you go into the poetics of it too much, just call it as it is.”

and she was left with more questions than she had answered, but in a way she sort of got what they meant.

they were each other’s person.

“i’m glad you two have each other.” she gave them a smile

“ah shit— she just got broken up with… are we being too much?”

“satoru!”

and there it was again, that airy laugh that made the boys still. they were still in awe that she had it in her, not when she constantly looked miserable in their eyes.

“guys, guys it’s fine— you don’t have to change anything for my sake.” she sighed, a small smile still playing at her lips

“ugh you’re so sweet! your loser boyfriend didn’t even deserve you like that!” satoru whined as he shook her a little

“especially dumping you on y—“

an elbow to the ribs and his hands were immediately off you.

“suguru…!” he groaned

“you have a big mouth.”

“oh but you like that~”

another elbow.

she couldn’t help but snicker at their antics, one moment they were like an old couple in love and another moment it was almost as if their were your typical best friends who’ve known each other forever.

she thinks she’s starting to understand what suguru meant by them being each other’s person a little bit better.

“sorry about talking about your relationships so carelessly.” suguru gave her a sheepish smile

“it’s alright, nothing that wasn’t my own fault.” she shrugged

they looked at each other.

she couldn’t just leave it at that.

“i have the tendency to just… withdraw..” she bit the inside of her cheek

“at some point it’s exhausting for the other person, dealing with me disappearing every so often— although it’s not intentional… it’s not hard for someone else to think i’ve lost interest or i’m being unfaithful.” she gave the two a half hearted shrug

“i suppose there’s just a lot i need to work on myself before i put myself out there.”

the two seemed conflicted, it was good she could recognize the areas she needs to work on…

“…but aren’t you being too harsh on yourself?” suguru blurted out, satoru immediately nodding

“there’s nothing wrong with working on yourself… but that doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to love and be loved.” satoru gave her a look

she knew they were right, but sometimes it was just easier to be miserable without having to think about another— only thinking about herself and her misery. she was selfish like that.

and they could tell by the conflict that flashed on her face.

before the conversation could progress any further she felt something cold prick at her nose, and then she looked up.

a gentle snow was falling.

“well would you look at that.”

she wore a wistful expression as she looked up, letting the snowflakes gather on her lashes as the warmth of her skin melted the ones on her face.

perhaps it was the universe letting her have this one thing, the first snow.

suguru and satoru seemed thrilled as well.

“suguru— look!”

“i see it satoru.”

but everyone seemed so far away as it was just her and the gentle snow.

it was beautiful.

but beautiful things hardly last.

“…!”

she looked back at the two who gave her a look, suddenly she was back on the busy night market street.

“you’re shivering.”

she didn’t notice until another one wracked her body.

before she could speak she felt herself being dragged along by satoru, suguru trailing behind the two.

“wha..? where are we going?”

“somewhere to warm up!”

——————————————————

when the two dragged her off, she expected for them to go back to their shared apartment or a restaurant.

but she was sitting down on a couch in a dim room with a microphone in hands while colored lights danced around the room.

“i… i have a few questions—”

“come on! it’s nice and warm and you can sing your heart out about your shitty ex!”

“he wasn’t shitty though, it was my fault we broke up.”

“that doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to feel some type of way about it.”

which was true.

“come on you know the classic breakup songs right? it’ll get whatever off your chest—“

and before she could protest satoru was already queuing up a song.

and that’s how the rest of the night went, although hesitant at first it wasn’t long before the three taking turns in singing songs and ballads. from cheesy classics to songs of yearning and heartbreak that suguru sang a bit too well for satoru’s comfort.

“i’ll never make you feel like that!” he whined clinging on to the raven who gave him an exasperated look

“i know.”

she couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight, it was nice to be around other people.

“i’m going to the restroom.” suguru hummed before peeling satoru off of him

“can i come with~”

“no.”

she snickered a bit at satoru’s clingy behavior.

“he’s so mean to me!” he huffed

“i think he knew if you two went together you wouldn’t be coming back out any time soon.” she mused

he let out a dramatic sigh.

“i suppose you’re right.”

“also we couldn’t leave your mopey self all by your lonesome.” he gave her a little nudge

she shook her head with a smile.

“i think i would’ve managed.”

“yeah yeah don’t lie— you’ve been all sad about your lame ex. y’know if you said no earlier sugu and i would’ve just dragged you out one way or another.”

“i’d like to see you try.”

“suguru manhandles me on the daily— we’d get ya.” he snickered

a comfortable silence fell between the two.

“do you feel better?”

she pondered his question a little.

“i do…”

but.

“but..?” he tilted his head

“it’s not even the breakup at this point…” she sighed a little

it was the prospect of getting older, and not a damn thing changed.

life itself was a fickle thing, ever changing.

so why hasn’t she?

gripping onto the ways of her past, she joked that she peaked when she was younger and it was all downhill from there… when did it start being actually true?

her past, her youth— it took all the best parts of her.

and now she was someone despicable enough to be broken up with on their birthday—

she felt cold hands on her cheeks, snapping her from her thoughts.

“you got lost in your head.” bright blue eyes staring down on her as she blinked

just how long did she spend ruminating looking like a complete nutcase in front of him?

“suguru was right— your hands are cold.” she mumbled out

“you alright?”

“i’m not sure yet.”

“…you wanna sing one more song?”

she sighed.

“pass me the mic.”

she got up to go queue up the next song, her back towards satoru— he didn’t need to see her inner turmoil boil up once more.

she heard the door click open, she figured suguru was back.

“ah— suguru. you wanna join the last—“

the words on her lips died as she turned around to meet his gaze, only for it to fall on a cake.

a birthday cake.

“welp— cat’s out of the bag! woooo! happy birthday!”

she was still processing it.

“satoru that’s hardly appropriate,” suguru rolled his eyes at him before turning to face her once more

“come, sit down.”

so she sat down on the couch in between the two as suguru set the cake down in front of her on the table.

“we weren’t sure what flavor you’re into but as a self proclaimed confectionery connoisseur, all the cakes from this bakery are really good so it should be alright.” satoru hummed as he pulled out candles from his pocket and expertly placed them around the cake

she finally found her words.

“how… how did you know…?”

suguru gave her a small smile.

“well at first we didn’t, but then we did some extensive research—“

“we were snooping around your socials.”

“…yeah that.”

her lips couldn’t help but quirk up at that.

“we knew something was up when you bothered to speak more than five words to us.” satoru shrugged before being met with a smack to the head

“owww…! it’s true!”

“forgive satoru, he’s bad at handling delicate situations.”

“i’m just saying it how it is! you looked more down than usual and we snooped around! can we talk about how shitty your ex is for dumping you on your birthday?” he ranted which earned him another smack

she was overwhelmed with emotion, she didn’t even realize the tears that started to stain her cheeks.

“you made her cry.”

“shit— i’m sorry!”

“no no,” she wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand

“i’m grateful i promise, just processing… y’know?”

“we hope you know that you deserve this, having a birthday worth celebrating.” suguru put a hand on her shoulder

she offered him a watery smile.

“hug? you look like you could use one.” satoru offered

typically she would’ve refused, she wasn’t big on physical gestures but she couldn’t stop herself from nodding softly wiping her face some more.

she let herself be caged in between the two, taking in their scents and warmth. she relaxed into their holds, letting out a sigh once her sniffling subsided.

“thank you.” she whispered softly

“i know we’re still sort of strangers but we’ve grown a liking to you, if you ever think you’re alone especially here… we’re here for you.” suguru murmured

“you’ve already been welcomed in our lives aside from the roommate formality stuff, it’s just up to you if you want us in yours.” satoru chuckled lightly ruffling her hair a little

“i’d… like that.”

and they held on for a little bit longer, she held on for a little bit longer.

“now how about we blow out some candles?”

❀° ┄───╮

this one is dedicated to all the girlies who feel some type of way (wanting to die lol) on their birthdays, including me today :,)

╰───┄ °❀

#happy bithday to me #jjk #jujutsu kaisen #jjk drabbles #jjk geto #jjk gojo #satosugu x reader fluff #platonic satosugu x reader #satoru gojo #suguru geto #satosugu #jjk x reader #lowkey self insert whoops

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wariocompany · 5 months

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Anyway I've been here for six days now (basically a naturalised citizen) so here is what I have to say about China

Shit is CHEAP. Worryingly cheap. Don't think about it too much.

Their hourly minimum wage is the equiv of about $5AUD but that's reasonably proportionate to how much a meal is. Rent seems a bit more difficult though so I don't know how people manage that (cheap as dirt places go for 4000yuan a month or so)

People are REALLY nice, even security guards and cops and other people you'd assume would kind of give you a hard time. They'll have a laugh with you about stuff.

The country kind of feels like it's encased in a giant metaphorical glass dome - everything functions using their own special apps, special ways of doing things, etc etc. Breaking into it is difficult, but once you're "in", so to speak, it's very easy.

Public spaces including trains and buses are a bit of an "every man for himself" vibe. People will play their phone videos out loud and no one even gives a shit. Once a security guard on shift was just sitting there playing his 抖音 videos out loud with little concern for anything or anyone. It's not mayhem, but it's certainly no polite affair.

Your phone loses battery very quickly and unless you're just going for a walk it's impossible to leave home without it as any purchase is via WeChat, Alipay et al. Many times I had considered going for a phone free outing before realising it just couldn't be done.

China is beautiful and just about every place has something to offer. There are streets that are clearly just a result of a LOT of urban development being done very quickly but in terms of actual sites, it's hard to find a city that doesn't have something incredible in it.

Their coffee is top notch. Seriously approaching Melbourne level. I'm flabbergasted and slightly concerned because frankly Australia is bullied by China on the daily and our coffee is the only thing I knew for certain we had over them. Now I don't know what the fuck we're meant to do

Trains tend to be in English, even if it's not particularly big with foreigners, though I haven't gone to any suuuuper remote locations so I don't know about those. They're very well maintained; they're more or less indistinguishable from those in Japan, Korea etc.

Bikes and motorbikes don't have to follow traffic lights which will make you shit yourself the first couple times they ride right past you as you cross the road.

There is not as much propaganda around as I was expecting. My uni has a big statue of Mao but as it happens that's just cuz he has a history with this particular university. I haven't seen any pictures of Mao anywhere else that's not, like, a dedicated Spot for that sort of thing (think Tiananmen square etc). I saw one pic of Xi in a museum. Most propaganda is just asking people to become soldiers and cops and stuff. I was expecting it to be like Vietnam or something but it's basically non-existent.

No the social credit memes are not true unless everyone else can see mine and is just not telling me

Those world statistics weren't lying that country really can heavily populayed

People love taking photos of themselves but selfies are not too popular, so dedicated individuals will bring whole stands with lights and shit like that, as though they were dedicated cosplayers. Yesterday we saw a middle aged woman doing a sort of VR anime idol stream (I can't remember what they're called but the one where your face is overlayed with an anime avatar) in the middle of the bridge haha

^ and people will take these sorts of photos in front of ANYTHING. Even if it's... Slightly inappropriate by some standards. It's kind of funny.

People are generally quite chill and don't take themselves too seriously

I'll add more if I think of more

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joyfulapostate · 20 days

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hey! i love your work so much, i think you're doing amazing things and i always look forward seeing your posts on my dash.

i was wondering if you'd consider doing a post/sharing your thoughts on the concept of "being in the world but not of the world." it's something that's been on my mind lately, the kind of simultaneous victim/superiority complex that idea could potentially inspire. some verses related to that idea are 1 John 2:15-17 , John 15:19 , and Romans 12:2 .

in any case, i hope you have a fantastic day--you have no idea how important your work is, not only to me but countless others too.

Hello! I am so touched that you find my work meaningful. Thank you for sending this in! It's a fascinating subject and a lot to unpack (after all, it's the whole world we were asked to give up).

As a former fundie, the anti-world messages in these verses hit me pretty hard. They remind me of the years I lost to the faith and the paths I didn’t take. It's strange, because these verses felt so run-of-the-mill when I was a Christian. Of course I was not of the world, I was merely visiting this planet and I would return to my heavenly father once I passed his earthly test.

I was told as a Christian that the secularization of society was a direct attack on our way of life, that “the world” wanted to replace all of the things that I valued with cheap knock-offs. Sex instead of holy matrimony, prideful independence instead of relying on my heavenly father. I had a very us-versus-them mentality where the "us" was guaranteed to win in the long game of eternity. I won't lie, I felt superior to secular people when I was a Christian. But the trick was, I didn't think that the superiority belonged to me, it belonged to the Christian god. It wasn't me who was better than other people, I was just letting my god protect me from the pitfalls of an earthly existence. If there was goodness or glory in that journey, it did not belong to me. It all belonged to him. It was a “get-out-of-pride free” card.

I had been sold this idea that the world was against “us.” I didn't notice that that hadn't been true for quite a long time. But most of the people around me were acting as if they were still in danger of being persecuted by some modern equivalent of the Romans. The persecution complex was strong, but entirely baseless. Because living in a multicultural society is not the same thing as persecution, even though they were treated as one and the same in my fundamentalist community.

I didn't want to notice that it wasn't loving to ask people to give up their whole lives. I had inherited this ancient contract that told me that I could gain an eternal life. All I had to do was give up everything. I was supposed to treat the world like a den of vipers, to regard everything earthly as garbage, and to live as if I was born in heaven's waiting room. There was no negotiation and the details that I did have were quite hazy as to what that eternal life would be like. And I was supposed to give up the only life I’d ever experienced for vague promises, sight unseen.

As a fundamentalist, I took the sacrificial mathematics of Christianity for granted. Our sacrifice mirrored Christ’s own– it's a compelling story. And I can see how it's attractive for people who crave the purpose, belonging, and freedom from suffering that Christianity promises. But I'm not ready to give up on this life and on this world for an incredibly shady deal. I don't believe that the only way we can be good people is by handing our lives over to someone who does not allow us to have informed consent in an eternal contract.

We deserve to have a connection with this world. We know that this life is real and ready for us to participate in. And if someone wants to separate us from the world, then they'd better be ready to tell us, in detail, the conditions of that contract.

Otherwise, I'm going to go ahead and love the world and the things in the world as long as I'm alive.

links, glorious links

#exchristian #exvangelical #exfundie #deconversion #deconstruction

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punisheddonjuan · 2 months

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How difficult is usenet to actually use?

If you can figure out how to torrent, you can figure out Usenet. Actually in a lot of ways Usenet is easier. First download SABnzbd, think of this as your BitTorrent client except that it's managed entirely within your internet browser. It's the program that decodes the data in .nzb files, figures out what binaries it needs to download and gets them, and then compiles them before unpacking. Think of .nzb files as the equivalent to .torrent files in BitTorrent. You're also going to need to sign up with a Usenet provider, you might as well take advantage of the offer advertised on the SABnzbd website for Newshosting. I use Newshosting and it's one of maybe three providers actually worth signing up for, the others are Easynews and Giganews. But honestly Newshosting is the one to go with.

Okay so now that you've got a binary downloader and you're signed up with a Usenet service, what about actually finding "filez"? For this you'll need an indexer, there are free indexers out there like NZBKing, but they're sort of meh. A subscription to one of the good ones, however, is absurdly cheap. NZBGeek charges $6USD for six months access or $12USD for a year, $80 nets you lifetime access. NZBFinder is more expensive and tiers their service, locking some 4K UHD and porn behind higher tiers. Honestly NZBGeek is the one to go with, there's not much I haven't been able to find on there, and the things I haven't been able to find is like extremely obscure stuff, we're talking early minor works in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's filmography that I'm not wholly certain even received a DVD release, that kind of thing. But who knows, maybe the porn selection on NZBFinder is better, I have no idea.

Once you're signed up with a provider and an indexer, plug in the required info into the SABnzbd settings page, set SABnzbd to watch a folder, search your indexer for whatever it is you're looking for, download the .nzb file into that watched folder and you're good. SABnzbd will read that .nzb and start downloading files.

There is one downside to Usenet, and it's that multi-file downloads aren't as much a thing. Oftentimes you won't be able download an entire season of TV in one go, you'll have to download each episode individually, although occasionally season repacks are uploaded. NZBGeek makes it easy to set up batch queues however, and you can play with the options in SABnzbd to schedule the downloading of those batches. There are also options to automatically rename and sort files into folders once they're downloaded, which is practically a necessity when downloading an entire TV series (unless you enjoy manually moving files across dozens of folders). Thankfully it's easy to configure it so that TV episodes are sorted to resemble something like "Series Name"/"Season XX"/"Episode XX - Episode Name". Even with that extra bit of work you have to put in downloading all the episodes of a TV series individually on Usenet it will probably still be faster than Torrenting (depending of course on how well a .torrent is seeded). Usenet files will always download at the fastest possible speed, so your speeds are only ever bottlenecked by your internet connection and provider speeds. With my internet connection I'm always hitting 9.5 MB/s with whatever it is I'm downloading, meaning a 5GB film is finished downloading in around seven minutes. (We've come so far. I remember downloading the trailer for Star Wars: Episode 1 with my dad over 56k dial-up. It took an entire afternoon and in that time my mom's car broke down while she was out and she couldn't get a hold of the house.)

And it's not like I don't still use BitTorrent, I'm seeding 1322 torrents on a private tracker at this very moment. I generally turn to Usenet for films and new episodes of TV, and it's a mix of BitTorrent and Usenet if I'm downloading an entire TV season or series. When it comes to music piracy I'm on a private BitTorrent tracker and I use SoulSeek too. I don't pirate much software but that's generally done on BitTorrent, and as for eBooks, well there's no better option than Library Genesis. It's always good to have a mix of options to cover your bases.

Go have fun.

#answered asks #anon ask #computers #usenet #piracy #also if you want my soulseek username hit me up #i'm sharing over 5500 albums on there and thousands of ebooks too

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wigglebox · 1 year

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Not a copypasta do you know any good resources for knitting I have been trying to learn and I don't understand what I'm supposed to do even though there are instructions 🫠🫠

Sure nonny! I'm more experienced with crochet but I do have my favorite places to go for knitting stuff lol.

So I'm not sure if you're right handed or left handed — if you're left handed just come back and tell me because learning how to knit as a lefty is a little harder, only because you have to read patterns a little differently.

But, to get started, Very Pink Knits is my favorite youtube channel, she's really great at showing how to do stitches. She's how I realized I was accidentally knitting twisted stitches for three years!

This is her YouTube channel.

She has MANY videos on how to do certain techniques for knitting and how to get started, even how to cast on!

Scrolling through, looks like she's starting on Crochet tutorials as well!

But she explains things very well and has a good tutorial lighting set up and everything. However, if you don't find her videos helpful, just keep typing in stuff into youtube and see what video tutorials are out there because there are many! Yarn companies, pattern writers, etc etc, they all have youtube channels. And, in the future, if you pick a pattern and find yourself getting stuck, a lot of the time the pattern maker will have a youtube video for you to follow to help.

I'm useless as making a video to help get started because I'm left-handed and I primarily crochet lol.

ALSO: SIGN UP FOR RAVELRY

There are communities, you can see notes people make on patterns to see if they had any issues you had, you can sign up to test patterns once you're getting good enough, and a lot of patterns are on there and you can really filter what you wanna find even down to the kind of yarn you have and how much of it you have. You can also save them as favorites and when you buy the pattern you can keep it in your library for safe keeping!

But here are some things to know that sometimes they don't tell you in these beginner videos:

When buying your knitting needles, don't use plastic for plastic yarn. If you're getting acrylic yarn, using plastic needles won't provide a kind of smooth working motion you need. Metal needles for plastic yarn. Slippery yarn like bamboo yarn or cotton or baby alpaca/merino wool can go on wooden/plastic needles. If they go on metal, you may have some issues keeping tension. If you google what kind of needles you should buy for what yarn you can also find this advice!

Buy shit yarn to practice with. If you have a Dollar General around you or anything, assuming you're American, get some of that yarn to first practice on. It's polyester/acrylic but it's so cheap that it's good to practice on. Don't get black! Not when you're first learning!

Plastic/budget yarn is okay to make things out of, and don't let any knitter try to tell you otherwise. There's more forgiveness in the crochet community when it comes to yarn type because we use so much of it and make bigger things than knitted things usually are. Therefore, we can't always afford the big fancy wool and baby yak yarn blahblahblah. So don't let anyone shame you for using yarn from Joann Fabrics.

When you're done with your knitted project, BLOCK! Always block your things, even if you just make a hat or a scarf. It helps with the drape and it helps with being able to see the stitches you just made! If you're using plastic yarn, buy a handheld steamer [mine was like $30 on Amazon], rust-free pins, and knitting block foam squares. You don't have to buy them specifically for knitting like you can buy children's foam play squares, but i like the ones specifically for knitting bc they have 1-inch x 1-inch grids on them so i know how much to stretch my blocking out lol. There are tutorials online for blocking. It's tedious sometimes, but it makes a world of difference and IMO, as you're learning, always make a habit of blocking your stuff. I didn't do it consistently until recently and boy oh boy

Always make a gauge swatch. Once you're starting looking for patterns to make, you're going to see stuff that's like: 10 rows x 10 rows stockinette stitch = 4 inches ... or something like that. And sometimes they'll tell you whether or not your gauge should be blocked before measuring. If you get into crochet this is even more crucial because crochet is less forgiving when it comes to measurements especially after you wash and block stuff. I made a cardigan once and didn't gauge swatch and essentially it'd look great on a woman who is 7 feet tall but not so much on me lol.

That also being said, if your gauge is off, sometimes you have to change your needles. It depends on how tightly you knit. I am a tight knitter so I usually have to go up a needle size lol. If you're struggling, google how to correct your gauge and it'll tell you what to do if you have too many rows going up or going left to right. Or, too little rows.

WEAVE IN YOUR ENDS! With crochet, people have found workarounds [even tho i still think weaving in ends with crochet is vital] but it's really vital when it comes to knitting because the fabric is thinner and it's more unforgiving and it's always good to have some extra yarn stashed away between the stitches just in case you ever needed to go back and adjust something. there are videos out there on how to weave in your ends without them showing in knitting. It's tedious if you've done a lot of colorwork especially but it must be done!

Be gentle with yourself - knitting can be hard to learn at first bc you're learning how to work both hands essentially at the same time. Same with crochet. Knitting takes a little longer because your stitches are smaller so use knitting as a meditative practice and just get in the zone.

When it comes to knitting, I find that working on circulars helped me with my hand-eye coordination and my tension. However, that may not be as easy for you to start off with. And yes you can knit flat pieces on circular needles. The weight of the straight needles sometimes made my hands tired. However, there are tutorials out there on how to get started on both! Also, circulars are great for teeny tiny decreases in the round like for sleeves or socks — instead of working with double-pointed needles which are my nightmare lol.

But — you're not gonna be making a sweater likely as your first thing so here are some patterns that I think would be simple for a beginner knitter!

You will be making a lot of squares first lol. But it's good practice, and it's good to do! These are all free:

CARON SIMPLE KNIT OMBRE BLANKET SCARF

I have this yarn and it's very lovely, and the scarf itself is very simple to make and will be good, especially to learn stockinette stitch!

LILY SUGAR'N CREAM GET LOOPED KNIT DISHCLOTH

This is a cotton yarn available at most craft stores. This is a free pattern and you're essentially making garter stitch squares. I actually recommend this first because garter stitch is essentially the first stitch you learn, THEN you learn stockinette. The different being stockinette is when you learn how to purl. Garter stitch is when you're just doing the knit stitch on both sides so you get the little wavy-looking thing.

SEAFARING SCARF

This looks cozy lol and it'll help you with practicing ribbing! And this one is FANCY ribbing called fisherman's rib! This is a little more advanced but they have videos in the pattern explaining things like "knit one below."

If you're done scouring the internet for free scarf patterns and have looked at tutorials on how to work in the round, here are some simple and basic tops you can make [I'm unsure how you like to dress or your gender or your presentation so I'm linking sweaters that are on the more feminine side just because it's what I have in my list lol]

GINGERBREAD SWEATER

This is a basic, simple, top-down raglan sweater. Raglan sweaters are ones i prefer to do lol i like the slant at the arm.

CLASSIC RIBBED BEANIE HAT

I make these so much especially when I don't know what to do with my yarn lol.

If you want to start getting a crack on triangle shawls, here's a good free first foray you can try!

THE AGE OF BRASS AND STEAM KERCHIEF

This has some fancy eyelets but they're not intimidating! I promise!

And here's another basic raglan sweater you can try!

WARM-UP SWEATER

Again, another basic, no fancy stuff sweater that is good to begin with when learning how to make sweaters.

---

I know this is really long, I'm sorry nonny lol.

My favorite knitwear designer is Andrea Mowry who you can find here. She has basic patterns and more complicated ones. I find her patterns very easy to follow and she comes up with fantastic ideas. I was very close to finishing the bee sweater once lol. Find your Fade is a BIG one everyone made but that one is a commitment both of time and money so...

But yeah! If there's anything else I can help you with let me know! I'm more experienced with crochet now since I've been doing it longer and made more things, so if you ever wanted to venture into Crochet I got even more stuff for you xD

Woof this got long. I hope some of this helped!

#long post #knitting #crafts

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bettafishblr · 1 year

Text

Fish ownership on a budget:

Do your research before you get the fish. I cannot emphasize this enough. It may not seem like a budgeting tip, but you WILL waste money going in blind. You'll buy stuff you don't need, buy the wrong thing and have to replace it, hurt your fish and need to buy treatment, etc. Sick fish are expensive fish, and it's not fair to make an animal suffer because you're impatient.

Save up and buy supplies gradually. This allows you to wait and find the best deals, as well as avoid the shock of dropping $200 on fish tank stuff all at once. Impulse buys are not your friend.

Buy the tank and filter first, if possible. You'll want to start your cycle as soon as possible, since it can take awhile (weeks) depending on tank size. I'll make a post about what that means later, but trust me, it's important.

If you live where there's Petco stores, wait until they have their Dollar Per Gallon sale. It is what it sounds like; a 10 gallon tank (good size for a betta) will cost you $10. Capitalism stupid, so make it work for you.

If you don't live where there's Petco stores, you might try buying a used tank. Garage sales, Ebay, Facebook Marketplace, whatever. Make sure it can hold water before buying, and clean it well once you get it home.

Some folks will try to sell you a tank at the price they bought it for; do not buy at that price if you can help it. Wait a bit longer and there will be someone who's selling at a more reasonable price. Fish tanks do not have high resale value once they have been used.

Guppies are a popular beginner fish, and they breed a lot. Most livebearers do. Don't slut shame them, just get a big tank, or all one sex. All females might still bring about fry (babies) as they might be pregnant when you get them. All males will still need a good sized tank as you need a lot of fish and a lot of plants/decor to avoid fighting.

If you've got a friend with guppies, you might be able to get a few for free/cheap. I am not kidding when I say these guys breed a lot.

"Feeder fish" are often priced cheaply, but they may not actually be a cheap fish in the long run. Goldfish need very large tanks, and a strong filter as they produce a LOT of waste. Feeder fish in general may also be sickly, partially because of poor breeding, partly because of how easily disease spreads in the stressful situations they are usually kept in. That's not to say they can't be good pets, but be aware of the risk.

If you're going to buy it often, buy it in bulk if possible. You'll usually save money that way (Exception is food if your fish is a picky eater. Nobody wants to be stuck with a fucking gallon of fish food your Gordon-Ramsay-In-Fish-Form refuses to eat).

Embrace the ugly. You may have decided to get a fish for the aesthetic pleasure, but you must remember that it is a living being above all. Fish tanks can be beautiful, and there's no reason they shouldn't be! But if you can't manage pretty and healthy, it is your responsibility to prioritize the health and wellbeing of your fish, whether the tank looks how you want it or not. You might like to be able to see your fish at all times, but if having limited hiding spaces stresses them out, give them somewhere to hide.

#fish #fishblr #petblr #betta fish #guppies

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slvttyplum · 6 months

Text

ᝰ.ᐟ jjk men as servers

thought this would be funny

nanami

- work is work he’s here to work

- he don’t play

- he’ll come to your table, get your order

- put it in and go on about his day

- he checks on your table twice

- no more no less

- he’s down with his business

- i take him more off a restaurant OWNER than a server but i digress

- if you try to flirt with him he’ll smile but won’t flirt back

satoru

- my man is a flirt

- he’s trying to get his tip

- he’s checking on your table periodically

- kissing you up, laughing, putting his hand over yours

- he’s going to get $20 out of you by the end of the day/night

- he often gets orders wrong

- but NEVER gets scolded for it

- he’ll kiss you up AGAIN and get you something for “free.”

- if you’re attractive enough (your are)

- he’s def giving you his number on a small piece of paper

- but don’t feel too special

- it’s all apart of the game.

suguru

- he’s a light flirt

- he’ll say slight things and recommend you his…

- “cheap favorite.”

- his goal isn’t to get a lot of tips

- so he doesn’t really put a lot of work in

- his face does the talking

- with the older women and the youth

- “oh my, what a handsome young man!”

- “mm he can butter my bread.”

- he’s blushing laughing in the corner

- knowing he’s about to get tipped a lot

- 9 times out of 10 he gets all this orders right

- he’s also not always a server

- 4 days out the week he’s a bartender

- and that’s where he has to put MORE work in

- i digress again though.

- be sure to tip your servers ;)

choso

- he’s true to this not new to this

- very attentive and puts your order in right away

- he looks a bit intimidating but people think he’s hot

- his regulars are usually uni students

- they want to get close to him so they tip him a lot

- he’s the one that takes on other peoples tables when they don’t want them

- also never works overtime

- he’s only working two sections and no other ones

- when people are in another section and want him they ask to change seats

- he does his job and he does it fairly well

toji

- literally doesn’t want to be there

- tried to put on a nice face ONCE and never did it again

- he finds people asking him for things an inconvenience

- always taking a 15 minute smoke break

- often forgets items and doesn’t think to go get them

- he doesn’t get tipped and if he does it’s like $1 dollar

- flirts with people who he thinks are attractive

- but they find his attitude repulsive so they pay him no mind

- he’s kind of popular with younger and older people but they also find him repulsive

- he ended up quitting after two weeks

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seabeck · 1 year

Text

Trout fishing for beginners on a budget!

Do you ever look at salmon fillets in the supermarket and water at the mouth but find the price far too high? Well this guide is for you! I tried to keep this guide fairly short and to the point so if you need more info, feel free to ask.

Reasons to fish for trout:

Trout taste quite similar to salmon, a fish that's typically unaffordable expensive even here in the PNW (I find trout to be better because they're much more mild and don't overcook as easily, ymmv)

They can be caught without a boat and you don't need an expensive set up.

Fishing licenses fund conservation!

It's fun and allows you to see where your dinner is coming from, from start to finish.

Before you start: Get your fishing license. You can purchase these at Walmart in the sporting good section, stores like Cabellas, online, and many other places. Some states have separate saltwater and freshwater licenses (you want freshwater), others may require a separate stamp to keep trout in some areas. Once you have your license, find a place you can fish. Check if it’s been stocked, when, what size the fish were, and how many. Bigger fish and more recent is always better. Regulations can very a lot from body of water to body of water and state to state. Some lakes may be catch and release only, no barbed hooks, etc and it is on you to know. There are also disabled only lakes (with wheelchair friendly docks). Your fish and wildlife department will have the info online. Some states, like WA, even have interactive map apps and you can always email or call them as well.

Gear on a budget: Rods and reels are expensive new, even low end ones. Check out garage sales, thrift shops, outlet malls, Craigslist, etc. You can often find a good rod and reel combo for cheap. Check to make sure all the parts are in order, things that spin will spin and things that don’t, don’t. Minor wear and tear can often be repaired with a dab of superglue. When buying second hand spools of line, make sure time and the sun hasn’t made it brittle, give it a test tug to see if it breaks. You’re less likely to find artificial bait and hooks used but luckily those are fairly cheap even new, and sometimes you get lucky.

Rod: 5-7′, rated for no more than 10lbs is perfect. It should be flexible to allow it to cast far and not snap when you get a fish on. Ideally your rod should split into two pieces for ease of storage.

Reel: We’re going to be talking about spinning reels and spinning reels only. You want a lighter weight one where the line comes off smoothly. Make sure everything spins as it should and doesn’t make noise (some older styled ones have an intentional clicking sound that will drive you up a wall very quickly, apparently that used to be cool). The side the arm is on can be changed easily.

Line: 8-10lb test, anything more is overkill and may scare the fish. Braided for the mainline, fluorocarbon or monofilament for the leader line. Mono can be used for the mainline too but braided is tougher/stronger. Good line is worth it, here’s what I use for my mainline. You want your reel full of line so it doesn’t catch on the reel and so you don’t hit the end while casting. I recommend a cheaper mono line to tie onto your reel for the first many feet to help fill it up, then tie on your good leader line to the mono line using a double uni knot.

A leader line is useful when you get a snag or a fish takes off with your gear, instead of losing all your line, you just lose your leader.

Hooks: Size 6-8 octopus, circle, or bait hooks. Barbed if legal and if you plan on eating what you catch, barbless if you plan on releasing or regulations require it.

Swivel: Medium/small sized, get snapping ones

Weight: Get egg sinkers in a variety of sizes (they often come in mixed size kits). Note: Most fishing weights are lead, do not consume them or allow pets/children to play with them. Steel weights are an option but they have less size/shape variety and will be bigger than their same weighted lead counterparts. Some places do not allow for the use of lead weights.

Bead: Used to prevent wear on the line/knot from the lead. I personally only use one on my leader line, not below my lead, and that’s my weird angler superstition. They’re very cheap, buy a smaller sized one if you plan on using them.

Net: Seems really self explanatory but I recommend a catch and release friendly net (not knotted, typically a softer material). It's better to have that kind than the kind that may damage their scales in case you need to or decide to release.

Slip/sliding sinker rig:

Ideal for floating bait, the leader line length will depend on the depth the fish will be at (which varies with weather and body of water, 2′ is a good starting point). The lead will sit on the bottom while the bait floats and suspends itself in the water column. The sliding egg sinker weight means the fish won’t feel resistance when it tugs on the bait, fish don’t like resistance. Watch for your line moving away, then set the hook with a quick upwards motion with the rod. Sometimes you won't even need to set the hook because the fish will already be running with it.

Fixed bobber rig:

This set up can be used with or without a leader line but as always I recommend a swivel + leader line (this would be below the bobber). This set up is ideal for sinking baits or when you need to keep all of your gear and line off the bottom of the lake because of weeds, snags, etc. Most bobbers allow you to easily change the length of line below it, useful if you started out with too much or too little line. Since bobbers float, they will move with the current or the wind, this may be a pain or may be a blessing. When the bobber goes down, fish on!

Bait options:

Earthworms/nightcrawlers. This is your cheapest option, you can dig them from your own yard for free. Earthworms sink so they’re best with a bobber set up unless you buy worm blower. I do not use live bait as I find it rather cruel (and most earthworms are not native to my area, no need to help them spread further) but ultimately it’s up to you. Crickets, superworms, mealworms. waxworms, etc are also options, some of which you can breed at home easily.

Fake worms: some float (1, 2), some don’t (1, 2). Don’t get those giant rubber worms meant for bass.

Dough: Ideal for slip sinker set up. Scented Playdo textured dough. Roll enough out to cover your hook and make it float, but not so much that it’s a waste. While this stuff works well, it doesn’t like to stay on the hook. Treble hooks will hold dough on better but they aren’t always allowed and are not suitable for catch and release (if that’s your goal). Also comes in nuggets (costs more per oz). I recommend pink, orange, or yellow.

Artificial eggs: Ideal for slip sinker set up . My preferred bait, I use 3 on a hook and often can reuse the same eggs for several trout. You don’t even need to buy these, they can often be scavenged from places where anglers gather. My mom did this (or used ones I bought) for months with great success. Power eggs and similar ones typically float but there are sinking ones, always check the label. I personally use red, white, or gold ones that are half clear but I’ve also caught them on solid yellow and pink. A family or group of friends could buy multiple colors and split them.

Trout Magnet(tm): Never personally had much luck with these, they can be recasted over and over as a lure or used under a bobber, they do sink. Also useful for panfish.

Lures: I’m not really going to go over lures much since that’s a whole other can of worms, but they are very reusable and can often be found for free in bushes at lakes. They require a different set up and more work to use than bait still fishing. Some do function under a bobber hence the mention.

Now to the actual fishing!

Set up your rig, whichever one you're planning on using, and adjust your leader line accordingly.

Hold the rod with your dominant hand, you want about a foot of mainline hanging off the tip of your rod

Align your line roller (labeled diagram of a reel here) to be pointing your rod.

Use the index (or if you're weird like me your middle) finger to hold the line against the rod

Use your non dominant hand to flip the bail up. Line can now freely fall from the reel so it's important to keep your finger on the line.

Bring the rod over your head, I personally have mine like this before casting. Use a forward throwing motion and release your line. The last step will take lots of practice and I personally recommend practicing at home with just a swivel + weight on. Always be aware of your surroundings, you don't want to hook someone or lose your gear in a tree.

When you feel a bite, set the hook with a quick upwards motion while holding the rod. Sometimes the fish will hook themselves just fine.

Once you have a fish on, reel in! Large fish may need a looser drag and to be played a bit (let them run with the line, then reel in, repeat until fish is tired) but most stocked trout come quietly.

Once you've reeled your fish in, use a net to catch it (if needed) and decide if you're going to release it or keep it for dinner. Fish you're planning on releasing need to be handled gently and with wet hands to protect their fishy coating. Don't take them out of water for too long. Remove the hook quickly with fishing pliers.

If you're going to keep it, it needs to be killed quickly and humanely. Please don't be that person with a bunch of half dead fish on a stringer, or letting your fish aspirate, it's cruel. How you kill your fish is up to you and will depend on the size. For smaller ones I do cervical dislocation, head bonking and cutting the head/spine also work. If I'm killing a fish I always wait until after to remove it's hook so it suffers less.

Cleaning your fish: Ok you have a dead fish, now what? Find the fish butt, it'll be before the tail fins. Insert your fillet knife in and carefully slice up the belly. Ideally you don't want to slice too far in lest you rupture the intestines. Remove the guts. I personally toss all the guts back into the water, as to return the nutrients but there are fish organs you can eat. Use a fingernail to scrape the kidney off of the spine and rinse. From there you can fillet or cook the fish whole. Here's the video that helped me learn to fillet. Keep fish on ice until you're home. They can be frozen, cooked immediately, or refrigerated for a few days.

I hope this guide helped you and as always, if you have questions feel free to ask!

#fishing #fish #trout #I personally recommend salmon meuniere but it also makes great fish tacos

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quinnhills · 1 year

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Good to know you're feeling welcome! :D this is our little place in the internet, and we've decided to make it trans and gay as hell (n i gotta say, i did think "they-them gang! :o" when i found out you started using they/them too a while ago X3 ) n if you received this ask more than once, my tumblr bugged out before i could finish, sorry (。_。)

anyways, and sorry if this is long, but Woe- More Tumblr Things Be Upon Ye:

there used to not be an image limit before, causing a few- interesting posts… tho that changed a few years ago and recently, at first the limit being 10 images per post to now 30 images per post (you can also move the images around a bit)

if you plan on staying long term on tumblr and use desktop the most, i recommend getting the browser extensions Xkit &/or New Xkit cuz… yeah, tumblr is pretty nice, but it sometimes gets hard to use. it also adds extra useful things to the tumblr experience, which is nice to have. i'd say tumblr is like living in a cheap apartment in a calm area of the city. the place's great for what it is, just gotta be sure to leave rat traps near holes and dont worry about the Beast down the hall,

speaking of rats, we got an infestation. you may or may not have heard of it with the voter fraudage going with the polls a bit ago; since tumblr has little to No email verification, people outside tumblr buy bots to get in here and start posting malicious links. tho the bots are surprisingly easy to identify (often times blank blogs with very weird descriptions + stolen picture of lady or ai generated. you'll know it when you see it), and the protocol here is block and report spam so staff can deal with it

and btw if you want to keep a post for as long as your blog stands, i recommend rebloggin! thanks to how tumblr is build as, even if the original post or that blog is gone, the reblog will stay with you (+ tags on reblogs dont really make a post expand outside of your own blog, so many use this to create Very intricate personal tag systems to make easier finding posts, bc once a blog gets 1k+ post in it, it gets hard finding anything on it... <- knows this from experience u.u)

oh and last thing before i go again (and something i found out recently), another browser extension ive been loving: Stylus! with it you can customize a ton of sites to your liking And with a specific style found in the archive of this extension, you can change how the dashboard looks! even changing the background to any image you might want :D

so yeah, thats it, for now. i got more info if you want it, just lmk 👉👈

and you probably already noticed this, but there isnt really any word limit for posts or asks around these lands. tho on tags, the character limit on a single tag is 139. but you can put a Lot of tags, so there! be free mx quinn, no character limit holds you down no more ヽ(✿ﾟ▽ﾟ)ノ

Thank you so much for the knowledge!

Some Quinn Facts:

Mx., Ms. and Miss are all acceptable :)

I use “gay as hell” as a sort of tongue-in-cheek shorthand, but I also identify as trans as hell, queer as hell, non-binary as hell, lesbian as hell, and anxious/depressive as hell

I’m a vegetarian

My favorite food is pineapple pizza (controversial, I know)

For a few years in the early 2000s, I was a licensed auctioneer

The most times I’ve ever cried during a movie is 5 times during Happiest Season

I like the idea of books, but I’m bad at reading them

Overalls give me gender euphoria, and I don’t know why

I hope to release a solo album within the next year

I hope to direct a feature-length film by the time I’m 40

Coming out was the best thing I ever did

#i am now testing the one hundred and thirty-nine character limit of the tagging system—not because I don’t believe you but because this just #is how my brain works #limit reached #test complete #thank you

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kiwisoap · 1 year

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Ok so. How does one BECOME a falconer? It's something that's kinda interested me since childhood, as I love somewhere where we see a lot of hawks. But I've never really considered it something I could just, get into.

OKAY so this is only relevant if you're in the USA cus other countries have different laws but in the US its like. Very tightly regulated so there are a lot of Steps to get thru LOL

First thing is generally studying up and then contacting your state wildlife agency about taking the falconry exam. Once you pass the falconry exam then you have to find a SPONSOR, someone who is already a falconer who is willing to mentor you for your two year apprenticeship period. typically you can do this by getting involved with the state falconry association or facebook group and attending falconry meets to network with falconers!

After you find your sponsor, you have to build your mews (hawk house) and get it inspected by the state fish and game department. THEN after that you send off your inspection form and your falconry permit application to your state wildlife agency and get your falconry license! THEN you can go out and get your bird LOL

theres definitely a LOT to it but like. its one of those things where once you realize its POSSIBLE to do then its suddenly like "WOAH. I CAN DO THIS ACTUALLY" yknow? At least thats how it felt to me haha. It's definitely a big time commitment and its not cheap to get involved in (god. i dont even want to talk about how much money ive spent on this fucking bird) BUT god its really so awesome. (plus a lot of the cost is just in building the mews, after that its really not too bad especially if you're getting your birds for free by trapping)

if you want to know more about it, The Modern Apprentice is a fantastic resource, and Falconry Told (also available on spotify) is a great podcast to learn about the ups and downs of being in the sport.

also, i can't recommend this enough, GO TO FALCONRY MEETS if at all possible!!! falconers are generally really chill and happy to have a new face in the crowd. This will also make it 1000x easier to find a sponsor, because suddenly you're not just a random stranger, you're someone they kinda vaguely know.

#falconry #its a lot!! it took me about a year from when i first got hardcore into it until i finally got my bird and that was honestly pretty fast

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caxycreations · 3 months

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Tagging @that-one-enby-onyx @moremysteriesthantragedies @thetruearchmagos @mikathewriter and @the-octic-scribe cause I figure y'all will be at least somewhat interested in this stuff ^-^

Some Fun Facts About the Cast

Ryder

Ryder's tail wags independently of his will. He can choose to make it wag, but if he's happy, excited, or otherwise feeling positively, he can't NOT wag.

His favorite meal is Elyr Style Steak (Relanian equivalent of New York Strip) with applesauce drizzled over it and buttered beans on the side (green beans, specifically).

He once let David pick his Halloween costume, having promised he would wear it, no matter what it was, as part of a lost bet. He'd expected David to make him wear something embarrassing, only to find a tuxedo on his bed, and a cheap plastic "ring" to go with it.

He did NOT connect the dots when he, wearing the Groom costume mentioned above, arrived to the party he and David were attending and found David in a white wedding dress with matching ring, and to this day fully believes David was dressed as Selana, a popular pop singer that David enjoys who is known for wearing white, flowy outfits.

David

David can bark, chirp, trill, meow, and purr, and while he can do all of these at will, he has been known to do them on instinct as his immediate reaction to strong stimuli.

He can purr with his mouth full and it does vibrate his tongue heavily when he does. Do with that what you will.

He once had the opportunity to cook a meal for a visiting Kanorian Ambassador passing through Tylvin. He was the only one working the café at the time. The Ambassador remarked that his skill, even with the limited tools of the café, was "On par with the banquets of the royals". David has never forgotten that and his cooking is one of the few things he has a genuine pride in.

He's a LOT faster and agile than you'd think. David ran Track and Field in high school and never let those skills deteriorate. His top speed recorded was 26mph, with average Sentient speed being ~18mph. His agility is solid as well, with David having an innately perfect sense of balance.

Davina

Her culinary skills are on par with a part-time fry cook in high school, and her food tastes about as good. This is why she orders takeout and delivery so often.

She views physical intimacy as a means to an end (that end being relief from her hyperactive drive and her partner's tensions and needs), and not as anything special. She's been known to offer or even ask for it with just about anyone for this very reason.

She can tell at a glance if someone's relationships are mutual, and has a sixth sense for "pure" relationships (platonic or romantic connections that are mutual and equally strong both ways)

Her tail is fully prehensile, and can be twisted and bent however she likes due to a mutation she and her brother share. This IS part of the mutation they share that causes their tails to be slightly longer than twice their heights.

Trace

He can draw WAY better than he lets on. Most of his art is simple and rough, but he is fully capable of drawing in a fairly realistic style.

He's hyper-sensitive to wind direction and air pressure, and can tell differences as small as a single person entering or leaving a room he's in by the addition or loss of their breathing.

He uses his courier job as both practice for his weekly races AND as a way of building up favors with his contacts in Tylvin's illegal free-running league. He offers to deliver packages and letters, no questions asked, in exchange for nothing but "A favor owed", which has made him a very popular courier for the underground.

To add to the last fact, Trace has never asked a big favor. His payment has always come in the form of free meals, replacement clothes when his wear out, or simply free reign to train on buildings owned by contacts he's delivered for. This contributes to his popularity as a courier; he charges no money, and all he asks in exchange is small comforts and freedom to train.

Also

Should I do stuff like this more often? For other characters, for places, or something like that? Or maybe less positive/more positive stuff than this?

#writeblr #relan #literature #furry #fiction #modern fantasy #anthro #anthropomorphic #writing

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things-about-cars-in-posts · 8 months

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went to a sim racing facility for the first time!! having never raced or driven in my life, I set a somewhat ok 58.1 in a Fiat Abarth 500 Assetto Corsa around Brands Hatch Indy.

In honor of this, do you have any Fun Fiat Facts?

Whipped out me sim rig to find out how good a time that was, and it must have taken me around ten laps to manage less (a 57.8)! (Gamer excuses for this sessions are a framerate barely at illusion-of-movement levels and some clutch mapping issue that made most shifts crunch.) For someone who never even drove, that's quite good! Now, maybe not "Run get a sim wheel right now for the good of humanity" good... but maybe "Finding out a used Logitech G25 is Christmas-present cheap may enrich your free time" good.

As for the Fun Fiat Fact request, it's denied: not only because I've already written about Fiat -and for my very first post no less- but most importantly because that car is not a Fiat! Indeed, since 2007 Abarth is, officially, a brand unto itself, that sells models like the 500 and the 124, just like Fiat sells models like the 500 and the 124. Now, I don't think anyone is going to try and pretend the similarities are just a coincidence or that an Abarth 500 is in any way not objectively a Fiat - but it's not a "Fiat 500 Abarth" any more than the one below is a "Chevrolet Cavalier Toyota".

That's right, there once was such thing as a Toyota Cavalier. Oh, brand engineering.

This is a rare but not completely isolated arrangement - see for example Ruf, German brand that makes vehicles based on Porsches, best known for the Ruf CTR -nicknamed "Yellowbird"- that bested the Ferrari F40's incredible top speed record.

Be careful who you call ugly under the 200mph barrier.

But yeah, all that is to say, I am not going to give you any fun Fiat facts. >:(

Let's give you fun Abarth facts then! Let's talk about fake exhausts. Big engines move a lot of gas -that's kind of the point- so they have big exhaust pipes for all that gas to leave, and high-tier exhausts are made of fancy materials that shine.

This -and our love for fancy shiny things in general- makes people like big shiny exhausts. But exhausts are very long, and making them big and shiny is costly. So people figured, what if we only make it wide at the end, where you actually see it?

After all, if the tip is large enough, it will satisfy regardless of what the rest of its length is like - sure, people may think it looks a bit weird when you take it out, but that only happens by the time you've already scored, doesn't it. But now, back to exhausts.

If you can just attach a bigger tip to the end of your exhaust, surely you can attach a tip of a different material and have a bog standard exhaust with a cool shiny tip, that now you can also shape to your designer's content!

(Fun fact: an aftermarket exhaust system that only replaces the components that come after the catalytic converter -which, contrary to the popular misconception that confuses it with the muffler, is mounted right beside the engine- is called a "catback exhaust". Picture unrelated.)

But then, if the tip material is completely separate from the exhaust pipe, you can now just make it a plastic part of the bumper and it doesn't need to withstand temperatures as high and is even cheaper and easier to style!

And now that they're not mounted on the tip of the exhaust, they don't have to coincide with it, so you can split the exhaust into two tips, which is cooler because they're more! Hell, you can also do that by just making the exhaust coincide with one tip and have the other blanked off!

But at that point, why even have the exhaust show up back there at all? Just make the tips blank and make the exhaust go down behind them!

And at that point why not just fuck it up to the point where you need this exhaust evolutionary biology 101 course to even recognize it is meant to be an exhaust, if we can kill God who's left to stop us from dancing on his corpse.

Well, the Abarth 500, as you might have guessed by now, has fake exhaust tips. But here's the weird thing: the real exhaust tips are not any less shiny and prominent than the fake ones. See for yourself in this sound video.

youtube

Oh also, I hope the devil got some killer stuff from the deal he made with the Abarth exhaust engineer, because if he only got a piddly little soul in exchange for the ability to turn 500 engine noise into this he got majorly screwed over.

Links in blue are posts of mine explaining the words in question - if you liked this post, you might like those!

#fake exhausts #abarth 500 #toyota cavalier #ruf ctr

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pyromaniac-cyndaquil · 4 months

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people are saying that about volo huh? man he’s such an experience bc the fundamental rules of the game (or of singles i should say) are messed up there. there’s a lot that’s different in your favor and a lot that’s different in his. the turns system is unique with the strong and agile style thing making it possible to go multiple times in a row (and to get hit multiple times in a row.) the fact that there are no free switches in between your opponent’s pokémon so you can get punished for ohko’ing somebody by having him send out the perfect counter that immediately goes first. the fact that max revives are very easily attainable in this game. the fact that not only is giratina A Thing, but that when playing for the first time *you don’t know about that.* the only way to be truly prepared for giratina is to stall and take the time to heal your team toward the end of volo’s fight which feels kinda cheap. barring that you either have to be very overpowered or very lucky

i struggled when i first played even when using a ton of items and having brought four legendaries (probably bc i was a noob). but on my next replay when i had more experience and a real team i was still fighting for my life, even with items. but i did a no items volo challenge for my most recent run and it was a fresh nightmare that came down to very good luck on my part for the final shot. all three times i remained strictly on level and honestly isn’t the game way more fun that way? i’m also thinking i should go no items or at least limited items from here on out. and a strict level cap

It's mostly YouTube comment bragging I've seen people say that about volo in, but yeah, it's really silly. Couldn't have said it better myself! The way pla is balanced is honestly so cool, and the dread I felt so many times with battling him and he stacked up enough agile and priority moves to get like three turns in a row was painful 😭 not to mention the obscured status! Hoo boy, that REALLY made giratina a pain.

What I find really funny is I beat volo's regular team first try and even when I was liveblogging I mentioned that I was sad it wasn't harder, even if I only had a couple pokemon still standing.

... Then giratina happened 😂 I lost to his first phase sooooo many times on subsequent attempts after that, think I ended up having to swap out my hisuian lilligant for an alpha sylveon and trained that up from scratch just to have a reliable counter for spiritomb.

Anyway yeah, it's soooooo much more fun to stay on level! If I'd just ran in overlevelled there's no way it'd have stayed in my head for as long as it has, it's probably my favourite pokemon moment of all time as it stands. No items is definitely really fun in Pokémon in general, I love having to think hard about team order, items and status moves to give myself the best shot of staying alive 😭 tempted to also try a level cap when I play violet, bc shiny hunting and BBQ grinding made it way too easy to accidentally overlevel (accidentally got my hydrapple to level 100 half way through the epilogue, woops)

If you have access to emulation btw, I'd highly recommend luminescent platinum! Idk if you've heard of it or not but it's a really cool bdsp mod with a few cool story changes, properly scaled pokemon and a massive overhaul to every battle in the game (as well as expanding the dex by A Lot). All bosses have several rotating sets of teams they'll use at random that are fully competitive and there's an option in-game to set hard level caps that increase as the story goes along, and stop you levelling up at all once you reach them. It's really cool! Think I'm up to victory road in that game, should really get back to it haha

#goldensunset #wondermail #i hope this was compressible fsdgfhfjgjgjgj #i love the volo fight so much. and also just pla in general

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steelthroat · 3 months

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For the astrology thing if you fancy it (and as I'm not much into astrology apologies if I've missed some deep significance in the labelling...)

2H ⇢ do you have any object that you like a little too much? what is it and why? (or just one that you like a lot; I'm not really sure what "a little too much" would mean in this context...)

7H ⇢ what do you consider green flags in a relationship?

Hello there!

No, don't worry, I have no clue about anything regarding astrology... my friends have tried to explain charts and other stuff to me at least 3 times, and I still don't know what an ascendant is, so...

Onto the answerssss

2h- I get so attached to many random objects and for the silliest reasons... like idk it's just like "this objects is mine, there are thousands or millions of these in the world but THIS is mine and is special" for example:

My mum's paper knife. It has a heart-shaped handle and since I was 3 I've been obsessed by it. Like idk when I was little I would imagine I was some kind of magical warrior and that was my special weapon or something. Btw it's mine now, my mum can't have it back, that's my special magical weapon.

My red gel pen, beautiful red and it's very good and CHEAP. Idk why but it's my favorite. I already made a post about it here rambling about a teacher who took it and then I took it back lol

My two stuffed animals (a polar bear and a weird looking husky) since I was little I decided they were boyfriends and they were my favorite plushies. Still have them, still good and cuddly

A plastic horse named Alessia (I broke both of her ears) she was my favorite toy since I was 2 and the main reason I had a horse phase

My mechanical pencil. It IS special even my classmates agreed. Like idk perfect shape, grip, weight, just perfect all around. My dad gifted it to me after someone gave it to him, his words "you will need it more than me". I once lost it (I then discovered a classmate stole it so not really my fault here) and I found a picture of the pencil online and put it on the students' board and even offered to buy the breakfast to whoever would find it and give it back to me. I am deeply attached to that pencil I swear I felt so bad thinking I lost it (also because I looked at the prices online and I felt even worse). But then I found it again so yayyyyyy!

I feel very childish after this answer... onto the next one we go

7h- hm...

Hmmm relationship as in friendship I'd say when you can catch up after long periods of time after not being able to and still not feeling it. Like "omg when was the last time we talked???" "Uh... oh gee a month???" "Waaaaaah crazy! So by the way...." and then it's like you never stopped talking.

In a relationship as in a romantic sense, I'd say: When they don't force you to tell your secrets if you're not ready, but they let you know they're there for you whenever you are.

You can be stupid together

If you feel like you can communicate freely about anything without feeling judged or out of place. And when the other(s) in the relationship do the same. Like idk I've been in a relationship and a "situationship" and I'm still friends with those guys because we communicated for the entirety of those experiences. I would not get back with them, ever, but we parted on very good terms... so I guess it worked out even if in the end nothing came out of it. Moral of the story "STRAIGHTFORWARD AND HONEST COMMUNICATION IS THE KEY" (if not for a successful relationship, for a guilt and stress-free breakup) :D

#steel answers #thanks for the ask!

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