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psychedeliccc · 5 months

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the most beautiful art.

warnings : suggestive angst. (not proofread.)

word count : 500 words (rather short)

masterlist ★ part 2

The clementines moved in place upon the book you placed it on, the bright rays of the morning burst through the seams of your curtains now showering upon your reference set up.

You sighed softly, placing your brush down and moving the orange fruit back into new position.

"Still painting I see? " Theodore, your best friend asked, shifting his gaze towards you.

He caressed his slim fingers through the pages of his book that he sat reading upon your bed, folding the tip and closing it shut.

"hmm." You hummed as you painted another stroke on your canvas. Admiring your progress, it was quite rewarding at best.after years of painting and constant practice you'd gotton better over time especially on the aspects of realism.

Theodore got up the bed and stood before your art admiring it's progress as he bent down to catch a glimpse of your work, his eyebrows raised at the sight ,otherwise only left with a dull expression.

"Thoughts? "

" It's...brilliant."

"Thank you theodore. " you murmured with hints of a smile forming at the ends of you lips your dimples as prominent as ever.

"May I? " He asked.

"You may. " You responded quicker than you could comprehend what he was about to do.

Theodore sat down and picked up a brush soaking it in china white.

"highlights if you don't mind. "

"Not at all. " You replied.

He painted lighthearted strokes upon your orange clementines decorating each with texture, each a different personality, a varied font, the scene impressed you, he was talented indeed.

You watched him pick up other colors, add layers and undertone.

"You really are perfect. " You murmured under your breath yet intending him to hear you.

"Pardon? " He smirked vivaciously.

he kept the brush down, glaring at your eyes, studying your face and every feature bestowed upon it.

" I said you're perfect. "

A slight pause.

"Darling, you are perfect. You are the most beautiful art I have ever laid my eyes on. " he whispered, placing a strand of your loose hair behind your ear, feeling your skin and caressing your cheeks, eventually pulling you closer to his face but not as close as you'd have wished for.

"I really really like you y/n and quite frankly I'm afraid you do too. "

"Theodore."

You were certain this was the best night of your life, a perfect proposal, a perfect man, a perfect view.

"I am to go now. " He frowned.

"what? "

The tall boy stood up and walked to the door, glancing at you once more.

"Did I do something wrong? " You asked.

he replied with a sigh followed by shut, closing your door and leaving you all alone allowing yourself to flood in melancholy and confusion.

#new #theodore nott fluff #theodore nott x reader #theodore nott smut #theo nott #theodore nott #slytherin boys #slytherin #theo x reader #theo nott imagine #theo nott smut #theodore nott angst #theodore nott x y/n #theodore x reader

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fixyourwritinghabits · 19 days

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Any tips for picking back up in the middle of a revision without having to start over? I wrote a book in 2019 and started a major revision in 2021. I printed the book and tore it apart with notes and switching timeline events/chapters around. Now I look at all the notes that are good advice and I would like to apply this progress to the story, but it's so overwhelming and jumbled up 😵‍💫

I've also recently picked up a back-burnered project I've been dreading, only to realize the notes I wrote solved 99% of the problems I had. The only thing holding me back was me, and it sounds like you're in the same boat.

Draft A New Outline - Having a way to track what changes you need to make is helpful, like using an Excel sheet (I know, but it does work) or color-coding changes. This will help so much, especially if you need to track big changes.

Go Through and Highlight What You Like - You may have to throw out whole chapters, but there's reasons you don't want to. Note what you really like - a turn of phrase, a character moment - and see if you can fit it in elsewhere. Always keep that cut folder or document to dig through later.

Set Micro Goals (And Keep Them!) - It's easier to dive into a new draft than to revise an old one. Chunk your goals in easy to accomplish ways. Instead of tackling a whole chapter a day, tackle a scene or a page. Instead of revising 800 words a day, narrow it down to 500 or 300. I make a big chart with my revision goals on it, and you're damn right I slap a cute Daiso sticker next to each goal accomplished. It really helps.

Work Backwards, Revise Forwards - If you have an all new ending with bigger and better stakes, figuring out how to get your plot there may require stepping back, chapter by chapter, to see what subplots you should add or scenes that need to be moved around.

However - and this is just what works for me - working toward a revised draft means starting the rewriting/revising process from Chapter One. That way I don't accidentally cover the same ground twice, and catch when I need to start a subplot sooner or rework descriptions I've used more than once.

Move Past The First 50 Pages - Don't get stuck at the beginning! It's so tempting to revise the first act to perfection, but you might need two or three more drafts to get to the real end of your story, and that might mean tossing all that hard work out. Keep going, and if you find yourself getting caught into fixing Chapter 3 when you're not sure Chapter 30 works, make a note and move on. Finishing your second draft is just as important as finishing your first.

Good luck and keep going!

#revising #revision #writing advice

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bryce-bucher · 10 months

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500 CALIBER CONTRACTZ Post #10

In Tha Dunez :

I've gone ahead and started working on the next level of the game. It is a big empty desert populated only by a nightclub being run in the center of it. Right now it is very early on in the whiteboxing process (which is why the nightclub is entirely white), but I'm super excited to keep making progress on it. The factory level isn't entirely complete yet, but I've decided to rough out each level before going make and cleaning them up.

The FROG :

I also took a break from whiteboxing to add in yet another cameo skin. This time, it's this frog from Hayd_n's game Jamphibian. This one was a long time coming and the only reason I put it off was because I was a little scared of having to model the head shape. It ended up lookin pretty good though I think. I always find replicating existing characters in a different style to be a bit of a treat.

Conclusion:

A bit of a short post this time. I just got back from a trip, so the ball was a little slow rolling in terms of me getting back to work. It doesn't help that I keep thinking of ideas for a point'n'click adventure game I want to make. Someday that will happen, but I've got 4 other games on my plate rn lol. I hope you all have a good one, and I'll keep keepin everyone up 2 date on this game.

#screenshotsaturday #indiegamedev #gamedev #indiedev #game development #indiegames #lowpoly #y2k #y2k aesthetic #indie game #indie games #3d platformer #3dplatformer #sniper rifle #50 caliber 3d platformer #500 caliber contractz #50 cal #jamphibian #hayd_n

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sneakyboymerlin · 6 months

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Heeeeeyyyyy it’s ur boy uh. Skinny penice.

If any of you lovelies wanna help me get my mom’s account out of the negatives, I would be eternally grateful.

Her account is around -$300 after the bills got taken out, we’re just trying not to rack up any late fees at this point ✨ any money will go to getting her account out of the negatives or else paying off the fees as they add up. She’s already been in the negatives for 2 or 3 days because she tried to “fix it herself” without telling me (I only found out because I happened to see her bank app).

Her car’s engine also stopped and we can’t afford a rental so I have to drive her to and from work myself (a 40 minute drive each way, I will be making the 80 minute drive twice today so I can go to my own job). I don’t get paid until Thursday and the only thing I can afford rn is gas.

I just had to pay $500 to get my own car out of the shop after almost 2 months since someone tried to steal it in September (all the parts they needed were on back order) and the dude who tried to take it for a joy ride gets to pay it back in small increments (when a white boy does it for fun, they give him every excuse) which means I’m out $500.

I wanted to attend my community college this upcoming semester but I’m just going to have to skip again if this keeps up, which I really don’t want to do because of pressure from my sister to get a degree or apprenticeship. She won’t help my mom in order to “punish her” but it really just punishes me. My mom has been hiding her finances from me ever since my dad died, resulting in things like my car (the car is under her name & insurance but my dad gave it to me) getting repossessed during the summer (we were able to get it back luckily) and the internet getting shut off. She lied about where the money I paid her was going, paid for her own car + insurance instead and let my car get repossessed. My finances and well-being are entirely dependent on her bank account, and she is consistently dishonest about where our money goes, and then funnels any money I make into her account. She also tries to buy frivolous things we don’t need when she runs out of money + tries to force me to buy those things for her and is only frugal when spending her own paycheck. Everyone I have explained the situation to tells me that I am being financially abused, and I cannot find a way out of it besides moving out, but I can’t afford to do that and I can’t leave my pets behind.

I was also trying to pay off my phone and late bills to T-Mobile so we could switch over to a cheaper company but I can’t make any progress on this because we can’t afford to pay anything off before the next month rolls over and we get charged yet again (when T-Mobile bought Sprint they started charging us out the ass). The electric bill is also going to be unsustainable this winter, our heater doesn’t work half the time so we have space heaters but that’s it for us + our 4 cats + 1 dog.

I’m also supposed to be going to the doctor’s to get a diagnosis (probably EDS), physical and mental therapy, etc. but I have to go through multiple doctors and institutions(?) to do this, which is pretty much impossible when you’re sharing 1 car between 2 people and are the only one with any gas money (which is gonna go FAST). I also do not want my mom to know under any circumstances if I attend mental therapy.

And there’s always more but I don’t have time to continue on

If you follow me or enjoy my posting please consider helping out if you can 💗

C*sh*app is $ThreeTrilobites

DM me for P*yP*l or V-nmo info

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oracle-of-dream · 1 month

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What are your WIPs?

I've been found out...

I do have a lot of WIPs! And since you're curious and asked nicely, why shouldn't I share some?

I've prewritten some appreciation posts, which are set to drop once a week. Around Wednesdays, in case I forget to write one for the week.

As for stories;

I've got two ongoing series Sweetness and Under Pressure.

I'm working on a few more Photo Finishers for Woong from AB6IX, Hyunsuk from CIX, Taeyoung from Cravity, and possibly WOODZ

I've got some personal inspos for some stories for Xiaojun (Wayv), Jongseop (P1H), Wonwoo (SVT), Jaechan (DKZ), and Myungho (8Turn)

Then I've gotten some requests in my inbox that I've struggled to get through, but I will! For Eric (TBZ), Jay (Enha), Wonbin (Riize), Taehyun (TXT), Jake (Enha), and Heeseung (Enha)

So there's a lot I wanna do, and I'm sure I've got more/more will add in at times. I'll show as much as I can and in no particular order. I am getting a new job, so it may slow down my progress as I get used to the change to my schedule.

Thank you to all of my readers for being so supportive and patient. I've so close to 500 followers, and a new one of you pops up every day! I didn't think my writing would pop off or get requests. So really, thank you so much!!

#oracle of dreams #kpop x male reader #kpop x male reader smut #x male reader #x reader #male reader #kpop male idol #kpop male reader #x male smut #x male y/n #x male top reader

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plumbogs · 13 days

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Making Sims 2 University Fun: my personal guide

I've noticed that while it's probably one of the most utilized of the expansions, TS2's university is generally seen as a slog. Which makes sense. It has a completely different gameplay loop than the rest of the game. But it's very handy to send your sims to college, especially if you use any of the various mods that limit careers based on education. So here's my big guide to making university an actual fun experience to play through (to me, at least).

The university expansion is, uh, very tailored to the 2000s college party time animal-house tropes. the pack becomes more fun when you treat it that way and let your sims be stupid young adults who streak and fool around on campus and throw parties. which, by default, is tricky because of the gameplay that requires so much skill building and assignments. which the rest of this guide will also deal with.

Note: I make some pretty big changes to normal university gameplay, to the point that it does require a bit of modding and at least one instance of fooling with simpe. there's probably also easier ways to do it, and of course everything is optional. maybe you do like keeping sims in dorms for the entire time and just three-speeding trough it all.

*mods: there are a few absolute must-have mods to me.:

TwoJeff's College Adjuster. It's basically an all-in-one controller to adjust semester timing, change semesters, plus a bunch of other features. The semester timing is the most important to me.

Active Classes is still in testing, but it almost completely changes how I play college sims. Once again, I'll detail gameplay later, but actually sending your sims to class makes for a much more fun campus experience.

No College Time Progression On Community Lots: this goes hand-in-hand with the previous mod.

Community Time: IIRC you have to do a little editing in SimPE to make it work right with University - this post explains what to edit. I don't know if I'm allowed to share the exact edit I made as a download. This might seem redundant after the last mod, but there's a reason for the madness: while one group of sims are in their active classes, the other students can do things on the home lot.

Instant Pledge for Greek Houses: This one is important for greek house gameplay, which is later.

SimBlender: There's like, 500 different edits of the SimBlender, and I think all of them have the main function needed for my college gameplay, which is teleportation. You can use a comparable teleporter if you fancy.

Simlogical's University Break is another important one for me, but it's not really necessary if you don't want it. I usually give the sims one break day per season - more on that later.

Autonomous Casual Romance is not required, but it sure adds a lot of fun to your college experience. You can also do any number of professor-limiting, custom degrees, etc mods and fixes you want.

*mods i do not use: there are mods to change the number of/length of semesters, but I seem to run into issues with them so I use the college adjuster to do the same things. I also don't really use any major overhauls, or mods that make term papers faster. I did have the tuition mod for a bit but grew tired of using it.

*general timing changes: I do seven-day seasons with longer lifespans for all sims and play rotations each day. These are the things I do specifically for university:

Four semesters: I only do semesters 2, 4, 6, and 8. Every time a new semester starts, I just use the College Adjuster to set the correct semester for each sim. I use the default length of 72 hours.

Synchronized finals: I use the College adjuster to reset the timer so the finals are all around 6-8am, and synchronized for each sim on a lot. This makes it easier to keep track of timing and skills. Also, all sims in university run on the same 3-day semester. Finals are the same day for the entire college each round. Once again, that just makes it easier for me to keep track of college-wide events for gameplay reasons.

Because this means there's 3 days per school year, and two school years per season week, it syncs better if they get a day off every Sunday using the University break mod.

Teens are sent to college on the same schedule. I send teens to school when they have 14 days or so left, with maybe an extra day or two if the college is currently in the middle of the semester.

*Gameplay: living situations: Here's where the meat begins. Now all your sims are on the same college schedule, they're all being sent to school, and now they need to actually move into college. I follow a real rule a number of colleges use: Every student spends a year in the dorms. Just their freshman year, then they have to move somewhere else. I find that this gives them a chance to meet dormies, adapt to being on college, and sorta figure out what kind of young adults they are. Plus, this gives them time for joining greek houses, which will be talked about later.

I do this because I like seeing sims as their own little characters with arcs and whatever and it forces me to think about what exactly they would be doing in college. Some sims get so frustrated with the constant mess of a dorm, some sims thrive by making friends with every dormie. Sometimes they start new drama with the others they came from high school with. Nothing quite like losing your high school sweetheart to some stinky dormie, after all.

After freshmen year, the students are kicked out of the dorms. They can get an apartment, they can rent a house, they can move into a greek house if they join one. Either way, they need to live somewhere. You can let them stay in the dorms, but I prefer somewhat smaller college households and divide them accordingly. Which gets into that whole greek house situation:

*Gameplay: greek houses. I gamify the Greek houses. I play SSU in my megahood, which comes with a fraternity and sorority, and you can do whatever setup you like there if you dislike gendered houses. Or abandon them all together and ignore this section. There are a few important elements:

Freshmen cannot live in Greek houses. They can, however, pledge while living in the dorms and move in right after their finals end. This includes dormies. There are benefits to the dorm, such as free housing, more social opportunities, usually more money per household since I cheat to make the greek houses actually nice to live in with things like pools and comfortable furniture, etc.

The Greeks have to be recruiting consistently. To keep the house going, they need to constantly be bringing in new members, either playable OR dormies.

Any recruited dormies are required to move in. You can townify them after graduation if you don't really get attached to them, but every member of the house is moved in. I use the instant pledge mod to get rid of that annoying requirement where they have to hang out on the lot so long before moving in. That, and they also move in after finals. You can teleport or invite them on and just ask them to move in. Whatever you want. Then, you must set them to be sophomores. Beyond that you can do whatever. They're playable now. Have fun.

You gotta let the Greeks party. Throw toga parties all the time and use a teleporter to maximize guests. Generally, ALL members of ALL greek houses are teleported to a party by default. Add more dormies, any friends, anybody in the dorms - the kids need to recruit and the easiest way is by forcing everyone on one lot. If you have autonomy mods or realistic alcohol, sit back and watch the madness unfold.

I don't really play wants-based, so playables that join greek houses is more based on vibes or friendship with existing greek members than wants.

*Gameplay: what do you mean we have to study??? Yeah. I made it this far before even bringing up the whole point of college. This is also where it gets a little more complicated and changed up, so bear with me.

I don't do wants-based, again, so I generally just try to make sure sims are at least passing by default. Whether they go beyond a C is up to whatever. I usually try to get knowledge sims to their 4.0s or sims that just seem like they'd take it seriously to max GPA.

ACTIVE CLASSES ARE SUCH A LIFESAVER. You can use the pre-made lecture hall or make your own. Put some skill-building objects in there, and if you like flavor theme the lecture halls around majors. I have a business/gen ed building, a science lot, and an arts lot, each with two classrooms (plus the library contains a classroom). I do believe I made an edit to the mod to make the class performance go higher with active classes, as well, so attending class every day is the bare minimum to get a passing grade.

The active class lots also contain career reward skill-building objects. These are nice because your sims can request to be taught by other sims on the lot. If you have a mod that allows non-students to visit uni lots, this helps even more with faster skill-building.

Every day, I send groups of sims with similar majors to their class. If there's a mixed-major group, each sim group gets one day in active class per semester. (So if there's an economics major, a bio major, and an art major, each one attends class on a separate rotation and the others do the normal autonomous go-to-class where they leave the lot and disappear). They attend one or both of the lectures and otherwise exist on the college lot to skill-build, socialize, eat, etc.

Outside of class, sims will usually research if they're not doing great. I honestly barely bother with assignments or term papers unless the sim actually wants to do them or are aiming for a high GPA. Maybe they go hang out at the lounge or downtown to fool around. Maybe they just fester at home. Whatever they want.

*other gameplay/storytelling things: I usually will take advantage of the aspiration change after their sophomore year if I realize that their aspiration just doesn't really jive with how they act. It's realistic to me. They had many years since being like, 13 when they first had their aspiration selected. I'd like to implement more in the way of holidays/events, personally, but that's not really relevant either. I usually give them an outfit change as well, and I like to go hard with the idea that they're going through a bunch of weird fashion phases. You know you want to give them a mohawk, just for a few days, don't you? Dye their hair red? Shave it all off? Have fun with it.

All of these things combine for me, at least, to make the college years a lot more engaging/interesting and less of a slow "move to a dorm -> study -> read books -> meet needs -> graduate" loop. There's a lot more storyline development that comes from sims being able to enjoy their time as young adults, too, such as the regular polycule jealousy explosions and party fights. It serves to break up anything they had going on as teens and give them a little direction to enter adulthood with. This concludes my little mini-guide, feel free to steal all my gameplay style or just take inspiration if you please. Or ignore it all and shake your head and call me an idiot. do whatever you want forever.

#sims 2 university #plumbog gameplay rules #<- ??? i guess #i'm sure i missed a lot of important things. whatever #honestly this would work better as like a youtube video. maybe someday

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berlynn-wohl · 26 days

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UPDATED APRIL 2024: Berlynn Wohl’s custom Cards Against Humanity decks

Do you play Cards Against Humanity on Massive Decks? If so, you might like to know that I have made several decks for the platform, both general and fandom-specific, for use by anyone.

Below you’ll find the codes for playing all my cards on Massive Decks. If you’re unfamiliar but curious, here’s how it’s done:

Go to this link: https://md.rereadgames.com/#new

Enter your name and click Play

You now have a room, with a QR code/URL. You can send this QR code/URL to anyone you might like to have join in your game.

In the “Decks” tab, click the “Deck Source” drop-down menu and select Many Decks.

There’s now a box beneath that says “Deck Code.” Paste the applicable code from the list below and then click the + sign. You can add as many decks as you like.

Berlynn Wohl’s Awesome Cards For Cool People (this is the biggest and most general-interest deck, new cards are added occasionally)[CODE: 1POVL]

Cards Against Pacific Rim [CODE: LY2VL]

Cards Against Hannibal [CODE: 18841]

Cards Against Who-manity [CODE: LXEKM]

Cards Against Night Vale [CODE: MVP0M]

Star Wars Against Humanity [CODE: 1R5XM]

Cards Against Hamilton [CODE: LNW4L]

Cards Against Fandom [CODE: 12QRM]

Cards Against The 80’s [CODE: L9VNM]

Cards Against The Adventure Zone [CODE: 1Z0J1]

Cards Against Overwatch [CODE: L5O0M]

Cards Against Team Fortress 2 [CODE: 1D8O1]

Cards Against Metal Gear [CODE: M0291]

Mystery Science Cards Against Humanity 3000 [CODE: 1RPXM]

Cards Against D&D [CODE: LXWKM]

Cards Against Strong Bad [CODE: 18G32]

Cards Against The Onion [CODE: L95NM]

Cards Against The Prime Directive [CODE: 1RRKR]

Canadians Against Hockey [CODE: 67ENE]

NEW! Omens Against The Apocalypse (this deck is a work in progress, watch this space) [CODE: KQ02O]

NEW! Cards To Test Your Humanity (the Dune deck!) [CODE: 670DE]

...and introducing my newest deck:

Berlynn's Wholesome Deck For Cool People! [CODE: 06G0V] Here's a deck of 500 cards that you can play with your grandma and your 12-year-old nephew -- no awkward explanations of cards, no bodily functions, no swears, no nastiness. "Uhhh but Berlynn, is it actually funny to play?" I dunno, you tell me:

Enjoy!

#cards against humanity #cah #things berlynn wohl made

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markresonates · 1 year

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[ WIP ] – watch me

wednesday: 3/15/23 | last week's wip wednesday: 3/8/23

pairing: sugar daddies!Jaemin & Jeno x camgirl y/n

blurb warnings/tropes: oral (male receiving), Jaemin being Jaemin, tiny voyeurism | wc: 487 words

[ Weekly Work in progress Wednesday ]

– a blurb (300-500 words) of spicy content from my priority wip, posted on wednesday nights; as long as i am actively working on something, these will be posted on a weekly basis.

www's purpose is to hold myself accountable to finish the fics i started anywhere from a few months to over a year ago.

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priority wip: watch me

summary: you watch Jeno, Renjun, Haechan and Jaemin's penthouse when they attend New York Fashion Week, and find a secret room that makes you question how well you know really them

trope: bdsm, camgirl, filthy rich trust fund boys, friends to sugar daddies to polyamorous relationship

total watch me warnings: rough unprotected sex, oral (m&f), throat f&cking, double penetration, thigh riding, face sitting, manhandling, praise, degradation, humiliation, bondage & sex toys, choking, gagging, dollification, voyeurism, exhibitionism, brief sub space, somnophilia, squirting, spanking, spitting, tiny breeding kink, creampie kink, filmed, minor jealousy, hard dom Jeno & Haechan, dom Renjun, soft dom Jaemin, brat turned ultra sub reader; me pushing the JE/HC big dick agenda bc old habits die hard

──────────────────────

a/n: word count wise, i didn't add a whole lot to watch me this week. although, i did manage to proofread and edit like 25% of it !! you may not understand how hard that is for me but i'm pretty proud of myself to have gotten through that much. this just needs to be done. i wanna be done. i wish it was done. believe it or not, i said this was going to be 6k words at one point ??? what the fuck. how did this happen.

➾my masterlist

#www.im-actively-writing.istg #wip #nct smut #jaemin smut #jeno smut #nct dream smut

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poiseandprogress · 9 months

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Poise & Progress: The Game Plan

So in my last blog post (which was also my first might I add) I mentioned that I adore anything relating to leveling up and becoming a femme fatale. And so today I’m choosing to become a part of what I adore.

Here, I’m laying out my goals and plans on how I will achieve these goals. I’ve decided to categorize them based on the areas of my life that I would like to elevate. I will add that this is neither an original idea or layout. I was inspired by a blog here on tumblr that I’ve been following for a while. (@boujeeceo - they haven’t been active for a while though but you can look through their page of course! I don’t gatekeep.)

Okay, let’s get started with my goals shall we?

One Time Goals:

Save 5k

Finish my modeling website

Buy a vlogging camera

Create 3 Sources of income

Start my social media management/marketing business

Open my clothing boutique

Have my own skin care line here in The Bahamas

To Purchase:

Smile direct club

New bedroom furniture and closet storage (my bedroom needs a SERIOUS makeover)

New Wardrobe essentials (a little difficult considering my personality changes every three months but I think now that I’m laying it all out and building my dream persona it may get easier to manage)

Health & Fitness

Start a workout routine

At home pilates (gyms make me uncomfortable for many reasons)

Daily 30 minute jogs

Healthier diet (wholesome, plant based?)

Intermittent fasting?

Cut out meat again?

Add more fruits and vegetables to my diet

Create a meal plan and meal prep on Sundays?

Solid Sleep schedule

Get at least 7 hours of sleep daily (I’m struggling with the idea of this because I feel as though in order to be successful sooner I have to sacrifice some hours of sleep)

Take vitamins daily

Beauty:

Build a solid skincare routine & be consistent with it!

Practice my makeup skills

Learn how to install and style my own wigs

Finances

Fix my relationship with money!!

SAVE & BUDGET

Increase Income

Work/Career

Start a side hustle that I can scale into a remote/work from home business that brings in more than my current 9-5 does.

Relationships:

Making more friends with the same interests as me and ones that have successfully achieved for themselves the lifestyle that I see for myself so that I can learn from them. This also means evaluating my current friendships and putting some distance between me and those that aren’t working on growth.

Spirituality

Strengthen relationship with God

Read 1 chapter of the Bible Daily

Continue to explore my spirituality

Meditate daily

Socials:

The girlies on every social media platform say that the best way to remain consistent and to be successful when it comes to social media is by niching down. I’ve been working on what my niche could be, based on the type of content that I like to consume and also the type of content that I will be able to post the most given my current location, income, and budget.

I’m leaning towards: LIFESTYLE | FASHION | BEAUTY

Youtube

Start posting again. It’s that simple, I know it is.

Hit 500 subscribers by New Years (Currently 292 - All of my past videos are private right now as I’m rebranding)

Meet monetization requirements (500 subscribers, 3 videos within 90 days and 3000 watch hours)

Instagram

Hit 5k followers by New Year’s Eve (Currently 4,026)

Create a solid social media strategy & content calendar

Skills

Complete my social media marketing course

Learn a new language (currently learning italian seeing that my boyfriend is an old Italian man loll)

Habits:

Drink a gallon of water daily

Read more books

Form daily routines

Hobbies:

Modeling

Build my portfolio

Book more runway stuff

Travel for modeling

Hobbies that I’d like to start:

Tennis/Golf: I would like to have a physical hobby that can also keep me in shape. And also somewhere that affluent individuals in my community enjoy hanging out.

Traveling: This one feels like a dead giveaway. Of course I want to start traveling more.

Horseback riding: I used to do it when I was younger and volunteering at a nearby stable. Learning to ride was a requirement but I didn’t stick around long enough to actually get good at it.

Cooking & Baking (It’s recently become a dream of mine to host a fancy thanksgiving dinner) My family has never really been the baking type and traditional Bahamian meals are great and all but I would like to explore the art of cooking.

I think for now this is a pretty extensive list of goals and aspirations even though in my head it feels like I’ve only scratched the surface. I’ll be going into more details on different aspects of these things here of course!

#black girl moodboard #black woman in luxury #feminine energy #hypergamy #luxury aesthetic #luxury lifestyle #soft life #leveling up #femme fatale

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emmersreads · 27 days

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Emma by Jane Austen | 2.5/5

I have been sitting on this negative review of Emma for over a year so pls pretend I am charmingly tortured by my mixed feelings for this beloved classic rather than just a little hater.

I decided to read Emma because the Austen girlies are unstoppable. Every day I wake up for my twelve hour shift in the content mines of tumblr.fuck (for the purpose of this sentence we are both grizzled elderly men sitting on a porch just go with it) and find another post about how Jane Austen is the best thing since before sliced bread. Eat your heart out Shakespeare; if only you’d done all your plays about falling in love. These posts are a bit of a mindfuck for me because as much as I love a costume drama, Austen’s actual novels have always been underwhelming. One of my best friends is an Austen girlie. She loves the things. I dunno man, these books do not spark joy. But maybe I was just young dumb and a hater. Emma (2020) is my favourite Austen movie, so when I decided to reinvestigate the author I thought I’d start there.

The movie is better than the book. Shocked gasps; questions asked at parliament.

Emma (2020) is a great adaptation in part because it’s well positioned to keep the best parts of the book. My favourite part of the novel was the dialogue, which the film is able to lift often ad verbatim (“Mother, you simply must sample the tart!”). The patter of conversation is excellent and Austen’s sense of humor comes across just as effectively on the page as it does when spoken aloud. To this the visual medium can add the incredible set design, including the beautiful Regency wallpapers, Emma’s many jackets and little hats, Anya Taylor Joy’s eyes that look like they’re exes trying awkwardly to avoid each other in the grocery store, Johnny Flynn as Mr. Knightley having a romantic tantrum so intense he has to take his pants off and lie on the floor. Relatable. These elements couldn’t be in the book even if Ms. Austen had wanted to describe Mr. Knightley’s buttock-baring emotion.

Unfortunately that paragraph has been my way of damning with faint praise. The inverse proposition of an adaptation that adds a lot of things I liked is the source material without much to like about it. This is a bit of a misrepresentation. I found most of the book to be funny and enjoyable in much the same vein of the movie: a gorgeously decorated vanilla sponge cake. I just hated the ending so much it retroactively ruined all 500 previous pages.

I don’t begrudge Ms. Austen’s choice to hew to the Georgian standards of propriety (hence no ass shots), but this is a safe space for us to admit that those standards have not all aged particularly well, or particularly sexily. I feel like I’ve been infected with terminal bookstagram brainworms. I also don’t want to be here arguing that a book published two hundred years ago is too old-fashioned for me. But at the same time so much of the narrative about Austen is a revisionist history of how all her work was secretly not only meaningful (this is true, Austen’s work is about capturing the atmosphere and concerns of a particular social milieu, which she does effectively; it’s not less worthy of capture because it’s a space exclusive to women), but progressive.

People love Austen. They love romance and they love period drama. They don’t love when that genre is criticized for being dated or regressive. I understand that people do not read these books for the 21st century social commentary or the politics. And I understand that a 21st century moral critique is ahistorical and in poor faith. Trust me, I feel the ‘just let people have fun’ brigade hanging over my head like the sword of fucking Damocles.

But here’s the thing folks, my largely pretty enjoyable read of Emma was soured by just that: important parts of it are dated and regressive and it ruined my day.

The premise of Emma is that the titular protagonist is a rich and witty young woman intent on meddling in the romantic lives of others, at their expense. At the conclusion of the film, Emma realizes she has behaved badly to her lower class friend Harriet by leading Harriet to overlook the farmer Robert Martin (Harriet’s social equal) in order to pursue the richer Mr. Erlton (her social superior). Emma apologizes to Harriet and tells her to reconsider her feelings for Robert Martin, which turn out to be genuine. Finally, when Harriet discovers that her father is a lower class merchant rather than a secret aristocrat, Emma says she will welcome Harriet into Hartfield anyway. It indicates that Emma has outgrown her judgemental nature and preoccupation with appropriate matches to see Harriet as a friend in spite of her being Emma’s social inferior. And they all live happily ever after.

In the novel, this resolution takes much much longer. Emma’s flaw is not that she toyed with her friend’s emotions to arrange a match that amused her, but that she encouraged Harriet to have uppity opinions and to seek to rise above her station. The story resolves with Emma and Harriet returning to their proper social classes, Emma with Mr. Knightley and Harriet with Robert Martin. Emma and Mr. Knightley commiserate over how foolish Emma was to befriend Harriet and how unpleasant Harriet has become now that she is a social climber, and Harriet is revealed to have been naturally ungrateful and grasping and unworthy of a young lady such as Emma’s friendship.

I’m not going to waste my time on whether this sort of thing was just as bad then as it is now or whether it was simple a different time. Austen’s writing is a reflection of genuinely (though not universally) held societal beliefs and she’s not going to rise from the grave to change it now. It is, however, a deeply unpleasant ending. Emma’s problem isn’t that she toys with the people around her for entertainment, but that she doesn’t participate appropriately in the class system. Technically both of these are about becoming more self-reflective and more thoughtful of others, but the devil is in the details. It’s hard to enjoy that as the conclusion to a romantic comedy. I don’t come to Austen for a window into the uncomfortable realities of the past, or really any particular connection to the past. I’m here for the fluffy romance.

Part of the reason talking about not enjoying Austen because of these novels’ dated elements is so frustrating is that the common narrative about Austen is super revisionist. Austen has endured a lot of lumps and I do think it’s stupid to claim that she was a poor writer and was incapable of writing incisive social commentary just because she was a woman writing about the recency woman’s interests and concerns. I also think it’s reductive to claim that the social dynamics of Austen’s world often get misinterpreted due to the modern reflex to see every society preceding our own as nasty, brutish, and short. But this isn’t a critique of Austen, this is a critique of reading Austen in 2023. It’s not just about hating to see a grilboss winning.

On the other hand, why do I feel like I’m trying to placate the ‘just let people enjoy things’ brigade again?

One of the most frustrating things about being generally a romance disliker is the climate of toxic positivity that surrounds any genre that is more about having fun than any ostensibly higher purposes. There is a sense that since the audience of these genres is primarily women and they are often targeted by bad faith misogynistic criticisms, that any criticism of them is inherently misogynistic. I’ve been tying myself up in knots because my observation is that a book from 1815 has some nineteenth century ass ideas about class. This should be self-evident. ‘Just enjoying things’ in not actually my goal when reading, and ‘just letting people enjoy things’ isn’t my goal as a critic either.

Here’s the rub: Emma is a fun and sweet romantic comedy with some of the English language’s best dialogue until the conclusion reminds us that there hasn’t ever been a romantic utopia with the sexy historical codes of practise but not the bad ones. Romance in Austen’s time was a function of the class system, not separate from it. And I don’t know, maybe I’m the patron saint of it really being that deep, but I had a hard time seeing the lighthearted romance in that.

#read in 2023 #emma #jane austen #book review #bookblr #bookstagram #book blogging #classics #romance #books #also its been so long i cant find any of the pics i took of the book so behold my lemon cake

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pants-magic-pants · 3 months

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heyy, hope you doing good! and sorry to keep bothering you lol

so you got me really curious

idk if this is something you would share, and it’s totally fine if not, but i was wondering how much went into the costume? both time and money -wise

Hello! I'm... surviving! I hope you are as well.

I am also curious about this question, as I certainly didn't keep track of it. Initially, I did save some receipts, but this project was so long-term that work on it became scattered. Scattered in terms of when I was able to find the right materials, when I was well enough (mentally, physically) to work on it, when progress was actually being made vs. me searching and bumbling around unsuccessfully...

When there was any sort of momentum, it was almost like a part time job, where substantial amounts of hours were put in on all or most of my days off (which I have three). I spent many days hyperfixating on it all day with just a few breaks, so maybe 12 hours in a day, for 2-3 days in a week, so 24-36hrs in a week. But not all my weeks were like that. I went a couple months not working on it at all because it was stealing my soul.

If we were to say that on average there was just one day a week from September 2022 when I began the project, until November 2023, that I worked on it all day, it'd be one day (12hrs) x 4 weeks in a month x 15 months... That means a minimum of 720hrs went into it.

As for the costs? I was very scared to tally this up, but it's not terrible?... If you consider what some cosplays cost? Some of it is ridiculous, like the fact that I probably spent $100 on beads.

I had to look up what some things cost roughly, and sort of guess, but here's my tally:

MATERIALS -- $143 $90 in various beads $10 sea glass $9 aquamarine crystals $9 blue/mirror crystals $10 hot glue sticks packs x 2 $3 black acrylic paint $6 button bases x 2 $6 blue cabochons for buttons

FABRIC -- $146 $65 velvet x 4yds (but mine was free) $13 cuff lace x 1yrd $13 upper coat lining x 1yrd $13 lower coat lining x 1yrd $5 interfacing x 1yrd $12 thread x 4 $20 swatches x 3 $5 felt for padding

TOOLS -- $80 $8 french curve and other curved rulers $15 rotary blades x 3 $30 rotary cutting board (not even a big one) $23 pattern paper $4 microtex needles (Not included $20 walking foot that was useless) (Not included I had to get a whole goddamn new sewing machine, $500)

A few notes about the spending and amounts:

As you can see! The materials COST AS MUCH AS the fabric. hahahahahahahaahahaa It adds up, it seriously adds up. You keep needing more and more, and honestly I bought it all at such spread out intervals that I wasn't aware it was adding up. It could have also been less because there were a few sales at the craft store. hahaha

I did not have to pay for the velvet because of the issues the company had in getting it to me. Overall, you may notice that regardless of that my yardage is pretty low. It won't be the same for everyone. This was what was needed to produce a garment that is roughly a children's size large, or a women's XXS. It's one way that being a miniscule, little pipsqueak is an advantage... for one's wallet. Not much else good to say about it.

Anyway, tools. Tools is an important category. The fabric needed for this project was finicky and troublesome, and it required not only study on how to handle it, but the right tools and a worthy machine to handle it. I literally could not finish the coat without getting a new machine which was actually gifted to me... as I could not afford it in a million years... There is also no way to cut velvet without a sharp rotary blade and board, and you'll go through several blades in very short time.

So I guess that comes to about $370...

Not terrible... right? And it was free velvet. And I was gifted a machine, and I also had a couple patrons who donated over a hundred dollars, bless them. On the other hand, this was only the cost of the coat, and NOT the cost including the dress shirt, cummerbund, wig, etc.

Needless to say, I am dirt poor this year. No sort of spending like this will be occurring any time soon for further work (to make the pants, to get new boots, to go to events, take pictures) unless I'm able to pick up freelance work or earn more patrons. Yeah.

#this post ought to go with the master post #thanks for asking and for donating!#it's so sweet I may have to do something about it #ballroom costume #coat construction

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eboni-napalm · 8 months

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WRITING COMMISSIONS: OPEN!

Hey everyone- money's been a little tight lately with me being in between jobs at the moment, and with my top surgery approaching, I will be out of work for a minimum of two weeks for recovery, which means I won't be getting a paycheck at all for that period of time. So to remedy that for the future, I have decided to start offering writing commissions! I’ll be writing Self-Insert or Reader-Insert romance fics for all your self-shipping needs. <3 For the moment, I will only be writing for certain fandoms. As time goes on and if I get enough people interested, I may expand my list later on. Feel free to ask about what fandoms/characters I will and won't do, as well as what elements and can and cannot write as well!

All commissions will have a $5 MINIMUM flat rate deposit that I will require before I start your piece. Base prices are below as follows (subject to change):

Less than 100 words- $5 100-500 words- $10 500-1000 words- $20 1000-2500 words- $25 2500-5000 words- $40 5000-7500 words- $50 7500-10000 words- $70 More than 10000 words- $100

I can and will write NSFW if it is requested, HOWEVER, it will take me longer to implement it depending on the amount of scenes and complexity of them. Because of this, any commission that includes NSFW elements will add an additional price onto your piece (this can range anywhere from $5-$30.)

I will have five slots open for commissions, so if any of you are interested, send me a message!

1- @da-buss : IN PROGRESS 2- OPEN 3- OPEN 4- OPEN 5- OPEN

#writing #writing commissions #self shipping #self shipping community #self insert writing #reader insert writing #writing commissions open

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author-a-holmes · 5 months

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okay, you've convinced me to try sprinting lol! I always beat myself up for procrastinating on writing until it's too late in the day and then hating that I can't write for an extended period bc when I actually find the focus/motivation to write it's like 11PM. I think I (partly) procrastinate bc I *know* earlier in the evening I'll be too distracted by other stuff (texts, having to make dinner, wanting to watch a show or other stuff etc) to properly write. But if I only do it in bursts...it may work. Is there a specific app or anything you use or is really just set a timer on your phone and go?

That's exciting! I love watching writers try out new things!

I personally use the "Sprinto Bot" on Discord if you have your own server you can add it to, but literally any App or Clock can work for you. Just set the timer for 15, 20, or 25 minutes and just write. And then give yourself a break before doing another one, or call it done for the day if you just want to slide in something, yah know.

(25 minutes working, 5 minute break, is known as the Pomodoro Method, but as I mentioned in the other post I find 25 minutes too long, I start picking up my phone and getting side tracked. On bad days I also find 5 minutes too short a break. So it might take a few tries until you find a specific number combination that works for you)

Ultimately though, it may not work for you at all, but everyone I've talked into trying sprinting has at least found something from it to incorporate into their own specific writing toolset <3

I'm a night owl too, because of earlier in the day distractions, but if I start at 11pm I can usually run a sprint from 11:05-11:25, then have a 10 minute break, and then set another sprint to run between 11:35-11:55. Which nets me 40 minutes of writing a night. And sometimes that's 200 words, sometimes it's 500. On really, really, good nights I can get as many as 900 words in 2 sprints, but I've not been doing that well recently.

Ultimately the number doesn't matter all that much, it's just a way for me to talk myself into doing something. It used to be that I'd go "Urgh, I've only got an hour left? I can't settle into writing and get a good chunk done in that time, I'll leave it until tomorrow" and weeks would go by like that. Literal months Rofl

But if I've got twenty minutes, I can set a timer and do 200 words. It's progress, and I'll take any forward momentum when I'm neck deep in the second act of a manuscript lol!

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razorblade180 · 2 years

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A new lens

Nahida:*peeks in* How are we today?

Scara:*laying down*…..

Scara:Are you just gonna stand in the doorway?

Nahida:*happily walks in* Yaaau, progress!

Scara:I’m just bored.

Nahida:Tiny steps still lead to epic journeys. I was hoping I could potentially offer you a sort of olive branch; a potential way to help you with yourself.

Scara:Is this the part where you tell me the benefits of meditating?

Nahida:Oh no. If anything I think you’ve been left alone with your own thoughts for too long. It’s like telescope stuck in one setting;.

Scara:You want to add more perspectives…

Nahida:*claps* Exactly, I knew you’d get it. Although…I’m aware this might be a bit upsetting.

Scara:Don’t bead around the bush.

Nahida:You know…Beelzebub could’ve killed you? But…she didn’t.

Scara:*sits up* What?

Nahida:Logically speaking, what do you do with dangerous tools, substances, or any items that don’t work? Any careful person would make sure nobody else could ever get it. Be it for their safety or fear of potential problems. There’s also plenty of cases of broken things getting taken apart and reused because their valuable materials. There’s no mistaking many things about you are valuable, yet she didn’t take you apart.

Scara:Are you saying I should be thankful to her by not killing me!?

Nahida:No, that’s out of question! How you choose to feel about her is ultimately your decision and I would never tell you otherwise. After all, the sages kept me alive, but I suspect it had more to deal with the akasha, and the fact even the death of a weak god can leave catastrophic wounds on the area and people. Much like the God of Salt. Keeping me alive was most likely the only reasonable option…

Scara:…Are you saying it was unreasonable for me?

Nahida:Strictly in a logical sense, I can’t see a concrete reason. She made you, so unmaking you is within her power. However, not everything people do is logical. Here’s my new lens for you. The Electro Archon may have not seen your worth as a vessel, but your life itself was worth living.

Scara:….

Nahida:I can’t claim to know here thought process specifically, but I thought it was worth mentioning to you. If anything is true, it’s that Beelzebub want’s Inazuma to last and be safe. Leaving you unchecked as she did is strange.

Scara:I’m weak to her. To her I’m no threat she could resolve in a heartbeat no doubt.

Nahida:Yet the idea of letting you potentially be a problem, especially with all you’ve currently done, is a bit counterproductive to her goals.

Scara:….

Nahida:I’d like to one day ask her myself, or perhaps you’ll find yourself one day asking her. It’s possible she herself might not have a true answer, which would only make me feel more certain of mine. No matter your intended purpose, your life itself, it’s right to exist, it never lost it worth to keep doing so. So…I hope you’ll one day treat your life better.

Scara:It…sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself more than me.

Nahida:Hehe, I can see why’d you might say that. I don’t think I’ll ever say the last 500 years were wonderful, but I still learned, met people, grew, and saw it through to something new. Even if I wished for better circumstances, I’ll never regret what I gained through it all. Those will never be worthless, because they made me, me. *smiles* I think there’s beauty in that because I’m still here and can grow into anything I want to be!

Scara:….*lays down* I want to go to sleep.

Nahida:Okay. Honestly I think I might’ve said more than I meant to, but it’s just nice talking you; putting my own thoughts into words is nice. *walks away*…..I think you still grow too. Sweet dreams. *closes door*

Scara:Tsk….she really does..talk a lot.

#genshin impact #nahida #scaramouche

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engazed · 1 year

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Writing Group Proposal

I'm going to put an idea out there with no expectation of interest or response:

I very much want to finish this next chapter (and the rest of Blackbird, Fly) in the coming weeks and months. I've been struggling to find the time to just sit down and do it, and I think part of that is lack of pressure, deadlines, and accountability. So I'm going to make a proposal: a writing group.

For the month of December, I want to write. A little here, and little there, and add a little to a little and you get quite a lot over time. I'm sure many of you out there have similar goals but could use a little extra motivation that like-minded creators can provide.

So why don't we form a small writing group? Here's how it would work:

Anyone interested, send me a message on Tumblr, and come December 1, we'll hit the play button. We'll announce our individual goals for December: Week 1. It could be anything: "This week, I want to write 1000 words" or "I want to write 300-500 words a day for five days" or "I want to write notes on character/chapter/scene" or whatever it might be. It doesn't even have to be fanfiction. Maybe you're working on a paper for school, or want to journal more, or want to read a dozen stories and leave comments, or, I don't know, want to try your hand at an epic ballad (I hope it's that one!). We'll declare our goals, and at the end of that week, we'll check back in with each other, report on our progress, congratulate and encourage one another. Then we can move on to December: Week 2.

To keep this from being overwhelming, I'm only proposing this for December (though, if we are successful, we may want to do this again in a month or so). I know December can be a hectic month, so we can keep goals small and manageable (or, you know, go nuts, you do you). I just know that sometimes writing groups can be great fun and helpful, which is what I'm looking for at the moment.

So anyone who is interested, anyone at all, whether you follow me or my work or not, whether you've ever interacted with me or not (I'm a friendly person, I promise), just shoot me a message and we'll get this party started. It can be two of us or a dozen, we can grow or shrink at will, and we can make this whatever we want it to be.

Feel free to reblog, tag your friends, or just keep scrolling. Like I said, no expectations, no demands. Just an invitation to write.

#writing group #??

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