I've officially updated and re-opened my Etsy shop!!

Here it is!

The basic policies and process information are in the listings' descriptions but a couple other basic things:

I will not do harassment-based or bigoted art (duh).

Suggestive/light NSFW is fine, but nothing explicit and nothing lewding minors (also duh). (All individuals involved must be 18+ in canon)

I won't do mechs. Sorry, they're cool, but the idea of drawing them scares me

Examples:

inspired by fifteen trying to say shit and getting censored by the nanny filter, here’s a complete table of every doctors who and whether or not they use strong language

1 - no

2 - yeah

3 - rarely, but accurately and directly, in a dignified and sarcastic fashion

4 - ABSOLUTELY all the time. the tardis filter barely copes. we’ve all seen the K-9 clip, that’s what the character sounds like without the kids show censorship

5 - no. does he look like a man who swears to you? maybe some esoteric combination of words like fuckadoodle shitnozzles

6 - yes. duh

7 - he doesn’t enjoy it, but occasionally, sparingly, when the situation calls for it

8 - definitely . not too frequently, though. for emphasis, or for a laugh

9 - that man is a working class northerner from the 2000s and a jaded war veteran. draw your own conclusions. he knows elaborate insults you’ve never heard of

10 - cheeky little ‘fuck’ here and there with rose & martha, ALL THE TIME with donna, and swearing like hell when he starts going off the rails in the s4 specials

11 - lol no. well… he’s got an example to set to the companions that he treats like children. he’s a storybook character and he wants to be perceived as an imaginary friend, a kind almost victorian whimsical gentleman in a bowtie, and a person like that wouldn’t use crude language. with river song though? now THAT’S a whole other story

12 - the scene in dark water with the psychic paper tells us everything we need to know. twelve in series 8 was straight up pg13ified malcolm tucker. shuttity-up-up-up without the tardis filter sounds like fuckity-bye. he swears liberally, frequently, unsparingly and unceremoniously, at everyone without distinction, including clara’s students at coal hill. personally i think that’s one hell! of a fucking! bird!

13 - no. she’s all famalam hipster mum cringy kindergarten teacher. it doesn’t fit her ~vibe~. the master makes fun of this trait in the timeless children when he’s goading her about her superiority complex. says it’s such a step down from her previous self, at least that one was honest about his emotions

fugitive - she gives no fucks and takes no shit

14 - yes from time to time, like a normal human being would, nothing excessive. donna does bring it out in him though. his mouthy side

15 - this guy says cunt and serves it

12 Wants For WHB

Disclaimer: This is completely my opinion and you are free to disagree. I am also not a game dev, so I do not know how easy or difficult these things would be to implement in game. Though, I have played a lot of gacha games, and many of the things I want do feature in other games, so I don’t think anything I say here is too unrealistic.

With that out of the way, here are some things that I want added or changed in WHB in no particular order. This is not an exhaustive list, but still ended up being way longer than I initially thought it would be.

Text Messages

I would like the bug that makes chats disappear to be fixed.

Chat replayability. You can already replay L Card chats, so I don’t think it would be too hard to implement that for regular chats.

Change chat time gate so that it works when the app is closed. Currently, you can only get a new text message after you spend 30 minutes in the app. I find this very annoying. I’m fine with waiting 30 minutes but I want to be able to close the app in the meantime. So, my idea is, once you log in for the day, the countdown starts even if you close the app, then once you open the app after 30 min you can read the chat, then the next countdown starts and so on and so forth.

Voice Calls

We don’t have these currently in the game, but I think any gacha game with a phone feature should have them included. This could implemented in a few ways. They could tie them to L Cards. Or it could be we get a new call like once a month or something. Then, maybe, some calls for special occasions like your birthday, his birthday, the launch anniversary, etc.

Home Page

It would be nice if we could change the expression on the demon’s face that we put on the home page. We can unlock expressions as we increase likability for the demons, so I’d like to be able to see those expressions on the home page.

They said at one point they’ll allow us to change the Satan icon on the Secret Club to different demons, which will be nice and I hope they implement that soon.

Artifacts

Better organization. I want to be able to organize by the same artifact, so I can easily see how many I have of each specific artifact.

Increased storage. Let us store more than 200 artifacts. I like to have lots of artifacts for fodder for other artifacts.

Weekly achievement. I think the achievement of raising artifacts by 20 levels each week is excessive. I keep having to raise artifacts that I’ll never use just to complete this achievement and it’s wasteful. Either reduce the number of levels needed or get rid of the achievement and replace it by an achievement for playing panty party or something like that.

Gacha

They recently changed it so you have a slightly increased rate for the demon that you pick on the gacha screen. This is nice, but I would prefer it if the increased rate was like 5% because the current 1% really is a negligible difference.

I would like banners of general pool L cards that use red keys, not solomon seals. Maybe they last a week twice a month or something like that. For example, Attacker Levi could be featured at the start of the month. That card and his artifact are the only L items that can be pulled from that banner. Using red keys, after 110 total pulls, you are guaranteed his artifact and, after 220 total pulls, you are guaranteed his card. This banner lasts a week. Then there is no banner for a week. Then, for example, Attacker Beel has a banner the third week. Then no banner, etc. I would also like the pity to carry over between these theoretical red key banners.

Currently, we can skip the entire gacha animation and pulled character showcase, if we didn’t pull an S rank or above. I want to be able skip it no matter what, unless I pull an L character.

Currently, the gacha animation flashes gold when you get an L Card or L artifact. I would prefer for the L artifact to flash a different colour, like pink for example. I’ve gotten my hopes up too many times seeing gold, thinking I got an L card, and then being disappointed as I instead got Satan’s hair for the 20th time.

Action Power

I would like to be able to come back at certain times of the day, for example, 12pm and 6pm, and get like 50 AP each time. This is a feature in many other gacha games.

I would also like the ability to watch ads for more AP. I know some people are against this type of thing, but I really don’t mind it as long as it’s not mandatory and is non-intrusive.

Translation

The translation is very poor compared to most other gacha games. There’s odd English syntax, a lot of typos, and seemingly missing words. I don’t even know what the characters are trying to convey at times and it really takes me out of the story. So I want them to hire some good English translators. If I could only get one thing on this list implemented into the game, it would be this.

Also I want them to do better about making sure to use the correct pronouns for the MC.

Panty Party

I feel like this feature could be improved a lot. Bring back gold panties in every level. Remove gold from the item list. Gold panties can give you advanced candy choice chest, whole pie choice chest, red keys, or solomon seals. Normal panties can give you beginners / intermediate candy choice chest, slice pie choice chest, pretzels, and gold keys. Also if you fail a level, you can choose to watch an ad to continue from that level if you want.

Events

I’m glad that they added quick plays to events.

The event tab needs to be separated from all other tabs, to always be easily able to select it. It was cumbersome when the Leraye event tab was combined with the limited achievement tab, lucifer gacha tab, and event replay tab. It would constantly switch between each tab, and you’d have to take extra time to switch back to the event tab.

For event replays, currently they cost a small amount to buy to replay. But as more and more events are added, that will be unsustainable. I think if you play an event, then for a certain amount of event currency you can purchase an event replay ticket to be redeemed later. If you didn’t play the event, then there can be other ways to get event replay tickets.

They should allow us to access the event shop for a couple days after the event ends. Just so we can focus on the event and then spend all the currency we earned after it ends.

I do think it is a good idea to use events to flesh out the universe and tell important stories pre-MC to not bog down the main story. However, I would like it if some of the events were MC focused. I would love to know more about how we’re adapting to Hell and interacting with others when we’re not being constantly forced to keep moving forward by the main story.

Pies

We need to have a way to farm pie slices and whole pies. I’m surprised the game has been out this long and they still haven’t introduced a way for us to get them more easily.

The amount of pie slices we need to increase a characters skills from level 4 to level 5 is 60, which is beyond excessive. I also don’t get why the jump between the amount of pies needed is so large. Going from needing 0 pies at level 4 to 60 pies at level 5 is odd game design. So, I think it should be reduced to 30 pies slices at most. For level 8, it should be 60 whole pies at most, not 160.

Characters

Another odd game choice is that the S characters need the exact same amount of materials to level up as the L characters. This doesn’t make sense as the S characters are generally less valuable gameplay-wise than the L ones. So why would I waste my precious resources on them, when for the same amount I could raise a much better L unit. Having S characters cost less than the L ones gives incentive to level them up.

This one is the least likely to ever happen, but I’d like for the A+ characters to have likeability rewards. It’s really nice being able to hear voice lines, change the expressions, and get some info on the S/L characters. I’d like to be able to do that for the A+ characters. Yes, it has been confirmed that A+ characters can get L versions, so then they would have expressions/voice lines available in that case. However, there’s no guarantee every single A+ rank will get an L version, and even if they did that could be years in the future. So I would like A+ characters to have a likeability section, but, to balance it out, the item rewards you get from them could be half of the S/L characters. For example, instead of 50 gold keys for a node, you get 25.

Miscellaneous

When they conduct maintenance, I’d like for them to give us more than just some AP. As an example, if they did maintenance for 2 hours, they should compensate us with 2 red keys, or 20 solomon seals.

I’d like to be able to quick play battles in the story chapters. If not unlimited, then at least 5 quick plays a day.

There’s a bug that places me at the beginning of a story chapter instead of where I should be at the end (the node to farm the candy chests). Then I have to scroll all the way to the end which actually takes quite a bit of time. I don’t know if this is affecting anyone else but it is affecting me and it’s annoying so I want it fixed.

When promoting a character or levelling up their skills above level 4 or completing a node on the unholy board that requires Solomons tears, pies or candies, I would like a window that pops up that asks if we’re sure that we want to consume those materials. I misclicked a few times, and that is a lot of resources to waste by accident. So I would like a pop up window to help prevent this.

With all that said, I truly like the premise of this game, the character designs, the VA performances, the art by Nori and the fact that this is an 18+ game aimed at men-loving people, which is a very rare thing. So I am glad it exists and hope that it succeeds. The wants I’ve listed here are just things that would increase my enjoyment even more.

Earlier this month, American Girl re-released a whole lot of long-retired stuff from Kit Kittredge’s collection. 

Kit herself never actually went anywhere. There was just nothing to buy for her. Doll, book, and that was it. But it’s the 20′s now, and AG is slowly turning the focus back to the historical characters. They’ve finally acknowledged that Kit is an icon and deserves to have the nice things that we all so desperately want to give her.

I was looking at the new stuff on the Wiki because I was curious to see if there were any changes made to anything. It’s part of the “homework” I do for the purposes of doll blogging. While doing that, I noticed that the page for each product mentions how much each item originally cost, alongside what it costs now. 

For example: Kit’s school outfit.

This was first sold for $22 when it was released in 2000, along with the first half of Kit’s debut collection. Now they’re charging $38 for it, an increase of $16 or 72%. I thought that sounded a little excessive, even if 2000 really and truly was more than twenty years ago and inflation has gone wild since the pandemic began three years ago.

So I ran the numbers through the inflation calculator operated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Look at that. It’s basically spot on. $22 in 2000, adjusted for inflation, is equivalent to $38.23 in 2023. I’ve been proven wrong.

I did the same calculation for her birthday dress and her pajamas, and those were both pretty much the same, since they were and still are similar in cost to the school outfit. 

Now for her cute little scooter, made from a box of California oranges.

This was a later addition to her collection, coming along in 2006 for the price of $24. In 2023 it is now being sold for $50, a $26 or 108% increase. Let’s see how that tracks when adjusted for inflation. 

Ooof. $24 in 2006 should only be $35.70 in today’s money, or $14.30 less than what it’s actually being sold for. So if this one feels a little overpriced, then it probably is, assuming that the materials and quality are the same. Both versions are made of faux wood, which means that the recently skyrocketing price of wood won’t affect this. Maybe there’s another increased cost somewhere that I’m not aware of. Or maybe AG has added a small nostalgia tax, a sort of “buy it from us or pay big bucks to someone selling it secondhand” reminder.

Another accessory that was brought back was Kit’s school lunch.

This set includes her metal lunchbox, an embroidered napkin, a cheese sandwich, an oatmeal raisin cookie, apple slices, and for some reason.... three whole entire raw carrots. (There’s nothing wrong with carrots, but like. When’s the last time you’ve even seen an adult eat three whole carrots for lunch. Carrots are huge.)

Anyway. It was sold for $16 when it was released in 2000, and now they’re selling it for $36, a $20 or 125% increase.

$16 in 2000 would be equivalent to $27.80, so her lunch set is overpriced by $8.20, assuming the cost of materials/labor have risen proportionally. 

And finally, Grace the dog. Named for her distinct lack of grace and adorable clumsiness. Sold for $16 when she was released with the second half of Kit’s debut collection. Now selling for $28 which is an increase of $12 or 75%.

A 75% increase is very similar to Kit’s school outfit selling at a $72% increase, so my guess was that this is going to be a more reasonable price hike.

Adjusted for inflation, $16 in 2001 is now equivalent to $27.30, so Grace is in fact underpriced by 70 cents! Personally I think AG charges a bit too much for all of their doll pets, but that’s just me.

All of this was really surprising to me. Inflation happens so quietly in everyday life. It’s only been really noticeable in the last three years, when it seems like everything has shot up in price. 

The inflation calculator goes all the way back to 1913. Now if you really want to see what those small changes look like after 90 years, check out how much a $150 doll like Kit herself would have cost in 1932, when her stories began: 

You’d only need $6.71 in your pocket to bring Kit home. Imagine that. 

How to Snowball Bills

The snowball method is a savings method I started doing to get myself on track around last year. I did have to restart everything because a few emergencies popped up all at once. But I started this again this month and so far the results have been wonderful.

The important part about snowballing is that you label everything, track it, and don't touch it unless you ABSOLUTELY have to!

Why should you snowball bills? > Think of your money like it's a snowball, and there's a hill with lots of bumps and lumps on it (bills). You start out at the smoothest area you can find, with the least amount and begin rolling the snowball down the hill. Your money (the snowball) begins to get bigger and bigger, eventually, those lumps and bumps are hardly noticeable!

STEP 1: Identification

The first step is really simple, you need to identify a few things.

A list of every bill you have (non variable)

A list of fun expenses (getting mcdonalds, 5 below plushies)

The first step is to list out every bill you have and their amount PLUS one to two dollars. Once you have this you'll be able to see exactly how much bare minimum expenses are.

It can also be helpful to budget groceries etc throughout the month to avoid over spending on things you genuinely don't need. But there's going to be another post on what I recommend stockpiling to avoid overspending eventually.

Now identify your fun expenses, be realistic. Do you go to mcdonalds or something like twice a week? How about clothing shopping? Books?

You don't have to avoid spending for fun completely with this method which is why it works.

STEP TWO: The Process

What are some very reasonable adjustments you can make to your fun expenses? Maybe one less mcdonalds trip a week? How about one less book per month?

Are there any side hustles you can pick up? Maybe writing on fiverr, art, cleaning houses, selling nudes, idk. You can also do things like swagbucks for small amounts of money.

The one thing I stress here is start with the smallest bill first.

That is the entire BASE of this method. It's the glue, it's the starting snowball you need to roll it down the goddamn hill.

So now that you have a list of all your expenses and you have identified the smallest bills, all you have to do is follow these steps.

Pick the smallest expense you have and the moment you have excess money, put that amount back for the next month. If you have an expense that is $10 as your lowest and you have $30 extra to spend.. Put three months of that $10 expense back.

Once you have 3-5 months of the smallest expense back, start on the next small expense. You'll do 3-5 months of that expense, and so on and so forth.

When you get to the really big bills, if you don't have enough to put back for that bill, start at the smallest bill again and just keep going.

You can also decide to just slowly build the money up for the big bills 3-5 months ahead. That part is up to you. BUT if you do it the way I do (as previously mentioned in #3)..

4. Once you run out of small bills for all 12 months, take your money and begin putting it all towards the bigger bills ahead. You may not have it all at once, but just like that snowball itll get bigger and bigger.

Now you don't have to completely avoid fun expenses when doing this but it gives you a way to effectively save SOME sort of money. You can either put this money into an account or you can keep it in cash and slowly build up and then start depositing as time goes on.

Closing Example

I figured I'd provide a solid example as for how this can help.

Let's say you typically spend $15 / week at mcdonalds or on some random expense. Now, your lowest expense is $10. So you pay $10 / week towards that expense.

Each week is a month of that expense paid off and no longer a worry in the future. It will take 12 weeks, or 3 months, to have an entire year of that expense paid for.

But now let's say, you find a small side hustle and you make about $20 per week off of it. You start building it up.

With this method, you could be saving months ahead of time with excess money. It doesn't matter how small the excess money is. Even if it's money you got from donating plasma or something, it will still help.

Now let's say on a more extreme example, you pick up a second job that's tip based and work two days a week (5 hour shifts) + make $20 per week from your small side hustle.

In this example, you make $50 per shift average at your new job. That's a total of $120 extra per week. So you take the $20 and use that for your fun money and the $100 for that one week pays off 10 MONTHS of that small expense.

Then your next expense is $20, but making that extra $120, you can now pay off 12 months of that $20 expense in two weeks.

This obviously changes based on your personal situation but it's something I heavily suggest you think about.

Hey Shal, I have a question about your family diner meta. Mad respect, but in the Leviathan arc Biggerson's is made out to be a bad thing. I was wondering if you have any thoughts on that, since in the Cas tablet meta where Naomi attacks Cas, you talk about Biggerson's being bigger sons -> better than their fathers because of their bigger hearts is a good thing? Anyway, I'm hoping this comes across as a friendly question!

I tend to shy away from writing about some stuff from that season, because a lot of it seems very era-attenuated. Example: how an average librarian is referred to as "Chubby" and her beau as "Chub-chaser" in Repo Man. In general some of the mean despair over "fat people" in this season comes off Hollywood-seedy and thoughtless, but it's soooo of the times.

For a little while era, the documentary SuperSize Me reigned supreme in every bit of small-talk and in every classroom. Jessica Simpson was a frequent target of weight-shaming, including this hugely publicized fiasco from 2009, when she looked like a walking dream BTW.

In this way, SPN is like a time capsule. (Like how, if you were alive at the time during post-"war on terror," Torture was the big topic in every current events class, verging on a buzz word.)

///

Yes, Biggerson's is a BIG motif in season 7, and with negative connotations. It's a nod to SuperSize Me. It's especially damning for the punching-down attitudes in Hollywood.

I want to point out that although the name is cheeky, Biggerson's wasn't even inherently bad in-world.

The Leviathan were a rotten supplier to this family chain industry, dosing their food with additives, which mirrors a lot of the real-world chatter that was going on about trans-fats, partially hydrogenated oil, etc. People were working really hard to get them banned!

When you get down to it, the people inside Biggerson's were being actively preyed upon.

///

What I think I want to carefully pivot to is the dark side of humanity and family, that of consumerism and exploitation.

I think overall that the family diner is still a positive motif, but as with every motif, there's a shadow side--the uncharitable side, a side that can be carried to extremes.

The "shadow self" of the family diner motif is excess and greed exploiting the family by ravaging its most basic requirement to survive: shelter and nourishment.

They are making humans into livestock. This was also a rampant idea in the 2000s: about selectively breeding farm animals so that they get dumber and dumber, until they're easy to subjugate for meat, assembly-line style. I think they briefly touch on this again in season 12...with the Moloch monster and family business of meat packaging.

Anyway, SPN was trying to loop this idea in, too.

///

So, yes. BIG erson's. Bigger Sons. Etc. Etc.

You want your kids to be better than you, with "bigger hearts" and more kindness. But bigger and stronger can have a heck of a downside, too.

But at its heart, the family diner also represents communion and community. It is, after all, the weak, vulnerable human family that Cas wants to protect in season 8.

It's both things at once.

(ASIDE//

And Cas becomes the ideal/idea/motif of the always-working dad/husband that wants to provide for you but doesn't indulge in happiness or nourishment for himself.)

///

ASIDE 2//

Flagrant consumerism is a big part of Nephilim concept, too, and that's a very ancient story. Theirs was an extensive appetite that so drained the world they had to be eradicated to save the world. In a very real symbolic sense, We are the Nephilim. (On the nose maybe, but we are empire: too tall, too strong, too wasteful, war-mongering, dominating etc. etc.)

And my point is, I think humans have always been aware of the tension and war that comes with the competition for finite resources. It's not just a modern, "American" concept.

In early days, our conceptualization of gods and demi-gods mimics the food chain. Ergo: If gods are above us, they're like other stronger animals...they want to eat us. Thus, sacrificing to them is a way to appease them.

Humanity and religion are historically oriented towards pooling resources to survive. Many religions, even the big ones imho, are a clever family-extension device, that's why it they’re so littered with parental components. (It's used to bind people “under one roof” and funnel the resources appropriately.

Certainly, that how Cults and Causes start; in meaningful ways they're all baby/early religions. And when enough time goes by, and the leaders die, etc etc...they devolve to myth and respectable religions proper. The ultimate difference is time.

If angels are royal families, ancient knights-and-tribalism, then Leviathan were supreme capitalism.

It worked well in theory, even when the execution was sometimes lacking to too campy to get the satire across. Especially coming from, you know, Hollywood. And Biggerson's is a warped shadow of that appetite symbol.

FLIGHT RISING COMMISSION OFFER !!

ONE SLOT¹

¹ time sensitive offer. Closes in like half an hour or so. Claim first and elaborate second !!!

Status: AVAILABLE²

²probably won't begin right now, but gimme a commission for later!

I will draw ONE (1) dragon or character of your choice (outfits, skincents, and any extra details included).

I WILL DRAW³ ANYTHING⁴ !!!!

³ read: attempt, for complex details.

⁴ exceptions: hateful shit, shit that would get me in legal or moral trouble, obvious fetish content, straight up porn, excessive architecture/vehicles. I will however attempt mechs, accept fandom stuff or other people's characters (with permission from the creator to do this kind of stuff)⁵, do some reasonable nudity, and draw as much gore as you want.

⁵ for fandom art: you get a discount if I know and like the character/fandom.

Details can be hashed out in DMs 😎

Art examples with time/price estimates as reference:

Hyper-realism. This specific piece took me somewhere between 8 and 12 hours, and would be both the most expensive and the most limiting option. I'd probably charge you around 1,000G/kT or so for something like this and also be super picky about which dragon/character I do.

Lines and flat color. These are highly variable. For this first piece, it took me about an hour to an hour and a half to do each character, and then the height chart/layout took another couple hours since I had to do it almost from scratch. For the second, it took me probably 12 hours to complete the whole thing. Depending on the complexity of your dragon and how much of the body you want me to draw, I'll charge you anywhere from 200G/kT to 400G/kT.

Lines, color, and cel shading. Also highly variable. The bust took me about 4 or 5 hours to do, the little fullbody is incomplete, but has taken me probably 9 or 10 hours so far, and the Zim portrait (my current PfP) took maybe 6 or 7 hours. Depending on the details, I'll probably charge you somewhere in the realm of 400G/kT to 750G/kT.

Lineless (more or less). This piece took me I think like 6 or 7 hours. Depending on details, I can crank 'em out faster though. I'll charge you something around 200G/kT to 400G/kT.

Discord-style emoji. These take me just a couple hours to do. I need a reference image of the emoji you want me to draw your dragon as, and I may need to do some pre-planning, but these are usually fairly quick and easy. 175G/kT would work nicely.

Experimental. Give me a program to use (I use Clip Studio Paint as the default, but I can also use MSpaint for crisp pixelly art and Toon Boom for animations) and/or a style/vibe to embody, or just tell me to go batshit, and I'll do it. These can be worked out individually. MSpaint drawing is incomplete and has taken probably 5 hours so far (though I can do these faster), and other piece took like 7 hours. Animations, depending on length and complexity, can take me anywhere from 4 hours to several weeks. Price is too variable to really put something helpful, but for reference, an MSpaint drawing would probably be about 150G/kT to 250G/kT, something super stylized could be anywhere from 300G/kT to 500G/kT, and an animation would be 1,000G/kT or above.

If you're unsure on what you want, point out a piece you like and I'll give you a price/time estimate based on that and your character, or give me a price/time limit and I'll give you some options.

ive been having a harder time reading within the past... idk several months at least. and at first i thought it was an ADHD/depression issue, with the attention span being the main problem, but ive never had this problem at this level with reading before in my entire life--reading mainly gets hard for me if the wording was very dense or excessively dry, and even then that felt different.

but lately ive noticed also that i have maybe some trouble focusing my vision, and maybe some light is smearier, and ive also absolutely had instances of like, mixing up letters that im reading and only noticing i got them wrong when i squint. which could be my vision getting worse particularly if what got worse was my very mild astigmatism. but ive also been contemplating whether i might have migraines more frequently than i had previously realized and the blurring/smearing and irritability would track especially if part of the problem is a milder form of reading aphasia, and i mainly only wonder if its that bc increasing the text size doesnt help that much (like, its definitely worse for itty bitty font, but increasing from for example 12 point to 14 point doesnt make it feel any easier to read)

my working hypothesis is there is definitely some level of vision issue, whether physical or neurological. i do think its also got a psychological component but bc it Does feel different to when ive experienced difficulty in the past when that was the culprit. yeah i think vision.

so. i gotta. go to the stupid eye doctor first for sure

OK, well, little rant because the behavior of certain people is starting to really piss me off.

I guess like most of you have seen the leak of Tokyo Revengers chapter 277, and the reactions, not going to lie, excessive?

When Mikey was at the end of his life, we were all there to beg the author to change that.

When finally everyone is saved, some people keep insulting the author, I mean, OK it's a rushed ending but you really think the author had a choice with the few chapters he had left ?

Honestly, just be happy with this happy ending, instead of crying for a yes or a no, the ending remains the author's, and you didn't have to threaten the author to change the ending.

Also, I love this ending, everyone was expecting Mikey becoming a time traveler (after learning that it was possible to give his power away.)

When Takemichi died, there were only two solutions, either Mikey committed suicide or he became a time traveler.

Mikey to travel far enough in time to help Takemichi save everyone.

Here's the most important thing now, Takemichi never went back to the future again (in my opinion), with Mikey's help he saved everyone, but the most intriguing thing about it is that Mikey and Takemichi are the only ones who know it, all the people who died, the time traveler principle, "Karma", even in the future (2017) no one knows that Takemichi was a time traveler.

However in my opinion, there will be a bad end too.

Firstly, Takemichi's group, Akkun etc have never seen him.

He and the others (Toman etc) never had such a good relationship (Much admired Takemichi) Chifuyu and he wouldn't have the same relationship for example.

And Hinata don't like Takemichi, Hinata fell in love with Takemichi when they were 12-13 years old (in chapter 277 they are 9-10 years old), you know the reason.

If Takemichi never returned to the future, Hinata never fell in love with him.

What I'm trying to say is that the happy ending is everyone's life saved.

The bad ending, is everything Takemichi has endured, will give up everyone's survival.

Or maybe I'm wrong. but hey what I'm trying to say is not to spit on this manga and on the author, I manga stays good, and the author gave the ending he wanted (even if I think that he was influenced )

Or else the author is an asshole, is in the last chapter which will be released next week, will learn that it is a dream of Mikey 😭

I'm not saying you can't think what you want of the work, just don't do it like SNK's commu (I'm not generalizing about this commu, I'm specifying)

So my moon is in 22 degrees and I have a Gemini moon . My moon is also in the 12th house at 12 degrees . I wanted to know if you could tell me why I may relate to pisces moon more than I do my own moon( or people with Pisces placements in general) . When I look up my own moon I usually hear that I’m witty and I just talk a lot and intelligence . But I am mostly attracted to things that people with pisces placements have or always surround and connect with people that have Pisces placements. If it needs to be known I’m an Aries sun( sidereal Pisces ) with a cancer rising.

Hey Siren!

I believe you have already read this post of mine , if not you can take a look

And it even seemed like something from fate, but the day you asked me another content creator posted this, which is in short... Astrology is not a science, so it won't be the same for everyone... besides, did you know that astrology for "personality and self-knowledge" which is Natal Chart only has 200 years of history , yes, it is super recent and compared to Predictive Astrology, we still have a lot to discover.

In your specific case, the first impression I have are two hypotheses.

The first one, which is more astrological, is that maybe your Mercury is in Pisces. With Sun in Aries you can have Mercury in Pisces/Aries/Taurus and your Moon is in Gemini. This causes Mercury to be the dispositor sign of your Moon (A dispositor is a planet that rules the sign that another planet is located in. For example, if Venus is in Gemini, then Mercury is the dispositor of Venus.) you have the Moon in Gemini and you have a natural need to communicate, it is the dispositional sign Mercury that will show you how you do this communication, so if you have Mercury in Pisces who are more silent, quiet, abstract and interiorized, you will not recognize yourself in the archetype of the super Gemini communicator.

But this is just speculation, we can't forget your Moon is in the 12th house ruled by Pisces, and this is my interpretation of the Moon in Gemini in the 12th house:

Childhood is a crucial time for building our academic abilities, but it's possible that you faced some challenges in this area. One thing that may have made it tougher is if your mom had to take on both parenting roles because your dad was emotionally distant. This could have made it harder to get the support and guidance you needed to excel academically. As childhood is essential to individual development, you may have never seen yourself as someone smart in school and may believe that you are not 'intelligent,' despite there being different types of intelligence . I believe you are good at Spatial Intelligence, Linguistic Intelligence, or/and Intrapersonal Intelligence, but you may have never stopped to recognize it. Now that you're entering adulthood, you may face significant life changes, such as moving or traveling frequently. These changes can be exciting, but they can also be stressful and affect you intellectually and emotionally. It's essential to be aware of this possibility and make sure you're taking care of yourself and managing any challenges that come up. (Also, based on the house description, there may be some karmic stuff going on with your lungs, which could manifest as respiratory issues like bronchitis, excess phlegm, or asthma. Therefore, it's crucial to take good care of your respiratory health and seek medical attention if necessary, especially if the moon is in a bad position relative to other planets.)

This whole explanation connects to my second point... which is more personal, which is that you believe in only have one type of intelligence, the logical one ,and you don't fit into it...

But well, if I'm wrong, I just made a post explaining the reasons why someone doesn't identify with their own sign (yes, I did it just because I received this ask… that's why it took longer).

Kisses from the Sea,

Julia

Patterns and Styles: Orlais

Orlais design is one of the most over-detailed ones, having a lot of common roots with elvhenan design due to the historical implication: The Promised Land, the Dales, where the ancient Dalish established a Kingdom, coexisted with more or less frictions with Orlais while it developed as an empire in its own. This will have a clear effect in the design of Orlais.

This series of posts are not exhaustive since I’ve developed a very detailed list of tags tracking certain features of a given design. These posts merely try to gather in one place the symbols and elements I used most of the time when identifying buildings in my analysis of DAI.

[This post is part of the series “Patterns and Styles ”]

[Index page of Dragon Age Lore]

Patterns

1- This pattern decorates the walls of the Chateaus or forms a lattice on the doors to give them a particular fancy texture.

2 and 3 - are the same elvhenan pattern number 3 from “Patterns and Styles: Elvhenan”. This pattern decorates most of the buildings and door/window frames in Orlesian architecture. 

4 - This pattern is a series of thorny vines usually painted in golden, that decorates the walls or the upper parts of the buildings as it’s shown in 5.  

It’s usually accompany with a “mask” which has a resemblance to the old Dalish symbol of Mythal [DAO].

6 - This pattern emulates flower petals and it’s found mostly in rugs. 

7 - It’s a pattern of thorny flowers, that look very similar to the elvhenan pattern I called “flowers made out of circles” [pattern 2 from “Patterns and Styles: Elvhenan”]. This pattern is usually seen on the floor. 

8- It’s an orlesian classic floor pattern of squares.

9 - This is a symbol-pattern found in some decorations, it’s a mixture of a shield giving a sense of a dragon-like design or maybe a mask, depending on how you see it. It has been present in the urn of sacred ashes in DAO.

10 - This pattern looks like the point of a spear, usually seen at the bottom of statues. 

11 and 12 - These patterns are seen in the Winter Palace, and not in Chateaus. 12 is as if it were a simplification of pattern number 1.

12 is also found in more humble decorations of Orlesian villages, like Montevelan in the Exalted Plains, or in the Orlesian additions to the Fort Revasan. This pattern seems to be done on wood in these cases.

13 - It’s a pattern seen in Winter Palace, and has a strong inspiration in the pattern 10 from “Patterns and Styles: Elvhenan”, which is an eluvian-shape repeated at the basement of the statues. The Orlesian version looks more like a rounded point of a spear or an arrow, but the inspiration from the elvhenan one seems to be there.

Architecture

Orlesian architecture is over-saturated, filled with golden “filetes” and intricate designs, showing an excess of details. The chateaus we find in DAI [ Chateau D’Onterre and Villa Maurel] are a good example of being a “simplification” of more exuberant places like the Winter Palace. In the Exalted Plains we also find a destroyed orlesian village which shows similar architecture that we find in the chateaus.

The main detail we notice in Orlesian architecture, aside its overdecorated structures, is that doors and windows tend to be eluvian-shaped, showing the clear influence of elvhenan style in their own. However, the decoration around them is different to the elvhenan one, usually more simplified in terms of pattern-borders.

Decoration

Orlesian decoration is always intricate and too elaborated, with a lot of swirls and leaves that resemble the art-style of the Fileteado. It’s also accompanied with the constant presence of the “triangular face” that I suppose represents Andraste. Orlesian art is deeply entangled with the Chantry, since it used the religion as a way to unify the different tribes and create Orlais. I’m not showing all the statues and art where Andraste is represented, nor the orlesian design of all the main characters of the tale of Andraste, but they can be found in the tags  Andrastian design.

Because this section in these posts is more about showing some decorations that caught my attention, I want to talk about this one. This statue is only seen in the Winter Palace, in the ballroom; and in Valammar in Hinterlands or Daerwin’s Mouth in Storm Coast, both places are now hideouts of smuggling groups.

What I think it’s easy to see is that this statue represents an elf. Strangely, her ears have not been hidden nor altered. It has feathered wings and vine-based decorations in her arms. 

I always found this statue quite curious because Orlais actively erased all elven presence in their art after the Exalted March of the Dales. Or this statue is a new addition in the Winter Palace ordered by Celene, or... I really can’t explain how this statue survived the policy of erasing elven figures in orlesian art.  We know that after that time, elven authors were banned or made anonymous, Shartan passage in the Chant of Light was removed and considered heretic or dissonant [as it’s called now], and in general, every piece of art [painting or sculpture] was altered to remove the pointy ears and turn these figures into “humans”.

The rest of the objects in DAI or are representation of Andrastian figures, or are objects of beauty, always showing golden details to make them look fancier. Some of these objects may have resemblance to Dalish or elvhenan symbols, but for a better track of the Orlesian design the tags Orlesian design and Andrastian design can be explored.

Okay idk if this sounds ridiculous but I've literally had these reactions for years and I wanna know if this is relatable or just a really weird Tam thing. So when I'm really into a property, like a show or a film, whatever, I tend to react in a REALLY weird way when I see things related to that property. Most often my heart rate increases suddenly, I get really warm and super sweaty (especially on my hands), I start getting wobbly/shaky, and I get kind of twitchy and jumpy, have to bounce my leg or tap my foot for example. It's super similar to what happens to my body when I'm nervous or scared.

So for those reasons, when I'm super into something I have trouble looking up videos about it or reading excessively about it. I have to do these weird acrobatics to look up stuff without directly looking them up? Almost so it won't set off those weird body reactions? So for example if I wanted to watch a youtube video about a character from a show I liked, I find it hard to just type in "character name" in the search bar and go from there. No, instead I have to type in something RELATED to the character's name, or go to a playlist containing that character, some typing indirect like that. Or I'll look through a generalised grouping (ie FB fan group, video compilation, book etc) that might include that thing so I can wait and see if it'll pop up. Otherwise I get all sweaty and buzzy. I can only do the simple "character name" search if I amp myself up beforehand or prepare myself but even then my heart just goes nuts. I also find I can't just jump into a property's tag on tumblr/ig/twt and like/RB everything bc it gives me those anxious feelings to an even stronger degree. Sometimes my boyfriend goes through tags and shows me everything in the tag, but I start burning out/getting overstimulated(?) almost and need to stop

My bf said that maybe this happens because I have anxiety and my brain is just equating those strong excited feelings with strong scared/anxious feelings and making me experience the same symptoms. I think this could be why but I literally don't know bc I don't know anyone else who's ever had this reaction to things they like. And this has happened to me since I've been at least 12 or so!! I think it's why I struggle to be active in fandom-only spaces, especially when it involves having to go out of my way to search up tags rather than having things appear on my dash

Anyway just wanted to know has anyone else in the history of time EVER had these same reactions or am I just riddled with anxiety to a disturbing degree

just having a bit of a moment honestly below cut-

the thing about this account being ~12 years old is that sometimes I slip into the past still on here especially the inbox i never cleared out and it drags me down like a riptide, leaving me face to face with myself of the past who I want to apologize for to every person whos known me. Its like a goddamn punch to the gut to want to shake myself and say "YOU ARE THE PROBLEM. YOU AND THE INTERNET. YOU ARE TERMINALLY ONLINE AND IT IS RUINING YOU AS A PERSON AND YOUR LIFE" and i see messages between me and ____, and ____, and about ____ and I just feel like theres no level of apologizing for how fucking unhinged i was at points like at all. I was so unstable and so unhinged about these things and so fucking out there and no one fucking called me in check either like I wish friends would have or something? I dont even know if I would have listened but god fucking damn did I not know when or how to quit. and I'm sure this is just another example of me not leaving the past in the past but I've tried my hardest and it doesnt stay there. I've kept going and going and the past still haunts me like I could catch it if i spun around fast enough. And I am throttled by the guilt of how I acted in all of these cases and more every fucking day, and I try to push past that too but it feels like one more thing to magnify how I dont meet my own standards and i feel like I'm drowning in the feeling of needing to get on my knees and sob about how much I wish I could apologize, atone, and regret my behavior with all of my being. But I cant go back in time, so I keep trying so hard to be the best person I can be every day but I'm still so haunted by all the years past, and even further back too. I dont think I can apologize enough, and thats not to say I havent messaged those same people apologies likely on more than one occasion now but it still weighs so heavily on me and I think of new aspects to apologize for all the time. I dont know if I can ever shake this shit, its been so many years now and it still wont shake. Ive grown around it, used it in various ways to be and get better, but god it feels like shrapnel stuck in me that I've healed around- its still there. Like sure i was hurt but hurt is never an excuse for how I was acting and goddammit I dont even know what else to say. I just feel so, so much like I cant make up for what I've done even though it doesnt stop me from continuing to try to be the best I can be, I still feel like I'll never ever be able to compensate. I inherently believe I'm a bad person, or at least not good. Maybe neutral some days, but I just cant see myself as good- and I dont feel like its without reason when I look at all these inbox messages. It brings me to tears watching myself excessively destroy things I should have just dropped, wishing I could reach through time and shake myself, tell myself otherwise. but again not leaving the past where it belongs I guess. the worst part about this is being self aware at this point.

I dont know what else to say other than repeating myself more, this stuff makes me ache and I know some of yall freak out when I post long shit like this but I am literally begging those people to not bother me about this post, I just needed to vent.

The first topic I’m gonna discuss here is beauty industry in Slavic countries. I heard a lot about our manicurists, hairdressers, makeup masters etc being one of the best (I even found the term “Russian manicure”). Personally, I can agree with that: they do quickly and efficiently, and the prices are lower compared to the West (sometimes I get shocked by prices for nail art in US, for example, and sometimes the quality is mediocre, I’m sorry). Many of our people go abroad to give master classes or even open their own salons. That’s true.

But on the other hand, from early childhood we are under the pressure of beauty standards. Slavic beauty standards are much higher and stricter than Western. We should be thin, gent, smooth, without any extra hair on our bodies, with perfect nail art, fresh make up, hidden acne. Our skin must be perfect and young always, even if we’re grow-up women. We are shamed for grey hair, because aging is bad, oops for women only, so we dye it. Cellulite, stretch marks and saggy chest are disgusting, even if woman gave birth and was breast-feeding. Many teenage girls have complexes due to imperfect body, excess weight, acne etc. Many of them cannot go outside without make up (I was that girl, when I was 12). At work we should wear skirts and high heel as dress code; statistically, women, who wears make up at their work, get the higher salaries (but still not as high as men’s ones, ironically). And unfortunately, men are so unaccustomed to the natural look of women that that it seems disgusting to them.

That’s the real reason why our beauty industry is so developed. Because so-called self-care is considered as “women’s duty”. This topic is huge, maybe I will write the second part.

Thank you for reading and excuse me for my mistakes if I made them, English is not my native language, but I’m learning it.

I mean...So... You Know?

(Speech Crutches)

Stephen Jay Morris

12/18/2022

Scientific Morality©

You should have heard me speak in the 70s. I had Apraxia, Dysphagia, and other behavioral impediments. I was put into a speech class, in elementary school, no less! My teacher was known as Mister Marx. (You see! The school system was woke, even in the 60s!) At any rate, I would speak and mumble at a very low tone so that I was barely audible. The most frequent requests I’d get were, “Can you repeat that?” “Could you speak a little bit louder?” Low self-esteem was the primary culprit. I had been taught, at home, not to brag about or love myself. Did this stem from some religious upbringing? No. It came from an abusive father who hated both life and himself. To all you Right wing, religious nuts, I fervently begged to God for a single mother to care for me. Not every family needs a father, especially one who is abusive. My dad constantly told me to “shut up,” which I did. Anybody who thinks that a father must behave like a boot camp sergeant is an ignoramus asshole! If I’d had a loving father, I’m certain I would have ended up a registered Republican, working for an accounting firm.

When I left my family at 17, to live with my maternal grandmother, my life notably started to ascend, thankfully, away from its decent into the darkness of hopelessness. The first thing I tried to remedy about myself was my speech impediment. Before long, I noticed that, while talking on the phone, my manner of speaking improved slightly. Also I admired people who gave speeches at anti-war rallies and I learned from those experiences. I knew, instinctively, that the only way I was going to completely overcome my speech issues was to give speeches myself or—even more terrifying—become a radio disc jockey. My community college major became broadcasting. I took a speech course in which, one of the first assignments given was to present a speech to the class. I was terrified! I was afraid I was going to puke in front of everyone, or pop a boner! I think my first speech was about human rights. It wasn’t a catastrophe, but it wasn’t great either. I remember, I didn’t make eye contact with anyone in my audience; I just read my paper, my eyes cast downward the entire time. After the speech, my teacher critiqued me and offered some advice. He spoke, not in a harsh tone, but an instructive one. “First of all,” he said, “nobody likes to watch somebody reading a piece of paper. Once in a while, look at the audience. One thing you do use often, Mr. Morris, is the phrase ‘you know.’ No, Mr. Morris, I don’t know. That is a bad assumption on your part. Don’t feel bad, Mr. Morris,” he continued, “most of your generation is using that expression excessively. Why does that happen? I don’t know. Maybe it’s too much marijuana consumption, or a crutch to allow you to think of your next sentence by delaying. The Beatniks, back in the 50’s, used to use the preposition, ‘like,’ a whole bunch of times. For example: ‘Like, I’m going to the store,’ or ‘Like, wow daddy-o, dig that crazy beat!’ To repeat a phrase over and over again will drive someone listening crazy! You know? Just kidding. Work on those two things and you’ll be fine. Oh, also, Mr. Morris, try to speak in an audible tone—so, people can hear you. You don’t have to shout, like John the Baptist. Just be audible. Go back to your seat.”

Did you know that President Biden had a stuttering problem? But he conquered it. I conquered my speech issues, also. I went from introvert to ambivert, all the way to extravert.

Now, whenever I listen to young folks talk, I notice that they preface their sentences and phrases with, “I mean” or “so.” I can imaging how aggravating it must have been for people when they’d hear me say, “you know” over and over again.

They say that we Homo Sapiens evolved from apes. I think we also evolved from parrots. Americans always copy colloquialisms or expressions. So-called Millennials and Generation Z’ers use the repetitious, “I mean.” This drives me up the proverbial wall! Can’t they simply use the opening phrase, “Well”? Blues singers always used “Well” to start a lyric. But “I mean.” Where in the fuck did that come from?! Is it because you think nobody believes you? Are you trying to be meaningful? When you say, “I mean,” is that a self-correction? “The world is flat! I mean, round.” Is that it? What I mean to say is, if you begin a new idea or statement with “I mean,” again, I will...never mind.

13, 16, and 20? (I'm just trying to get you to post pics of outfits, lol, maybe tips for dressing dwarves)

13. Any idea how many alts you have?

UhhhHHhh maybe 25? 12 on Crickhollow, assorted on like 7 other servers. I've been more active on Landroval recently, but Crick is still home sweet home

16. Do you have a favorite race to play? Favorite combos of race and class?

You know, I'm most partial to Standard Dwarves, but by pure numbers I have the most Men alts. I don't know why. I feel like Dwarf Guard also is so fun. So stereotypical (for lotro) but so, so nice

20. Do you spend a lot of time on cosmetics- outfits, weapons, housing, pets? Do you have any favorites?

Oh you know I do. And since you asked so nicely, I'll give you a dwarf fashion show as well as tips? I guess? on Choosing Dwarf Looks TM

Before I begin, remember to think about the beards! If the collar of your shirt is its' strongest point, maybe save it for someone with a short beard.

I'm going to start with the highlight:

Now, this is a Curator piece, but there's a very close match in Erebor or Ered Mithrin somewhere and it's going to do great to illustrate my thesis (which I'll get to in a second)

Here we have Ruutbier and Throwan showing off the versatility of this piece. You can go from cozy winter adventurer to spring flinger to mysterious Anorien traveler all with one shirt. Now, I like my Dwarves in some sort of hood item, but as you can see there's a lot of range even there. It's classy, it's timeless, it dyes very well.

But! It's not the only thing you can use (even though it's 6/8ths of Throwan's wardrobe)

This is my central point: because of the way Dwarves are modeled, you're going to be able to get your results by paying attention to how the waistline of the shirt is modeled. The different waistlines are usually a big hint in how the chestpiece will look!

Say you want something like my Grey Mountains Elite fit here? That's a hefty but streamlined dwarf. Centerline simple waist and no skirt/volume in the legs. Add bulk to the shoulders and you're looking at a hammer shape. De-emphasize them with a shawl and there's a sturdy fellow who looks quite hug-able. Your options are limitless and a lot of them are greatly impacted by the breadbasket.

Cases in point:

A Round Dwarf, Perfectly Circular:

Throwan is modeling Identical accessories but look! A busy (read: modeled vs. textured) waistline gives us a rounder look. The first chestpiece is the Remmo light armor, which looks relatively uninteresting on Elves and Men. See how those belts, buckles, and bags change the look of the whole thing!

Tasteful Tapering:

Here we have 3 very different looks (in Light, Medium, and Heavy) demonstrating the effect you can get with a centerline waist and a very minimal belt. The wide Dwarf-stance gives it an almost hourglass look, but can be emphasized or de-emphasized by shoulders and boots. (note: heavy modeling on the calf parts of your boots will really shine! if they're not scrunched to oblivion)

A Wide-Sweeping Statement

Back to Throwan! We're in identical accessories again to show off the different ways a skirt will sit. Robes with centerline, well-defined but simple waistlines will flow nicely (left) and not give your Dwarf an ill-fitted look. Non-robes with greater-than-knee-length elements will become tea length easily on your Dwarf (center). But this one still gives a little flourish at the hem and maintains a round look. Dresses are hit or miss (right). I think this one works because the greatest emphasis on this model across races is the skirt instead of the chest. It sweeps out wider than Throwan's excessive shoulder pads and bounces back from the odd effect created by a center-ribcage waistline.

Interesting Results:

These three are examples of things I didn't expect out of a chestpiece. The Dwarf-make jacket (left) looks meh on Men/Elves but manages to pull off both the Round and Visible Chest Design looks on a Dwarf, so, a win. The Breastplate of the Honed Blade (heavy Pelennor, center) has a lot of emphasis in the chest but still manages a sturdy look with a visible White Tree Motif past the beard. A rare find!

I don't know what's happening with the Sunflower Dress (right). The waist is on the ribcage but it also acknowledges the waist on the model. I personally don't love it.

So yeah! The waistline of your chestpiece determines the whole look 9/10 times because Dwarf Model. Go find those Shapes! Get your Dwarf Runway Ready!