Happy Valentine’s Day!

fun fact: I love hodgepodging/collaging/mishmashing patterns together like this. one of my favorite things!

Pattern credits at the bottom

❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜🖤🩶🤍🤎🩷

Patterns:

Pikachu - The Retro Stitcher

Wigglytuff - Black Waltz Stitching

Eevee - GatchaStitch

Love Ball - Birdie Stitching / @birdiestitching

Font - better-cross-stitch-patterns

i’ve been scratching my head over the whole watcher situation. I’m not a fan myself but got dragged into it cus of the people I follow, i only watched their puppet history series and the buzzfeed unsolved series from way back- honestly, i couldn’t care less if they locked all their stuff behind a paywall. I’m so neutral on this whole thing, i might as well be swiss.

but i’m not neutral? In fact, the whole thing really bothers me and i couldn’t figure out why.

cus i get it, yanno. As a company that thrives on creativity, i understand you’d wanna cut yourself off the mega-capatalist-giant that is youtube to get rid of annoying restrictions, and asking monetary support from your audience so you can really stretch the limit of your creativity. I GET IT.

And it STILL bothers me!

And then I figured it out:

the whole “any future videos they’ll be making will EXCLUSIVELY be available through a streaming service you have to pay a monthly subscription for” comes less across as “please support us monetarily so we can grow as creators”, and comes more across as “if you want to continue being a fan, or even being a part of the audience, you’re gonna have to pay up. You have no choice in the matter. It’s either pay, or you’re not a ‘real’ fan or a ‘real’ part of our audience.”

THAT’S what’s bothering me about it. It feels like they’re gatekeeping who gets to be part of their community with money (that not everyone might have). And knowing where they come from and how they started…. That’s… extremely tone deaf. To put it gently.

I hate people who are like “AI allows me to do these things I wanted to do but can’t because I suck at it” do you think that every person before AI didn’t suck at what they were good at? Do you think it’s worth stealing other people’s passions so you can pretend you’re good at something instead of trying?

markers #21

Happy Birthday, Ayumu! 🥳🥳

While I was in in Tokyo earlier this year, I passed by a crafts store and found lots of pretty paper flowers. I thought they'd make really pretty shikishis... 😊

I've been drawing Nijigasaki for 4 years and this would be the 3rd Ayumu birthday I've drawn for... Wow! 😅😅

Ayumu's my favourite by far - so much that it's kind of hard to word why but I'd hope that adoration comes across in my art. There was originally a comic I was making for her, but I couldn't finish it in time. I hope I can make one in time next year!

WIPs

Danyal Al Ghul doodle dumps from my Danyal Al Ghul Au. I was thinking about Him earlier today, and thus decided to draw him. Tis good headshape practice, and just drawing practice in general. You can spot the time difference not by the lighting but by the fact Danny suddenly has curls. Plus an honorary colored version because it twas one of my favorites

seeing that new post from the official sonic account like Oh new espio art how ni AHHHHHHHH TAYLOR SWIFT JUMPSCARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the imperfect project you finished is worth infinitely more than the perfect one you didn't because it wasn't good enough for you while you were making it. just btw.

😶

Switch 2 Breath of the wild remaster rumour is just another way to say cash grab

Every day I log on and see Warriors fan artists making stories that are infinitely more complex, emotional, and sophisticated than the source material ever has been. It's incredible how such a error-riddled, flat, and continually disappointing series has led to such incredible creative vision.

I’ve been thinking recently about all the comment culture discussions and the recent talk around authors’ archive-locking their fic and one of the things that bothers me is how I never really see those discussions centered around the author. The comment conversations are a mix of reasons why readers don’t comment, how to comment, and why comments are good, but I’m not sure I’ve seen something that centers the author as person. Instead it’s the broader community and its desire for “content” that’s centered: comments are good because they keep authors writing (which is, I think, broadly true though people vary in the particulars), but it’s hard to comment (also broadly true, also varies in the particulars), but lack of feedback means some authors stop writing (also also true). The goal seems to be to keep the fic flowing.

And no one is owed comments and no one is owed fic and if it’s harmful to your mental health to comment, or harmful to your mental health to keep your fic online, that’s far more important. Please, don’t take me as saying that you need to comment or that you need to keep making fic available. Reader and/or author, what is best for you comes first; what you are able to do or want to do comes first.

(As for the talk about how authors are bad for archive-locking fic and that they should be shamed and scolded for doing so? No sympathy. I have less than zero patience for that argument. It’s more than fine to feel sad or grieved that you have lost a story you loved or can no longer access it - it is sad! It’s why I download stories now. But an author can do as they wish with their creations; no one is owed fic.)

But none of this gets at the author as person. These discussions seem to return to the personal reasons why a reader wouldn’t comment and how the author as content producer is more likely to write if they get feedback, the goal to get people to comment so fic continues to be produced: put money in the vending machine so you can get a snack. But I think at least some of authorial angst is driven less by comments per se and more by the desire to be recognized and feel seen as people and not fic-producing machines. Authors have anxiety too. Oh, do some of us have anxiety!

To use me as an example, since I’m the only person I truly know: I have almost deleted fic or moved it to an unrevealed collection multiple times because of anxiety that is tied to feels of either not being seen or being seen and intentionally ignored; I almost did so yesterday. It hurts to be ignored, especially when you know that your fic was read and seen but ignored. And that would be one thing - no one’s required to like my work or my friends’ works but to pretend your story is unique when you’re clearly very, very influenced by those works to the point of rewriting dialogue and using the same plot points with the same plot items. It makes me as a person feel ignored and it is currently killing my motivation to write, because at times I am a fainting flower. (To be very clear, my reaction is me, and no one owes me feedback or whatever, or to listen to my navel-gazing.) And I don’t like when my friends and fellow authors are seen then ignored either: that very much makes me angry. But yes, anxiety. It's easy to feel invisible or to feel like you're not worth recognizing.

I do want to note that there are circumstances in which acknowledgement and recognition is owed. If you take direct inspiration from someone’s plot, or rewrite it, that needs to be acknowledged, and it bothers me when it’s not: it feels like being used. Likewise, one place readers do have an obligation to comment, barring extenuating circumstances, is if they are given a gift fic as part of an exchange or event that they signed up for.

So idk. I guess what I’m saying is that I often feel that people don’t see that there’s a person behind the ao3 author’s name and that person’s not recognized. It might be that which stings the most.

(While I used  “author” throughout, this applies to all people in fandom who create and share their works. I am an author, so that’s the perspective I’m speaking from, but there are many creative perspectives that are no less important. And of course, “writer” and “reader” are not exclusive categories and I’d guess that most of the former are also the latter. Likewise “artist” isn’t exclusive, nor “podcaster” or so on.)

One last point: I’m not sure it’s talked about how long it can take to write something? I’d guess that most of my one-shots have taken at least two or three dozen hours to write/edit/post and I’d say I’m probably of average speed (when I’m writing lol). For most authors, writing’s not quick; 5k isn’t dashed off in an afternoon but might take 40+ hours. It’s a labor and for most of us it takes time.

Tried Blackwork ✅

🌈 Pattern by: xxInfinityStitchesxx

Etsy

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I RUN NOW TO KEEP HER SAFE, AND I WILL KEEP RUNNING UNTIL MY HEART EXPLODES AND I FALL OVER DEAD.

“Cause you got everything I want and everything I need”

Writing an essay on groups of two to four sentences reminds me of the students who, when faced with either a sonnet or, like, La Bruyère, looked me straight in the eyes and told me there wasn't much to say.

We have a brilliant idea for rewriting the summaries that we hate. That idea is called "what if we just completely ignored the old summaries and opened up a blank document to write entirely new ones instead of struggling to rewrite the old ones for the billionth time."