#which was honestly a really good resource and i should share some of it here for nart ppl
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It's the zionist concern anon again. I will say for now that with what you said about prioritizing Palestinians I do agree. The people going through a genocide are a bigger priority than people who are not going through a genocide. I just fear that due to the fact I am neither Palestinian or Jewish that I may end up embracing stances that I do not actually understand and that innocent people may suffer because of it. I do not want to be irresponsible. I am also someone who lives in a country built on stolen land, so that does to some sort of extent influence my feelings on Isreal as I imagine many people in Isreal share my thoughts on the fact we have lived our entire lives on stolen land. As I said before, I also do not know any Palestinians personally so I find it hard to know who I can ask about the history, Hamas, technical details of politics, etc without risking being taught the wrong things. On a much more selfish note, I also struggle with debilitating mental health issues that make it very difficult to navigate moral issues especially if the moral issues do not impact me on a personal level. So if I am being honest, my questions are not entirely selfless as I have very self-centered fears on if I am actually a horrible person. I thank you again for being so understanding, but I figure the right thing to do here is admit I am likely not as pure intentioned in my questions as I should be when a large factor to why I worked up the courage to ask is in hope I am worrying too much about my quality of moral character from a selfish perspective. Again, I thank you for being so understanding and willing to answer these asks instead of just brushing me off as a horrible zionist.
I don't think you're a horrible person at all I just think everyone has underlying zionist biases because it's a product of the society we live in.
And I do understand where you're coming from, honestly. Something that always helps me is remembering something that my parents taught me as a kid: always stand on the side of the oppressed. Now as I grew up I realized you have to define what oppression means and I think exploring that will also help you get a better understanding of how to combat other forms of racism/antisemitism/transphobia/etc.
If you do want to learn about hamas tho, I would suggest taking a look at Tareq Baconi, he has a lot of writings about the history of Hamas and he's Palestinian. There are also Palestinian podcasts and social media accounts. I understand that not knowing a palestinian personally to help you guide yourself through these things is daunting, but there are plenty of resources to help! It's why I'm here on this blog honestly, I don't mind you reaching out to me for questions or anything.
A good principle to remind ourselves with is "how can I ensure that justice can be had?" And to find the answer to that you need to look into multiple types of antizionist thought. Some blogs I like to check out for a diverse antizionist opinion are @el-shab-hussein and @bringmemyrocks as a couple of examples. Plus I'd look to Black American thinkers on antiracism (like Angela Davis and James Baldwin and Kwame Ture) because they do a good job of showing you how to examine your internal biases which we are all subject to.
I don't think this selfish to want to be a good person. I have the same worries. I actually do get worried that sometimes I'm *actually* a bad person secretly without me realizing and I reach out to friends and family to talk it out. Something that helps me through this is realizing that you have to forgive yourself for previous beliefs you've had and promise yourself to do better because at the end of the day youre human and you make mistakes.
But really my biggest advice is to read and listen to a variety of schools of thought and if you can, interact with local communities dedicated to antiracism. Even if theyre digital communities! That will help a lot with identifying any problem points.
Again, feel free to reach out with any questions. I don't think you're a zionist at all! Please don't worry and thanks for reaching out :)
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PSA real quick: Don’t buy art advice
I’m not talking about art tutorials or like supporting a tier on someone’s patreon to get feedback or stuff like that, that’s a different thing. This is also not about going to art school.
What I am talking about is stuff like online courses and books that people sell on topics like secrets to growing your art instagram, making loads of passive money off your work, stuff like that. It’s fake.
I’ve seen a disturbing amount of them appear which is why I’m making this PSA. There is no secret to growing your art instagram or making passive money off your art or kickstarting your freelance carreer. If the tips are legit, it’s out there for free if you look for it. We are already talking about it because we’re already doing it. People making these courses and selling these books are only sharing stuff you can already google yourself. These people are rarely making their livings as artists themselves, instead they’re just doing the art world version of get rich quick schemes, they’re praying on your passions and selling you advice that is either already publicly available, unhelpful or even just false.
I’ll give you some advice for free, kay?
Improving your art:
First and foremost working on improving your art should always be priority and you can find tutorials on any subject matter for free pretty much anywhere if you just google stuff like “how to draw a cloud”. Your art is what people will want to buy/see so keep improving it and keep making it if your goals is to build a carreer or an audience, there is no way around it.
Growing your audience
Straight up just engage with whichever app/site you’re using. Post good art yourself, but be a cheerleader for others first and foremost. Post consistently, not constantly, use appropriate tags, talk about your work in your descriptions and engage with people who engage with you. That stuff is in your control, the rest is honestly just luck. For some people it takes a long time, for others it’s a faster progress, there is no secret here, no one knows how to please the algorithm, we’re all just throwing crumbs out and hoping it gets eaten. Bots and promo bots will do more harm than good and spamming other people’s accounts asking them to check you out or tagging someone in your art that’s completely unrelated to them is just annoying. Just chill and post your art and have fun. Remember that social media should ‘t be a popularity contest, it should be social.
Making money
There are so many ways! I don’t even know half the ways and it depends what you want to achieve really. You can make money selling commissions, you can try to get a job at some sort of company, at which there are many who’d want to employ artists, games, films, animation, marketing, marketing departments in companies that otherwise do completely unrelated stuff, I’ve heard of an artist working fulltime at a science lab. There is room for you, you just need to find your industry. You can also license your work which is where the passive income comes in and there are a bunch of ways to do this too google it. You can be an illustrator for books or magazines, you can be a cartoonist for a paper, you can do logos or t-shirt designs and you can work freelance as pretty much whatever you want. It’s not going to be easy finding these jobs and most people do several jobs at once. It takes time to build up clientell and find your opportunities but a good place to start is straight up just googling “how to license my art” or “how to become a concept artist” or just straight up “how to make money as an artist.” It’s all out here.
I don’t have all the answers at hand and I’m too busy looking for all the resources for you. I bet other people will happily provide links and stuff, so feel free to share resources! My point id just this:
Everything is out there for free, google it.
#art#art industry#art advice#how to art#art tutorial#artist#work as an artist#make money as an artist#freelancing
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A wild about post appears!
Me
Hey! Call me Cactus. They/them, late twenties. I also run Direct Action for Hope, for petitions/campaigns/protests that don’t fit on a good news blog, as well as my own takes and activism.
Queer, trans, disabled, white, USian, for context. (Please let me know if I accidentally post something offensive, btw! I promise I have like. an actual ability to take that kind of feedback gracefully and work to remedy the situation)
Some Info about This Blog
Actual good news only!
No heartwarming stories that aren’t actually news. No stories that other sources THINK are heartwarming, but that are actually super depressing and dystopic!
All websites/sources are at least preliminarily vetted by me
If I don’t think a source and/or a news story I find is accurate or reliable enough, I find a new, better source with a new, better article
Relatedly, any links that have the url web.archive go to an Internet Archive copy of a paywalled article. Usually this is the LA Times, NY Times, or Washington Post. Not a weird suspicious link, I promise!
All posts are cited and dated at the end!
All posts should be tagged, including for major/common content warnings. I can’t promise that I won’t miss any warnings, but I am definitely keeping an eye on this
Filter the tag “not news” if you only want to see the news articles/posts
Feel free to send me articles to look at or submit posts! I’ll vet these before I feature them. That said, you might be waiting A While, because despite many efforts to the contrary I am the worst about checking/answering messages. Sorry about that
Posts are generally long because I have Many Words And Endless Details Disease. Hopefully the thoroughness and the bolded highlights make up for that
A couple people have asked me if I could share their donation posts, so I wanted to pin this up: I’m sorry, but unfortunately, I will not be sharing any donation posts, because I don’t have the time or skills to vet all of them and weed out any potential scams. If you’re struggling, please check out this post, which lists communities designed for donation posts and mutual aid. You’re much more likely to get help there than on tumblr. You can also find other mutual aid resource lists and wikis here, here, and here
If you’re struggling with depression or anxiety, especially around climate anxiety or climate grief, there’s a really, really thorough directory of crisis hotlines by country that you can find here. Seriously, they have so many countries I wouldn’t have expected them to list - try it, if it might help
Tip Jar
I put a lot of work and passion into this blog—and a not inconsiderable amount of time. Also, I’ve been too disabled to work much at all for most of the past year...rip. (but thankfully doing better now!) So, if you want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee!
Good News Source
You can find a comprehensive list of all the websites I’ve bookmarked as sources for this blog here!
Note about Gaza
I will be posting good news (as much good news as there can be in this sort of situation) about the ongoing genocide in Gaza, because one of the most important ways to help is to refuse to be silent. Palestinians in Gaza have asked us to please keep talking about it, that it really does help, so I’m going to listen.
And honestly, my disabilities significantly interfere with my ability to take irl action like going to protests, so using what platform I have here really is all the more important to me. (Though I am also setting a notif on my phone to remind me to call my representatives every few days, and I encourage you to do the same if feasible.)
All that said! It is completely legitimate to need a break from horrific news (a huge part of why I started this blog), and it’s also legitimate to say “I need to find out about this stuff Not from my tumblr dash.”
If news about the war/genocide (esp on social media specifically) is making you spiral and shit, then I genuinely encourage you to filter out these posts. I’m not judging. I have significant filters around what Israel/Palestine stuff I see on here myself, because I want to be very intentional about the times I do engage with it. (Which is every few days and via the Actual News.)
I’m committing to fact-checking this stuff before posting, fyi, even with reblogs.
So, tl;dr:
I will be posting about Palestine and Gaza
I will still only post good news, eg: about successful protests, aid reaching Gaza, progress toward ceasefire
I’ll only post actual, concrete news, not just Politicians Saying Words
If you need to not find about this shit from tumblr and/or my tumblr, then filter out the tags “Palestine” and “cw war”
If you don't want to see my posts on this blog about the Israel-Palestine War, then block the tags "Palestine" and "cw war"
if you need a break, then take a break
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could you make a post about all the books from comedians you own/have ordered and which are your favorites I want to buy all of them but don't know where to start ++++++++ would love to know if you know of a way to order a signed copy of David's book if I don't live in the UK
you know, in a stroke of what may be relevant information, i'm actually an editorial director by day and even used to be a literary agent here in nyc — none of which is obvious on account of my billion rushed typos and...just...general existence :) (i promise i'm supremely carefully handed in my editing!!! and have a lot of resources, at my job hahahahaha oh god maybe i shouldn't have mentioned this!!!) — but i'm really no book critic and have no idea how my tastes stack up against what a lot of you are looking for. i'm happy to share some of my general, poorly articulated internet thoughts but it may be more worth checking out goodreads or talking with others who have more experience with autobiographies (which a majority of these types of books are)!
to begin with a disclaimer, one of my friends texted me recently, "why do you only watch sad movies?" i love sad films, sad music, i love to cry, catharsis, sentimentality which is always a little self-indulgent. it's a bit ironic, because this is a comedy blog and you guys know me as someone who loves to find things to laugh about and i fill my life with so much silliness through his huge, life-long hobby, but, all the same, that is only one side of me, i guess. i'm saying this now because you're about to hear me talk briefly about a few somewhat-to-incredibly sad books and be like "oh i didn't know this what i was getting into" 😅
books i do recommend:
just ignore him by alan davies — this isn't a book review but i am self-conscious about just how i describe this book, because it's so sensitive and i carry a lot of respect for alan. at the time of publication, alan actually didn't want any of the press to know and/or discuss the most tragic elements of the book, so readers wouldn't be influenced in any direction before confronting it themselves. (it's okay to talk about now of course, and anyone should know there are major trigger warnings for death, child abuse, sexual abuse, and pedophilia.) it is a sad book about his earliest years: the complexities and nuances of male power and manipulation, of unimaginable loneliness, of a lost child. alan said it wasn't cathartic to write—that is was indeed very painful—but the vulnerability, the commitment to shirking himself of the painful silence he endured for most of his life, is exceptionally moving. alan's writing can be quite thorough, even flowery, in creating vivid places and images, so so much of the heaviness feels piercing and even disturbing. if you read other comedians' books, a decent majority of them are written in the style of standup or, say, a ted talk — with performance in mind, specific structures and beats that mimic how they'd tell these stories on stage. i would argue this is quite different to that, that while the writing is in a style and structure that benefits being read aloud this is a very different alan to alan the performer. and, very honestly, i'm really not an audiobook person, not to mention listening is a wholly different experience to reading — but the audiobook for this is phenomenal: alan narrates and, while of course it's his story so he'll tell it best, he is a very gentle, thoughtful storyteller. this will be you by chapter 4:
moab is my washpot + fry chronicles by stephen fry — the first and second of his three autobiographies covering some of the most sensational times (stephen is willing to admit) of his childhood and teen years + his rise to fame through the cambridge footlights. these are good reads for 1) stephen fry fans duh and 2) people who can enjoy the inspiration of auden, waugh, wilde, wodehouse, quintessential english writers who inform the foundation of stephen's relationship with literature and appreciation. stephen is painfully honest — and often sorry for it, apologising for what he perceives to be his shortcomings — and you can't help but feel, even early on in the first book, that his view of his own world is somehow even more subjective than everyone else's views of their own worlds. maybe it's because he's so judgmental, maybe it's his oscillating mental health, maybe it's the shocking thrust with which he was confronted with the wideness of the world...i'm not sure, but stephen's life through stephen's eyes is so very stephen-y. i think that's why we love him‚ though i can see some people loathing the less admirable sides of him, which he does show, so don't read this if you want to maintain some image of him that helps you cope or keeps you perfectly entertained. if you're not british, the fry chronicles is an especially good read to scratch some of your anglophilic interests (lotsss of namedropping and backstage chat)!
delicacy: a memoir about cake and death by katy wix — one of my recent faves and another book that isn't thoroughly funny. told in 21 vignettes either centered around or vaguely related to cake, katy talks about her school life, grief and loss, self-esteem and body image, misogyny — in ways that are just...matter of fact...opposed to lessons learned or things she's working on through therapy. she's accepted a lot, but she's also afflicted by a lot to this day; she's capably honest about where her reality stands. for this reason, it can be a bleak and certainly very raw read. i listened to the audiobook for this one, which was nice, but i much recommend the actual written book as the vignettes are in different formats (short story prose, letters, email exchanges) that often anchor time and place, intention, even the little peeks of light of comedy. katy's writing is very lovely, both my heart and mind were touched.
back story by david mitchell — a mildly vulnerable, moderately insightful, and quite humorous exploration of david's up-and-coming years. i really appreciate the premise — due a bad back and sciatica, he begins taking very long walks every day, and these walks trigger memories and anecdotes as he passes certain places — that really doesn't come off as a gimmick. it's a very easy read (or listen) and what i'd consider an uncomplicated, unproblematic bio, but it would be difficult to enjoy if you're only a casual fan of david mitchell or only like him in his most recent dad years, as it was written in his peep show heyday and is so much about those years of his life, his relationship with robert webb, etc. a good intro-to-the-genre book and the very first britcom book i read way back in 2010!
i also really enjoy graham norton's books — especially for the goss, but he's a great writer and his debut fiction novel got quite good reviews! — and tim key's books of poetry, though you really need to be a fan of tim key to read tim key :')
books i do not recommend:
before & laughter by jimmy carr — this book is much less of an autobiography (details are scant and anecdotes are few; it's cute when he refers to karoline as "my girl") and much more a collection of 1) jimmy's interpretation of contemporary comedy and what it means to be a comedian, and 2) how that journey, and his evolving attitudes, shaped him + became advice he would offer to others. this is why he calls the book adjacent to self help & motivational speaking. i don't think it teaches you anything new about him — literally or as an writer — so i don't recommend reading it, though the audiobook (where he's truly performing the writing like a ted talk) is an easy listen. a lot of people will not understand that jimmy is overwhelmingly sincere in regards to all of the topics and personal philosophies the jimmy nearing 50 espouses. he's someone with very studied, thorough personal philosophies (if you've seen him on podcasts talking about his life and career then you'll know just what i mean) and he explains them deftly, but they can feel a bit...how should i say this...flat to people who have heard a lot of it before, in hollywood movies or from their own parents or wherever. he didn't write this just for another stream of income — he is passionate about these conversations and that counts for something. overall i already knew a bit about the guy and didn't need this.
my shit life so far by frankie boyle — i have never read one of frankie's fiction novels (crime is really not my thing, so someone needs to let me know if richard osman's book series is a smash because i'm only going to check them out if i'm convinced to), but as a long-time fan of his, knowing how much of a wordsmith he is, and how intentional he is in everything he says, i was surprised by how dull i found this. his shit life was just that — uninteresting, meandering. his anecdotes may have worked better aloud than on paper, but they didn't grab me. you learn a bit about his young adulthood, but like jimmy he's intensely private and i could feel that distance between us even while reading an autobiography. it didn't work for me, super sad about it :(
can everyone please calm down? by mae martin — instead of criticising this book, i'd rather just make a disclaimer or two. if you are already engaged in queer discourses and dialogues, you are not going to learn very much from this book. both the descriptive writing and presentation of research is "accessible" to the point i'd call it more adjacent to YA than adult literature; if you prefer more creative, complicated, and/or signature writing styles, this book is not for you. if you are a big fan of mae martin and would appreciate an overview of their journey on the identity spectrum (going so far as to even rejecting it, in some capacities) in one place, then this may be convenient — but even then, at this point, it's somewhat outdated. imo a well-intention skip.
phil wang and tom allen are two more i think don't convince me with their writing, but i'm still making my ways through a couple of books and could probably talk more about this later!
i have never made this kind of non-fiction bio a priority on my long reading list, so i still have a lot of exploring and catching up to do, but i'm finding that i do prefer the books that explore the events of comedian's past as well as those that walk the reader through experiences in the comedy & tv industries. there are a lot of books about mental health and identity, which may be more of what many of you are looking for (sara pascoe, fern brady, jon richardson, and more).
okaY PHEW SORRY i always type too much 😒
first, as for david mitchell's new book, you can order it signed from waterstones as they ship to the usa — and it's currently half off!!!!! if you want to buy it unsigned from a usa retailer amazon is cheapest and target & bookshop are the cheapest non-amazon options :) an audiobook is coming out as well, so i do believe i will be able to add that to googledrive before too long, but no guarantees on a good time frame!
you can go here to download any of the ebooks & audiobooks i have on my googledrive!
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You can tell people who don't watch Niji are really scrambling to find anything to hate about the AR Live because they just don't want any of the livers to celebrate any accomplishments. But if anyone is actually taking the opinions of those who didn't even watch the damn event at face value, here is my take on some of the "issues" these people are complaining about:
Long read.
THE GRADUATED LIVERS:
Pomu's, Nina's, and Mysta's voice were kept because it was a decision by the livers to be included for the fans. The remaining livers re-recorded their live stages after the others graduated, but some people actually think Niji was just showing 1-year-old footage, which would take some insane editing skills. The graduated livers' voices were part of the back track, not as part of the live singing. Their vocals were only heard for debut songs, too. There is also a weird narrative that the voices of the graduated livers should not have been allowed when there is no problem with it. Those graduated livers still support their friends and were more than happy to be included in AR Live even after graduating.
SELEN AND PASTEL STAGE:
It makes sense why Selen had to be cut from AR Live. There would be a lot more heat if they kept her in after her termination than to just roll with it since, unlike the graduated livers, Selen was terminated not long after already recording AR Live back in November last year.
I get it's upsetting many things had to be cut from Pastel Stage, but it's not just getting all the livers to Japan, but also booking the venue, getting the 3D riggers, stage staff, choreographers, and more. They'd have to push the AR Live concert even further after canceling the initial one. It honestly makes sense that they'd cut content rather than spend the resources to re-record it for a THIRD time. And since everyone wants the Niji to take better care of their livers' mental health, then not overworking them on this overdue project is a start.
3D MODELS AND RIGGING:
Apparently, someone paid the money to hate-watch AR Live so they could spread screenshots to make it look bad, despite the strict copyright rule not to share screenshots (which of course would lead to a DMCA). Frankly, if anyone is going to judge the quality of the whole 3-hour concert based on snippets and not actually bother to watch it, then they can't make the conclusion that the 3D models were bad. Although it's weird that someone did pay to sit through a 3-hour concert without having any intention of enjoying it to begin with.
I watched the concert, and the 3D models looked good, in my opinion. Nijisanji is known to have better 3D rigging compared to their competitors. The team that did the models and rigging did a perfectly fine job and it's pretty insulting to put it down because you chose to look at it under a microscope and pinpoint any instance where it might have looked off. A lot of the choreography (especially Shu's Shanti 🪑) and the variety games show how good the rigging can look, and it seems unfair to not look at those examples alongside the bad ones.
CONCLUSION
I feel like the Niji hate at this point is getting ridiculous. There's plenty of real reasons to not like Niji. If you want to "SiNk tHe yAtCht" so bad, you can boycott it and not spend money to hate-watch their concert, lol. Drama channels finding anything to talk about AR Live when they haven't even watched it is just another example of how little integrity they have to report hearsay. And it's tiring to always hear people looking at any possible negative thing to say when the livers and their fans are just being happy..?
Don't get me wrong, I have my criticisms of the company. I've aired it out before. Especially after Selen's termination. Hell, it's not like I don't have my own critique of AR Live. I also wish fans got more Pastel Stage. I also wish the first AR Live wasn't canceled. But by no means do I think the AR Live we got was bad.
I left the concert feeling elated and overall had way more positive thoughts about it than any negative ones. And it has me looking forward to future AR Live concerts. Other 3D debuts. And other projects like NijiEncounter.
Anyways, Niji antis can and will keep obsessively bitching about Niji, and then say "cope and seethe" when someone tells them to take a chill pill. But Niji AR Live did really well. The fans are proud of the livers' hard work to make it happen. There will be more positive things to come for Niji enjoyers. But if antis want to keep writing their own fan fiction that tells them otherwise, there's no point in changing their mind, lol.
For fans that want to keep supporting their livers, or any sane person that wants to see Niji better themselves, please don't let the hate keep you from celebrating any wins, big or small, that the livers are accomplishing.
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I haven't found the original post about whiteness yet. However about "void where culture should be" I can sum up what's there trying and failing the fill the void.
Primarily, religion, specifically Western Evangelical Christianity. Purity culture, heaven and hell, the idea of sin, the idea of God.
Family is family and we must be true to that first and foremost. Following from this it's also marriage and the CisHet norms and as an extension of that having kids. (Which ties back to 1. in many ways.)
Being morally superior in every way we can. Totally not because white people are better, but we're the good normal CisHet Christians and we set the standards. (Sarcasm there.)
Exploitation of natural resources, especially those of non American countries. Vacations and Cruises. Going out into nature verg disrespectfully. Having the biggest life possible and having as much excess as possible. So, so many educational field trips where colonization was evident looking back. Never visiting pr disturbing a settler graveyard, but native burial mounds were fair game and not even in a respectful manner.
Nationalism. Military and Cops being the best thing ever. Just everything associated with American nationalism.
Food, the only not terrible thing on this list. Even that though is really a mix of so many cultures and honestly there's probably something fucked up if I looked into it deeper.
TLDR: Christian Nationalism. Which I am working to reject now. I definitely ain't perfect but I'm gonna work on it til I die.
Unfortunately though, that does leave me with very little culture. There's nothing to even try to fill that void anymore. I have to try and create it for myself. Just like I have to create family for myself. Sorry for the rambling I just had some thoughts.
I agree and think some other things should be there but yes.
And I mean as long as you're growing, that's all I care about ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ we love to see it 💖🌿
•°•°•
And maybe it's very rainbows and unicorns of me but we should be creating an American identity we can all share. Reject the current reliance on race all together.
Because there Should be more than christian ideology, white supremacy fascism, and capitalism.
Russel Means said it best when he said "Caucasians have a more positive vision to offer humanity than European culture. I believe this. But in order to attain this vision it is necessary for Caucasians to step outside European culture—alongside the rest of humanity—to see Europe for what it is and what it does."
Yes you have to create your own but it can be shared too. Community is crucial to any culture and people at all. Because there is so much more than what you've been given, you can create too just like your long ago ancestors before you.
And on a real note that needs to be the first step like yesterday (provided you want my opinion lol):
If white people ever want to belong here and feel like they're a part of everyone else; like we all share an identity then you have to start being more active allies to all the communities here.
You need to act like it, you know? Start actively being a part of dismantling the systems that the many diverse communities here have been critiquing for decades and centuries. Enough conditional support.
Show that you're Truly with us, thick or thin. That you wont fall back to supporting state violence because you think we misstepped in our fight for human rights and more human treatment.
Show us that you think our futures are worth fighting for. That they're a priority and the bigger picture is worth a few property damages that can/will be repaired anyway.
That you stand with us first, not the police or buildings or your political leanings. With us. With the human people that are your neighbors and bakers and bus drivers and business owners. That our human lives matter more than your politics or ideologies. That you stand for the rights of your neighbors and community like we have stood for each other.
We'd be way more of a melting pot if white ppl collectively stopped constantly looking for people to pick out of the pot. Because idk about other people, but that's how I feel as a native when liberals are trying to pick apart Landback or abolishing police or protesters causing damages for pride and ending police brutality but won't question a white imperialist for president because it's a "lesser evil" than the progressive who'd help me.
Way more of a community if other white people collectively stepped up came and stopped those kind of people from spreading their nonsense. Collectively don't take that bullshit.
Consider it your first community value. Solidarity with Everyone, not the whiteness that protects/benefits you.
And I don't mean you personally, but on a grander scale you know? Y'all should be doing whatever you can in that regard. Prove you mean it. That you want that future of belonging here and feeling safe and having an identity as much as we do.
Cuz we've Always been the first to fight, you know? With slow and conditional support...if any. But white people have the power of privilege that people in power pay attention to. More than ours. They try to suppress and repress ours systematically like we're seeing in Florida and across the country with book bans, banning CRT, and passing don't say gay bills.
We need support and it needs to be loud and visible and everywhere all the time. It can be.
The rest of us know what white people as a collective are capable of and what solidarity with one another can do.
The people in charge need to know the time for racism and fascism and individualism is behind us. That it's no longer a value that Us-Americans put up with. That you stand with us, not them.
I think we have a long way to go before the trauma of our shared history can be completely forgiven but I think unconditional allyship and support in the name of human rights and ending war crimes against marginalized communities would be a good first step at attempting to repair trust.
If you want unity we need to know you wont keep aligning with our oppressors first and foremost, you know?
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#20 - Harry Potter (consider both ron & hermione his best friends for this exercise)
20: Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?
@jamesunderwater Buckle up for an essay.
So, I'm not super vocal about this (though i should be omg), but the golden trio is my favorite fictional platonic friend group of all time. They are absolutely perfect for each other. They balance each other out so well in their personalities and actions, and Ron and Hermione are Harry's ideal best friends, and vice versa, and I'm going to tell you why.
Let’s start with Ron
First and foremost, Ron is one of Harry's strongest emotional anchors. He’s honest, and he has a type of humor that perfectly balances Harry’s slightly pessimistic outlook on life, (which is totally valid, my poor boy has been through everything) and he manages to keep things real and light in the face of danger.
He’s also incredibly, completely loyal. He isn’t perfect at this, obviously, the two main examples being those two fights in GoF and DH when their relationship became a bit rocky. But most of the time, Ron’s loyalty is completely unwavering. He jumps at the chance to defend and support people he loves, (which is a trait that Harry shares as well.) Here’s a few of my favorite examples:
"If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us, too!" – Prisoner of Azkaban, pg. 361
“...You’ve got to make some sacrifices! I’ll make my move and she’ll take me, that leaves you free to check the king…Do you want to stop Snape or not?” – Philosopher’s Stone, pg. 304
“He must have known I'd run out on you…No, he must have known you would always want to come back.” – Deathly Hallows, pg. 318
“You can have me! Keep me” In reference to Hermione being tortured by Bellatrix – Deathly Hallows, pg. 376
Another reason: the fact that they both share a sense of being outcasts. Though Ron’s experience is much less intense as Harry’s, he too feels not good enough. He’s constantly overshadowed by his siblings, and feels like he can’t measure up. Harry feels an outcast 99% of the time, either by the Dursleys or else by the wizarding population as a whole. Despite their circumstances being incredibly different, that underlying feeling of not belonging really just makes them all the more compatible.
Okay, now for Hermione (aka the love of my life)
She's brilliant. She's resourceful, and honestly pretty ruthless. She's an intellectual powerhouse, using (to quote Dumbledore) "cool logic in the face of fire." One of the most fascinating aspects of Hermione's character, and one of the ways she balances Ron's and Harry's personalities is the way she balances a sense of justice with empathy. I already said she was ruthless, and she is, but she also serves as a critical moral compass, providing insight into others that Ron and Harry don't notice.
Here are a couple of my favorite examples of that dynamic. An amalgamation of quotes and other instances.
"Hermione pulled a small sealed glass jar out of her bag...I caught her on the windowsill in the hospital wing." - Goblet of Fire, pg. 612
She was competent enough to use a memory charm, not once, but twice
Her insights into people and their feelings was essential in helping Harry overcome various problems. again, that logic coming in clutch.
She was there for Harry when Ron wasn't, and vice versa.
Sorry for the unwarranted essay, haha, (and I was very tempted to go on and on) but these three have my whole heart. Their loyalty to each other and the cause of defeating Voldemort is just perfection, and their dynamic is perfect.
TLDR Ron and Hermione were the perfect best friends for Harry to have, and I will die on this hill.
#hermione granger#ron weasley#harry potter#these guys are the pinnacle of friendship#ask games#casual convos
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Alright here is @the-arcade-doctor ‘s numerology charts. There’s some things I find v interesting in it :]
Expression/destiny number: kinda hard to explain but it’s basically traits that stick with you for your whole life
Hearts desire number: what motivates you deep down
Personality number: how you present yourself to others
Hearts desire/personality bridge: the way you align who you are deep down to how you present yourself.
Life path: your purpose in life
And though there’s lots of numbers (that I can dm you if you’re curious), specifically I will bring up the attainment/attachment number cause… you’ll see. Also I’m putting the extra cool stuff in bold btw.
JOTA’s expression number is 7, and Jay is 9.
First of all, 7s and 9s are compatible specifically for friendships, so that’s interesting. 7s are traditionally very curious, and dislike mundanity and superficiality. This also makes them cynical and kind of aloof. [ whereas 9s are generous, idealistic, and seek the approval and affection of many. Like- basically you wanna be accepted and loved by more than just your small circle. ] Personally, I think this is hella interesting cause like.. isn’t that their whole dynamic? Jay wants to be accepted and approved of and loved, and JOTA is well, JOTA.
For hearts desire, it’s JOTA- 5 and Jay- 1.
In this sense, 5s are resourceful, quick thinking, and unconventional. You take risks/gambles based on the reward’s value (as opposed to the danger/risk factor) and are rarely seen as boring. You probably take on multiple projects at once. Literally what more is there to add- this is just the arcade. This is describing why you have an arcade. [ 1s on the other hand, you probably wouldn’t associate with Jay at first. They’re confident leaders who don’t care if they’re controversial- and even enjoy the attention that gets them. I specifically wanna point out the trait of ‘believ[ing] your judgement is preeminent to others’. This is you without the thick slab o’ insecurity on top- which yeah— this number is also called the “souls urge” number. ] So yeah- I think these fit pretty snuggly too.
Honestly, I feel like JOTA’s 2 and Jay’s 8 should be swapped.
2s are seen as gentle, good listeners, warm/soft, etc,,, and really,, unless you dig a bit deeper (ily <3) you probably wouldn’t associate a 2 with JOTA, sans the whole “drawing people in” aspect. I 100% believe that 2 is on JOTA’s chart, I just don’t think the Personality number (or at least worldnumerology.com’s interpretation of it) is incredibly accurate. [ and now we have the 8 personality number. 8s have a natural intimidation factor and are incredibly sure in themselves. They’re effective and scary. their ego is their downfall. (Conversely, they are usually well liked by peers cause of the spontaneity) ] hehe 8s are compatible to my life path that’s silly- anyways, yeah, you’d probably think these should be swapped, right??? Like, of course the two share tons of traits between eachother and honestly, I feel like 2 and 8 fit both in general, but for personality number they should be swapped,? And even then, Jay, I wouldn’t say you have a super tough shell but you’ve definitely got hella locks on your doors if yk what I mean.? Well, this segment is getting v long so onto the next!!!
Alright there isn’t much for me to say about the bridge number except for one thing. JOTA has a 3, and Jay has a 7. y’all. Let me repeat that.
The number that bridges Jay’s personality and desires. Is JOTA’s expression number. LITERALLY EVERYTHING IS EXPLAINED BY THIS AAHAHHAHAA!!!! Oh my god!!!!! Oh my fucking god guys!!!!! So basically everything is perfect and fate is real and numerology is real and I 100% actually believe in it now cause what the hell.
Now, real quick I’m gonna go ahead and tell you that Jay’s Attainment/Attachment number is 11. There’s three master numbers, (11, 22, 33) that are more powerful than the other numbers and exhibit traits of two numbers (1&2, 2&4, 3&6)This number is basically shows your potential and the types of challenges you’ll have to overcome. 11 is strong as shit and cause it has 1 and 2 energy, unwieldy as FUCK.
“Connection to other people feels vital to you”
“Learn to not take thing personally or you’ll become very over-sensitive and withdrawn”
You have “the innate ability to get into people’s hearts and minds”
Alright, finally, the star of the show. The Life Path number. Arguably the most important one.
JOTA and Jay’s Life Paths are both 2.
“Oh- oh hyper! What does this mean?” You cry.
The 2 Life Path is the Path of Balance, Harmony, Partnership, and Togetherness.
2s are also seen as shy and perceptive. They’re extra drawn to music and shit. Also this funny title for a section on the 2 page “Your extremely delicate ego bruises easily and can make too much of someone else's thoughtless remarks or criticisms.” (Reminder that you’re awesome and <333)
Oh and fun fact, life path 2 is the rarest of the single digit life paths!! (And the numbers used to add together to the final number also influences that shit but I am too eepy to get into why the 45 that turns into Jay’s 9 is significant— btw the name Jotaphobia has a 78 in it which is just… so close.)
Tldr: guys I think numerologists are onto something
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Hi! Feel free to ignore this if you don't want to answer (I promise I won't be offended if that's something that worries you), but you mentioned maybe writing cult whump and I was wondering if you had any resources for that that you could share? Like, cult mindset, leaving cults, anything really. No worries if you don't or just don't want to answer, you just seemed like someone to ask! I'm doing my own research as well but it's tricky.
- @pigeonwhumps
hi friend! i love that this is my legacy now but also i wanna clarify for everyone reading that i am not an authority on this at all, i have never been in a cult, etc etc. that being said, these are the kind of stuff i watched and read about:
literally any cult documentary i can find on youtube or anywhere. ex-member testimonies, documentaries on the people who are still living in it, etc. i watched several documentaries on the amish, i watched ex jehovah's witnesses testimonies, i watched one documentary about gwen shamblin, even the ones that are about mlm's because honestly? it illustrates stuff quite well sometimes. even people breaking down why and how the protag was indoctrinated in midsommar.
(some i have been recommended but haven't watched yet: shiny happy people, keep sweet: pray and obey
the ones i watched about the amish/mennonites: breaking the silence, meet the mennonites, why i left the amish, inside the community, the amish way of life
the one about gwen shamblin and the remnant fellowship: the millionaire preacher with a weight loss cult
i can't find that one jehovah's witness testimony i watched but here's the other video i watched about them so far: escaping jehovah's wittnesses
one i watched about nuns that illustrates leaving everything behind and uniformity and a huge emphasis on religion: what's life like as a nun?)
here's the bite model for assessing whether someone is or has been in a cult, basically gives you a checklist. i won't talk about how i would go about building a fantasy cult or anything because i think this draws attention to both the main and minor points of it. but do be cautious because some of the points get very intense.
the story i want to write is about being indoctrinated, so my main points will be an emotionally vulnerable protag and a cult that promises something good. something they want. conditional love, forgiveness they have to work hard for, community, rigid structure, self-sufficiency aka isolation, someone dubious to follow and listen to.
but if you were to write about someone born into a cult and wanting to escape or even just navigate it, common themes will be a relatively happy childhood when they don't know any better, The Realisation, and then the stage when they want to leave but don't know where to go because all their friends and family are in the cult. plus, do they want to leave? maybe they should just work harder, no? but then there's the possibility of being kicked out and shunned so the decision is made for them, which is even scarier and extremely painful.
for life outside the cult, there are organisations that try to help former cult members, a lot of times comprising of other former cult members who have escaped and understand the struggle. one thing the guy in breaking the silence highlights is not trying to tell fresh escapees what to do and how to do it. they just escaped a cult! they don't wanna be told what to do anymore!
also there will be the obvious struggles, like loss of community, feeling isolated again, trying to build relationships with people that just don't get it and that you don't get, having missed out on a traditional childhood and being unable to relate etc., but there will also be strange struggles like the amish guy mentions of like... going into a clothing store for the first time in his life after years and years and years of having all his clothes custom made by his mother. he didn't know his size, didn't know the types of jeans, but the most startling realisation was that there was a women's section. it didn't even cross his mind! girls and women never wore pants in his community! how can he even tell which ones are girl jeans? he didn't want to embarrass himself, so he just left.
sooooo...... i think that's it for my info and sources? oh, and clearly i like to immerse myself in the source material, like the bible. it's very interesting to see which sections have been taken out of context and amplified for different denominations/cults. i can see what parts the amish read aloud, i can see which parts they don't. i can see where they get some of the rules, but i can also see how they're disproved in the same book by the same god and why they don't really want their children and people to read the entirety of it. in one community, the rule was that everyone had to read the bible in german - while at the same time they stopped teaching german in their schools.
OKAY now i'm really done. again please take everything with a grain of salt :) the closest i've ever gotten to a real cult irl was through my classmate and ex-boyfriend who was a member of the faith church (which might be an exclusively hungarian thing? hitgyülekezet for any hungarians reading lol) and who just said the most bonkers shit and really messed me up. but that's it. everything else is through documentaries and stuff. but i hope this helps anyway :)
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lots of cartomancy talk in this one
I feel like the only Confidants I have I can work on are Chariot and Death right now, so I actually pulled up a spoiler-free guide to see what I should be prioritizing and I ASSUME THERE IS A CHARM CHECK EARLY ON BC WOW THIS FAQ IS HAVING ME SPEND SO MUCH TIME IN THE BATHHOUSE
can I be a dumb yank for a second and say communal bathhouses are really fascinating to me. I would never be able to attend one until I'm older because I am a happily fat person, but the concept is still really compelling to me. Is it like a public restroom, is it rude to speak to the people around you? Or is it like a hairdresser where you are expected to speak to the people around you? also this thing with the baths having different medicinal qualities on different days, is that a thing because that's really interesting.
I think it interests me because I am a queer who does not drink alcohol, so like... finding comfortable communal spaces is actually very difficult. You can only go to so many coffee shops, yanno.
Does Japan share the trouble that America does, that the places you can be outside your home are all commercial in some way rather than public spaces you're allowed to just go?
This is the kind of thing I think about playing a game like Persona which is trying to evoke a sense of place. There's this moment that I screencapped but now I lost it, where Morgana talks on the train ride about how they like foreign products (like soda and food) because they always feel more effective than stuff from your country. Which, if that is a shared experience in Japan (and everyone in the world, lets be frank) (okay except the UK, I don't uh expect things from the UK to be better) (no not even the tea) (wait i guess the chocolate, yes)
that to me is very interesting.
goddamn i'm fucking rambling.
Ryuji's confidant arc seems to be pretty spot on for a Chariot. He is good at his drive, his forward momentum, the urge to get shit done without always thinking things through. A Chariot is that friend you call in a crisis who will help you get through something so long as they don't have to make big decisions. He gives that vibe that if Reverie broke his legs and wound up bedridden for a while, Ryuji would be there like "hey what you need done" and would do the cleaning and shopping and helping Reverie limp around. THAT'S him.
But like all Chariots, he doesn't have a grip on the reins, which seems to be his broken relationship with the track team. It was that urge to act (goaded by Kamoshida) that cost everyone the team and the resources. He's carrying that around like an anchor pulling the dirt up behind him.
Also he brought me to a special ramen shop in Ogikubo so I think that's literally Harukiya. I even looked up images of inside the shop and they're super similar!
jfc are those the same bowls
Would love to talk to someone on the dev team about the decision to go from, to my understand, 4 games of fake locations inspired by real places to just straight up real places.
Props to Takemi for being actually pretty goth. The casual morbidity with her never stops, which I find interesting.
lmao I love the body language in this game honestly. The way she slouches to get closer and examine Reverie as he drinks more lighter fluid is in of itself good characterization.
Got some details on her which really elucidate the Death arcana assignment. (Fun fact, the Death card is also sometimes just called The Nameless Arcana/The Arcana With No Name.)
She fucked up something at the hospital and has been thrown out of the Tokyo medical community basically, so she operates her solo practice. Now, I'm not sure what the eventual plot here is, but Death can be a card for going through mourning and coming out stronger for it. I would be into seeing something about letting go of the lingering resentment about her expulsion and gaining peace from being the provider to small community that can learn more about her themselves, outside her reputation.
THAT SAID SO FAR IT'S JUST LIGHTER FLUID COCKTAILS, SO WHO KNOWS IF IT'LL BE THAT DEEP.
Meanwhile, lmao, fucking Sojiro. I am getting the feeling I am supposed to be reading him as just an omnidirectional curmudgeon, all bark and less bite. He's going to teach Reverie to work in the coffee shop.
Which reveals him as the Hierophant.
Now, I don't really know if Atlus knows what the fuck the Hierophant is. In P3, the Hierophant link was atrociously written, both on a technical level and the actual sideplot. It had frankly zero connection to the idea of the Hierophant? (it was the Old Couple and the tree, for those who don't recall, I wouldn't blame you for scrubbing it from your minds.)
And I have been really loud about how Dojima should have been the Hermit and the fucking Shrine Fox should have been the Hierophant.
I was assuming Sojiro was Hermit from his early remarks but now I realize that doesn't work with the frequent references to him being a social gadfly with his Hitting The Open Bar On The Lido Deck look. So...
A coffee shop owner for the Hierophant is frankly an interesting concept. He demands exacting behavior from Reverie but also brings him into the fold. A patriarch not of religion but of the cult of coffee, where the secret rituals and knowledge are about beans and tending to customers, that's a humorously apt take on the Hierophant.
When people talk about the Majors, I feel like Emperor and Hierophant get confused/conflated a lot. But the Hierophant is often what people are thinking of. They exert an outsized amount of control, they accept and excommunicate people to keep that control, and they are the keeper of the spiritual rulebook that allows them to have that power. They are the material gatekeeper in contrast to the spiritual gatekeeper of the Priestess. And while the Priestess is motivated to protect people by controlling knowledge, the Hierophant is not only motivated to protect themselves, but they are motivated to protect The Order, The Cult, The Religion, which also protects them.
All this to say: Hierophant of Coffee? Hilarious.
(Also retroactively explains why he's been such a Huge Bitch to Reverie, Hierophants hate everyone who threatens the social order.)
I don't know what it is about Reverie's face but it makes literally every needy dorky statement he says so much better.
ALSO? I WOULD HAVE LOVED MORE VOICE ACTING FOR HIM. Just gimme someone to say the chosen lines. I want some DELIVERY on these absolute bangers.
okay this one has been Hella Long so I'll make a new post for the enxt plot development
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Love hearing your opinions of the characters! Can you do the character bingo for Ace and/or Crowley(only if you do the staff, if not it's fine)
Ace Character Opinion Bingo here!
***Standard disclaimer: These are just my personal opinions of the character(s); regardless of what I may think of them, sharing my thoughts is NOT meant to offend or to shame anyone that thinks differently.***
Crowley has drip 👀 It feels like every time I look at his design, I notice something new and cool about it that I didn’t notice the first time I looked. There’s a lot of intricate detailing, but not so much that it becomes cluttered, and there’s elements of him being a crow without it being too obvious. I love the keys dangling at his waist, and the way his coat has feathered shoulder pads, how the hem turns feathery... Oh, but what I love the most is his gloves; the gold tips look so pointed, I think they’d make for great ASMR sounds when he drums them against a hard surface.
TWST gives Crowley his time in the spotlight, but I want to see more of what he does behind the scenes. Whenever he has screen time, he’s there just to cause trouble for the students or to explain a concept, which leaves a lot to be desired and doesn’t exactly paint him as “likeable” to most. I feel as though TWST is intentionally doing this to misdirect us on Crowley’s character or intentions, because there was a distinct LACK of him in episode 6, the most serious part of the main story so far. I want to know what he was up to, what he was talking about with Idia’s parents. And that’s??? Not even mentioning the odd opening lines to the game where Crowley is beckoning to some “flower of evil”, or the various ominous lines of text sprinkled throughout the main story. He’s really REALLY suspicious, and that, combined with the plethora of fan theories about him purposefully letting Overblots happen or Final Boss or Big Bad Crowley, I’m itching to see what the canon culminates to in the climax.
I unfortunately see a lot of... dislike directed at Crowley? Sometimes it’s something as innocuous as joking that he’s really bad at his job, and other times it can be outright hatred 💦 I’ll confess that Crowley definitely has his faults, but I find those to be part of his charm. I don’t know, there’s just something so oddly endearing about a bumbling adult that seems to have no clue what they’re doing (because honestly? Me too, Crowley, me too 😭)? He’s admittedly a lot more irresponsible than I’d like an adult to be in real life (like damn, how many student kidnappings have there been under his watch?? How often has he asked the kids to save themselves instead of stepping in to help?), but he’s fictional so I can laugh along and just have fun with it. If anything, we the players should all be thanking Crowley for being as inattentive as he is, because it's all because of HIM that MC can stay in Twisted Wonderland and experience all of its wonders.
I also think that hyperfixating on Crowley’s bad points detracts from his overall character. In spite of all the shit he gets his students into, Crowley does indeed have traits beyond being irresponsible. Er, and those traits usually aren’t that positive either. He’s greedy (accepting bribes/donations and letting them influence his decisions), he’s attention-seeking (concerned with getting good publicity for NRC), and he’s lazy (skips out in researching a way to send Yuu home to go on vacation instead). However, I like to think that he does care for his students in his own... weird way? Like, there has to be a deeper reason why he wants the school to have funds and publicity. Sure, it strokes his own ego, but the money and the exposure the school has can also tie back to his students’ success. Crowley’s indirectly giving the kids the resources to study well and make careers for themselves.
Let’s not forget that for all the fandom jokes about Crowley making Yuu the school’s “unpaid therapist”, Crowley actually went the extra mile and sought out professional therapy for the OB boys (a detail briefly mentioned in episode 6). Crowley was also the one that called STYX because he believed his students would be in danger (because of Grim), and that Crowley left the school in Trein’s capable hands while he was away. If Crowley didn’t care at all, he’d rush off to save his own tail feathers and leave the school in disarray. If we’re going to take gameplay into consideration for this, Crowley is also always popping into classes to check up on his students and to make sure they’re getting the most they can out of their education. There’s a lot of little things he does that go unnoticed because the focus is just squarely on him being a Bad at Adulting 😔 (Of course, maybe these are all things Crowley is doing for the sake of his Big Bad Scheme if he really is the final boss or something, but right now I think they can be interpreted in an innocent enough manner.)
#Dire Crowley#twst#twisted wonderland#disney twisted wonderland#spoilers#ask game#character opinion bingo#notes from the writing raven
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okay so, ive been reblogging a lot of stuff from @fujowebdev this past month. in case i havent mentioned yet, yes, its because i am working on this project! (ive done some character design stuff for a few characters that havent been released yet, as well as some little illustrations for the kickstarter campaign, which you should check out here if you havent yet!)
(here's some of the art i did for the kickstarter, as seen here, and you can find a little more about what ive been doing for the project in this post.)
but you may be wondering why i am working on this project in the first place. well, good question! its basically a long series of random events that starts several years ago, so i wont bore you with that much detail, but the long and short of it is that i ended up joining a discord server called fandom coders for fandom folks who like coding and/or want to learn coding. (you can find them here, at their website, which i have also made some small contributions to!)
the fancoders are basically the coolest group of people ever; they've all been super nice, encouraging, and helpful! tbh, ive been feeling disillusioned by social media as a way of sharing my art for some time now, especially with the increase in sites that disallow/ban nsfw art in recent years, and the fandom coders discord (and especially ms boba, head of the kickstarter project and bobaboard) was more than happy to help me expand my skills so i could work on improving my own website. and the skill they helped me with that has been most vital... turned out to be learning how to use git and github!
so that brings us to the kickstarter. the main reason i've put off learning more about web development for many years was honestly just intimidation. i find a lot of resources that are supposedly aimed at people wanting to create websites are... really not all that friendly to amateurs or newbies! and for a long time, i had no one (and nowhere) to ask for help about this without being shamed for my lack of skill.
this is why i think a resource like the guide we are kickstarting is such a big deal, and why i was pretty much instantly down to volunteer my time towards making it a reality. i know there are TONS of other fandom folks out there who would love to make their own websites to showcase their love for their fandom, but not nearly enough resources that teach website-making skills in a way that is approachable and FUN.
(and fun is exactly what we are trying to make this! hence the hot anime boys.)
anyway, that's my pitch! if you haven't already, go check out our kickstarter! we're already fully funded, but we have a couple of stretch goals that i think are really cool, so any extra funding helps us get to those! the first volume of the book/zine we're making covers git and github, so that you can learn version control and make your websites without the fear of breaking your site while editing and not having any way to recover the old unbroken version (TTwTT)b we've all been there...
#wOW that got longer than i intended. my b#fujowebdev#fujoguide#very hype to eventually reveal the characters i designed lol#that will probably be a couple volumes down the line tho haha
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wait, do you have advice/resources for beginning to sew clothes? i self drafted a totebag and have made a few small bags, but am hoping to branch out
Make mockups; do lots of test fittings throughout the process; finish your seams; clip your corners and curves; stitch the most visible and trickiest bits by hand, not machine (unless you're good enough with a machine!); learn the main properties of different fabrics; when you really wanna hold your fabric in place nicely, baste rather than pin; adjust the fit via triangles and curves; it's only fabric; it's okay to fuck up; accept that you WILL fuck-up and WILL have to undo and redo things and that that is OKAY.
^ Some things I personally have benefited from and wish I'd learned earlier!
Seriously, though — I should preface by saying that I myself am also a beginner. I follow some really brilliant costumers and cosplayers here on tumblr, and I am nowhere NEAR their level. (And I would welcome any advice/resources more experienced clothes-makers would like to share!) It's only in the last few years that I've gotten more into sewing, starting mainly with alterations of existing clothes and then moving into making things from scratch. I've figured out a lot just via trial and error — as well as by taking existing garments apart and looking at how they're made.
But, honestly, my main resource has been YouTube. There are tons of tutorials on there for specific techniques and garments, of course, and I do watch those. But I've also learned a LOT from the more entertainment-focused sewing content — the ones where the sewist isn't really trying to teach you how to make something, just making something cool and showing how they made it. There's so much knowledge to be gleaned just from watching them work and listening to them talk about why they used a certain stitch, how they resolved a fit issue, etc.
Some favorite creators include:
TheClosetHistorian: Makes stunning vintage and high-end fashion; big proponent of drafting your own patterns, and has tutorials on how to do so as well as on things like darts and seam finishing. Plus I find her voice and aesthetic very soothing.
Bernadette Banner: Focuses on using period-appropriate methods to create her garments (mainly 19th and early 20th c.), which means a lot of hand sewing. I've picked up a lot of hand-sewing tips and tricks from watching her work.
Vincent Briggs: Mainly 18th century garments, with very excellent tutorials on decorative buttons and buttonholes in particular. And how to make an adorable leaf-kerchief!
Morgan Donner: All-around crafter with a particular focus on medieval garments and other aspects of medieval culture. Does lots of non-sewing craft content I enjoy as well.
Rachel Maksy: Less focused on technical sewing skills and more so on costume making and other crafting, but she's very inventive and fun to watch and shows a lot of creative problem solving.
And a few specific tutorials:
Circle skirt drafting by Mariah Pattie
Making a split-side adjustable skirt by Ash L G
Seam finishing by Evelyn Wood
There are honestly too many good channels to list... Sewstine; The Stitchery; Nicole Rudolph; Shannon Makes...... Beyond the sheer entertainment value, what I really love about watching all of these creators is that each of them has their own particular specialties, preferred ways of doing things, etc. Some of them went to fashion school, some are self-taught. Some are very technical and precise, some of them work organically and messily. And I think that just as the measured, detail-oriented approach of someone like Bernadette Banner offers much instruction, so too (in a very different way) does the chaotic approach of someone like Micarah Tewers, who perhaps can make garment construction seem less intimidating by demonstrating that you don't have to precisely follow a step-by-step guide.
Right now, I'm almost done (SO CLOSE TO DONE) making a skirt. It's not a crazy difficult skirt, but it does have pockets, pleats, gathers, a zipper, an attached waistband with elastic, and a plaid pattern to consider the direction and matching of, so it required thought and planning. I had originally been planning to make the whole skirt using a hand-me-down McCalls pattern, but then decided I didn't like the fullness of that skirt, so I took only the pockets from that pattern and drafted the skirt itself using the circle skirt tutorial linked above. I used a quarter-circle with a 175% waist measurement for the front half, which is pleated, and a 150% waist measurement for the back half, which is gathered. I did frequent test fittings and had to take apart and redo a couple things. And whenever I wasn't exactly sure how to do something, I'd just Google it and find lots of help.
Like I said, some of my mutuals on here are far better at this than I am, and I feel a little silly talking about my skirt like it's some grand accomplishment and a little unqualified to offer resources/advice. But I guess I'm hoping that my experience can still be helpful precisely because I am still a beginner and am very much still in the phase of figuring it all out. And my method is basically to take in information and inspiration from a lot of different sources, find the courage to try things out, learn from my mistakes and try try again.
Congrats on your tote bags, anon, and best wishes on your sewing journeys to come!
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About that Human Resources sequel
Human Resources was always supposed to get a sequel. Nothing too long or involved ‒ probably just a couple K's of epilogue-ish material, to share some ideas about how Nandor and Guillermo's relationship might progress from "well yes, we have had sex once" onwards to, y'know, wherever that goes.
So naturally, when I actually sat down to write the thing, it grew into something several hundred words longer than the original story. Honestly, I'm not even that surprised when this sort of thing happens anymore, and yet...
Anyway, said sequel is still another round of edits and some proper betaing short of being ready to actually post, but given that 1) I have been promising this damn thing long enough, and 2) it is close enough to done that I've already created the parent series for it on AO3 and everything, have a couple of preview scenes:
“As you know,” Nandor begins, sitting straight-backed in his customary chair like a monarch in the midst of a royal pronouncement, “on account of how it was all caught on film because you documentary people are now just leaving cameras around to record things in empty rooms for some reason – I and my familiar Guillermo had an encounter of an… intimate nature last night. On this very couch! And a bit up against the wall before that – but you know all this, you have all the footage and all that.
“Now, I am told that when this sort of thing happens between two people who live in the same house, and who have not done that sort of thing before in one of your documentary programs, it can be the cause of quite a lot of ex-cite-ment. So I would like to make it officially very clear that there is nothing for the getting excited about in this case! Yes, it happened – and a very good time was had, especially by Guillermo, because of course I am very good in bed – but it was mostly just a one-time kind of thing. We had our fun and all, but you must understand that it does not change anything between me and Guillermo. He is still the familiar, and I am still the vampire, even though now I have touched him on the peepee.”
“Oh my god, this changes everything,” says Guillermo, grinning in a helpless sort of way, like he couldn’t stop if he tried. “A week ago, I never even knew he was interested, and now – oh man. I guess I’d never even really thought this was possible, let alone that he might…” Sitting on his bed in his room, Guillermo is trying very hard to keep his voice to stage-whisper levels, without much success. “I know, I know – it was ‘just’ the one time, but some of the stuff he said to me, while we were… just, damn. This is serious!”
“Yes, certain things may have been said in the heat of the moment,” Nandor pronounces, “but I think we are all grown-ups here, and we understand that they do not necessarily mean anything. Maybe it will happen again sometime, since Guillermo has made us all aware that sex with familiars is an option which is back on the table for us vampires now. But it is never a good idea to let a familiar get too ‘familiar’ with that sort of special treatment, because then they get ideas above their station, and they start thinking they are too goodto clean anything that is not attached to you, and then you have to eat them and start all over breaking in a new familiar, and it is just so much trouble! No-one wants that, least of all Guillermo! So it was fun and all, but you should not go thinking it will be the sort of thing that is going anywhere.”
“…and this could just go anywhere!” says Guillermo, “Like, it’s still so new – it’s not like he’s…” he gives a nervous laugh, “not like we’ve even talked about it yet, but I just…” He glances briefly at his phone, and nearly does a double take, “I just need to get some sleep – I’ve got like four hours of daylight left before he’s… I mean, before I’m on duty again. Okay.” Looking over the camera, he asks, “Can we wrap this up?”
A brief montage shows Guillermo turning off lights and turning in for the night – or for the afternoon, as the case may be.
Come sunset, though, he’s up and ready again as usual – if a little baggy-eyed, having obviously been too excited to get much sleep. He gives the camera a slightly-nervous smile at Nandor’s door.
“Haven’t been this excited to go in here since I started this job,” he tells the camera. “But I don’t really know where he’s… you know, what he’s thinking this is, yet, so I’m just gonna play it cool – go in there and… do my job.” Guillermo self-consciously straightens his shirt, and then finally reaches for the doorknob.
Inside, he dutifully checks the curtains, and then takes his place by the coffin as Nandor wakes.
“Guillermo?” Nandor calls, voice a little muffled as he opens his coffin from within, “are you there?” When his eyes fall on his waiting familiar, however, something happens to them – Nandor freezes, mouth slightly agape.
“Good evening, Master,” says Guillermo, largely oblivious as he holds out a hand to help his master out of his coffin. “What can I… hey!”
He cuts off as Nandor bats the proffered hand away and grabs him by the front of the shirt, lifting him bodily off the floor with supernatural strength. Before Guillermo has time for more than a startled yelp, he’s been dragged right into the coffin, on top of Nandor – the lid somehow, improbably, managing to slam shut over the both of them. That one, brief yelp remains Guillermo’s only objection – the noise he makes next suggests no objections to anything now happening inside.
After a moment, the coffin itself begins faintly rocking from side to side.
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Retrospective 2022 (2)
See Part 1 of the retrospective and the overall graphic of 2022 here.
2021 had been a bit of a weird year for me (though it did give me the wonderful world of IF), with a lot of change. So I was glad 2022 was bit more... chill (kinda). I've dived so much deeper in IF and learned so freaking much in the past 12 months.
Long post ahead, breaking it here.
2022 Goals
Last year I only had a few goals: publish Scene 2 of CRWL, submit TTTT to the IF Comp, publish the demo of TTATEH and making Tweego my b*tch.
I am happy to say I've completed all these goals... and then some!
CRWL was updated not just once, but 3 times (with the last one including a bunch of re-writes.
I managed to submit TTTT to the IF Comp (for better for worse).
TTATEH's demo was up for Halloween (with 2 full chapters no less!)
Tweego is not a scary thing that I never managed to make work anymore (I even made an asset pack and guide to make it easy for everyone else)
So what's the extra?
I went from having essentially 3 working projects to 9-ish published ones, with the addition of: SPS Iron Hammer, The Thick Table Tavern, La Petite Mort (FR), The Trials and Tribulations of Edward Harcourt, Goncharov Escapes!, P-Rix - Space Trucker (and Le Jeu de la Dévotion - FR). All links are here.
I started getting my hands dirty with JavaScript (I know, the horror) and more customisation with CSS, and working on adding more accessibility in my projects (visual and gameplay wise).
Got more active in the community (here with Interact-IF, and on discord, and on the Forum... oh, as a note support your authors)
I've started sharing my little silly knowledge of Twine, by creating templates, and guides, and tutorials, and sharing resources.
Also organising my first Comp! (@seedcomp-if) with other peeps from the IF Forum. And we did that in 14 days! (kinda want to create more fun jams too now...)
Got into some trends, with one that resulted in the creation of the really bad idea that is @if-confessions.
And probably more that I forgot about...
Even then...
Part of me feels like it's not been enough, like I haven't been enough, like what I put out wasn't good enough. I've been struggling with insecurity and imposter syndrome for a long time, so this is not new, but it's still there, spiking once in a while, when I really don't need it to.
The slow but consistent increase of negative anons in my inbox (bound to happen with more people following/sharing my content) have made some days very hard to deal with (still, it could be much worse... even the hate from the leaks hasn't been too bad). It's hard not to feel emotional when something you are passionate about or something you do is getting egged on for not good reason. And it's not just the content of the messages (most are not even original...), but the amount of them. Honestly, it is infuriating and tiring (thank gosh for blocking...).
It's also a bit hard when there is more negative than positive interactions in my inbox/replies...
Another thing that got me was the little to no progress I've made on both EC or CRWL. I had planned on releasing updates for both this semester, but I've been stuck in front of a blank page for both, or writing and re-writing the same sentence over an over again. Hadn't I distracted myself with other small projects, I would have done the same thing as last year and peaced out for months again...
And then I wrote it all down. I went through all my projects, all the posts I made and put it together that infographic, created and nice timeline... and I realised I was a bit dramatic about feeling like I haven't done enough.
At the end, there were only two months (April and May) which didn't have any publication of games, assets, guides, or update, and that was because CRWL was in re-write/beta. Even if I didn't focus my time on one project throughout the year like I maybe should have, there was on average something out there every month (almost 2x a month by the end).
Yay for unrelenting insecurities!
(also, don't try to do as much as I did, I'm struggling with juggling all these projects, it's not sustainable)
2022 Achievements and Milestones
Not only did I reach last year's goals, I achieved a bunch of other stuff!
I published 6(-ish) new games/demos this year! And updated the other 3! I lost track of the count, but it wouldn't surprise me if I wrote somewhere around 100-200k words this year (maybe even more than 300k considering all I cut/re-wrote)...
I started experimenting with custom visual and macros (and editing other people's macro). Working on TTTT (and the update of EC) taught me so much about design and coding, and going much further with Twine!
With this newfound knowledge, I made my first template!
Got to learn how to use a bunch new Twine macros and tested a handful of different gameplay to incorporate in bigger projects.
Tweego. That's it.
I've seen my follower count essentially doubled this past year on both itch and Tumblr (getting close to 1k!).
All my games reached some sort of play milestone (from thousands to couple of thousands). More on that in the stats post, there's a lot.
I haven gotten more reviews and feedback on my projects than last year (the jams and comps have helped!) and in general more interactions with my posts. It's been so useful to grow as a creator and improve myself in general!
I reached 1st and 3rd place on a competition!
And participating in the IFComp was an achievement in and of itself!
And I'll add it here too: I helped organised a comp in 14 days! A proper one, not a spur of the moment jam, with an actual website and rules and stuff! (Now, I want to organise more!)
Honestly, I wouldn't have imagined at the start of the year how much I would end up doing this year, how much I would learn and grow, how much I would experience through it all. I got to climb that steep learning curve in coding, finding more about my voice in writing, designing some cool stuff, and share my love for the creative medium. Had someone shown me all I did this year back at the start of 2022, I wouldn't have believed them...
I feel very blessed to have been able to work on all these projects throughout the year and have gotten such positive reaction for each of them (and such help, to find wonderful people in this community and calling them my friends, and to interact with very passionate and helpful veterans in the genre and learn so much from them.
This year had some very high highs and quite low lows, but it has also been a very wonderful and fulfilling year overall! It makes me so excited for the new year and see what it has in store... (though I know of a few things already...)
#retrospective#manonamora#2022#year in review#gamesindie#dev#assets#twine#sugarcube#itch#mtp#tttt#ttateh#crwl#sps ih#p-st#goncharov escapes!#lpm#ec
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Hello, i found your blog while i was researching some info on witchcraft and deitywork. I have NO experience in any of this, however i always found interest in learning about gods, myths, cultures of any kind, gems and herbs and other things that seem to relate to these practices, and after randomly coming across posts regarding these topics many times i've decided to look more into it, maybe even starting to take part in these kind of things. I honestly don't know where to start and i can't find much info so, if you could share maybe your experience as a beginner? What made you take this path or how did you start? Any info, experience, tip would be very helpful. If it doesn't bother you, of course
I want to start this off with thank you so much for the question 😁. It is totally normal to feel confused or frustrated when you are just starting out but stick to it! I have no problem sharing my experience as a beginner but my path and yours are going to be totally different so remember to just follow what interests you.
I didn't really consciously decide to take this path if I'm being honest, it kind of just happened. I experienced (like many) some unsavoury experiences in my childhood and never really felt like the religion I grew up with (Christianity) was there to support me. I felt more suffocated than safe. I was around 12 or 13 when I began exploring alternative forms of spirituality but none of that was the witchcraft I practice today, at 22. I began seeing the things that you mentioned, like gems and herbs, in my mid-teens but never really dove into them. I loved history though and learning about how different cultures viewed the concept of God. It was until a few years ago that I really start to solidify my personal opinion on life, death and the universe. This is also when my "formal" witchcraft practice began.
You asked about my experience as a beginner in witchcraft and to tell you the truth, it kinda sucks (I wish there was a better way to say that lol). You feel so excited about all the things you want to learn and yet you feel like there’s no possible way that you can consume it all. It felt just as overwhelming as it did exciting. Not to mention that I dealt (& still deal) with imposter syndrome all the time. I often felt like I would be ridiculed for my beliefs (& I was) so I hid what I was doing from friends and family. It wasn't until I opened up to some friends about what I believed that I really felt like less of a beginner and more of a novice. The idea of being a beginner felt so uneasy to me, like I didn't really know what I was doing or what I wanted. Once I admitted out-loud that I was practicing witchcraft and explained what I believed in, that's when I felt like I was no longer a beginner who needed guidance but a novice who was starting on their journey. That experience gave me the confidence to move forward and affirmed for me that I was doing what was best for me. I'm not saying you should go tell everyone you know what you’re interested in or doing, I just wanted to say that once you have decided what you want, head towards it as best you can. Be confident in your ability to research, trust your intuition and follow your own path wholeheartedly.
Now here are a few tips which helped me when I was starting:
Read about other people's experiences- a good way to find things that interest you is hear about it from others. People recommend things online all the time so if it interests you, look it up.
Utilize free resources- websites like zlibrary and google are free and you can find a lot of the answers you are looking for if you are willing to dedicate the time.
Approach your practice with a "long-term mindset"- if this is something that you want to last in your life then you can't put impossible standards on yourself or try and make yourself an expert overnight. Consistency is key and everything about this takes time. That's why practitioners who have been practicing for 20+ years are valued in this community (but not always right about everything). The acquisition of knowledge isn’t a race.
Be your own cheerleader- no one is going to sit with you and motivate you to research or to practice. No one will be able to tell you what to do or hold your hand (although mentors do exist and are great resources). You need to be able to have confidence in yourself, trust the decisions you make and fistfight the imposter syndrome (because it hits us all eventually).
Let me know if you are interested in a post dedicated to research topics and I can definitely do that for you. Feel free to send me any more questions and I'll do my best to answer them. I hope this was helpful to you and thank you for your support🖤
#witch community#witchcraft#witches#paganism#occult#hellenic pagan#baby witch tips#witch basics#beginner witch#baby witch#book of shadows#witchcraft 101#witchblr#witch tips#witchtok#witch tumblr
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