#next thing to do is rearranging my tags on this blog cause it's a big mess

[sack-thing]

Miasma Streams and Elements

Let's do it again. Editing and completing things said there.

Also thanks @crookedvoidbird for talking about the parasite.

So here's our default map:

In the past, a meteorite crashes into Mount Vellenge (and destroys the giant crystal that was there). The meteor parasite that came along settles there. It starts producing miasma that spread around the world, but also creates some underground rifts; we can imagine it does that by growing very long tentacles or roots. They are aiming for the main elemental sources scattered over the continent.

Even if it's a move from a living organism that aims to survive, the path that the new rifts take isn't purely from its will and is constrained by geology to some extent, so they happen where the earth's crust already shows some weakness or near tectonic plates boundaries.

So the rifts are created, miasma also goes into them and flows around the world. Most of the time this path is underground, but sometimes it goes higher and reaches ground level. This is where we get our miasma streams as shown in the game. They look like rifts too; what we see is a bridge above some kind of void and very strong winds all around.

The miasma that travels through those rifts gets imbued with elements on its way. Eventually it goes back to Mount Vellenge to bring the food —the elements— to the parasite. A secondary path is made after the main water source to allow the cycle to repeat and ensure permanent feeding.

A new rift is created by the parasite, circling Mount Vellenge, leading to a new miasma stream. On their usual cycle, the streams/elements don't merge together, they just swift and let the place to the next element. But if they're stuck together, like they end up doing around Mount Vellenge, the elements are forced to fuse and give birth to the unknown element. The parasite now has a solid barrier to prevent predators from coming too close (like humans who'd want to destroy it by any chance).

(Compared to the initial (black) rift that is located underground, the unknown element (bright yellow) travels on a higher level so they don't meet.)

But geology and randomness are still a thing. Located where three plates meet/diverge in the ocean, a new breach opens to the south, weakened by the miasma stream that runs nearby, unplanned by the parasite. Some miasma goes in there too and ends in a closed circle underground, the same way it does around Mount Vellenge. A new stream of unknown element is made. Some of it finds its way between smaller breaches until reaching Lynari island and rising to the surface there, in the desert. And as we see in game, there's still some enigma to solve there to find it, but that's not the topic.

Voilà. More notes under the cut.

Note 1: this is basically how I imagine the miasma stream to flow when it reaches the land just after the wind source, when it seems to pop up from the ocean.

Note 2: If I really wanted to stay true to the cycle from the game, the earth and fire sources should be swapped. I'll say screw that after all. I already diverge from canon for many things and it would just affect the gameplay/traveling options, which is not exactly my problem.

So the miasma streams' elements change each year like this:

Note 3: If you wonder why I suggest there's a whole continent that isn't seen in game, here's why.

Note 4: I'll never pretend that everything makes sense geologically wise. Also I'm just doing my headcanons with my own logics and subjects affinities, but I'm sure there could be other nice explanations for miasma streams. Just gonna go with that for now. If needed, it has time to evolve before I get to write more post-game stuff :')

As a last bonus, there could be other elemental sources on the continent, it's just not my point of focus. But something like this could also be true and reinforce the cycle (more sources to the north of the continent are possible):

#ffcc headcanons #ffcc #crystal chronicles #spent too much time on that i need to stop #there are many other related topics that could be addressed but later #next thing to do is rearranging my tags on this blog cause it's a big mess

[secularprolifeconspectus]

Hi, I'm also a progressive and this blog was recommended to me by tumblr because I follow the #biology tag. I 100% agree fetuses are humans and deserve the same rights as anyone else. I am pro choice because no one has the right to another person's body. If you are in a situation where someone is dying and needs specifically a transfusion of your blood to survive, you have every right to deny that person your blood and let them die. It would be a cruel and callous thing to do, but you are not obligated to give anyone your blood not matter the circumstances. And that (blood donation) is a procedure that is minimally invasive and highly unlikely to cause major complication. Pregnancy on the other hand is the most invasive you can get; the other person is literally embedded in your body, radically altering its hormonal balance and shifting around organs and imposing major health risks. No one has the right to impose themselves on another person's body like this without consent. If anyone other than a fetus physically intruded into someone else's body in this way and rearranged their organs and took nutrients out of their blood it would be treated as an aggravated assault and battery, possibly grievous bodily harm. Pregnancy is physically harmful, interferes with a pregnant individual's functioning (it's pretty much a temporary disability) and in a way, abortion is self defence against an unwanted physical intrusion and violation of bodily autonomy. If the baby is not viable, then too bad. The other person's right to their own body comes first. If the baby is viable, then once they are born/removed every effort should be made to preserve their life.

Ngl, I was tempted to just delete this because I've already responded to these points multiple times, but because you appear to have put sincere effort into your argument in good faith, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt. In the future, please scroll through my posts to make sure I haven't already posted a rebuttal. This once I'll save you time and dig up the links for you.

So, this is a mix of the autonomy (consent) argument, the refuse (donation) argument, and the self-defense (parasite) argument.

You start off making the McFall v. Shimp case against forced bodily donations: a classic argument of the Right to Refuse. Every living born person has been the beneficiary of a pregnancy; comparatively, almost no one has been the beneficiary of an organ donation, so these situations are actually not that comparable. BUT, let's pretend they are. Here's the relevant excerpts to that:

You have no obligation to extraordinarily sacrifice to keep someone from dying and may refuse to do so. In most cases of elective abortion, a preborn person is not already dying. They are in their proper environment where they belong at that stage of life, and they are healthy. It is completely ordinary to at one point in your life have your body sustained by a pregnant person; more people are at one point sustained by a pregnant person than are ever pregnant with a person.

Per the standard form of this strategy, you then make the case for self-defense by pathologizing pregnancy; a cliché misogynist tactic. Excerpts:

Pregnancy is no extraordinary sacrifice; it isn’t a regular sacrifice, and it’s a big deal. Yet that pregnant bodies take care of prenates is ordinary and healthy. Pregnancy is not disease. Disease may happen within pregnancy and is treatable. Pregnancy is not the regular state of the body, but to assert pregnancy is extraordinary is to imply a non-pregnant body is ordinary, and thereby normative. I reject the normatization of the non-pregnant body, for it implies that the male body is always normal and ideal as the rule, while the female body is not.

Next, you argue that the fetus doesn't have consent, which is pretty irrelevant considering that consent is not applicable to the relation between a parent and their dependent offspring. Pregnancy is an aconsensual, fiduciary relationship. BUT, for the sake of this (absurd) autonomy argument, I'll grant that the preborn child lacks consent. Excerpts:

It is a normal function and ordinary outcome of intercourse to become pregnant, and even contraceptives used regularly and functioning normally will foreseeably fail to prevent pregnancy on occasion.

When you gamble, you accept the risk that you may lose money as a foreseeable consequence. When you gamble with sex, you accept the risk that you may gain a child as a foreseeable consequence. You can only revoke consent to actions, not foreseeable consequences. You may not violently sacrifice a helpless person to “mitigate” risk or harm.

You also claim that fetuses are aggressors with some culpability for the changes the body naturally undergoes in pregnancy. This dips into the parasite argument as it implies that the parent-offspring relation is parasitic, and it weirdly adultifies literal babies. Excerpts:

Self-defense justifies violent force proportionate to a threat or violation, but this assumes an aggressor. A preborn person has not deliberately forced themself upon their parent’s body as an assailant. To suffocate, poison, or dismember a person forced into a vulnerable circumstance is excessive force and abuse of power, upon the same principle as police brutality.

A prenate has no volition & also isn’t an agent in pregnancy. A baby shouldn’t be held to adult standards. A baby’s existence is passive, not an aggression, and not a threat. On a gut level we know it’s cruel injustice to deliberately harm a helpless child, so we must construe either “child”, “helpless”, or “harm” as false to justify abortion.

Lastly, you describe pregnancy as an unwanted intrusion, which isn't reflective of the reality of why people seek abortions; people get abortions because they want no relationship to a living child. BUT, let's say hypothetically, someone did simply not want to be pregnant. Excerpts:

Another implication of these posits is that the prenate is invasive. This is predicated upon that the location of a human (in this case, the womb — where else does a prenate belong?) has an impact on their moral status, meanwhile dismissing place of origin and safe shelter. The argument is that something about being a fetus justifies her extermination; that autonomy takes precedence over dependence is just pretense.

Not to mention, you must reckon with the reality of elective third-trimester abortion, in which a fetus is viable yet deliberately killed via exsanguination, lethal injection, or dismemberment. You should see the victims of the discriminatory violence your ideology condones. I'll leave you with this:

Preborn humans are powerless people. Elective abortion is abuse of power. Abortion is a human rights violation.

#boring #hide #answers and submissions

[collegetennisoriginstory]

monthly (ish) progress update CT:OS

Hi everyone! I’ve been pretty quiet on tumblr the past few days, but active on the coding/writing side of things :) Just wanted to give a short update on how things are going :) 

(As a rough gauge, I edited almost 50k words, and wrote + coded another 25k. P.S. My editing process is super important - ‘cause it’s where I do really major rearrangements/re-writes + add ideas + polish + brainstorm the next few scenes - basically, CT:OS would be so very, very different if I stopped at my vomit draft (yes, this is what I call my first draft). So it’s not just me wasting time, I promise!) 

Writing/Coding/Editing

Day 1 of freshman orientation (Sat) 

Meet D (and G) in the morning (Edited) - choose your fave beverage 

Meet your hallmates/orientation group (Edited, rearranged some scenes) - play a short icebreaker game, choose your major

Amazing race (Edited) - achievement up for grabs

Go ‘waterfalling’ (Edited) - added a short alternative scene 

Day 2 of freshman orientation (Sun)

Morning of the activities fair (Started editing) - options to hang out with hallmates at the fair, or alternatively, with Rayyan or Tobin

Laser tag (Written - raw draft) - tested + brainstormed some edits/improvements to the gameplay; achievement up for grabs

First day of classes (Mon)

First class (Written - raw draft) - tested + brainstormed some edits/improvements 

Training session- short scene (Written - raw draft) 

Rest of the week (Tue-Thur)

Short class scenes (Planned - skeleton) 

Friendly doubles match on Thu (Planned - all choices and scenes charted out, to code and write text) - long tennis gameplay scene, plus some Tobin interaction (finally!) 

Poll/Beta-testing/Asks

Poll

Conclusion: Y’all are frikkin hilarious. AND so very, very kind. Thank you for the awesome responses, I read every single one in detail (sometimes multiple times), and they all made me grin. 

Also, it’s hilarious how many people are into Valentina/woman at the chinese restaurant (she doesn’t even have a name yet! oops.)

Finally, yes, I have created dedicated blogs for CT:OS and Merry Crisis (for the purists in the poll!) 

Beta-testing

BIG BIG thank you to everyone who’s left their contact information, and details about your background and interests, or even suggestions for some of the routes! They were an absolute delight to read, and I am so excited for the next chapter of CT:OS. Can’t wait to bring you guys on board! 

Unfortunately, because I hope to get out the next chapter of CT:OS, so I can send it over to you guys to test, I’ve been prioritising writing before contacting everyone who’s reached out. 

I will be reading everyone’s applications again, organising/sorting them by routes/interest, and reaching out to those I have contact info for. If you indicated interest, but didn’t type in your email address, do note that the poll did not display/collect your email address (as I wanted it to be fully anonymous), so you’ll either need to drop me a DM or ask with your tumblr handle/email. But you can also wait for my official post in the next month or so. 

Asks

SORRY for being really bad at answering asks the past week/weeks, I’ve been concentrating on writing, planning, coding and editing. 

I’ll be heading off for a long holiday in <1 week, so things have also been super busy for me at my day (real) job + trip planning + trying to write as much as I can at night. So: If I don’t get the update out to beta-testers in a week, before I go hiking (most likely), it looks like an update in End July or Aug seems probable. 

Thank you to everyone who’s played CT:OS :) Sending you all much love, and hope you have an awesome summer!! 

#CT:OS #college tennis: origin story #IF #interactive fiction #progress update #author

[wolfpawn]

I Hate You, I Love You, Chapter 139

Chapter Summary - Danielle goes to New York on a business trip and when she gets home, plays hostess.

Previous Chapter

Rating - Mature (some chapters contain smut)

Triggers - references to Tom Hiddleston’s work with the #MeToo Movement. That chapter will be tagged accordingly.

authors Note - I have been working on this for the last 3 years, it is currently 180+ chapters long.  This will be updated daily, so long as I can get time to do so, obviously.

Copyright for the photo is the owners, not mine. All image rights belong to their owners

tags: @sweetkingdomstarlight-blog @jessibelle-nerdy-mum @nonsensicalobsessions @damalseer @hiddlesbitch1 @winterisakiller @fairlightswiftly @salempoe @wolfsmom1@black-ninja-blade

Danielle sighed as the pilot declared they had finally made it back to London. There was an issue in New York that meant her flight was cancelled, which in the grand scheme of things was not too problematic, she was, of course, her own boss, but it did mean she had to rearrange a few things around that she had planned for the next day, and the dinner she had planned to have with Tom that night with perhaps some fun, was cancelled, but overall, it was fine, she just wanted to be home.

The few days in New York were tedious and boring. It was mostly regarding the business side of Safeguard, taxes, profits, the usual boring work, but there was also a few arguments regarding blame for the few incidences that had occurred in the work year. When the finger-pointing of said blame began, Danielle sat back and read the entirety of the documentation for her office, since none of the lawsuits were directly against her office, so the finger-pointing parties would be brave to even suggest she had a part in any of them. She read the costs of the business and noted that they needed to streamline a few issues regarding costs in the office. While the men bickered, she wrote a few suggestions on a post-it and placed it in her file. When it was suggested she move herself to the US as she was the only one without a blot in her worksheet, she scoffed and told them it was London or nothing. She would happily walk away from the job that day were they to cut the London office or insist she leave it, reminding them that she was not even a year with the company and they had not had the productions to match anything the US offices had faced, so she would not be likely to have had the issues they had had, but with their name growing in Europe also, it was only a matter of time that their business would pick up larger projects and be prone to the same issues as the US offices had. Offers of better packages and deals did nothing to sway her, she was adamant, she wanted London, it was her home, that is where she had built her life and nothing would sway that. The most she would do would be to move out of the city, but her home was with Tom in Britain with their dogs, friends and family.

She was spotted a few times in New York, a few people took photos and even a girl came up to her and asked her to tell Tom that he had inspired the girl to follow her dream and that she had been accepted to some acting school and to thank him for being an inspiration. Danielle smiled and said she would before messaging Tom to tell him. Overall, the trip was boring. New York was interesting, or she assumed it was. She saw very little in her time there due to her busy time dealing with all things Safeguard related. There were also events planned in the evenings in different restaurants which most often ended up in clubs, the latter part of which, Danielle avoided. She was not interested in such things and the last thing she wanted to do was be seen acting mad without Tom there. Even a simple stumble would be construed as being shitfaced drunk and she did not want that. Never did she think that she would have to consider such things, but Danielle found herself actively considering such and as she skyped Tom or messaged him from her hotel room and watched the terrible photos go up on Facebook pages of those she worked with, she did not regret her decision. Tom urged her to go the first night, but when he saw she wanted to stay in, he said nothing more, instead telling her what happened in her absence.

She walked through the arrivals lounge, getting her bag and walking through the airport terminal and into the drop off area. She had it planned and was just waiting to see if the timing worked well, sure enough, not five minutes later, she saw her car coming towards her, chuckling to herself at Tom smiling at her from the driver’s seat. She walked to the door to the back seat and placed her suitcase and rushed to her own door, seeing the line of traffic that was coming behind them.

Tom, seeing the same dilemma barely waiting to hear the click of her seatbelt before driving off. ‘Hello.’ He grinned almost coyly.

‘Hi, what are you driving my car?’ She smiled.

‘The dogs and I went for a spin today and your car was closest to the gate.’

‘You did that ridiculous thing where you cannot get your car out with my car in the way, haven’t you?’ Tom said nothing but looked sheepishly at the road, causing her to laugh. ‘How are you?’

‘I’m fine, I missed you, but fine. What about you, you seemed annoyed yesterday?’

‘I was forced to be away a night more than I wanted, of course I was. I just...New York is not somewhere I would go too often. I went to Central Park, which was beautiful, but…..I wanted to be home.’

‘So no move the “Big Apple” for you?’ Tom asked.

‘Not in a million years.’ She shook her head. ‘They wanted me to move over, did I tell you that?’ She turned to look at him, seeing the shock on his face. ‘I told them I would walk before I would ever consider it. This is home, I am not leaving.’

‘What did they say?’

‘What could they say? They only want me over there because of the whole no lawsuits here thus far.’

‘So they want to drag you down in your stats?’ Tom’s jaw clenched. After the comments Lucas made regarding her using Tom as a stepping stone the time he offered her a part of the business, he was not too fond of the Australian, when all of the errors by the US offices were forced onto her desk causing her to have to work double shifts, he became more unlikely to become a fan of her fellow partners. He hoped when the time came to consider her options after the five-year contract, she would consider more options than staying with Safeguard if such became more commonplace.

‘No, I think they are just hoping to spread the madness in general but I am not interested. I want to be here, with you, our dogs and all this...okay, I would like a little less rain.’

Tom chuckled before taking her hand in his and kissing her knuckles. ‘Even with the rain?’

‘There is no question for me, this is home.’

Tom smiled as she recited the words that he had said the time people were urging him to go to LA to have more of a chance with his acting career. ‘Even if it is not Ireland?’

‘I miss Ireland, I miss a lot about it, but I built my life here.’

Tom bit the inside of his cheeks at her declaration, she saw her life with him. The offer of more at work paled in comparison to what she had with him. He heard her trying to stifle a yawn beside him. ‘Did you not sleep well last night?’

‘I didn’t sleep at all, and then there was this woman on the plane, in the seat in front of me, God Tom, she was like a banshee.’

‘A what?’

‘A banshee, a sort of Irish fairy, renowned for its high pitched wails and shrieking.’

‘So no sleep there either?’

‘None.’

‘I need to ask, about tonight?’

‘Yes?’

Tom glanced at her for a moment, seeing her confusion. ‘You forget what we planned?’

Danielle thought for a moment before groaning. ‘Shite, I forgot.’

‘I will send them a text.’

‘What, no. We had this planned with ages.’

‘You’re too tired though.’

‘Doesn’t matter, I will go home, get an hour and go get ready.’

‘Elle…’ Tom interrupted. ‘Ben and Sophie won’t mind.’

‘I was supposed to be home yesterday.’ Danielle groaned. ‘I want this.’ Tom glanced at her for another moment as they wanted to join the flow of traffic. ‘I want to do this.’

‘I don’t want you to feel pressured.’

‘How tidy is the house?’

‘Good, I mean, I didn’t wash behind the couch, but…’

‘Right, stop at Waitrose on the way back, or the Co-op and we’ll grab what’s needed. I’ll jimmy the food a little so it won’t take us too long to do and we’ll be sorted.’

‘So dominant, aren’t you?’ Tom smiled.

‘You love it.’ She grinned in return.

*

‘Right, that’s everything.’ Elle smiled, putting her arms around Tom. ‘Thank you for all your help.’

Tom turned and enveloped her in his arms. ‘Any time Darling, the doing of jobs to entertain our friends is not a burden for you alone.’ He leant down and kissed her. ‘I have missed you.’

‘It’s only been a week.’

‘A long and terrible week.’

‘So what day are you heading to promote Infinity War?’

‘Too soon.’

‘Are we going to your mums for your birthday?’

‘Not this year.’ Danielle looked at him. ‘I am needed here the morning after.’

‘But she’s coming here, right?’

‘I was going to talk to you about that.’

‘What “talk about” she is your mother, of course, she has to come here.’

‘Dad wants to be part of things too.’

‘Oh.’

‘Exactly.’

‘They are adults, they know how to behave.’

‘You don’t mind?’

‘Why would I mind? Tom, they are your family. Speaking of family, guess who is coming to London?’

‘Your aunt that is less than pleasant?’

‘Close. Siobhán.’

‘Yeah?’

‘She and the poor fecker she is going out with are coming over for a few days. I said I would be available to spend time with her. If you are available, we should bring them for dinner.’

‘I think that’s a wonderful idea. Where are they staying?’

‘I got them a good deal in Premier Inn in Archway.’

‘Close enough to town.’

‘Exactly, and a healthy distance from here. Family are great but under your roof, not always. I will meet them in King’s Cross and show them where to go and see what days they want to do what and let you know.’

‘Sounds like a plan.’ He pulled her to him. ‘You’re exhausted.’

‘Is that your way of telling me I look like crap?’

‘No, I did not say “you look exhausted”, I am saying you are exhausted, I can see you are tired, but you don’t look half bad for someone as tired as you are.’

Danielle laughed as he grinned at her cheekily. ‘Hey.’ He chuckled. ‘I am tired, I won’t lie, but I want to do this. We don’t get to see Ben and Sophie as we would like. Speaking of which, I need to put the roast veggies into the oven.’

‘Good….’ Tom paused as Mac and Bobby barked, informing them that their guests had arrived. ‘I get that, you do this.’ He kissed her for a moment before walking out of the room.

Danielle did as she had planned. When she turned around again, she smiled warmly. ‘Well, hello strangers.’

Sophie hugged her tight. ‘You survived the madness of a premiere.’

‘Barely. It is so hard.’

‘So no Infinity War for you?’

‘I have not even considered it, we’ll see. How is work?’

‘Overwhelming, what time did you get back yesterday?’

‘I am home with about, six hours, I think. And I did that thing where I went for a sleep and woke more tired than I went to sleep.’

‘I hate that, you should have called and cancelled.’ Ben leant down and kissed her cheek. ‘Hello.’

‘Hi.’ Danielle smiled back. ‘Tom offered, but I wanted to see you both, we both did.’

‘Well, we are amazing.’ Ben chuckled.

‘Drinks?’

‘You know me so well.’ Ben beamed as he clapped Tom’s shoulder, the two men going to get something to drink.

Danielle rolled her eyes before getting two wine glasses and the white wine she knew Sophie liked. ‘So, how are my favourite boys?’

‘So bloody adorable, I need to show you a picture of them in a minute, but for now, you need to talk to me about how you felt at the premiere.’

‘Are you asking or is Tom asking through you?’

‘I am asking. Tom doesn’t need me to ask for him.’

‘Well, he has used Ben-ogram and Sophie-ograph before. It was fine, I just...the shouting was so loud.’

‘It can be overwhelming.’ Sophie nodded. ‘How were the fans?’

‘Great, good, I cannot fault them. If any of the nasty ones said anything, I didn’t hear it. All the ones that spoke to Tom were apparently complementary and one or two papers covered it and yeah, there were a few comparisons to any woman he stood next to for more than six seconds and indeed Swift, but overall, it was fine. The weird thing is, the Irish Independent, a paper from home, obviously, went into more detail than most about me, talking about my career and whatnot, so that felt a little odd.’

‘I know, they will get what they want, then they tend to leave you alone. But of course, that means….’

‘They’ve already snooped around and made you uncomfortable?’ Danielle finished.

‘Yes, it’s not nice, but we signed up for this, both of us.’ Sophie stated factually. ‘We knew about who Ben and Tom were, about their fans and how we would be treated. We should not have to deal with this, but we knew about it being a factor.’

Danielle nodded. The day she realised there was a chance that Tom felt as she did, she was forced to think about such things, and as their relationship progressed, after everything with their fight over the GQ article, she knew she had to work through certain things she was worried about at the time. It was true, they should not have to deal with it, but they had little choice. They could hardly ask Ben and Tom to change from the careers they loved because they had come along and did not want to deal with what they knew were their lives. ‘No, I could never do that to him, the same as I would never expect him to do it to me.’

‘If he does, don’t hide the body too well, it’s not fair on his family.’ Sophie joked.

#i hate you i love you #chapter 139 #tom hiddleston #tom hiddleston fic #wolfpawn

[duhragonball]

If you’re like me--and I know I am--you’ve seen about a trillion posts on your dash about how to shut off the “best stuff first” option on the Tumblr mobile app.   This is almost always accompanied by histrionics about how the “Best Stuff First” feature is causing everyone’s tumblr activity to decline as their blogs are arbitrarily dumped at the bottom of everyone’s dashboards.  If we don’t all turn off “Best Stuff First” and reblog the instructions to ~~BOOST THE SIGNAL(tm)~~, then all the cool blogs will shrivel up and die, and Tumblr as we know it will (gasp) end.  

I’ve been skeptical of this, because Tumblr’s app has been a piece of crap from Day One, so I have a hard time believing everyone uses the app to view their dashboard.   At the same time, I’ve noticed that my own activity is all screwy whenever I check it on the app, and when I scroll down all the notifications get rearranged and it’s hard to tell what’s going on.   I think that’s been the problem, and Best Stuff First just happened to come along at the same time.  It looks like Tumblr’s staff is finally doing something about this, as evidenced by the screencap above.  It’s about time those dorks tightened up their belts and did some real work.    Or the ties they wear instead of belts, whatever.  

For my own part, I’ve not really noticed any big drop in activity, but my blog’s been on a slow decline all year.   I used to score about forty new followers a month, and now I guess I’m getting seven.   But the notes seem reasonably consistent, I think.   

This doesn’t particularly bother me much, since I never quite understood why I was getting a crapton of followers in the first place.    Every time I get one, I kind of want to ask that new follower “Listen, are you sure?”  Like this is a really intense roller coaster, and you may be tall enough but let’s think this through before we do anything hasty. 

Still I do like to think about the numbers.    My worst fear is that this blog is a bellwether for the entire site, and the interest in Duhragonball has remained steady, but there’s fewer people using tumblr who would run across it.  I say this because that’s kind of how I realized Livejournal was dying, and I really hate the idea of having to pick up and move to some other service.   I’m counting on Tie Belt Guy to make this place last.  I’m getting too old for this.

More likely, I’ve spent the last year spamming this place up with JoJo content, my crappy fanfiction, and any good stuff I find in the #seras victoria tag (not much).  The blog changed, and its activity changed to reflect that.    I’m comfortable with this, because the audience I have reflects a genuine interest in the blog I’m trying to curate.   Like, I know somebody out there would really love it if I wrote a Goku x Caulifla story, but I hate that idea and I refuse to do it, so there’s no sense worrying about pleasing that person.  There’s a million people who would rather see a million things I don’t plan on doing, so I’m not going to stress about it.  

Still, what I like about this activity glitch is that it throws all the numbers out the window.   For all we know, Tie Belt Guy fixes this next week, and my numbers will skyrocket.  Maybe I was getting 4000 notes a month instead of 1500.   Wouldn’t that be neat?   Or maybe instead of 1758 followers, I wake up tomorrow and it turns out I had 1785?   If that turns out to be the case, I just want to say I appreciate everyone who tunes into this mess, whether you’re on the big board or not. 

Anyway, if you’re sweating this “Best Stuff First” thing, maybe you shouldn’t.   People will either turn it off or not, and Tumblr will either fix the activity or not.  I tend to believe that quality content gets noticed no matter what Tumblr tries to program into their algorithms.    I think what bothers people is that they’re worried that their content won’t be deemed “best” by whatever computer is in charge of deciding these things, but that’s a defeatist attitude.   Forget the computer, and just focus on being the best you can be, regardless of who can see you doing it.

#should i tag this? #i dunno

[saorbrid-blog]

Every Wednesday I share a review of a book. The book is chosen for me weekly and I cannot refuse the book, I have to read it and I have to review it. And I love doing it. A couple of weeks ago I was handed Marie Kondo’s ‘The Life Changing Magic of Tidying’. Considering it is, in its own way, a self-help book, it was an interesting one to review. Where normally I’d discuss themes, characters, writing styles and my personal feelings towards a book, this time I was a little stuck as there was nothing I was given to observe, analyse or discuss besides Marie Kondo’s actual method of tidying, so why not? I reviewed the book and the review can be found here, this post is my experience with the KonMari Method.

Prior to reading her book, I checked out goodreads to see what others had been saying about the book and I found some of the reviews hilarious – I too was slightly disturbed at the thoughts of my socks having self-esteem issues because I ball them up! As I began reading her book I felt a sense of anger towards Marie Kondo – her writing style was so persuasive. She was convinced her method was a gift from above and her confidence and assurance really bothered me initially, there’s something about self-assured people which just really gets to me. (I’m not jealous..)

Anyhoo, I began to find myself nodding in agreement to the parts where she discussed the different types of hoarders and how, even though you could spend an entire day cleaning and rearranging, the room/house will still end up messy within a week – for as long as I can remember I would spend hours or days working hard on perfecting my bedroom. Growing up we moved quite a bit, so I’ve tried perfecting at least 6 bedrooms of different shapes and sizes, but within a week my floor would be buried under a pile of clothing, shoes and books. Whether it was a box room (like the one I’m in now) or the huge one with the 7 wardrobes (I miss that room), I always found a way to make my bedroom look like the aftermath of a tornado.

Under my bed, before the gutting began.

Before beginning the transformation, Kondo recommends you imagine your ideal lifestyle (there’s a higher chance you’ll rebound if you don’t, apparently), once you’ve visualised that ask yourself why you want to live that kind of lifestyle and when you figure that one out ask yourself why a couple of more times.. “Before you start tidying, look at the lifestyle you aspire to and ask yourself: ‘Why do I want to tidy?’” So that’s exactly what I did. What kind of lifestyle did I want? A positive, relaxing and feminine one. Why? I want to meditate in a peaceful surrounding, somewhere I can light candles and read a book or listen to music and draw, somewhere I can blog and study and research, somewhere I can access my clothes/make up/jewellery without searching through bags and baskets and boxes. Why? To have my own space. Something just for me, a haven. Why? I’m independent and enjoy my own company, my mind tends to race

Clothes EVERYWHERE (never mind what was stowed away in the hot-press and attic)

quite a lot and as many of you who read this post will know, I can’t always control the ups and downs of my life, and really I need somewhere where I know I can wind down undisturbed, but also somewhere that can bring me joy – Then I looked around at the 3 metre x 3 metre room cluttered with everything from shoes older than my siblings to books older than my parents, as well as bags upon bags of clothes – with a decent amount still unworn and with their tags.

    Basically, the KonMari method summed up is this: If it doesn’t make you happy, throw it out. Treat everything as an individual. Feel your clothing, feel your books, and unless it “sparks joy” and you firmly believe it will be used again in the future, discard it. Don’t just dump it though, you must thank it for serving its purpose in your life. I thought I’d feel ridiculous as I did this, but I knew much of what I got rid of would be going to charity so I thanked my old possessions for serving their purpose in my life and wished them luck in fulfilling another purpose in someone else’s life. I’ve read some fairly harsh opinions regarding the method but when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Keep what makes you happy! By donating the rest you’re sure they will bring joy to someone else.

The KonMari Method begins with the visualisation, then categorising your belongings (sort by category, not location!). Belongings should be categorised and then sub-categorised if needed. The categories are as follows: Clothes, Books, Papers, Miscellaneous items and Sentimental items. Begin to clean by category, clothes first. My bedroom was littered with everything everywhere, I had clothes in bags, boxes, drawers, under my bed, stuffed under things and it was much the same for every other category, nothing really had its own designated area.

Things were left in the most random places.

  I spent 4 hours powering through my all my belongings, putting any miscellaneous items I found in one bag to sort out later, same with any sentimental items, electricals, make up, etc. I was really surprised at how much I’d gotten despite the lack of music playing, which I would normally play loud enough for the neighbours to hear as I tidied my room but KonMari says no. Focus. By half 10 I was lightly banging my head against the wall as I sat under a pile of clothes, books and bags of rubbish, at 11:05 I managed to clear a path from my door to my bed – I wasn’t getting this done in one go.

    I was working the day after I began to tidy, so I didn’t get the chance to continue it until half 6 that evening. Luckily, I got to start off with the papers which pretty much all went into the bag for rubbish. By this time, I had accumulated 2 large bags of bin-worthy rubbish and 3 bags of clothing donations. Next came the misc. items – Komono, as they are referred to – miscellaneous items are anything from CDs, DVDs, passports, stationary, to buttons, cables and make up. The exact range is as follows: This was the category I enjoyed the most, I had soooo many little knick knacks all over my room, some I kept out of guilt, some because I am a hoarder. A horrible, dirty hoarder. They all pretty much went bye-bye anyways. Sentimental items came next – this wasn’t so enjoyable. I won’t lie, a lot of the belongings I had in this category I kept. I can be quite a big softy at times and ended up spending over an hour just going through old photos, letters, notes and gifts and reminiscing. Swear I didn’t cry over how tiny my little brothers and little sister used to be! Though I kept most of what was in the ‘sentimental’ category, I organised them well in a photo album which I can now proudly display!

Finally, I got the chance to store my belongings (discard first, store later). I couldn’t get over how easily I found places for what I had left, now everything I own has its own home in my bedroom and, with exception from a few books, they’re all visible.

‘Appearance’ Area

 My clothes, make up and jewellery are all stored within reach of each other – my ‘appearance’ area. My shoes are all together, my blog folders, iPad, laptop and printer are altogether at my desk – my ‘blog’ area.

blogging/shoe area

  My books are stored under my bed in two drawers, one for study books (psychology, Italian and self-help books) and one for my Spirit & Destiny magazines, stationary and some novels. Sentimental items are stored on my top shelf, a few more books I’d use more often on the second and candles and cutesy decorative things on the bottom shelf. That’s it – that’s my bedroom.

  Before & After

Before, I had clothes balled up on top of each other and about 5 items per hanger, I tried to designate drawers for sub-categories but I never stuck to them until now. Now I have one item of clothing per hanger, separate drawers for underwear, socks, pyjamas, tops and bottoms – and they all fit! Did you know you’re folding your clothes wrong? Yeah, Marie Kondo explains a really good theory as to why we stack them on top of each other when really, we should be stacking them beside each other vertically. It really is way easier to access them. Also, rid yourself of trackies. Loungewear is now considered taboo. Oh right.

Socks also have a specific way to be folded. Do you ball yours up? I did, I always have. Even when I had odd socks, I’d ball them all up together until I found their missing partner. Of course that’s the wrong way to do it though, to store your socks you should put them lying flat on top of each other and roll them from the top towards the toe, storing them upright to leave you with a little swirl (like a cinnamon bun!). Balling up your socks causes the elastic in them to stretch which is why sometimes they roll down. Kondo noted in her book how she longs to tell students she sees with their limpy socks how they should be storing them, so for everyone’s sake just roll them up instead of potato-balling them. By the way, was I the only person who stored my socks and undies together? ‘Cause now I have a separate drawer for my socks and tights and I feel really pretentious but I love it. Tell me I wasn’t the only one who stored them together.. and if there are people out there storing them together – stop. Trust me. Being able to say ‘my sock drawer’ makes you really cool.

How To: Store your socks!

step 2

step 3

cinnamon swirl!

It has been over a month now since I cleared out my room and I’m absolutely delighted to say it’s still just as clean as it was the day I completed it, vacuumed and all. The first thing my Mam noted about it was how bare it was – which is exactly how I wanted it, I just wasn’t fully aware of it. The brightness in my room now is unbelievable, it’s unfortunate positioning left it with a lack of natural lightning but with the light-coloured furniture and bare walls I can make the most of the daylight. Since I was a teenager I had a need to fill up my bedroom walls with posters, quotes, concert tickets, pictures of friends and family and so on, I carried this need with my in this bedroom, behind my bed are some of my favourite photographs hanging up pinterest style, and facing across from where I sleep in my bed was a wall filled with tickets, signs, and political declarations. I still have my photographs up but in time I could replace them with the kinds of pictures which belong on a vision board (therefore this will be my vision wall, always gotta get one up on everyone else..). My opposing wall is completely empty however, bar two decorative quote thingies my Step-Dad picked up for me when I wasn’t feeling the best. I think this wall was the biggest change in my room, it has a calm influence on my bedroom now.

In total, I filled 5 45-litre bags for donating to a local charity and 3 45-litre bags of rubbish. I won’t deny the touch of separation anxiety I felt in the days following the clear out, wondering if I’d been too strict with what I discarded or not but if I genuinely miss an item that much I’ll just go source another one. Thankfully there’s nothing I’m missing, and a couple of days ago I filled a plastic bag with some more donations of bits and bobs that I was unsure of whether I was ready to let go of yet or not.

      I wasn’t lying about the bags 🙂

A part of me still feels like it isn’t going to last, it is genuinely the perfect room for me and I’m fully in love with it, every time I use something I put it back where it belongs and I may or may not have taken to thanking my shoes after a day of wearing them..

Testimonies included in the book state how the tidying has improved people’s lives, I have felt a lot calmer recently and have been more productive with things that I pushed to the bottom of my to-do list – such as fixing up my poor car which has been sitting out the back untouched for over a year! Hopefully not much longer until she’ll be road-worthy again! (Would this be something you’d be interested in following along with? Let me know!) I made jokes in my review about  OCD, but I genuinely recommend this method to everyone. Most of her steps are listed on pinterest, if you just search “KonMari” you’ll find all you need. From my experience, if I had to describe the KonMari Method in one word, it would be ‘relief’. I have a brand new bedroom, the one I have always wanted with a unique space for blogging, a beautiful candle display across from my bed, a proper home for my shoes and a perfect blend of happy yet calming colours. Pity I’m planning on moving into my own place in the near-ish future, but at least then I can apply the method to my own home, having it on point from day one!

So I decided to apply the 'Kon Mari' method to my bedroom... Every Wednesday I share a review of a book. The book is chosen for me weekly and I cannot refuse the book, I have to read it and I have to review it.

#featured #Kon Mari