#always destroying the quality of gifs and videos

[thatspookyagent]

Hi I was hoping you can do an enemies to lovers headcanon between thor/reader and how that go.

Being enemies to lovers with Thor (GN!Reader) would include...

Warnings: Mentions of eating, drinking, and intoxication, Heimdall & Odin cameos lol

a/n: Hi! Thanks for being my very first video game headcanons request! I haven't gotten and answered a request in awhile and it feels good to do them again! Hope you don't mind the reader being gender neutral. And as always my readers are diverse friendly even with no specified details about the reader (which is how it should be)! Hope you enjoy! :))

If you want to be tagged in any of my content, don’t be afraid to tell me via my ask box or through messages! Just remember to be clear about what specific kinds of content, characters, and fandoms you want me to tag you in or if you want to be put on my general tag list! I’m always looking to add more people and I’d be more than happy to add you (if you wish)! :3

Being an enemy of Thor is a... precarious position to be in lmao

Even if it isn’t full blown “you owe me a blood payment” kind of enemy to him

I feel like the major turn point in how you both become Thor’s lover but also how your perceptions of one another change, is how you view the everyday things that he has to deal with and how it drives him to self destruction

You didn’t care that he was a God and wouldn’t have long term issues from drinking so much, you cared about the hurt it put him through and root of the problem

Because of that he began to see the many layers that make up your own life, your character, and how you deal (or don’t deal) with things

Basically you and him become positive influences for one another and confidants to each other’s issues

Expect a LOT of bickering between the two of you like even after the two of you become lovers, it’s still a main part of your relationship honestly

Though the kind of bickering changes after you and him become official

Beforehand it could be pretty backhanded and snippy, like you were just quipping back and forth cause there was some resemblance of bad blood between you and Thor

When you and Thor become official the bickering evolves into older married couple type bickering

Overall it’s pretty light hearted and in good fun

There isn’t a layer of venom behind each word anymore but instead softness and kindness

At times Thor will playfully scold you whenever you’re not careful or just plain naive lol

When you were enemies with him, his pet name for you was basically bone head

Now it’s bone head (affectionate) :”

With the changes in tone comes changes in behavior as well

Like whenever Thor needs to jump from place to place with his godly might, he’ll give you a heads up, and cradle you carefully in his arms while he makes his leaps

Before he used to just grab you and fly through the air like the menace the is

Other things that have changed is that he will continuously invite you to have drinks with him and eat amongst the Einherjar

He hangs out with them from time to time and could use someone to keep him company

Will absolutely share his food and drink with you and if you wish, he’ll go to a more private place in order to spend quality time with you as well

When y’all were enemies, if you walked in to spend some time at the hall, he wouldn’t even so much as glance at you

And if he was drunk around you, he was a total ass, not just because he was white girl wasted but because he also really didn’t like you

Now, if he’s drunk around you, he’s still a bit mean, or mainly unresponsive

Though if the two of you are both drunk together, than that’s not a good thing for anybody lmao

Imagine being drunk with Thor and going up to the Asgardian wall where Heimdall is and just absolutely verbally destroying that man

[Heimdall will remember that]

If the two of you find yourselves within or going to a realm with a cold climate, he will put his heavy fur cloak on you to keep you warm

Won’t ask for it back once y’all leave the cold realm, you can keep it, he can always get another <3

If you asked him for his fur cloak while you two were still enemies, he’d just straight up ignore you or go “no.” </3

Another perk of being lovers with Thor is that you now have unlocked being able to snuggle with him

Yes he is as warm and fuzzy as he looks, a true bear in that sense of the word

Prefers to be the big spoon but will not grumble if you asked to be the big spoon

Gives the best back rubs for some reason ??? maybe it’s because his hands are the size of mallets and though they’re calloused, they just feel good!

Also Thor gives me bathing for hours mindlessly with his partner enjoyer type of vibe so expect that as well

And yes the two of you do take turns washing and doing each other hair <3

Or just relax with you for hours in silence if that's what you'd prefer that

Will let you pet Mjolnir as much as you like and even attempt to pick it up

He’ll even pick up Mjolnir himself while you’re holding it and lift you up into the air just to mimic what it would be like to wield it

Thor is down to let you braid his hair or beard if you wish

Usually he doesn’t have the time to care about his appearance that much and doesn’t care to call attention to his looks but if braiding his hair makes you happy, it will not deny you the opportunity to do so

He does minimal braiding on his own beard and would secretly like to have something elaborate or longer

Will totally get more tattoos if you recommend some to him or would like to see Thor with some more in certain places

You’ve always admired his tattoos and now that you’re lovers with him, you get to inspect them up close, admire and trace them with your fingers

You'll become curious about what they mean and how and why he got them and he'll be more than happy to tell you those tales

It takes some encouragement to get Thor to have some fun and actually relax for once

He’s so used to being ordered around, controlled, degraded, and having no chill time, either that or nobody caring enough to give him a break or spend genuine quality time with him

That and almost everyone around him is a major prick lmao 

A lot of the relaxing is just Thor being away from everyone except for you

Quiet dinners, naps, baths, drinking & eating contests, walks, etc, are all some of the best parts of your relationship with Thor

A much needed break and acts of self care that also involves you, his favorite person in the world

Speaking of everyone else, it’s pretty amusing to see folks react to you and Thor getting together tbh

Odin and Heimdall especially since even they were pretty sure that y’all two would pretty much stay forever bitter to each other

The look on Heimdall’s face when he realizes that he’ll have to deal with Thor from now on whenever he heckles you

The look on Odin’s face when he realizes that he’ll have to deal with you from now on whenever he heckles Thor

Also Thor undeniably will come to your aid whenever an issue arises even if it’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things

You do the same for him despite him not really caring what others think and say but the thought is what truly counts

Cause there was a time when he was the one attacking you and part of him does feel bad for his past actions

He wants to make up for that and show you through actions that he indeed thinks and feels for you differently from now on

And even you feel the same which you confide in him about

That leads to both you and Thor making vows to instead be by one another’s sides instead of against

#thor #thor x reader #gow #god of war #heimdall god of war ragnarok #gow ragnarok #thor god of war #thor god of war x reader #thor ragnarok #god of war x reader #god of war ragnarok #video games #video game #thor x gender neutral reader #thor fanfiction #god of war x gender neutral reader #gow x reader #gender neutral!reader #x gender neutral reader #gender neutral reader #gender neutral s/o #x y/n #video game fanfic #fanfiction #fanfic #headcanons #imagine #imagines #enemies to lovers #gow ragnorak

[zoeys-writings]

Quality Time (Luke Sullivan ⭐ x Reader)

[Context: Established romantic relationship, Reader is the MC for World Tour, Pre-Italy World Tour spoilers, Fluff]

(a/n: Finally, I WROTE SOMETHING! I'm very sorry this took so long to finally get out, finals are kind of kicking my ass. But alas, I got to finish a fluffy fic with this boi. He's hands down my fave from the base roster, his personality's just.. right up my alley. Hope you guys enjoy this one!)

Ah, relaxing days like these were always the best kind. After yet another grueling training session with Chun-Li, with a sprinkle of getting defeated at video games by Li-Fen, laying down on your couch while watching TV was the best way to relax after a long day of running around in Metro City. There was literally nothing that could possibly interrupt this very chill moment…

…Until you hear the very familiar noise of footsteps from one massive dumbass approaching your relaxed frame. You close your eyes, awaiting a nudge on the shoulder from the man of the hour. What you get instead is a small poke on your cheek, which forces a small chortle out of you. In response, you get another poke. You open a single eye to look smugly at Luke, kneeling down in front of your field of view, away from the TV. Seeing that you’re pretending not to care for his presence, Luke puffs his cheeks and begins to repeatedly boop your cheek, almost reminiscent of a dog asking to be fed.

With an amused sigh, you finally turn to look at him. “Yes, honey?” Placing his head on top of his hands while pouting childishly, Luke responds: “I’m bored, babe.” You sit up from your spot to look directly at him. “And what do you suggest we do about it?” Luke places his head on top of your lap, and you can’t help but hold in a snicker. He gets annoyingly adorable when he’s pouty, you can tell he’s missed you from how long you were out the house. “Play a fighting game with me?”

You can’t help but sigh while patting his head. “As much as I would love to take you up on that, I was destroyed by Li-Fen earlier. I’m kind of burnt out right now.” Luke groaned in response. “Please? I promise I’ll go easy on ya.” “Said the Burnout King. Going easy on me is not your play style, and we both know this, handsome.”

You half expect him to simply huff at your mocking nickname and nuzzle closer. But to your surprise (and sort of delight), your boyfriend proceeds to pick you up from the couch to give you a massive bear hug. “Is it that bad of a thing that I wanna spend quality time with my babe? I haven’t seen ya all day…” Luke says, nuzzling into you. Trying to calm down your racing heart, you hug him back. “I know, sweetheart, I’ve missed you too. Training under Chun-Li has just been a bit of a hassle lately. I want to learn as much as I can from her, y’know?” Pulling back from the hug to give you some space, Luke smiles gently at you. “Yeah, I get it. I can’t teach you absolutely everything about fighting just by myself. Your quest for strength comes first, right?” You shrug with a small chuckle at his last comment.

Suddenly, you feel an idea pop up like a cartoon-y light bulb. “You know what, actually… I was going to see if I could meet up with another fighter soon. And… She’s kind of far away from here...?” Before your boy could get pouty all over again, you raised a hand to continue your proposal. “And, I know how much you like traveling.” Arching an eyebrow with one of his signature goofy smiles, Luke places a hand over one of his ears as if to try to listen better. “And…?” “And, something tells me that her fighting style might be right up your alley.” With that, he crosses both of his arms with a determined smile. “I already like the sound of this.” “To finish my proposal… Have you gone to Italy? And have you heard of pankration?”

With a clap and some finger guns, Luke smiles like the fricking sun while wandering around the place. What he usually does when he gets excited. “Now we’re talking! When can we go? Should we get packing? I can pack your stuff if ya want, just tell me what t-“ You placed your hands over his shoulders in an attempt to calm him down. “Honey, honey, not yet. We gotta plan the whole thing first. You know how it is.” “Yeah, of course! Sorry, it’s just… It’d be our first time traveling together and I’m just… excited, y’know?”

Wait. Holy shit, it would be the first time. In fact, it would be the first in a long time for you as well. For the last few months, it’s just been Luke and Chun-Li, and Metro City so far. But you needed to expand your horizons, and if it took a threat from a Mad Gear Gang member to do so, then so be it. That would be difficult to explain to him; heck, you weren’t even sure if Marisa would be at all willing to accept your request to be taught by her, or help you acquire the missing charm. But you were willing to at least try, and if it didn’t go well, you had an entire country you could explore and have fun in with your boyfriend.

Like he said it himself, you can cross that bridge when you get to it! Most likely tomorrow, but tonight all that is on your mind is the picture of spending a nice vacation with the man you loved the most. Breaking yourself out of your train of thought with a sigh, you smiled gently at Luke. “It is. I’m also very excited.”

Then, with a smirk, you grabbed the remote controller and paused your show. “So excited in fact, I think I managed to gather the energy… To try and kick your ass at a fighting game a couple times.” Luke’s eyes begin to almost sparkle with excitement, instantly running to your console to put the game on. “Oh, hell yeah! Bet ya I can manage to not go on Burnout a single time! See if your lovely title for me actually stands up!” You grab your controller then sit down on the couch with a confident smile. “Oh, it will. Bet your precious bag of sour cream and onion chips that it will.” Luke plopped himself down on the couch, almost knocking you down but also bringing a laugh out of you. “Oh. It. Is. On, babe.”

#street fighter x reader #sf6 x reader #luke sullivan x reader #luke sf6 x reader

[bedtimestoriesforbrokengirls]

This... Is BGNN

Things you might want to know, for Mar 30, 2023:

Christina Aguilera joins Playground lube: ‘Always loved talking about sex’ — It’s been a long time since Christina’s made me think about sex, so now she has me feeling all sentimental about lube.

Replika Erotic Roleplay Mode Returns!

Female spiders play dead during sex so males don't have to worry about being eaten — It’s erotic roleplay. Just call ‘em what they are: dirty little spider pervs.

Dominate Me, but Not Like That

Porn ID Laws: Your State or Country May Soon Require Age Verification — The feds need to bring their many “interstate commerce” powers to bear here and put a stop to this dumb shit, at least within the US.

Dave McKean makes a case for AI as an “evolutionary step” for art — As a multimedia artist, I’m not surprised McKean is conflicted about stuff like MidJourney. The problem is that these tools are at the “let’s destroy the old norms and invent the new ones later” stage of development, and artists can’t function without a well-known and understood set of constraints and expectations to embrace/violate.

This tactics game is going all-in on pulp classics, mashing up Indiana Jones, The Mummy, and XCOM to make something surprisingly original

A huge boost to stream quality is headed our way very soon thanks to AV1 on YouTube via OBS — I’m not holding my breath on AV1 coming to Telegram anytime soon, but it’d be nice.

Fox News CEO Panicked That Election Fraud Fact-Checking Was ‘Bad For Business’ — The thing about the Dominion case is that it establishes as fact everything that we’ve always suspected about the inner workings of Murdochland.

Microsoft’s Surface Hub 2S is finally getting an upgrade — I can’t imagine ever owning one of these things, but I’d love to play with one for a while.

Here’s 10 minutes of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom gameplay — I’ve barely started Breath of the Wild, so I should get to Tears of the Kingdom sometime around, oh, I dunno… 2026?

Add The Last of Us Part 1 to the list of bad PC ports — A pity, ‘cause I was seriously thinking about playing it on the stream. I’ve sat our the last few generations of Sony consoles, so TLOU is virgin territory to me. Hopefully it’ll be cleaned up after a few point releases.

Microsoft's ‘Security Copilot’ Sics ChatGPT on Security Breaches

Jeremy Renner Uses Anti-Gravity Treadmill to Walk in New Video — He’s not a fave of mine —The Town is really the only thing he’s done that I admired— but I hope he gets better soon.

Amazon starts flagging ‘frequently returned’ products that you maybe shouldn’t buy — Considering this is a metric they could have exposed a decade ago, I’d call this an appropriate time to say “Finally.”

'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' season 2 premieres June 15th — My favorite still-on-the-air version of Trek. Yes, I’m including Picard: The Next Generation… Anson Mount —that fucking name, man— uses the pre-Kirk Captain Pike to bring a little bit of Shatner’s sensibility into the 21st century, and the alien-of-the-week format helps an otherwise very modern-looking production stay connected to its 1960s roots.

Producers defend animal sex scenes in David Attenborough's Wild Isles — Oh for fuck’s sake. Look, did I want to know how hermaphroditic slugs pass sperm through their entwined vaginadicks? Not really. But the natural world is a weird place, and it’s important to be reminded of that from time to time.

Netflix shares Obsession trailer starring Charlie Murphy & Richard Armitage — It’s been over a decade, and I still can’t think of a Netflix production that I found arousing. Nothing about this seems likely to change things for me.

11 Tips to Take Your ChatGPT Prompts to the Next Level

Elon Musk reportedly values Twitter at $20 billion — We all need a little good news to brighten our days, and this was mine.

#news

[risu5waffles]

Gallery Show

So, i had some left over dioramas from the old R15F days that i'd used for title cards. They were just cluttering up my popit, 'cause i couldn't do much wiv them, on account of account name shenanigans meant i wasn't technically the original creator, so the only way to change them was to brute force get rid of bits using destroyers, and it was all a pain in the arse. i'm not certain holding on to them was contributing to my profile corruption issues, but... like... why keep 'em either, i thought? Figured i'd toss together a quick and sloppy video to give 'em one last day in the limelight. Which, i suppose is their only day in the limelight, since all the R15F videos are perma-vaulted. Seeing as i didn't add any editorial to the backstage stuff, here's as good a spot as any.

Oof... giffing things really tanks the quality. Like, i always relearn that, and then i forget it again. It kind of works here tho'; the low quality helps sell the idea that they're watching a screen, and not an actual hallway wiv some rapidly alternating white & black semi-opaque sticker panels to give it a flicker. This is one i needed to modify wiv a destroyer, i was originally in my costume from The Before, and that wasn't going to fly, but i couldn't even grab onto the SackBot to switch the outfit. Destroying the old version of my self feels like an apt metaphor. The cop in the movie thinks they're the hero, but they're totally getting et, by the way.

i always liked the idea of fantasy places/creatures finding real world things to be fantastic. Our kids are dressed up as a medic, nurse, and insurance adjuster for their version of Halloween. This set always makes me feel warm and fuzzy, and i'm really proud wiv how it turned out.

This one's alright, i guess. i never really felt happy wiv the camera here. It was really hard to get everything i wanted in the shot, and have the camera low down at kid level. You can see more easily in the backstage part of the video, but the backwall is lined wiv those exercise mats they'd hang on the wall of gyms? Did your grade school have those? i swear, they were ancient when i was a kid, and i bet if that school is still standing, they're probably still getting used. The idea here was, like, a culture festival kinda thing? This class made a big ol' cardboard castle, and students could challenge the dragon? It's hard to tell because of the drawbridge chain and the teacher's shadow but the two kids on the right are fighting because the sign is badly misspelled.

This is another one that i wound up liking a lot more than i expected when i first finished it. Just a couple of danger doctors studying a mystery cube. Simple, compact, not overly busy wiv detail; it just hangs together well, or at least it feels like that to me. The backstage is similarly simple. Well, at least if you consider about twelve berjillion material tweakers to remove shadows to be simple.

This one's the reverse of the last i feel like. When i first made it, i was all, like, "aww dip! This is so cool!" The longer i look at it tho' and i really feel like i overegged the pudding. Like, those masks didn't really need to have the mouths on them. Just the swirly diamonds would have been fine really. i liked the head on the table, which i managed wiv almost the same technique old horror movies would have used, a camera angle to hide that the body is just dangling there underneath. Well, that and a physics tweaker so the SackBot didn't collide wiv the table. Old fx folx woulda had to cut a hole.

#littlebigplanet #little big planet #lbp #lbp3 #Youtube

[flyboytracy]

Heya Flyboy.

I don't know if you've been asked this before, and I hope it's ok to ask...

How do you make such clean and smooth gifs? Every time I upload a gif to Tumblr it completely destroys the quality.

Alola!

So I went and had a look at your gifs to see if I could see what's up with them. Your frame rate and colouring and sizing and everything is fine, so nothing has jumped out at me 💙

I think some of it may be an ACNH thing. The Switch produces beautiful screencaps of the game, but the videos are horribly low quality, and you need your source videos to be as HQ as possible for any gif you make. You wanna aim for 1080p as standard with 720p as a last resort.

I made like, one AC gif years ago and never again. The quality doesn't do the game justice.

You've got the process down pretty good 😄 So all I can suggest is that you try experimenting with settings. Gifs can be up to 9.99MB so you have lots of room to play. Try swapping between perceptual, adaptive and selective in the settings. Always aim for 256 colours. 128 is your bare minimum for Tumblr. Only go below 128 if you're absolutely desperate or if it's a black & white gif.

One trick I used to use back in the 1MB/no pink or blue/2MB/4MB days, was when gifs got really grainy because they were down to 128 colours and Johnny just = grain in every gif ever, try putting a texture over the top and setting it to overlay or whatever looks good. It helps to smooth out grain for those Johnny stubborn gifs that refuse to look shiny.

I hope that helps somewhat 💙

#Ask Scott Anything #i've been making gifs since 2009 and the software's changed but the methods generally remain the same #HQ source and as many colours as possible #<33

[mental-mario]

Mental Health and Tetris

Hello everyone and hope you are well. I'm finally done Rockin' out and kicking and throwing furniture from my last post. I thank those of you as always, my friends, for helping to fill my cup with donations via Tips, and of course I appreciate the Likes to my posts, but be sure to also Follow/Subscribe so you don't miss any posts if you're really my friend. If not, GTFO! (Sorry, that was the antisocial and borderline coming out.)

Lately, I have gone back to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (using SNES controller) because I had only tried one circuit before feeling compelled to play Mario RPG remake instead (also using SNES controller mostly), so if you want to get absolutely destroyed on the racetrack, I will post my friend code again so you can send me a friend invite and eat my star dust!

My friend code is SW - 4419 - 5159 - 3401

Just don't be upset when you lose by a large margin. It's nothing to be ashamed of! Two words: Blue Shell!!!

Shifting gears here a bit, have you ever experienced a song or songs that keep cycling in your head and you can't get rid of? It happens to me all the time, but last night, after taking some THC, I couldn't get the main theme from Tetris out of my head. I'm washing dishes, and it keeps on going and going as I'm filling my dishwasher and trying to find open spots to fit every pot, pan, bowl, and plate. We don't use paper plates typically, so we tend to run a full dishwasher at least once a day.

Anyways I digress, I got to thinking that Tetris is in some ways (perhaps many ways) a microcosm for life itself. I believe that much of life consists of taking an issue/problem or situation and finding where to fit/integrate it into being acceptable in one's own psyche. In this case, I would say that stress and trauma specifically are like the different Tetris shape blocks coming down, and if you can't solve/sort these problems out in your brain (and perhaps outside in the physical and/or spiritual realm) in an efficient manner then there becomes too much on your plate, and that's when you have yourself a mental breakdown and get hospitalized for suicidal ideations.

I was never the best Tetris player, and Tetris 99 sat on my Switch unplayed for a long time before I went ahead and archived it last night. As the speed and stress build, so does the intensity of my ADHD, and I lose concentration. For anyone who is a great Tetris player and may be reading this, please comment because I want to know how far you have gotten in the game and also if the game has an actual ending or just goes on endlessly until you lose? Apparently they are developing a two-player version of the game. If that is indeed true then I will be happy to see you online, and it will be an honor for you to make me your bottom and beat me senselessly like the dom you are! I also recommend checking out the movie on Apple TV+ about Tetris. It was an immersive telling about how Tetris came from being developed in Russia to being brought to the USA.

In unrelated news, my wife made some of the best damned garlic knots I ever had yesterday (she just saw this and got offended at my use of the phrase "some of"), from scratch, and we had Rao's jarred marinara for dipping. As an Italian, I cringe at using a jarred sauce, but Rao's is indeed legit and has no preservatives in it. The quality of these knots with garlic and parmesan dipped in the marinara were restaurant quality. Highly recommend (and also, not a sponsor, but if Rao's wants to reach out and get on this ship before it blasts off into the stratosphere, message me!).

I tried the video capture card setup that I had in mind, and sadly it did not work. So I have to go back to the drawing board. If anyone has recommendations and experience on how to live stream games from the Switch (ideally playing on the TV at the same time), please message me!

I guess that's all for now. I would say I hope you have a good day with peace, health, and wealth, but really I don't care about you. Might be why I don't have any IRL friends. So what I'll do instead is quote Billy Joel and say, "Life is a series of hello's and good-bye's. I'm afraid it's time for good-bye again." Friend me on Switch, and let's get to racing! 🏁🏎️🏎️

#actually mentally ill #mental health #mental illness #mentally disordered #video games #actually borderline #super mario #mental heath support #tw depressing thoughts #nintendo switch #mario kart #super mario bros #mario kart 8 #mario #donkey kong #mario party #bowser #smb #mario bros #tw selfhate #tw self destruction #italian #italy #cuisine #flavor #dish #side dish #spices #grated parmesan cheese #garlic

[ccthewriter]

CC's New Watch Ranking 2022: #3 - Germany Year Zero

1948, dir. Roberto Rossellini

Every year on Letterboxd, I make a list of the 100 best films I’ve seen for the first time. It’s a fun way to compare movies separated in time, genre, and country of origin, and helps me keep track of what I’m watching! This is a series of posts about my Top 10.

I spent a lot of time thinking about Rossellini last year. Especially his War Trilogy. (Shameless plug for my youtube page, I did a video on Paisan and Rome, Open City as an intro for a series of essays on Fellini. Check it out!)

During my lowest moments I really fear what the world is going to become over the course of my lifetime. Rising fascism, intolerance, climate change, wealth inequality… these things keep me up at night! I studied history in college. Whenever something bothers me, I look to the past for answers. There’s reassurance in knowing that everything I worry about has happened in some form somewhere. Since time immemorial, people in the past have tried to leave warnings for the future, guidance for avoiding their mistakes. You can’t always translate that advice 1:1,  but you can take pieces of that knowledge when you can. 

As I grapple with my country’s lazy strut towards fascism, I look to the cinema of post-war Italy. These filmmakers lived through the rise and fall of a similar ideology. They were all changed by the realities of war, and their art reflects it. Rossellini began his career as a propagandist, a child of wealth and privilege that got swept up in normalized authoritarianism before shifting paths during the war and becoming a staunch anti-fascist. It’s no surprise that the crown jewel of his post-war films, Germany Year Zero, follows a city of collaborators living in the rubble of their defeat. Rossellini understood better than anyone the ruin and monstrous emptiness that fascism and war leaves behind.

Germany Year Zero was shot in the remnants of Berlin after the end of World War 2. Rossellini shot it in the neorealist style he had developed: minimal sets, scripts, or production fussing. Casting actors he found on the spot, often non-professionals. Frequently shooting what we would now call “guerilla style.” Part of the terrible wonder of this film is that these choices make it so real. It gives the film a documentarian quality because it uses so, so many real elements that Rossellini discovered. Perhaps the most real element is the omnipresent despair that hands over every character.

The film follows a family living under the Allied occupation. They were full collaborators. Not passionate ideologues, perhaps, but in that true ‘banality of evil’ way that is presently leading so many conservatives to ruin. Everyone else is doing it, and it’s easier to keep your head down and believe the bloody dreams the government is selling. But now they live in the literal ruins of their beliefs. Their apartment is falling apart around them, and the interim authority has assigned other families to live with them, because the other buildings have been bombed through. They share no camaraderie - their experience of the war has made them distrustful and greedy. The eldest son of the family is in hiding, too. He was a Nazi soldier who fought to the bitter end, and hides from the authority for fear of being put on trial like the rest of his brigade. We see all this through the eyes of the youngest son, Edmund, whose entire life has basically been the Nazi regime. 

Edmund is the perfect lens to view this destroyed world through. He is a literal child, and his view on events is immensely simple. His family is hungry, so he wants to help feed them. He wants to play with other children, so he goes to where they’re gathering. He is told he has to obey, so obey he does. But his mind has been twisted by the cruelty of the regime. He’s a product of his parent’s upbringing. When circumstances force the family to make drastic decisions, Edmund steps up as the ‘man of the house’ who has to make tough choices. 

So, naturally, he kills his sick father so the family will have more to eat. 

This is what you want, fascists! You want to train your boys to be killers, right? You want them to be strong, to do what is necessary for the Fatherland no matter what, right???? This film is a depiction of those ideas coming home to roost. The people left alive after the war have to reckon with themselves, with the horrible systems they’ve been propping up. Berlin is shown as a city of walking phantoms and lurking ghouls. The people are left with nothing. 

In the end, wracked with guilt and still subsumed in the same misery he was in before, Edmund leaps off a building and dies. He kills himself because he reflects the despair and confusion that his entire world faces. He can’t see a way out, because literally all he has known is the message that there is nothing after fascism. He is too young to die - but this is what this ideology does to people. It makes them believe there is nothing but itself, that a life of forgiveness and penitence is impossible. 

The feeling of this film is what’s going to permeate Russia in a few years. It’s what’s going to be left in the right-wing circles of America. It’s already being seen. Broken, sad, stupid people living in the consequences of the misery they perpetuated on the world. It serves no one, it builds nothing, it only leaves us with rubble on which we can try to build. This film is a stark warning to those who would try to embrace this evil system. You will not receive an empire that lasts a thousand years - your civilization will be reset to zero, and you will be left with nothing as your children suffer and rebuild with the heaping trash you have left them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you for reading! If you made it this far why don’t you give me a follow on Letterboxd, where I post reviews and keep obsessive track of all the movies I watch. Feel free to drop a line if you checked this movie out and want to share your thoughts!

#germany year zero #roberto rossellini #movies #film #letterboxd #movie list #film list #cc oc

[therainroguefanfiction]

A Competitive Streak (Murayama Yoshiki) [TBB]

Table of Contents & Info ~ WordPress / Tumblr / AO3

[ You hit G3 by selecting Gaming/Gamer, awarding you with 616 words! ]

Genre: Fluff

Word Count: 616

Pairing: Reader x Murayama

World: High&Low

Prompt: Gaming/Gamer

Notes: Ahh the lack of high quality images for this series really hurts I hate it ;_;) I hope I did your idea justice, I enjoyed this one hehe

━━━━━━༻🏵༺━━━━━━

One thing you and your boyfriend loved to do was spent an afternoon together on the couch, playing games until neither of you could keep your eyes open. To you, it was the best part of your day and to him, it was something he held in his heart, drawing strength from during tough fights. It wasn't always an enjoyable experience for Murayama, though. You were insanely competitive when it came to gaming but you weren't stupid. You knew how upset he could get when your competitive streak ran wild, so you often held yourself back, just wanting to keep your boyfriend happy. He deserved to be happy so, even though it hurt your pride, you were okay losing.

Sometimes, you just couldn't hold yourself back. This was especially true if you had a bad day. Gaming was a release for you, a way to get out all of your stress and frustration by destroying NPCs in various ways. You were fired up, concentrated completely on the video game in front of you.

And Murayama didn't like it.

He frowned, eyes flickering to you every few seconds. Not only were you kicking his ass in the game, but you also weren't even sparing him a glance. He felt invisible which made him feel even more frustrated. He knew you got this way sometimes, but he hated it. This time was supposed to be spent together, but even though you're right next to him, he felt as if he were playing alone. With a huff, he tossed the controller to the side, sliding down and crossing his arms over his chest. He wanted to see just how long it would take for you to notice that he wasn't even playing anymore. To his displeasure, it took nearly ten minutes before you finally looked at him, a confused expression on your face.

"What's wrong? Did the controller die?"

He huffed, keeping his eyes on the screen.

You frowned, glancing at the TV before returning your gaze to your boyfriend. You had done it again, you realized, beating him in every single round and not even taking a moment to tease him. You scolded yourself before setting the controller down, angling your body so you were facing him. "I'm sorry, baby~"

He clicked his tongue, turning his face away from you.

Your hand found its place in his messy locks, gently running your fingers through them just as you knew he liked. "Shiki, don't ignore me, I'm sorry."

"Why not? You've been ignoring me."

"I didn't mean to." Your frown deepened and you moved closer, wrapping your arms around his upper body, letting your hand rest over his heart. "Yoshiki, my love, my heart, my soul. I would never ignore you on purpose, I'm sorry. Today was just... rough for me."

Murayama frowned. He knew you probably had, but hearing you say it, and with such a tired tone, made his heart ache. He slowly turned, dark eyes meeting yours. "Will you make it up to me?"

Your lips tugged up into a smile, brushing the bangs from his eyes. "Of course. I'll do anything you ask until you feel better."

A mischievous glint appeared in his eyes before he launched himself at you, a sound of surprise passing your lips. You were on your back now with Murayama on top of you, his nose nuzzling the crook of your neck. His lips were soft against your skin when he spoke. "You're going to cuddle with me until I feel better."

You chuckled, threading your fingers through his hair. "Yes, yes~" You could feel his smile against your neck as he snuggled closer, his arms tight around your body.

━━━━━━༻🏵༺━━━━━━

#murayama yoshiki #high&low #high & low #high low #high and low #highlow #oya high #tiger's birthday bash

[ybcpatrick]

kell kell kell kell. top sexiest patricks?

okay i was gonna give a variety of patricks here but i noticed a trend and it's topical for today specifically so. anyone ever noticed that patrick always fucking serves when they perform for holidays/new year's eve? because I'm diggin thru and i just like.

jingle ball 2013 AKA the look that cursed my actual fucking dick i saw this at a formative age and got my whole shit destroyed for the rest of my life

NEW YEARS ROCKIN' EVE 2014 YOU WILL ALL WATCH THIS. THE VIDEO IS SUCH LOW QUALITY BUT I DON'T CARE FUCK Y'ALL YOU'RE WATCHING IT

I CAN'T EVEN FIND PHOTOS OF THIS PERFORMANCE I CAN ONLY FIND THIS GIF BUT EVEN THIS IS ENOUGH 💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔 SHUUUUT. UUUUUUUP.

and new years rockin eve 2016 too i just. im just. i.

i'm so homosexually gay. the tie is glittery. do i have to say any more.

#shut up kell #ask #anonymous #patrick. paaaaatrick. pat. rick. #sorry i had many other contenders but the suits will always win

[arivederchu]

stuck - noritoshi kamo and aoi todo

a/n: eek im so sorry this took so long :(( i apologize

characters: noritoshi kamo and aoi todo (separate)

warnings: none

situation: you and (character) get trapped in an elevator while on a mission, oopsies- (you’re also already in a relationship with them)

noritoshi kamo

oh my god he’s so pretty

since you two got stuck in the elevator while on a mission, you two will most likely search around for any clues of a curse, or perhaps the elevator itself is a curse?

yeah no

you two then realized that the only reason left is that it was an error due to the building, and not the work of a curse.

noritoshi and you tried everything, from trying to use your phones to call for help or trying to open the panel in the elevator to make it somehow go down

of course the latter plan was quickly shoved aside since if you did manage to do something like that, the elevator would most likely go into free fall and you two would plummet to your deaths, less than favorable to say the least.

once you two got situated while you waited for something to occur that would work in your favors, he’ll probably cuddle you to keep you warm and because he wants to keep you safe

definitely the type to say, “so who are we eating first?”

i swear you two spent a good 30 minutes in that elevator talking about who would be better to eat, and how to “prepare” the other to be eaten

the couples dynamic you two share is questionable sometimes

but fear not! he’s prepared for this type of scenario just in case, and brought some water along 

and like

one snack

to be fair you two didn’t expect 

gets out his phone and is the dramatic type to record a video of himself saying something like,

“hour twelve... we’re running low on rations, and if we don’t get out of here soon, we’ll die. so i’d first like to thank my mo-”

“noritoshi what are you doing” you would deadpan

that or if you’re dramatic too or simply want to play along, you’ll also act very serious and thank all your friends/family

eventually either: 

1. the elevator starts working again 

or

2. someone comes to help after realizing you and noritoshi were gone for a rather elongated period of time

welp, in the end you two are safe! and for every mission afterwards you two will always brings snacks

extra:

utahime was curious what happened while you two were stuck 

so ofc she just took noritoshi’s phone to see if there was any evidence of what happened there

and then she comes across the videos of noritoshi (and possibly you if you’re that kind of person)....

she has the most unimpressed but unsurprised look on her face while watching all of them as each hour went by when the two of you were trapped

100% sends them to gojo and is like “lmao look at what my students are doing”

aoi todo

we’re talking here in assumption that he doesn’t just destroy the elevator okay shhhh

after confirming that the elevator breakdown isn’t the result of a curse, todo thinks its a good time to spend some quality time together!

i mean it isn’t the most ideal circumstances, but might as well use the time wisely right? (though maybe this wasn’t exactly the best use of your time since you two really didn’t know what you were waiting for)

he’ll put your needs first and foremost--if you’re cold then he’ll give you his jacket or just hug and squeeze you

if you’re hot, he’ll fan you with whatever he can find 

he also (without your input) decided that if you two were to go starving in the elevator, he’d be the one to be eaten.

on his phone he probably has some Takada-chan songs downloaded, so be prepared to listen to her songs for a good amount of time until you guys manage to get out

you two usually don’t have trouble on missions and since utahime, or any adult for that matter, wasn’t with you, you didn’t have any snacks or help to call 

im sorry this isn’t as long as noritoshi’s- todo would honestly just instantly bust out of the elevator with you in tow and you would fight the curse easily, mission over

in the case that you actually get stuck, which would most likely be the work of a curse taking advantage of the elevator situation, he will protect you at all costs

he also probably has the strength to somehow be able to stop the elevator should it go into free fall

all is well in the end anyway, and you two are safe in the end!

attempted to not make this nsfw- do ya’ll want an nsfw version cause i’d be happy to make one (also i made noritoshi’s a bit longer than todo’s oopsies)

#jujutsu kaisen #jjk #aoi todo #todo aoi #noritoshi kamo #kamo noritoshi #noritoshi kamo x reader #aoi todo x reader #jujutsu kaisen headcanons #jujutsu kaisen x reader #katasfw #this took so long im so so sorry

[sixthwater]

🏵️Synastry and: the Friends V🏵️

Exploring more platonic synastry~! Oh my gosh I don't know what to put here and I don't like faking enthusiasm oh my goodneeessss ok let's go

Note: This is using and based off of personal experience, I will be using specific people and referencing them throughout the post

Me & 🌸's placements

☉: Cancer / Cancer ☽: Taurus / Pisces ☿: Cancer / Cancer ♀: Cancer / Leo ♂: Virgo / Taurus

We're the iconic kyoani duo and then this friendship (gif) hits you from your blindside (as well as whatever the hell you call bokuto and kuroo)

See it's funny because that gif actually happened

🌺 Overlays

Me: Sun & Mercury in 9th / 🌸: Sun & Mercury in 5th

Learning to better mingle with their family meets destroying the other in video games. These overlays play out a lot more straight-forward than the previous ones. We tend to delve into deep long topics and get lost within them because we get side tracked Very easily, but they are usually under the broad umbrella of psychology and human empathy and junk like that. Our last conversation was about how we've been affected by certain personal situations within our lives and how 'it's so weird how certain things from our childhood snowball into us being thrust into this caretaker role' and that was a like a 40 minute conversation that took place after we were talking about Dominos Pizza on a bus to New York, and then we immediately changed the topic to bubble tea. On the other hand, I want to better communicate with some of her family members so I wanted to take it upon myself to learn their language. For the 5th house: video games. She kicks my Ass in about nearly all of them, but I still enjoy playing them with her all the time. Besides that, I like going on trips to Aquariums, Museums, etc--because I know we'll have fun no matter where we end up.

Me: Moon in 7th / 🌸: Moon in 1st

Honestly, I have to talk about these two as if they're a combined overlay. This combination is a crutch for the fact that my moon is rarely aspected by her (and if it is she struggling). This is attributing to the fact that we constantly see ourselves in kyoani pairs in particular I believe--because while my previous friend has a red/blue dynamic and we can find ourselves in multiple places, we usually only find ourselves here. It has a lovers feel to it because the 7th creates this rosy feeling that you feel like you can be a little giddy and you've found someone that understands and appreciates you for your 'hidden' qualities (since the dsc has to be uncovered or worked for), whilst the 1st overlay is always in awe of the qualities of whatever planet is there, and said planet will encourage that native to not be so shy or embarrassed of themselves and bring them out more. Examples (🌸 & Me) would be: Kumiko & Reina (Hibike! Euphonium), Tamako & Midori (Tamako's Market), extra note for Bubblegum & Marceline. Bottom line is that this energy gives off couple/honeymoon lover vibes.

Me: Mars in 11th / 🌸: Mars in 3rd

Remember when I said we talk for just like 40 minutes in the weirdest spots about random junk. Yeah. This can send a lot of stimulation and energy towards hobbies and we can energize each other at times. We also share a lot of hobbies, and if we don't we don't mind watching the other person enjoy themselves (for the most part).

**We have an overlay with my venus in her 9th and her venus in my 7th, but it just sort of repeats the energy of having fun and enjoying each other's company and the rose colored glasses blah blah blah

💐 Aspects

Alright so!

My Moon Square 🌸's Venus

Multiple Squares between My Mars & 🌸's Personal Planets

This can lead to some slight tension. I can be too emotionally sensitive and respond too volatile or aggressively, and sometimes my words can stab 🌸 where it hurts. This is a guess however, because we've never had a full blown argument or even really had a tit-for-tat. If anything, we've only gotten under each other's skin by slightly annoying each other by things we've said or just. Generally being annoying. If anything, with my Mars being the one squaring everything, I'm the one more likely to actively respond and the source of that will be because I've felt slighted, and it will be because 🌸 said something hurtful without realizing it.

Besides that our synastry chart is pretty normal. She is heavily water influenced and more emotional whereas I have things to balance it out a little bit more, but my responses to things are a lot more delayed so it looks like I'm blowing up for nothing while she let's herself feel things more healthily (aspects granted).

#astrology #platonic synastry #synastry #mygalaxypost #this format is kind of wonky but like.....our relationship is really simple LMAO

[fandom-smut-shots]

Hello!! I was wondering if i could get a matchup for Voltron, Mha (or Haikyuu) and Naruto?

Im a 5'6 latina

My zodiac is Leo♌

Im straight

I have near black eyes and waist length brown hair. I have freckles splattered around my nose and eyes and im pretty tan

I love working out

My love language is quality time

Im a pretty quiet person and avoid speaking unless i have to

I have major trust issues

I have a huge sweet tooth and will not be stopped from eating sweets, especially if im on my period

I have a few friends who i do stupid stuff with like parkouring around a kids playground or doung a contest to see who ladts longer in a handstand

I love reading and writing

Silence gives me anxiety do i tend to be around loud people even if its not exactly on purpose

Dont relate much with many other girls my age cause I hate dresses, heels, flats, makeup, kpop and social interactions (i know uts not the same everywherw but where I'm from its mostly the only things i see)

I love fighting videogames (my faves are Gaara in ninja storm and Takeda in Mortal Kombat)

As I mentioned before, i hate social interactions and get anxiety in crowded spaces

I like feeling included in social situations because otherwise id probably be in a corner just looking around and feeling miserable

I love basketball, volleyball and dancing and im pretty good but my parents think ots a waste of time so i dont play competitively

Im studying mechanical engineering focused on aerospace

Im good at math and science, so people think im smart but I suck at every other subject

I get anxiety mostly at night cause of nightmares and well the quietness

My favorite songs are "She used to be mine", "Not another song about love", "King for a day" and "The way you make me feel"

Im protective of my friends and im not afraid to beat someone up for them

Ive been told im intimidating because of how quiet i am, apparently if youte quiet and from Puerto Rico, it means something along the lines of "calm before the storm"

Im probably found in the gym playong volleyball, basketball, or just on a rooftop reading on my own while listening to music

I love baking but hate cooking

Im pretty goofy around my friends but switch back to being quiet when im in a crowded room

Favorite superhero is Iron Man and Batman

Would probably be a speedster in any of those worlds

Imma stop now

I have answered this so. Many. Times and I get through the whole first matchup and then Tumblr reloads or my laptop crashes or, in the case of my brand new laptop, restarts to install updates and ughhhhh.

So I've fallen out of the Naruto fandom, I love it but I'm just not sure I'm comfortable writing it outside of a few select characters, so I answered both MHA and Haikyuu in place of Naruto. I hope that's okay.

Voltron

I ship you with...

Lance McClain!

Lance is totally not my go-to when the requester is Latina.

Loverboy Lance knows all about quality time. His loud personality is perfect for curbing your silence anxiety. He loves to surprise you with gifts, so when he finds out about your sweet tooth, he's bribing Hunk to teach him how to bake your favorite treats. Video game dates? He would absolutely not destroy you at Mortal Kombat. Once he finds out you can dance, you're never getting off your feet. And he's always down to play basketball or volleyball with you. Also be prepared for debates about Iron Man vs Batman.

Haikyuu

I ship you with...

Satori Tendou!

Being athletic obviously gave you plenty of options from Haikyuu, but not many of them are great at quality time, which landed us here. Tendou doesn't have many friends, so he'd absolutely adore having a partner that wants to spend time with him. And you know he understands trust issues. You have a sweet tooth? Baby boy's favorite food is literally chocolate ice cream. He's definitely loud enough to help with your anxiety, and if anybody understands mental health, it's our loveable lizard boy. And baby boy LOVES video games, so video game dates are absolutely a thing. A partner that will play volleyball with him? Sign him the fuck up!

My Hero Academia

I ship you with...

Eijirou Kirishima!

"Working out" and "fighting games" immediately sent me to Kirishima. He would fucking melt if you had workout dates together. And quality time is perfect for him - all of his free time would be spent with you. He would also bribe Sato to bake you some desserts. And unwinding after workouts and homework with some Mortal Kombat? Fuck yeah! He's got a big personality, and he has a lot of loud friends, so he's probably usually louder than he means to be. He may not be the best dancer, but he's friends with Mina, so you're definitely getting invited to dance parties. Also, he's definitely down to binge Iron Man or Batman movies with you.

[cobalts-corner]

I posted 283 times in 2021

191 posts created (67%)

92 posts reblogged (33%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 0.5 posts.

I added 281 tags in 2021

#the ascendance series - 123 posts

#the ascendance trilogy - 38 posts

#jaron - 22 posts

#tobias - 17 posts

#ascendance month 2021 - 16 posts

#the runaway king - 15 posts

#the captive kingdom - 14 posts

#ascendance trilogy - 13 posts

#ascendance series - 12 posts

#fanfiction - 11 posts

Longest Tag: 118 characters

#the most spoofy thing ive ever written is probably on gacha life the hated chuld who is the lost hybrid demon princess

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Wait so you and @h0n3yd3w know each other irl??

Yup lol-

21 notes • Posted 2021-09-01 03:05:19 GMT

#4

The False Prince School Project I Had To Do...

 I got into the ascendance series because my class was reading The False Prince as a read aloud. We would read like 2 chapters everyday and then have to answer questions about it.

 I was VERY interested in the book after Latemer died. DARK, I know, I was just happy we were reading a darker books now that we were getting older. The funny thing is, my teacher made like the whole class read one page of the book for some reason I have no idea why lol. I read the page where Latemer died and I was HOOKED.

 I took the book home, and read it. Immediately after finishing I begged my mother to get me the whole trilogy. I finished the Runaway King in one night and my sleep schedule was destroyed. No regrets. 

When my class finished The False Prince I was just starting The Captive Kingdom. 

After all of our read alouds, we always had to write an essay on the book, but for this book our teacher decided to give us literal FREE RANGE ON THIS PROECT. 

We could literally do these:

Minecraft build of Farthenwood

Make memes

Comic strips

Paintings of scenes/ characters

PRETTY MUCH WRITE A FANFICTION

SOOOO MANY MOREE

Most people did the Minecraft builds, and they were high quality ngl

Before The Ascendance Series, I was obsessed with Wings of Fire, by Tui T. Sutherland and I had been working on an over simplified summary of my favorite book of the series, sadly all the files were lost and it was never completed. But then I had an idea. 

 Before the project was even announced I was thinking about doing an oversimplified summary of the false prince. Pretty much it would be a spoof video explaining the major parts in the books, with bad jokes and me and my brother purposefully doing bad voices acting for the characters. For example, I gave Conner a squeaky high pitched voice because that's what he deserves. It would kind of be an animatic with little animation. 

We had so much freedom with this project it was insane. The day after these projects were announced, I was constantly thinking about what to do. Until I realized I could do the summary for my project. 

So during social studies I was sketching out character designs, problem was, I only had one week (due date was Friday, it was Monday) to do it, and my brother (who was doing the project with me) couldn’t help with production because he had no clue how to edit videos, he was just doing some voices of characters. I was on a time crunch

Monday

During social studies (I was supposed to be writing about Ancient Egyptian daily life but whatever) I sketched out all the characters, I would post the sketches here but my phone is broken and the picture is on my phone, thankfully I dm’d the final drawings to my bro. 

My ELA teacher let us have our phones in class to work on it, me and my brother started writing the script. 

Tuesday

Finalizing the character design and finishing up the script. Started working on the actual video

For example, this would be one of the finished copies of a character (Sage) ofc i gave him a green shirt ok-

Wednesday

This is when I realized I probably couldn’t do all 54 chapters of the novel. So I decided that I would only do half of the book (27 chapters)

Thursday

Final day to work on the project. I couldn’t finish it during the ELA period so I turned on some dream speed run music and I spent like 2 hours working on it at my house.

 I added sound effects, did the voice lines with my brother and finished. My worst fear while exporting it, that it would glitch out and my class would be looking at a black screen for six minutes straight. LUCKILY It worked and.... I would have to post it to YouTube and my CLASS would know my channel—ANYWAYS I emailed the video to my teacher.

Friday (PRESENTATION DAY!!!)

See the full post

23 notes • Posted 2021-06-19 00:13:02 GMT

#3

Your header is a freaking mood

AHAAJAHDGSHSJJSJDD Honeydew contributed a little bit to it, but I made all thr art besides the hot squidward Jaron thing

Full image:

23 notes • Posted 2021-09-08 19:34:28 GMT

#2

"I planted the flowers for you, but they're already dying. You know why? Because they're in bad soil. They don't belong here and neither do you. Go look at them and you'll see your own future."

Well here's some Imogen fanart I made-

27 notes • Posted 2021-07-17 18:03:18 GMT

#1

This is random but am I the only one confused about the eckbert coat of arms. 

I’m probably am stupid and forgot but like huygtfryguhiokp

33 notes • Posted 2021-07-01 03:32:12 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #WHY THE ECKBERT COAT OF ARMS ONE IM GONNA CRY NOOOO

[gr-ogu]

Soph’s Header + Doodle Tutorial (requested by anonymous)

Hi! I’m back again with the sequel to my icon + colouring tutorial, this time with headers and doodles! 🥰 You will need:

I’m using Photoshop CC 2018 to make these headers and doodles, but you could easily make them with earlier/other versions.

Basic gif making knowledge.

A screencap you want to use, some fun textures, and some time and patience!

I always start off with my headers as size 500 by 281 pixels. It doesn’t really matter necessarily, as long as the size is in line with the tumblr dimensions and fits. I find these sizes work to keep a gif or header small, so you can make it a bit longer without going over the tumblr size limit. I know technically tumblr doesn’t have a size limit any more, but I do still try to stick to the 3 MB limit when I can. This is because sometimes gifs lose their quality if you go over. In my opinion, you can afford to go over a bit, but if you go too far, the quality of the gif gets destroyed, and sometimes for me even on 4 MB they just don't play, so 6 MB or 8 MB doesn’t stand a chance. Not sure if anyone else has run into this problem, but you can read more about what I mean here and here.

Okay, so. Making simple headers is actually pretty easy, it’s just a lot of layering of the right things. Once you have your base size, pick a nice gradient to put on it. For me, I’m going with a light purple to a slightly darker purple:

It’s important that you have video timeline turned on for this. If you are not familiar with frame animation and video timeline, I suggest you take a look at this, since we are going to be using both quite a lot in this tutorial.

Next, you want a nice background texture for your header. You don’t have to, but I think it just gives it a little something extra. You can find some textures here they have A LOT to choose from.

Once you have your texture, make it black and white and set it to soft light (unless the texture is the same colour as your background, then sometimes leaving it in colour can enhance the whole thing). Then you should have something that looks like this:

Now add your cap, coloured + smart sharpened and whatever other adjustments you want to make, on top of these layers. If you don’t know how to do this, please see my icon tutorial, where I explain how to do these steps in depth.

Obviously in this instance, Steve is much larger than if this was an icon. Make the picture proportional to the header size, but it’s up to you how big or small you want that to be! So, you could just save the header like that, if you wanted to. BUT, since we’re going to be adding gifs + doodles, I’ve had to make some special adjustments. As you can see down the right-hand side in the layers tab, I’ve added some purple colour over and under Steve (set to soft light, opacity anywhere between 5-30%, whatever suits you) and also lightened the background A LOT. There is a reason for this, which you wouldn’t need to do if you weren’t going to add gifs (unless you wanted the background to be lighter, of course).

So, for the gifs underneath your cap. Here is a pack of gif overlays that I love and adore, once you have chosen one of those, you want to put it underneath your cap. To do this, open the overlay gif, it will look like this:

And you can just drag it across from one file to another, underneath your cap.

I turned off all the layers above the gif, temporarily, so I could move it into place. Once it’s in your header file, make sure to change the gif to “overlay”, which will then bring back your nice background colour. Setting something to overlay makes everything underneath it look darker, hence why we lightened the background before, as I personally didn’t want it to look too dark for the overall header. (You could also put your cap underneath it if you wanted the gif to go over the person, but you’ll have to do extra editing to make sure the cap isn’t too dark if you do so).

Now you should have something that looks like this:

You want to make sure you end the header where the gif ends, even if your layers are “longer”, as you can see above. Again, this is a perfectly acceptable place to leave your header and save it, but this is where I tend to add the doodles!

Open a new file, I usually make them quite big say 800 by 400 px, as you can scale the doodle down later on, rather than starting small and working in a small space, which makes things unnecessarily difficult. If you would like to add some premade doodles onto your gifs, you can find some here, but I will show you how to make your own below!

You could draw the doodles yourself, probably making your life a lot easier, but if you’re like me and you don’t want to do that (for me it’s because I suck at drawing on ps, LMAO) you can use a picture too. Find a picture of what you want, I usually just google it, so here I’ve got a simple crown:

I used the magic wand tool to cut it out, and now we have this:

Now what you want to do is change the video timeline to frame animation. Click the “creative video timeline” button if video timeline isn’t already displayed, then the three dots in the left-hand corner to convert to frame animation, and you should get something like this:

Now, here’s the long-winded bit. It’s slightly odd and a bit complicated, so if this doesn’t make sense, please feel free to message me and ask further questions.

So, we want the doodle to look like it draws itself, right? What you want to do is crop the image so bits of it are added as the frames go on, thus achieving that effect. The key to this is turning layers on and off on the right-hand side, so only certain parts of the image show themselves one after the other.

Firstly, duplicate Layer 1 and turn the original image off. This is a safety in case we mess something up later and need to revert to the original image. Now, crop out the first part of your picture. I’m going to start on the bottom of the crown and work my way around clockwise. Use the marquee tool (I’m using the elliptical one) to cut out one section of the image, then right click and select ‘layer via cut’.

Then turn off the rest of the layer, so you’re only left with this tiny piece:

Now, add a new frame. On the bottom bar there is a button, next to the bin/trash, that looks like a sheet of paper, which says “duplicate frame” if you click on it. Do that. Now is where the turning off and on part comes in. Each layer on the right-hand side corresponds to a frame on the bottom, and you want to build up what is shown in each frame every time.

This is going to involve a lot of duplicating and merging of layers, because I haven’t found a better way to do it currently.

First you want to turn off all the layers when you have Frame 2 selected. When you’re on Frame 1 your tiny piece (Layer 2) should be turned on (you turn layers on and off on the right-hand side, toggling the little eye icon). Like so:

You want to be working with Frame 2 selected for these next parts. Then you want to duplicate the tiny piece layer (so now we have Layer 2 copy). By turning the Layer 1 copy on briefly, you can cut out the next part of your image, so use the marquee tool again to cut out the next little piece. Make sure you have the layer with the rest of the image selected when you do this, otherwise you could be cropping nothing, since the other layers should still be turned off. Once you’ve done that (once again using layer via cut!) you should now have Layer 3. Move this to the top, turn off Layer 1 copy, and turn on Layer 2 copy, like so:

You may not be able to see in the picture, but the two layers aren’t quite touching. Since it doesn’t matter what the original image looks like for the end result of the doodle, you can move Layer 3 in line with your first piece. DO NOT move the original small layer, Layer 2, as then it will be in a different place on Frame 1 and Frame 2, and you’ll have to try to move it back, and that will be a mess. Always adjust the newest layer in line with the previously existing layers so this doesn’t happen.

When you’ve done that, select both Layer 2 copy and Layer 3 at the same time. I usually use the ctrl key to do this, which I think is command on macs, then when you’ve done that, right click on those layers and select merge layers from the menu that appears. They should now be one layer called Layer 3.

The problem is, when you do this in the second frame, it usually turns itself on in the first frame too, which you don’t want. So click on Frame 1, and make sure to toggle Layer 3 off for Frame 1, and on for Frame 2. And the opposite with Layer 2: make sure it is on for Frame 1, and off for Frame 2, like this:

Now, you want to repeat the process. So, add a new frame at the bottom, so you have three frames. Turn all the layers off when Frame 3 is selected. Duplicate Layer 3. Cut out the next piece from Layer 1 copy, and make sure it aligns with the other layers without moving the previous pieces. Merge Layer 3 copy and Layer 4. Make sure Layer 4 is turned off in Frame 1, because the newest layer WILL turn itself on there every time. Go back to Frame 3, and turn Layer 4 on again.

You should have something that is looking like this:

Can you see how all the different layers are corresponding to the different frames? I don’t mean to be patronising at all, so I hope it doesn’t come across that way. I just know that some people don’t understand how frame animation works, so I’m trying to be as clear as possible.

It doesn’t matter if your doodle is moving away from your original image, because you won’t be seeing the original image when the doodle is done, only the doodle. As long as the layers that correspond to your frames aren’t moved during the process, then don’t worry.

Continue to do this until the whole doodle is made, like so:

I ended up with 15 frames, and 16 layers. You can set this to whatever speed you think is best by highlighting all the Frames. If you click the thee little lines on the right-hand side of the frame animation window, a little menu pops up, and there you can select all frames (or hold shift and click on the first and the last frame). From there, you click on the time underneath the frames and adjust it whatever looks best for your gif, 0.05 usually works well.

Now, you want to convert the doodle into one object that you can move. To do this, click on the little lines in the left-hand corner (where the frame animation dots were before), and all the framers will turn into layers in video timeline. Then, to make them all one object, select all the layers at once on the right-hand side, and go to filter > convert for smart filters.

You should now be able to drag your doodle into your header file! Like so:

As you can see, sometimes the doodle isn’t as long as the loop of your gif, but that’s okay. What you can do is use the marquee tool and right click when you’ve selected the doodle, choosing layer via copy. This will create a still image of your doodle, which you can place after it ends to ensure it stays on the header until your gif is ready to loop again, as you can see here:

As you can see here, I decided to make the crown white, since I felt it fit better with the header’s aesthetic. To do that, I inverted the gif and the still shape, and set them both to lighten. I also added a white stroke of 1px just to make it stand out (double click your layer on th right-hand side, and find stroke in the pop up that appears, adjust to your liking!)

I also added another doodle to mine, using the same process as before. Spelling out ‘king steve’ had a lot more layers and frames, but it was the same process. Then I dragged it over, and copied the layer just before it re-looped so I could have it as a still image for a portion of the gif. You may need to duplicate your overlay gif underneath the cap to ensure eveything has enough time to loop properly, like so:

And that’s it really! If you would like to add a divider on top of your header AKA a header template, these are the ones I use (one, two). To add it, open the file and drag it onto your gif file, then place it where you want it to be. Once you’ve done that, set the layer to screen (here is a tutorial from the op) if you want it to be white, or invert the image (image > adjustments > invert) and then set it to darken if you want it to be black. If you want it to be a different colour, you’ll have to cut out the divider from the background image, and then double click the layer to get the style menu. In layer style, you can select ‘colour overlay’ and make it whatever colour you want!

To save your gif, go to file > export > save for web (legacy). It may take a while, so just let ps do its thing until the bar has loaded. You can preview the gif by clicking preview in the bottom left-hand corner, in case you want to cancel and make some changes to your gif before you save it. These are my settings:

And voilà, you have a bright and shiny new gif, doodle, header! If you’d like to use this, you can find it here 💜

#tutorial #header tutorial #tutorial* #resources #headers #chaoticresources #completeresources #yeahps #i hope this helps!!! #thank you to ally @siriusblacks for reading this over for me 🥰

[almostdangerousvoid]

THE GREATEST ENTERTAINER OF ALL TIME - MICHAEL JACKSON

(A Personality Profile by: Kristea R. Castro)

The defining talent of the best entertainer is the ability to engage your audience to your performance. Supremely talented, always confident, surprisingly creative, incredibly have the adaptability to change and adapt easily with style and time. Michael Jackson is able to transform himself from a child star to the king of pop.

Jackson's career was rewarded with 13 Grammy Awards, the father of one daughter and two sons and a consummate performer who has won and acclaimed the hearts of millions of people in the world on and off stage more than four decades ago. Mention his name to a fellow singer fan and the reaction is invariably, "Oh he's a greatest entertainer!" though it may take a moment to name most of his songs. Why? Because his songs are numerous and his songs are very catchy that you can forget the name of it.

Born in Gary Indiana, United States, Jackson's early ambition was in dance. When his family realized that Michael has a potential to become a singer and dancer. After his father Joseph discovered that all of his sons are naturally born talented. He molded them into a musical group in the early 1960s that would later become known as the Jackson 5.

At first, the performers only consisted of Jackson's older brothers, Tito, Jermaine and Jackie. But later on at just eight years old, Michael joined them when he emerged as the group's lead vocalist. He showed remarkable range and depth for such a young performer, impressing audiences with his ability to convey complex emotions.

When the Jackson 5 was still getting started, Joe would push the boys to practice for hours. Their father was very strict and intimidating. From a young age, Jackson and his siblings were allegedly physically and emotionally abused by their father through incessant rehearsals, He has a strict rules and if they disobeyed they are often get whipped and derogatory name called them. Jackson's abuse as a child had affected him throughout his later life.

Michael's group continued to have success. They released more number one singles like "ABC", "I'll Be There", and "The Love You Save." As the lead singer, Michael was becoming very famous. He couldn't go to school because he would be mobbed by fans, so he was taught by private tutors in between rehearsals and concerts. Michael was just a kid when all this happened. He didn't get to play with other kids his age and later felt like he missed a lot on having a childhood. He was an above average student and excelled in creative classes. His absence of a formal education affected him deeply, because of his starting career in music industry.

In recent years, Jackson's performances seems to have entered a new phase, transitioning from imitating the movements of a robot or what they called a robot dance to a backslide, a popping technique or moonwalk. Through. his videos and live performances, Jackson popularized street dances, attracted a cult of impersonators throughout the world. He is credited with helping to spread dance to a global audience and having an influence comparable to dance icons such as to Fred Astaire and Sammy Davis Jr.

"I'm never pleased with anything, I'm a perfectionist, it's part of who I am." he stated. He wanted to surprise the audience even more, he wanted to be the best, always rehearsing and practicing. He is precocious genius that sang with feelings and inspiration. Michael had a quality that people cannot understand.

But all of this success will always come at a certain price, Michael Jackson started to received multiple accusations every now and then. Even though he has incredible music, The rumors and trials surrounds him even after his death!possible sexual assault are widely known, as is the name of his infamous Neverland Ranch, Jackson had a turbulent and interesting life before the controversy of his later years.

In addition to surviving childhood trauma, Jackson struggled with countless medical issues including a severely broken nose causing him to have several nose surgery, vitiligo which caused skin bleaching controversy, In an interview with Oprah in 1993 he explained "I have a skin disorder that destroys the pigmentation of my skin, it's something that I cannot help, OK?" It runs from there family and it affects him incredibly. Severe scalp burns from an ad mishap because of an accident, and drug addiction resulting from the painkillers that helped him get through his various injuries. The pain he had during those years is unimaginable, and some people don't understand what he is going through and because of his fame rumors was spreading quickly. Tragically, his reliance on pharmaceutical drugs ultimately cost him his life when his personal physician administered a fatal combination of sedatives as part of his nighttime pharmaceutical routine to enable him to sleep without nightmares.

Michael's dance moves were thrilling and kept the fans wanting more but sadly he was gone. He was an important figure because of how people viewed his music from when he began to the present. There is a saying "There will never be another Michael Jackson" and that is true. He broke down barriers, changed culture, changed music, united people and races through his music. "If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself, then make that change." this one of the lyrics of his song "Man in the mirror". He was an idol, His fans would cry and scream of happiness when they saw him. We learned that he had a rough life starting out and then it moved on to be quite the thriller!

[johannesviii]

Top 10 Personal Favorite Hit Songs from 2018

I’m kinda sad this series of posts is coming to a close, especially with two mediocre years for the kind of hit songs I enjoy.

I was very depressed in 2018 so I thought maybe it was the reason why I didn’t like most songs I heard, so I revisited the entire catalogue of 2018 hit songs from the year-end lists and... no, it wasn’t just me.

Disclaimers:

Keep in mind I’m using both the year-end top 100 lists from the US and from France while making these top 10 things. There’s songs in English that charted in my country way higher than they did in their home countries, or even earlier or later, so that might get surprising at times.

Of course there will be stuff in French. We suck. I know. It’s my list. Deal with it.

My musical tastes have always been terrible and I’m not a critic, just a listener and an idiot.

I have sound to color synesthesia which justifies nothing but might explain why I have trouble describing some songs in other terms than visual ones.

As I mentioned before I was super depressed in 2018, which wasn’t helped by the death of two family members including one I was super close to, and by catching a mysterious infection on a finger that doctors didn’t seem to be able to cure and which made my left hand hurt all year long, until I had to have an operation in early 2019 to fix the issue (plot twist, it wasn’t an infection, which is why nothing was working). On the plus side, my s.o and I decided to get married but it only happened the next year.

Ok so, hit songs weren’t that good (stay tuned for that), but albums? Some great stuff dropped in 2018. Unfortunately, Eminem’s Kamikaze wasn’t among those great albums and at that point he was basically dead to me. BUT! A Perfect Circle came back, which was completely unexpected! Nine Inch Nails released Bad Witch which contained the excellent and super hypnotic Over And Out! Mike Shinoda released Post Traumatic and every single Linkin Park fan was like “oh god what a mood”! Moby, which I hadn’t liked for years at that point after loving his stuff so much when I was 15 or so, released Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt and it was unexpectedly good! And The 1975 released A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, which, in my opinion, isn’t quite as great as their second album (I refuse to write its super long title again), but still super good. Just like the previous one, a lot of songs had crossover potential and I’m very sad it didn’t happen. Stay tuned for the unelligible songs.

But you know what? The album of the year, at least to me, was always going to be something much darker. Fortunately, the end of the year was when VNV Nation decided to drop its best album of the entire decade, Noire. In these trying times, an album about the fight between light and darkness was exactly what I needed to hear. I was super emotional when I first listened to it. Armour might just be the best song on the album. Collide explodes into a million colors after a super slow start. Wonders is a big mood. Lights Go Out is a super angry song which basically says ‘we’re dancing while the apocalypse is happening because they won’t let us do anything else’, and we need more stuff like this. When is the Future was a super solid first single and yeah, exactly, where is the future we were promised as kids? Only Satellites became one of my fight songs in record time. And All Of Our Sins is terrifying and super good. Just an amazing album all around. I certainly hope they make more in the future, but if they don’t, that would be a super high note to finish on.

As for unelligible stuff, there’s Chun Li (Nicki Minaj) which I found super weird at first, but it grew on me a lot as the year went on. I’m very surprised it’s not on the US year-end list, by the way. And I wish more stuff from Indochine had charted... again, I know. Apart from that, it’s all The 1975. Love it if we made it should have been a hit but wasn’t a safe bet for a leading single so it kind of makes sense. TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME despite its stupid title was a much more convincing hit, and yet, it wasn’t one, and that pisses me off more. And It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You) is one of their best songs ever. Catch me on the right day and I’ll call it better than The Sound, even. This should have been a hit. I’m so angry it didn’t happen.

But hey! Their new album is getting released in just a couple of days! Maybe 2020 is finally going to be their year? Wait and see.

Holy shit there hasn’t been a shorter list of honorable mentions since my 2008 list.

Remind Me To Forget (Kygo) - Good but (ironically) a bit too forgettable to be on the list.

Later Bitches (The Prince Karma) - So bad it’s good at its finest right there. Not enough to put it higher though.

High Hopes (Panic! At The Disco) - Tiptoes the line between good and super annoying too much to be higher. Not even the best song on the album (that would be Say Amen (Saturday Night)). Not sure why this was more popular.

Sicko Mode (Travis Scott) - God I want to love this song so bad. I tried so hard and it never completely clicked for me.

Next To Me (Imagine Dragons) - Believe it or not, this was the last cut from the list. I sincerely hope that Imagine Dragons will make good music again in the future and that their new songs will stop sounding like a person dragging themselves accross the wet sand of some post-apocalyptic beach covered in ashes.

So how do I know this was a bad year for hit songs? Well I not only struggled to find ten songs for this list but also struggled to find a suitable #1. Then I just went “I’m gonna put the only 2018 song I ever put on my mp3 player at #1 by default.” Does it make 2018 as bad as 1990? I’m not so sure. The top 3 I made for 1990 contained two songs I absolutely adored, including one of my favorite songs of all time. On the other hand, it was a bit easier to find ten songs I liked (not loved) in 2018. So... I don’t know.

I should also mention that Bohemian Rhapsody made the French year-end list again, at #83, and that is hilarious, but putting it on the list feels like cheating. Consider it to be an alternative #1!

10 - Finesse (Bruno Mars)

US: #14 / FR: Not on the list

I know. Everybody likes this song. I’m no exception, and I love its aesthetic, but I also like it wayyyyyy less than 24k Magic.

9 - New Rules (Dua Lipa)

US: #16 / FR: Not on the list

Basically, same thing here. I like it but I’m using it mostly as filler for this list. The lyrics are pretty great, though.

8 - This is America (Childish Gambino)

US: #51 / FR: Not on the list

This would be much better if the radio version had kept the gunshot sounds from the music video, but on the other hand it would have been pretty terrifying to hear gunshots on the radio while driving, so eh... this was probably the right decision to make. Apart from that, this song and this video have already been analysed by countless people on the internet and I don’t see what I could contribute after all this time.

7 - Sweet but Psycho (Ava Max)

US: Not on the list / FR: #42

This sounds like a song from the bygone era of Bad Romance and to be honest, it would have been annoying several years ago but in 2018 that was genuinely a refreshing blast from the past.

6 - Speed (Zazie)

US: Not on the list / FR: #74

To be honest, I never expected Zazie to show up on one of my lists again, but 2018′s general quality forced me to do it. This is a song that starts super slow and keeps getting faster, and it’s mostly about overcoming depression. Everything I needed that year.

5 - Let You Down (NF)

US: #29 / FR: Not on the list

I don’t think I know a single other person or critic who likes this song, and yet it charted super high. I don’t love it, and the chorus is grating, but there’s some damn powerful lyrics in there, and a lot of it is extremely relatable.

What can I say, in this day and age, if you give me a super-watered-down version of early 2000s Eminem, I’ll take it.

4 - Marry Me (Thomas Rhett)

US: #76 / FR: Not on the list

Yeah, it’s a slow emotional song and I tend to dislike those, but I heard this song only maybe four times in total and it destroyed me every single time.

No, I don’t have anything else to say about it.

3 - Un Été Français (Indochine)

US: Not on the list / FR: #67

I do not like this song’s chorus, it’s a mess and a half. There’s a lot of much better songs on the 13 album. 2033 should have been a single. But this is the one which charted instead. And you know what? I’ll take “super messy and clunkily written song about how the far right is gonna destroy this country if we let it exist any longer, sung over a nice tune” over everything I mentioned previously on this list.

In a better year, this wouldn’t have climbed higher than the honorable mentions. But yeah, I’m not gonna repeat my entire 2017 lecture about Indochine. It takes a lot for me to dislike one of their songs. Even at their weakest, their hearts are in the right place.

2 - Flames (David Guetta & Sia)

US: Not on the list / FR: #13

We’ve finally reached the songs I genuinely love and uh, yeah, there’s only two of them. This is sad. But this song is a lot of fun! And the music video is absolutely ridiculous in all the best ways.

It was also a super useful song to me. You’re being super sad and unenergetic, you’re climbing into your car to buy some food, you’re turning the radio on and suddenly you’re hearing “Go, go, go, figure it out / Figure it out, you can do this / So my love, keep on running / You gotta get through today / There my love, keep on running / Gotta keep those tears at bay / Oh my love, don't stop burning / Gotta send them up in flames” over a super good beat and yeah, definitely. You can do this.

1 - La Même (Maître Gims & Vianney)

US: Not on the list / FR: #1 (!! holy shit quality wins for once)

This might just be the weakest #1 I’ve ever put at the top of one of my lists, since the only criteria that put this one there was “this is actually on my mp3 player and none of the other songs are”. Also, somehow, I only discovered it last year even though it was the biggest song of 2018 in my country, apparently...

Even so, that’s a fantastic song with great lyrics and a wonderfully catchy tune and that would have been enough to put it at #1 on its own, I think. But look at those lyrics! (here’s a rather good translation) It’s about how society judges people by their looks in public. The chorus literally goes “If what I am bothers you, well, tough”. That’s even the title. And I like the music video a lot, with this white box in which people are put and as soon as they aren’t in it anymore you notice how different they act or look, like the buff guy who turns out to have prosthetic legs, or the grandma who turns out to be covered in tatoos. Simple but cool idea.

It may be a weak #1, but it’s an extremely useful song, because having “si je vous gêne, bah c’est la même” (”if I bother you, well tough”) turning in your head like a playground taunt, it really does wonders for your confidence.

And to think some French friends thought making these lists would make me hate Maître Gims’ music once I discovered it.

Next up: the last list?! It’s been a wild ride.

#Johannes’ bad not good pretty terrible music lists #music #long post #eye contact tw #fire tw