#because it takes a huge amount of my time and the only income i make from it is through ko-fi...

[itgirl-111]

THE BEST MONEY AFFIRMATIONS (aka facts)

(this is gonna be the only money Affirmations you'll never need lol)

I am rich

I am financially stable

I'm secure in my financial state

Money is safe

Money is good

Money is here to stay

I'm a money magnet

I have the perfect money mindset

I have the perfect self concept on money

I love money and money loves me

Money is the easiest thing to make

I have multiple sources of income

I am wealthy

I genuinely believe I deserve a lot of money

I deserve a luxurious, comfort, fun filled, lifestyle

I am worthy and deserving of having lots of money because I exist

I get money everyday

I get paid to exist

I am worth every cent I get

I get money quickly and easily

People always have enough money to give me

People bend over backwards to make sure I'm getting paid enough

Nobody goes to sleep unless and untill they make sure I'm getting paid enough

Everyday I just make more and more money

Me and the people i love are rich af

My bank account never stops getting fatter

I am so rich i make Elon Musk look poor

I am so rich my hands are starting to smell like money

I wake up every day and go to sleep stress free knowing that I don't have to worry about money in my life

I am living wealthy and abundant life

I keep finding money everywhere

No matter where I go money always keeps chasing me like a lost puppy

If I were to count the amount of times I got a huge amount of money out of blue, I wouldn't be able to count it cuz it's too much

My fingers are starting to hurt because of the amount of times I counted my stacks and stacks worth of billions of cash ugh 😫

I have so much money in my bank account that the value of pi π looks small

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, 7 OUT OF 7 days I get money.

12 OUT OF 12 months I get money

there's not a single day that goes by without me getting money

Any amount of money i spend comes back to me tenfold

I walk into a shop knowing damn well I could buy the entire shop if I wanted to

I have so much money I can use it instead of a toilet paper (jk i don't do that)

I have so much money I can make origami out of it

I have so much money I'd buy the biggest companies and still remain rich as fuck like?

I am the definition of LOADED 💵

I am independent, successful, wealthy, rich, self sufficient, financially secure, debt free, stress free, yep I identify with those things.

My notifications are flooded with me receiving payments constantly

If anyone is a FATASS it is my wallet

Money is so desperate to stay in my life

Every where I go even to the damn toilet I still can never escape from lots of money😔

Money keeps flowing to me like a river

My bank account digits are the most groundbreaking, immense, tremendous, huge, back arching, toe curling, digits ever known to human kind😞

If i spent a whole day counting my stacks of cash, i wouldn't be able to cause that will take atleast a million years...oops...😳

Whether it's expected or unexpected, whether  I'm happy or sad, sleeping or awake, working or not, money comes to me all the time and In all the ways.

#money affirmations #moneymindset #law of assumption #neville goddard #manifestation #manifesting #loassumption #affirmations #affirm #affirmyourlife #affirmdaily #manifestingreality #manifestyourreality #master manifestor #self concept #self concept affirmations

[aagneauu]

High value habits to elevate yourself 🥂✨

When the term "high value" is mentioned, we often think of things related exclusively to economic wealth, but being a high-value person is an attitude, an attribute founded on habits and a wealthy mentality. So today I wanted to mention a few habits that I personally perceive as something a person with strong standards apply on their lives. ✨

Sorry if there's any grammar mistakes, English isn't my first language :b

1. Long-term mentality ✦

Enjoying yourself is very important, but when we only think about the things that give us temporary pleasure, is often very likely that we forget to take care about our future stability. For example, if you want to travel, the smart thing to do would be to save the money in order to be able to afford it, but how many times we just feel the urge to waste money on unnecessary stuff just to get that brief satisfaction, that bad habit will take us far from our goals. This rule can be applied on almost every aspect, and if you're able to stick to your goals and take decisions according to them, trust me, you'll get very far.

2. Invest ✦

Stop wasting and start investing; your money, your time and your energy. In terms of money, you obviously can spend some of it on pretty stuff, but instead of wasting your whole salary on things you want, a smarter move would be to use part of that money to invest it on something that potentially can give us another income, maybe there's a valuable peace of jewelry or clothing that not only we could use, but to sell and trade in the future, or even if you have enough money saved, you can invest in a property, to not only live in it, but to rent it. Our time and energy works in the same way, we could be wasting our time and energy with people that don't give us nothing we can learn from, and you're worth way more than that. Find people and habits that not only make you feel good and appreciated, but that will leave you something interesting for your personal growth, and remember, better alone than in a bad company.

3. Details matter ✦

How we talk, how we decide to present ourselves to the world, our values, the effort we put on what we make. Every little detail says something about us. For example, something as simple as spraying perfume before we go out makes a difference, or if you study, the amount of time and effort you decide to put on certain classes. Socially, what you decide to say, and to develop the hability to stay quiet when necessary. Maybe you think that those little things don't make a huge difference at the long-term, but when you see how your life can change drastically with every little step you take, you learn to pay attention to it.

4. Patience ✦

It is a strong word, it is even harder to apply to our lives sometimes. Being patient not only with people, but with our circumstances. Sometimes things that we don't like happens, and we don't even understand why because we thought that we did everything right, but everything happens for a reason, it's like a fruit, you could take it out of the tree earlier because you're hungry, but it isn't that mature and tasty, but if you just wait, resist the hunger, the fruit will be way better. That applies to money, emotional growth and life changes. Learn to understand that sometimes, pain will be the sign to something better than your current situation.

5. Stop following the crowd ✦

Set standards and learn what is good for you, if you just rely on others to decide what is best for you, or even worse; you know something is bad for you and still do it for others, then expect low quality experiences. People time to time will call you boring or even extreme just because you decide to be loyal to your values. If something that everyone is doing seems beneficial, do it, but because it gives you something valuable, not because of the crowd. You can apply this rule to everything; friends, money, and other experiences. The amount ot peace and comfort that you can get with this transformation is a huge life upgrade.

This were some topics that come to mind when the "high value" term is mentioned. And remember, no one is perfect and every little thing makes us unique. Life is a long journey that you can decide to upgrade with every little move.

Hope u enjoyed! ♡

#girlblogger #fashion #girl blogger #girlblogging #moodboard #luxuries #luxury #aesthetic #luxury aesthetic #luxe #high value mindset #high value woman #high maintenance #it girl #black girl luxury #gaslight gatekeep girlboss #girl boss #girl blogging #luxury lifestyle

[theambitiouswoman]

And I have a question to ask you? Can you quit your job despite lacking any “resources”? A lot of people say you can’t, but it’s not true! You can!

When I mentor people I tell them to have enough money saved up and a plan on how they are going to move once they quit. If they started a side hustle I tell them to wait until their side hustle completely replaces their current income and is stable for a few months.

Yes, you CAN quit your job despite having resources. But not everyone can. Not in their mind at least, and a conversation isn't going to magically change that. Not everyone can go balls to the wall without second guessing themselves.

Think about it, you quit your job, the next day you have to figure it the F out. This takes confidence, this takes commitment, this takes discipline so you don't become lazy, this takes not getting into your feelings or losing your self esteem because of this huge life shift. This takes you knowing you deserve better and making it happen. Sink or float. And so much more.

I will say that no one is better off in a bad position, where the environment is toxic or destroying their soul. No one deserves that. The fear of losing something that makes you miserable out of the fear of having nothing should not be the reason you are putting up with it. This is your life. YOU HAVE ONE LIFE. You are probably in that toxic environment because you are settling for less and meant for so much more, and you don't even realize it. That is why it is not working out. Idk about everyone else but I rather have nothing and figure out what I need to do, than put up with something that makes me miserable.

This is a delicate conversation because the economy is shit right now and a lot of people are struggling. And that does a number on your self esteem. I get it. Plus living paycheck to paycheck, it is terrifying. My advice is to use whatever free time you have to learn new skills, consume content, and visit environments that expose you to a new reality, the one you want and deserve. That way that shift happens in you and it inspires new ideas and principles that might make you freaking happy and realize your worth and the amount of opportunities that exist.

You can do it.

Anyone can do it.

I really believe that.

You were not put on this earth to be miserable. Absolutely anything in life is better than feeling that way every single day. And you do not have to. When you find yourself with nothing, or feeling like you reached rock bottom - remember that the only place you can go from there is UP! Rock bottom is the perfect place to rebuild your life - your way.

[simnostalgia]

TW: Stalking, suicide, death, death threats, Zoophilia, Pedophilia, etc.

This is a long read. Sorry about that. I have lots of thoughts.

A Little Background for Those Not in the Know Regarding Sims "for profit" Modding Drama.

Okay, so I know I've already kind of talked about the implications of the new policy a little, but I haven't really talked about what I personally think about it. This seems like a good time though. I don't really expect many people to read this all the way through but honestly, I just wanted to say something about it.

As some of you know I was the old head of DHM (Dollhouse Mafia) and original founder. I stepped down a while ago because I was spreading myself too thin on personal projects and also, I didn't like the way things were going. I have nothing but good things to say about the current leadership, but it just personally wasn't worth it to me. ANYWAY, that being said, I wanted to put my thoughts about how the community has changed regarding its stance on pay content and how it used to be

So back in the days of TS2 PMBD acted as a receptacle for all pay custom content to be leaked. TSR, way back, was the biggest pay site in the community with several other smaller pay sites that specialized in hair or clothes. These sites generally had a specific style and very obviously made their own content. I couldn't tell you how much creators made but I know that other than TSR users it wasn't a huge amount.

So, The Sims team has pretty obviously always had a love/hate relationship with pay content. Even though it seems to have cooled they used to be VERY close to TSR. I know that they've always had a policy against pay content but it's never been enforced really. Like I said though, the only people who seemed to be making BIG money from non-passive income was TSR.

The reason that I bring this up is that I think the reason that things went so wrong isn't because of pay CC. I'm against pay CC and I always will be, we can talk about paying artists all we want but at the end of the day this is a hobby and if you're trying to use it as your main source of income you're in the wrong but I digress...

EA's Relationship with for profit CC

Fun fact, Patreon was actually started by the voice actor that played Teen/College aged men in TS2. I suspect that he got the idea from watching The Sims community try and set up their own personal online shopfronts and figured there was a way to do it better. I also suspect that many people who worked within The Sims Studio were pro-paysite because it created a demand that kept The Sims brand in people's minds. If people were making a living off of it then it was always being bought and you had people who basically HAD to buy it because that's how they made a living.

When talking about his new NFT (gross.) project Will Wright actually mentioned that one thing he didn't like was that piracy was taking place when Sims players were creating pay CC and others would pirate it. I suspect that the only reason they kept the policy they did was in case creators would make something that rivaled the studio in terms of quality (which according to Don Hopkins was an actual concern and part of the reason that EA's CC tools weren't super powerful, we couldn't create anything "too good")

Like anything to do with money, I think people who were mostly outsiders to the community realized that they could maximize profits through unsavory means such as flipping meshes quickly and reselling them from 3D modelling websites.

The problem is this created a flood of people who started using The Sims as their SOLE income and they began making good money too. Enough that they wouldn't easily be able to make that amount doing anything else without a serious career change.

Low Quality, Quick Profit, Unruly Community

So remember how EA decided they wanted to reach out and start the Game Changer program for the better by doing outreach to players by trying to interact with the community online. Then very recently they were like... trying to start a "sims social platform"? Yeah EA isn't really crazy about the fact that we're a self-sufficient community.

Most other gaming communities that have player made content tend to try and keep that player made content in an official store of some kind. Both so they can monetize it and use it as a selling point and also so they can control what can be done with it. Roblox is a GOOD example of how companies tend this sort of thing to play out. Communities that exploit creators and allow companies to control the player content, so everything aligns with the "brand".

Now, I'm just a person who REALLY likes The Sims and knows a lot about it so take it with a grain of salt but I suspect that EA is trying to find a way to keep us under better control. They've likely seen the messy fights that the patreon creators have been getting in. They've also definitely heard about the wide-spread availability of not just sex mods but sex mods that allow for pedophilia/zoophilia.

People can act like this has happened before in The Sims community but not like this. Before people were getting legal threats here and there and a few people were doing some bad stuff with the game but now we're talking doxxing, half of 4chan has started using The Sims as a sex playground, and people are making crazy money from it. EA was willing to overlook sex mods but I doubt they want a replay of the Jack Thompson case or to get the bad press that Habbo of Secondlife got for being bastions of pedophilia and perversion. It used to be that TSR was one company that made a lot of money and acted like a company acts to protect their business interests. However, now you have several HUNDRED people who were using The Sims as a get quick rich scheme and they were willing to attack community members to keep themselves living well. Not all of them, mind you, but it is an issue.

I suspect EA is worrying how this will look for the brand. It was okay when we were all creating a few mods and making pocket change from custom content. But now, because we've all been content creators we're getting better at it and it's causing problems (TM) for EA.

Both because their overlooking of pay content has backfired as it became more of a business AND because their players started becoming skilled enough to create things that both rivaled their own content and sullied their brand for outsiders and started attracting more and more unsavory types (cough cough ColonolNutty).

TL;DR: EA did this to themselves. They wanted the community to create for their games but didn't consider the outcomes of monetizing it. Now no matter what they do, some group will be mad at them. No matter what they do it's going to result in bad press... And you know what?

#Patreon drama #Patreon #Simblr #The Sims #The Sims 4 #Sims #TS4 #ColonolNutty #Colonol Nutty #WickedWhims #Wicked Whims #Roblox #Habbo Hotel #simblr drama #Sim Nostalgia #Simnostalgia #cowbuilt #Mack3030 #EA #Electronic Arts #Maxis #sex mod #Jack Thompson #Sims patreon #leosims #PMBD #Paysitesmustbedestoryed #pescado #This is EA's fault when you think about it

[pastafossa]

how long did it take for your fanfiction to start getting some recognition? did you "advertise" it or "promote" it in any way?

i know that people say this doesn't matter, but i feel like even if you love writing the feeling that you're just talking to yourself gets pretty exhausting at some point. so i'm not talking about having thousands of readers but rather like. what's your advice to have readers at least?

- someone who hasn't even started writing their ideas yet...

LONG POST INCOMING.

First I want you (and everyone else reading who may be struggling with this) to know I'm absolutely with you and generally think 'it doesn't matter' is a horseshit answer. It's this weird thing we do in fanfic that we generally don't apply to other artforms that I've seen. If you're a painter, a playwriter, a novel writer, and you say, 'I want at least a few people to love my paintings, I want some people to come see my play, I want my novel to be published and do at least ok' we all support them, we nod, we agree, we talk about how they can do that successfully. It's considered normal to want some amount of success. But hold up fanfic instead and it becomes, 'how dare you want that praise, you're being egotistical, you should be writing only for yourself'. I'm not saying you can't do that - there are some who do - but it's definitely this bizarre switchup to say there's this single artform in which we can't want attention on our work and that there's something wrong with us if we do. That can be an absolute creativity killer depending on what kind of writer you are (hi, extrovert writer here who only gets writy writy juice from social interaction - aka comments and discussion. So I totally get it being exhausting just doing this on your own).

So let me say this categorically: you're allowed to want things. You're allowed to want kudos, comments, and hits. You're allowed to want messages and asks. You're allowed to want some readers you can talk with about your story.

You. Are. Allowed.

Ok, now that that's out of the way.

Edit: more below the cut cause I didn't realize the length of this on mobile

TRT definitely didn't get popular overnight. The first four chapters were sporadic, and then I took a hiatus due to life things for a couple years. During that time, it kept slowly ticking up bit by bit on AO3, with occasional comments. Iirc it was hovering somewhere around 700 kudos by the time I came back in Jan 2021 - and that's a awesome! It's big! But it's also a number that was gained over a few years, to put it in perspective. It absolutely took off after I came back though, and over the past 2 years both TRT's popularity and the stats of my one-shots in the fandom have grown. Part of that's just the time frame (TRT's been up about 6 years), but it's also due to a couple things that I think built up TRT's popularity.

Building a tumblr presence was huge. Ironically I didn't really intend to do it for advertising; I just wanted a place readers could ask questions or we could all freak out about Matt or I could post some drabbles or updates on the fic. But considering the fact that AO3 and tumblr are the top fic sites online, I wound up promoting my fics unintentionally just by being a friendly, happy tumblr user and fandom goer. All I did was follow the courtesy rules I knew - post stuff regularly, reblog, comment, make friends with other writers, just be friendly in your neighborhood because you love the lady with the gif flower shop on the corner or the wise old pizza maker who serves hot fandom takes all day long. I built familiarity with my writing and name by posting short fics, and by taking part in challenges and prompt lists and short requests for drabbles if I saw them, though that's something that's hard to do if you don't have time (I've got less time now, but I started this blog in the early pandemic so I had aaaaall the time in the world to write and was using it to stay sane). I tagged religiously because I LOVE tags, but that helped, too. Tumblr's search system is half broken but the half that works means people CAN find your writing even if they aren't following. Doing all this over here got me a huge boost over on AO3.

I will say that if you can have a fandom tiktok presence, there's a lot of fic reviewers, edits, and good stuff that can get your fic some readers (I've had some people do this on tiktok for TRT and it sent a surge over). I personally haven't done anything there yet, in part because while I'm on tiktok I try to keep my actual, real person accounts separate from my fic/fandom accounts and i haven't bothered to make a second account solely dedicated to the Pasta name yet.

Longfics on AO3 have the advantage in fic stats in the sense that every time you add a chapter, it gets bumped to the top of the front page and you get seen again. Eventually a lot of people will click out of curiosity. They may not, however, give you a lot of user subs or add to your other fic stats at first, whereas if you do a bunch of oneshots you're more likely to get user subs but less hits on each fic. This is a decision you'll have to make, and I know folks in both camps who built their followings using different methods on each. Either way, it helps if you're posting regularly, either in a long fic or one-shots. I call this the Stephen King method, who said he just writes a ton and throws it all at the wall, and eventually you get enough good despite the bad that you start building a following.

Learn learn learn. This is standard fic advice I always give, but it's still relevant. I think one of the reasons imo TRT has done so well is that I've spent a lot of time over the years learning how to write and edit - I read a ton of books (sometimes just to figure out HOW good authors structure their stories), I took a lot of English classes, I've taken some creative writing courses in my spare time. That two year hiatus was heavily spent doing a lot of research and practice around an original novel I want published one day. And I used ALL of that in TRT, just to see what it was like to put it all together. Be hungry for knowledge, be hungry to learn. The more you learn, the better your fic will be, and the more people that will click.

That learning also includes a looooong string of fanfics that started at a very novice level (hello 12 year old me), to fics that were ok and did moderately well but weren't anything huge. Hell, I had a tumblr account for my previous fandoms before I wandered over to Pastafossa, and while those fics did decently, I never had the huge reaction I've gotten here. But I used each and every one of those fics to learn and grow and adapt. Treat your own fics the same way. If it doesn't get hits, try to learn from it before moving on to the next idea a little wiser and a slightly better writer than before. There will always be people who start to follow you along the way.

A small one, but important: I swear to god, do not shit-talk yourself. Not in the summary, not in the tags, not in the A/Ns. I'm not talking, 'this is my first fic!' That's fine. I mean trashing your own work. Shit like, 'ha ha this sucks, it's terrible but oh well' will absolutely lower your stats, because people will believe you and will ditch your fic. On top of that, it's just mean to yourself, and as I said above, you want to be a good person in the fandom neighborhood. That means not breaking the windows of your own house.

People generally think of summaries as a side note, but a shitty summary can absolutely tank your stats. Treat it like the rest of your fic - this is the trailer before the movie, and it's a huge element of what gets people interested in the first place.

Lastly, like I said at the top, the biggest factor is time. There are people who post one fic and explode in popularity, absolutely. But far, far more little followings are built on the bones of time, of abandoned fics, of muttering and highlighting phrases in books in the middle of the night, of trying and trying and trying until we have at last have a breakthrough and then drag that breakthrough forward with us to the next fic. TRT is absolutely one part lightning in a bottle - the biggest success I've ever had anywhere with my writing, a confluence of fandom factors and world events that gave people (and me!) time to write and read. But it's also standing on the back of whole lot of fics I wrote that look like everyone else's: ones with no comments, low interaction, insults; ones where I had precisely zero idea of what I was doing, but wanted to try anyway. And the way I got through that, as a writer who needs interaction in order to create, was by building friendships in fandom so that even when a fic didn't do all that well, I still had friends I could talk to about the characters, the world, the fandom itself. I asked friends to look them over and give advice. I had friends being my cheerleaders. And if you're an extrovert like me, or just a writer who needs that to create, then those connections are vital as you build up a following.

That's a lot of what I've done. I know there are other ways to build a following, but this is generally what I've done, what I've learned to do, and it seems to have worked. Just remember that there are no bad fics - just learning opportunities. Learn something, and that fic's a success, and work as hard as you can to make those fandom connections to carry you through the process.

I absolutely hope to see your work around one day, so that I can be on of those followers!

#writing advice #fic advice #fic tips #building a following #fanfic #fic #writing tips #tbh i was shocked and still kind of am by how popular trt's become #because i have had ZERO previous experiences in my fic writing time that aligned #BUT #there are absolutely things I did in hindsight I think that helped a ton #and all of the practice and writing fic including the ones with zero interaction helped #i learned how to be a good fandom goer even when i didn't write #because i genuinely loved my little neighborhoods #and i used a lot of that when i started writing again cause why wouldn't i??? #also avoid petty fandom drama you don't need to waste your energy on it #i WANT my blog to generally be a positive space cause i've got shit going on elsewhere and i don't need more #but that also means i think that people like wandering through cause they know there's a lot of happy things here #be the person in the neighborhood watering your daisies and putting out a rainbow pinwheel even when ted down the block #is feuding with susan up the block over the height of ted's fence

[thedisablednaturalist]

People should get reimbursed for commute time

If it takes someone over an hour to get tk work, that should be part of their pay.

Many people have to commute long distances/through areas of slow traffic because they cannot afford to live closer to their workplace. This is also why work from home is a big thing.

If corporations want people to return to their offices, they need to make it appealing enough. I'm not going to fight through traffic for 2 hrs in my free time just to sit at a computer all day, when I could just stay home and don't waste that time.

Corporations would be forced to invest in local affordable housing, perhaps even affording housing credits. They would need to invest in local infrastructure (which in the US is falling to pieces) and improve public transport in their area (faster commute -> less cost to the company, less cars on road -> traffic moves faster, employees without cars would still be able to get to work). Also people would be less stressed and actually take the time to drive safely because they wouldn't feel the need to rush. It would make companies actually take an interest in how their workers get to work and investing in local communities.

I live sort of near DC. We have a HUGE amount of workers commuting into the city and its surrounding cities. Retail workers also have to commute to these cities and suburbs because they cannot afford to live in those areas. My boyfriend commutes an hour to his part time job at a kennel in a rich town. A lot of people live in the more affordable, lower income, far away areas in the nearby states because housing prices in my area are fucking insane. I knew someone who commuted 2+ hours to work and 2+ hours back. There are people who drive even more than that.

And where do these employees have to live? Food deserts. Crumbling infastructure. No parks, no walkability, no public transport, bare bones everything. Only the cities which only the few can afford have basic infrastructure. And even the people living there have to commute to OTHER even richer areas. There's a ton of places where housing developments have just been shoved and are surrounded by nothing but farms. There's nothing local to do, so everyone goes to the closest town and city. It's also why you see a lot of older towns have abandoned main streets. Why have your business cater to the 100 people who live there when you can be in a city with thousands?

There has been some recent interest in paid commute times. 1 2 especially with corporations trying to get workers to go back to the office. Personally, I love working in my office because having a separate space outside my home helps me keep work and home separate and allows me to focus easier since I'm not in "home mode". I don't have room for an office in my parents house so working from home kinda sucks rn even though it would help a lot since I'm disabled. But it is nice being physically near my coworkers, even if it gets annoying sometimes. Also many jobs involve fieldwork (like mine!) which can't be done remotely anyway!

There would be incentive for corporations to keep their employees close AND provide more remote work options for those living farther away. As well as matching pay to fit rent/housing prices in the area (or vice versa).

Also there needs to be something done about corporations having their entire workforce sourced from another country entirely, working for pennies. But that's an even more complicated situation that I don't have experience in.

#long post #its 6am rant time #its so much more sustainable to have people live and work in the same communities #so many resources are spent on commute #i like my drive because it gives me time to wake up and i like just sitting n focusing for a bit #but my commute is also pretty easy since I am going away from the city towards the lower income areas #on the other direction it is backed up completely most days #we drive a lot during work to bc we visit different restoration sites and we get paid for those driving times! #it all comes down to corporations not giving a shit about their employees lives #pls dont try n dox me there are a ton of areas near DC like mine #so its harder than you'd think #but yea ive seen some crazy fucking traffic and commute times #corporations should invest in their communities instead of acting like fucking parasites #remote work #return to office #commute #labor rights #id love if sustainable city experts n economists chimed in #sustainability #sustainable cities #local economy #community

[squalodinoappreciationsquad]

Headcanons - Dino's family

Because Amano did not give us anything at all, please see below my headcanons for Dino's family and guardians.

Big Disclaimer: these all all OCs except obviously for Dino and his dad, who canonly appear in both manga and anime.

I am also very conscious that I have used actual Italian names and surnames for my OCs, so yeah. Perks of actually being Italian I guess. Anyway. Here you go:

And here you have all general explanations.

So, Dino's family is mainly normal people - as normal as they can be in the KHR universe, let's say they are mostly Nana Sawada's kind of normal.

I still have to establish how the Cavallone family came into existence, but I figure they were once nobles and once Italy got rid of the Savoy family and voted to establish a republic rather than a monarchy (2 June 1946) they kind of went through the change to kind of save themselves.

So, the thing in Italy is that we don't really have horse races, unless you count the Palio di Siena and the Palio di Asti, BUT we have EVERYTHING about cars.

Car races are A LOT, there is Formula 1, Formula 3, Moto GP, rally, whatever involves car races under the sun. It's kind of our specialty lol, Alfa, Ferrari, Lancia and Lamborghini are VERY famous brands.

And car races means a lot of betting, which is something a mafia boss would want to have part in it money-wise and power-wise.

Which went quite well as an alternative income after losing nobility status until Cosimo Cavallone (the Ninth) inherited the thing from his father Giorgio (the Eighth) and kind of leaned too much into betting and went into huge and heavy debts. Reasons why Dino had to pay off his dad's debts whilst becoming the Tenth boss. :)

Surely this must have given Dino a deep hatred of betting, but I feel this is a headcanon for a different post.

Anyway.

Onto his family.

We of course know Romario and Ivan and all of his subordinates, but SURELY Dino has a big family.

Dino is an only child with an ungodly amount of cousins. He is also one of the oldest among the cousins, which means he has had to babysit A LOT during family gatherings. Here I am including the closest ones, but trust me, there is an entire army of cousins.

And he has to know them all.

Speaking about cousins, the most notable are:

Marco Gallo: son of his aunt Marta and his uncle Donato, Marco has never had a single serious thought in his head in his whole life. He loves playing pranks and whilst the 99% of the times they are harmless, he is also a very easy target if anyone takes his pranks the wrong way. Among his pranks, mainly at Dino's expenses, he snapped a "Christmassy" photo of teen!Dino and teen!Squalo crouched over one of the newborn cousins at a family event and dubbing it as "the Nativity". Oh, sometimes he shows up way too drunk at family events and shenanigans ensue.

Margherita and Irene Testa: they are twins. Those twins who look the same and you cannot distinguish them unless they wear different clothes/different hairstyles. Which was an issue until they hit their teenage years and they developed opposite tastes, as in Margherita is the one who will have everything made of natural fibers, is into the new age kind of thing and Irene is the exact opposite of it. In spite of everything they really get along well. when they were children their favourite sport was to corner Dino and make him play dolls with them, which Dino hated. Once Squalo was in the picture they made him play dolls too.

But Dino not only has cousins and a father, he also has a mother. Veronica Greco, aka the Most Beautiful Woman no one has yet understood how she could marry Cosimo Cavallone, a very average-looking man. Dino took after her in looks.

By the way, in Italy we DO NOT take the husband's name, unless the person specifically wants to, it's the very first "fuck you" to patriarchy that women could have, because up until the mid-seventies women were pretty much treated like property/objects.

Anyway.

Veronica is one of those people who are naturally good at everything. She also has the ability to step into a room and make everyone go quiet, which is very useful when family events go downhill. She just says "Stop" and everyone goes quiet, then she smiles and solves the issues at hand.

Dino can do that for about 1 minute, then he trips or falls down or something and the magic is gone.

Veronica also deals with a lot of the family drama and the gossips and has also gone very near a divorce because of Cosimo's gambling habits.

And speaking of Dino's dad, he is not actually dead, he decided to retire once Dino became boss and he is now enjoying the countryside with his wife Veronica. His hobbies consist in collecting scale models of cars and tending at the garden.

Of course Dino has his own Guardians. We do not usually see them because Dino can deal with most of the things himself, but - figure something like Byakuran happens - they will gladly join the fight. They all were people either saved or friended by Dino whilst Reborn was his tutor and was in the process of becoming the Bucking Bronco.

They are:

Alessandro Ferro: Storm Guardian. Very reliable in a fight, he uses a crossbow and he is a master sniper. Somehow he once got arrested for stealing manholes, but never served as his alibi was proved.

Diego Guerra: Rain guardian, he originally was supposed to join the Varia, but they had enough swordsmen and he needed a job, as he was deep into debt. Dino listened to him and helped him get back on his feet. since then Diego's loyalty has been with Dino. He uses a rapier as weapon.

Lucrezia Battaglia: Sun guardian, Judo black belt 8th dan, undefeated so far. She is short and way too much into cutesy stuff, but she will beat you to a pulp if she feels a hint of threat. She absolutely loves shoujo anime.

Cristian D'amico: Thunder guardian - and no, I have not messed the spelling, in Italy we tend to omit the H bc it is a mute consonant. The chillest guy on earth. Takes things with such a phlegm. It's obviously the calm before the storm when he fights. Would rather nap than fight tho.

Danilo de Angelis: he is the aloof one. He likes wandering about and looks a little bit lost, but don't be fooled. He is very perceptive and will notice when things are not going well.

Iacopo La Morte: everyone is scared of him because they hear his surname (aka The Death) andeveryone is like "OMG this guy is going to kill us all", and they kind of get disappointed when they see he is actually a really nice person. Unless you wronged the family, in which case he is going to make sure you regret it with all your being.

And I admit I have only developed everyone this much just because I was like "oh, it's only for the Big Damn Table, they are going to have sporadic apparitions whilst I fill the 100 prompts", but now that I actually see this written down I kind of want to expand. What do you all think about this?

#khr #katekyo hitman reborn #kateikyoushi hitman reborn #dino cavallone #family cavallone #khr headcanons #cavallone family tree

[yeniihuenii]

Regarding My Commissions

All current/upcoming commissions I have at the moment and in this queue will remain as it was agreed upon. This announcement will not affect them.

Doing commissions to fund myself whenever I need or want something has been my thing since high school. Now, I’m a graduating college student, and that means I’ll need to make decisions for my career and where I want to be. 

It took me 7 years to realize that doing lots of commissions as a source of income is not for me. It’s a commitment to fulfill someone’s vision into reality, and while I really enjoy that idea when it comes to commissions, they can be very time consuming. Lately, I no longer have the passion for doing illustrations. As I got busier, I couldn't find time to draw personal art, and that eventually led me into a burnout. 

This year however, I’ve been really struggling to finish my commissions, on top of my current schedule irl, and the toll it’s taken is starting to manifest physically. Because commissions are my only source of income, stopping them means I’ll be broke, and I regret not creating another source earlier.

I’ve taken breaks from commissions before, but the same cycle happens. I’m aware of my tendency to stretch myself too thin, and I believe narrowing my focus and better planning would help me improve in the long run. Right now, my priority is to improve on art while planning for what I want to do next year.

Because of what I’ve mentioned earlier, my closing process will be slow. I will no longer be taking personal illustration and fullbody requests, but simpler busts and halfbodies will remain open. I plan to finish all my ongoing commissions before this year ends, and when I’ve found another source of income by next year, my commissions will be closed for an indefinite amount of time.

I have future visions for my art career, and doing personal commissions won’t be a huge part of it. From this point forward, I want to find the motivation to create art again that I hope would land me commercial work in the future. I want to make way for other opportunities in my art career, putting my name out there and hoping to open an online shop by the time I graduate. 

Thank you everyone for your support so far and I hope you’ll join me in my journey as an artist improving themselves not just in art, but also in body and mind. <3

#important #moneyoniis

[idrellegames]

Hi!

First I want to say that I love your Wayfarer game! It's the first interactive narrative game I have both played and then immediately backed - the quality knocked everything else I have encountered that was not created by a professional studio out of the water.

That being said, with the expansion of the game into something bigger than you initially anticipated, would you ever consider hiring a team with the funds from Patreon or approaching a professional game publisher (e.g., Wadjet Eye Games) for assistance now that you have a couple of episodes out and a better idea of how expansive the game you want to create is?

Thank you so much for the lovely message!

To answer your question: hiring a team is a much more difficult thing than it looks like from the outside. Wayfarer is funded through Patreon, yes, but it is also my full-time job and my primary source of income. I currently do not have the funding to be able to pay team as well as myself (to be very frank and to put things into perspective - the amount I am making on Patreon barely meets minimum wage for my area).

To make the game, I need to first pay myself and ensure all my living expenses are covered as that gives me the time to write, code, manage my social media, and all the other things that come with being an indie creator. I would need to be making substantially more than I currently am to even consider hiring others and ensure that they are being paid fairly for their work. But even then there are other development costs that take precedence before something like that can happen.

At this stage, reaching out to a publisher is also not viable. Despite the amount of content available, Wayfarer is still in its infancy and a full release is a long way off. I'm not really in a place where I can negotatiate with publishers while also developing the game.

I am also not sure what a studio could offer me at this point. Writing is the thing that takes the longest in terms of development; the only way to speed up that process would be to hire a team of writers, which comes with its own complications (there's a huge difference between being a single writer working on your own and being a narrative design lead heading a team). Because of the way my process works, this is not the type of project where having multiple writers can work. Wayfarer's writing is so very much my own; I cannot see anyone else contributing to it and merging their style with mine, even if it did speed things up.

#wayfarer #wayfarer if #answered

[talkingattumble]

okay deltarune opinion incoming so spoilers and all that

Okay here’s like my take on the secret bosses so far. Fair warning this isn’t structured at all, I just kinda leap from subject to subject and this entire thing is just ramblings so don’t expect some well thought out and presented theory it is just my thoughts, and some messy theories. SORRY IN ADVANCE FIR THE LONG POST like seriously this post is just a bunch of enormous paragraphs about my extra shaky barely supported deltarune theories so be warned

First of all, jevil is pretty widely assumed to be the joker card in a deck of cards. Mostly from the fact that he was the jester in a card based dark world and that he is wearing a joker outfit. Also, his signature line is “I can do anything”, which is kind of a reference to the fact that a joker card can do anything in most card games. Anyways, so I saw this theory in a video about the bosses being tossed aside or ignored things. And I was agreeing with it, but then I thought about jebil. Why would a joker card be tossed aside? Okay well in my experience. The joker card is usually super op in most card games. For example, in war, most of the time the joker is regarded as being able to beat any card (in some cases only an ace can beat it, but I’m not sure how common that rule is or if it has any significance to the interpretation). For this reason, it’s usually not included to make the game more fair, as most of the time anyone who ends up with a joker card gets a huge advantage. So a lot of the time people end up playing without a joker and forgetting about it. And his whole backstory? I think that jevil believing that his life is a game is another reason he’s always saying “I can do anything”. The world he lives in is populated by (mostly) a suit of cards. And once he realized he was the joker, he kinda realized how powerful he was compared to everyone else. He could literally do anything they could. So yeah that’s my take. Very badly structured and probably obvious, but I’d rather make a post than spam my friends about it.

Spamton is kinda more easy because of the sheer amount of characters who are able to add details and perspectives to his story. But I’m still gonna take a crack at it. Right off the bat, it becomes obvious that spamton is a spam ad. His disjointed speech that’s often interrupted with words or phrases you often see in spam, the fact that he pops out and starts forcing us to make a deal (in contrast to the other ads who you could choose to interact with), the rip off items in his shop, and his literal name. I think this is also what the addisons meant when they said “he was just unlucky”. Unlike the other ads, spamton was kind of doomed from the start. No matter how hard he works, nobody will buy his products because he’s a spam ad, and basically Nobody ever clicks on spam ads. The rest of his story is mostly outright told to us. He gets famous from a man named Mike, gets so popular he gets into the queens castle, the addisons leave him out of jealousy, Mike stops helping him, he goes a bit insane and starts worshipping a broken down machine, he gets evicted, and eventually we come along and help him (to sum it up). I also have a theory that he might’ve falllen into the acid pool at some point, but it’s not well supported. My only evidence really is that he’s very tiny and the dialogue in his shop where he randomly starts screaming in pain and saying how “it burns”. Not really important but I couldn’t fit it in anywhere else. Ok moving on. So even though we’ve basicslly got spamtons backstory down, there’s still something we’re all in the dark about: Mike, the man in the tv. So it’s kind of widely accepted at this point that mike is the grinning tv seen at the end of chapter two, and that’s what I’m basing my theory on. So why would the tv guy help spamton? Okay so here’s my thoughts. One thing that has been a regular thing on tv for a while is dumb commercials that try to convince people to buy useless things. I feel like Most people usually don’t pay attention to that kind of stuff. But I will say, even though I have no evidence to support this, based on my experiences and the people around me, commercials work much better than spam ads, even if they’re essentially the same thing. My thoughts on why: spam ads are something st the edge of the screen that you can ignore or usually close. And when they take the form of messages or emails, they’re usually sent straight to the junk or spam sections, meaning there’s a huge chance they won’t even be seen. But on tv, most of these spam advert style commercials are on live channels, meaning they can’t be skipped. Meaning that more people see them and are tempted to buy the things in them. So if spamtons ads were out in commercial form, it would make sense for him to suddenly get a boost in popularity. But this could also explain why Mike stops helping him. Eventually, due to changes in the way tv works, these dumb spam ad type adverts became less effective and only caused people to be more annoyed with live tv/switch to other methods of watching movies. So it would make sense for Mike to drop spamtons commercials as soon as they started causing viewers to drop. My last piece of evidence to support this would be, how one addison specifically calls attention to the noise that is heard when you try to call someone in the dark world. It’s described as garage noise, but what you hear is a messed up kind of staticky noise. Spamton also has static in his eyes when he mentioned Mike.

Oh yeah, here’s another thing. Something I don’t see many people talk about it the moment in his shop where his eyes go dark and he says “hello….can anyone hear me…..” or smth like that, and then says that he didn’t hear anything but he thinks it’s probably for us?? I’ve got a few theories. It could be his connection with Mike (again, note that he has dark static eyes when he says this). “It’s for you” is a phrase commonly used when you get a phone call for someone else, and in this theory we can surmise that Mike was the one calling spamton. So maybe it’s a hint about us facing Mike next chapter? I have some other guesses but no actual evidence to support them so I’ll leave those out for brevity (I say that as if this post isn’t a gajillion paragraphs long already lmao)

Ok last thing: this is pretty irrelevant to the bosses but it technically counts. So a lot of others have already drawn the obvious connection between spamton neo and mettaton neo. But why is mettatons robot body rusting away at the bottom of queens castle? Here’s my theory. So mettaton, at the moment, seems to not have transitioned by this point (wether you view his transition in undertale as being a trans thing or just being a ghost inhabiting a body it likes thing, the word still applies either way so it’s what I’ll use). He refuses to show his face, and is a lot more negative, angrily answering to you and immediately assuming you want to see napstablook instead. Another thing to note is that he calls himself a nobody, and no one in the town seems to mention him. So given all that it’s safe to assume he’s still a ghost with no body. But what does that have to with his neo form in the cyber world? Well my thought is that mettaton designed what his dream form would look like using the computer, but then for some reason (sadness, shame, despair, whatever you want to interpret it as) he tried to delete the file or buried it deep. As the queens castle in general reminds me of a search engine (the rooms based on the characters searches, the butlers giving people the things they ask for or like, the bookshelves, queen herself being concerned with noelles searches, etc.), it’s possible he might have even bookmarked a tab with his design and then forgot about it/didn’t want to revisit it, and the bookmark got buried under the searches and bookmarks of others. Whichever makes more sense idk it’s late. Anyways. So if mettaton is at the point where he wants fame, knows that he wants a different body, and has long had a design, why is he still a ghost who hides away? Well the sad truth is (in my opinion), he’s got no way to make the body. Undertale was a much more fantastical world, full of magic and crazy inventions and things that would be otherwise impossible. Deltarune is a much more grounded world. It contains monsters, but there’s seemingly no magic, no crazy inventions, ordinary shops and buildings. While a “magic portal to a dark town” would be commonplace in the world of undertale, this same thing is laughed at and not believed in the world of deltarune. So, chances are it would be way harder to build a robot as complicated as mettaton neo. Especially because it seems that deltarune takes place in the 2000a or 2010s (based on the computers they use, the chalkboard in the classroom, the clothes the characters wear, and also undertale took on as in 201X so I’d this truly is a parallel world then it likely also takes place at that time). Also, in this universe, alphys is a schoolteacher. There’s no such occupation as “royal scientist/inventor”. So there’s nobody to build the body anyways. In a nutshell: mettaton designs his perfect body, forgets about it or buries it deep due to negative feelings about not being able to achieve this, and he never transitions, meanwhile the powerful design he made stays in the computer, old and buried deep underneath all the newer searches and files.

But why would spamton worship this machine in particular? Well the first theory is that the machine is very old. Mettaton is obviously older than Kris (he was much older than frisk and doesn’t go to school with Kris). So it would make sense that by the time Kris gets to the cyber world, mettatons design file is considered very very old to the cyber people. Maybe file she has something to do with power, or maybe spamton assumed it was an ancient relic because of its rusty and decrepit look. I’d guess the second because I think one of the swatchlings has dislogue mentioning that spamton would pray to the machine, and that swatch refers to it as a relic. My second theory is that spamton thought that if he could transfer his consciousness to any other body, his strong would be cut, no matter what form it is. And the only available empty body in the castle was the machine in the basement, so he placed all his bets on that.

And finally my third theory (least likely to be true, I believe the answer is a mix of one and two, but this is my personal favorite) is that mettatons body design was made with freedom in mind. This is something they might have sensed and started worshipping the machine for. After all, for mettaton, that body meant being free to be himself, to express himself, to be who he really is. If queen can sense emotion through searches (she called noelles searches strange and sad and is protective of her due to this), who’s to say spamton can’t? Spamton also mentions the smell of freedom a lot, so it’s possible freedom is smth he can just sense.

WOW THAT WAS A LOT. Alright that should satisfy my “must talk about deltarune to everyone and anyone” urge for the week. A lot of this is super shaky, and a lot of it probably has canon answers I just forgot about. But whatever, I mostly just wanted to ramble about deltarune, no structure just word vomit (plus it’s like super late so I’m kinda tired). Also I’m sorry this post is so spamton centric, I know I said I’d talk about both bosses but jebil really got less words than mettaton of all character lmao. I do live jevil and have a whole other load of opinions and theories about jebil, but it’s late and that writing all that here would only make this essay of a post longer. Also there’s way more information available about spamton (two routes worth of content, lore dumps by almost every character in queens castle and even some outside of the castle like the sweet capn cakes or the addisons, the secrets in the spamtons sweepstakes arg stuff, and you can actually talk to him instead of just fighting him) which makes him easier to talk about.

ANYWAYS SORRY FOR THE LONGPODT GOODNIGHT AND CONFRATS ON ACTUALLY READING TJIS HIGE POST

#deltarune #undertale #spamton #jevil #deltarune spoilers #undertale spoilers #theory #long post

[justynakulisa]

On art and literature, and why it's not just "content"

Forgive me in advance for the incoming salt, but this is a rant I've been sitting on for ages. A tweet I saw* only cemented my need for the aforementioned rant, so here we are.

A bit of context first. I worked at a bullshit, huge corporation for almost 6 years; after that, I've moved on to a corporation that's way smaller and involves some actual work rather than bullshitting for 5 days a week, but it's still a corporation. That's a background experience I'll be relying on, mixed with observations of the absolute hellhole that LinkedIn is, with a sprinkle of mainstream media attitude. For the sake of clarity, I usually refer to art and literature as "art", but I'll be using art&lit in the post. With that out of the way, LET'S DIVE IN.

If there's one thing that's aplenty in every corporation, it's the amount of self-affirmative spam you receive every day. Department status updates, newsletters no one reads, trainings and videos to watch, and so on, and so forth. And it is, regardless of the corp and the type of spam, called "content". It's an apt name for it, because it's neither art, nor anything useful. Just a barrage of words some poor soul had to put together. Oh, I'm sorry, not a poor soul. A content creator.

I can say I'm a content creator at my day job. I write software documentation and manuals. It requires some thought and some effort, it's not a bullshit job I could ignore without any negative consequences to me or the company or the world at large. But it's not art I create there. It's content. It's got no artistic value whatsoever except maybe for explaining concepts in an easy-to-understand way. The companies themselves have got no qualms about calling that type of fruit of their employees' work "content". That at least doesn't bother me. "Content" is an adequate term for repetitive, artless form of work that require creating something out of nothing.

But when the same term is applied to art&lit, when artists and writers are called "content creators", I grow spikes like a porcupine.

I understand why it's easy to use those terms. They're easy, umbrellous enough, and carry their meaning well. It encapsulates people who don't do art&lit, but dabble in education, design, what have you. But the results of their work isn't content as it's seen at its core and at its roots.

You churn out content daily and often without effort. Those instagram accounts posting variations of the same photo every day? That's content. A book written for 3 years and edited for the next 2, full of gorgeous prose and magnificent storytelling, or a painting that took weeks to finish? That's not content. That's art. And people who let it into the world by effort of their hands are artists.

That line of thought brings me back to that tweet I linked earlier. "Media consumption" is just as dehumanised, nebulous term for experiencing art&lit as "content creation" is to refer to the act of writing and painting/drawing. It assumes the interaction with content at the speed and rate it's created. Which is: fast. Then faster. And faster and faster, until both you and artists end up in an ever-rushing cycle of more, more, more. (I already ranted about streaming and the effect it's got on media, so I'll stop myself from doing it again ;)). But, FOMO, anyone? I'm sure all of us have experienced it at least once at some point. Corporations and mainstream media have got a way of slithering into our lives and taking terms and things that make us happy for themselves. They also tend to flatten nuances, limit imaginations, and produce countless iterations of the same trope if only they realised it was popular. (Side note: it's very obvious in traditional publishing when agents and editors seek stories centred around a motif for some 5 years after the first book with that motif made a breakthrough. That's something to talk about for another time, though.) And after all traces of what made an idea unique and brilliant, after art&lit have deteriorated into simple content, then both terms truly become equivalent.

I don't think that simplification is something we as a society should condone. 

___

* - as often happens, given tweets' fleeting nature, this on too no longer exists. (should've made a screenshot, that's what). it had something to do with commercialisation of entertainment and the push for new films and shows and stories be published faster and faster as a never-ending stream you cna drown in. or so i think, at least.

#culture #crossposted on my website #modern media #contentisation will kill art and us artists with it and we can't let it do that

[cidthesquid]

Best If Used By.... |Fashion Dreamer #1

Hello all! I spent a few days playing Fashion Dreamer, and have been having a blast! It's not 'Style Savvy', but it ever meant to be! I have some concerns.. But first... Outfit(s) of the day! (Fasion Dreamer ID: a8xv8rRA3A)

Nothing Fancy yet, Here's my second muse: (WIP)

Alright, so my thoughts on the game as a whole. (not a review) It's super fun..if you know what you're getting into. It's closer to most modern 'Dress-UP' apps than classic Style Savvy. But that's really what I was looking for! You can think of it as Shining Niki, Covet Fashion, etc, But with no microtransactions, and a much heavier emphasis on community! The game DOES NOT require a paid switch online subscription, It ABSOLUTELY requires wifi to get the full experience. All the events are online-only, you can see and dress up other players characters (muses) based on their stated preferences, And you can even put in requests from people you've met, or you can just list your preferences for anyone to style. You specify your style, colors, patterns, etc, and other players will send you custom outfits!

(sorry, this filter looks really bad in screenshots) I played the game for a few days via emulator, while waiting for my copy of the game to arrive. And honestly, 'Offline Mode" felt like an entirely different game. You can still dress up your character, and fulfill outfit request for NPC's, and design your own showroom, but that's it.

The world feels much smaller when just cycling through the same small handful of NPC's with very similar dialogue. You still play the role of an "influencer", looking to grow their online following and brand, But without any other real players, it just becomes a grindy numbers game.

You make check the billboards, grab the items, make an outfit, take a photo, and get automatic 'likes' from the game's imaginary public. Then you just keep doing it over and over to increase your 'follower count. There are a few bonus things you can do, such as take pictures with other people, and 'pin' the post to boost incoming 'likes' and 'follows', But without the online community aspect, it's extremely repetitive.

And that's where the title of the post comes in, The game was clearly designed similar to a live service game, the players are expected to be online almost all the time, and new features and items become available over time. However, while this game is $50, it doesn't feature microtransactions

That's a HUGE plus for me, But it makes me wonder how financially viable this game will be for the publisher in the long run. When the sales start to slow, they'll have far less money coming in, And that may make it harder to keep updating the game. And if they stop updating the game, older fans may stop playing Less people online means the 'community' aspect will lessen ...And at the end of the day there are server cost to consider.

So it really makes me wonder, how long they'll choose to support this game. Will the game end up with a "best if used by date", because the game costs the devs some amount of money just to keep it running, ...not even including the time it takes to make more items to keep people interested. I've been having a lot of fun now, but I think they should have focused a bit more on the single player experience, and implemented more interesting offline goals. As who knows, 3, 5, 10 years down the line, the game I'm enjoying now will may longer exist. ---- Sorry for the more 'bleak' post, I'd still highly recommend this game to those who think it sounds interesting. I've just seen a ton of VERY Strong opinions on this game, but no one mentioning the live service trappings. Anyways, feel free to leave your thoughts or comments down below!

#syn sophia #fashion game #style savvy #style boutique #new style boutique #stylesavvy #fashion dreamer #nintendo switch

[altneuland]

The Israeli Empire

hellooooo

I am not sure if it is the right time to introduce you to ancient Israel yet, but I prefer to do it asap because high amount of the content I make of Daniel is from ancient Israel.

before I continue, please remember that the term "ancient Israel" is an umbrella term for few eras that I will elaborate on.

in this piece you are seeing Empire of Israel, and the king was Omri, which surprisingly isn't one of the eras I like to talk about much. not because I don't like this era or anything, only because my favorite era for Daniel is Kingdom Of Hashmonai, which I can sit and ramble on and on about.

in the empire era, Daniel was 15. in the Hashmonai era, Daniel was 18. so chronically, I think introducing ancient Israel would make sense starting here, the earliest I have content on. (tho I do have even earlier years of Daniel, but that includes his parents, which I would like to introduce later.

so, this is a post about the empire now, please enjoy this half assed text I wrote to my friends about him, hope you like it lmao

The Crybaby Empire

This empire has no specific time frame, but I’ll go with what I got now ; 1021 bc - 922 bc,

The empire ended in a huge civil war between all the tribes (more like Judea and Benjamin vs everyone else) and that’s how the empire kinda died, but later the second Israeli kingdom was a great empire as well, and some researchers even say that the empire never actually fell, until the rise of Judea, which is that’s why I tend to disagree with the dates above, but until any further knowledge I’ll use those.

If the theory of second and first Israeli empires being one big continuous empire, which btw I kinda agree with, I’ll go with what’s currently considered as canon. I’ll go with Israel being an empire, fall, and become an empire once again without Judea. So this is the kingdom with.

Daniel in his age 15 was pretty bad teenager and annoying. He wanted everyone to do whatever he does. He wanted his neighbors, Sidon, Edom (his twin) Moab and Amon, as well as bashan and Amalek to practice in his religion, which wasn’t called Judaism at that time, it was called Israelism. Daniel took over their places and israelized them, first by, you know… cutting their pps. Then forcing them to not touch any pigs (kosherizing their asses), maybe even forcing them to pay 10% of their income to the holy temple, and not work on Shabbat.

Maybe , just maybe, the israelism is what made all of the nations around have a very similar gods. Remember, israelism wasn’t a monotheistic religion at this point, it was yet polytheistic, with Elohim, the Jewish god nowadays, being the main god in the Israeli pantheon.

The era in history is called “the Israeli era” which is the ofc, era where all cities around were Israeli.

A lot of information about this empire is either missing or contradicting so take it with a grain of salt, but countries around did mentioned king Omri and his Empire, as well as his deeds as I mentioned.

everyone agrees though that Daniel was a little b everyone found annoying but also loved him because compared to other empires around he was a sweetheart smarty pants

#country oc #hetalia oc #hetalia ancients #hetalia Israel oc #hws #hws oc #hws israel #country personification #my art #older art

[qqueenofhades]

Although I decidedly do not need student loan forgiveness (my parents were able to pay for my entire college tuition so I didn’t have to take loans or even work during college, which should tell you all you need to know about my financial background) I stand in solidarity with y’all and I hope Biden comes through on this. I’d much rather my tax dollars go to loan forgiveness than blowing up people abroad.

In this case, it's not Biden we need to worry about; it is, and as ever, the fucking Supreme Court. If some asshole Republican AG sues the administration over this (which they will) and if it reaches the Supreme Court (which it might), then you can absolutely 100% guarantee that it will be struck down in a 6-3 decision along ideological lines. As I said before in all my other posts about this issue, that was the shortcoming with Biden doing this as an executive order (though I'm glad he did anyway). Of course the usual suspects are bitching and whining about how cancelling $10k outright ($20k for Pell Grant recipients, aka the poorest/low-income bracket of students) isn't enough and he should have just done it all, but the plan also contains major structural improvements that will have much longer-term ramifications apart from just outright cancellation, including:

As long as you're making payments (which can include $0 monthly payments if you're on an Income-Driven Repayment plan), NO INTEREST will be added to the principal balance of your loan. That is huge. I probably have at least 10K more in debt than I did when I graduated with my masters, because of the fucking interest. This is one of the things that make student loans so predatory: even if you pay the minimum amount, and if you pay it steadily, you just can't get out of debt because it keeps compounding and increasing. This means your balance will be frozen, and paying it down (even, again, if you don't actually pay anything!) will make a difference!

Full cancellation in 10 years if you've made qualifying payments (which again might be $0 if your income is low)! Also huge! People can spend DECADES paying, so capping it at only 10 years and then they're gone either way is major!

IDR plans are now capped at 5% of your discretionary monthly income, instead of 10%, which again goes a long way to making payments affordable.

If you made payments up/past March 2020 (the start of the first pandemic pause) you can actually get that money back!

Cancelling 20K in debt for the lowest earners/Pell Grantees is legitimately fucking game-changing, and will fully erase student debt for an estimated 20 million people, predominantly Black and Latino with no generational or family wealth to speak of. Even if I get 10k knocked off my student loans, I'll still have upward of 50K left over from my undergraduate/graduate degrees; I also have separate UK-based loans from my PhD which I have had to continue paying this whole time (even though Britain is literally on the verge of becoming a failed state due to economic collapse, but I digress). Of course I wish that I, personally, qualified for more forgiveness or that it would all go away. However, I absolutely recognize that this policy is going to help a lot of people who are considerably worse off than me (and I'm broke, so there you go).

Anyway, there's a lot of good stuff in this policy, and I expect further reform if the Democrats can hold/increase their Congressional majorities. But like I said, the problem isn't Biden; the problem is fucking SCOTUS. So let's see what happens.

#anonymous #ask #politics for ts

[souryogurt64]

sorry to continue this but one problems i have with the mcr fandom like you said they project heavily on gerard and they end up treating mcr as this super revolutionary anti capitalist leftist rock band who the other bands are just mean to ‘cause they aren’t like other bands

i literally seen sooooo many posts about mcr only being able to do this certain stuff and only they can only pull it off unlike other bands

i think thats part of gerards whole "chosen one" thing but also like people create this fake narrative about how gerard in 2005 was smearing on dollar store eyeshadow in 30 seconds as a punk statement about hating capitalism.

like no, back then he was wearing mac and urban decay and sometimes being professionally styled-- obviously he was still involved in creating his looks and sometimes did their own makeup but it definitely did not take 30 seconds of dollar store eyeshadow to look the way they did on the red carpet

i think its interesting now because hes wearing custom tailored womens clothing with the help of a designer to create his vision. and you have people saying its not revolutionary and is performative because he just "slapped on a cheerleading costume from the thrift store and looks like shit," when in actuality this was vintage and tailored to fit his body, people are just uncomfortable about seeing someone whos not a cis woman in womens clothing and think it doesnt look right.

i feel like its connected to how people say young and young-ish guys who arent good at eyeliner on their first try or wear costume jewelry must be faking and are doing it to be predatory because they "look like shit" and "look ugly" instead of understanding that makeup and fashion and hair are skills that "girls" are expected to put massive amounts of time into mastering starting from a very young age, whereas "guys" are barred from that, often at minimum until theyre old enough to have their own income to purchase these things or move out and have a safe space to express themselves

theres a post that goes around talking about how boys on tiktok with their shitty eyeliner will never be fever era ryan and its like. Yeah. boys on tiktok are not a huge celebrity with a female dance troupe and designers that do elaborate looks on him

and it makes me wonder if in 10 years people are going to say gerard slapped on a dress he found at the thrift store for $3 as a punk anticapitalist statement and just happened to look amazing instead of being tailored to his body by a celebrity fashion designer that did costumes for taylor swift haha

not sure what my exact thesis is here but im sure you get the gist

[maywrites264]

Clock Out [Charisma House Fanfic]

About

- Has Kaname in it.

- Basically my idea for what would be a season 3 premiere.

- Shu Matsubara please consider me as a cowriter for official Charisma House episodes /j

- I have not watched every single episode of the series so if some stuff is wrong. Too bad I guess.

- Updates every Sunday

- Content Warnings: Um…none, I guess? Unless you count a somewhat intense argument between a mother and child? Also pedophilia is mentioned in (1) line.

Navigation

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Chapter 1 (Order Up!)

Working at a full time job can be a huge commitment for someone, as they would spend most of the day working rather than engaging in hobbies or things they enjoy. For Kaname Maeno, he was up for the task of taking a job to better his life. He only lived with his mom before starting work, and was an unemployed high school graduate with no interest in any higher education, as he’d much rather be playing video games in his room than doing anything else.

His mother was disappointed, because she knew her son had potential, he just wasn’t using it. Perhaps employment could be the key for him to get out of his hikikomori lifestyle. He could make friends at work, and seek higher opportunities once he makes a stable enough income. But of course, this is not the way things went. At least, not at first.

It had been about a week since Kaname started working at the café known as Caralatte, and it wasn’t super great in his experience. As a waiter, he had to take every order with a smile, but secretly hated every second. It seemed like every customer went out of their way to ignore him, whether it were the teenage girls thinking he was the most adorable little thing, or the old perverts who wanted to get close to someone who looked like a little boy.

But yesterday was somewhat pleasant…or at least it was better than the previous days. Kaname saw a face that he never met before, a boy who seemed to be around his age, with short black hair and an orange outfit. This person looked relatively normal, but he was prepared for the worst.

As the other waiters were busy with other customers, Kaname waltzed towards the peculiar man, praying that there would be no complications or complaints. He took a deep breath and flashed his usual fake smile. “Hi, my name is Kaname Maeno, and I’ll be your waiter for today. What will you be ordering?”

The customer smiled mischievously and tapped his fingers against the table, which Kaname saw as an obvious bad sign. Nevertheless, the mystery man didn’t make an impression that he’d cause too much trouble…until he started ordering.

“I’ll have a chocolate cake, a strawberry sundae, some caramel custard, a lemon meringue pie, 6 sugar cookies…” Jesus Christ…was this man ordering for a party? Or would he eat this all by himself? It seemed like this man was ordering faster than Kaname’s hand could write down, and just as it seemed like he finished, there was much, much more to write down.

Miraculously, the constant orders suddenly ended, giving Kaname (and his poor hands) a breath of relief. “W-will that be all, sir?” he asked, trying not to go insane from what he just witnessed.

“I’ll also have some ice cream, because today is my birthday,” the strange customer requested. Kaname sighed heavily, hoping the chefs won’t pass out from the intense amount of items they’d have to make in such a limited amount of time. Even the other clients looked at this man in shock, but he didn’t seem to care a bit.

“Alright, your total will be…uh…¥760,860…do you want a receipt?” Kaname asked, struggling to keep his polite tone at this point. In response, the client shook his head and laughed, acting like he could afford all this? Of course, to the struggling waiter, this was another gluttonous rich kid, just trying to test his limits. If he didn’t get a good tip, he’d be pissed.

After about two hours, all of the items the bizarre man ordered were ready. Kaname was prepared to hear a long rant about how the chefs took too long, or how something was undercooked, or some other outrageous complaint as he served the customer his food, but all he received was a “thank you”.

…huh? This was odd…it seemed like every other person he had to serve was rude and unpleasant, but this was the first time he heard a “thank you” from someone he had the “pleasure” of serving. Kaname tried not to hide his shock, but did seem a little embarrassed. He figured he’d at least show his gratitude, it was the least he could do in this situation, anyway.

“It’s my pleasure to serve you tonight. Have a happy birthday, sir.” As Kaname walked off, it was getting closer to closing time, and the amount of people looking for a sweet treat slowly decreased. He looked towards the window, seeing all the stars swirl across the sky…perhaps, it was a sign that the night was going to not be filled with pain. Maybe, for once, his mother wouldn’t have to yell at him for not going to work, or he wouldn’t have to be so angry. At least for tonight, things felt normal…

Fumiya walked to the Charisma Sharehouse with a smile (and some crumbs) on his face, fully knowing that it was not his birthday and had tricked the waiter into giving him a slight discount. He didn’t think much of it, it was basically routine for him. Just as he was about to make a right turn on the next street, he overheard an intense argument coming from a nearby apartment.

“You always come home from work so angry, why not put a smile on your face?”

“Smile? What is there to fuckin’ smile about? I spend at least seven hours every goddamn day puttin’ on this fake smile only for people to harass and berate me!”

It didn’t seem super important to Fumiya, who cared about the drama of someone they didn’t know? However…one of the voices seemed familiar, which pulled him in to listen closer.

“You have to understand that work isn’t always pleasant, sweetie. And besides, you only started recently. Who’s to say that you won’t end up liking it in the end?”

“I’m to say! And I hate this shitty job and everyone I’ve met here!! And you wouldn’t even care, because you just want me to make money, don’t you? So I can be a good member of society like everyone else?”

Eventually, Fumiya decided to pull himself away, but not before he heard a scathing “I hate you” from (what he assumed to be) the son directed towards his mother. But the Charisma of Good and Evil just decided to shake it off, it wasn’t that important…but that simple phrase stuck in his mind, “I hate you.” It kept circling in his mind, with the bearer of those words reminding him of the nice waiter he met earlier that day.

“I hate you.” “I hate you.” “I hate-”

PPPPPPPPPPPPPP! The sharp sound of Rikai’s whistle interrupted Fumiya’s muddled thoughts. “Itou Fumiya, if there is one thing you should not do, it is enter the house with crumbs on your face! Go grab a napkin and clean it up!”

Of course, Fumiya’s first instinct was to question what he did wrong. “Hmm? Why?”

“Because it is not sanitary to leave pieces of food on your face! What if one of the crumbs falls off and it attracts a bug?! Then our house will become infested, and they can easily reproduce at any moment! So, I am kindly requesting you to clean it up!” Rikai complained, readily pulling out his whistle to blow again.

Not wanting to have his thoughts interrupted again, Fumiya grabbed a napkin and cleaned the crumbs off his face, but Rikai noticed that the former had a strange expression while doing it. “Is everything alright, Fumiya-san?”

“Everything is fine,” replied Fumiya, not in the mood to discuss what he heard while walking home.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Rikai felt like the youngest Charismatic was lying, which wasn’t a surprise, because Fumiya lied like he was getting paid a million dollars every time he did so. But this specific lie felt particularly strange, because he wasn’t the type to seem bothered by anything. And yet, Fumiya was clearly bothered…

“No, something is wrong. Fumiya-san, you must tell me what it is,” Rikai requested, hoping that at least some clues will be given.

“Nothing is wrong at all,” Fumiya answered, keeping his nonchalant facade intact.

“Something is wrong.”

“Nothing is wrong.”

“No, something is wrong.”

“Nope, nothing is wrong.”

The two went back and forth with each other for a few minutes, before a small voice interrupted. “E-excuse me…” It was Ohse, nearly curling up into a ball out of embarrassment.

“Ah, Ohse-kun! You haven’t come out of your room all day!” Rikai was pleased with the fact that Ohse finally decided to check in on the others for the day. “What brings you here at this hour?”

Ohse seemed nervous, repeatedly stammering over his words for a few minutes before Rikai and Fumiya assured him that he could say whatever he wanted. “I-is it okay if my friend stays over for a bit?”

Fumiya seemed oddly pleased by this question, with another (at least temporarily) resident of the house to break up the flow of the daily routine. Rikai, however, grimaced immediately after Ohse made his request.

“After the last time we had someone stay over, I’m not too keen on letting anyone stay for an extended period of time.” Rikai paused after seeing Ohse’s disappointment. “Can you inform us on who this person is?”

This question made Ohse even more anxious, not sure if Rikai would approve of his answer. “Well, it’s someone I met online, but-”

Rikai immediately huffed in disgust, not letting Ohse finish his statement. “Someone you met online?! Don’t you know how dangerous the internet can be?!?! You can be scammed, or doxxed, or kidnapped! Ohse-kun, I surely do not approve of this behavior!”

“Wait!” Ohse interrupted, before the Charisma of Order could go on another long rant. “I may not know his full name, or have seen his face…I’ve only heard his voice, but we have spent multiple hours in games together, and we have been in voice calls and…and…he made me want to live just a little bit more…” He took a deep breath before continuing. “He got into an argument with his mom and said he just needs a few days in order to fix things, just please let him stay…!”

Argument with his mother? Fumiya thought. No, surely this couldn’t be the person he overheard saying “I hate you” to his mom, right? …right? He looked over at Rikai, who shook his head in anguish.

“Alright…but we need to make sure that our house is completely spotless for our new arrival,” Rikai demanded. “When is he coming?”

“Um…tomorrow…”

“TOMORROW?!?!?!” Rikai entered a state of panic, knocking on every door in the house in order to initiate a group cleanup session. Most of the Charismatics were not thrilled to suddenly be called into cleanup, but Iori was absolutely ecstatic!

The night was long and filled with yelling and arguments, but the members of the sharehouse managed to clean up just in time for their guest.

The next morning, the doorbell rang, with everyone at once rushing over to greet the new (temporary) resident. However, one of them wasn’t expecting who this guest would be…

“Hi, it’s nice to meet you all. My name is Kaname Maeno.”

Charisma Charge: Success

#fanfic #fanfiction #writing #charisma house #カリスマ #ito fumiya #fumiya ito #kusanagi rikai #rikai kusanagi #minato ohse #ohse minato #oc #charisma house oc #fumiya is a little shit #fumiya eats everything #he’s like kirby lmao