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physalian · 1 month

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You don’t have to pay for that fancy worldbuilding program

As mentioned in this post about writing with executive dysfunction, if one of your reasons to keep procrastinating on starting your book is not being able to afford something like World Anvil or Campfire, I’m here to tell you those programs are a luxury, not a necessity: Enter Google Suite (not sponsored but gosh I wish).

MS Office offers more processing power and more fine-tuning, but Office is expensive and only autosaves to OneDrive, and I have a perfectly healthy grudge against OneDrive for failing to sync and losing 19k words of a WIP that I never got back.

Google’s sync has never failed me, and the Google apps (at least for iPhone) aren’t nearly as buggy and clunky as Microsoft’s. So today I’m outlining the system I used for my upcoming fantasy novel with all the helpful pictures and diagrams. Maybe this won’t work for you, maybe you have something else, and that’s okay! I refuse to pay for what I can get legally for free and sometimes Google’s simplicity is to its benefit.

The biggest downside is that you have to manually input and update your data, but as someone who loves organizing and made all these willingly and for fun, I don’t mind.

So. Let’s start with Google Sheets.

The Character Cheat Sheet:

I organized it this way for several reasons:

I can easily see which characters belong to which factions and how many I have named and have to keep up with for each faction

All names are in alphabetical order so when I have to come up with a new name, I can look at my list and pick a letter or a string of sounds I haven’t used as often (and then ignore it and start 8 names with A).

The strikethrough feature lets me keep track of which characters I kill off (yes, I changed it, so this remains spoiler-free)

It’s an easy place to go instead of scrolling up and down an entire manuscript for names I’ve forgotten, with every named character, however minor their role, all in one spot

Also on this page are spare names I’ll see randomly in other media (commercials, movie end credits, etc) and can add easily from my phone before I forget

Also on this page are my summary, my elevator pitch, and important character beats I could otherwise easily mess up, it helps stay consistent

*I also have on here not pictured an age timeline for all my vampires so I keep track of who’s older than who and how well I’ve staggered their ages relative to important events, but it’s made in Photoshop and too much of a pain to censor and add here

On other tabs, I keep track of location names, deities, made-up vocabulary and definitions, and my chapter word count.

The Word Count Guide:

*3/30 Edit to update this chart to its full glory. Column 3 is a cumulative count. Most of what I write breaks 100k and it's fun watching the word count rise until it boils over.

This is the most frustrating to update manually, especially if you don’t have separate docs for each chapter, but it really helps me stay consistent with chapter lengths and the formula for calculating the average and rising totals is super basic.

Not that all your chapters have to be uniform, but if you care about that, this little chart is a fantastic visualizer.

If you have multiple narrators, and this book does, you can also keep track of how many POVs each narrator has, and how spread out they are. I didn’t do that for this book since it’s not an ensemble team and matters less, but I did for my sci-fi WIP, pictured below.

As I was writing that one, I had “scripted” the chapters before going back and writing out all the glorious narrative, and updated the symbols from “scripted” to “finished” accordingly.

I also have a pie chart that I had to make manually on a convoluted iPhone app to color coordinate specifically the way I wanted to easily tell who narrates the most out of the cast, and who needs more representation.

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Google Docs

Can’t show you much here unfortunately but I’d like to take an aside to talk about my “scene bits” docs.

It’s what it says on the tin, an entire doc all labeled with different heading styles with blurbs for each scene I want to include at some point in the book so I can hop around easily. Whether they make it into the manuscript or not, all practice is good practice and I like to keep old ideas because they might be useful in unsuspecting ways later.

Separate from that, I keep most of my deleted scenes and scene chunks for, again, possible use later in a “deleted scenes” doc, all labeled accordingly.

When I designed my alien language for the sci-fi series, I created a Word doc dictionary and my own "translation" matrix, for easy look-up or word generation whenever I needed it (do y'all want a breakdown for creating foreign languages? It's so fun).

Normally, as with my sci-fi series, I have an entire doc filled with character sheets and important details, I just… didn’t do that for this book. But the point is—you can still make those for free on any word processing software, you don’t need fancy gadgets.

—

I hope this helps anyone struggling! It doesn’t have to be fancy. It doesn’t have to be expensive. Everything I made here, minus the aforementioned timeline and pie chart, was done with basic excel skills and the paint bucket tool. I imagine this can be applicable to games, comics, what have you, it knows no bounds!

Now you have one less excuse to sit down and start writing.

#writing advice #writing resources #writing tips #writing tools #writing a book #writing #writeblr #organizing your book #outlining #shut up and write the book #google sheets #google docs

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a-chaotically-small-lunta · 2 months

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what is G/t

G/t is, in its simplest form, the size difference trope. Think of those episodes in shows where the characters shrink or grow. It’s one of those tropes that can be slapped onto literally any media. It’s one of the most common tropes tv shows would use, alongside things like time travel, alternate dimensions, gender swap, just space, and more! G/t stands for Giant / tiny, which is usually the main focus for most people. There are many different things you can find in g/t from soft and cute scenarios to more angst and horror-like scenarios. It just depends on the person. G/t is usually very safe for work with some getting close to the edge of nsfw but never fully crossing it. On tumblr there is a very clear difference from the sfw and nsfw stuff (With g/t being the safe stuff and micro/macro being nsfw, usually)

Now the main thing about g/t is the size difference. With characters interacting with differently sized items or people. The G is the giant which is typically used for whoever the bigger (literally) person is. So it’s not always gonna be a giant and will sometimes be a human. The t on the other hand is the tiny person, which just like the G, can include a human sized person. As long as the size difference is great enough (each person has their own thoughts on when size difference becomes g/t or is simply tall person with slightly shorter person) then it is consider g/t. Now a tiny or giant doesn’t necessarily need to interact with their counter part, it could be something simple like a tiny fairy exploring an abandoned house, or a giant roaming the country side. If the person doesn’t “fit” in the environment it can count. (Which is probably why a lot of us use it as a coping mechanism. Cause like you don’t fit in and it’s easier to imagine literally not fitting in)

There are many kinds of character in g/t too! Tinies and giants can range from “That’s a human who is big/small” to “that’s a person who is big/small, but they have some extra features (like wings or horns, etc) to “that’s a creature/alien…a big/small one…oooohhhh” Most people in the community usually vibe with one of the sides. Most people are tinies, some a giants, and then there’s people like me who couldn’t decided and liked both sizes for different reasons and said “SCREW IT! Sizeshifter time”

There’s a lot to g/t and it’s kinda hard to describe and yet so simple to describe too. Each person into it, loves it for so many different reasons. It’s basically the trope that me and many others really love to many unique degrees. It’s literally about new perspectives and seeing our world from them, in a very literal sense sometimes. When you know about g/t you start seeing it everywhere, commercials, movies, tv shows, games, etc. The stories may have the same trope but each delivers it in such a unique way that, it always feels brand new and like an amazing adventure!

If you have any more question, or if anyone else has questions about other g/t things I can try my best to answer them (I’m very bad at answering asks, sorry about that) I may not be the best at explaining things, but I can sure try my best to!

Also, if you want to check it g/t out more but are a little scared to explore websites, I made a YouTube playlist (that I randomly update whoops) that has a bunch of g/t stuff in it. If you want to get a vibe of what it is. It’s organized (kinda) so you can check out the movies, games, animations, etc. I suggest watching the movies first because they tend to just be fun to watch even if you aren’t into g/t. And no worries, it’s a pretty clean content wise.

#g/t #gt #giant/tiny #ask #giant tiny #gianttiny #size difference #hopefully this clears it up and makes sense!#and if the text didn’t help…that’s what the playlist is for haha #feel free to ask questions #I’ll try my best to respond

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lady-arc-art · 2 months

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THEORY: “Welcome Home, my son…”

For a while I wondered why puppets are used specifically to help tell the story of this ARG? Then it was brought to my attention from another Welcome Home fan that maybe there are some parallels to the story of Pinocchio. In versions of the story, Geppetto had a real son that passed away and from his grief he created a wooden puppet that looked like his son, who would later become Pinocchio.

I also think it kind of is that way because there’s a big emphasis on family and children/babies in this update. With Howdy’s family coming over for the Homewarming, Julie and Frank trying to get everyone to be quiet so they don’t wake up the flowers and bugs that are hibernating (which is something parents do when they don’t want any loud noises that could wake up a sleeping baby), and the commercials targeted towards children, also Frank singing a lullaby and Wally singing a song about children going to a place called Toy Land and never leaving.

Then it hit me, sorry if any of this sounds fanfic-y or if I’m reaching a bit, but this is what think could be going on.

In the early-mid 60s, Ronald Dorelaine was a children’s entertainer, specializing in puppetry. He ran a troupe with some of his other puppeteer friends called “The Playfellow Puppets” and they would put on little puppet shows as part of the children’s theater slot at the local community centers.

The cast of characters included (and in order of creation): Julie Joyful (she was the first created since she’s a simple hand rod puppet), Frank Frankly, Eddie Dear, Sally Starlight, Howdy Pillar, and Poppy Partridge.

Since a part of me feels like almost everyone else was created before Wally and Home also it would make sense if Poppy was kind of “new” since she’s the most complex puppet to operate.

Ronald Dorelaine had a young son who would often tag along during his father’s performances, and his son’s named was Walliford, but sometimes his dad would call him “Wally.” Walliford was very fascinated with his father’s work and the characters he created, and one of his favorite things to do was draw and paint, hoping that someday he would create something when he grows up just like his father. Walliford even helped Ronald come up with a new character for “The Playfellow Puppets.” Barnaby B. Beagle. A blue dog that was inspired by one of his son’s drawings.

Which would explain this.

Ronald’s puppet shows started becoming so popular that it even started gaining attention from producers of a local tv station (sort of similar to PBS) where they offered Ronald the idea to turn his puppet show into a television series. Ronald took up on the offer, and the show began to develop. However a tragedy would soon happen….

Ronald was a heavy smoker (hence why there is a a big emphasis on cigarette ads in the recent update):

One day when trying to discard a cigarette before Ronald had to leave the house (possibly to go to a last minute meeting with the producers that would be helping him develop his new tv show). However he was unaware that the cigarette was still lit, and it set a fire to his home. Ronald was safe because he wasn’t in the house at the time of the fire, but his son Walliford was nowhere to be found and his body was never recovered so he’s presumed dead.

(Probably hinted at when Home’s eyes turned red in the commercial compilations)

I also think maybe Eddie’s puppeteer was a witness or somehow involved with this incident (possibly because he agreed to watch Walliford while his dad went out) since I noticed during his breakdown, everything turned bright red and Eddie looks like he feels guilty about something, hence why he’s sweating and Home appears to be starring him down as if he did something.

From his grief and in order to cope with the loss of his son, Ronald created a new character as a tribute to him. Wally Darling, and from there the plot of the show changed. The show would now be about a neighborhood, all of the previous characters would be neighbors with Wally Darling, who would now be the lead of the show. Ronald also added some traits that were present in Walliford, such as his love for art and his friendship with Barnaby (who was Walliford’s favorite of the group) for the new Wally character.

Then for a last minute edition, Ronald included a sentient home for Wally to live in. The Home was meant to keep Wally the puppet safe and to watch out for him, which was something he wasn’t able to do for his son.

Hence why the title of the show changed to “Welcome Home,” since to him he wanted it to feel like his son now has a second chance at life and he’s finally back home where he belongs. Almost like saying “Welcome home, my son.”

However none of this was enough for Ronald, even though he created a new character to keep Walliford’s memory alive, it was hard for him to find a puppeteer to play Wally because it wasn’t the same. All he really wanted was his son back and he would go to whatever means necessary even if it means going to the extreme. He later came across “the entity” and made a wish for Wally Darling to become real (like how Geppetto wished for Pinocchio to be real and The Blue Fairy brought him to life). And with that his wish came true. Wally was now sentient without the use of puppeteer.

I kind of believe this to be the case because Wally to me feels like the odd man out, everyone else feels lively and zany since they’re real people, while Wally just feels like a blank slate, with the way he speaks sounding very monotone. Here there was a bit of an innocence to Wally since he’s always learning things for the first time and asking questions about certain concepts and feelings, since he was literally a puppet brought to life and “the baby” of the group. However the producers, and parents watching the show didn’t think it was odd since they thought Wally was like this since he was meant to be a character that children can project themselves onto.

However what everyone didn’t know is that the entity that helped bring Wally to life manifested it’s way into the show possessing The Home puppet, and since Wally had no one attached to a real person playing him, the entity used Wally as a vessel to carry out their agenda. Day after day, the show started to go more and more off the rails, but what was really happening was through Wally the entity started to brainwash each of the puppeteers into believing that they were the actual characters, possibly by using the sleeping pills advertised in the commercials, or there was foul play on Ronald’s end and he gave all his puppeteers the sleeping pills to “put them out of their misery.”

By 1974, Ronald tried to put a stop to the entity, and he had no other choice but to end the show and destroy all the evidence that it ever happened. Ronald himself also began to slowly disappear from the public eye and he hasn’t been seen since then.

For years “Welcome Home” has gone on being a lost media, until now.

That’s not the end of story, because it turns out the real Wally Darling, Walliford Dorelaine, is actually still alive, but he has amenesia from the incident and he was no memories of his previous life. Doesn’t know what his real name is (it probably started with a W) or who his parents were, which is why he was never brought back to Ronald. By the time Walliford grew up, his friends started talking about this mysterious puppet show that was on TV years ago called “Welcome Home” which was kind of like Sesame Street, but they all thought it was some kind of urban legend. Then suddenly Walliford started getting all these tattered artwork and pictures of merchandise from the show they were talking about, and he showed it to his friends and together they formed The Welcome Home Restoration Group to try and uncover the mysterious Welcome Home show.

Walliford however started experiencing strange feelings both physically and mentally. There were times when he doubted if the show was even real, but whenever he did have any doubt, he had dreams and hallucinations of Wally Darling trying to communicate with him through the phone and he also starts seeing all these strange video clips from the show itself sprinkled throughout the website that he and the team built. The team however started growing concerned for Walliford thinking that he “lost his mind” so they kindly tried to distance themselves from him while they are trying to rebrand the site after seeing that Walliford was trying to communicate with what he believed to be Wally Darling haunting the site, before they shut it down.

This only caused Walliford to create his own website with his own evidence, since it seems like his own restoration team is starting to mistrust him, and now he’s going to get to the bottom of this all by himself.

But what they all don’t know is that Walliford’s connection to “Welcome Home” goes much deeper than that, as it’s in his blood.

#welcome home #welcome home arg #wally darling #barnaby b beagle #julie joyful #frank frankly #eddie dear #sally starlight #howdy pillar #poppy partridge #welcome home theory #welcome home puppet show

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ghost-in-a-flowercrown · 2 months

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my extremely disorganized welcome home theory!!!

this may sound crazy but please hear me out

there are three main points to this, all of which ill elaborate on under the cut!

one of the companies, either marlo or playfellow workshop, clearly tried to make a lot of changes to the show. this includes heavy merchandising, forcing julie/frank to be read as a couple, and cutting eddie from the show.

i think that once a character no longer appears on the air, they are forced into a sort of subliminal bond with their own home, isolating them and making them essentially unable to leave. we see this with eddie's situation.

if all of this is true, i may have a very good idea for the direction in which the story of welcome home will lead.

quick disclaimer beforehand : obviously, our knowledge on this is constantly growing and expanding! this is not my "entire opinion" on the story nor do i think this is the cold hard truth. these are simply my ideas!

in general, i think the idea of the offness coming from anything internal of the show , like the characters or home, is a far stretch .. more likely, it's coming from the people making the show itself.

my theory is that either playfellow workshop or marlo was taking control of the show , probably towards the end of its run, and making massive changes in the interest of maximizing profit. first of all the commercials clips feel off in and of themselves to me, because we can see that they literally partnered with anything in order to sell it. this is most clearly Weird in the sleeping pills wally clip, but also all over - of course this could just be that it was a popular show and wanted to make bank, but personally i think it was one of the companies pushing for more brand deals and more merchandise and more money.

this, of course, leads directly into the eddie/frank situation. as many different people have stated, this was the 1970s, and if there was any ability in the show for them to be read as a couple this could get a ton of backlash. i'm willing to bet that the company tried first of all to push julie/frank to be more easily read as a couple, then later deciding on either diminishing eddie's role a TON or deleting him completely.

and like, think about it. unfortunately, most of the characters don't really harbor any huge friendship towards him, at least not in the clips we've seen. while having positive relations with poppy, julie, frank and wally, he doesn't have as much as an outright "gimmick" or thing to sell as the others.

julie's excitable, sally's theatrical, frank's stubborn, howdy's charismatic, barnaby's funny, poppy's sweet, wally's reserved but polite, and eddie. "talks a lot". if you're an executive and you're going to cut one character from a show, especially in the interest of Not looking like theres Anything gay in your show, which would you choose?

NOW for the second part:

my believe about home, and furthermore all the homes in the series - but more directly Home - is that i think they act as sort of devices that the company can use to manipulate the characters. my theory about the eddie situation in the recent update is that it takes place in the midst of when the company was attempting to cut him from the show.

and when we see eddie in the midst of his breakdown, he's VERY tied to the post office (his home basically). he's isolated and literally states at a point during it that he assumes everyone's outside and playing in the snow, but never makes any attempt to go out and check - as if it doesn't even cross his mind. he expresses some kind of paranoid need to stay at the post office and not leave, even for a moment, which he also talks about in the videos.

when he finally DOES leave for the party, (which, btw, he only does because sally literally grabbed him and brought him there) , he starts seeing all the awful shit he sees (as we know) . INCLUDING HOME. and towards the end of it, all he says to frank is that he wants to go [ to his ] home.

what does all this mean??? im so glad u asked. basically i think that creators' actions upon the show affect the world of welcome home in subliminal ways that the characters aren't directly aware of happening (until, of course, they are.) in this case, if a character is cut from the show or their screen time is limited, they experience being subliminally forced to stay in their own home. if they try to leave, they start witnessing visceral, terrifying things that they can't explain, persuading them to return back home. back where it's "safe".

wally's home in particular, i think, enforces this the most. home is sentient so the company can probably carry out their desires more directly with him than any of the other houses (which are just structures, pretty much). i DON'T think home harbors any ill will themselves, but moreso is just carrying out what "needs to be done."

more evidence for this:

this theory is also entwined with how wally interacts with us, the people on the site, because he mentions in places like the guestbook, etc that he hasn't seen other members of the neighborhood in so long. but that doesn't mean they're not there.

so if a singular being cut from the show means that they are forced to stay in their own home and not go outside, then the show being taken off the air would, in theory, mean that everyone would be forced to stay in their own homes. for decades. wally reaching out to us could very likely be a cry for help and/or last try after years of isolation. (it would also explain why he's so much more off putting/tired/different than his in-show appearances.)

one last thing!!!! i think if that's what's going, on it could explain this sentence from the summary, unchanged since the beginning. i've never really understood this line or what it could mean, but -

this is a HUGE far cry. but i think it's possible that, if i'm right, at some point down the line the characters (still in the neighborhood) will actually try to leave their homes, or they have already, which would cause the "distortion/nightmarish memory". i mean we definitely could describe eddie's hallucination(?) as that so .

yeah i hope you enjoyed 20 minutes of me rambling ... please ask questions if some (or all) of this didn't make sense cuz im not rly sure if this is coherent lol. this also isnt all the thoughts i have about this theory but this post is too long as is lol. thanks so much for reading this far if you have!!!

#i love welcome home. so much guys #welcome home #wally darling #frank frankly #julie joyful #howdy pillar #eddie dear #poppy partridge #barnaby b beagle #sally starlet #welcome home arg #welcome home theory #:3 #i really hope this made sense

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the-nosy-neighbor · 1 month

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Eddie's Envelopes

Some spoilers from the latest update included

We've had a lot of Eddie content in this update. His supply list in "commercials" reminds me of a prior theory that I had.

So, get this:

Here, Clown has helpfully provided us with a full example of a letter, including the envelopes.

Envelopes are on Eddie's shopping list.

W receives Welcome Home materials in brightly colored envelopes, recently expanded to include homemade boxes, paper, and yarn or string.

"To be honest, we were drawn in unexpectedly. All of the information found on this website was extracted from documents that had been uncovered in brightly colored envelopes. We are thankful to be the first to jump start this exciting journey! But it hurts."

I have suggested before that this is pretty clear evidence that Eddie is sending the materials to W. I think that is why we saw his freakout, and if you want more information, there is a post on my blog. I will try to find it and edit this post.

This full example of an envelope is from Frank, and the top flap is yellow, which is Frank's assigned color. My theory is that the color of the top fold of the envelope tells you who it is from.

The image below shows what the front of a letter would look like. However, it is an example, so I don't know that we could guess it is an actual letter from the neighborhood. It could have been sent on by Eddie, but it is just as likely that it was created for the exhibit.

The second instance of a letter that we have is the letter below from Howdy, and the letter is probably addressed to Wally, as it mentions letting someone know about a paint shipment. The letter does not appear to match the envelope showing the front, but might match the back. If the flap is the same color on both sides, this is definitely matches the top flap showing who the letter is from. The front of the envelope could be considered to be indicative of the address system used, since they are coming from Eddie anyway. W has gotten some of these envelopes.

So it appears that the envelopes are addressed by name and location. In this example, The letter is from Wally (reflected in the red top flap) and to Barnaby. They both have "home" listed as their address, so either they are sending letters to each other in Home, they are referring to the neighborhood as home, or they are at their individual homes.

The letter from Wally to Barnaby had a blue field on the front of the envelope. So sender is the top and the front is the receiver maybe? The other two envelopes in these pictures are upside down, so they are no help.

I want to write about how I have been feeling too. I have no one to write to. If something happens to me, it will be like nothing had happened at all.

Included because of the reference of writing, and writing to someone. W says they don't have anyone to write to, and I am wondering if it is because W is very isolated, because the one person they tried to share it with went mad, or they are trying to explain that they also don't exist in our reality. There is the potential that W is some in-between entity. More on what we learn about W soon.

I think if this code system is correct, then it may provide us with useful information. If we accept that Eddie is passing things on in coded envelopes, motives and alliances might be ome clearer.

#welcome home #welcome home theories #wally darling #welcome home arg #welcome home project #eddie dear

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thatguy03 · 1 year

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Becoming Peter - Male tf

Jack had been struggling to land a part in anything significant lately. He scraped by on the pay from commercials and low budget shows, but he wanted something that could get his name out there. It seemed like perfect timing when he received an email from his agency that they had a role for him in an upcoming live adaptation of a popular animated series. It was the perfect opportunity to finally rise to the celebrity status hed always wanted. The only catch being that his agency couldnt disclose many details of the role yet, only that he had to gain weight for it. That was no problem for jack, hed get to pig out for a few months and then lose the weight after filming finished. He needed this.

The agency gave Jack a dietitian to help him gain the weight quick enough for the role, and he definitely didnt mind the diet he was put on. It was full of calorie rich foods at all time of the day, courtesy of the money provided by his agency. Also with some weird protein shakes provided by the producers of the show. Jack took a 'before' picture the day he started the diet along with his weight of 150 pounds, thinking it would be fun to track his progress.

It didnt take long for his diet to begin to show, he had been bloated basically constantly since he started the diet. Everytime his bloat seemed to die down, he was stuffing more food in his face. The diet was clearly working because within days Jack noticed a layer of pudge covering his ever bloated stomach. It was a weird sensation as he had always been really skinny, now he had some fat that he could actually grab onto. This was nothing compared to what was to come though. It seemed everyday when he would take a show he would notice a noticeable amount of fat had accumulated on his stomach. Within only a week his stomach had rounded out, and he started to notice fat build up on his chest, making his once flat pecs look swollen. A few weeks later his body had significantly changed from when he started the diet. He had a beer belly reminiscent of dads in their 40s and pair of man boobs that showed through any shirt he wore. Friends and family showed concern of his rapid growth but he reassured it was just for the role and he was still healthy. He did often think about how fast he was growing, but reassured himself that people he knew had gained weight this fast before. Besides he had more confidence than ever, because with all the fat gained in his stomach, fat and muscle had built on his previously tiny arms and legs. He finally had arms comparable in size to the guys his age that worked out, despite most of it being fat. One day before his shower, he decided to check his weight to update his agency of his progress. He stepped on the scale and recorded '200 pounds' not realizing how much heavier he was than he expected. He took a progress picture in some new shorts he had bought, as most of his clothes already didnt fit. He sent the photo and weight to his agency, only realizing now how ridiculous it was that he gained 50 pounds in just over a month.

His days went on normal for the next few weeks, doing nothing but eating a ton and drinking shakes. Though he had noticed lately he was a lot hungrier than he usually is. At first it was difficult to reach his calorie goal each day, but it became slowly easier and easier. Soon he started eating more than his calorie goal, he convinced himself that it was just so he could hit the weight need for the role faster, but the truth was that he was just hungry between his massive meals. He had stopped going out basically at all now, just relying on order food and groceries online using the credit card provided by the producers. He stayed at home either eating sleeping of playing video games, as a result he never needed new clothes for his growing body and spent all his time in the only pair of shorts that fit him. Due to his increased eating habits, his body continued to grow significantly over the next month. His gut had grown large and round, blocking his view of his feet. He was now larger than most men he knew, even outgrowing the impressive guts of the fat old men he knew, men who had long since let themselves go. His moobs began to sag and lay on his gut, and his nipples grew large and swollen. His back formed many rolls of fat and he now had love handles that spilled over his shorts. Shorts that could barely contain his ever growing ass and thick thighs, despite being by far his biggest pair of shorts. Proud of his progress he decided he would update his agency. He stepped on the scale, having to hold his gut in to even see the scale. It read '250 pounds', he had gained a shocking 50 pounds in just a month again. He stood sideways and snapped a picture, surprised at how prominent the S curve caused by his protruding gut and ass had become.

It had been a couple months since the last update, and Jack still has no idea what this role is nor does he know how fat he needs to get. It was not like he was gaining weight for the role anyway, at this point the gaining was a part of his lifestyle. Something that would most definitely stick after shooting had concluded. He had basically stopped drinking anything but the protein shakes provided by the producers. He always had a container of them sent to his door regardless of how fast he was going through them. He is basically constantly eating, whether it be giant fast food meals or snacking any moment he isnt eating fast food. He is basically unrecognizable from the man he was only a few months ago. No one he knew would recognize him now, not like he was seeing anyone anyway. His face now hides under a thick layer of fat, with rolls covering his neck and giving him a very obvious double chin. It must have been all the unhealthy eating, but he began to look much older than he was, looking well into his 30s despite being in his early 20s. The rest of his body wasnt much more recognizable than his face was. His gut protruded out much further than it had last update, so far that it started ton sag over the waist of his shorts. It became difficult just to get in and out of the shower, he even started to shower with the curtain open because he couldnt fully fit inside anymore. His moobs swelled even further, as they sagged under his flabby arms. His love handled spilled over his waist, making door frames a tight squeeze. The only piece of clothing that remotely fit him now was his pair of red shorts, but saying they fit was a stretch to say the least. Jack stood staring at himself in the mirror, all embarrassment of what he had become had long been smothered under a new man that took pride in his girth. He figured he had grown enough to send his agency another picture. Some part of him hoped that the agency have him the same answer they always had, that he needed to be bigger. He stepped on the scale, it was basically impossible for him to the number that showed up, but he had gone above 350 pounds. Somehow his brain seemed to brush off the fact that it shouldnt have been possible to gain that much weight that fast, but the thought never crossed his mind. He stood in the mirror and snapped a photo before sending it to his agency.

The next couple of months moved by fast. He had finally gotten an update from his agency, he would be playing Peter Griffin in the new live action adaptation of family guy. Weirdly enough the email ended with "Welcome to the team, Peter." Why would they call him Peter? His name was... it was... no that's right he is Peter. His diet still consisted of massive portions of greasy food and a ton of beer, but it always had, right? It was weird that his shorts seemed to shrink every day as he has been the same size for as long as he could remember. The hair everywhere on his body but his head fell out, leaving him smooth. His double chin seemed to grow until it touched his chest and his face was enveloped with a soft layer of fat. His gut outgrew the size of a massive beach ball, making it basically impossible to reach his dick, though it's not like much of it was still visible under his thick fat pad. His moobs seemed to flatten under their own weight, still resting on his belly. Many rolls formed on his back that lead all the way down to his over stretched shorts that were holding on for dear life. Hopefully they'll have clothes his size on set. His entire body looked like it was melting due to the sheer weight of his fat weighing him down. He stepped on his scale for the first time in a while, excited to see that he was too heavy for the scale. It just kinda glitched out when he stepped on it. He felt this was the perfect time to send in one final update to his agency as he had never felt more like himself, and he was just playing himself after all.

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kashmiresims · 2 months

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Hi Charmful, I really love your amazing neighborhood! It is fantastic to see the passion you've put in this project for about 17 (!) years! What advice would you give to someone who wishes to start their own custom hood with many subhoods and stories, like yours? What are in your opinions some do's and don'ts (be it about technicalities, gameplay or even mindset)? Thanks in advance and I apologise if this question has already been asked :)

No! You are completely fine, I appreciate the question. Very few ever ask me questions on my tumblr anyhow. I just go around giving this advice every so often when I see it asked about how to start custom hoods on the big TS2 Facebook Group or the Sims 2 Subreddit, haha! So, going into your own hood/subhoods project sounds really daunting and it's not a feat for the impatient or those that have a penchant for serial restarting playstyle. 1. Grow it organically. If that seems too loose of a perimeter for someone, they can always use a structured BACC as a springboard. One of my favorite TS2 Twitch streamers, ChocolatCitySim has built her amazing custom hood and subhoods up from a BACC. Here is an album of my hoods and subhoods showing them in 2015 and 2022 and the progress it made and even at present they look different than they did in 2022. 2. Create a solid set of sims or families you want to be the foundation population. They could be founders, you could have a headcanon of why they moved to town, or how they fit into the lore of your custom hood. These sims you will play for a long time, hopefully enough to see their children's children and such. My best advice is aim for 5-8 families and then sprinkle in some YAs (if you add a Uni right off) and single adults that are ready to mingle. Add new families and sims as you progress and as needed to grow your population. 3. Don't be afraid! Why is this important? Because Kashmire wouldn't be what it is today if I had panicked at every glitch, accident, or unintended situation that cropped up. It has actually enhanced my hood lore as the years have gone by. It makes for a unique story twist or quirk when something happens and you have to interpret or explain it away into a narrative or hood canon. Don't be afraid to start playing before the hood is 'done'; spoiler alert: a custom hood is never 'done' it might have a good few years stretch of you not updating anything in it until you need it but if you are like me and get the urge to go ham on hood deco after 14 or so years, it's gonna always be in flux! Obsessing with getting a custom hood 'done' before playing it is the quickest way to burn out and abandon your goal. Also, don't be afraid to completely chuck stuff you have downloaded or built and are not feeling anymore. Or re-arranging entire sections of your hood. In real life, civilizations grow and change and seeing that progress in your own neighborhood can be rewarding! You can even send sims you aren't feeling anymore off to another place, or make them townies, or kill them off. I've never played in strict rotation, I've lost sims to glitches, and I've bulldozed more than half my original builds to try and build or download something better.

4. Back to the building of it, I wish I had done it sooner but it's helpful to kind of know what zones of your hood are. Commercial vs Residential, vs greenspace use. Use hood deco to build up parts to make it look busier if you are going for a more urban hood or subhood but don't have a lot of playable lots yet. If you aren't a builder, download lots, there are so many good ones out there! On the same note of building, try to have your basic necessity community lots in every subhood so the sim doesn't have to travel through 2 screens to get a cup of coffee or go to a gym, but you can vary those community lots unless you want to simulate a 'chain' (a chain of restaurants, gyms, coffee shops). Then, try to also have some unique places in each subhood. Places your sims might want to go to impress a date, or dancing with friends, fill a want that comes up less often. I could wax poetic about all the different lots around Kashmire but to not exceed a response character count, I shant. 5. A subtle thing you can do is develop an identity for your different areas/subhoods. You can do this with themes, flora, deco, and even the sims that live there. 6. Let the stories come naturally and retcon what doesn't work anymore. After playing for so many years in Kashmire, stories develop in a variety of ways--most have developed through the gameplay aspect itself mixed with being inspired by lots or poseboxes or just fun scenarios I want to try to play and execute. If you don't have a stellar memory like I do (which is how I keep everything in order) document your play through notes and pics! Even just putting up little blurbs on your tumblr with a few pics can help you start a narrative and then use it to go back to reference. If not here, any blogging site, a forum, or any other place you can post will do! 7. Be choosy with your cc. Things will come along you will WANT but do you really NEED it? This is a good rule of thumb for any Sims 2 player honestly. 8. MAKE BACK UPS. CONSISTENTLY MAKE BACK UPS OF YOUR HOOD AND GAME. RELIGIOUSLY STORE THEM SOMEPLACE SAFE because your heart will break if one day your SSD melts and all your backups were on it and you don't have an amazing computer wizard husband to save your custom hood's ass. People always ask me 'How have you played the same Sims 2 neighborhood for 17 years?!' and my answer: BACK UPS. That's all I can think of off the top of my mind. Thanks for the question and good luck on your Sims 2 custom hood journey!

#kashmiresims #advice #custom hoods #ts2 #answer

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stuckinapatriarchalbullshitland · 2 months

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Camila's image will still be heterosexual and will follow heterosexual narratives//

Yeah this is something I've been seeing since October/November, I noticed in the podcast that Camila actually used her (very public) tiktok activity as reference points when answering questions Alex asked, like referring to a "roster" (like in her tiktok) and some of her guy-related reposts that got spread around by update accounts (like the 'when I show my friends the cringy text he sent' repost).

It reminded me of some submissions that I sent as anon a little while back about her tiktok activity and how it's meant to promote a "girl's girl" relatability with her fanbase, as well as one I sent several months ago when she started her tiktok reposts about how I felt she is having her "single lady" era in cc4 and looking for a guy to crush on, still killing Camren by emphasising she's in the dating pool for a man but not (for now) in a relationship like she'd been for much of her previous eras. Now that promotion time for the era is starting I'm seeing exactly that unravel more.

Camila's new album and image direction hasn't really been a surprise, Geffen seems very strict on wanting very commercially marketable records (and to that extent likely artists as well) as shown by them going as far as to sue Neil Young for not making the type of commercially marketable album the label wanted.

I was talking about it with a friend and she told me that it seemed that Camila is forcing her to have a me-eating heterosexual image for a reason and it can be the most obvious of the world here, considering that Camila is anything but heterosexual. I remember Lauren's podcast: "I am queer, Camila is not" and that phrase greatly reinforced the image of Camila. I do not know, there is something else that we are losing because what Lauren said in that podcast could leave the door open for Camila to leave the closet, but first you have to reinforce her hetero image, because you have to remember that the industry It does not take gay and lesbians out of the closet.

And I'm agree with you about the last part

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spidernuggets · 4 months

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Not sure about this idea.... But i'm thinking about opening commissions for fanart for Jason Todd. Now, this can be anything.

Profile pics, banners, self insert fanart, etc.

If you would like any of these, feel free to DM me your request! Due to my busy schedule, I'll start at 0/5 slots for commissions. We can discuss prices in DMs, but for now, starting prices and terms of service will be mentioned under the cut.

Any questions, send them in Ask or DMs!

Starting Prices

•Sketch (No Colour!):

♡Head-shot: €10 ♡Half body: €15 ♡Full Body: €20 ♡Character + Background Sketch: €30

*If you'd prefer line art of sketches, price will increase by €5

•Coloured Commision:

Head-shot:

♡Flat colour: €15 ♡Shading: €25 ♡Character + Background (detailed): €35

Half body portrait:

♡Flat colour: €25 ♡Shading: €35 ♡Character + Background (detailed): €45

Full body portrait:

♡Flat colour: €35 ♡Shading: €45 ♡Characyer + Background (detailed): €55

Additional Figures (characters, ocs, self insert, etc): €5

Prices Subject To Change

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

Important/Prioritised info will be highlighted in RED

I will NOT tolerate any criticism of how I price my art. If you comment anything that goes against this system, you will be BLOCKED.

♡ By commissioning me, you are agreeing to my terms of service.

♡ The art provided by me should be used for personal uses only. Icons, Pfps, Banners, etc. However, any commercial, NFT use, or reselling of my designs are prohibited. You will be BLOCKED and REPORTED.

♡ Payment must be sent as Goods and Services through PayPal ONLY in EURO.

♡ I reserve the right to turn down any commissions if necessary.

♡ I only start commissions once the transaction is complete.

♡ I do not allow refunds once commisions have started.

♡ Specific details in how you'd like the design to look are highly required and greatly appreciated to quicken the process of the making of the design.

♡ Sudden change of mind after sketching will result in a minimum 25% fee (may increase depending on progress of sketch) for a new sketch.

♡ My completion speed ranges from 1-3 weeks. Deadlines under 1 week require a rush fee of €10-15 depending on the details of the artwork.

♡ Designs will be given in PNG format.

♡You will be shown updates on the progress of the artwork in case you might want any SMALL changes. However, all updates will be watermarked.

♡ Profiting my work without any discussion is prohibited. You will be blocked, and your account will be reported.

♡I will NOT accept any of the following as requests: •Hate Art •Fetish Art •NSFW •Works for AI use •Works for NFT use, feel free to inquire any unlisted

Other info:

♡If you wish to request a self insert piece, DO NOT send a pocture that reveals your identity. Some alternatives can include a pic where your face is scribbled, reference pocs of hair, eyes, skin colour, etc, off of Pinterest or Google and such.

I do not have reference pics of artworks I've done of Jason Todd himself. However, I have plenty of artwork that I can show you in DMs to display what my style of drawing could look like, both traditionally and digitally, and all would be watermarked for ownership reasons.

Though this all seems very strict, it's a very casual commissioning and a safe environment. Requests will not be judged or rejected as long as they follow the ToS.

FIRST COME FIRST SERVE!!

Any other questions, don't be afraid to ask!

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catgirl-catboy · 1 year

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hi! since you seem pretty pro-ai, i have a question. how do you reconcile that stance with the growing threat ai has on creative jobs? especially right now with the wga strike, when one of their main issues is ai. not trying to trap you or start a fight, just genuinely curious as someone with a foot in both fanfic and professional writing who doesn’t fully know how to feel.

I wouldn't say I'm pro ai in the sense that I think ai is uncritically great.

I think ai is morally neutral, and that it is only getting misused under capitalism.

I am absolutely down for ai being improved upon to progress society, and think ai could actually be a helpful tool for a lot of jobs humans don't want to do!

(Look me in the eye and tell me the current youtube auto generated captions are acceptable. Look my Hard of Hearing ass in the eye.)

That being said, the current people that are funding and working on the ai are scumbags that are clearly in it for a cheap buck and not to progress humanity forwards!

(maybe I'm an optimist, but I want to program something great one day. Something that other programmers build upon, and eventually people are still benefitting from my existence long after I'm gone!)

That being said, it isn't as easy as "magically hope the people behind chatGDP grow a spine or replace them with better people" I feel the the government should regulate ai more, so it isn't down to the morality of the current big name cooperations!

This will likely not happen, since governments always wait to pass laws on technology until it is far too late. I'd say:

If an Ai was used, it has to be disclosed and the programmers who wrote the ai credited.

In order to train a commercial ai on something, you have to either get consent from the people that made it (same as reference photos) or pay them. It should be like stock photos.

The companies shouldn't be able to tell users what they can and can't use the ai for. This is a slippery slope, and I could very easily see it leading to the "sorry, we refuse to write anything thats anti-big company! Sorry (suck my dick)

I think it should be under the same copyright law as fanfiction. You can use an ai to make whatever the fuck you want, but if you sell it the people that came up with the idea can come after you. As for ai completely stealing human jobs, it doesn't seem very likely. Ai automating people out of a job has always been a fear, and writing/art is the least likely field for this to happen in. The ai can't make anything original. If, lets say, the dataset goes up to 2020, then the ai won't be able to comment on modern events in the slightest. An ai can make SW fic, but once a new movie drops, its dataset will no longer be accurate. Therefore, the ai depends on humans to keep datasets up to date. Also, current ai is not good enough to recreate a modern TV show. Have you tried Ai? Do you think you can get it to keep a plot going for more than 1-2 prompts? Let alone an entire 22 minute episode? It'll be all tangential and clunky. even if some person actually wanted to write a show in this way, they'd need human editors to make it make sense. And at that point, if you're already paying humans, there's no point in relying on the ai. Another flaw in this "using ai to write shows approach" is that the ai isn't static? Like, if a new update roles out, the writing of the show can be completely off and that may not be fixable. I don't think anyone in Hollywood would want to put their faith in the competency of a bunch of random programmers.

We should have debated the morality of ai before we made it, if thats what tumblr wants. Its too late now. Can't put the genie back in the bottle.

There's no way that random internet users will have the same impact on the way ai plays out, since its up to the government and big cooperations.

I advise anyone who feels strongly about the subject to lobby to their government (or maybe the ai creators, but the government is your best bet.) instead of trying to peer pressure internet users into a boycott that will not affect shit in any way.

#ask tag #ai discourse

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bi-bard · 2 years

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I Miss You Like It Was the Very First Night - Andrew Garfield Imagine

Title: I Miss You Like It Was the Very First Night

Pairing: Andrew Garfield X Reader

Based On: The Very First Night

Word Count: 857 words

Warning(s): mentions of a break-up and the internet being awful

Summary: After they end up sitting together at an award show, Andrew and (Y/n) spend most of their night reminiscing about their past and what they used to have together.

Author's Note: I think this was my first real attempt at "right person, wrong time".

Masterlist for From the Vault - Taylor Swift Writing Challenge

-------------------------------------

I never learned how much people could jump onto drama until after Andrew and I separated.

It was about as healthy as a break-up could be. We both were unhappy and learned that the constant arguments weren't worth it. It was heartbreaking, but it was for our well-being.

We separated to stop us from hating each other.

That's not what the internet saw.

Once the news was finally broken to our respective fans, it was a shitshow. It couldn't have been a healthy break-up. Someone had to have cheated. Someone had to have majorly fucked up. Someone had to have been treating the other like complete shit. Nothing either one of us said could stop the run of theories and speculations.

The two of us just continued to steer clear of each other. And then we both ended up at the same award show. And some smartass decided to seat us just a table away from each other.

The moment we both realized what had happened, we started laughing to ourselves.

During one of the commercial breaks, Andrew walked over.

"Hi," he greeted.

"Hi," I chuckled. "How are you? Beyond the unbelievable amount of success?"

He looked down, blushing a little at the mention of his career.

"I'm good, I'm good," he nodded, looking back at me. "How are you? Beyond absolutely dominating the box office?"

"First of all, that's bullshit," I chuckled. "And I'm good. Got another project lined up, so that's exciting."

"I'm assuming no details?"

"Sadly no," I replied.

He pretended to be disappointed, "How am I meant to update my blog now?"

"Sorry to disappoint," I put my hand on my chest.

We continue making small talk until we were told that the show was starting again. After Andrew sat down again, we waved at each other.

We didn't talk again until the afterparty. I had found a small bench that was out of the way. I wasn't trying to isolate; I was just overwhelmed and needed a minute to breathe.

"Hi," I jumped a little when I heard someone speak. Andrew held his hands up when he saw me jump. "Sorry, didn't realize you were zoned out."

"It's fine," I waved it off. "I was just getting a little overwhelmed."

He walked over and sat next to me, "Do you need anything?"

"No, I managed to catch it before anything happened."

He nodded.

There was a pause between us. Then, he chuckled.

"What," I asked.

"I just realized where we're sitting."

I looked around. After a moment, I laughed with him.

"God, I'm so predictable."

We had sat in the same spot years ago. We hadn't gone to the event together, but we had been friends for a while. It was the first time that Andrew had kissed me. It was how we discovered that it was a very secluded spot.

"I can't blame you," he shrugged. "It's a nice spot."

I nodded.

"You almost fell off the bench," Andrew said.

"After you tried to drag me back into the party, you ass," I shoved his arm.

"I was excited."

"You kissed me and then ran off like a golden retriever."

"Can you blame me," he asked.

"My almost broken ankle says yes," I replied.

He stuck his tongue out at me.

"Mature."

"Shut up," he mumbled, crossing his arms jokingly and looking straight ahead.

I had missed this.

I hadn't realized how much until seeing him again. It was like I was confronted by emotions that I thought I had gotten over. It was all just so natural. It was like nothing had changed between us.

"Andrew," I said softly after a moment in that state of nostalgia.

"Yeah," he turned back to me.

I slid forward on the bench and leaned forward, pressing my lips to his. There was a long pause. He just kind of froze where he was. Figuring that I overstepped, I leaned back.

"Sorry," I mumbled.

Andrew cupped the side of my face and pulled me into another kiss before I could go too far. My hand reached up to touch his as I kissed him back.

After a moment, I pulled back again.

"I missed you," he said quietly.

"I- I missed you too," I replied, blinking back a few tears.

He smiled, leaning his forehead on mine.

It felt like everything was fitting back into place. It just all felt... right.

--next morning--

I woke up to a shit ton of notifications.

Far more than normal.

Instagram, Twitter, text messages. Everything was just kind of exploding. I had people asking me if something was real or true. I was beyond confused.

Finally, I caught a notification from a news app that I had forgotten I saved on my phone. I opened the notification, and my eyes went wide. It was Andrew and me. Distinctly Andrew and me.

"Fuck," I muttered.

A text message came through that caught my eye. It was from Andrew. I opened the message. It was a screenshot of that photo and a message underneath.

Our secret spot is no longer secret.

I chuckled. What a way to figure that out.

-------------------------------------

Masterlist (Includes links to All Writing Challenges)

What I Write For

Some Original Characters

#andrew garfield x reader #andrew garfield imagine #andrew garfield fanfiction #fanfiction #imagine #x reader

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dwtsfun · 2 years

Text

Dancing with the Stars Season 31 Week 1: Same Show, Different Platform

Hey everyone! We are back for season 31 on Disney+. We have Conrad Green back as executive producer and Tyra has a new cohost, Alfonso!. Judges are still the same, but they never change. Now a lot of you have been asking my for some thoughts about all of the changes. I guess I'll start out by addressing those. That seems to be appropriate. Let's start with Conrad.

I cannot believe that I'm saying this, but it's nice to have him back. It's nice to hear the full name of both the pro and the celeb. I'm feel the energy of the show has shifted back to what it once was. It was going down a weird path for awhile and Monday night felt familiar and comforting. I love the intro pose before the dance. It's a modernized version of what they used to do back in the day and I missed that so much. I do wish he could've brought the stairs back, but we can't have it all.

For the hosts, I think Tyra and Alfonso were fantastic together. They already know each other and have worked together in the past (Fresh Prince), so it wasn't awkward for them to bounce off of one another. As someone said, Tyra seemed to be a lot more relaxed now that she didn't have to shoulder the responsibility of hosting the entire show. And Alfonso is just a natural. There were a few issues but that was backroom stuff and I'll talk about that a little later.

I enjoyed the troupe dancing. It was a nice and welcome break from the main events of the show.

Now, I think we have to talk about the lack of commercials. The reason that I am so late getting this up is because so much happened in 2 hours with no break that I was kinda over DWTS for the night. Tyra and Alfonso did well, but that was a marathon for them. They literally had no chance to just sit and breathe. At least commercials give some reprieve to the hosts (whether it was Tom, Samantha, Brooke, Erin, Lisa, Tyra or Alfonso). We also saw the control room seemed to mess up a few times with scoring and getting all that updated. Even though they could make that mistake at any time, it is important for them to have that down time so that they can update things to feed to Tyra as the show goes on. I'm not sure how they can rectify this, but something needs to be done to give everyone a breather. The pace of Monday night is not sustainable for an entire season.

And finally, the week 1 elimination. I didn't like it. I think it was the right couple that left, but I wish it had been week 2 or maybe even give us one special results show on Tuesday. Make it a two day premiere. That being said, I liked that Jason and Peta had time to say good-bye and the cast could go hug them and all of that. Okay, now recap time.

Jordin and Brandon- Cha-cha (Score=26)- This was really good. I thought it should've been straight 7s. And upon my second viewing, I was right. It was a very strong week 1 dance and a great way to start the night. Jordin has some really great lines and her technique is actually quite good when she hits everything correctly. I think she was a little uncomfortable. There were moments where it felt like she wasn't quite finishing all the moves right in the middle of the dance. Things started to blend. But nonetheless, a great dance.

Sam and Cheryl- Foxtrot (Score=20)- I thought this dance was fine. It wasn't particularly bad. It wasn't all that great either. It was passable. I feel like the song probably caused them more problems. It didn't lend itself well to the smoothness of a foxtrot. Sam has some potential though. That is the one thing I got from this dance. And based on the other 20s, it probably could've gotten a point or two higher.

Heidi and Artem- Cha-cha (Score=24)- I was surprised at how well Heidi handled this dance. I wasn't really expecting much because I don't know much about her and she's not a celeb celeb. But she did really well. Her legs are really nice. Her arms are pretty good too. I do think she needs to do a better job of projecting when she dances and really hitting her moves harder. I'm starting to realize that Artem has the same issues with his partners that Tony used to have.

Daniel and Britt- Tango (Score=27)- Daniel really shocked me. The confidence that he exuded was kinda hot, not gonna lie. And he handled Britt's choreo really well. His arm kinda gets funky and his legs need some more work. The potential is there and like Jordin, I think he probably should've had straight 7s.

Jessie and Alan- Cha-cha (Score=20)- Well, this dance was a mess. Jessie had basically no technique. Her legs and feet were atrocious. But she knows how to perform and mostly stayed on time. I'm not sure how much potential is there, but we shall see as the season goes on. Alan might make some miracle happen with her. I mean I though Lauren Alaina was a no hoper when she was on.

Teresa and Pasha- Tango (Score=20)- As many of you know, Teresa was one of the people I was excited to see. But this dance was a bit of a let down for me. I could tell she was extremely nervous and dancing definitely doesn't seem to come easy for her. However, I see something there and I want Pasha to tap into it. What she did wasn't bad (other than her frame). It's just what she didn't do. The Housewives fanbase really doesn't translate well to DWTS so I'm not shocked that she ended up in the bottom 2. I think the only Housewife that was pretty much safe up until the week she left was Nene.

Wayne and Witney- Cha-cha (Score=29)- Just as I expected, Wayne was explosive. Witney gave him a great dance and it was so amazing to watch. I do think he needs to clean up some of his technique, but it was great. I'm shocked he didn't get more than one 8. I thought it for sure deserved at least two. I'm really excited for these two. And I don't think I've said this before, but Witney is definitely one of my favorite pros. She's such a star and so good at what she does.

Cheryl and Louis- Cha-cha (Score=21)- First of all, welcome back Louis. Now, Cheryl might've been my biggest surprise of the night. I 100% agreed with CAI. I think she could've handled more than Louis gave her. They played it a bit safe, but she definitely has the goods and she can move. And knowing Louis, I know that's a critique he wants to hear. As for the dance itself, it was good. I wanted more hip action but she really did everything well. I really wanna see her do a ballroom dance. She's got the elegance and lyricism to pull off a gorgeous dance.

Vinny and Koko- Salsa (Score=17)- First, welcome to the show Koko! Now, the judges were way too harsh on them for this dance. Was it great? No. Was it good? No. But, Vinny has potential. I think the dance actually would've been better if Vinny hadn't been so nervous. He forgot things and he kinda got lost. But he performed it well and there were moments when I saw him hit the moves he was supposed to, when he was supposed to. I think a few things need to happen to help these two out. First, I want Koko to simplify the routines from now on. Vinny is not super skilled, so throwing everything into one dance will not work out for him. It's a rookie mistake, so I understand why she did it. Idk if she is doing this next thing, but I'd like for her to take Vinny to the side at least once before they dance, reassure him and calm him down. He was clearly hyped up when they got out there and he needs to come back down to really get these dances down.

Shangela and Gleb- Salsa (Score=28)- Shangela killed this. This was actually my favorite dance of the night. First of all, this is the best Gleb US choreography that I've seen from him. Shangela also really killed this dance. She was fierce. She was confident. She had rhythm and hips. It was a great time. Now, I need them to reign it back in a little bit. It started to get a little wild from time to time and that will create problems in the future. That's my biggest critique.

Trevor and Emma- Quickstep (Score=21)- Interesting dance. They sold it to us like he was going to be one of the worst dancers ever on DWTS. And then it was actually ok. I'm not sure why that was the case. Now it was kind of wild and there were a lot of technical issues. But it wasn't the disaster they were preparing us for. Again, weird.

Gabby and Val- Jive (Score=28)- The judges gushed over this dance and I found that to be very suspicious. Was it good? Yes. But there were a lot of issues. First, she had Bambi legs going on a little bit. And I also thought that her kicks were lacking. They didn't retract the way that they should've. She can dance though. I definitely think she's gonna be good.

Joseph and Daniella- Jive (Score=23)- Joseph killed this dance. Ain't no way I was expecting him to be this good and light on his feet and flexible, considering how muscular he is. Daniella is an amazing teacher and choreographer. Now, his feet were eyesores and there are some other things. But man, this guy is actually someone that could become a contender.

Jason and Peta- Cha-cha (Score=18)- This just wasn't a good dance. And there was nothing that Jason could've done to save it. He's just not a good dancer and that's okay. As soon as I saw him counting out loud, I knew he was gonna be in trouble. That is never a good sign for anyone. He was eliminated though, so we don't have to worry about fixing any of his problems anymore.

Selma and Sasha- Viennese Waltz (Score=28)- This dance was beautiful. It was a true moment. I really loved it and Selma did such a great job with everything. I enjoyed Sasha's choreography. It was good. I do worry about how Latin will be for her, but I feel like her ballroom dances will always be really nice to watch.

Charli and Mark- Cha-cha (Score=32)- Welcome back Mark! This dance was good. Really good. I expected that though. I don't have much to really say though. I liked it and I like Charli more than I thought I would. I would like to tell everyone though to be prepared for a "shocking" elimination involving her. She's young and her fanbase is young. They're usually fickle. Not sure how it's gonna be on Disney+, but you all need to prepare yourselves. She's got "shocking elimination" written all over her and I do not want to sit here and talk about ad nauseum if it does happen. I just want to get that out the way.

So that's it. This took forever to write. I think I'm going to figure out a different way to do this next week. Recapping 15 dances is not fun. This is another reason why I didn't want more than 13 couples in a season. It makes blogging about it a much more tedious task. Let me know you all's thoughts and I will talk to you soon!

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nerves-nebula · 1 year

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haha man it would suck if that turned out to be trafficking, I might need to think about that more xD

"Up to expectations" is basically the guardians were looking for a kid to actually adopt themselves, but they didn't want a trouble maker or a troubled kid. The thing is to get into that foster home you had to be a legal orphan, so we all had issues. They basically wanted a kid that would raise itself and give them a good reputation, and also wanted a kid that would do house work, physical labour, feed themselves/cook, etc. They kept us pretty isolated there probably so we wouldn't learn how weird the place was lol.

Not being up to expectations basically means you weren't good enough to stay their child. Might be that you got in trouble at school one too many times (you had very few chances there). Might be that you were "rebelling" by not doing what the guardians wanted, might be that you cried or were too emotional or displayed trauma symptoms etc etc. Or that you didn't come when they called your name fast enough, or tried leaving the house when you didn't have explicit permission (eventually they installed security cameras around all the windows and doors so they could check even when we were left home alone).

Thing is, is that if you were good for a few months and then got settled enough to act how you were they'd keep judging you based on those early interactions. This lead to bad kids being called "devil children," and once you started getting that label then you'd lose other privileges and stuff.

The CDs were the guardian's way of finding new people to give the kids to once the kid was deemed too "bad" to be adopted. Basically they did trial periods of being parents and if they didn't like how the kids acted they'd get rid of them and get a new kid. The CDs were shown to other adults that wanted to adopt, so like if the kid looks good that means it'll be faster for the guardians to get rid of them.

Basically instead of going and meeting the kid before adopting them you can just watch the video and see if its the type of kid you want, ya know? I guess kinda like commercials? Fun fact! The only video of me as a kid that exists is that one that's a commercial for me! I don't have a copy but I think those guardians kept a copy for each kid.

I think that answers the question? you can ask for more/different details if ya want lol I don't mind

this is somehow WORSE than i expected good lord. was this all happening outside of the system? like were they showing their friends who wanted to adopt or were they going to foster care meetings or w/e and showing the people there??

this is definitely some weird shit. making commercials/pitches for Human Children is a little too close to trafficking & the like for me. Also just the idea of grading if you wanted to keep a children or not is fucking harrowing, let alone telling them about it and keeping them updated on their standing with you.

#nnstuff #ask #child abuse tw

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firebatvillain · 1 year

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On the possibility of ML companies scraping AO3 for training sets

Like many, I’ve also seen the concerning recent discussions of commercial AI trained on datasets scraped from fanfiction.

Why do you care about this?

I've always felt that the fic-writing side of fandom existed beyond the reach, mostly, of capitalism. It's a community formed around developing a cultural commons. We write for ourselves, and for each other. We write for the communities we’re in. We write out of love rather than in pursuit of financial gain.

While money is an aspect of paying for servers (I certainly donate to AO3 when I can), and other aspects like zine printing, and some people turn fandom fame into careers, it’s just nice to have a place that’s not about that. Fandom is a place of joy and sharing. It has always felt special to me for this reason.

It makes me sad to think of a corp taking the flourishing garden of fandom communities and using it to profit, even if it doesn't hurt me directly in any way.

Is this actually happening?

In terms of fanfic being used to train research AIs, yes. In terms of the same at commercial firms, probably.

The best-documented example of fanfiction used to train AI that I've found has been from Redwood Research, a nonprofit research group. They wrote a recent article here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.01663 which used the FFN fic pack that was made a while back during concerns of FFN’s site instability.

4.3 Initial data sources Our initial, baseline classifier training set consisted of “snippets” derived from a dataset of fan fiction stories. We sourced our prompts from an archive of approximately 300 GB of stories from fanfiction.net

A.1.4 Fan fiction distribution Our source dataset was a 300GB archive of stories from fanfiction.net13.

13 https://archive.org/details/FanficRepack_Redux

It seems this research group considers an archive of scraped fanfic to be a good source of training set content. Their method of training is to first get content for a baseline, then use mechanical turk-style gig economy work to retrain the model after that. It seems that this works pretty well for their purposes.

Commercial groups are not far off from trying things like this, if they aren't already.

What steps can be taken?

I would guess that any fic that was previously available to the wide internet has already been scraped by at least one company. For new fics and chapters, one could definitely take steps like:

Any new fics you publish could be made viewable only to registered viewers

If you update an old fic with new chapters, change its status to be viewable only to registered videos

There are some downsides: if you do this to a fic, you will make it inaccessible to people without AO3 accounts. While it is not difficult to get an AO3 account these days, this still will reduce the number of people who can enjoy your fic.

I am curious about how datasets are generated, shared, sold, leased, etc in the ML industry (and in ML academia, where there's some overlap). If new firms sometimes start from scratch and scrape new data sets, then that's something that locking existing fic would avoid.

How do I hide my fic from scrapers?

To hide one fic: edit it, then check the box under Privacy for “Only show your work to registered users” to hide your fic from scrapers.

If you want to edit multiple fics at once, follow the guide here: https://archiveofourown.org/faq/posting-and-editing?language_id=en#editmultipleworks and select your works. In the multiple-edit screen, the option you want will look like this:

Set this to “Only show to registered users” to hide your fic from scrapers.

What are you going to do?

I’m still thinking about what I want to do.

To some degree, it feels like the horse is already out of the barn and corps have already gathered my own fics for themselves. If I restrict all my current fics to registered users, that will cut off future attempts, and if I restrict new fics to registered users, I can be assured that they won’t contribute to corporate profits. But it would also make it harder for some people to find my fics.

I like it when I can share my work with others, and that people enjoy them, and limiting that would make me sad.

#fbv writes #ao3 #fandom #machine learning #writing

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quirkcodes · 2 years

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"Productive Devs" Rant/Vent

Content Warning: Degrading Language and Harsh Criticism. I'm currently emotional and insecure; I don't normally act like this:

"I made a commercial game in one week," ok but how many bitches did you get in one week?

In all seriousness, I'm kinda sick and tired of random people going on the internet to brag about their ridiculous accomplishments. I'm over here taking almost a month to recreate an arcade game and this goodie-two-shoes study-with-a-buddy millennial is out here making monetized product.

Good for you stinky. Are you going to use that money to buy some soap that doesn't smell like sci-fi dead body like every other man marketed hygiene product, stinky? Are you going to buy something for your nerdy collectible shelf that spans the entire wall of your apartment living room? Maybe a funko pop? Is that what you'd like?

Devlogs

You'd think a video like that would be a way to help people. Aside from tutorials and game design discussion videos, I see tons of videos people make about their indie games where they transparently document their progress to show new devs what to expect. The videos show people how long development takes, how to publish a game, how much money devs might expect to make, etc. This video is a devlog but more like a poop log because I said so.

Being someone who is also making a game with dev logs, I have to say that documenting things is hard. It takes time out of your day just to keep track of what you've done, and I struggle to get my weekly updates out in time because of how dependent it is on where I am at with the progress of my game. I can't show something almost done because the game won't run with errors, so I end up having to work on it for another day and release it the next day with additional changes.

Expectations

And I don't like how unrealistic this poop log is. Maybe I'm just frickin' dumb, but in ACTUAL game development, every feature ends up having to be re-coded and tweaked 20+ times. There's a lot of nodes, scripts, and scenes to keep track of, and all of them depend on something else in order to work.

It is CRIMINAL to expect a beginner dev to get anything more than a tech demo done in less than a week, and content like this leads people (me) to becoming insecure and hopeless in comparison. When you say "this is what you SHOULD be capable of" other people say to themselves, "why can't I do that?" Once people start believe they can't do it, they won't try. By making that kind of content, you create and feed into issues that have plagued the indie gaming community for decades: the inhibitory fear and shame about getting started.

I think it is very important to acknowledge why people succeed. Its destructive to compare yourself to others in a one-dimensional way: they have that, I don't. Its more constructive to examine what it took to get them to where they are. Sure, this person made a game in a week, but its also their 15th commercial game they've made out of the dozens of other games they've made. I didn't know what an array was one month ago. Knowing what I know now, I could remake what I have done in a couple days because most of my time was spent learning the coding concepts that weren't so obvious and easy to me as they are now.

Conclusion

If you want to document your progress, that's fine. If you want to celebrate your accomplishments, that's fine. If you're going to brag to random people, prop yourself up as a clout chasing productivity god, and try to make others feel lesser in the process, then you can sit the fuck down.

In the end, everyone should know that bragging only puts a target on your back. If you really are that good, people are going to try to take advantage of it. They will copy your work, steal your work, or hire you just make profit off of your work. Every time you brag is an opportunity for someone else to show that they can do a better job than you.

If you're really that good at making quality games very quickly, why don't you try to make something people would give a fuck about instead of these corny ass, unoriginal, low effort, puzzle platformers that somehow win every game jam.

After Thoughts

I'm going to be completely honest: this whole post was made out of insecurity. I'm usually not insecure about anything, but I've been struggling with the feeling that I'm less capable. This person's video is harmless. They're just posting a personal challenge they made for themselves.

This person isn’t propping themselves up as superior to tag a group of people as “inferior”. However other people are doing that and I am talking about them too. Those delusional "learn to code in 2 months with zero experience" type of channels are preying on ignorance and insecurity by spreading misinformation, usually to get people to pay for their shitty courses. I get people have to earn a living but at least try to be a proper teacher instead of an absent minded passive income hustler who doesn’t put time into their course.

#rant #vent #gamedev #coding

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