#like . I get they didn't KNOW but even after I've made PSAs about this people still keep doing this so !!!! ! ! ! !! I don't know man!!!

[aspiringwriter1111]

Hallmark PSA

I know since it's coming on the holiday season, I'm going to start seeing a lot of Hallmark slander.

But here's a little known fact.

Hallmark is actually really really good.

WAIT WAIT DON'T LEAVE-

Let me explain!

The movies people usually associate Hallmark with are the "old" ones (2020 and back). I bet after seeing how cliche and unhealthy they were, you didn't see a reason to watch them again after that, am I right??

But you knew them well enough to know they weren't worth your time and sanity.

Girl in a high stress job goes to small town, learns the meaning of Christmas, and then cheats on her also stressed out boyfriend back in the city with a hot cocoa making stubbly kind of rude lumberjack man then quits her job and moves to Vermont or something.

Yeah, they don't do those anymore.

At all.

I'm serious.

A part of it is that there was a purge. A year or two ago, there was a new Christmas movie company in town. All the actors that didn't like the forward direction Hallmark wanted to go in, left and joined GAC.

(Great American Family, or as I like to call it GACK. The movies are exclusively awful old Hallmark style, but Republican, badly decorated, very white, and also much worse.)

GAC took all the problems away from Hallmark, and made movies out of them. Hallmark, now cleansed, is pumping out cinematic greats that I WILL be rewatching every Christmas.

The whole of Hallmark was Recast, save for the best of the best fan favorites (Like Lacey Chaubert-)

They have plus sized actors now and people of color, cast as main characters on a regular basis.

Half of the movies aren't even romance centric anymore, instead focused on life, and moving forward, but when they are, they're really well done, and actually healthy.

If you know me (which you don't), then you'll know I hate unhealthy relationships. Especially when they're treated like they're okay. I will pick apart ANYTHING over toxicity in a relationship, wherever that might come from.

I used to hate Hallmark movies, because they were predictable, unrealistic, flawed, and toxic.

But now the characters talk with each other, and they don't get in the others space without permission. If there's an accident and it does happen, it's not used as a plot device to move the relationship along. It's not treated in a "OMG hot guy is literally right in my face!!! I've only known him two minutes and I hate him, I'm in love!!"

It's more of an, "OMG I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to do that at all, im so sorry, I'm so sorry- *Immediately backs away*"

I can't even begin to explain how much better they are now.

To further prove my point, here are some gifs of Three Wise Men and a Baby, one of my favorite Christmas movies ever:

Just listen to this one.

It's about three brothers, one of which is a firefighter (this is important). A baby gets dropped off at the fire station, with a note. The firefighters name is on it, asking him to look after the baby until Christmas.

This is not his baby.

This IS a joke throughout the entire film.

They have no idea who dropped him off.

So they end up taking care of him for a week, and seriously bonding with him. The make his first Christmas ornament with clay, they do a holiday photo dressed to the nines.

They talk about how hard it is to actually take care of a baby, and how hard it must have been for their mom doing it alone.

Talking about how their own dad left, and finally processing that trauma together.

Their mom confesses that if she didn't have support, she may have done what the babies mother did. How she must be going through such a rough patch, and building empathy for her.

All three of the brothers go on complete cathartic emotional journeys about it, and all the other issues in their life.

I can't do it justice.

It's called Three Wise Men and A Baby. I'm begging you please go watch it, you will NOT regret it.

I CRIED SO MANY TIMES YOU HAVE NO IDEA.

I'm tearing up now just thinking about it oh my gOD-

The ending just sent it home for me, so I won't spoil anything.

Its amazing. I can't explain the whole thing, I seriously beg you please go watch it.

And, if you're more into comedy, I present to you Haul out The Holly:

A Christmas comedy starring your very own Gretchen Weiners!! Abso-fucking-lutley HILARIOUS.

It's about a woman, just broken up with her boyfriend, and coaxed into going home for the holidays. Here's where it gets interesting.

Her parents are the head of the Christmas neighborhood watch, something that has plagued her since childhood. Her childhood friend has now taken over the position, as her parent ditch her for retirement on a beach someplace, and she's left stuck, having to decorate against her will.

She wants a nap. The neighbors want her to carve ice sculptures. And her nutcracker apparently isn't up to code.

Includes: Girlboss and male wife power duo (madly in love), insane chainsaw man with way too much time on his hands, the ML an anxious wreck, and many, many, MANY MORE.

Another recent movie was built around a woman who is an astronaut (She's mixed) who was about to finally go to space (The goal shes been working on her entire life) She got into a car accident and her eyesight was impaired. She's currently grieving the loss of her dream (like, actually grieving, she took three months off-).

Her company asks her if she wants to do an exhibit in the planetarium for Christmas, that she doesn't have to, but she can if she wants to take her minds off of things. She says yes, and ends up working with the planetarium director on an exhibit about the sun and it's connection to Christmas through how people used to celebrate with the sun (I don't remember exactly, but it was explained thoroughly, and i think pagan???)

She and him don't constantly argue, or be angry at each other. They cooperate. They show genuine interest in each other. It's actually adorable, and it's also not just about them.

She meets his daughter, who is a wheelchair user. She asks why the Female lead isn't in space if she's an astronaut, and the FL tell her it's because of her eyes. The daughter tells her it's okay, because she'll never be able to go to space either, even if she wants to, but she can still enjoy it from Earth.

I'm not even doing it justice.

By the end of the movie, the FLs eye problem doesn't heal. Nothing is miraculously solved. But the ML and the FL are now dating (After the best, slow paced, healthy, communicative, collaborative bonding freaking ever-) ALL OF THE CHARACTERS HAVE FULL BLOWN EMOTIONAL JOURNEYS THAT ACTUALLY MATTER.

SHE GRIEVES.

HER BROTHER FINALLY FIGURES OUT ITS OKAY FOR HIM TO DO WHAT HE LOVES, AND THAT HE'S NOT A FAILURE FOR IT.

THE ML LET'S GO OF THINKING HES A BAD PARENT.

AND MORE.

There are soft bits, nothing is cliche, nothing is icky or gross.

It's healthy, it's cute, it's emotionally driven, I'm actually learning about things I didn't know before, and amazing.

And all the new ones are either like this or better than this. I could name over ten, but I can't even explain how good they are.

Some of the are still a little dark ages, but it's only every one out of six or seven.

Hallmark movies from 2022 and onwards are 5 star television, and you can't convince me otherwise.

#hallmark movies #hallmark channel #christmas movies #hallmark #christmas movie #Hallmark slander #PLEASE WATCH THREE WISE MEN AND A BABY I BEG OF YOU- #psa #this has been a psa #good movies #gay rights #people of color #body posititivity #change for the better

[chaoscradle]

assigning GUTS songs to stranger things characters (i know this has been done a ton of times already but i'm doing it anyway):

all-american bitch: nancy

"I know my age and I act like it"

"I'm a perfect all-american bitch"

"I know my place, I know my place, and this is it"

"I'm the eternal optimist, I scream inside to deal with it"

"I pay attention to things most people ignore"

(el could also work with this one, but i felt like with the whole nuclear family thing the wheelers have going on that nancy fits better)

bad idea right?: max

"'I only see him as a friend' the biggest lie I ever said"

"can't two people reconnect?"

"but god, when I look at you, my brain goes 'ah', can't hear my thoughts"

vampire: joyce

"every girl I talked to told me you were bad, bad news"

"you're so convincing, how do you lie without flinching?"

"I've made some real big mistakes, but you make the worst one look fine"

"the way you sold me for parts"

"you said it was true love, but wouldn't that be hard? you can't love anyone, 'cause that would mean you had a heart"

"I loved you truly. gotta laugh at the stupidity"

lacy: el

"I linger all the time, watchin', hidden in plain sight"

"aren't you the sweetest thing on this side of hell?"

"I feel your compliments like bullets on skin"

"and I despise my jealous eyes and how hard they fell for you"

ballad of a homeschooled girl: mike

"and I hate all my clothes, feels like my skin doesn't fit right over my bones"

"the party's done, and I'm no fun, I know I know, I know, I know"

"I made it weird, I made it worse"

"everything I do is tragic"

"I'm shocked I'm still alive"

(this could also work for robin tbh)

making the bed: mike

"another perfect moment that doesn't feel like mine, another thing I forced to be a sign"

"push away all the people who know me the best"

"every good thing has turned into something I dread"

"and I tell someone I love them, just as a distraction"

logical: will (psa this is from will's pov i don't think any of this of mike)

"come for me like a savior, and I'd put myself through hell for you"

"and I fell for you like rain falls from a February sky, but now the current's stronger and I couldn't get out if I tried"

"oh, why do I do this? I look so stupid thinking two plus two equals five, and I'm the love of your life"

"'cause if rain don't pour and sun don't shine, then changing you is possible"

"you lied, you lied, you lied"

"I guess love is never logical"

"the sky is green, the grass is red, and you mean all those words you said"

"I know I'm half responsible, and that makes me feel horrible"

"I know I could've stopped it all, god why didn't I stop it all?"

"'cause loving you is loving every argument you held over my head"

get him back!: max (NOT about lumax, just how she'd handle a different breakup)

"I want sweet revenge, I want him again"

"do I love him? do I hate him? I guess it's up and down"

"I wanna make him really jealous, I wanna make him feel bad"

"I wanna break his heart, then be the one to stitch it up"

"I wanna meet his mom, just to tell her her son sucks"

love is embarrassing: will

"and then, you kissed some girl from high school"

"waited by my phone like a goddamn fool"

"god, love's embarrassing as hell"

"and I consoled you while you cried over your ex-girlfriend's new guy" (minus the new guy part)

"you found a new version of me"

"I give up, I give up, but I keep comin' back for more"

the grudge: lucas

"how could anyone do the things you did so easily?"

"I try to be tough, I try to be mean, but even after all this, you're still everything to me, and I know you don't care, I guess that's fine"

"one phone call from you and my entire world was changed"

"and I doubt you ever think about the damage that you did, but I hold onto every detail like my life depends on it"

"and I know in my heart, hurt people hurt people"

(this song doesn't 100% represent lucas and max's relationship in s4 imo but it comes the closest)

pretty isn't pretty: el

"there's always something in the mirror that I think looks wrong"

"when pretty isn't pretty enough, what do you do?"

"I could change up my body and change up my face, I could try every lipstick in every shade, but I'd always feel the same"

"fix the thing you hated, and you'd still feel insecure"

"I chased some dumb ideal my whole fucking life, and none of it matters and none of it ends"

teenage dream: will

"they all say that it gets better, it gets better, but what if I don't?"

"when am I gonna stop being wise beyond my years and just start being wise?"

"I'll blow out the candles, happy birthday to me" (birthdaygate)

"but I fear that they already got all the best parts of me"

"will I spend all the rest of my years wishin' I could go back?"

#stranger things #byler #nancy wheeler #mike wheeler #will byers #el hopper #max mayfield #lucas sinclair #I really wanted to include dustin in this but none of the songs fit him :( #joyce byers #lumax #also i didn't know what to put for vampire so i figured i'd put joyce in reference to her and lonnie's marriage #guts album

[fizzingwizard]

Today on things I IMMEDIATELY turned off, lol...

But first, props to tumblr for at least making sure we all knew about the change, not just silently adding it and making some random tumblr user release a psa. And for making it customizable/easy to disable.

I get how this could be fun. I hate blaze, but if you've got cash to burn and you really think so-and-so's video of a hamster in a party hat is the funniest thing ever, sure, it's your money, waste it how you want. Better to throw some coins to tumblr for hamsters in party hats than treat us to more mainstream ad content.

Of course, out of all the blazed posts that have ended up on my dash, very few have been hamsters-in-party-hats worthy. Most have just been stuff I didn't care about or something mildly insulting. But maybe the hamsters-in-party-hats crowd just don't have money.

Biggest concern is whether you get to consent first to someone else choosing to blaze your post. Tumblr says if someone blazes our post we'll be informed, and have the option to cancel it. It's an opt out instead of opt in. That's what bugs me. I hate opt out. I'd rather that if someone wanted to blaze my post, I had to definitively say "Yes." What if someone blazes my post and I'm in the hospital and don't see it before it's live? You CAN pull it after, which is great, but why not skip that whole song and dance by requiring people to opt in before the post can go live?

Lol. I don't agree. But we'll see.

Also disagree. Blazing is not the same as reblogging. I can't control what other people reblog which ends up on my dash, but I CAN choose who I follow, and if their content becomes something I'm not interested in, I can unfollow them. Only way out of Blaze is to cough up money for ad-free browsing. A while ago I tried blocking blogs that put blazed posts on my dash, but the blazed posts continued to appear. Maybe that has been fixed, I don't know.

The sticking point really is a matter of consent. I've been on tumblr for ten years. I don't freaking remember most of what I posted back then. There's probably something embarrassing someone who really disliked me could dig up if they wanted to. If this option MUST be opt-out, then I wish at least all posts made before the change were opt-in only. If the approval process before someone is allowed to blaze your post is more robust than I anticipate, I won't mind as much though. Basically just let people have the MAIN say in whether or not their post gets blazed, instead of treating the informing of the OP like it's a courtesy.

Tumblr should keep in mind that a lot of original content here is diary-like, personal, meant for a small group of followers who feel comfortable with each other. It's not a site many people use to make their BRAND. That's ALSO one of the good things about tumblr - I don't sit around worrying about how fake everyone is like I do almost anywhere else. That's why I'm not interested in this feature. I can see it being used for good - blazing a gofundme for someone in need, for example - but I just don't want to wade through even more cringe I didn't ask for on my dash. Sigh.

Anyway, hopefully everyone who doesn't want this opts out without a hitch (for side blogs too).

#tumblr

[pbandjesse]

Today felt more normal. Which doesn't feel right to say. It feels selfish to let myself not focus on it. Going to a training helped. I could just sit and listen and not have to think about my own tragedy, instead focusing on potential tragedies that could happen. It's about balance.

I slept better last night. I've been trying this thing where I take very deep breaths and that seems to put me to sleep very fast. And my ear isn't hurting as much as it was before. Maybe I'm finally used to this earring. Until someone accidently hit me in the head, not even hard but enough to make my ear hurt again! Ugh.

When I woke up I called James from the other room and they came and held me for a half hour which was really nice. And when I woke up for real I told them the things I wanted to accomplish today. I wanted to go to the training. I wanted to sew while we were there. I wanted to update my website. And I wanted to write the synopsis of my Native American program.

And James made that all happen for me. Together.

I tried to feel pretty today. I mostly succeeded. I would get my totebag and my new sling bag and then we were off.

We stopped for a hash brown and then to the museum. Where I was very surprised by the number of cars. I didn't realize that the musuem invited other institutions to the training. But it was really nice to see my friends. It's been forever. Me and James sat in the last row and I got to work on my sewing.

I didn't realize how intense the training would be. They had signs about the fake guns. And the gun noises we would hear. It was two hours long and honestly while I knew a lot of it it was good reinforcement.

I showed everyone the piggy plushies I am working on. Which given the fact we had the police giving us a lecture today ended up giving everyone the giggles. It was not on purpose!!! But it was funny. And I got three pigs and two frogs completed, with two other frogs half done (I ran out of legs). It was good to have something to listen to while I worked.

I was also just trying to not fidget. So focusing on the sewing was good.

The training was intense though. We watched the school shooting PSA we also watched the the science center. Which is intense. But things would escalate quickly. They set up sound boxes in different spots of the museum so we could hear what different types of guns would sound like from different distances. We talked about "run hide fight" and watched a PSA from the FBI that was really emotional. The police officers were handsome in the way someone in uniform is, in the way Jenson Ankles is but also short which I thought was funny. They also made so many dad jokes. Also jokes about people hating the police. Which like. Alright.

But they were nice. And at the end I asked about the bullet I found a few weeks ago. I asked if I should have called someone. And he said if it wasn't used in a crime that I was fine and didn't need to call and if I find enough of them I can turn them in and they'll melt them down. Which I thought was interesting.

Me and James would leave not long after that. They wanted to know if I wanted to get lunch but I had eaten the sandwich they made me half way through the training so I was not hungry at all. So we would go home first and get some stuff done before we went to a late lunch.

When we got home james got right into writing the synopsis for the program. I thought it would be good to have someone not in my head write it and then I would edit it. This worked out really well. James can be a little overly long-winded in writing so it gave me something to make snappier and I think we did a good job as a team.

And James would work on uploading things to my website. So that is updated now and I'm hoping we can swap out the stuffies every once in a while for variety. I also want to make a coupon I can give out at the market, like put it on the back of my business cards or something. James did such a nice job making things professional.

Once we were done that James wanted to finish a couple other little things before we headed out to get our late lunch. They got on the ladder to bring down the camping stuff. But as we were doing that a metal sandwich press fell and hit James right in the face. It was very startling. They are going to have a bruise for sure. I made them stop and go ice their cheek while I moved everything. I put the stuff we will use on this trip in one box and everything else extra in another to go back away. And I moved everything to the studio to be dealt with later. I was more worried about James's precious face but they kept insisting they were alright.

I was feeling a little shaky so I had a spoonful of peanut butter and that helped keep me from feeling to woozy.

We went to Mathews pizza. We got to see lots of kids leaving their second day of school. I always think it's interesting how many uniforms there are in Baltimore. It's very cute.

We got to the pizza place and got our usual Thai pie and ranch dressing. And it was great. We were s little quiet. Just enjoying being together. We talked a little about the plans for the evening. James was going to a baseball game. I was going to work on sewing. We would get the camping stuff cataloged before they left.

And our pizza was great. I asked James if we could go to the thrift store a few minute walk up the road and they said yes. So after we paid we walked up there. And it was fun walking around and looking. I got a brown blanket for making bears. And I found a really nice St John's bay chambray shirt for James that I think they will look so handsome in. We would pay and walk back to the car.

I stopped to take pictures of flowers. James laughed at me and said it was sweet. And then we went home.

When we got back here we pretty quickly got into cataloging the camping stuff. James would tell me everything and in what container it was in and I made a list. Then refined the list. And started to figure out what clothes I'm bringing and the food we're going to make. Jess says it's a lot of clothes and I'm not denying that. But we are also staying for 4 days and I feel like I am going to change outfits 3 times each day because of the temperature and activities. So while I may pair it down a little I am pretty okay with the whole selection and it all fits in my normal totebag I use for my camping clothes so I don't think it's a big deal.

Even if it is a lot of options I'm giving myself.

Soon James was leaving for their baseball game with their mom. And I was left alone.

I finished all the machine sewing I planned to do. All the frog legs and the piggy ears. I would also get a lot of pinning done. So tomorrow shall just be a lot of hand sewing. I worked on all of that for a few hours. It was pretty humid and uncomfy in here though. I would like to stop using the ac so much soon, but the humidity is still getting me pretty bad. Though right now sitting in the living room it's not so bad.

Once I was done with my sewing I worked on my list a little more for camping. And then I took a bath. I worked on my Christmas wish list for no reason. I have been liking picking one thing I would like from my parents. Last year was my sun burst signet ring. This year I am thinking maybe a wax seal pendant. Just one special thing. I have to many things and don't want to keep adding to my tchotchkes all the time. Which is why Fulwilers Christmas is going to be a challenge this year. I think we might need to have a family discussion about that one.

Now I am waiting for James to come home. The orioles are doing really well right now so I hope they are having fun. All of a sudden its 1-9 in the last two innings. I bet the energy there is great.

Tomorrow I don't know what I will do. I hope it's a good day. I hope you all sleep well tonight and take care of yourselves. I hope that you are telling the people you love what they mean to you.

[chrisevansluv]

Said this, the fact that random gossip blogs/sites always get the exclusive on the secret girlfriend every few months? Bullshit, and don't fall for it. Either they're being trolled or are trolling people to get engagement for their accounts. We've been here before. EC secret girlfriend coming from DM rings a bell to anyone? It's always the same crap. As soon as it's silent and there's no drama with an existent woman, they make up someone non-existent to keep the drama alive. / You keep talking shit about other blogs and at the same time want to be at the receiving end for the same shit you throw out at others? That ain't happening! You reap what you sow. You and your friends are very easily recognized by their style of writing, reasoning we know who are the bullies everyone knows that now it's you and your anons. You get traffic to your blog by bringing down other blogs always talking shit what other blogs post which is none of your business. If you don't like to talk bad about others why do you take asks sent to you about other blogs? I have been following you since January and after few days I see you and anons dragging a blog for posting this and that whether it be tumblrs posting psa on Shanna's Wedding to stop stalking or whether it be rumors you always find fault in other blogs post psa using disrespectful language but you want respect from others. No other blog does that only your blog is full of this behavior. Sorry but it is your own behavior that has made the fandom to believe you are probably behind the bullying of other blogs.

Guess who doesn't give a fuck? Yup. I don't need to be sending anon asks like some other have been doing on my blog. If I need to call something out, I will do it directly like I've been doing until now. I definitely won't waste my energy giving engagement directly to some blogs, discussing a situation I find ridiculous, via anon when I can easily discuss something THEY are posting, here.

Mind you I could give 0 fucks about who's posting something, because I don't even know who we're talking about (I don't follow any gossip blogs), so my opinion is totally unbiased and objective. I'm not talking shit about other blogs, but shitty actions they are pulling for no reason. There's a reason why I never post the @'s and names. I'm discussing the action, not the person or the account.

If someone comes up with the same lame story as usual and I get anons about it, I'll answer to it whether they like it or not. If someone is giving out private info to discuss another topic, I'll call it out (because that shit is fucked up). If someone is acting hypocritical, I'll say it, too. But on MY blog and showing my username, because unlike others I don't hide behind an anonymous.

Anyone can think whatever the fuck they want. And if you want to believe I do that shit to other blogs, then I have nothing else to discuss with you.

When the whole ATL anon shit was happening, and other blogs were openly talking shit about me, you wouldn't see me crying, ranting and complaining because they didn't believe it or said I was being trolled/doing it for attention. It is what it is. Not everyone is going to agree with you nor like what you're doing. If you aren't able to take that, then maybe you're way too young to be on here.

It's my choice to post what I want, but also take the consequences of what I post, and so goes with others. The moment you talk publicly about x topic, you know anons will run to other blogs about it and mods might agree or not with you. The end.

#cevansluv #anon

[lezbrarian]

here are my two lil pro tips for life:

avoid comparing people to one another. at first, I was going to specify to avoid telling ppl their celebrity look-a-like, but ya know what fuck it, general statement: ppl don't usually love being compared to others for any reason. even if you think it's objectively a compliment, it's best to just avoid bc you don't know that person's feelings about that person you're comparing them to!

avoid jokes/comments about peoples' names. unless it's something like "that's a really pretty/cool/nice name" (which is fine, but also remember ppl don't owe you anything in response to compliments!) just keep in mind that if there's a playground joke, pun, song/media reference, or connection to be made based on someone's name -- they have definitely 100% heard it. it's very likely tired and played out, and it's also pretty likely that it will come off as rude or annoying. yes i've heard that song, no my parents didn't name me after that celebrity, hahah good joke never heard that before, good one : l .... i also get a lot of "that's not your real name is it?" and "did your parents really name you that?" that is also, spoiler alert, rude! whether my parents named me this or i chose this name for myself, it's obviously a large part of my identity, as is everyone's name, so why criticize or question it???

anyway that's just my little psa for the day.

tldr: don't compare ppl to others (even if you think it's a compliment like a seemingly flattery celeb look-a-like. don't criticize or make jokes about people's names or tell them about that song that has their name in it (they know!)

[evanwritesgames]

STARFIELD AMD PSA

I'm a huge BGS fan and I love their games and I got Starfield w/ my new GPU soooo.

TLDR:

If you are having unfixable visual bugs in Starfield and you use an AMD GPU, ROLL YOUR DRIVER BACK. They fucked it up and a lot of people are having problems. I imagine few updated their drivers in the first place or this would have been a wider spread issue. Hours of googling didn't help me at all so I hope this helps someone!

Longer Story (for no real reason):

Anyway, I updated my AMD drivers immediately yesterday, about an hour before launch. I'm used to NVIDIA where I've never had a driver issue that I know of. AMD is new to me as a GPU thing, I haven't used them for no real reason other than that friends who offered PC advice were always NVIDIA people.

Anyways, yesterday I got through the intro area and everything was FUCKING AWESOME. This is an all-timer video game if you like the kind of game that it is. Even if you don't, it's got a lot to offer a lot of different types of gamers. But this isn't why I'm here. Plenty of other people out there to hype this up and try to get you to get into it.

Soon after the intro, on the first explorable planet, I noticed a visual bug that hit like a gut-punch and kinda threatened to ruin that whole magical first experience w/ the game. And it was close, even after I fixed it.

The problem was AMD's drivers. The visual bugs were terrain geometry bugs where I could see "seams" in the terrain and sometimes see right through the ground. The terrain would load in as I moved around so it was impossible to play like that and ruined the entire vibe.

I tried everything to fix it. For 3 hours I tried settings, a full reinstall, verifying the game files, resetting the shader cache (I had a weird freeze/crash during initial shader load when I booted up the game and I was CERTAIN that was the issue... it wasn't).

Nothing worked until, 3 hours later, I did what was to me a last resort and rolled back my drivers. It worked. It saved the experience, in the end, and I had a blast with the game.

IF YOU ARE STILL READING, THE REST IS ABOUT CHARACTER CREATOR AND OPTIONS INVOLVED WITH THAT:

The character creator here is... something else. Like, I'm good w/ character creators and I've made selfie characters before but never like this:

Broadly speaking, this dude looks like me enough that it can be eerie. I'm a stocky dude, too, and while I couldn't represent my real height in this game, it does allow a variety of body types like the newer Fallouts did and I found one that fits me very well and still looks amazing in game. You really do have a lot of leeway here even though the editor's UI is a typical BGS mess. Not enough options, clunky UI/UX that is way overdesigned, lighting that doesn't represent in-game very well (too bright instead of too dark for once).

The best characrer editor they ever made was Fallout 4's. They should probably have stuck with that system but I admire what they did here in other ways.

The thing where they used real models or w/e is very apparent and while there's a problem with "bug eyes" on a lot of NPCs, I've also never seen NPCs that look so much like real people in a sort of subtle sense where imperfections, asymmetry, etc are so nuanced that you almost can't detect them. It makes the faces fucking terrific but also EERIE.

Still, I wish there were A LOT more options. They went so big with this game but as is seemingly typical with these big RPGs and the companies that make them, they truly don't seem to get that people want A LOT of options. Not a few. A lot. Every time. Cyberpunk 2077 didn't have enough. BG3 doesn't have enough. Starfield doesn't have enough.

Japanese games like Elden Ring and various others are way ahead of the curve here. Nioh 2's character creator is one of the best I've ever seen and that game came out years ago now. So did ER for that matter.

I know mods will help with this down the road but I seriously don't understand these people who make decisions about character editors. Like, why THESE tattoos? Why always tattooos that look like shit and seem like an afterthought? Why always so few of them?

For that matter, 25% or so of the hairstyles here are basically unusable. Or at least they look that way in the editor (some seem to look way better and more natural in the game world on NPCs to be fair).

Because so many games of this type seem to short these options, it's not really a big dig against BGS or Starfield. It's just something I personally care about. They did, unlike Larian w/ BG3, include options to change your appearance (which I love, in Fallout 4 I would add scars and dirt and stuff over time as well as aging to reflect my character's adventures -- here, I'll be doing the same but w/ less options and flexibility than F4 had). But the number of options is overall lower than I think any other game they've done. Which is so weird when you consider the size and effort in everything else.

Still, making characters in a good editor (even if not a great one) is a treat for me. I like doing it.

Other than this, no fucking complaints. If you know me, you know how big a deal that is.

#Starfield

[raviniaraven]

This is a PSA directed at anyone dealing with bad mental illness stuff right now, but specifically if you're in Canada because I am livid and I need to say some stuff.

I'm not going to say any of the "just keep trying" and "it just takes a lot of time and effort" because I know when I was in a bad depressive episode that would have just pissed me off. Like, no shit it takes effort, telling someone that's trying their hardest to keep trying sounds insulting. It implies you don't think they're doing everything they can. I know, because I've felt that more times than I can count.

It took me ten years to get the right medication cocktail to get my depression under control. I have severe depression, and it takes the form of manic spikes that crash into depressive slumps over the course of a few hours at a time. During these spikes I would lash out at people, scream, break shit, and then when I slumped I would curl in on myself, cry until I vomited, and attempt suicide. I was in the hospital multiple times a month in 2018. Then I had a heart surgery, got kicked out of UofM, and that threw me into a spiral where I ended up in the hospital a few more times for severe attempts. At least one of the attempts I made, I can't remember the first day I was in the hospital because I was dealing with the effects of taking a massive amount of diphenhydramine; I remember looking at a hospital blanket and breaking down crying because I thought it was my dead dog, that's it. I was in two different IRTS programs (a three month residential program) that ended with me back in the hospital, after one of which a doctor told me I just wanted attention. The only reason I didn't end up back after the third IRTS I went to is because it didn't require group therapy sessions while I was there (they were provided but optional), and what helped me at first was just having a stable place to eat and sleep without any obligation. While I was there I found out about a longer term Assisted Living home where I would live in a house with a few other people and a nurse that would make sure I took my meds and got three meals a day.

Assisted Living literally saved my life. I spent three years in a house with a nurse on staff that just made sure I was eating regularly and taking my meds, and I still had bad spikes. I found an as-needed medication that helped get me out of the manic without hitting the slump, but when that slump hits unaccompanied I still don't have a way out of that. Without the manic it's less common, but it definitely still hits me sometimes. When I was at this place, someone made sure I made all my appointments and I found a good psychiatrist after a long series of horrible. I switched meds a few more times, stopped one because it was wrecking my kidneys, got the highest dose of another. I'm at the point where I can communicate my side effects and symptoms with my doctor and she listens and adjusts things accordingly. She checks up, regularly suggests therapy even though I say I don't want it but she doesn't push the issue, and she genuinely cares, which is something I don't think is as common, unfortunately.

I just got my own apartment this summer. I'm on disability and subsidized rent, but it's a nice place. I got a cat as an ESA and he's a little Shitlord but I love him. I'm drawing again and actually feeling confident occasionally. I still have days when I feel like shit, like I'm leeching resources and taking up space, but it's gotten so much easier to react to those now that it's not a constant struggle just to live. I'm still in the middle of recovery and I'll probably never not be depressed, but I'm almost functional. I've visited friends and gotten back in touch with people I pushed away.

If I had been given the option in 2018-2019 to have a medically assisted death, I would have taken it enthusiastically. I wanted to be dead. I wanted to go to sleep and just never get up again. But I can't stress enough that this would have been an unfixable mistake. I would never have become who I am today, and I know that sounds cheesy AF but I can't think of a way to phrase it other than "I wouldn't be sitting in a comfy armchair that one of my neighbors gave me for free, drinking tea while my cat watches the snow". I wouldn't have this moment of silent comfort and independence that seemed unreachable four years ago.

I won't tell anyone to live for someone else. I know my mom would have been heartbroken, my sister would have had my death added to her own depression, my cat wouldn't have been adopted and cared for. My depression tells me that anyone I benefit would be better in some way if I weren't there making their lives harder. I'm gonna give the advice that I follow: live selfishly. Live for yourself in whatever way makes you comfortable. The most content I've been is just when I started doing things directly for myself; it was usually the path of least resistance to sleep until noon, eat junk food, binge YouTube. It was also the path of least resistance to let well-meaning people help me; the assisted living I was at let me sleep and watch YouTube all day but still said "hey take your meds and eat, we won't force you if you say no but you'll have an African grandma giving you the Look and nice people checking how you're doing if it's a pattern." There were people I lived with that barely ate, skipped half of their meds, and went out to get high every other weekend, and the house was someone just providing what we really needed in that moment: a place to rest where someone said "I care about what happens to you, but I won't try to change your decision."

I won't try to change anyone's decision, because I know I don't have any influence over that. I won't tell you it gets better, because if I'm honest sometimes it gets so much worse. But I will say that I care about what happens to you, any and all of you, because I know what that feels like and it sucks. It sucks a lot. What I needed may not be what you need, but I care and so I'm sharing what worked for me and hoping it works for someone else.

Try to find a place where you have stability, where you can eat and sleep and aren't around awful people. I got a mental health case worker during one of my hospital stays, and she helped me get into the IRTS programs and the Assisted Living home. She got me set up on Disability so that I could receive SSI and EBT, and she made sure I filled out forms and applied for benefits.

Find a doctor that cares, and tell them exactly what you're feeling at every turn so that they can work with you. I had a doctor tell me, fresh from an overdose, that I just wanted attention. I had another tell me I needed to "stop making a habit of coming to the hospital" and another said "if someone wants to die, they'll find a way". This made me so much worse for so long because I believed them. If even my doctors didn't think I was worth helping, what did that mean for me? But I've found a good doctor, and it took me a long time to find her, and she has helped me so much by just giving me genuine optimism when I needed it. Not platitudes or inspirational quotes, just "your brain chemicals are firing wrong, let's find out how to get them to fire right." Because at least for me, that's what it is: my brain is firing off all sorts of chemicals and the balance is all wrong unless I take medication that gets it to even out. I get stressed from therapy because I can acknowledge an irrational feeling but it doesn't change the feeling, if anything it emphasizes it. But if I look at it as "the machine in my head needs certain juices, just like my heart or my kidneys, and since I'm not making them I need store bought" then it's actually effective. There's not a dopamine pill out there, it's all trying different ones to see which causes it to be produced. And in my case, so many of them didn't.

I meant to type a short little thing and I've been writing this for at least half an hour. I want to put what I'm thinking into words and I'll be honest, I don't know the best way to do that. I'm just so disgusted at the idea of a doctor looking at mental health and thinking that there is no way for that person to live. It's so harmful to a person going through severe depression to say that their harmful thoughts are right, and that's what a doctor assisting a depressed person's suicide is doing. They aren't ending pain, they're giving up on treating a condition.

If you really want to do something like that, I can't talk you out of it and I won't try. A few years ago, I would have wanted the same thing. But I'm glad that I had people genuinely care about me, a lot of them strangers, when I didn't care about myself. And that's all I can really offer.

I care. Every time I hear about someone going through this, I care. And I hope you can find a way to care about yourself the same or more than a trans man in Minnesota you've never met.

#idk if any of this post makes sense #im just typing into my phone and trying to convey something i dont know how to phrase #long post #suicide mention #suicide #death mention #all i can offer is a bit of compassion and resources specific to the Minneapolis Hennepin County area

[normal-thoughts-official]

too bad you're not in the sh fandom anymore so i there's no one i can discuss my silly headcanons with :'( like those about magnus' typos (eat me out at... and such). like magnus sends catarina a message: "got a new shower gay! smells like candy :D"

...Sorry? LMAO. I mean look don't get me wrong, it's not like i am Turning My Back On The SH Fandom And Never Want To Hear About It Again or anything. Like, Magnus in particular was very important to me in a very personal way, like figuring out my gender presentation and other stuff that I had been struggling with at the time. And I don't think I've ever stayed in a fandom, nevermind made so much original content for it, for as long as I have in SH, at any point in my life. I think SH is pretty established as a piece of media that's important to me and I'll still be caring about it from time to time. Not to mention that I made many good friends because of this fandom.

But I just don't want to make content for it anymore, at least not for now. I had over 16 unanswered asks for the fandom that had been sitting there for... A very long time and even though many of them were about topics that I genuinely wanted to write about (like the one I got about what would Magnus' family's religion be, or the one about what Raphael's clan thought of Magnus, or the one about whether or not he was a problem child), I just didn't have the energy to. And if I'm being honest I think it's because I pushed myself.

Not only in the sense that like, I kept refusing to delete asks and trying to answer them all even when I didn't really want to and kept being stressed by having unanswered asks, but also that I think I tried not to get invested in any other fandom because of SH. Like I actively didn't watch new shows or movies or read new books because I wanted to keep focusing my attention on the SH fandom, and because of the pandemic and being stuck at home I was focusing on it so much for two years. Because I made so many friends, and I liked getting so many asks and having so many people interested in my meta and opinions, and because Magnus mattered a great deal to me personally.

I only even ended up "switching fandoms" because I started playing interactive fiction apps as a joke (because I had a whole collection of Episode screenshots from years ago and I was like oh man, I missed this), but then I became actually invested by accident, lol.

Also I was making a lot of content for the last two years because of the pandemic and being stuck at home and both my uni and the place I was supposed to work at being on hold, but now I have considerably less time as that's no longer the situation. So... I haven't found the energy to participate in anything SH in a while (other than alecgate I guess). And after I get some kind of "detox" I'll probably be more available to talk about silly headcanons and maybe even make more meta again, but for now it feels more like a chore.

But hey, I'm still firmly on the side that the SH fandom is far from dead (hell, there's more content for it than for the fandom I "switched" to), and many people I know are still interested. I'm sure there are spaces to talk about your headcanons. Not to mention your posts are funny on their own right. You'd probably get someone to talk to if you just posted them on your blog

So... Yeah. Sorry I know this is a very dramatic and personal response to what was just a kind of jokey vent thing, and I don't want to make like... A PSA or a Goodbye because I'm not that important and it's not like I'm Refusing To Post About SH Again Forever like I said, but... Well I guess this ask made me want to explain all of that. So here it is, I suppose

#also lmao i promise i wasnt holding out to post this on new year's but i do think its funny that i finally decided to answer this today #(its still jan 1st for me) #anyway #ask #anonymous

[irandomblogfulb]

FATE: What happens when you get a bunch of middle aged white guys to adapt a cartoon for girls

Well, I just went through 6 hours of fate and I have a lot of opinions on it. Yeah, this is going to be long (slightly under 3k words) so putting it under read more and obvious spoilers.

PSA before delving right in:

1) Yes, I will be comparing to the original. Any comparisons are not through rose-tinted nostalgia glasses. There are parts here and there that I genuinely think were done better in the cartoon on a writing standpoint.

2) This is purely my opinion and overall negative. Don't like it? Don't read. I'm all up for discussion but I don't want another person crying to me about how I “ruined” their experience of the show.

3) If you like Fate then good for you. This isn’t me bashing people who like it. 

I've spit it up into sub sections just for my own convince.

1. The problem with the 'I'm not like other girls' trope

This pertains to the entire Bloom-Sky-Stella love triangle. I wasn't as pressed about it compared to other winxers (and I loved Stella's and Brandon's relationship on my rewatch). In fact, I was okay with it. But then I sat down and watched the show and there's a lot of underlying problems with the love triangle. Particularly pitting Bloom and Stella against each other for Sky's affection.

Now this part of the love triangle I already didn't like. Correct me if I'm wrong, since I dropped the OG Winx after season 5 but the Winx while they did have their conflicts and arguments, never fought over a boy. I really appreciated that from the cartoon so seeing that live action would fall into that trap – I was mildly annoyed at that. Then it hit me. It's Bloom and Stella.

The seemingly ordinary girl vs the pristine princess of Solaria. If the title didn't give it away, you should get the point by now. Others have already called it by now but the "I'm not like other girl's" trope in itself, while seemingly feminist is actually misogynist. Saying the more masculine type of girl is better than the feminine is inherently misogynist. Stella, the prime princess, girly and feminine, is villainized by the love triangle. Sky's and Stella's relationship is toxic and Stella's overt co-dependence and jealousy are already big fat red signs - but Sky's and Bloom's relationship is built on how she's "different". Bloom isn't like Stella, she's "real".

2. Am I supposed to like Riven?

As the title puts it, wtf am I supposed to feel about Riven. Is he supposed to be a good guy? Do I root for him? Is he morally ambiguous? Because holy shit compared to OG!Riven, this guy is diabolical and much much worse! OG!Riven is an asshole and he teams up with the trix but his arc was very simple and easy to understand. He joins the bad guys, distances himself from the good guys, the trix betray his ass, he self-reflects in the dungeon - escapes and redeems himself. Net!Riven is so bad to the point where you can't redeem him and the writers don't even try. Freddie Thorp is good in his role. (however, he definitely doesn't pass for a 17-year-old. He's 26 and it shows) and he actually makes the cringe dialogue work. But he's way too diabolical and downright predatory. The scene where he forces Dane to gulp down his spiked drink - it’s worse seeing it than reading it. That grossed me out more than the gore.

What makes it worse, nobody properly calls him out. Beatrix kinda does on his homophobia – “Homophobic bashing by GIF” - and Sky does chastise him, but they still tolerate him. It is kinda funny in a way Sky has a whole ass arc about how he's enabling Stella's problematic behaviour by still dating her after she blinded her friend but doesn't realize he's doing the same for Riven.

The only person that really puts her foot down with Riven is Terra and nobody takes her seriously about anything she says.

Everyone is very laissez-faire around him and that's not how you respond to your friend being problematic. (Hey, kinda like the other girls sans Aisha are with Bloom!) Everyone surrounding Riven is so disgusting and the notion of him supposedly being a good guy is very hard to buy into. His whole relationship with Dane has a section of it’s own because there’s just a lot to unpack.

3. Stella I am so sorry

I'm also in the majority hating how they've tarnished Stella. Basically, they turned her into the stereotypical rich bully with mommy issues.

I get that Stella has an abusive mom but that’s no excuse to be a total bitch to her roommates. And no, her roommates shouldn't accept her back with open arms. And she doesn't even redeem herself - the girls just accept her back after her mom pulls her from Alfea.

And this is also another issue with the writing were the characters suddenly just change their opinions on a whim. Suddenly Stella likes the winx, suddenly Terra misses Stella even though having that girl literally gives her anxiety. Suddenly Aisha's on Bloom's side in the end.

This isn't me simping for the cartoon out of nostalgia. I was mostly okay with the idea of Stella and Sky hooking up. But Looking at it from a creative standpoint - looking at the source material, and the many paths you can take this character, the best thing Brian Young and co. can think of for her was turning her into the stereotypical rich bully that we've seen time and time again? No deconstruction no meta take, it's played out exactly how you’d expect it.

Again, this isn't me simping for the show. Purely from a creative standpoint Stella was such a major let down. There's so much to the character and Brian Young took the easiest, saturated path.

4. That one scene with Bloom's parents

You know the one. Mike unhinges Bloom's bedroom doors and Vanessa cusses out and insults her child like a petty teen bully. Forgetting how utterly cringey that scene was, you can't have her mom go batshit insane on her child, then act like she's this loving parent that cares so deeply about her daughter. Screw that! Vanessa deserved those 3rd degree burns! She invaded her daughter's privacy. Bloom didn't even do anything wrong!

I can't buy into this narrative of Vanessa and Mike being loving parents when they do something like that. Seriously who thought that was okay?

5. Pity Parties for everyone.

I already discussed this in Stella’s section but I don’t like the “it’s okay for me be a shitty person because my life sucks :)” narrative Fate tries to pull. They did it with Stella, Bloom, Riven.

What I liked about the first season of Winx Club is Bloom’s arc and her character as a whole. Because while she went through shit, from the Trix, to finding out she was adopted, her existential crisis, not feeling like she belonged, losing the dragon flame, she went through a lot. She didn’t throw a pity party. She didn’t whine, bitch and complain. She allowed herself to feel upset, took it as it is and tried to make lemonade out of lemons. And I respect that.

Net!Bloom is agrevating. She does some dumb, reckless stuff but it’s excused because she’s the protagonist? She let the war criminal out, the school gets taken over by the bad guys because of Bloom. Faragonda fucking dies because she let the war criminal out! The burned ones attacked the school because she let the war criminal out!!! But no, Aisha’s villainized for calling Bloom out because Bloom’s existential crisis is more important then anything else.

Getting to Sky, he isn’t as bad as the others. He doesn’t become a shitty person because of his problems. (Though lowkey flirting with Bloom while he hooks up with Stella is uh not good.) But he does come across incredibly whiny. Because of the cringey dialogue and the unnecessary swearing  I can’t take his speech on opening up to Bloom seriously. I laughed throughout the whole thing and Bloom leaving his unconscious body there was the icing on the cake.

One of the few characters that deserved a pity party is Terra. She’s very much like OG!Bloom in a way. She is bullied by Dane and Riven, has body insecurities, anxiety, nobody listens to her and at most only tolerates her. Despite all the crap that is thrown her way she still reminds humble, kind, and respectful. And she is one of the few characters that deserves more support than what she got out of the season.

5. Bloom, Aisha, Tokenism and their awful relationship

I’m going to be upfront, their relationship sucks. The core of their dynamic is what Aisha can do for Bloom. It’s very one-sided. Bloom only goes to Aisha to help solve her problems, which Aisha gladly does – but when Aisha disagrees with Bloom or says something Bloom doesn’t like, Bloom suddenly goes off and Aisha’s made to be the bad guy. Even though she’s right? And Aisha has her own problems as well, shown to also struggle with her powers. But nope, that’s pushed to the back burner because Bloom needs help.

I am all for creative freedom. I can stomach Stella x actual Sky. I can stomach turning Stella into a rich mean girl. I can stomach the dark academia aesthetic but what Brian Young and co. did to Aisha is just plain racist. Screw the “it’s an adaptation” excuse. Turning this character who had a rich storyline and was a princess into a white girl’s magical negro who fixes all her problems is racist and by definition tokenism. And by whitewashing the other two characters of color, making Aisha the only poc in the group – that’s the worst thing you can do to her.

And frankly we need more black princesses on screen.

6. Dane and the homophobia of the show

Towards the show’s climax it’s revealed Dane is helping Beatrix because she accepts he’s “different”. Not only does this go back to my pity party rant but like bruh,

1)      Beatrix never really did anything for Dane? She hung out and smoked with him a bit, but that’s all. You’re telling me Terra wouldn’t accept Dane? Beatrix never helped him and he never really opened up to her about his struggles.

2)      Nobody else, not even background characters bully or harass Dane for being “different”. It’s only Riven, the guy he’s crushing on. The whole falling in love with the bad boy/abuser trope is bad in a hetero relationship and that still stands for a gay one. And I know damn well if Dane was a woman half of the shit Riven did to Dane wouldn’t slide.

It makes no sense for Dane to side with the bad guys when Riven’s the one bullying him and Beatrix is complacent in the bullying. Oh, and having your second black* character who’s also lgbt+/potentially questioning be a villain? Not good.

I’m all for gay and poly rep, but not like this. If Stella and Sky’s toxic relationship is going to be called out for what it is, why not Dane’s?

*Idk if Theo Graham is light-skinned black or biracial so I’ll just refer to him as black.

7. The plot

It’s very predictable. Personally, wasn’t fond of the ‘twist of a twist of a twist’ style of writing. The story tries to be nuanced and deep but it’s not. Common sense is treated like a big revelation. Not trusting the war criminal you barely know isn’t as big of a take that the writers try to make it out to be.

8.  Everything else

·       Beatrix is fine. No Icy but did like the gothic bookworm aesthetic.

·       Sam is just there to be Musa’s love interest and provide some dumb drama between Musa and Terra. I thought they’d go the Edward/Bella root – Musa’s drawn to Sam because she can’t sense his emotions for some reason. Nope, they just get together for the obligatory make out sessions. Don’t care much for the relationship or the character.

·       Since the powers are all elemental shouldn’t there be classes purely for an elemental? Classes purely for fire fairies, etc?

·       Musa’s powers are confusing. If she has no control over them and they are “always on”, shouldn’t her eyes constantly be glowing purple?  Very wishy washy. Sometimes they overwhelm her and other times she has complete control. Her character is just there for plot stuff.

·       Terra is one of the better characters but can’t enjoy her knowing about the whitewashing. Why can’t we have a plus sized character just exist and not have body issues?

·       Sky doesn’t feel like a prince. Characters treat him like his dad is a war hero and not the King of Eraklyon. There was a point where I thought I misheard and thought his dad was just a war hero and not a king.

·       Why try to justify Rosalind’s war crime if she’s going to be the big bad anyways?

·       The way the characters treat death/act around death is very weird. Musa and Terra see a pile of dead bodies and they’re unreasonable calm. Especially Bloom an “ordinary teenage girl from earth”, reacts very nonchalant when death and war crimes are brought up. Doesn’t help the show tries to push this “they’re kids fighting a war” narrative.

·       Can’t buy into the girls’ friendship. The Aisha/Bloom dynamic is centred on what Aisha can do for Bloom. Bloom only cares about herself and only goes to her friends to help with her problems. Most of Musa’s and Terra’s interaction centre around Sam. Stella didn’t care for the girls until her mom showed up and pulled a 180. The girls were quick to turn on Aisha when she sided with the adults.

·       I have no problem with technology existing but why do they have Instagram, Tiktok and Tumblr? The otherworld is a completely separated from Earth, why do they have the same technology?  

9. Brian Young, what do you mean by mature?

I grew up on the 4kids dub before transitioning to the Nick dub for season 4 and 5 then dropping the cartoon for good. So naturally on my rewatch of the cartoon I decided to go watch the RAI dub since I heard it’s more accurate and 4Kids are infamous for their horrid localisations straying too much to the source material. Upon finishing season 1 and currently watching season 2, a few things took me by surprise. For one, the cartoon is surprisingly dark. The schools are at war with the Trix and their army of Darkness, Sky almost dies in Season 2, Riven almost dies and the Trix thinks he suicided, it’s heavily implied in Season 2 Darkar murdered some of the pixies, the paedophilic undertones of Bloom and Avalon’s relationship, the list goes on.

When the interview with Brian Young came out, he said Fate would be a mature take on the cartoon. And I wondered, what did he meant by mature? Was he going to delve deeper into the darker aspects of the show, or did he mean he was going to have the girls swear and have sex? Watching Fate, I found my answer.

If you take out the gore, swearing, drug and alcohol usage from the live action, the maturity is on par with the RAI dub. The difference is in the presentation. This is what sucks about the mentality surrounding live action remakes. Because the OG!Winx was colourful with glittery transformations , was super girly and overall had a positive upbeat tone (not forgetting 2D animated) - it can’t be taken seriously. You have to strip all that, the colour, the kindness, the femininity in order to be deemed mature.

10. Wrapping up

I went into Fate expecting the worst and honestly, it wasn’t that bad. There were things I liked about it. The show looks pretty, and I did like what they were trying to do with Sky’s arc. The actors did what they could with the material. Freddie Thorp made the cringe dialogue work and Abigail Cowen proves she can carry a show as the lead.

Fate is your generic, YA, dark academia show. It follows all the tropes of the YA genre to a T. If that’s your niche, then you’ll love Fate and I’m not bashing anyone who liked it.

For me, as a creative, it doesn’t capitalise on the strengths of the source material. I’m not asking for Winx Club again, as I’ve reiterated, I’m all for creative freedom. But Brian Young, Iginio Straffi, whoever worked on this – they could’ve created something new, innovative, something that stood out from the hordes of other YA shows. They had good material in their hands! But what I got -  I’ve seen before, and I’ve seen it done better. That’s a major disappointment.

As a winx club fan, don’t bother watching this. It’s a very diluted version of the Winx. In trying to capture the interest of the adult fans who grew up with the franchise – Iginio showed how out of touch he is if he thinks this is what they wanted.

#fate the winx saga #netwinx #back on my winx club bs #long post #this took me like 4 days to write

[spaceshipkat]

hi, so. since i've become very attached to the anti sjm community over these past months, i wanted to tell my story (and sorry in advance for my english it's not my mother language) and say some opinions. first of all, her stans piss me the fuck off; i'm usually very patient, and hating random people on internet is not on my to-do list but what the fuck is wrong with them lmao. second, i first read acotar and then tog, when i was like 14 years old, and while the first book of acotar didn't look very off to me at first i did get a bad vibe the second that prick rhysand made his first appearance. like fuck that guy, he was gross as hell and even if at my 14 i was a fool and knew very little of any type of abuse, after the end of acotar and already knowing sjmess was going to make feyre and the prick get together i hated it. i finished the trilogy because i hate when my bookshelf looks empty but now i want to burn the books🤡 third, i also knew very little of themes like colonization, slavery, abuse apologism and all that stuff sjm blatantly puts on her books and knows shit about or does not know how to handle them, so i genuinely got mad as fuck after reading all the shit she did in her next acotar and tog books. specifically koa tho, the book was shit and what is her deal with white cishet couples, they gross me out. she does not know how to create any couple chemistry without putting unnecessary sexual undertones and ew, really. (psa: sorry abt my excesive swearing lol.) and fourth, and this might sound cheesy but whatever, i'm very grateful i found the anti sjm community. like, for real. she has a whole list of shitty things she's done on her books and her fucking stans make a blind eye to it and it pisses me off and i want to punch something and how the hell was i so blind back then. i don't know what to do with my books right now because they're still in my shelf and i hate seeing them but i don't want to recommend them nor burn them (i don't have the heart to do so) but oh well i'll suffer either way. so, thank you for hearing me rambling. i love this community. and i hope more decent people unites because sjm really needs to get her shit together. thank u for your time 💜

hey! i love hearing the stories of how/why people became antis, so thank you for sharing! and your English is great 😊 (also, i swear a lot, too, so you’re in good company 😌) you’ve articulated everything perfectly, and i agree on your points! and the thing with wondering how you could have missed everything she wrote when you were younger is bc reading critically is a learned thing you need to actively and consciously work on (especially if someone is cishet and white and in the upper middle class). i still slip-up (i was raised cishet and i’m white), but i also can see the moment i slip-up so i can learn from those moments, and that’s what’s important. stans have a very closed-minded attitude about books and critique, hence why they call what we do “hating on” sj///m or why they fling bullshit “you’re being misogynistic bc you’re critiquing sj///m, who is a woman!” arguments. i was looking through the ac0sf tags earlier today to see if anyone had recapped the insta live chat sj///m did with her husband and a book blogger yesterday, and just seeing the sheer amount of shit that still exists was exhausting, but it also makes clear that our community is still important. 

anyway, i’m so glad you found your way here and that you’re enjoying your stay! 

(it’s not mine/i don’t know the source, but i just love this gif, alas)

#ask #colorfulroadpartypsychic #anti sjm #stans being stans

[0monkfruit0]

PSA ABOUT EMDGAM3!Steve

Its no secret that I absolutely DESPISE Endgame!Steve, not only because I ship Stucky, but because of how stupid of a decision he made in his "arc" if you wanna even call it that.

Here's what I have to say before I rant:

Let me justify pure facts, (no printer) real quickly.

Ok so, going off of the time travel nonsense that the RUSSOES tried to convince me made sense.

Let's start with the little knowledge we have. Steve goes back in time, dances with Peggy(at the minimum) and lives until present day. This raises a question. When is it did Steve go to? We know it was after the serum, because he is big. However, this is confusing, because after he gets the serum, he goes into action immediately? Like after he steps out, gets real buff, Erskine gets shot and he chases the goon down, launching head first into Captain America. However, we see him dancing peacefully with Peggy, as if him being CA didn't happen in about a year, maybe even less? When did he have time to sit and dance? There must've been some action that he didn't take. Another question is now raised. What did he NOT do?

If he didn't chase the goon after Erskine died, which I do not think Steve "I dont like bullies, I don't care where they're from" Rogers would do, then Hydra would've blossomed and the timeline he was in, because by dancing with Peggy and not doing some action, he creates another alternate timeline where Hydra isn't taken down, I assume. This would cause a basket of problems and the future he arrives at wouldn't even be reached. Therefore, the ending makes no FUCKING SENSE-

So then let's consider that somehow, he didn't go after Bucky, which makes me gag just thinking about, when the 107th is captured. This means that, once more, Steve wouldn't have become the official crime fighting Cap that we knew and loved, and actually wouldn't have even had the shield. He would've stayed a poster boy until the end of the war and went home to his "first love", while Bucky is tortured and maybe even killed! The 107th would've never even been saved, the Howlies would've probably died, along with majority of the 107th.

And finally, maybe he didn't crash the plane? Maybe he followed through with what Peggy said and landed in New York, blowing up the whole damn city and himself with it. He definitely wouldn't have survived that. Steve may be a straight up dumbass, but he's not stupid. That's why he crashed the plane.

Onto my next point: how I feel for Peggy

Peggy, can I just say, I'm fucking sorry ma'am. I bitched on you for being a MandatoryStraightLoveInterestTM for Steven, and that wasn't fair on you. Have I seen your show? No, and I never will, because I love you, but not that much. You're a queen and I respect you as a person, but you are a terrible love interest. You and Steve? Cute, yes. Compatible for long term? Hell no. Your personalities clash and y'all will last maybe two years? Months?

Y'all might respond to my apology with this sentiment: "Oh but Steve wanted to dance with her! That means a match made in heaven!" Bitch, please. Do you KNOW how many people went dancing back then? Bucky went dancing with people ALL the TIME, doesn't mean they were in love. There was attraction, but not love. Not at all. Attraction is temporary. Love is forever. Til the end of the line, you might say.

Can we talk about Peggy again? She had a whole husband and kids? She said in Winter Soldier, "I've lived my life"! Did Marvel forget that? Y'all wrote that shit? How???? And Mr. WantSomeCoochieTM had to fücking kick that into the trash and stomp on it like it didn't matter want she wanted? Like she was a pawn that he could move were ever he wanted? That's mad disrespectful and extremely selfish, past what I thought Steve was. He completely disregarded her life AND the timeline, for what? Some temporary pussy? Newsflash dumbass, you can get that in the 21st century too (if pussy is what you want)!!

Um, this is rrly important. SHARON?? I assume that every other action stayed the same, so that's his FUCKING NIECE-IN-LAW? that's almost as bad as Thorki, just less bad. It's still vv gross tho.

Back on the didn't do stuff bandwagon:

So assuming he landed the plane and didn't kill everyone, or something to where he wasn't frozen(for long at least), this means that all of the bad stuff that happens while he is supposed to be Cap, he just ignores?? Like, if the Steve Rogers I knew and loved was alive during all the stuff from 1940-whatever to now, he would do EVERYTHING IN HIS POWER to make sure that he helped out, cuz that's his whole vibe. But he's old? How would he help? And I'm not saying he couldn't, but he wouldn't be able to help like he could've if he was Cap. And the Pre-Endgame Steve would HATE THAT.

Anyways, that's it, loves. This is my PSA. Share this shit everywhere, so that maybe the my anger will drive a psychic needle into the Russoes heads and make them start using them.

(he deserves better)😔👏

#lgbtq #pre serum stucky #stucky #incorrect stucky quotes #marvel #mcu cast #mcu memes #mcu fic #rantings #random rant #endgame #fucktherussoes #bucky barnes #post serum steve #reasons why im crying tonight: stevebucky #pre serum steve #steve rogers #stevebucky #fuck endgame #endgame steve #anti stony #anti steggy

[aacinedinburgh]

Week 2: Glasgow, Portobello Beach, & the First Week of Classes

And we're back! Quick note, in case you didn't know: clicking on the pictures will open them and improve the viewing resolution! Without further ado...

Classes started this week, although it's a pretty light academic week. Two of my classes have asynchronous lectures, and the other two only have one lecture a week. Seminars and tutorials, which are smaller in-person sessions, don't start until next week.

Basically, that means that I have time to take a day trip to Glasgow on the first day of school. As I learned in the museum I went to (more on that later), Glasgow was in a post-WW2 downward spiral essentially from the collapse of the industrial sector, but in the 80s, began to reinvent itself as a center of arts, music, and culture. So now, Glasgow is the big Scottish stop for touring musicians, conventions, etc.

One of my favorite artists, dodie, is currently touring the UK, and when I saw she was performing in Glasgow, I knew I had to go. I only have class until 10am on Mondays, so I decided that I might as well make a day of it and explore the city.

The (doubledecker!) bus ride to Glasgow was only supposed to take about an hour, but there was apparantly a gas leak on the M8, so it ended up taking a little over two hours, and I got there in the early afternoon. The good news is I found a really great Indian restaurant for lunch. The best part? The signs hanging inside:

After lunch, I walked over to Kelvingrove Park, in Glasgow's West End. Despite the gray skies and sprinkling rain, there were still tons of people out having picnics with their kids or walking their dogs. Inside the park is Kelvingrove Art Museum and Gallery. There was a little bit of everything inside: big natural history exhibits, the history of Glasgow, old French paintings, and an Ancient Egyptian sarcophagus. The grandiose halls were probably my favorite part, though:

After the museum, I walked through the University of Glasgow campus. One of the main buildings gave off serious Hogwarts vibes. I also walked through the Glasgow Botanical Gardens. Unfortunately, I got there late enough in the afternoon that the greenhouses were already closed, but it was still a nice walk-through.

After the Gardens, I took the bus over to George Square, in the city centre. The bus was rickety as hell. Like, shaking so badly it made Wile E. Coyote on a jackhammer look stable. Nevertheless, I arrived safely. George Square has a whole bunch of big grand buildings, with pillars and arches and domes and the like. I grabbed some fish and chips while I was there before catching another bus down to the concert venue.

Oh my god, y'all, the concert was so good. Shoutout first to the girls in line who let me borrow their portable phone charger and to the girl from Minnesota who was also alone, so we stuck together through the night. Seeing dodie live was such a dream, and it was a great show: the lights, the string quartet, plus getting to stand, I don't know, 10 yards away from the stage? Amazing.

I was kind of nervous about getting back to the bus station and to Edinburgh by myself at night, but luckily, lots of people were headed to the same places, and since probably 90% of the people in attendance were women under 25 (the guys behind me in the picture are honestly some of the only men I saw all night), it ended up being a gaggle of girls all going to the bus station together. It was so weird seeing Edinburgh at the dead of night - it was completely deserted. Even on the most busy streets downtown, Princes St, the Royal Mile, etc., there was not a soul or car to be found. Eerie. If I hadn't been walking back to campus with other people, I would have been super unnerved.

Thanks also to everyone who was checking in that I had not, in fact, been murdered. Gold medal goes to Schyler "please tell me you are not alone rn" Rowland. I love and appreciate you.

I truly enjoyed my visit to Glasgow, but I'm honestly glad that I'm living in Edinburgh instead. Glasgow felt much more like a big city, with all the positives (cool venues, events, and things to do) and negatives (some slightly spooky, grungy, industrial areas) that come with that. Edinburgh has this cosy village feel, even with the 500k+ population, and I'm so glad I get to experience that!

I also made my way over to Portobello Beach, Edinburgh’s coast looking out over the bay. There were lots of dogs and fun stands set up along the beach - I grabbed some gelato from a cart! It wasn’t sunny, but that’s not unusual for Edinburgh and it was beautiful nonetheless.

It's also been a week full of dance classes! This week I went to tap, contemporary, hip hop, and a pole dance class, and next week I'm headed to jazz, as well as African and swing dance classes. You have to pay for membership and attendance to events at the student organizations here, but these first two weeks of the semester are free trial periods, so I'm trying to cram as many classes in as possible. If I get videos of routines I do throughout the semester, I'll upload them here. :)

Stray observations:

- The Glaswegian (yes, that's what they're actually called) accent is so thick. Like the accents from Brave upped significantly. A man at the subway station spoke directly to me for 30 straight seconds, and I understood exactly zero of the words that came out of his mouth. Thank God none of my professors have thick accents. One of them has an Italian accent, which I definitely did not see coming and is also very fun.

- Favorite thing I saw in Glasgow: a hot pink PSA sign that read "be a tidy weegie." Amazing.

- Apparantly spiral notebooks aren't a thing here? I spent about 2 hours going from store to store, and they're not on the UK Amazon either. I ended up with a huge notepad that I put sticky tabs in to section off my classes.

- My respect for pole dancers has just skyrocketed. It was a half hour class, and my wrists are sore (they were popping in and out the whole time, haha), my shoulders hurt, my knees are bruised, and I've got a friction rash on my forearm. It was so fun to try something new, especially something I've wanted to try for a long time now, but seeing as I have to pay for all the orgs I choose to be a part of, I might stick to a style of dance that's a little less painful.

- Happy Bi Visibility Week! To my many bi friends and family, I love you and am so thankful to have you in my life. <3

See you all next week! I have some fun adventures planned in the meantime. ;)

[abyssalhuntersnerd]

Ok so long post ahead so, you've been warned...

The plan for this week is to finish up the fic before Saturday rolls around. Hell, if I finish it before then, that would be wonderful.

Please do not worry, I am not forcing myself to write at all. I want to really get this fic done and write everything I've been wanting to for a good while. I've had a lot of ideas in my head, tucked away due to stress and I really, really want to get them on paper. (Document? Let's all be honest paper sounds way cooler.)

Especially since this fic is the one where I can make them let go and show their quirky personalities more.

Yeah, that event inspired me way too much.

Under Tides gave me a really good grasp and a lot of info to work with in regards to, well, everything. I am a bit worried, since I could make them a bit too OOC for some but... I've always felt like I made Skadi never come out of her shell making her a very closed off gal. When in reality, she's a sweet but quirky girl, who loves the people she appreciates it dearly. She has a really shy side to her sometimes, but I wanted to see how much of that I'd be able to potray in this fic, haha.

As for Specter, it's literally nuts how she's the way I've envisioned since the start of the game. She's a loveable troublemaker who loves to swear, loves her teammates and is just here to have a fun time. I never mader her or never tried to, make her care too much as I didn't know how she truly felt about the others. (Thanks Hypergryph, please change her files I'm begging you.) Now that I know, it's going to be a blast to write her being super quirky, and at the same time express her appreciation for Skadi in various ways. They've both always come off as people who don't say those things out loud. And Specter feels like the kind of person that will make you say those things because she's someone who is really easy to love. Skadi is too. I don't know if I'm making myself clear, haha.

I just want to write that, the appreciation they feel for each other and the way they feel about things. And each other. There's a lot I want to transmit with this fic and it's insane how times change. And how my writing style did too.

I am guilty of loving these girls too much. That might also be a contributing factor, haha.

That brings me to the next point, which is, this is gonna be a long one. It could easy reach 6-7k words. I have 4k as it stands right now, and let me tell you. I'm not even halfway done. These girls haven't had fun yet. Which makes it pretty easy to gauge how long this will be. As such, once this might beast is finished, I'll try to squeeze in a preview a few days before I post it.

Hopefully.

Since this might be the longest thing I've written and I won't be free this whole month (for more than 2 days anyways.) I will be handing this to my beta reader as soon as possible. And I will try to ask him to get the whole thing fixed up by the end of the month.

And since I like to post on Fridays (I just think it's the best day for everyone), it will not be out until the start of September. I hope that if that's what happens, it's understandable. I'm not trying to hold anything back, but I do want to give him some time to fix it up. Granted, if it's done earlier than that, it will be posted early.

After it's been looked at 100000 times. ಥ⌣ಥ

I really wanted to get this out and post it here so I have something to motivate me when I get stuck. The good thing is the only thing I'm really stuck on right now is the NSFW part, haha. Everything else is done for the most part.

I'm just really fucking excited. And terrified. And happy. Happy there's people out there who are excited to share the love I have for these two. I don't know. Maybe the vaccine is getting to me, haha.

Anyways, thank you for reachinh the end and reading this whole thing. May you have a wonderful day. (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤

PSA: Thank you all for the encouraging and lovely asks. It's been wonderful. I love you all, my little fishes. ♥(✿ฺ´∀`✿ฺ)ﾉ

#normal posts

[40sandfabulousaf]

I was about to make this post private; however, some lovely influencers shared their support of Asians in their Stories and I'll thank them here in a jiffy. But first, this was on my Facebook feed from B, an American friend based in Australia. If you're residing in the US, this might be useful information because it tells you just how prepared your government, as well as medical professionals are, in terms of dealing with the coronavirus situation.

B had originally intended to fly back to visit family but decided not to as he didn't feel safe about how the country is dealing with public health emergencies.

Look, let's get real, guys. I know I've been telling everyone not to panic but that's because certain Asian countries have beefed up their resources from experience with previous virus outbreaks. When we ran out of masks, the governments swiftly replenished them. When the shelves were swept clean of toilet paper, rice and other dried goods, a limit was slapped on the number each household could purchase. We've also been forced to adapt to such situations from experience.

Even if you're an American citizen, please don't panic. Instead, follow what Marie posted in her Stories.

I've thanked her via DM and am doing so here as well. We've also shared a pleasant exchange. Thank you for your kindness to Asians.

Now, from what various influencers have shared, some gyms are like ghost towns right now. For those of you who're still trying to fit a workout in but want to take precautions, you may find this tip helpful. So will others who want to take better precautions whilst in public spaces by increasing hygiene and cleanliness.

From what I see in influencers' Stories, even the wet wipes have been swept clean from shelves, including at Walmart. Again, like what I suggested before, you get the next best thing, unless you're willing to pay through your nose for overpriced hand sanitisers on Amazon (that's entirely your choice, of course).

Buy a bottle of antibacterial mouthwash and take some kitchen towels with you. If you can clean your mouth with that without rinsing with a ton of water later, it's safe on your skin. Before and after using the gym equipment, give the handles, as well as anywhere that can come into contact with your body a good wipedown. Viruses don't just spread through hands, so take care of the rest of you at the same time.

PSA: please buy what you need and don't hoard a gazillion bottles of mouthwash. The more people are able to practise good hygiene, the higher the chances this annoying, inconvenient virus can be contained. Even if you can keep yourself safe, you may deny others the chance to prevent any germs/bacteria from spreading and before you know it, you're back to square one. So please be civic-minded.

As for my followers, don't worry. I'll definitely save stuff for you. Unless I see a drastic increase in support for Asians, I'll still share some of my knowledge and experience privately since having these is power.

Even so, I'm grateful for people supporting Asians, like Lyndsay. Honestly, if not for them, all my posts will be made private during this time.

Till the next post, stay sweet!

#goldenconfidence #itsmyconfidence #positivity #positivethoughts #positivemind #positivelife #positiveliving #bepositive #positivevibes #positivelifestyle

[moonlightcrossfire]

HOW I GOT MYSELF TOGETHER ?

HOW I DECIDED TO GET MYSELF TOGETHER?

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16

Hey guys! I know it's been a quite while I haven't posted anything here, it's just I've been through extreme moment of indecisiveness and doubt with plenty plenty plenty of breakdowns, hesitation and fear.

Fear of what? Of not being able to get myself together and make everything move through the correct path. If you're a huge procrastinator, a reluctant soul that has that hidden glow that's afraid to step outside, hope this helps you and be your sign to get your shit together.

Don't you ever get that feeling in your insides that makes you feel strange? Makes you feel there's something wrong? Or most likely, can it be a sign that'll push you to change your life?

I got that feeling that twirled my insides and let guilt build through me and sneak into my blood, it was screaming that I was wasting my time and indeed I was. Then, I automatically smiled and I felt clips of my future self flashing in front of my eyes, I realised back then that I didn't want to be that girl who spends her day in her sweatpants watching TikToks or scrolling through Instagram watching people reach places when I know I can reach the same places, does it make sense?

PSA: Sweatpants will always be the greatest piece of clothing ever made for women.

When I got that vibe, I knew my energy wouldn't lie to me. My mood changed real quick, from depressed and doubtful to someone who's sure of what she wants to do and where does she want to reach.

In a night full of stars, here's how I decided to change the way I lived:

1. Wake up early everyday, even on weekends.

All those who know me know that I run to my bed as soon as the clock says 9:00 PM, sometimes 8:30. They'd be like, "What makes you go to bed so damn early?" "The night is still in its beginning, at its finest, why would you want to sleep now?" Etc etc.. and my answer would be that I'm exhausted or I don't like staying up late, boring answers I know, it's just the way it is. However, it's been scientifically proven that sleeping early and waking up early increase your life's longevity, and sleeping for less than six hours will make you susceptible to illnesses. The health benefits of sleeping early are endless, do your research! The point is, waking up early doesn't only have you ready the day with positive energy but it makes you more organised if you're a busy person occupied with school, career, hobbies or interests. Take advantage of sleeping early!

2. To Do lists are your new best friends.

The best timings to write your to-do lists are either before you go to bed or after you wake up. To Do lists are known for keeping you on track, it helps you plan your day and accomplish things you postponed to go out with your friends or ignoring what you gotta do to finish another episode of your favourite show and end up forgetting what you have to do. Get a journal or a planner and take it EVERYWHERE you go, jot down reminders, appointments, chores, anything that won't make you forget your duties. By doing that, you'll feel responsibility has grown to be a part of your existence, neatness and organisation as well. Personally, in my To Do list I writ down tasks that I believe I can finish in a day. For example, doing homework, writing a new chapter for the new project I'm writing, make character maps, take pictures for my VSCO, write excerpts to post on MoonlightCrossfire, etc etc. When I write my first to do list I tried my hardest not to procrastinate, it was quite difficult not to procrastinate but I accomplished 70% of what I wouldn't have done if I was on my phone all the time. So, start writing your first To Do list right now!

3. Read affirmations, pray, set goals.

I've heard that reading affirmation boosts your mood to a certain extent. I believe it's what law of attraction is about. For who doesn't know what Law of Attraction is, it's the law which uses the power of the mind to translate our thoughts and turn them into reality. Specifically talking, if you think positively, the positive things will come to life. Reading affirmations such as calling yourself beautiful or believing you can do whatever you want to do or striving to love yourself more and being grateful for whatever God has given to you will make you see thing from a bright perspective. Try calling yourself beautiful in front of the mirror, our conscience will hug you and warmth will contaminate your skin.

Praying for a beautiful day or a better life or a respectful job or a happier self by means making your relationship with God a genuine relationship even if you aren't religious will turn your tables. Whenever you get the chance to pray, do it for yourself before anyone else.

Setting goals whether they're near goals or future ones will make you feel more stimulated by clinging more to them as passion eventually strengthens, that's when you know that you should never give up on things you find your peace of mind into and unleashes your true self to.

4. Focus on your education.

I'm an average student, my grades are like rollercoaster, I reach high highs and get unfortunate grades, it's pretty normal. I maintain a good score by giving my best to subjects I love and find myself flexible in studying such as literary subjects, as for scientific subjects however I don't mind a passing grade. When you study the subjects you love and feel like shining in them, you'll study them with so much effort yet so relaxed because you are aware of your abilities in these subjects. On the other hand, the subjects that you feel like you study them for the sake of passing, you need to build a mentality that you know passing these classes will bring you closer to achieve your dreams. You have to know that the path to reach your dream life will be full of thorns and and barriers to reach the sunshine and butterflies.

5. Eating healthy + moving more.

Sleeping early isn't enough for a drastic life change if you sleep with a mouth full of chocolate or a bag of chips or a burger. I'm NOT saying you should kill your evil cravings, but try to do a little bit of swapping. Pinterest is full of recipes and swaps that will statist your craving and at the same time revives you instead of slowly killing you. I've realised that a little bit late and I felt something blocking my throats that I won't eat as much McDonald's as I used to, but we have to let go of things that makes us happy sometimes. (McDonald's is the love of my life :/) Healthy food isn't as bad as people make it look like, we convince ourselves that they're not flavourful to run back to fast food and satisfactory foods.

If you're a lazy person like I am that moves from a couch to another and considers it a workout, you might want to read this. Doing chores will have move automatically and as you move you are helping your body become more flexible, you burn calories and you feel lightweight. At school or work or stuff, try to walk as much as you can, it keeps you alive.

Last but foremost, when I write my to do list, I write a water tracking list that makes sure I drink 8-10 cups of water a day. Water is your life saviour, it keeps you hydrated, helps you lose weight, keeps you in the bathroom so you won't get involved with bullshit and drama + it clears your skin. Who said detox water isn't recommended as well? Water with lemon and mint is my favourite water detox combination, you can add pomegranates too!

6. Limit distractions and use of electronics.

Your series can wait, your friends can wait, your lover can wait, your family can wait but your future doesn't wait for you. Why? Because you chase your future, it is not your future that chases you. It is preferable to limit the use of electronics while working or studying. I'm teaching myself to get used to not be on my phone a lot, I'm teaching myself to focus without looking at my phone and surrender to surf social media, I'm teaching myself to resist it. You should learn resistance, too. Try to use your electronics when you're 100% done with all your tasks on your to do list, you won't have anything to carry on your shoulder and you can check your friends' posts and stories or watch some celebrity tea.

7. DON'T KILL THE VIBE, CREATE PLAYLISTS!

Ever since I downloaded Spotify I made different playlists for different moods and I honestly love them all and vibe to them with my heart like I can't explain how I am passionate about my music taste. The fact that people make fun of the music I listen to because I don't listen to what they're used to listen to, not because the music I listen to makes me superior, it's just a matter of taste. When you listen to music you love, your happiness hormones boost your body, mind and soul. When your body, mind and soul are full, your creativity becomes limitless. I listen to music pretty much all the time specially when I'm writing, it gets me in the mood and I get so inspired by the stories every song holds. If you're a lover of music, you're forever young.

To sum up this blogpost, planning your life out and finding yourself and getting your shit together are major keys to reach your purpose. It will make your life much easier, enjoyable, satisfactory and pleasurable. Who doesn't want that? Then, learn to live your life the way you want to live it. They say you only live once, right? Live by this motto.