#making stuff like this is fun and a nice break from the other mediums I work in

[leafofkudzu]

Hear ye hear ye, you are cordially invited to Verdant Shield [VS]’s third monthly community art party, open to one and all across both NA and EU servers!

An idea migrated over from Final Fantasy XIV, art parties are basically community get-togethers where artists of all kinds can hang out, chat, and create together! Digital, traditional, mixed-media, screenshots, poetry, prose - whatever your chosen medium, these sorts of events are for everyone, regardless of skill level! Dress your best, find a character that inspires you, and create! Afterwards, you can post your creations in the party’s specific tag (ours is #VSArtParty) so others can see and spread the love around via reblogs! As I’ve said every time I’ve written one of these up - the ‘goal’ of attending an art party is not to be drawn, but to draw others, and share with the community!

After last month’s NA party spilled out of the intended locale before it even started, this month’s location will be a nice open space most should be familiar with: the Crown Pavilion in Divinity’s Reach! Host to not one, not two, but (sort of) three in-game festivals, the main grounds under those graceful eagle wings offers ample room and excellent lighting for scoping out your next victim subject with ease! The squads for each party will open approximately 15 minutes before the start time and will, as usual, not be posted in LFG in order to deter party crashers (though we’ll be way easier to spot in this location so that may be a moot point haha).

Check under the cut for extra time info, location stuff, and /squadjoin info! ♥

Ah Divinity’s Reach, land of so many excellent locations that are all very very tiny and hard to swing a camera around in. I didn’t want to accidentally steal any RPers locations and also wanted a well-lit open area after the NA Grove party’s perpetual darkness, so the Crown Pavilion it is! If you somehow haven’t been to DR yet you can backtrack into it from the auto-unlocked Shaemoor Waypoint in Queensdale or take the asura gate from the Lion’s Arch Gate Hub Plaza! The whole map is a big circle, and the Crown Pavilion takes up the Westernmost section:

I am ecstatic to report that there’s a Jade Bot terminal located right smack in the middle of this place, so zooming around to get reference screenshots has never been easier (but when will they let us launch at will like in that one instance?)!

Now, on to the real nitty-gritty stuff:

Just as last month, this month’s party will consist of two separate art parties, each 3 hours long, with a 1 hour break in between to let people rest, grab snacks, swap accounts if they want to attend both, etc etc.

The first party will be on EU servers and begin at 9pm Central European Time (that’s 3pm Eastern Standard Time for NA). I’ll once again be hosting on my EU alt, so to join you’ll want to either whisper Ashelin Falstaff for an invite or type ‘/sqjoin ashelin falstaff’ in chat to auto-join.

The second party will be on NA servers and begin at 7pm Eastern Standard Time (that’s 1am Central European Time for EU). I’ll be on my main account for this one, so to join please either whisper Naveen Sen for an invite or type ‘/sqjoin naveen sen’ in chat for that sweet auto-join action. Should there be an overflow for the NA party like last month, I’ll either rope another [VS] guildmate into hosting an overflow squad, or start shooing people who are already in the right map out of the squad to allow others to taxi in - we’ll play it by ear should the need arise!

And that’s it! Expect to see me reblogging this a few times between now and go-time, and maybe even a few times once things are rolling if any weird overflow shenanigans happen. Thanks everyone for coming out and making last month’s party such a rousing success, I can’t wait to see you all there again for yet another fun time! ♥

#whether the crown pavilion counts as hosting 2 or 3 festivals depends on how you feel about the festival of the four winds #but it's definitely designed as a party space so it's the perfect venue for something like this :D #i got a little (happily!) overwhelmed by all the people last month so i figured more space is better just in case we have a repeat hdfkgdf #gw2 #guild wars 2 #vsartparty #obnoxious tourist simulator #📢🎨

[if-confessions]

Author here: my confession is i'm lying. My demoless intro blew up and i kinda can't be asked to write it anymore. I keep posting screenshots of snippets but i'm never gonna release anything. I feel bad cause there are so many asks but i seriously don't have an ounce of care. I love my cast and my story but it’s so hard to write. I've seen a lot of accounts with a lot of hype and asks but no demos so i don't feel terrible and we authors don't owe anyone content anyway. I know it's bad but i love getting sent questions and notes cause people are so interested and it's so fun to post new ideas. Once my hype dies i'll probably just create a new one cause i'm already writing a synopsis for this new story and it's so good.

Hi Anon,

I'm going to get real with you, buddy. I had to write this message multiple times because I ended up being a bit too... angry. And as much as I absolutely don't vibe with this whole position, it would still not be fair to you to get the end of my frustration with it.

So I am trying again, (more) calmly.

I honestly have been wondering if you are maybe lying to yourself when you said you can't be asked to continue your project. You seem to be very enthusiastic about the story and the characters (or you wouldn't be sharing snippets or answer asks about it. What jumped at me was: my demoless intro blew up.

I've answered a lot of asks in the past about creators worried about not being enough because their project didn't get enough attention, but very little when it came to the ones blowing up overnight. But just because your intro blows up, doesn't mean you don't struggle with all of this.

So I have a few questions for you:

Are you having this blasé attitude about your project and giving up because of the heightened expectations of having blown up?

Then you might find getting a break from interaction/the social aspect to help. Or maybe interacting with other creators outside of Tumblr and discuss experiences and what to do when the motivation is gone or it becomes to overwhelming (hint: it's often a break).

Another option is to set expectations about the project. And I mean yours. Creating a grandiose story spanning books and dozens of chapters each and a cast as long as your arm can be incredibly fun, but it might not feasible, and often becomes overwhelming. Maybe take a look at your story and chop it down to manageable bites or remove parts that don't fit.

Do you worry if you actually post it, people will not vibe with it?

In this case, consider alpha/beta testing, where you share more about the story to a select few and request feedback. Joining a writer's group or a smaller IF server to discuss or brainstorm or get feedback on ideas is also a nice way of getting confidence about what you are doing. Some community have even some sort of writer's circle, where multiple people get together and write for an hour or two.

Are you afraid you will be found out as not being a good creator (a.k.a. the imposter syndrome)?

We all start somewhere, and that somewhere is very often bad. Don't sweat it. The good news tho, is that it can't get worse. The more you write, the better you get. (but you have to write first)

Do you want a point of reference? Try reading the first version of my first game. It is cringy as hell, there are a lot of grammar and syntax mistakes... I hate it so much, so I made it public to everyone. Go roast me about it, then go read the much better version (or the other way around.

Do you feel like you are lacking confidence in your ability to finish the project because your experience with the medium is minimal, making it overwhelming?

Pause the project for a bit, and write a tiny game (not more then 1k). Join game jams to test some stuff out. Mess around with the program and see what can be done.

Did your struggle with writing come from realising the amount of work required to make it happen?

Time to break it down in smaller pieces, until it feels doable. Then take one piece at a time. And there is no timeline you need to keep...

Do you feel like you can't do this by yourself and would feel more confident continuing the project if you had more direct support?

Try to reach out to other people and see if someone would be interested in helping you make this project a reality. I've seen many projects being done in duo or trio (Harcourt, Lady Thalia...). It will be a different dynamic, but can be very fulfilling.

Are the characteristics of the IF medium something you can't see working? Does the story not work when variation is added? Is there only one path that works for you?

Maybe, IF is not the medium for this project (or for you). That is also fine!

Not everything will work with IF (hell, even inside the IF sphere, some stories fits better the parser-type or the choice-based one, or the hyperlinks one). Maybe the project should become a novel, or a poem collection, or be turned into a comic/webtoon.

~~~

Before you go on to make another intro post with your new idea on the hope that it will blow up so you can just talk about it and bounce when it becomes too difficult, maybe ask yourself:

why you entered this community in the first place,

why you wanted to try your hand at making IF too,

why this story stuck to you so much you wanted to share it with everyone,

what made the story fun in the first place,

what was the point where the fun in writing actually stopped,

whether you want to abandon a story you seem so passionate about...

Interactive Fiction is an awesome medium, and it's a shame to take it for granted...

Or you can go ahead and post that new idea of yours, continuing to blatantly lie to people to get attention rather than enjoying the medium and the craft for what they are, and toy with people essentially...

I might have been reaching there about the lying to yourself, or the fact that blowing up affected your love for creation more than what you message conveyed...

... and you might actually not give a shit at all about doing anything but throwing ideas at the wall, ignoring the rich and incredible history of Interactive Fiction and its captivating evolution (still happening today), neglecting the vibrant community just to con people for notes and attention that are insignificant in real life, lying to everyone just for the lolz...

You do you boo...

~~~~~~~~

Little reminder for people reading this: Don't send hate to people posting an intro post without a demo assuming they are like this anon. It would really suck if we end up gatekeeping a fun hobby because of one bad apple.

[old comments in tags: I'm sorry but I really don't like liars that do it for the lolz it's not cute gosh i tried to tone done the judgement on this really hard I honestly hope anon is just overwhelmed because they got more attention than they thought they would in the first place /]

#confession time #if-confessions #demo or no demo #dark side of if

[silverskye13]

Hey, do you have any art tips that you use or anything? Any advice?

Uhhh that's kind of a broad question! My art advice is mostly situational.

A few very very broad suggestions for you:

Use references. Your brain can only hold so much, and most images we stick in our head are symbols. Aside from a select few very impressive people, no one can photographically remember, say, a tree. You can remember a symbol of a tree [Brown and red and green, in a specific shape], but you're not going to remember off the top of your head how tall an ash tree is relative to its surroundings, how all the leaves look from a distance, etc. So, use references. This includes references for things like poses, or colors, or art styles. I've gotten in the habit of collecting things I think are aesthetically pleasing for exactly that reason.

Draw from observation or life, as practice. Kind of an extension of above, but even if you don't draw realistically, you can learn a lot about stylizing, say, a bottle, by staring at the bottle and drawing it. Same with landscapes and buildings and animals and people. Different lighting and their affects on color and things. Its a great way to learn what looks realistic, in terms of relativity -- figuring out where shadows fall, how cloth lays, that funny shape your arm makes when its pointing straight on. Another interesting twist on this is making copies of artworks you like. Pick up the prettiest watercolor you've ever seen, sit down and try to make it. You won't come close, but you'll learn a lot about what that artist thought was important. Draw This In Your Own Style memes are also good for this.

Use tracing and replication for what they're made for: building skills. They're very good tools for teaching yourself how to take things apart and put them back together again, which is how we as humans tend to learn best. You learn how to do math by learning 2+2, and then you figure out 22+22 is basically the same thing, but when you were 5 learning to count in preschool, they didn't start you out with the 22 bit, did they? Same goes for art. All those "How To Draw X" books start you out with "First a circle then some lines" for a reason. If you can break up the big bit into tiny bits, you can figure out how to build stuff from scratch. Tracing and copying art styles, coloring styles, and poses can go a long way to teaching you how to break up all those things into digestible shapes.

Draw often. There's some saying somewhere that you need to put a thousand hours into something to advance a level. So, 1000hrs to go from "I know nothing" to "Beginner." 1000hrs from Beginner into Novice. Etc. It's not a literal rule. I'm sure I've put a few thousand hours into art, but I wouldn't call myself an expert yet. But art is a muscle as much as it is a skill. You only learn how to draw a straight line by drawing 50 wiggly lines and then miraculously one of them is straight, and you feel how that line felt in your wrist and you try to make it feel that way again. You make a really nice texture by accident once and you try it again 100 times before you can consistently remember its by crosshatching there and erasing over there. A long time ago I used to swear by comics [the largest leap forward I ever made in art was when I sat down for a year and drew a comic when I was, like, 13. It had a couple hundred pages, and rapidly progressed from "I'm basically tracing deviantart wolves every pose because I can't see them in my head" to "I can pose these little guys on my own and they actually kind of look like who they're supposed to look every time!"

Uhm... smaller advice tidbits.

Play with as many mediums and art supplies you can get your hands on! Thats how you figure out what you like, and also you draw wildly differently with a brush than a pen. Its really fun to see those differences and integrate them into other things.

If you're working digitally, experiment with merging layers and drawing over them. If you're insecure about it, copy the whole thing into a new document and draw over top of it. It's really fun, lends to experimentation, and there's a lot of effects you just can't achieve by fiddling with your layers.

If you drop your pencils, you will break the lead on the inside. That's why sometimes you sharpen a pencil and it just keeps breaking until there's no pencil left. This happens especially often with colored pencils, because the lead is super soft. Protect your pencils with your life.

For every "pretty sketchbook" you keep around, keep beside it some shitty copy paper/lined paper book with a ballpoint pen. Its good for warm ups, and for getting over the anxiety of "but I don't wanna ruin my pretty sketchbook" :( anxieties

Keep a bottle of water in your art space. This is good for drinking, for spilling on things, and for reminding you you are human and have needs. I recommend one with a cap if you do watercolors, so its less likely you'll dip your rush in it.

Get in the habit of resting every hour. If you have tendonitis [like me] rest every half hour. Set a timer if you have to. This keeps your wrist from exploding, and it keeps you from randomly picking up objects three days from now and wondering why your hand just decided it didn't want to anymore.

Don't feel pressured to post everything you make online -- in fact, keep from that habit as long as you can. The little seratonin rush is very nice when people comment on your work, but if you rely on it to motivate you, you will stop working on things. I have pieces that live in a vacuum, that no one will probably ever see. Most of them art shit, some of them aren't. The fact that no one can see them and tell me they're pretty is good and healthy, actually.

Don't destroy your work. When you finish a long project, there will be a little demon in the back of your head that whispers "I have never hated anything so much as this. Burn it. Kill it. Punish it for existing. I hate it." Do not listen to that little demon. It has been starved of all your existential angst while you were Stuck In Creation, and it is hangry. Put your art away somewhere, wait a few days, a week, a few months even, if you have to. Eventually the little demon will get involved with something else, and you will look at your art and go "Oh, hey, that's not so bad actually" :)

If you wait a year and you still think its shit, objectively, it might be, but I still maintain its demon is probably just being stubborn.

#the barking artist #art advice #hopefully? this helps??

[herrlindemann]

Metal Hammer - July 2015, interview with Till and Peter

The most unusual and at the same time most exciting constellation of the year is clearly Lindemann. Peter Tägtgren (Hypocrisy, Pain) and Till Lindemann (Rammstein) teamed up to record the debut Skills in Pills, which was already hotly debated online, between Pärlby in Sweden and Berlin. The result: a monster of an album and a band that might even have a medium-term future. Till and Peter tell Metal Hammer in a personal conversation what Lindemann means to them.

Fun turned serious - but not quickly, but after years of dancing around each other. The Lindemann protagonists Peter Tägtgren and Till Lindemann tell us how much time and work went into the country from the idea to the initially unplanned album.

A few years passed from the initial idea of the band Lindemann to the final implementation. Did you take this time to get to know each other personally?

Peter: Not only that, but we also needed the time to coordinate our schedules. We've been friends since 1999 and met up as often as we could, talking on the phone or texting. Two years ago I attended a few Rammstein gigs in the run-up to Wacken, Till invited me. We met and he said that he had a break soon and we could realize our project. That's how it all started, initially with just one song.

Till: Before we started we met in Sweden at the Bravalla festival, but friends and family were there and we only got to talk briefly. I said: «After Wacken I have a break of about one and a half to two years, then let's do something together. "Somehow Peter didn't really want to believe in it, because this promise had existed for almost ten years. But a few days after Wacken I actually called him. I said: "Send me what you have. » Four weeks later I got a file and worked on it for a few days; this became 'Ladyboy', the first track. I think Peter was a little confused at first. I said, «Let's get some opinions on the internet. » Peter didn't do that, but sent me more files. It went in quick succession.

Then did you meet?

Till: No, that didn't happen until five or six songs later. At first, ideas were simply sent back and forth.

Peter: Till wrote lyrics and I wrote music.

Till: I worked with my Logic system, he with Pro Tools. I loaded his stuff into my system and worked on the chants. You have to admit: the first demos were pretty terrible. Still, somehow we suddenly had five songs, so the question came up: EP or mini-disc? I refused to think about more, but Peter said: «Let's make a full album! » However, I didn't find the idea that exciting. Then I visited him in his studio and from then on I kept commuting back and forth. That was great, almost like a weekend vacation. I was always otherwise busy during the week, but from Friday morning to Sunday evening I was able to be with Peter at the Abyss Studio. His studio is right on a lake, it really was like being on vacation.

Did this pleasant atmosphere in Peter's studio help the project a lot?

Till: At least it helped not wanting to shorten the studio time because you don't like the place. The atmosphere there was very good, even if the studio is pretty gross. (Laughs) Somehow everything came together, it was the perfect work situation. In addition, it went really fast, because Peter brought an incredible amount of experience with him. I explained to him how I like to work. After that, it only took us a few weeks, a few sessions, until it really clicked.

How do you feel today that it is certain that there will actually be an album and a band and that it is completely different from what you are doing with your other projects?

Peter: To be honest, we can't really enjoy it yet. Before that there was no record company, no management, nobody involved and that was nice.

Till: It wasn't easy for Peter to go public, to present things and to get reactions to them. I, on the other hand, had a good feeling from the start. For me, this mixture of gothic and metal, which meet here like a big accident, was very exciting.

Was it clear from the beginning that the sound would be like on the album and the lyrics would be sung in English? Or how was this mix found?

Pete: I have no idea. Learning by doing, I would say. Originally we just wanted to do a song or two together. Everything else only came about because we were further inspired by the lyrics or music. It was kind of a Ponzi scheme. The only thing that was clear was that we wanted to differentiate ourselves from Rammstein and my projects Pain and Hypocrisy. With Till, of course, as far as Rammstein is concerned, this is only possible to a limited extent. But working on the lyrics was very interesting because for Till it was like a kid in a candy store, with lots of new words, lots of new phrasing. We often laughed when he sang something. Sometimes even before he started singing, because he always had to sit down on the sofa because something didn't work. I then said: « Come on, let's try it », only to find out from time to time: Oh God, that doesn't work at all!

Till: Of course I wanted to explain to Peter what the lyrics are about.

Peter: Sometimes he sent me a text to one of my music files. On other occasions, I would just get lyrics he sang on his smartphone in the bathroom and then build a song around them. So we tried different ways.

So completely different than you normally work.

Peter: Yes, completely different. There was no pressure at all, we just experimented.

Is that the great freedom of this album? That you could do whatever you wanted without pressure from other band members or the record company?

Peter: And without any pressure from the fans. You could just try everything and do the craziest things.

Till: For me it was like when we started a new band project and Rammstein was still very young. You just play around, everything is allowed, it's like freestyle, there are no limits. Whereby: With Rammstein there are no limits, only expectations on the part of the fans, i.e. artwork, music, concerts. Now it's an open field in the middle of no man's land.

In which it's also a lot easier to decide things because there are only two people involved instead of five or six.

Till: How right you are. For me it was a great relief.

Now that the music and lyrics are finished, how was the visual impression, i.e. photos and artwork, fine-tuned?

Peter: The ideas came from Till. I only helped a little in this regard.

Till: We simply distributed the tasks. Everyone did what they do best. I brought this experience with me from Rammstein. Peter dived deep into all the production parameters while I took care of the visual design.

Peter: All ideas went back and forth and were discussed, regardless of whether they came from me or from Till. That was the easiest way for us. The first photo session in October was great fun because we had no idea where this was all going. There were four photographers present.

Till: We had an idea...

Peter: Not professionals from big companies, but friends. Stefan Heilemann turned out to be the one who was supposed to do the main work for us. The others were then selected for press photos et cetera. Then Till took the photos and edited them. A crazy result!

To be honest: Nobody would have expected Till Lindemann and Peter Tägtgren to work together. But now that the result is in and there may even be more records to follow, this seems to be the perfect combination: Till as lyricist and singer, Peter as composer and producer. Why did you have to wait so long for such a collaboration?

Peter: Because we simply had too many other tasks to do.

Till: Every project has its very specific time. I was pretty sure of it. Even my colleagues have already commented: "Whenever he's bored, he goes to Peter Tägtgren and makes music with him. » I had had the idea in my head for a long time, I just didn't have the time. For me it was and always will be: Rammstein comes first. But it was also clear that at some point I would do this project with Peter. I had clear ideas of what to sing to that rolling wall of guitars, bass and sequencer. Because that's exactly what I appreciate about Peter's music and his compositions. I wanted to do it even better than himself, and we're not talking about the lyrics, we're talking about the vocal melodies. And when one day you realize that these visions have actually come true, it gives you a really good feeling.

So there's only Till's vocals, but no voices from Peter, right?

Peter: Right, that's what we thought from the start. Till is the captain on the ship, on THIS ship...

Till: Yes, on THIS ship, you have to say that.

Peter: For me, this experience is also a real relief and would also be the only conceivable solution on stage. I'm so tired of being the front man. And Till is one of the world's best. I can hide behind him. For me this is the perfect situation because I can concentrate on my music and the production. When you divide things up like we do, only good things can come of it. When I do my other projects there are always many things I have to consider. You only notice that a few months after the release of an album, when you realize: crap, I should have done that differently. With Till we are, to a certain extent, two producers who both know exactly what they want. We always find a match; everything we decide makes sense.

Now that you know each other a lot better than you did ten years ago, there must be traits in each other that you weren't aware of before, right?

Peter: Till is the biggest crybaby I know. (laughs)

Till: All day long.

Peter: We're like brothers who fool around all day.

Do you fight over details, vocal melodies or the like in a project like this? Do you have to seriously deal with it?

Till: In the beginning, of course, everything is pure sunshine...

Peter: Like in a young marriage: I love you. (Laughs) And then later: You bloody carrion, I hate you!

Till: The dispute will probably come over the years. We are currently on our honeymoon. No bad words, everything is harmonious and runs by itself.

Peter: The good thing is: I don't care about things that bother Till, and vice versa. He often says: "Do what you want, I don't care. » Everyone has their own role in this.

Are you already thinking about where this project could take you? And how far do you want to push it?

Peter: There are no plans after the album release. We really liked the phase when nobody knew about this project and we could easily think about everything — about video et cetera. We sometimes asked ourselves: should we think like a band? Or should we just make sure it's a cool album?

Peter, did you play all the instruments on the album?

Pete: Almost. Clemens von Crach Angren also played an important role. He helped me out with the violin parts, he also does film music and stuff like that. He is responsible for all the orchestra parts.

Till: Apart from that, Peter played all the instruments, produced, recorded, edited the disc — everything.

Peter: That also made things so easy, because if we wanted to change something in the arrangements, we didn't have to call any band members to try it out.

Till: Peter is an absolute workaholic, he can sit in front of the computer for 14 hours. I have no idea how humans are able to do that. I would go insane in two hours. He was still in the studio when I had to go to the toilet at night. I stood on the terrace and saw the lights on in the studio because Peter still had a problem that was not solved and he really wanted to fix it. His head is always crazy and it is almost unbearable for others.

You've produced so many bands in recent years...

Peter: Yes, I know, and I'm also trying to slow down a bit and enjoy life more. But of course there is always a schedule that needs to be worked through.

Till, what was the biggest challenge for you — singing in English? In Rammstein there are short English passages from time to time, but this time you sing in English throughout. And you know better than anyone else that the German language is massively different from other languages.

Till: The biggest challenge was gaining the necessary self-confidence. I wasn't sure at all. That's why I finally suggested putting something on the internet and waiting for the reactions first. But Peter and a few other people around me encouraged me. First I wrote down words, and then translated them into a singing situation, which was quite strange for me. This gives it a much more international approach right from the start.

Peter: Do you miss German lyrics when you hear the songs?

To be honest: Whenever I hear Till sing in English, I translate it into German. As a German, I associate German texts with his voice. I suspect that international ears perceive this very differently. This could be very interesting.

Peter: So far we haven't had any reactions to it at all. But maybe nobody speaks up because people don't like it. But as soon as the first song hits me, I'm like, yes, that's it! That's really cool! Because it's still very rough. You immediately recognize the attitude.

Till: We overdid it a bit and I tried to get rid of my accent; but somehow he also makes the charm.

Peter: I think that's what people want to hear. You don't want someone who sounds like an American.

That would not fit Lindemann at all.

Peter: Exactly. It would be foolish to change that. The only thing we paid close attention to is correct grammar. So that no " you ist " or something similar slips through to us.

The only question I ask myself after listening to the songs a few times; Is all this meant seriously, or is it supposed to be humorous?

Till: It's good that you're asking yourself that, because then we did it right.

Peter: One should think about it. It's like an open book.

Till: The listeners are forced to read between the lines a bit in order to understand the irony. With Rammstein, the listeners sometimes take it too seriously, so that you are misunderstood. There, too, you should read a lot more between the lines. There is a wide range of what you can sing and what meaning something has. The topics are very complex, and the reactions we have received in recent weeks have also been totally different.

Peter: Every song has a completely different meaning for different people. It was funny to hear how different opinions on a song can be. Sometimes we sat there and thought: Oh yes, that's right, it could actually have that meaning. It's always good to be open to all things.

One of the tracks that most resonates with me is 'Yukon' after reading that you were there on vacation. When you hear the song, you have the landscape in your mind. I could actually imagine how you felt there.

Peter: I felt the same way when I wrote the music for the lyrics. I had his words in front of me and composed the music to go with them, and there was this mood of distance and seclusion.

'Fish On' is also a very lurid number.

Peter: By the way, the song has a very confused origin story. Listeners probably won't hear that, but it was a pretty odd way of coming about this piece. There are very different parts and putting them all together was pretty rad. It just happened while we were experimenting with the arrangement, the verses, the chorus. In the end everything came together. Till had lyrics and wanted to sing them to a click track — but he started rapping like the Beastie Boys.

Till: I said to Peter: «I have a vocal line here and for the first time in my life I would like to write the music to an already finished vocal melody. “My desire was to have the written word first and then compose the music around those words, rather than having to jump on the music and find words to go with it as usual. The only problem was that I was pressed for time because I had to go to the airport. So I said to Peter, "Just give me a click track. » Of course I had no experience with this way of working, especially since the click track calls for a kind of rap singing. The freestyle raps also usually start with a drum loop. So I just sang two verses and had almost forgotten the piece shortly afterwards. But three months later Peter sent me a file with this sequence and its music. It sounded great. As my voice started, I remembered that short singing session again. Peter had even written a chorus. A really great experience.

Peter: Then Till sang the final version and we had a new song.

Till: Some things have been changed, the chorus and the intro for example. We also developed a C-Part, a bit like Lego bricks.

Peter: Half of the remaining pieces were put together like Lego. The longer we worked on an idea, the crazier it got. Over time we became more and more courageous to try really crazy things.

What is the biggest goal you are pursuing with this disc? I guess that in the beginning you mostly wanted to have fun with the songs. But now that it has become a serious project...

Till: It's in human nature that you always want to achieve a positive result with everything you do. Otherwise there would be no reason to do it at all. No one intentionally messes things up. Of course we hope for good reactions. It's not like Nirvana 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' but we wrote a very good album. The entire process of creation was a lot of fun, because everything was created on vacation in a kind of holiday idyll.

Will you take anything from this production with you to Rammstein?

Till: Yes, guaranteed, but I won't tell you that. (laughs)

...possibly the idea of experimenting with English lyrics at Rammstein?

Till: Of course you never know what will happen in the future, but the German language is part of Rammstein. Of course you could check lyrics like 'Pussy' or 'America', but I'll leave that to the German department in my main band. (grins)

And how about you, Peter? Do you take something away from this project for your further work?

Peter: I brought my experience from twenty years of work and thanks to Till I was motivated to become better than ever before. If I had stopped whenever I felt it was good enough, the result wouldn't have been as fabulous as it is now. I also wanted to prove to Till that I can do things just as well as anyone else. It was a helpful kick in the ass.

It's quite interesting that Till as part of a democratic band and Peter as, let's call it a lone fighter, were able to work so well together.

Peter: I don't have an ego, and neither does Till. We just did what we felt was best for each song.

And how do you like, Peter, the fact that this project is called Lindemann?

Peter: The thing was, we didn't have a name for this project.

Till: Tägtgren would have been a great name too.

Peter: After we had finished a few songs, it was clear that we now also need a name. For months we texted each other with silly band names. Some were just for fun, while others were meant to be taken seriously.

Till: It's incredibly difficult to find a good name these days. We had some good ideas like 'Way Outs' or 'Krauts' and for me the perfect name would have been 'Stockholm Syndromes'. We then settled on a single word, but most of them were already taken or had domains already registered on them.

Will we ever see you live somewhere?

Till: We want to wait and see how things develop.

Peter: First of all we have to wait for the reactions to know exactly how big it would have to be raised if we want to do it; so not just 50 people in a pizza shop. We'll have to wait and only then can we decide whether and within what framework we can tour. It's difficult to assess at the moment. But we still have time, the entire summer is available to us for planning.

#Lindemann #Till Lindemann #Peter Tägtgren #Rammstein #interview #translation #*scans #* #long work but it's a great interview #2015

[horce-divorce]

I keep flirting w the idea of resin and going back to "I wanna make dice" but no. just. no no no. I do want to make dice but It's not happening. Every time I start to think about it again I see some humbling shit about microplastics and suddenly desperately want to repent my sins and never touch plastic again.

I will use the rest of the resin jugs I have now and then I Might sometimes use UV resin as an accent on other artwork, or occasionally cast specific pieces. but I'm retiring the whole idea of Being A Resin Artist. It's cool and fun and I can't fucking keep doing it.

anytime I have to throw away something that didn't turn out, any time I have to use the Dremel or sand down the edges of a new piece, it makes me absolutely sick to my soul what I'm doing. Like I actually honest to god cannot live with myself as a fucking plastics manufacturer. I can't do it. I live on the shores of Lake Michigan and every time I rinse off a sanded down piece of resin im literally dumping plastic directly into that lake. That's disgusting. That goes against everything I've ever fucking believed since I was a tiny little child.

I still can't bring myself to call art resin "evil" on par with industrial plastics manufacturers, but every day I look at how many things around me are already made of plastic and aren't broken down yet- packaging. the handles on brushes. the handles on drawers. phone cases. shoes, tires, clothing- and I think about how much microplastic is already in our fucking bodies, and in the bodies of newborn babies, and in the bodies of fish in the sea, and in the rain. and then I think about how much more is out there waiting to break down, and I wonder, is the plastic in the ecosystem now just the tip of the iceberg? Even if we stopped using plastic globally tomorrow, how much more is still out there, in storage, unused in the basements and closets of our homes-- or currently in use!!-- patiently waiting to turn into microplastics hundreds of years down the line?

and then I look at the shit I'm making with resin and sure it's cool. it's very nice stuff. but absolutely none of it was fucking worth contributing to that. None of it. Not for a moment.

Yes, there are certain types of art you can only make with resin. It has a really cool effect on anything you put into it. It's super useful as a sealant. And for some things, plastic is the ONLY substance we can use for that item. Some things NEED that kind of packaging- notably medical supplies- but there's plenty of certain artwork you couldn't make without plastic, too. I hate the idea of a world without sopopomo's resin sculptures. Like, this is some of the coolest shit known to man, LOOK AT IT??? Im also a fan of those big log-resin tables, and like, those surf boards like rusted indigo does. I wouldn't dream of asking artists like this to stop using this medium, especially when they've clearly mastered it.

But your choice of material does end up saying something in the end. Thinking about the source of your materials and inspiration is part of the artistic process, but I really don't see any other resin artists talking about this... (Probably bc they stopped being resin artists if they felt this way, ig?) I mean I've seen some talk about the health hazards for YOU, because resin is also a freaky scary substance to fuck up with and it can burn your skin and give you lung issues and shit, in addition to being THE most harshly unforgiving art medium I've ever encountered.

But it kinda makes me feel insane? To be the only one wondering about this? Like the art you can make with resin is so beautiful, but it comes at SUCH a steep and ugly cost- and not just to your own health but to the environment and people and animals directly around you (you really need to have proper ventilation and full PPE to work with resin. and even cured resin, though nontoxic, can hurt you. Ever gotten a paper cut from freshly-cast plastic? It fucking SUCKS).

And it's so contradictory to me?? bc so many resin artists market themselves as like these witchy, down to earth, inspired-by-nature type of people, who are selling art to the same crowd. Myself included! There is enormous irony in saying "I love nature :)" and then encasing it in a vacuum sealed toxic plastic tomb. This was not lost on me personally, but I seem to be the only one who wants to like. Talk about it. Or address it as part of my artists statement, even. I feel crazy for it!!!! :/ I'm literally not even saying we should stop using resin as an art medium. I am licherally about to go pour some lmfao. I'm just asking like. What does it say about you as an artist-- what statement are you making with your art-- if that contradiction itself is the very approach? I don't know. I don't have an answer to that question and personally that makes me wanna back off, that's all I'm saying.

Like it's not really a moral judgement on other resin artists. I'm not saying all resin artists should want to quit. I know that EVEN COMBINED, all the individual resin artists in the world couldnt produce more trash than Nestle if we tried. this is about me, not about you.

It's just, after my friends supported me SO much in opening my Etsy shop, there's understandably a lot of questions about why I stopped posting/listing shit. it was admittedly going very well.

I just dont feel good about helping Nestle produce more trash lmfao! I don't think they need my help!

Cus again, who's paying the true cost at the end of the day? It's not just the monetary cost of the resin. If we're paying for Nestles & cos pollution, who's paying for mine? My lungs? My family's lungs? My cats, if they were to ever be exposed or get hurt on resin scraps? The wild animals and plants of this place I claim to love so much, who are just swallowing my garbage whole??

Like nobody else has to consider that if they don't want to. But that stuff matters to me. And it's worth so much more to me than a bunch of plastic keychains and shit that won't even sell for enough to buy me a week's worth of groceries.

Cus I see all the trash *I* manage to produce, as just one guy. then I think about, what about all the unused, unsecured resin in the world from people who didn't research proper disposal? From corporate manufactures who didn't care about regulations? What about all the uncured liquid components that never got disposed of properly! What about when wildlife inevitably gets into all that shit someday?

I walk along the beach and I pick up discarded scraps of plastic and broken beach toys in my spare time. and these days I think, "in 50 to 100 years this is exactly where all my lovingly crafted hard work will end up. with someone just like me picking up the pieces of trash on the beach." that's actually why I called my Etsy shop Rats Trash Stash. It was cheeky, and more about my skill level with resin than anything else, but the more I thought about it, the more it was eerily on the nose.

so anyway. y'all aren't my Instagram followers so you don't even know what I'm talking about and this means nothing to you lmfao... but it kinda sucks that resin as an art form kind of only became so widely available in the same breath as "we need to drastically reduce our plastics consumption."

Maybe in a world where every single thing isn't manufactured in the cheapest most toxic possible way, maybe in a world where corporations were forced to take responsibility for their garbage- maybe in that world, plastic has a small enough impact overall that it wouldn't tear me up like this to do resin art. but we don't live there. and I can't keep doing this shit, I'm literally losing sleep over it.

Anyway I'm writing all this bc in order to finish using said resin I have to go pour some. And it's just turned into this whole Thing now every time I get an idea I wanna pour, I have a whole ethical dilemma to work thru first before I can bring myself to mix a batch. So this is me attempting psyching myself up to go do that lmfao. 💀 I have a journal to finish.

But on that note, Ive actually super enjoyed making the journals and it's inspired me to get back into papermaking and bookbinding, so I think maybe I'll keep doing journals even after I put away the resin for good. We'll see. I dislike the idea of giving up resin tbh but the alternative seems much much worse.

#me

[knighteclipsed]

ooc; TOA Anniversary Munday!!

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing!

Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together. ily!!

tagging: (flutters my lashes)

Name: Kano!! IRLs also know me by Dimitri, but it is by no means restricted to there.

Pronouns: he/they/it

Birthday (no year): May 6th

Where are you from? What is your time zone? Georgia kiddo wrow. est in actuality, european at heart (during breaks)

Roleplay experience: Did some stuff back in elem? But never really got into it until TOA, which I joined about a year ago, the day before the 3rd anniversary!

---

Got any pets? Nope. I'd like to have a cat someday though.

Favorite time of year: Spring time baybeeeeee. Birthday bias but it's also a nice medium between extremes :softsmile:

Some interests and things you like: Uh...... Fire Emblem? Also most things that go into video games (drawing, writing, composing/playing music, i love programming so much it's insane, etc. etc), I'm a little art kid :sparkles:. Oh also Spider-verse and Nimona.... :softsmile:

Some fun facts & trivia about you: I know my integer squares up the 22? Did I mention I love math? Studying game design at a technical school rn, and I know six programming languages atm (JavaScript, CSS, HTML, Java, C#, and Python). I also programmed a text-only GBA combat sim in Python earlier this year. Took a couple weeks and I did that instead of my Physics work :D

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? ...So here's the thing. (JKJKJK) Uh..... I like Triangle Strategy, Hades, I've been meaning to finish the original Ori :shrek_mmh:, and Omori went crazy but I'm not playing it again (it's best on a blind playthrough). I also really enjoyed Undertale! Don't have much else on my backlog tho haha

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: So I don't really Pokemon. BUT. I do love Squirtle and Wartortle and I had a Gible named Nom Nom in Pokemon Arceus. Favorite type though would probably be Dragon or Dark. lol

---

How did you get into Fire Emblem? Back when I was in 3rd grade, my mother gave me and my brothers a Wii with Super Smash Bros Brawl! I was a Sheik main but my brother got me to play some other characters, including Marth, Pit, and Ike. I didn't like Ike for his slowness but Marth and Pit were good for my style of play. I later followed him into Fire Emblem Heroes hell, and then later into emulating Sacred Stones! Didn't finish it until after Three Houses came out though. Finished Azure Moon in three weeks (including school).

What Fire Emblem games have you played? I've beaten Sacred Stones and Three Houses, most of Engage, roughly half of Valentia, the first few chapters of Genealogy, Shadow Dragon, and Binding, and the demo of Awakening. Also about half of Three Hopes but that doesn't count it's a Warriors game (also through most of Book 5 in FEH) :/

First Fire Emblem game: Sacred Stones! The first I finished was 3H though lol

Favorite Fire Emblem game: Sacred Stones I think. Altho it's definitely fist-fighting 3H still.

Any Fire Emblem crushes? Dimitri is a solid one I think. Most of the Faerghus Four guys tho are... yeah. :woozy_face: Also mayyyyyyybe Diamant? I'm unsure tho FJDKNGKSFGN. The arospec-ness definitely kicking in :joy:

If you’ve played the following games, who was your first S support? - Awakening: N/A - Fates: N/A - Three Houses: Dimitri hah - Engage: N/A

Favorite Fire Emblem class: Grrrrrrrr that's a hard one. Probably one of the magical ones, but (gestures at this muse) yk. Wyverns.

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class? Either some sort of mage (probably Sage-leaning) or a wyvern class like Wyvern Knight. Mortal Savant is also very alluring.

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? Blue Lions, no question. My energy is definitely more Deer tho lol

If you were an Engage character, which Emblem would you Engage with? Sigurd. Dude is scary LOL

---

How did you find TOA? Okay so while I was still relatively new to Tumblr, I was browsing tags and a previous Dimitri's posts (the art especially caught my attention it was incredible) were coming up under the Dimitri tag (the mun knows who they are). When I looked at the blog and saw it was dedicated to Dimitri, I got completely suspicious of it immediately :crylaugh: Ended up digging around though and saw the art style was consistent, and after I got past the drabble at the top I realized it was a roleplay blog, which. While I was still new, I was accustomed from Twitter to people being both god artists and god writers, so I figured it was just all by one person. Followed it for a few months (which I got exposed for when I reserved Linhardt but I still find that hilarious so it's fine), and eventually the August activity check popped up last year and I decided to join. Yay! (Never found out who 'mun' was tho :/ (this is a jest))

Current TOA muses: Linhardt, Colm, and Valter!

Who was your first TOA muse? If you don’t have them anymore, could you see yourself picking them up again? Also Linhardt! lol. While I don't expect to be dropping him soon (looks away), if I ever did, I have a feeling he'd be back eventually. Adore my little genderball.

Have you had any other TOA muses? Nope! Picked them up one after the other and have yet to drop any dnjgkfsn

Do you think you have a type of character you gravitate towards? Hm...... Well I know I have a type, but it's hard to put into words haha. Anyone who makes me laugh I guess? And people who are super duper attached to their role in life (think knights and knight-adjacents like Selena and Glen). There's something going on in their noggins that is just so. (STARES) Also people who scare me with their in-game dialogue. (Valter, but TS Dimitri applies as well FNDJKNG.)

What do you believe you enjoy writing the most? I'm not really certain, but I know I have a LOT of fun whenever I craft dialogue. Me and my incapability to be quiet (endearing)

Favorite TOA-related memory: A close one would be two of the muns recognizing me when I submitted the Linhardt reserve, but I also get a kick out of Linhardt climbing a tree to escape a boar during Unscripted last year fnjsdkngsf. The birthday wishes back in May also made me explode (positive) EDIT: I FORGOT SIRIUS ROLLING VALTER FOR HIS LIEGE DURING KKE!!!!! THAT WAS HILARIOUSSSSSSSSS (so was patty's crush on valter. makes me cackle every time)

Got any delusions that didn’t see the light of day in TOA that you’d like to share? I might still make use of my Saleh blog. I have an idea I want to go for, but he isn't the biggest delusion right now. Neimi might also have a shot, but I don't expect to be doing anything for Lukas or Hubert any time soon. You all know who's coming next.

#[ ‘by my cursed lance!’ ] (ooc) #[ ‘to ask such a thing of me…’ ] (memes) #// i had fun filling this out!! #// the favorites were definitely some pretty hard ones #// as opposed to the just raw facts #// but hey!! we jive!! #// happy anniversary TOA!!! #// i look forward to seeing the growth of your true potential :softsmile: #// - kano!! :D

[mongeese]

Music in Wolf 359

Hey so uhh I meant this to be a relatively short informal analysis post but then it accidentally turned in a 1150 word essay. Whoops! Anyway, it’s about the role music plays in Wolf 359, both on a practical level outside the story and a narrative/thematic level inside the story. I wrote this all in one go with minimal proofreading, so I sincerely hope it’s understandable and that my points are good. As always, feedback is welcome so long as you’re nice about it!

Here it is, under the read more because it’s long as hell:

One of my favorite things about Wolf 359 is the way it talks about and uses music. Like, the fact that the aliens are trying to contact humanity just because they want to learn how to make music is one of my all-time favorite reveals in the podcast because it’s just so profound! And it gives me a lot to try and unpack (which I am going to try and do right now).

Obviously, there is a practical element to the significance of music in the narrative. It is an audio-only medium, after all, and music provides a welcome break to all the dialogue and drama. Eiffel even references its ability to act as a way to ease the tension in Mission Mishaps: A Little Night Music, though that was almost definitely not an intentional wink to a more meta reason for the music. I’m just making a fun little reference to an episode I remember. Anyways, more to the point: music is really the only art form that can feasibly be introduced in a podcast. Theater is maybe an exception? However, I think putting a play into an audio drama would get a bit complicated on a storytelling level. Though if someone could pull that off, it’d probably be very cool, like some Hamlet vibes. But that’s irrelevant, so I digress. The point is, the medium was probably a strong motivator for the intense significance given to music.

Aside from the medium itself, the premise also lends itself to music being the connecting thread throughout the story. Now, I don’t know which idea came first: Doug Eiffel being the communications officer probing deep space, or the fact that the aliens want humans to teach them music. Regardless, those two facts are intrinsically linked. Given Eiffel’s role on the station, there is not really any other subtle way for the aliens to try and get his attention. All he can do is listen; he can’t receive any visible messages over the vacuum of space, not without a cable television to view them on, and if the aliens just spoke to him to slow burn of the plot and the eventual reveal would be ruined. Music is the best way for them to reach out in a way that fits neatly in the narrative they’re trying to build.

Now, let’s move away from external factors, shall we? I want to dive into the significance within the text. Obviously, music is significant to different characters in different ways. Minkowski is a total musical theater nut (the absolute queen), to the point of pursuing it over and over again even when she fails continually. Her devotion to music mirrors her devotion and stubbornness in all other aspects of her life, in addition to adding unexpected depth and nuance to her character. Regarding Eiffel, I think it’s safe to assume that he loves pop music the same way he loves pop culture. Plus, it’s given as one of the first and only ways he bonds with his daughter, as written in the episode Limbo:

“Doug was seeing little baby Anne pretty much every other day, talking to her every day, teaching her to play the Jaws theme on her little dinky kid xylophone, all the good stuff.”

It’s notable also, that Doug’s worst action, the thing that permanently put a wedge between him and his daughter, ended up making her go deaf. Even if she’s still able to appreciate music on some level, because deaf people can do that, it will still be a fundamentally different experience for her and Doug. I’ve posted about this once before, and I fully believe they made the decision to have Anne go deaf as opposed to some other disability because of the significance of audio and speaking and music to Doug’s life. It emphasizes how extreme what happened was, how thoroughly that mistake drove his family away from him (for good reason, I might add, I’m not trying to excuse him). I could write a whole other essay on Doug and his daughter though, so for now I’ll move on.

To be perfectly honest, it’s been a long time since I’ve listened to the podcast, and I don’t entirely remember what the rest of the characters say about what music means to them. If anyone who has a more encyclopedic knowledge of the characters and podcast wants to chime in here, I’d be fascinated to hear what sort of concrete examples there are of music being significant other than the ones I’ve mentioned. I’m pretty sure Hera is interested in music the same way she is interested in books and other forms of human art, and I have a vague memory of Lovelace mentioning a song that was important to her in one of the episodes, but the details escape me. Suffice it to say, the characters do interact with music in ways that are distinct and which reveal aspects of their character. Just goes to show that even without the whole “alien” thing, music is an important part of almost all of the major cast members’ lives.

And of course, I can’t write a Wolf 359 meta without linking it back to the anticapitalist theme of the whole story. It is so, so profound that out of all the amazing tech of Goddard Futuristics, all they are prepared to offer the immensely powerful extraterrestrial group, the one thing the aliens want is… music. Classical music, even, something that is widely considered unprofitable and frivolous as a career path, something that has little market value in a soulless capitalist world. As it turns out, that music is the most important and revolutionary thing humanity has to offer. And there’s added depth, because it’s not just that the aliens want to learn our music; our music quite literally saves Earth as a whole! Bob the alien says, that for species they decide not to bring into the fold of their alliance, they often have to destroy all members of that species. Humanity certainly would have met that fate, if not for our talent in music. I don’t know about you guys, but that drives me insane!! The fact that quite literally, humanity’s saving grace is our music? It’s such a poetic and remarkable theme to have, and one that I think is very applicable to real life. Humans have been making music for at least 40,000 years, probably more. It’s a fundamental urge, I think, to create music, whether through singing, drumming, playing instruments, whatever. Plus human’s aren’t even the only species that makes music, so you could reasonably extend Wolf 359’s statement to say that Earth’s saving grace and its most beautiful feature is its music. My favorite flavor, though, comes when you intertwine music’s importance with the anticapitalist ideas of the podcast. Because music is not inherently profitable or conventionally innovative (i.e. not innovative according to tech bros) and yet it is our most important invention. That is just such an amazing message to me, and it really, really resonates.

#did not do NEARLY as much outlining or prep for this one as usual but like i said it was entirely on accident that it got this long #hope yall enjoy though :) #music is very important to me on a personal level so ive been obsessed w the way wolf 359 treats music for like ever #such a good podcast #wolf 359 #wolf 359 meta #w359

[sharky857]

The Palia Experience™ (so far)

Believe it or not, I'm trying it out because a friend of mine ended up despising this (beta) game so much they went and asked the game company to straight up delete their account for good.

Know that I won't dig into some controversial/sus stuff ongoing with some cosmetic bundles, because right now I am not even interested in purchasing a single thing in game.

All this is going to be purely from a(n oblivious) player's pov, who is also still a newb who's just "learned" how to plant & water crops.

For starter, I appreciated same ol' warnings for flashing lights & stuff. I'm not photo-sensitive myself, but I can see how this can be a nice thing for those who have this issue to varied degrees.

What I would also appreciate would be the possibility to have subtitles in the cutscenes (unless this option is already available but dumdum me couldn't spot it).

Customisation has lots of options to choose from right away, and I'm saying so as someone who comes from Warframe, where the only "Operator" free stuff is 4-5 hairstyles and a Zariman suit, with everything else locked behind either plats or a grindfest.

Besides, you can also have a small selection of colours to tweak. This is what I ended up mashing together.

The graphic looks cartoony/simplistic, and it kinda reminds me of another game: "Paladins" (another friend of mine described it as "generic unity style 'cutesy fantasy' aesthetics").

Makes me wonder if this has anything to do with both games running on "Unreal Engine". 🤔

Also, despite my PC would meet the requirements to run the game at "high" settings, I decided to keep them at the default ones the game itself chose: "medium". This resulted in my GPU (GTX 1650) not breaking a sweat, ever and unironically.

(Yes, this means that my screenshots are all taken with the graphics set on "medium".)

Even so, it hasn't been uncommon for me to see the game freeze and/or stutter. What left me puzzled this whole time is that the CPU (of the i7 kind) would at time show spikes of 60% usage. A sign that, maybe, the graphic isn't as "simplistic" as it looks.

Still, I have yet to experience any game implosion, so I guess I am still all good here.

And btw: yes, the game devs themselves know about the latter issues I mentioned. 👇

There is only one thing that keeps on leaving me quite fascinated.

Queue. Queue everywhere.

Apparently, the servers are still so damn tiny that, no matter where you're trying to load into, even though you are already logged in game, you will have a high chance of seeing a message like this in the corner of the loading screen. 👇

Logging into the game? "X Palians ahead of you."

Loading into a cutscene before/after a quest? "X Palians ahead of you."

Going to the village? "X Palians ahead of you."

Coming back to your tent/home? "X Palians ahead of you."

Imagine playing something like Warframe (the only other co-op game with quests I could think of). Imagine if you loaded in your own Orbiter and tried to start absolutely anything, even while in "solo" mode:

Loading a mission: "X Tenno ahead of you."

Starting/Progressing with a quest whatever: "X Tenno ahead of you."

Waiting for the cutscene(s) to said quest to load: "X Tenno ahead of you."

Going to a relay or a free roam (imagine instances didn't exist either): "X Tenno ahead of you."

Moving back to your Orbiter to call it a day: "X Tenno ahead of you."

You got the picture. Not really a fun and also sliiiightly irritating in the long run. 😅

But hey, it's a beta game that has just come out of "closed beta" only 1-2 days ago. So hopefully they will be able to expand their servers soon enough.

As for the gameplay itself, it's nothing really special to me, probably because I am already familiar with some of the mechanics. I've seen this being called "a mix between Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley", and so far I'm mildly getting the latter's vibes (never played any "Animal Crossing" game).

All in all, if I were to rate this game on a scale of 0 to 10, I would give it a generous 7. "Generous" because of the aforementioned controversy with the bundle discounts so-called "scam" (which is still unclear whether or not it's been accidental, haven't kept up with the news in this regards), plus the current, microscopic size of the servers.

#palia #palia game #palia open beta #sharky's stunning skills at gaming #I'm also dreading the moment I'll have to open that chat & ask for help to other players #I'm such a sucker for playing solo & interacting with other people (total strangers) gibs me THE ANXIETY 😔

[fawningoveradream]

Tagged by: @nebulariclover

I decided to backtrack some past posts and rbs and tags associated with my tumblr url. Idk how I missed this! Sorry for the VERY late response.

Rules: 1.) Post the rules. 2.) Answer the questions given to you by your tagger 3.) Write 11 questions of your own, and 4.) Tag 11 people!

1.) What bands/musicians would you like to see in concert?

Idk? I've never really been to a formal concert other than me participating in my middle school's orchestra--aaaaaaand perhaps the occasional local country band at a bar or art fest in my city's downtown district.

I'd say I would like to one day hear The Orion Experience, The Hu a popular Mongolian folk-band, or Kendrick Lamar.

2.) What is your idea of a perfect day?

Just going out to places with my partner! I'd love to just explore either a local nature spot with em or check out some roadside attractions. I'd even settle for some group artistic project day!

I also sometimes dream of one day having a nice picnic date with em or invite some friends and have a large picnic group date out in nature or a lovely park. Getting a lil drunk or just drinking, swapping stories, sharing foods we baked or made.

3.) Would you rather never be able to listen to music or never be able to watch cable?

Never be able to watch cable. I spent my whole life for a long time not having access to cable tv and only had the standard tv channels. I'll live!! PBS THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE TO MY CHILDHOOD!!!

I can't live every day life without listening to my favorite songs. I'd go crazy. What you mean I can't listen to The Mamas and The Papas??? What you mean I can't listen to the soundtrack of the Muppet's Movie (1979)?! What you mean no more Lil Nas X??! NO BILL WITHERS!? NO GLORIA GAYNOR--NO EARTHA KITT?!!!

4.) What talents do you have that you're especially proud of?

I know how to sew patches onto jackets really well! I can come up with real interesting creatures with a full background and appearance. I go full-in when it comes to abstract and often mismatched acrylic paints with scenery.

I've been told that I'm a very good baker! And dogs love me!

5.) Who are your favorite characters? **I did this list in no listed order; just from top of my head

Courage the Cowardly Dog

My many fursonas

Kermit the Frog

Lupin the 3rd and Inspector Zenigata!

The Combaticons (transformers g1)

Bulkhead & Prowl from TFA (Transformers Animated)

Kaon from the DJD

Scooby-Doo

Captain Sisko, Jadzia Dax, Odo, Julian Bashir, Jake Sisko, Quark, Miles O'Brien, Worf, Garak (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

6.) Do you like to sing?

I don't sing in public. I'm kinda self-conscious about the sound of my voice. And I'm aware that I tend to have breaks/sqweaks in my voice when I try to sing. I do sing when its just myself (majority of time), with my partner in their car, or when out drinking with friends at bars.

7.) What helps you sleep?

Ceiling fan ON (medium speed majority of time *depends on the sound the fan makes; if majority is silent then high speed). Temperature must be around 73*F with AC on cool setting - auto

Sleep only in my boxers

Covers consist of my bed's main semi-thick quilt cover and a cotton bed sheet.

Pillows fluffy but maintain shape and don't cover my face/nose area. My pillow sheets are also cooling sensitive as well if I need to flip it onto its otherside if I wake up warm.

I am a stomach sleeper who also likes to be semi-covered under into my bedsheets.

8.) If you could have 4 superpowers to have, what would they be?

Animal shapeshifting

Regeneration/Health restoration power

Water Breathing/Seeing *Aquatic superpower??

Lightening power

9.) Do you prefer dark chocolate, milk chocolate, or white chocolate?

I've been slowly turned into a lover of dark chocolate. HOWEVER I am, still, and always will be weak for the sweet stuff that is milk chocolate!

10.) What are your hobbies?

I like to draw or doodle my fursonas, I like to also paint scenery on canvases, I also like to sew. Baking is also a small hobby of mine. I also like to catch up on some reading as well. Poetry and writing stories use to be an old passion of mine, but I've kind of abandoned it. Or just really struggle to get back into completing it once I've started.

I also like taking care of my ginseng bonsai tree Gordon! And taking walks outside with my dog ranger is also pretty fun too!

11.) Where would you love to live?

In my biggest dreams? In the Philippines near Olongapo or Manila city where a big part of my fam live curretly in.

A list of other places I'd love to live in:

Austrian or Swiss Alps. I like cold weather, and I don't mind being surrounded by deep woods.

Portugal

Spain

If realistically and here in the USA. I'd love to stay here in the south-east coastal region. Cause its where I've grown up in. But with the current culture and anti-lgbt/trans laws and stripping of human rights. I might have to consider moving up north or some state out west thats a safe haven or tolerable. But also has job opportunities related to my own and/or my partners interests/career choice.

11 questions for who I'm tagging:

1.) What's a plant, flower, veggie, fungi, or fruit you've always wanted to grow on your own. But can't due to circumstances or just not having a green thumb?

2.) Do you have a fursona what is their name and species? If you have multiple fursonas which one is your most favorite? Why?

3.) Do you have a favorite song?

4.) Are you currently happy with the job you have right now?

5.) If you were given the chance to live your eternal life as an immortal (in this case never growing old but still being "just some dude" w/ a meatbag body) would you take it? What would you be doing with all that time?

6.) What's your favorite penguin? Why?

7.) Do you have a signature dish (food)? Either that you can make or food that you associate yourself with? Bonus points if you do both!

8.) Whats a specific scene in a movie, show, book, or game that brought you to emotional tears growing up?

9.) Do you think werewolves need to take heartworm and flea & tick medication every month? Do you think in werewolf worlds they got themselves a werewolf positive vet who gives em this medication? Or is there like some elaborate illegal selling of heartworm + flea and tick medication scheme? Do you think in a werewolf world do humans (or humans who are werewolves themselves) privatize medicare for werewolves?

10.) Do you have a fave color you wish you could add to your wardrobe of clothing you have?

11.) How do you manage your emotions when your angry or sad?

Tagging: @jacobtheloofah , @lohboh , @dolphin-damsel , @twinktodapast , @silly-bean , @fiddledy-dee , @vulturereyy , @caydebug , @cantabilechaos , @dkpsyhog , and @jammings

Feel free to ignore my tag if you don't wanna participate!! I just thought it would be fun to take a try on this. It really got me thinking about my early days here on tumblr.

#ask prompts #tagged ask prompt #Fawn talks

[megabuild]

18, 19, and 21? :D

18: favourite thing about the fandom?

scratches my head . oh that sounded really mean wait hold on okay i like hermitblr i do well and truly a lot of my gripes are petty or haterisms best left for dms because people are just having fun but also i gave up trying to idolise or platform fandom a long time ago because we're all just people with a shared interest. so i guess i don't really have one? if i had to pick i'd probably say the creativity in working from the medium we have but that's like a mcyt general thing... but it's still something very cool. sorry this isn't that nice an answer lmao i do love you guys even though i have to take mental health breaks from you every five seconds

19: favourite hermit (fan) design?

hmmm for me i don't have much designs finished or formalised so i do have to say bdubs... i've been considering redesigning him for a while because there are a couple elements i don't know about including anymore but i'm a little too attached to him LMAO. i don't think i'll ever be happy with an etho design but that's okay. for others i really really love @/aliensstufff's designs for just about everyone but especially ethubs... @/brick-rolled has some awesome stuff too... @/crystallex's etho with the fish tail is cool too. i could spend ages just listing off people who i like their ethos . but i'm stronger than that ... @/panidanya @/mcyt @/hopperclock ...

21: favourite hermit interaction?

i don't have it handy but the stream where cleo and joe (and tango?) talk about bdubs doing a powerpoint for the hermitcraft meeting.. grian and scar scaring cleo so badly she swears... iskall and mumbo end busting (just all of it. a classic) etho and grian's first meeting in the shopping district where etho just behaves like a little creep!!! and of course this which makes me smile no matter what

#asks #comfortingdecay

[incarnateirony]

It's. So goddamn unfortunate.

There used to be a nice, pretty lady with vision and passion under there. She used to go out and live with horses in the fields, or wanted to find ways to get back into it in adjacent capacity. She ran small animal rescue catch-release-or-rehouse, she was a ranch girl, a trainer of horses and even some mounted combat. She was a living body of a potential incarnate Athena.

And then she met me. And now she's a cage loving, animal hoarding crackbear obsessed with me for years after our breakup, chasing her own shadows, ripping out her own hair, not even knowing how to make her shop work without my octopus jibberish, maybe purple visioned cats? Can think she can medium for living animals, yet refuses to onboard she's jerking off the shadows of her living ex husband. But like. She met me, and completely lost track of her inner self with her fascination with MY inner self, but didn't do the work to understand either point. And went fucking nuts, literally.

And I feel awful about it now. Because she's lost everything defining about her to run in circles chasing a dozen disembodied, disassociated aspects, with Athena barely in the back, siting next to Lord Leviathan "helping" her with shadow work... as the shadow viper she's enshrined and divorced herself from as a separate agent to praise, too.

Therapists will often tell you to write, whether a journal or fantasy, to write out your Stuff. It's a form of shadow work that's meant to make us stare our stuff in the face, and stuff like stories or roleplay are ways where we can temporarily disassociate from it to look back at parts of ourselves with.

She never understood the principle of hermetic theory, ever, and that's become clear. Because while all my writing was hermetic processes she missed, she generally onboarded "dis is hermes" which... sure? Part? I guess? In the What If God was One Of Us song way? But they were all parts of different processes I managed through perspective characters to slowly break down and put back together the whole self.

And she like... tried to run off with the core personality bloc for myself as an avatar that literally has my name and groomed people into "this is hermes, draw him, praise him, etc" and did her projection shit and tied her shit to me.

But she never onboarded a single actual lesson from those games beyond giggles, old rumpocky jokes, fun and free spirit, I Do What I Want or whatever. And like. Yes he does what he wants but sis there's so much you've skipped.

I dunno. I just hate that I'm responsible in her falling into this madness. Her sister even warned, many of Jung's students go apeshit insane. And it's because they're like Shea, they didn't understand the processes. Jung himself was a debate about schizophrenia but became a founding father in psychology beause he could control it.

Similar to how I can control it. That took a lot of fucking work. Given, when crackbear comes barging into the great raising and a giant hermetic project and literally shatters my psyche while dragging out my shadows while I'm riding the eyes of a few hundred million people and the energy of the big game, those fractalized parts get REAL FUCKIN LOUD, and they are in fact attached to other concepts like planets, and we were stuck in the epic rap battle of those planets, suspended from last year's planetary parade across moons and eclipse axis junctions and whatever else in a circle, and I got motherfucking slammed because this bitch can't face reality, that she's just worshipping a mastered form of a man that does not want her near him, and it's addicted her to chasing him.

If you can't tell, I'm mostly grounded and back to what can be identified as "myself" as a singular, normal, "this is how we know Aaron behaves on the day to day" and it's because I finally got off the crazy train. She didn't. And can't until she's honest.

But I was remembering back to shortly before we left Alabama during the jung breakdown. I'm quite sure I even hypnotized myself into making the Lateralus Project then with the hypnotic compulsion I had to see through the generations, later helping me understand... other things.

But I remember having stared at the snake, "Who are you? Who do you want to be?" on a hypnotic morphing loop trying to sync the layers, and it being not quite right and doing it again, and again. Then I went down to talk to her folks and zoned out on the porch when they were talking thinking about the serpent loop and hearing her sister be like "most of Jung's students went insane" and it was like. oh mood.

But at the end, I'm the clinician tested for sanity, this is in fact psychology and a debate about Jung held long before tumblr concern trolls made perplexed and alarmed noises. No kids, you can literally consciously break your brain into partial personas to find root system access and then pull it back together... IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. If you don't you end up like Jung's insane students who never put the pieces back together right. Or Bald Crackbear of the Divine Octopus Jibberish And Purple Visioned Cats.

Don't skip steps on this shit, kiddos. And don't expect to be magicians if you can't even pull off the ancient art of telling the truth or looking in the mirror. If thine own soul is baseless, how then will thou fix the soul of the world?

Anyway I've damn near hibernated the last few days, 10-11 hour sleep patterns. Which, like, goddamn I've needed it. I repeat, I've been on four hours every few days for a few months, with the occasional crashnap between. People that were reporting passing out in the Tartarus tag were probably lowkey feeding my own sleep absence. I don't know for sure, but, that tracks. But now that I don't need to play active vessel nonstop and it's all tied off in a bow my brain is like S L E E P

When it comes down to it, she knows the truth now. She's just clutching to the shards of her life built like a house of cards on top of her lies, something to cry into at this point, some excuse to Belief it away, like she tries to do everything inconvenient, but she knows. The acts, works, manifestation, the hammers taken to her that showed her full of nonsense like the purple cats on april fools catboop day. The full of the work. She's tried to ignore it but it's been months of maintained coherent "plot" while she runs around in circles trying to ignore every part of what her life has become or what events are happening. She gets it, but she's just... clutching. Because you know. Her life is a lie. And the second she admits that her Everything crashes down and she doesn't trust herself to put it together.

I told her. Ultimate reverse bear trap. No running away girl. You're never gonna make it out of this attack you performed on me the same again. Your beliefs, your world view, is shattered and we both know it. Your toys will never be the same and we both know it. Your faith is in shreds on the floor. No lawsuit can fix that for you. It will never come back and feel right. Your only option is to face it, tell the truth, and start over, and then you might start feeling right again.

Literally nobody that has faith in their shit has to take the One Time They Achieved One Thing They Wanted By Putting In Effort and wave around "I'm SURE I'm talking to the right things!" I mean, you can consult yourself, and addages about broken clocks, but you being compelled to say that says, lmao, no you're not. This is you posting you actively trying to convince yourself because the Question is with you. And it only got worse for you by the day since then. Let's be real. For once in your gods forsaken eternity, crackbear, be real.

Ultimate boundary. I am ending your delusions that have caused your relentless abuse of me. The gods never told you to stalk me for three years, or attack me, or "warn" people; the gods never told you to plot to backstab your provider for months. You did. In your disassociated delirium where you didn't want accountable for those decisions. You did. Now you can't even afford groceries much less your own therapy for being forced to look in the mirror at your bald self. Hermes isn't responsible for you being hungry and poor and bald, Hermes or whoever you want to blame for your choices didn't tell you to do that shit.

In fact Hermes was already slapping you for your behavior by letting a cryptoscammer which 100% falls under his domain take you for a ride with a scam even memaw could have detected, you lack his sense or wit and betrayed his brother. But you also don't like to accept that gods can tell you No or punish you for going against their teachings. You don't care about consent--man or god. Whichever face of the brother mortal or divine you want to fuck around with on the day, you do not fucking care or stop when they tell you no, stop, because this is all games to play on people to you.

Consent has always been optional to crackbear. And now she doesn't know what to do, because she has ceded her right to her own, or any karmic backlash, by her own choices and behaviors, and she's in a hole she can only get out of with a truth she is not strong enough to speak or face.

[umdbooklab]

Intro to UMD BookLab!

Hi! We're BookLab, the University of Maryland's English Department Makerspace. Plaintxt Press is our imprint (the entity that issues our prints [really we just like to put the logo on stuff]). BookLab was started by Professors Matthew Kirschenbaum and Kari Kraus in 2018, and Plaintxt Press was created in late 2023.

Here at BookLab, our primary medium is letterpress art. We also have materials for bookbinding, linocut, stamp making, collaging, and we're looking into screen printing. And we have a lot of random art supplies on the shelves. We also have a library of artists' books (super weird artistic books, like a book that is bound on every side) and books about books.

I made this tumblr bc I thought it would be funny.

Dramatis Personae / Cast List / People who work in BookLab

Matt (he/him): One out of two professors who started BookLab. He has a ton of awards or whatever. Nat says he has tenure for his tenure. He's a super weird guy but pretty cool. He's addicted to Twitter, so you can go see that @mkirschenbaum, it's so academic it breaks my brain.

Kari (she/her): The other professor who started Booklab. I don't know her that well but she seems cool.

A fun fact about Matt and Kari is that they are married. A second fun fact is that you will not hear this from either of them. It's normal to be cagey about being married in the workplace except that half of the English department here is married to the other half of the English department, so most people don't worry about it. Except these two.

Nat (she/her): PhD student with extreme goblinesque bisexual chaos energy. She is extremely accident-prone and yet competent at BookLab things. Also my bestie. She is studying digital humanities. The universe is currently in the process of entrusting her with a child (and we are extremely happy for her).

Diana (she/her): Goth PhD student getting her degree in English. Extremely literary in a dark academia kind of way. She acts kind of shy but is actually good at a lot of things and friendly. My other bestie.

Dylan (he/him): I don't know him super well but he's getting his PhD in something like queer literature. He's super gay and pretty cool.

Nat and Dylan have weird complicated beef that might be more Dylan's fault. I love to know the drama but I do not wish to actually get in the middle.

Rifka (they/them): Me. I like doing experimental letterpress and getting very messy. The fact that I run this Tumblr should tell you a lot about me.

RB (they/them): Occasional specter haunting Booklab (Matt is their mentor for this semester). Getting their PhD in comic book studies, porn studies, and digital humanities. They like BL. They are cool and transgender.

Aaron: Used to work in Booklab and they never took away his swipe access. He is very nice to hang out with. Knows all the drama and I am going to get him to tell me. He's really good at bookbinding.

Jasmine: Our intern (undergraduate). I haven't met her yet.

#booklab op #letterpress #book arts #makerspace

[justsomeoneintoomanyfandoms]

...

Should i make this long or short?

I request for a matchup for bsd(bubgo stary dogs.) and genshin, please.

Name: Rieh.

Pronouns: she/her

Sexuality: i.. Honestly don't know, straight? Lesbian? Bisexual-? Ig bisexual, but more on girls.

Zodiac+mbti: pisces and intj

Appearance:hair: medium brown withstreaks of blonde.

eyes: brown.

height: 4'11

Glasses, yes(they're pink btw)

I usually wear like some bunny headband..? Like the one that stretches but on the neck.. Like a choker..??? I also wear headphones went i go out.

Personality: mood swings, whole..some..?(sometimes), childish(sometimes), rude/blunt(mostly)

Likes+dislikes:likes: candy. Fun stuff. (WHAT DO I LIKEE) uhm.. Myself 😃.

Dislikes: dust, stickiness, dirt.

Hobbies: playing genshin with that one song on repeat(like all day-), playing prosekai, practising chess, playing badminton, doing embroidery while watching sxf(spy x family) and kcc(komi can't communicate), sleeping, like literally. Thinking of scenarios or dramas that i could write or make, listening to music, eavesdropping(shh).

Any extra infromation: (finally the part where i can freely say stuff-) im kinda a self-centered girl who loves (mostly) for drama and twists and the fun in life and is kinda careless who doesn't even know what her sexuality. I want people to think im cute so i can have privilage to like ask my classmate for candy or sum shi, thats why i wear a bunny choker-like thingy around my neck. I am.. Very clumsy, even just covering a marker, i can get myself injured and have my finger bleeding. I sometimes just carry my plush anywhere i go. I pretend im like talking to someone all the time in my head. Also when i say 'music' i dont mean like gmfu, or simon says and shi like that, like i lit meant songs like, tondemo wonderz, or theme of niccori, or maybe sweety glitch from prosekai, haha.. I also play those songs like on full volume to make sure everyone around me will be reminded that im the youngest in sophomore year and think I'm cute. I also sometimes think like im in the spotlight, like im in some kind of show, and is the protagonist of the story, is that weird? I sometimes get to impress people with 'magic' and when someone asks me something... I just answer 'magic'. Would knowing my favourite characters in other fandoms work..? My fav character in kny(demon slayer) is Mitsuri and Muichiro, in prosekai probably Emu and Kanade, and like in kcc, in my head, i act like like naruse(how was his name spelt? I dont remember.) my favourite character in kcc is probably najimi and kaede, in oshi no ko probably ruby. ALSO DONT GUESS THAT MY FAVOURITE COLOUR IS PINK WHEN ITS ACTUALLY CERULEAN BLUE-!

Did that 'extra information' help? Anyways thanks for listening, cant wait to see what matchup i got!!

(lit just asked this to you in like midnight.)

Hi Rieh! Thank you for your request! Sorry it took so long. I hope you like your matchups!

In Bungo Stray Dogs, I match you with...

You and Akiko are a powerful and, at times, scary couple. Between your mood swings and her…medical inclinations, a lot people are timid when approaching you.

That’s not to say you won’t make friends though. The rest of the Armed Detective Agency love you and think you balance out Akiko’s intense nature well.

I can see Akiko as someone who is surprisingly into wholesome anime like Spy x Family. She thinks it’s sweet and it’s a nice break from her usual day to day. She especially likes Yor though she’s not sure why…

Due to her medical training, she’s a very neat and tidy person so no need to worry about dust, dirt, or stickiness around home. She’s not fond of them either so the house will always be tidy and clean.

Definitely thinks your cute. She can handle a lot so your mood swings won’t affect her a whole lot. She’s got the training to know how to help your mood swings be a bit more manageable so if you want some tips and tricks, she’s more than happy to help.

In Genshin Impact, I match you with...

Oh, Lisa thinks you’re just the cutest! Sure, she calls everyone cute but she thinks you’re especially adorable.

Don’t think you’re going to be able to easily manipulate her though. She’s seen some things in her time and knows what she’s doing. She won’t be mad that you’re trying to manipulate her but she will suggest you redirect and manipulate people into returning their books on time.

Enjoys taking naps with you. Lisa is already a pretty laid-back person but with you around in the library, the chances of Jean finding her asleep among the books with you next to her definitely increases.

Dust is to a certain extent unavoidable in the library but Lisa’s more than willing to join you in tidying the place up a bit. She’s been meaning to for a while, this is just the push she needed.

Please embroider things for her. Her clothes, her hat, her lunch bag. Anything and everything you want to embroider, she won’t way no to. It’s a little reminder of you when she’s away for a while.

#writing #fanfic #request #matchup request #matchup #bungo stray dogs #yosano akiko #genshin impact #lisa

[thesundaycoffeeclub]

Worst Case Sundays And How To Save Them

Sometimes all you need is five million dollars.

Sundays are tricky: Sometimes you drift through the day starting with long steam showers and (boozy) brunches. Then, a coffee to go for a walk around the neighbourhood. After that, a quick phone call with your best friend. To close things out, you get the medium-rare Steak Frites with some comforting gratin dauphinois at the brasserie around the corner.

You end up in bed around 10 pm watching Friends. A peaceful Sunday.

And then, there are other Sundays: The ones that chose violence.

You wake up after a night of bad sleep thinking the last Dirty Martini was a bit toodirty. Also, there’s a highly suspicious amount of work emails in your inbox that seem to need your attention right away. You check Slack and see that some channels have been going off overnight. The WhatsApp notification badge shows a bold red anxiety-inducing seventy-nine (79).

This is going to be fun!

You make your way to the kitchen while your whole body starts to adjust. You feel like this is your very first day on earth and you haven’t entirely figured out how anything works really. Thank God, coffee is here to save the day, and as the caffeine kicks in you remember how to human again. 

Next up: a hot shower followed by a very swift skincare routine because nobody ever needed to look nice on a Sunday that is already a shitshow around 9 am.

Then, reality hits you.

Not-so-close friends start texting you - or worse: calling you - just to update you about stuff you don’t really care about. Slack hasn’t calmed down. The number next to the Unread tab of your inbox makes you want to quit immediately. Oh, and the not so politically-correct story you posted last night may have put off a few followers, at least that’s what you read into the amount of unread DMs. Sprinkle a few hyprocritical Tweets and hollow LinkedIn posts on top of all that and you’re one click away from booking a one-way ticket to Costa Rica, departing in two hours.

Oh, did I forget to mention the group chat you explicitly didn’t want any part of that has been trying to organize a bachelors/bachelorette party for the past three weeks?

Happy Sunday!

That is when you realize you’ve got to hit the breaks.

You quickly skim through your inbox, respond to the most important emails and Slack chats. You block some slots for update calls with the team on Monday, you reach out to your boss and team members to make sure everything is under control. 

You delete the not so woke story that did not land as good as you hoped. Next, you bring your friend to his/her senses after he/she has been overthinking about double-texting his/her very toxic date who clearly doesn’t give two (2) shits about him/her and didn’t even manage to send a quick Good Night text after last nights drinks.

It’s been a rouch Worst Sunday Scenario - and although you already know that some of the issues you’re dealing with today may be even more pressing tomorrow, you feel like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

At around 4 pm you’re confident how you managed todays clusterfuck. The largest fires have been put out. It’s time to save what’s left from your Sunday.

You decide to take a walk, hoping you’ll get at least 3,000 steps in (without having the slightest idea why people are counting their steps in the first place). You hit play on the latest episode of your favourite podcast, get a fresh juice, and make your way to the park.

On an empty bench facing the afternoon sun you close your eyes and begin to daydream about what it would be like if this would be, say, sunny Malibu instead of dusty Berlin … what it would be like if this would be a Limoncello Spritz on the porch of your million-dollar multi-acre sea-view mansion instead of an overpriced green juice in a plastic cup on a dirty bench in a poorly maintained park … what it would be like if this would be your very own garden, so wild and lush you’d need a minimum of three (3) gardeners to take care of it. 

Well, sometimes you can’t have it all, can you?

Despite the very unlikely case of becoming filthy rich and moving to Malibu, you should still take a look at this The New York Times series, called What You Get: It showcases real estate listings in the most sophisticated areas in the U.S.

Just in case. To be prepared.

These awfully expensive listings make for great visual inspiration and Sunday daydreaming. And we’re here for it. Now, go check out these $5 Million Homes in California.

Although you’re scrolling through the stunning homes on a shattered iPhone sitting on a dirty bench, sucking on a dissolving paper straw you lean back and think:

Life ain’t too bad after all.

[snidergrant34]

What is the Goal of this site?

About

In other places on the net

Outlook dot com email address is [my username]

Who are you?

I'm InvisibleUp, but you can call me Viz. I'm your local ghost internet. OOOoooOOoo~...

I'm not really into the spooky sort of stuff. I'd like to be a nice, caring person. Above all, I want to make people as happy as they can be. I'm not trying to be rude, or unpopular or demeaning. I hope you don't feel bad even if you're having a rough day. You can always sit back and read about Sonic, AOL, or whatever. A friend of mine once said to me that I was "a breath of fresh air" I'll consider that an invitation to let the spring breeze that blows through your sails.

IRL I'm not bald and I'm alive. I am actually a young woman with a curly reddish-reddish tresses. I'm currently pursuing electrical engineering at the college. I'm focusing on embedded device development, and I've worked on interesting things like space satellites , and overhauling a department's entire report generation system, among other things.

I'm a huge fan of retro tech (everything's so much more interesting with constraints) and indie games, riding my bike through nature trails, public transportation, and Sonic the Hedgehog. That said I'm always up for trying new things. Who knows? Perhaps I'll discover a new thing I like. That's always a lot of fun.

What is the purpose of this site?

It's mostly a place for people to post random thoughts. It is possible to break it down into broad categories.

The Articles section, the earliest one with regular content, is where I try and provide explanations and/or gush about topics that I am interested in or things I'm working on. It's not updated frequently because it's difficult to come up with fresh content.

The most recent sections include the Hacking Notes which include notes and tools for changing older video games as well as the Projects, which is a list of more substantial work I did that stand on their own a little and the Doodles are where I attempt to be creative and express myself.

Any favorite games/webcomics/whatever?

I'm not exactly video gamer. While I do occasionally play them I don't consider myself a gamer. I think that the whole medium is neat, what people can do with it as well as the emotions and experiences they can convey and how they use what they have to their advantage. Some games that I'm enjoying at the moment or in the past are Night in the Woods, deltarune, Tetris Attack, a majority of the Sonic series and Minecraft.

For movies my top picks are Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Forrest Gump, About Time, and Kiki's Delivery Service. I like my stories to feature lots of solid character interactions, more so than a flashy plot. 886.lv

My musical preferences are... unusual. My music tastes were influenced by SoundCloud YouTube, SoundCloud, and old videogames. My favorites are either earworms that have an excellent bassline (I love 80's Jpop and 00's alternative) or instrumental pieces that allow you to feel the music and not just listen to it. (stuff like Fleetwood Mac, Styx, Blue Album-era Beatles and Pink Floyd.)

What's the deal with the username?

Surprisingly, this is an unintentional short story. I was watching a Mario gaming marathon to raise money for charity (by the now defunct group ExtraLives led by MonotoneTim, who is a pretty cool guy) and I needed an username for the chat. I thought, "You know what's awesome?" The Boo mushroom from Super Mario Galaxy, which can make you appear invisible. So after a solid 15 seconds of thinking about it, I entered "InvisibleUp" and decided to stick with it. (In retrospect, I would have preferred a word that had fewer syllables.)

And the ghostsona?

I started out for years with a logo that looked vaguely like a ghost from Pac-Man. I really wanted a unique profile pic, so I made one. That being said, a few years later I decided that it kinda sucked. I felt a need to have an actual kind of human face to represent my posts instead of just some weird abstract logo thing. I wanted to have a more personal presence on the 'net than I had let myself have before. So, I came up with Inviz.

It's possible that she was inspired by Napstablook from Undertale and Vivian from Paper Mario TTYD. I could have drawn myself as a human, however I wanted to try my hand in creating a character. And I'm obligated to keep up the ghost theme, don't you think? I'm also a little too private about my privacy to reveal my face.

#Eighteightsix

[sergeantmicah]

Micah Lore pt 1:

I think he would get a long with everyone like soap cause why not. The 141 call my oc and Soap twins because of how similar they are

He is on loan from the Canadian military. Former sniper. Was pretty good at it but it is not his thing. Turned to medical and loves that instead. The 141 needed another pair of hands in the medical office so they came up with an agreement with Canada to loan Micah to the task force provided that Micah also is involved with missions

He is that meme of I’m a healer but and is also I can name every bone in your body while breaking them

He’s like 5’9 and medium build. But he can hold himself in a fight

Can’t win against bigger guys but knows the human weakpoints so he uses his medical knowledge in a fight

Can read French is shit at speaking it. I want his youth to be involved with swimming and kickboxing. His canines are really sharp and longer than normal. He jokingly gets called a vampire cause of them but he swears he doesn’t like the taste of blood. Loud laugh and isn’t afraid to show it

He is very protective of his friends. He kinda rivals Soap. If someone gets hurt on a mission he gets very angry and will literally handcuff his friends to the bed if they are injured enough cause he knows that they are really stubborn

Has had to killed his comrades in more than one occasion due to them betraying him and joining Hassan. So he is determined to make sure that never happens again

I feel like he was taken a tortured a couple of times so he has some deep gauges on his ribs and stomach. So he doesn’t like to go shirtless

He randomly wakes up with bruises and doesn’t know where they came from. Will murder anyone in the morning before he gets coffee

I want Micah to be shy meeting new people. Social anxiety™️

Fav drink is cocktails. The guys make fun of him but like in a friend way

"That’s a cute drink there Mikey" "Fuck off Soap"

Him and Köing are really good pals. Talking about being on loan from different countries and anxiety. Also they just get along

Köing putting Micah on his shoulders>>>

You see them running towards you like 11ft tall at night wdyd. It’s scared Ghost. GHOST

Gaz and him tpose at Price. Price is never amused

Gaz and Micah having matching friendship necklaces. Like from Clair’s

Def intimidated by Ghost at first but warms up to him. Don’t let Micah, Soap and Ghost in a room alone. They will make bad dad jokes until someone murders them

He is Price’s secret second fav. (His first is Gaz obviously)

Always has a mini med kit on him

Price knows about his trans status obv but no one else really does. He showers late at night when everyone is asleep and no one sees him with his shirt off

Micah sends Ghost memes and has to explain them to him

“They’re makin a bloody Barbie movie?” “YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT THE BARBIE MOVIE??”

“Don’t you know culture ghost?”

When they go out to a bar Micah always seems to get free drinks. The 141 don’t know why they get jealous

Some how one of them finds out that Micah is trans and he freaks out like yeah. But the other guys are chill they beat up people if they ever find out

A rookie makes like a trans joke and the 141 just death

Sleepy drunk Micah piggybacking on König >>>

He customized his boots to hide some gauze and some small knives in them. He’s got like a million tiny knives on him at all times because he doesn’t want to get captured again

Micah absolutely gets mad when he tastes the “syrup” the base has. He’s like this isn’t…the real shit… (brought the real stuff w him). Soap n Gaz steal it and Micah nearly kills them. He is fine with Gaz cause he asked politely but Soap rip it was nice knowing you

That’s all for now!

#Micah Atkinson #oc #cod modern warfare #cod #my posts #cod oc