#obviously this is a major issue with clothes sizes and fits in general

[h8thepatriarchy23]

UNIT 5: CONFORMITY

Conformity is the idea that one aligns with socially acceptable norms to assimilate into their environment. The factors influencing conformity include the group size. It was found that fewer than four people engaging in a certain behaviour has no effect on whether the behaviour will be further copied. Also, as soon as one person deviates from the collective behaviour, conformity is greatly lessened. Finally, there are different cultural situations that would make it socially possible or impossible to conform. This concept was spearheaded by researcher Solomon Asch. In every social situation, there is an option to conform and one not to. People consistently and generally choose to conform. That is because conformity has been shoved down our throats in an indirect way our whole lives, whether it be through our parents, in the media, from teachers and role models, etc. What I think is the most interesting is that we are forced to conform in a “different” and “diverse” way, meaning that we are told that people’s specific differences should be celebrated. We are given different ways to express ourselves and choices to follow various paths in life. However, all of these options fit into a small, restrictive box that is deemed acceptable in our society. No one wants to believe that they are conformists, but they continue to dress, talk, act, and even think a certain way to be desirable.

I would say that conformity is one of the biggest influences on one’s personal identity, if not the biggest. When one conforms, they erase the parts of themselves that do not fit the mould of society. This inhibits individuality and authentic self-expression. Moreover, conformity is harmful because every instrumental discovery in human development was made by outside-of-the-box thinkers. It is astounding how many times new ideas were rejected because they did not align with social norms. These range from human rights issues to scientific innovations. 

Especially in the age of social media, conformity is much easier to achieve on a wider scale. Because there is only one perspective in individually-consumed media, people view the associated behaviours as a necessity to be liked socially. Moreover, people who disagree with the majority opinion do not usually cause a decrease in conformity— they are instead “cancelled” and hated by the rest. Social media algorithms additionally show the consumer a single narrative that caters to their point of view, so it seems that this small stream of information is, in fact, a global consensus. During the pandemic, there was an insane rise in conformity in my opinion because many people were spending their time on social media, which constantly gave users one specific type of person to aspire to be. For example, last year I saw one very popular clothing style all over social media and I immediately convinced myself that I liked it, and adopted it. As I was in quarantine and had few other sources of information, I believed that this was the only good way to dress. 

Now that quarantine is over, we are collectively conforming less with a single, specific ideal, but we are still playing into the general idea of the “acceptable person,” and more so than before. I watched an interview where the interviewer picked a random sample of people and asked them if they would be okay with someone saying they were a different gender, then different race, then height, then age, and it continued. The people answering repeatedly said that the person can choose who they want to be and how they identify. The interviewees were then asked if a grown man who identifies as a seven-year-old should be allowed into a first-grade classroom with the students— the responses were uncomfortable and uncertain. The interview reminded me of the conversation we had in class once about transgender and transracial people. As determined during this conversation, I obviously do not have the answers to how people should change themselves to be true to who they are. However, I do not think that an adult man should be allowed into a first-grade class as a student. 

I think that society has pushed for acceptance and individual expression so much that we no longer know where to draw the line. People are too scared to even say that a grown man cannot be seven years old because they feel the need to conform to the standard of acceptance that our society has imposed, especially in my generation– people are afraid to be labelled as discriminatory. As I write this, I’m worried I am being too controversial by saying the man cannot be seven years old, even though that is what I believe. The societal obligation to conform is threaded into many people’s thoughts and beliefs. However, abolishing conformity is an impossible situation because if no one conformed to society’s standards, then society would effectively have different standards and everyone would still be conforming. There will always be a “norm.” Incidentally, I do not believe that conformity is a bad thing— it is impossible not to have it. Instead, I think that the standards to which people conform should be changed. Differences of opinion should be heard and debated so that perspectives are not washed away and no one has complete power over what people are allowed to think. Having more than one narrative allows individuals to think for themselves and to learn about certain topics more holistically, which I prefer.

[andatsea]

XP-Pen Artist Pro 24 Review

I drew this with an XP-Pen Artist Pro 24, which the team at XP-Pen kindly sent to me for review. I’ve had to opportunity to use this tablet on-and-off over the course of the past several weeks, and while there were a few issues my overall impression is positive.

Unboxing / Contents

Apart from the 24” display tablet itself, the package comes with the usual cabling peripherals, plus some bonus extras. If your machine supports a USB-C connection for display, you’ll only need the one cable (plus the power connection). Otherwise, there’s a HDMI and a USB-C to USB converter included as well.

The extras include: an additional stylus, a one-size-fits-all artist’s glove, and a microfiber cloth.

The container for the stylus twists open to reveal 8 extra stylus nibs. Its cap can also be removed to use as a stylus holder.

Driver (Installation & General Use)

There were a few issues with installation, mostly tied to interactions between the driver, Windows 10 and Windows Ink.

Initially, brush strokes were offset from the stylus’ point of contact with the screen by about 3-4 centimetres when attempting to draw in Photoshop CS6. Random straight strokes also occurred frequently. This same problem did not occur in MS Paint or Photoshop CC 2019. This was fixed by changing the UI scaling setting for the monitor in Windows settings from 125% (which was apparently the default) to 100%.

Initially, brush strokes had no pen pressure in Photoshop CC 2019. Photoshop CS6, on the other hand, did (but suffered from the previous offset problem). This was fixed by turning on the Windows Ink setting in the XP-Pen driver menu. So in other words: CC 2019 needs Windows Ink on to recognise pen pressure, while CS6 didn’t, but was affected by UI scaling.

Interestingly, if Windows Task Manager was in focus and Windows Ink was not enabled in driver settings, stylus input was not recognised at all. There may be other programs that have this issue, but this was the only one I encountered so far.

I will say that I’ve had many problems with Wacom drivers interacting badly with Windows Ink and other things in the past before, so these types of issues are not exclusive to the XP-Pen drivers.

I’m currently using driver version 3.0.5, a beta build that has a lovely UI; it’s clear and laid out well. I did also try version 1.6.4 initially, which was fine — the UI for that version was similar to the layout you find with Wacom drivers.

Apart from the issues during installation that required troubleshooting, I haven’t had many major complaints with the driver in day-to-day use, I do think that there are a few areas for improvement, however.

The driver stops working correctly each time the computer is set to sleep and woken up again. To fix this the driver must be exited from the system tray and then relaunched.

There also doesn’t seem to be a way to bind WIN+SHIFT+ARROW to any of the express keys. WIN+SHIFT+ARROW (left or right arrow) is the Windows shortcut to quickly move a focused window to another monitor, so it’s something I use a lot if I’m on a multi-monitor setup. Unfortunately, attempting to set this shortcut in the express keys menu will simply move the actual driver window over to the other monitor while the custom input is not properly recognised in the text field.

The driver does offer a “switch monitor” option for the express keys that when clicked will transfer your stylus input to another monitor, which is extremely useful.

Screen

At 24” with a 2560x1440p QHD resolution, images are sharp and crisp even when viewed from a close range while drawing. Genuinely, it feels great to paint on based off this aspect alone.

The colour temperature is set to 6500K by default in the the driver settings. I think initially it felt just a touch too saturated, but overall I’m fairly happy with the colour display.

The monitor has touch-sensitive inputs on the top right corner: a -/+ for quickly adjusting the brightness, a menu for further settings, and power. I found myself using these to adjust the brightness throughout the day frequently. The power input requires a few seconds of continued contact from your finger to react, which prevents you from accidentally brushing it and turning the monitor on/off.

The monitor comes with a built-in stand. I found it easy to adjust to different viewing angles and also incredibly sturdy. I had no problems leaning on the monitor while drawing.

The monitor also comes with a pre-applied anti-glare screen protector. I wasn’t bothered by it and it seems to be holding out well after several weeks of use. I think the screen itself definitely needs the additional anti-glare, as being a display tablet means that it’s significantly more reflective than my main display.

Stylus

My first impression of the stylus was that it’s lighter in comparison to the Wacom styluses that I’m used to — there is very little to no weighting on the back end of the stylus, which makes it feel noticeably different when gripped. To be honest, though, I forgot about it when I was actually painting. Still, I would prefer a bit more weighting because I do think it makes the stylus more comfortable to hold overall for long periods of time.

There’s also no eraser nib, but I’ve personally never used those on Wacom tablets (I always use shortcuts to switch between brush and eraser instead) so this was a non-issue for me.

The two shortcut buttons on the side of the stylus sit quite flat to the surface, so I think they would be less likely to bother people who don’t use them. I use them a lot, however, and found that they were still easy to click despite being quite flat.

Unfortunately however I ran into a curious issue with using one of the stylus buttons to activate the eyedropper tool. When the “alt” key is mapped to one of the triggers on the stylus, activation of the eyedropper function in Photoshop (tested in both CS6 and CC 2019) is somewhat unreliable. That is, when the “alt” key is held down, the expected result is that once you tap the stylus on the canvas, a “mouse-click” will be triggered and the eyedropper will activate. While this works perfectly fine if you hold down “alt” from the keyboard (or hold down an “alt” that’s bound to one of the 20 express keys), when you hold “alt” from a stylus trigger I found that tapping quickly with the stylus only seemed to activate the eyedropper about 50% of the time. In order to activate it more reliably, I had to press harder and longer with the stylus, which can become tiring and slowed down my painting process. I also found that frequently, pressing down longer would lock me into the eyedropping function until I clicked the trigger key again.

After submitting feedback about this XP-Pen’s R&D department, I was informed that this issue occurs because the stylus is only able to send one message to the tablet at a time. Pressing “alt” on the stylus and trying to “click” at the same time counts as two messages, which may interact with each other unexpectedly. This is why it sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t.

The buttons seem to otherwise work completely fine for any other functions that don’t require the stylus to send two simultaneous messages, so unless you’re like me and like to bind “alt” to a stylus trigger, this won’t affect you.

Pen Pressure & Activation Force

Most current-gen tablets flash a big number for the pen pressure levels as a selling point. Having used tablets with 512, 2k, 4k and 8k levels of pressure sensitivity, I’d say I noticed the biggest difference when switching from 512 to 2k, but in my opinion beyond 2k the change is minimal and has no real impact on the way I draw. The XP-Pen Artist Pro 24 comes with 8192 levels of sensitivty, which is a very big number, but in practical application all I can say is that it works the way I expect it to and I don’t have any complaints regarding the transition between pressure levels on the default linear pressure curve.

More importantly I did notice that the IAF (initial activation force) was not as low as I would have liked. Very light input is not recognised, or only partially recognised before dropping off and on again. In a practical sense this doesn’t actually impact me through most of (perhaps 97%) of the painting process, but it did give me pause once in a while when I wanted to make a really light stroke and had to adjust my method. The drivers for this tablet do come with a pressure curve you can adjust to your preferences, so this can help a little, although after some tests I preferred to leave mine on the default setting.

Summary of Drawing Experience (tl;dr)

I think the mark of a good tool or piece of hardware is that it does not draw attention to itself during the course of its use. An ideal drawing experience allows me to be fully immersed in the act of drawing without having my focus shifted to dealing with the tool. With this in mind the XP-Pen Artist Pro performed very well for the most part, but was held back by a couple of issues.

Pros:

The monitor resolution honestly feels great to look at; the pixel density means that I can basically forget about pixels even with my face positioned closer to the screen.

The parallax between the tip of the stylus and the actual position of input was very minimal and basically not noticeable for me, especially after the simple calibration process offered by the driver.

At normal room temperature (say up to about mid-20’s celsius) the monitor screen stays impressively cool to the touch and I was never bothered by resting my drawing hand on its surface even when painting for long sessions.

The 20 express keys and 2 roller rings are extremely helpful and I actually found myself using all of them, despite initially thinking that I’d only need half of them. The keys are also comfortable and responsive to click (which sounds like it should obviously be so, but having used some Intuos iterations in the past which had some very annoying-to-click express keys, I don’t take this feature for granted anymore).

Cons:

The driver needs to be restarted everytime the computer wakes from sleep in order to work.

Higher IAF was noticeable when very light strokes were desirable. Also, the input will on rare occasions glitch by performing a completely straight max opacity + max brush size stroke. This seemed to happen primarily when I was trying to get light strokes to register. (It didn’t happen often enough to bother me much since it’s just a quick undo, but it did happen enough times that I noticed it.)

The issue with eyedropping using “alt” mapped to a stylus trigger as detailed above. Quite unlucky for someone like me who has over a decade of muscle memory for this particular mapping.

Overall, as I said at the beginning, my impression of the tablet is positive. While I think it has room for improvement when it comes to driver performance and the initial activation force especially, it also has a lot to offer at a highly competitive price point ($900USD at retail), and it would’ve been amazing if something like this had been available to me back when I first started digital painting. As I do enjoy using it for the most part I’ll probably continue to use it on-and-off in future.

#xp-pen #review

[jgnico]

Okay, I'm going to elaborate on my earlier post and to do so I'm breaking this down into two very important sections:

1. The JJK fandom's feminization and fetishization of Gojo as a character and in his relationships, and

2. The general issues with racism when portraying queer poc characters in relationships that happens in fandom culture.

PS: I'm not touching the topic of why male ships shouldn't be characterized in terms of sex or why saying one character is a bottom vs another is a bad thing. If you want breakdowns about that, I guarantee that there are resources and posts that you can find through google. It's a well-known debate and I'm only here to talk about the issues that come up with Gojo's portrayal in fandom.

Staring off, I'm gonna to remind everyone that Gojo is neither skinny nor pale. He's an Asian man that's not only well into the 6'3 range, but he's also extremely fit. He is not skinny. He is not a twink. He has never been portrayed within the manga as such. In fact, if you want a clear picture of his physique, Gege has given that to us in the most blatant way he ever could.

Gojo's a big dude. He has a broad chest, straight shoulders, and big hands. There is absolutely nothing slim about him.

Even if you wanna go strictly off the anime, he's still larger than pretty much every other character in the show. I think the only character that possibly has him beat size-wise is Todo, but they're still the same height (give or take a cm) with Todo having a more obviously muscular build.

But let's look at some official art for the anime as well.

If seeing him beside Geto and Kuroi doesn't make this obvious, I want you to look at Gojo in comparison to literally everyone else in this picture. (We're not counting Panda, because Panda's literally a bear.)

The only reason that Gojo looks "skinny" is because he dresses in clothes that fit his body type without clinging to him. They sit comfortably on his frame and give off a more lithe impression of his build. (Which I would hope that they do because his shirts cost more than my car and that's how any properly fitted/tailored outfit should look.)

When he's not in uniform or more formal attire, he tends to wear hoodies/jackets over loosely fitted shirts and pants, which gives him the same effect while using a different method.

So he's not a twink. It's just the clothes.

Now, I don't think that I should have to point out why he's not white just because he has blue eyes and pale hair. I don’t care if you can’t picture him as Asian, because that just means that you have your own issues to work through with someone more qualified than me. 

He's Japanese, end of discussion. 

That being said, the problem that we run into with Gojo despite all of this is that fandom thinks of and portrays in him the same way that they would any white twink character. He's described effeminately when nothing about his personality or physique are "feminine" in nature. A lot of his canon qualities and traits get left out or out-right contradicted (such as describing him as "slim/boyish" or “timid/coy" when he's none of those things) in an effort of making him fit the image that's been assigned to him, regardless of if it's true to canon.

And you see this very clearly when you look at the role he's given in fanfiction vs Geto, who has more obvious Asian features and a darker skin tone.

This is without any additional filters (as in no specific ships, ratings or languages, etc. No filters!) and while, yes, you can make the argument that Geto hasn't really been in the anime yet, it's a trend that continues and is a point I'll touch on later in this post. So bear with me. 

Note: I’ll also go out on a limb and say that the majority of the bottom Gojo fics are written from his POV vs the POV of the person that he’s with.

The reason that this is a trend is because Gojo looks like a "white" character. He has a lighter complexion, pale hair and blue eyes, which makes it easier for mostly white, female author's to put themselves in his place when they write him. And this is something that's been an issue in anime fandoms for a long long time. But broadening out into fandom culture as a whole, it's also how we get situations where white ships with white characters gain way more popularity than poc ships with one or more poc characters.

Fanfiction and fandom as a whole is dominated by white female content creators. They make up the majority of authors and artists, and always have. But this issue becomes even worse when you bring in poc characters, because you run into the problem where the character with more ethnic features (darker skin, darker eyes, etc) becomes the "male" stand in of their ships, regardless of personality or body type or age.

The top or bottom role that's assigned to characters often has absolutely nothing to do with those characters themselves. Its a form of self-insertion without being obvious and if you were to ask most writers/artists why they've given the characters the roles they have, they often won't have a solid answer other than a general feeling or their own preferences.

In contrast, a lot of poc content creators will fall to the other end of the spectrum and advocate for poc or more clearly ethnic characters to be portrayed in the same way as their white or white-passing counterparts. But they'll ultimately get shut down by white creators for "fetishizing" minorities. I've seen this happen so many times in the 10+ years that I've been in fandom and I know other poc creators have run into this issue as well, but if you point this trend out to white people in the fandom, they either won't agree with you or they'll be shocked that its a problem because its never occurred to them.

Which leads me to Gojo's ships.

While, I can't speak for Nanago (and won't speak for Gofushi/Goyuu; I'm not touching those ships with a ten foot pole) I'm going to take a wild guess that most explicit fics boil down to Nanami being Gojo's dom and any non-smut fics still mostly keep him in this role in a less obvious way.

So we still run into the self-insert through canon characters issue, but it's probably not because one is more obviously Asian that the other like we see with Satosugu.

I want to reiterate that this is with no additional tags other than the one for their ship. I haven't filtered out anything else. 

Even if you take away the "bottom" tags, the majority of their fics place Gojo in that role anyways. Despite Geto having more traditionally "feminine" traits that in a fully white ship would typically lead to most people making him a bottom (such as a more empathetic personality, tendency to crave familial bonds, and a more reserved demeanor on top of being smaller in stature to Gojo) he tends to get slotted in as the top in the relationship, oftentimes at a cost of those very qualities.

Note: Again, with most fics being from Gojo’s POV, just like what I’m guessing we see with Nanago.

I cannot begin to stress how many time I've seen Gojo and Geto described through actions and speech that don't fit their characters at all and while, yes, I completely agree that having certain qualities doesn't mean that you should fit into a certain role when it comes to sex, there is an issue that comes up when the default work around to that is "pick the pale character." Especially when you add in a heap of mischaracterization and physical descriptions that don't fit that character.

I guess to reiterate my original point, stop portraying Gojo as a twink, or worse, a thinly veiled self-insert that came with a backstory.

I genuinely don't care if you prefer him as a top or bottom. Do whatever you want with that because I can't dictate your preferences. I just ask that if you find yourself always putting him in a certain role or enjoy consuming media that does, try to do so in a way that fits him and is faithful to his character.

#this is incredibly messy #but i've ranted about it enough to my friend that I think it was time to make a post #gojo isnt you free space for a self insert #he's a fully realized character #and changing aspects about him to fit the image of him in your head #to make him more palatable is a garbage thing to do #get well soon #jujutsu kaisen #gojo satoru #thoughts

[ihatebnha]

With the beauty stuff going on here- think Bakugo and Shoto (maybe Shinso?) would comfort their s/o in regards to not entering certain clothing stores? I can't go into a lot of them because all/the majority of their clothes are for skinny/petite women and I can't fit into it. Plus, with all the good looking girls who work in those stores I can't help but compare myself and see the trash I am. Sometimes I get physically sick if I walk into the stores because its so overwhelming. Sigh. Wish those boys would be a comfort, but they'd probably just be awkward or break up wif me. Especially explody boy.

Legend... the only thing that’s trash here is your garbage attitude! I wanna let you know that I’m on the tubbier side, too... so when you say you’re trash, you’re calling me trash, too... and I honestly don’t like that nor do I agree... (and trust me, I hate fitting rooms too... why do you think i only wear pajamas all the time?)

because the truth is...YOU’RE NOT! You just live in a world that favors conventionally attractive and skinny people over everyone else. Obviously it isn’t bad to be either of those things, but we all have a duty to work hard at rewiring our brains to reevaluate society’s sense of beauty (esp since its very eurocentric, too). 

it’s also funny you sent me this because I honestly believe that all the boys in bnha like chubby girls (but ofc they don’t discriminate)! im very genuine when i say that EVERYONE is their ideal type, and i could honestly talk for hours about how they’re too busy being heroes to give a crap about petty things such as looks and weight. 

the truth is, “real men” (and real partners, for that matter) don’t care if you’re heavy, have beauty marks, anything, so therefore... the bnha boys dont mind those things, either. 

plus lmfao... todo, bakugo, and shinso are all actually in my top list of chubby chasers soooo (although im biased and think every character is on that list tbh)... 

none of them would break up with you for your insecurities! They of all people understand what it’s like to be ashamed of things (as Bakugo faces feelings of inferiority, Shinso has his quirk, and Todo’s family is bananas), so they would only want to comfort you if you ever expressed your concerns. 

Not to mention, they all seem like the type to be in a relationship for the long haul... So if they’re already dating you, it means they’re in it FOR LIFE🤞🏻

Which is why, none of what you do could ever bother them... and as for comforting... 

I don’t think either Bakugo, Todo, or Shinso are really going to notice if you don’t want to or can’t go into certain clothing stores. They’re heroes (and boys for that matter💀) with a lot on their mind, so if you mention you don’t like shopping somewhere, they’re just going to assume that you either don’t feel like it or it’s not your style. 

Their heads don’t really connect your insecurities with your shopping preferences, simply because they assume you already know what you like to wear and where you like to shop.

In Shinso’s case, while I can see him picking up on some of your subtleties, such as avoiding certain stores and/or sections, he’s probably not really going to think it’s a serious issue or bring up the topic unless you initiate the conversation yourself, mostly because he (doesn’t want to be at the mall) assumes you already know that he likes your body and really doesn’t care what you wear. 

That being said, when you are in fitting rooms together, he gets pretty handsy even before you start getting frustrated by things. Definitely distracts you from doing anything by whistling at you or grabbing at your thighs and pulling you between his legs from where he sits on the tiny stool they’ve provided... Also probably puts in some effort beforehand too, helping you pick out things that he likes and are more likely to fit in the first place.  

Bakugo is pretty similar to this, as well. With his parents working in the design industry, he definitely has a good eye for sizing and can help you pick out the most accurate things for your body type. He’s actually really useful because you can hold up anything, and he’ll generally have a pretty good idea on whether the style will suit you or not, and if it’s in the right size. This makes trying things on a bit more bearable, as you honestly end up fitting everything you bring into the changing room. 

He’s also good to shop with because he’s probably not gonna let you go to any shitty clothing stores either... So wherever you end up going is probably gonna have better stuff that’s in every size, anyway (it’s literally like 2200 and people have quirks... you can’t tell me stores would have things for literally every shape). The nice thing about this too is that everything you end up getting is super comfortable for that exact reason. 

Definitely can stay pretty serious in the dressing rooms... but you have to be careful because the moment you guys get home he’s gonna be horn-nee. 

Todoroki, on the other side of all of this, is literally motherfucking useless. It’s not that he doesn’t want to be comforting, it’s just he really just doesn’t put the puzzle pieces of your insecurity together AND thinks you look good in everything, regardless... so even if you tried to explain why you hate shopping, he’s just like “but everyone has things they don’t fit?” 

HOWEVER..... the redeeming quality about him is.... HE IS RICH!!! And probably grew up with a tailor, and/or at least a family stylist, so once you’re in with him, he just adds you onto the bill for that, too. Say goodbye shopping, hello to having clothing that fits you shipped right to your door... (and Todo just loves staring at you while you get measured for outfits). 

SO.... sorry for my earlier harshness... it’s just because I love and care about you sooooo much!! as well as understand what it’s like to feel like a freak in forever 21... 

ANYWAY... here’s just some little things I wanted to include, too! 

-

I used to think that Bakugo wouldn’t have a preference for thick girls, but then I saw this tik tok that was like, “my attractive friends always ask me where all the hot and fit boys are.... in these guts bitch” and my perspective changed entirely... I just know a beefy boy like him who has a mean mommy LOVES curves... like you can’t tell me he doesn’t see your belly and absolutely melts... like that shit is straight FAXXXXXXXXXXX no printer... (i also saw a tik tok today that was like, “would you fuck me if i was skinny? and the person said “i would fuck you right now.” and tbh that’s big baku energy LOL) 

Todoroki also definitely gives me vibes where if you’re like, “but i look ugly in ____,” he’s just like, “doesn’t matter, it’s you.” AND YES TBH i cried

AND shinso... god tbh shinso is the guy that all your friends are jealous of bc he’s the one who’s like, “I like my women with meat on them” because he doesn’t believe in skinny culture or diets... he wants you chubby bc chubby just kinda looks more correct.... tbh king shit

#bakugo x reader #shinso x reader #shinsou x reader #todoroki x reader #todoroki #bakugo #shinso #shinso thoughts #bakugo thoughts #todoroki thoughts #sorry this took so long its hard to type with my nails #ask #anon #Anonymous #i went off sorry yall #and dont worry to my skinny queens bc they love u too

[wroteclassicaly]

Dibs

A/N: Heeeeeeeey, loves! I’m back and pretty proud of this one! It’s a two part story, this obviously being the first part. Smut will be in the next one. I’ve wanted to write this idea since I came up with it the night of the season premiere. 

Reader is plus size in this one. She is also Chef Bertie’s daughter. There’s some major self-esteem issues and some self-bashing in this one, so be warned. I hope ya’ll enjoy! Lemme know what you think? :) 

P.S. I’ve changed a few things around to fit the reader in. Dialogue, mostly. It’s not that much of a change though, so don’t worry. 

Also, I can’t seem to get my taglist to work right, so I don’t tag anyone. I’m sorry. :(

Pairing: Xavier Plympton x Female reader

Word count: 2,691

Warnings: Explicit language, references to smut and virginity, self-esteem issues, poor body image issues

Looking forward to something during the summer months wasn't usually your forte, but this season seemed to be taking drastic approaching turns already. You'd been coerced into coming help your mom work the kitchen of Camp Redwood. Massacres and legends galore, bugs and snakes touring your housing. Sounded so fun to you. Your mom didn't want to leave you at your home alone, so you hesitantly agreed to get away from the dangers in Los Angeles and help out at the camp with her.

The drive up you imagined all sorts of various and vile scenarios. Woods and stories caught your imagination and refused to leave without a searing tongue lashed haunting. Your mom had assured you things would be okay this time around, that she wouldn't let anything happen to you, but it still felt so unsettling to be surrounded by nothing but dirt and trees and a large body of midnight fresh water. For your mom, however, you opted for the positive side of things, and sucked it up. You met with the eccentric and eerie Margaret, hovering closely to any exits you could think about, then escaped to the cabin you would be sharing with your mother to put your things away.

Margaret had informed you and your mom that a group of counselor volunteers would be arriving in the afternoon, leaving your stomach to tumble into the anxiety founded pits it always was. You hated much social interaction, even living in one of the world's largest cities. You avoided leisure activities and parties that were too high octane. You cared only about the peace and quiet, a few close friends, your books, and your music. You were grateful you had been permitted to bring along some albums and your record player, because without it, you could not function.

Setting out your music, you had tasked yourself out to sweep and mop the dining hall and kitchen. Covered in sweat and grime, hair pulled back into a messy mopped bun, the entire area became brand new once more. So much so that you had to stand and admire, the enriching draped melodies from Stevie Wonder casting a serene, echoing production to highlight your hard work. You hadn't noticed until Margaret jabbed a nail into your tank top clad shoulder, causing you to nearly deck her in the face with your broom handle. She raised a manicured brow, annoyance perched on her poker faced features, asking you to come meet the newest additions to the staff, as they would be arriving soon and you still had to bring food into the kitchen pantry.

Reluctantly, you followed your camp leader out into your new life for the next few months.

~*~

Present day: The First Night

Your insides feel as if they have all been twisted together like licorice, coolness spreading through your veins, erecting goosebumps all across your flesh. You self-consciously grip your noticeable stomach, already prepared for an array of flashy and skimpy clothed girls to accompany muscular, tight fitted guys. You don't fit in. Not being more than overweight, but what doctors seemed to call obese, with a swell to your face and the rest of you in places all around your thick form. In this day and age, not many girls your size are praised or celebrated in music and on television.

Sure, there were a few, but the movies you have seen are the overweight girl being an extra, a classmate, the bestfriend, the loner, the reject, or the propping joke. Fat is funny in LA, you aren't stupid. And no matter how far you run from it, you'd have to face scrutiny, even here. Your thinking is pregnant with triplets on this one, as you don't even bat a blink walking out with the Carrie White's mother - Margaret White -esque Camp owner, to meet everyone. Worn sneakers and boots from different brand names dusted in California soil is what you see before meeting the eyes of a very petite brunette.

That's the first counselor that smacks your self-esteem straight into the pits of hell. And the blonde girl near her in the colorful and tight outfit? Yeah, you want to find a hole and dig it twelve feet under. Six feet for your humiliation, adding on an additional six for your fat ass body. You want to run, but, yeah, right.

If you don't speak then you will look stupid, more so than you do now, covered in perspiration and dirt smudges. Margaret makes an introduction that collides right into you stepping behind your mom, getting an eyeful of the two handsome guys with the girls, reaching for a crate of eggs, attempting to look busy as to bay the awkward pause. Everyone says a few brisk words of greeting, those male counselors snickering. Why did you come here? The risks back home are far more tempting right about now.

Your nose catches the scent first, the sound of the person's shoes hitting ground second. Clad in this overly musky scent that seems to glide itself across the air, a rapturous, creamy silk-like voice hits the atmosphere and flips you head over ass.

"Dibs."

Your mom is snapping back with her wit, shoving her crate into his hands and moving away from his speechless face to leave you visible. Standing still, your box seemingly heavy, body light, you can't but help yourself to a heaping serving of observation. His pants are tan, or white, belt tightly securing those defined hips, his sneakers stretched over long feet (don't they say long feet mean... okay then, holy fuck), and sea-foam green muscle tank that leaves nothing to the imagination, except how much leverage you'd have to straddle his chest...

"And this is Y/N. She's joining us with her mother, whom is Chef Bertie. She won't be bunking with the ladies, however. But I still expect of all you to get along and make her feel apart of things, as she will also be partaking in counselor duties for the summer." Margaret's voice interjects, right smack into your looking into this guy's angelically crafted face.

You can't see what color his eyes are over his designer frames, just blue hued glimpses reflected off California sunshine. His plump lips are wet with amusement and surprise at your reveal, jaw sharp and alert, so arching and shaped it can cut through glass. There's a small cross dangling from his left ear, his hair is frosted at the top. He looks like some guitarist that has actual angel wings. His arms are steady, hands big.

You can swear there's a saxophone player somewhere playing a soundtrack for this very moment. You kind of, no, record SCRATCH that, you definitely need to find a seat somewhere and pour a glass of ice water over your head. For a fleeting moment you think you might need to attempt Olympic running towards the infirmary, cause this is some sort of General Hospital soap opera scene. You can't stop yourself from how you do react though. Biting your upper lip, eyes dashing mad all across his body, you're engulfed in more than the summer California heat.

You see the metal of his silver cross earring catch the light, and you know that even God himself can't help you now. Looking at this man in the blue shirt, you feel as if you've committed a lifetime of the most blood deep sins. You feel the need to ask Margaret to save you in the lake, some prayer needing to happen before you feel anymore guilt for objectifying this stranger. What feels like never-ending hours is merely a minute at most, making you look even more awkward and ignorant. Margaret does save you this time, introducing each counselor, the sensual blue eyed boy called Xavier Plympton, to your amusement, then with a seemingly arrogant grin on her peach painted lips, demands you take Xavier and the other two attractive male counselors - Ray and Chet, to finish carrying the crates of fruit and eggs to the kitchen pantry.

A dying 'hi' towards the friendly faces of the group is all you muster, rolling a shoulder back to the truck for the boys to take the hint. Xavier already has his share from what your mom gave him, so it's quick work for the other two. You don't talk, don't look at any of them on the way into the large dining area and back into the kitchen where your mom is hard at work. All the guys pile beside you, so you figure that now is the time to find your damn voice box and activate its fucking switch.

"You can just leave the stuff here, guys. Some of the other staff is in charge of stocking it anyways. They're real particular on everything, you know? We appreciate your help!" You ramble on, eyes widening when you spot Xavier - shades now clipped to his collar - smirking at you, pearly whites gleaming tauntingly.

Everyone, yourself included, all discard your food onto the chipped wooden counter. You fold your hands into fists on its hard surface, knuckles pressing together, lips pinched tight, feeling this tickle attack you from the tips of your toes and back, leaving you absolutely parched and winded both.

"So you're the Chef's daughter, huh?" Ray is the first to speak to you.

You turn to his direction to see him leaning a few feet beside you, propped against the end of the countertop by his elbow. His smile is genuine, calm, excited even.

He must really have wanted to be here this summer.

"Yeah." Is your proud response. Your mom is a hard worker with a zero tolerance policy for bullshit or dumbasses, so you're very proud to call yourself her child.

"Kind of a given you'd be here with her, right? That's cool. Most kids wouldn't volunteer their time to help their Mama at some sweaty ass camp in the middle of nowhere. You even gettin' anything in return from this?" Ray questions again.

Your body warms a little, not used to this duration of a conversation, let alone by someone this cute, this cool, who seems nice enough. You find yourself softening towards his presence, friendly and open in your answers.

"She'll share whatever she makes with me, so it's a win win. I have to clean the camp, so I'll also pull in my own money, then we put it all together. Living in LA is fucking expensive."

"Wait-" Chet cuts in. "You still live with your mom? Aren't you in your twenties or some shit? Don't you have any plans back home?"

Yup, there it is.

You were expecting some sort of snide commentary from at least someone in this group. You're unsure how to answer. It's not that your lifestyle is something you're ashamed of, it's just that you're beyond sick and tired at the ridicule it brings. Your mood is deflated, head bowing a little at Chet's laughter. Maybe it's not malicious, but to you, it isn't funny either.

"At least she didn't blow a chunk of cash on condoms and cheap ass cologne to impress Brooke. No one likes a cocky counselor, Chet." Sounds to your left.

Ray snorts into his hand, easing back at Xavier's biting remark. Your jaw becomes unhinged with a loud giggle that makes Xavier lick his tongue across the top edge of his teeth. He's super focused on you, sharing this knowing that eases and unsettles you all at once. Ray and Chet begin a bicker at Chet's expense, Xavier continuing to watch you in a similar fashion as you were observing him earlier. The floor feels like lava under your feet, your legs jello.

"Better get back outside, kids. Boss lady will be getting impatient." Your mom's helper speaks to you from the kitchen.

You give him a nod, trance broken. Moving one foot in front of the other is hard, but you get it right, breezing past Xavier and the rest, right back into the summer heat wave.

~*~

After the conversation your mom directed over her history with this Camp and her current decision to return, Margaret invited you to tour the grounds again with everyone else after formal introductions were completed. You weren't going to disagree, not with the possibility of sneaking looks in Xavier's way, hearing the things that came from his perfect mouth. You're fucking sickening, like some dingbat ditz on a sugar high that's having an affair with lust. The whole tour was boring and subpar, but worth it to see Xavier in action. Margaret stops everyone outside the cabin with, in your opinion, the finest views, to preach her rules onto everyone.

You're cringing, already choking on heaps of unshed laughter and snorts. Everyone but Brooke seems to be amused. Brooke seems the most like you, so it's a comfort. Xavier has his debate locked and gone, metaphoric smoke trailing behind of his tongue, following his words like a steaming mug of honey-hot tea. After his fist bump with Ray he makes sure to give a nodding little grin your way.

A bashful smile colors your mouth.

"Y/N is true to her pure body, to herself, to the Lord. She hasn't polluted it with the perversions of today, have you, sweetheart?" Margaret's voice is that bucket of ice water you could've used earlier.

You have to grab onto the other side of the doorway to keep it together, your heartbeat in your throat. How in the fuck does she know what you do, or for that damned matter, if you've done anyone before? The entirety of everyone's attention is on you now. Your eyes are sharp on Margaret's, her joy apparent. You see right through her bullshit.

She can read people, and she's just used that to her very public advantage.

Whatever. Fuck her.

"I don't know how you’d know about my personal life, or why it matters towards the situation of a damned summer camp, Miss Booth." You snap, cheeks hot with anger, neck flushed with adrenaline. 

Her head twitches as if she's some robotic experiment in a lab, but she catches herself, a plastered on smile melting back into place. "Damned is the farthest thing from the grounds on which this Camp sits, Y/N. And as for your earlier inquiry? I have known your mother for half of my adult life, so that means I also know you."

You're in place, still stunned. How does knowing your mom have anything to do with Margaret knowing you're a virgin? It's not something your mom would broadcast to anyone. Luckily, it's a dropped topic. You're given looks you expect, especially by Chet and Montana. Ray and Brooke, who stops to turn around and give a compassionate smile, are the more sympathetic and understanding.

That leaves... him. You're petrified to turn and see his cliché reaction. He doesn't say anything, not at first, only moving past you. But when stops, a partial pivot, there's an almost relieved expression on his face. The breeze picks up a little, making you brush a lock of escaped hair from your messy style.

The grass and dirt crunches under his weight as he approaches you, stopping a decent distance. You can't breathe, can't comprehend anything out of this shared airspace. The wind has the little cross swaying against his lobe, his lips are plump, the blue in his eyes darkening to the shadows of the summer shade. There's rain on the air. It's going to rain tonight.

"You know I teach at an exercise studio in Los Angeles, Y/N? I'm good at helping people learn."

So he's baiting me to come to his gym with my fat body? Prolong the shame?

You want to further scold yourself for thinking he'd be anything but a shallow Hollywood hottie. Typical.

Before the tears even make themselves form, Xavier is moving closer. You don't stop him, don't take the out his slow and respectful pace is giving you. He's tilting in a little more so that wisp of frosted hair brushes your nose, his breath warm and minty.

"A virgin, huh? I guess it works out that I'm a teacher."

#xavier plympton #xavier plympton x reader #xavier plympton x you #ahs fanfiction #ahs fic #xavier plympton fic #xavier plympton fanfiction #ahs #ahsfx #american horror story #ahs9 #ahs: 1984 #ahs 1984 #kristenwrites #ahs 1984 fanfic #ahs 1984 fanfiction #american horror story fanfiction

[wildlyminiaturesandwich]

The Sims 4 Island Living - Early Access CAS Review

Huge thank you to the EA Game Changer Program for providing me with the opportunity to play Island Living early!

I’ve been hemming and hawing all day about whether or not to post this because obviously everyone has access to the game now but I figured I put a lot of work into it, so why not! I know it’s like way late but I had a lot going on during the very short time frame we were given for early access (less than 24 hours) and these reviews won’t be too in depth because I still haven’t really had a chance to explore the new pack fully, but here’s what I have anyway 😊

It’s all under the cut because I apparently had more to say that I first thought lol Seriously, next time a new pack comes out I might just stream. It’d be a lot less hassle for everyone involved and I could just waffle to my heart’s content!

See a preview of all the new CAS items here

From what I’ve seen so far of this pack, the Sims Team put so much time and effort into making everything look amazing, especially the CAS items, which might have meant less time went into making sure everything actually worked properly, but I’ll get into what that means for CAS items in a bit. For now, let’s just start from the top!

🌴 The Hairs

I think my absolute favourite thing about this pack by far has to be the hairs. It’s obvious the team have been working super hard since Seasons to give us better quality hair types and styles, and with all the new hairs in Island Living I think it’s pretty clear that they’re absolutely nailing it so far. They still have a long ways to go when it comes to inclusivity, but I think they’re on the right track and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for the future!

I mean all you have to do is look back at Base Game hairs to see how far they’ve come. Back then they had yet to figure out how to make not only simple wavy hair and textured up-dos look good, but more importantly they really struggled with natural hairs (I think we all know I’m referring to the infamous cauliflower hair fiasco).

But look at a few of these GORGEOUS Island Living hairs! I honestly would have paid full price for this expansion, even if I hated everything else in the pack, just to get my hands on those hairs!

I only have a couple minor issues with the hairs. The first being the curly side ponytail that was featured on the female sim in all the trailers. It looks amazing but it clips through literally everything the sim wears. I know there’s probably nothing they could have done about it though and it’s a beautiful hair, so I’m glad they included it.

The second issue I have is that yet again, there is a hair who’s texture overlaps an area it shouldn’t. We seem to get one of them in every single pack these days and this time it’s the big curly bun. The texture overlaps the back right section of the top and bottom teeth:

🌴 The Clothes

The clothes looks amazing as well, in general, but I do have a few issues with the clothes. Not major issues, just generally things could have been done a little differently I guess.

First of all, let’s get the obvious out of the way. Once again teen-elder males, children, and toddlers got very little in this pack. This has become a trend with all new packs now and honestly, it’s never really worried me before because I have pretty much always played female sims, but now that I plan on playing Island Living with Luca I’ve realised just how annoying anyone who plays exclusively male sims must find it! I’m also just realising now as I type this that none of the clothes would suit elder sims either which is kind of sad.

I wish I could say I was exaggerating when I tell you I spent the better part of five hours in CAS trying to give Luca an Island Living make over the other day, but I can’t. I legitimately spent almost five hours in there. The new CAS items for males fall into roughly three categories; traditional islander, cheesy Hawaiian tourist, and swimwear. With an added smaller category of what I like to call “Was I in a shipwreck or did I drop my clothes in wood chipper?”; a handful of clothes that are all torn and ripped for some reason. So, though all the new clothes do look really nice, none of them really suit the style that I wanted Luca to have, and because there is such a limited amount of adult male CAS items in general, it took me forever to find stuff I liked on him and I’m still not entirely sure I like most of what he’s wearing, but I just couldn’t spend any more time in CAS lol

I was also quite disappointed that there were only two hairs for children and none at all for toddlers. Toddlers only got eight things in this pack. Adult females got 67! And as far as I’ve seen toddlers can’t really use any of the new gameplay items either. So pretty much all they can do with this pack is play in the sand and splash in the shallows. What we need is just a whole pack full of stuff for every age and gender EXCEPT young adult females.

This is also one of the areas I think suffered from too much focus being on making them look pretty instead of making sure they actually work properly. If you look at the image below you can see by the top three that some of the clothes have very visible seams and quite bad clipping, especially with muscular/heavier sims.

As for the three images on the bottom... Listen, I love the concept of the bikini bottom with the transparent wrap, and the one piece with the tied top but the textures on all three of these pieces are just... not great. It looks like whoever made the green swimsuit and the pink shorts went absolutely bonkers with the normal maps and highlighting; they look like they’re made of rubber.

The swimsuit is also supposed to be tied at the top but the knot is just a flat texture, there’s no dimension to it at all. The same goes for the bikini bottom and wrap, it’s not only a very low quality looking texture but the bikini bottom is just painted straight onto the outside of the wrap, which bothers me probably more than it should lol I think most people probably wouldn’t even notice or be bothered by these things but this is supposed to be my honest opinion of the pack and I honestly feel like a few of the CAS pieces (like the three above) don’t fit with the rest of the art style of the game.

Side note that has nothing to do with Island Living: I also wanted to add that I’m not happy at all that the pride content we got with the patch did not include a Simlish version of the “It Gets Better” tee. Like MANY other people, I don’t like having English in my game, so I won’t be using that particular swatch I guess.

Overall, I really do like the Island Living clothes a lot. I just feel like I probably won’t use many of them outside of Sulani, and also that more effort could and probably should have been put into making sure they didn’t just look good but also that they worked properly on sims of all sizes and didn’t clip or have holes in them, and that they all fit in with the art style of the game.

🌴 The Mermaids

If I’m being completely honest, I’ve never really cared much about having mermaids in my game. I played with them for a few weeks when The Sims 3 Island Paradise came out and then didn’t touch them again. I haven’t had much of a chance to play with them in Island Living yet, but I can already tell you that I do like them more than TS3 mermaids. However, I’m probably going to stop playing with them in TS4 after a short time as well just because they don’t really have a lot of replay value for me.

They look amazing though! It’s clear a lot of effort was put into making their animations look very natural and organic while they’re in the water. The added animations like their tales hanging over the edge of the tub when they have a bath and the funny little dolphin squeak thing they do randomly were really fun to see happen in game and made me giggle, and I really like the addition of them having a hydration bar instead of hygiene. I’m very happy that they can swim in pools as well! Ooooh and that mermaid kiss 😏

I do wish some things about them were different though. For starters, I wish there was more customisation options for them. Four tales and two “scaled” tops for females, only one top for males that doesn’t have scales on it, and with the exception of different colour options, none of them can be customised any further than they are already are. I really wanted options to add little fin pieces and spikes off the sides of the tales or some barnacles for the elderly mermaids. Maybe some tail scars and missing pieces, and definitely some more facial features like gills, fin-shaped ears, even more scars. You know, basically just anything other than typical Disney style mermaid appearances. I think I might have been far more interested in them if I could have made a mysterious, dangerous-looking siren.

But mostly I just wish they had been made more... I guess MORE of an occult life state? As they are now they’re very similar to the way aliens were made and I’ve always thought EA did aliens hella dirty with the way they were kind of just added as an afterthought in Get to Work and make no real contribution to gameplay. The only occult state that I feel hasn’t been done poorly was vampires and I was REALLY hoping mermaids would be more like that. Instead mermaids have powers that don’t really do a lot, a hydration bar that doesn’t kill them if it drops too low, they can drown human sims but not other mermaids, and when a human sim eats mermadic kelp and becomes a mermaid... nothing happens. They just have a tail when they next go into water; it’s very underwhelming.

I wanted them to be able to earn points to spend on leveling up their powers like vampires but with maybe an added bonus of... something like reputation. So depending on how they use their powers and what traits they have, they could earn a reputation as either a good, wholesome mermaid who just wants to live among the humans and be happy. Or, they could turn to the dark side and become an evil, scheming siren who spends their time plotting how to torture any poor humans unlucky enough to be lured in by their songs.

But that’s obviously not how they ended up being made, and I’m probably just gonna end up playing with them for just long enough to see everything they have to offer and then moving on to more interesting things. I knew that would probably be the case going in to this knew pack though,  so I don’t really consider that a deal breaker when it comes to the pack as a whole.

🌴 The Verdict

Overall I really like the CAS items in this pack. I have some issues with them, but as I said, none of those issues were deal breakers. In fact, every single piece of clothing could have been broken in some way and mermaids could have been absolutely awful to play with, but as long as those hairs were exactly as they are; I’d buy the pack just for them 😍

All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own. I am not paid by EA to “hype” their games; I am given the opportunity to review their games early in exchange for an honest review.

#The Sims 4 #Sims 4 #TS4 #Island Living #EA Game Changers

[hijasinax-blog]

Six Pack Abs Simulator

6 Pack Ab Simulator

Do you feel that your muscles are weak? Are you trying your best to tone your muscles but nothing is working? Do you want to strengthen your muscles? Do you feel any muscle pain?

Then you have come to the right place. At Luxury Body Fitness we provide premium quality Abdominal Muscle Stimulator at a very reasonable price. It is an electrical muscle stimulator (EMS) that gives shape and tone that you want.

Activate Muscles:

The major advantage of using these Abdominal Muscle Stimulators is that it activates your muscles. This is caused by the electrical currents that transfer through the body.

Physical therapy:

Abdominal Muscle Stimulator by Luxury Body Fitness can help you in providing physical therapy right at your home. Taking medicines and drugs are hard and not suitable for some people. It safely helps in deformity and pain-relieving.

Increases Blood Circulation inside the body:

When your muscles get activated, the blood circulation also increases. The increased and effective circulation helps in many different things like a boost in energy, reduction in sleep issues, and lack of diseases.

Tone Muscles:

Electrical pulses are sent throughout the body with the help of small electrodes that tones and shapes your muscles.

Some other benefits include:

Increases growth of muscles, Increases performance of muscles, Strengthen muscles, Relaxes muscles, Prevents atrophy of muscles, Reduces soreness of muscles

Fully charged in 1 hour, you can get continuous work for 3 to 4 hours, you can charge this muscle stimulator with your laptop.

Get ready for summer by working those abs with the Six Pack abdominal simulator! This device works to stimulate, revitalize, and tighten the abdominal muscles. It is made of flexible silicone that follows the shape of your body and uses electrical stimulation technology from muscle stimulation and exercises your muscles. Use up to 20 minutes at a time and choose from 15 different intensity levels. The Six Pack Abdominal Simulator can also be used to temporarily relieve pain, abdominal pain, and pain caused by work and physical activity.

Ab training belts use electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) that produces an electrical current that is transmitted to the body to contract muscles. EMS is often used as a medical treatment for rehabilitation because it increases muscle activity. This is usually done in patients who cannot move to keep their muscles active. For example, those who have suffered a spinal injury or a stroke.

By toning the abdominal belts, EMS produces small electrodes that interact with your skin and send electrical impulses. This electricity triggers the contraction of the muscles.

Muscle contraction generally occurs when we train, but with the lap belt, the muscles contract without us moving. This electrical stimulation is a little complicated, but it's not painful at all. I guess it's better than abs for a flat stomach, right?

Any exercise is good for the body, but cardio is the best way to burn calories and lose body fat. If you don't have time to go to the gym, you can always try to build yours. A home gym is a great investment. It's also a great way to stay motivated because you don't have to wear workout clothes because no one will see it. It's best to start with a treadmill, then add equipment like an exercise bike, elliptical exerciser, or rower. With the help of this equipment, you will surely lose all those fats and get the dream body you have always wanted.

So "seeing these results in a span of time" remains a solid promise.

According to marketing materials, users of belts should find an average size reduction of 3.5 cm after four weeks of use. It also indicates that after four weeks, clinical trials have shown that 100% of users have reported firmer, more toned abs, 72% have reported increased abdominal resistance, and 54% of users have estimated that their posture is was improved

“It remains to be seen if this is true. I've been wearing the toned belt for three consecutive days now, and while it's obviously too early to tell if it makes a difference, I definitely felt a little sore in the center area the next day, so at least it does something. thing “ ( Alex)

“ I will report on my progress after four weeks, to dispel all the myths surrounding the device. Does it really work or not? We'll see. I will let you know in four weeks.” (Elizabeth)

[aj521z]

How do you start backpacking? I want to start but don’t know what gear/where to go

Omg hello! Yes, yes, I’m super excited! Okay. So I will try to get you started. But before we start, you gotta know the motto: every ounce counts!

The Backpack

The first thing you’re obviously going to need is good hiking experience and a backpack. Your backpack will be dependent on a number of factors, most importantly though correct fit, trip length, frame style, and additional features.

Correct Fit: Packs are usually measured by torso length from like 15-20+ inches. Stores like REI are great Bc they can help you properly fit your backpack to you, but you really want a pack that is comfortable on your hips as that is where you’ll be carrying the majority of the weight. If it feels like it’s in your shoulders, don’t get that bag, you’ll pay for it.

Trip Length: are you going overnight or a lengthy week long+ trip? I like to generally go for a larger pack as it is more versatile and packs can be expensive! I’d say a good multi-day pack is 60-80 liters. If you’re going longer than 5 days, I’d suggest at least 70 and up. If you plan on being more of a weekend backpacker (2-3 days) you can get away with a 50-60 liter bag and you’ll save empty pack weight. If you plan on just doing overnight excursions though, save the money and weight and go for something like 30-50 depending on how many “luxuries” you want to bring with you. I have an 80 liter and I LOVE it. I can pack pretty easily for a 5 day trip depending on how much water I have to bring (depends on environment). ***However*** if you plan on being more of a winter backpacker, CHOOSE A BIGGER PACK! You’ll have more gear, a bigger sleeping bag, and more clothing layers to bring with you.

Frame style: Internal vs. external frame packs. My first was an external frame, which gives you a lot of lashing opportunities (lashing means securing something to your pack with straps); however, they have pretty much been phased out at this point. But some people are diehard on them. Personally having both, I’d say the internal frame feels more stable and is more comfortable and I can fit most everything into my pack. I’d suggest internal frame honestly. There are also frameless packs for ultralight backpacking

Features: What do you want on your pack? Do you want a ton of pockets? Does it come with a hydration reservoir sleeve or built in rain cover? How many options do you have for lashing? Just some things to think about when buying a pack.

The Gear

Now that you’ve got your correctly fitted backpack, you have to fill it with gear that is essential and lightweight. There is specially made equipment for backpacking, which is lighter, smaller, and more efficient. You can find this at an outdoor sporting store and Amazon. You’ll also want to make sure you pack it correctly.

The essentials:

Tent: your tent will be dependent on season (3 season vs. 4 season ie winter), capacity (how many people are staying in it), and weight/size

Sleeping Bag and Pad: The most important decision here will be the temperature rating, which is dependent on environment. The hotter your environment, the higher your temperature rating. If you’re going in summer, aim for a +30 F and higher (0 C and up). If you’re going for spring, summer, or fall/autumn, go 15-30 F (0 to -9.4 C). For winter I’d go 0 F (-17.8 C) and below honestly. I have a 20 F bag I took in winter once and got hypothermia because the weather changed on me, so stay safe and go warmer when in doubt. You never know wtf is going to happen in winter). I now have a 0 F bag (The North Face Snowshoe) and it is amazingly warm 👍Your pad will be dependent on comfort level and environment (inflatable vs. flat/roll up). If you’re going to be sleeping on cold ground, you want something thicker to keep you away from it. If you’re in summer and don’t care about comfort as much, buy a MUCH cheaper roll up pad. The inflatables can be very expensive.

Stove, Fuel, food, and Kitchen Supplies: these are all specialized for backpacking. Lightweight and compact. Your food will be either freeze dried or dehydrated. I like Mountain House (freeze dried), but Good To-Go uses clean ingredients if that is something important to you. I recently started dehydrating my own stuff and it’s a lot cheaper/healthier!

Water and Water-Treatment: are you out in the desert and carrying your water (sucks bc heavy) or will you have access to a water source and treat it with a filter/purifier? (Pump, UV, bottle, chemicals, boiling). I use a pump and haven’t had any issues! A bit heavier though.

Clothing and Hygiene: always bring an extra pair of socks. Trust me.

Emergency/Useful Equipment: knife/multi-tool, sunscreen, headlamp (with batteries), navigation (GPS, maps, compass. I use AllTrails app and omfg, what a life saver), permits (very important to research this before going on a trip), fire supplies (matches, lighter), whistle, first-aid (with emphasis on foot care, especially for new backpackers/hikers. I recommend Moleskin for blisters), trekking poles (*highly recommend, would never backpack without them*), repair kit (to patch tent/inflatable sleeping pad)

Specifics to environment: raincover for backpack, rain gear (jacket/pants), bear spray, bear canister, gaiters (sleeves that go over your boots. I always use them because it keeps rocks out of my boots. *highly recommend for winter and muddy places*), insect repellent, mosquito net, winter gear for icy conditions (ice axe, helmet, rope, crampons, snow shoes)

Extra/Optional:

Camera, daypack with/without hydration reservoir (if you have a long trip and plan to hike away from camp), something to pass the time (book, card games), pillow, solar charger

The Trip

Now that you have everything, all that’s left is deciding where to go!

I was 13 when I started. My first backpacking trip was a simple section of the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail), 3 days/2 nights. My pack was way too heavy, I didn’t really know what I was doing, and I brought way too much stuff that I really didn’t need, but it’s one of my favorite memories with my dad.

You will learn things about how you like to set up and which gear is the most essential. You will probably bring too much weight. You will probably forget things or realize you’d really like to have a certain thing you don’t. It’s a learning process. You’ll figure it out though through trial and error (: Choose a relatively chill trail your first time and ENJOY IT! 

Message me if you have any questions! Good luck!

#SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG #I wanted to actually try to be helpful instead of throw a link at you hahahah #I hope it helps though!!! #Please backpack #it's so much fun! #backpacking #I know this isnt soccer but it's something I love so here you go lmao

[okaywowcool]

Let’s Talk About ASOS’s New Sub Brand, Collusion.

ASOS just released a new sub brand called Collusion, a collaboration between ASOS and young influencers (who seem to be taking on some kind of design or curator role for their first collection, though to what extent is unclear) which purports to be specifically for young folks “coming of age,” which seems to be defined loosely--the 6 influencers involved at launch are 18 - 23, but older and younger faces seem to be featured in ad campaigns and on their social media accounts. 

first of all, the line itself is very cool. the brand immediately makes some bold claims...things we’re used to seeing at this point from a lot of brands looking to make a buck off of progressive millennial and gen z shoppers, about size inclusivity (which is what we’ll be tackling in the most detail for this little post), experimental fashion, and a vague statement about the collaborative aspect of the line. we also get some more concrete claims, that everything is animal free and that the “majority” of their cotton is sustainably sourced.

i of course was instantly interested, the website was cute...

and their mission for fashion was insanely close to things that i’ve written for my own brand on my website.

all the listings on the site immediately take you back through to ASOS’ page for adding to cart and checking out however, so you’re back to seeing the typical ASOS model look and product listing page there. 

the prices are also quite good (more could be obviously said to this subject, the cotton may be sustainable, but who knows the wages of the workers are making these products & i’m not aware of enough to even comment on it in more detail than that), with the most expensive pieces being still under $100 (for coats and jackets) but the majority of the line being well under $50, in the $20 - $40 range. 

the models being used in campaigns are cute and refreshing, i like that brands are willing to take risks on more “real” looking people right now, though plenty of indie brands have been doing this for years w/ zero accolades so i have to admit (as one of those indie brands) that it is frustrating to have fast fashion brands get rewarded for inclusivity that would be considered bare minimum for most actual artists. 

i like their choice of influencers for this first collection and feel like the actual pieces and concerns that the influencers are bringing up are timely and that the final result of their collaboration (to whatever extent they were involved) feels like it rings true from the statements in their bios on the collusion site. 

plus size representation (for a brand that specifically claims to be size inclusive) is strangely absent in their first group of influencers, and on their social media...it’s a hole that i feel like is very much felt once you start looking at their actual plus sized offering. 

there’s not really any across the board sizing, usually i would expect all pieces in a collection to come in at least a specific size range, but these are kind of randomly distributed where the pieces are true plus sized and where they are not. when you break it down, there are literally only 10 pieces total that come in a size US 16 and above...which is an XL in most retailers. 

(no, literally. that’s all of them. i’ve zoomed out so you’re able to see all of these pieces at once.)

20 pieces come in a 2XL (which is the highest size they list in most of their dialogue about the size inclusivity) that are all unisex, jackets and tops. 

(a little more fun at least, though i’m getting extremely sick of boring cishet people thinking “unisex” means “boxy top” and nothing else ever)

with many of the pieces designed to fit oversized, i feel like most folks would be able to fit in those 20 unisex pieces, but they’re not necessarily the best pieces in the line by my standards...with the Actual 10 plus sized garments being even more basic. 

now, i’ve gone and picked up two of the dresses from that list of 10 plus sized pieces (both shown in the header above), the stripe midi dress (plus version / straight sized version) and the black roll neck sweater dress (plus version / straight sized version). luckily the sizes aren’t priced differently, and i thought the price on both of those pieces was really good, so i’m eager to see how they actually fit IRL. but i thought from those photos that the pieces were actually sewn to fit pretty differently for a plus sized consumer, and i’m a bit baffled about why. 

i’ve seen on shows like project runway, tim gun faces the workroom during a “real bodies” style sewing challenge and says something about how plus sized bodies are different and so you should make different silhouettes for them, but it’s never been something i’ve personally subscribed to. if i buy an oversized smock dress, or an oversized sweatshirt, and it’s actually coming to me in plus sizes, i expect it to come looking the same on me how it does on the straight sized model, specifically in terms of the fit and drape. 

before one of y’all heathens comments some useless nonsense, let me explain what i’m talking about just with the two images above as a representative example. now obviously changes in height and body proportion are one thing, but the neckline on the straight sized dress looks higher, like a mock neck, the sleeves are slightly off the shoulder, the waist line is more dropped, the bodice fits more loosely, the sleeves appear longer (which might be accounted for by the plus model just having longer arms or being taller) and there’s enough fullness to the skirt for the straight sized dress that it almost appears pleated. the plus size silhouette is missing all of that, like almost looking like a designer knock off of the dress on the left and missing a lot of the charm that the dress on the left has in terms of what it is doing, visually. 

maybe it’s just me but it is almost wacky looking to me in terms of difference. i’m hoping half of it is the photos that they’ve selected for this plus sized model (which aren’t at all very fashion...y....if that makes sense lol) but it’s kind of an issue i noticed with all of the pieces that are truly “plus sized” in the line up. 

the sweater has a lot of the same problems, mostly in the fit through the torso in this case, but the slight bubble hem on the sweater dress on the left is something that seems that it would be accounted for by the actual cut and shape of the garment and something that shouldn’t be affected by the model’s body at all. 

why even advertise your line as size inclusive when you’re altering major selling points to the garments to put them on plus sized bodies? or even more seriously, why advertise your line as size inclusive PERIOD when only 30 (if you’re counting the unisex and the truly plus sized pieces, let’s be generous lol) out of 152 pieces are size inclusive?

ASOS might be gauging response to see how this line does before expanding their size range, who knows. but i also don’t really feel like i owe companies benefit of the doubt...especially when there are companies doing this. the response to target’s wild fable line within the plus sized community was immediately so passionate as well--brands who are actually doing this and coming out of the gate doing it are doing well, a huge brand like ASOS shouldn’t be that timid to begin with...if that’s even their reasoning. i don’t even know anymore with brands claiming this as a label, sometimes i feel like brands are claiming these socially-conscious labels just to appeal to specific types of consumers....like claiming the animal free label when your garments are majority cotton and synthetic fibers just seems kind of intellectually dishonest to me, but who knows. i know just personally i feel like i fall for these kind of things every time but then end up almost always disappointed once i go to the actual page and see all the listings--big brands love to claim these things but then the follow through always feels so low effort to me. maybe they’re just too big to care enough to try and also not afraid enough of the blow back, while the little guys like myself or someone like big bud press or premme are scratching w/ everything we’ve got to actually genuinely stay true to our word, who knows. 

regardles, i’m looking forward to these pieces coming in the mail, and also am interested in what this brand does next...if they stick to their claims and actually sell more plus size, affordable clothing, i think they could make some really cool stuff. i’m hoping to review these pieces for here when they come in, and will let you all know how that goes. 

what do you guys think about this brand? what do you guys think about brands hopping on the plus size train so late, and also so lazily? (looking @ you, dollskill’s plus size line lmao) are you planning to pick anything up for yourself? i’m interested in hearing others’ thoughts! <3 

#asos #collusion #plus size fashion #plus size clothing #fatshion #body positive #fat acceptance #fat positive #let's talk #okaywowtext

[discyours]

Also lmfao the baseline healthy BMI for female people or people in general is 18.5. A BMI of 20 is great. What a major asshole to try to bring up an ED like that’s the issue here lmfao males be males I guess

That was a guess actually. I said something about that number multiple months ago (not even about being there, something along the lines of I’ve always struggled to get any higher) and I guess she remembered and just went with it? That’s not my actual BMI and while it’s obviously not socially acceptable to correct someone on what’s obviously meant to be a rough estimate, I can’t say it’s not extremely triggering for someone to overshoot what they assume my weight is and for everyone else to just go with it.

She does have a point about it not being average, but that shouldn’t matter. I see xxl clothes in the store all the time and those people aren’t an average size either. Everyone should get to wear clothes that actually fit them, especially in the context of someone specifically creating a company to fill a gap in the market and others still complaining about it. 

#anon

[fernandoelly27-blog]

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Fleece is the perfect example.  Again, choice of over 1 item would be best.  Your plan will keep you focused, and supply you with the huge picture in addition to the details you want to contemplate.

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[twitchesandstitches]

MILF Fleet spaceships, fighter craft, and drop pods what shoot like bullets

The fleet itself travels from world to world, or universe to universe, or just hanging around in various cosmic sub-realms where the eldritch neighbors won’t complain too much, and since they live on those ships, they have quite a variety of them.

Note that due to the number of crew members that are giants or have the capability to become that big, it will be noted when a given ‘ship’ is more like a piece of clothing for them to wear. They also tend to prefer giant robots and mechs to combat ships, on the basis of ‘giant robots are GODDAMN AWESOME’.

The largest ships are what the crew generally thinks of when they refer to the fleet proper; the vast majority of people in the fleet, particularly those least inclined towards Adventure, their children and monstrous pets all dwell on these ships. They are also, not coincidentally, the most heavily armed and protected of all the ships, carrying firepower equivalent to the capital ships preserved by the most respectable of modern societies, if rather less well-maintained. These ships vary considerably, and all of them are explicitly not manufactured by the crew, as they lack the capacity to presently manufacture anything that big thus far. These are all ships they have found, or looted in extremely unusual circumstances, restored from derelict condition and made habitable again, to the effect of looking severely run down and suitable for the garbage dumps. These are not pretty ships, but they are very tough and possessed of their own rough charm.

These largest ships number about half a dozen, and as time goes on, they may be even more extensively retrofitted. Perhaps damage will force them to be welded together, or merged for the heck of it. Perhaps dormant AIs awaken, transform into hyper curvy giant robot lady shapes and promptly fall in love with each other, fusing into combined forms that then refuse to seperate. And if they find a really nice ship, and their numbers continue to skyrocket, they will add more to the roster. Nonetheless, generally assume that they have about six of these largest ships, which they refer to as habitat ships.

The largest of these is the flagship of the fleet, an ancient monster measuring many miles across and enormous even by the standards of species that are hundreds of feet tall; human-sized beings are no larger than mice in its many halls, the smaller crew resorting to gigantification or riding about in mechs to cope with the size difference. There’s space stations smaller than it. This ship has a few different names, but is sometimes called the Athena, named for a goddess of ancient Earth, and the AI installed into it answers by the same name. She was there before anyone found the ship in the very beginning of the fleet’s days, and the ship itself is far older than any civilization on record, even older than the Gem Homeworld or the golden age of Cybertron. Magic has greatly distorted its interiors so it is vastly larger on the outside, and those rooms seem to move all on their own, without the AI’s awareness. Sometimes the ship activately reshapes its interiors for their benefit, and many crewmates feel as though the ship around them is alive, and rather motherly towards them, equating living in it to permanently residing within someone.

The Athena, a deeply mysterious ship, has yet to give up all its secrets, and one reason the fleet is pursued is that many would dearly love to gain the power it represents. This immense ship bears many ludicrously powerful weapons, all powered by the combined magical energy of its residents; it may even be a planet buster, though of course they’ve never tested this.

The Athena itself has an AI, as mentioned earlier, who enjoys interacting with her crew via hundreds of curvaceous gynoid bodies every bit as outrageously stacked as the most extreme of the crew, and as gigantic as even the most titanic of them. Her true identity is not yet clear, but she has been identified by the flowery title Enlightened Defender of Interdependence. Sometimes she gives herself different names that fit the acronym she’s been given; EDI. On the whole, she prefers Athena.

Other varieties of habitat ships include a couple of actual habitats, or space stations intended to serve as long term colonies, mainly the traditional ‘tin can’ variety, with some thrusts slapped onto them, and one that looks like a hula hoop just wheeling through the sky. Another, for instance, is a repurposed Andalite Dome ship, a floated garden in a mechanical bubble home to those that prefer a more agrarian lifestyle and work in the hydroponics department. The Dome ship tends to most of their food, obviously.

The final class of habitat are the Dress-class ships; habitat ships that exist in clusters to affix to the bodies of giant crew members so large that thousands could live on them without ever being visible. In theory, the entire female population of the crew may one day reach that size permanently, and in the meantime, it is reserved for the largest Transformers, trolls and Gem fusions, as well as Sierra at her biggest sizes. A secret protocol is being enabled for all ships to convert into this form, or for the smaller ones to become accesories to the giant ladies.

Smaller than these are respectively sized ships of the battlecruiser class; since the fleet isn’t really military, these aren’t battleships in a proper sense, but dedicated factories, food growing facilities, and given over to the sciences; archaeological, sorcerous workings, and so forth. They do possess imposing weapons, as kind of space technicals; they can function as artillery weapons, if pressed, and can possess more arcane weaponry.

They have a few battlestar ships that are bigger, tougher versions of the battlecruisers, though these are more like the space hobo analogues to trailer parks, but able to defend themselves. With a slight edge of ‘parking lot’: they are carriers for the majority of the fleet ships, at least the smaller ones. A few of them even serve as mobile spaceports and shipyards! Mostly for repairs, since the fleet’s ability to manufacture is limited. The battle armor for the giant women can serve in a combat function as well as clothing, in times of giantess fights.

They don’t have many traditional dreadnoughts, as the role of biggest gun goes to the habitat ships. However they do field a variety of giant robots and mechs with incredible power that are on par with that sort of thing, requiring hundreds of crew working in concert to operate properly and punchsplode the heck out of whatever is threatening them. Additionally, they work well when attached to a giant woman’s form.

The majority of their ships that are smaller than the dreadnoughts but bigger than a fighter ship are corvette class, and they do have a fair number of those, almost all salvaged derelicts looted from monster graveyards and repurposed into manors for individual clans among the fleet or communal living quarters. These ships tend to be developed for speed and hit-and-run over any other consideration, or as quarters for fleet members about to go on trips and adventures. A subclass are designed for fighting monsters large enough to qualify as spaceships in their own right, with some adapted for full on assaults, others for pinning it down with giant harpoons, and still others to support other ships. Ships in this size do not usually become a single giantess’ gear, but collectively merge into her armor; if she’s big enough, the ‘armor’ will be quite skimpy indeed.

Smaller ships, all the way down to fighters; these are space trucks, freighters, and the like. They’re not weaponized, but used for specific purposes rather than being lived in, passed around to however needs them on a case by case basis. Usually when a lady goes giant, they don’t have the honor to become part of her, though some smaller girls might use one as earrings or something like that.

Finally, the space fighter; these ships are smaller and the crew has them in the thousands; they’re relatively possible for the crew to make, and easier still to salvage together from the pieces left behind by monster attacks or big fights. Usually either piloted remotely, by AIs, or with single pilots, these ships zoom around and pretend that every fight is a dogfight, which is easier in the fleet’s corona. They’re also very heavily armed, often with ludicrous weaponry; energy lances, multi-barrel missile launchers, huge powerfists on springs, that sort of thing. Many Of them can also transform into humanoid giant robots and back, whether mobility or raw power is called for, and many of those can also combine into progressively larger robots.

One more thing: drop pods.

Drop pods are how they mainly land, usually from their crafts since the habitat ships are too big to land very easily, but the crew tends to refer to them as bullet pods; this is because people are loaded into them, up to a dozen with the roomier ones, and literally fired out of broadside cannons towards planets or other ships for boarding. The pods crash without issue but there’s a certain… something literally shooting your crew in giant space bullets.

#/ #// #/// #//// #///// #crossthicc AU #twitchy ideas #queued #listen i have no idea what the proper conventions are for sci fi ship things or even what the right sizes are #i looked at some eclipse phase and 40k stuff for reference #and 40k minis for inspiration #and just did my best

[wandabherrera]

T-Shirt The Yard Stick to Measure the Fashion Trends

Shirt: The measuring stick to quantify the style

Shirt: the structure square of design

glitter heat transfer vinyl As season changes from summer to rainstorm and storm to winter, style additionally change appropriately. Yet, after each three or four months most of us don't have the opportunity or the need to purchase new garments. At that point the inquiry comes: What sort of easygoing dresses or articles of clothing will transform you as indicated by your scope of styles, shadings and disposition? - Obviously the T-shirts.

Shirts have consistently been accepted as the simple fundamentals - those essential necessities that structure the foundation of style - the structure square of design. In the event that you need to realize how much style in T-shirts have changed over the most recent few years, take your action tape.

Design, which had begun during the 50's, got motivated with its sociological and modern advances. It was an honorable chance to be youthful, and design turned into a tear along the situation old enough. In the 60's kin began to wear the splash-color and screen-printed cotton T-shirts. Improvement in printing and coloring stood apart for more assortment and came in to mold and it blossomed during the 60's.

Tight pattern of the seventies

During the 1970s the disco scene was colossal, show moving was famous with dance parties and tight jeans with T-shirts were a pattern. The entire '70s pattern was perfectly sized - 'exceptionally close', where the extra-huge, baggy, metropolitan affected tees moved out and tight T-shirts with tight polyester, ordinarily with ringer lined men's jeans accompanied by standy shoes were utilized to pull in the young ladies appearing for sentiment, were mainstream.

Chemin de fer pants, Elephant Ear Pants, weaving on trouser legs, banner jeans, Gabardine Pants, HASH Jeans with Bonds T-shirt (raglan cut T-shirt with ribbing around neck and sleeves), Rock Concert T-shirts (with a logo image of a hero or a musical crew or brand name of musical crew) and splash-color T-shirts (natively constructed T-shirts with stripes and bended in various shades of color) were for the most part famous in 70s and ladies by and large were short smaller than usual skirt, maxi dress, midi skirt or hot jeans with T-shirts.

The eighties: Iron-on T-shirts with stonewashed pants gasp pattern

In 80s Iron-on, the coolest sort of T-shirts was mainstream. Tight Stonewashed Jeans, Parachute Pants, Corduroy Pants, Tight Leather Pants, Super Tight Minis with Fido Dido, Ocean Pacific T-shirts, Long T-shirts, and Hard Rock Café and so on T-shirts were mainstream among them.

The nineties - Baggy and dazzling denim pattern

Levi brand T-shirt that had "Catch Your Fly" written in huge letters were mainstream in 90s. Flare Jeans, Baggy and Bright denim, the student look of infant doll dresses with puffed sleeves and thigh-high stockings, slip dresses worn over T-shirts got famous and was a pattern of 90s.

Style of 2000

Shirts with "Young men Are Great", "I Make Boys Cry", and so on trademark T-shirts with hurdle off at or around knee pants were mainstream in 2000. More blunt tones were more mainstream toward the start of that decade and V-neck sweater and have emphasizes woven in around the neck, midsection was exceptionally well known.

Shirts have gone through each friendly, social and monetary degree of human existence and got an extraordinary acknowledgment in everyday life from enormous urban areas to modest communities everywhere on the globe.

Age alternative: Feel youthful everlastingly with T-shirt

Shirts are a main thing, yet have become polished and decent profession clothing. Design has consistently been instigated by more youthful individuals, obviously, and nothing says youthful like the T-shirt. Not surprisingly, the youthful are searching for something strange. Wearing T-shirts in mature age gives a way of life choice as opposed to an age alternative and gives sensation of more youthful.

Ladies T-shirt: A different recognized market

During the last two thirty years, ladies' interest levels in the corporate houses, business, design, occupations, sports, activities or yoga and so forth have arrived at an untouched high from one side of the planet to the other. The old unisex T-shirts turned into a thing of the set of experiences; today ladies require T-shirts that fit them that wash and feel great at work place or while moving and receiving a more ladylike way to deal with styling, have had a major effect in the assortment of plans and items. Ladies are likewise considering T-shirts as a multi-reason article of clothing and by the two different ways the ladies' T-shirt market is developing. Today, ladies have such countless alternatives in the market as numerous T-shirt makers have seen the brilliant outline and are creating better ladies' T-shirts in speedy changing situation of interest, which covers better textures, most recent plans, great shading mixes, incredible styles and so forth Furthermore, the ladies' T-shirt will get a different personality from men's T-shirt.

Co-connection of T-shirt and ink interest

Style or determination of tones additionally shift, when season or patterns changes. Shading is considered as a genuine business when it comes up to T-shirts, as a critical separation in wearable clothes.

Shirt printing is truth be told silk-screening or, all the more appropriately, screen printing. The 70s got immense improvement T-shirt printing started with making screen-printing machines in the storm cellars and carports and these printed T-shirt business alluded as Imprinted Sportswear Industry as a rule. During the 1980s the progression in ink business upgraded and T-shirts turned out to be essential for each part of our way of life, advancing organizations, government, and non-benefit associations. Retailers found the importance and distinction of T-shirts and have purchased huge loads of items in different topics, brand-name and styles.

The main progression during the 80s was the blast made by the programmed T-shirt printing machine, empowering screen printers to print a numerous T-shirt imprinting in a solitary day. Computerization changed the entire thing and with the happening to the 90s, the PC was brought in with the general mish-mash of plans and examples in T-shirts. Toward the finish of 2000 the over all material screen-printing industry had gone through a troublesome stage, yet as advancement of printing innovation effectively accomplished the need of ink and screen printing innovation, supported still and acquired better position. Furthermore, presently with the improvement and advancement of most recent printing innovation, you can have various choices like two-measurement and three-measurement; computerized printed, vivified or printed T-shirts. Today the ink or printing is solely relies upon T-shirt industry/creations while thinking about material printing industry.

T - Shirt utilized as a far and wide advertising or exposure instrument

Might you want to say something? At that point you will require a T-shirt: A T-shirt is a modest thought of garments or a compact advert with its garments to announce political, melodic or social association for everyone to notice, similar to The Tennis Women's T-shirt with the assertion on the court. "I will make you run!", or as Indian tennis player Sania Mirza had explanations "Polite ladies once in a while leave a mark on the world", "Mentality Unlimited". It gives a less expensive showcasing or exposure weapon. Occasions, missions or projects like ladies' privileges, social liberties and more discovered their way to the face and back of T-shirts. Individuals started to state what their identity is/were and what they put for while never letting out the slightest peep basically with logo or motto. Today, as well as proceeding as a vehicle for expressing individual convictions, group affiliations, leisure activities and that's just the beginning, T-shirts are supported, on the grounds that in a word they are agreeable - no inconsequential issue in the present work environment, an air where T-shirts are going up in more prominent figures continuously.

More decision than any time in recent memory

The T-shirt in no way, shape or form leaving style, it is the base or establishment of the over all material and article of clothing business sector and drives the absolute business. It is a critical piece of the puzzler for what individuals require and pick and much statistical surveying study showed that one can't overlook the ware just as new popular market. There are numerous choices or decisions that you didn't have only a couple a long time previously.

Today, there are numerous sorts of cotton T-shirts accessible in market. Open-end cottons give a gentler vibe at an extraordinary cost. Ring-turned cotton has an extremely delicate hand and natural T-shirts to shield from synthetic compounds. However, more functional, execution driven textures, for example, dry-fiber are filling in acknowledgment which is dreadful because of loads of isolation in which a style that the customer is notable and quiet with. Shirts produced using a 60/40 cotton/poly mix in unisex sizes XS-4XL, ANSI-ensured polyester and non-affirmed 50/50 are mainstream. Elite polyester miniature strands T-shirts are for the most part liked by working individuals because of their attribute of diminishing the dampness quickly from body. On plain texture putting of ribbon and knit are additionally being utilized, to make female looks. As of late DuPont's Sorona fiber (polymers that loan better stretch, recuperation and mess protection from textures) is additionally utilized in T-shirt as a material.

The T-shirts are done with more fun for party wear with gold in the prints and decorations are likewise a solid pattern as of late. To make prints really captivating, sequins, globules, catches and weaving and to make a radiance look on the tees cotton bands miss out to metallic bands and sparkle, surface weaves alongside layered differentiating textures of tulle, chiffons, bubble textures, crease printed semi sheer crepes, are additionally utilized. Ethnic, wilderness, realistic or spray painting roused, prints with brilliant or quieted, various shadings are amazingly utilized now a days. Styles of tees incorporate rose, woods and blue, layering, retro men, spray painting and illustrations, khaki and blues and striped examples are a solid pattern in T-shirts for men.

[softsadgay]

***woah here comes what is essentially an essay about my body image issues/disordered eating and it’s kind of... rough so just heads up***

(for the sake of my own clarity of both writing reading this (esp since i don’t expect anyone else to), i’m doing a combo of stream of consciousness and formal writing.) 

I’ve gained a lot of weight in the past 2/3 of a year. Not anything too wild and I haven’t weighed myself in so long that I’m not even sure the exact number, but enough the point that I have had to buy a lot of new clothes because some of the stuff from a year ago no longer fits me/looks really unflattering in way it didn’t used to. 

I started junior year by moving into a new apartment, and I no longer had access to a gym or running track (my family has horrible knees, so i’m terrified of running on pavement). Cardio has been a BIG part of my weight and mental health management for the last four years. From mid-2014 to mid-2017 I was running an average of four days a week, often closer to five or six, with a view periods of exercising for at least two and a half hours daily and only exercising two or three times a week. A range, but always a consistent presence.

There were a lot of reasons why I made running a big part of my life, and it had good and bad consequences. Was I over-exercising for many periods of my life in order to lose weight? Absolutely. Did I lose an obscene amount of weight because of it? Not exactly. 

Most of my weight-loss occurred when I made a major change to my diet during my last semester of high school. I went vegan and ate moderate size meals at consistent times of day. It started changing my body instantly. It was rapid and was exacerbated by my hyperthyroidism. I was motivated to make that change to lose weight after I was cast as Jesus in Godspell and knew I’d be on-stage in my underwear for my entire first number.

As time went on, I wanted to lose more weight. Always convinced I was “still too fat.” This mystified a lot of people, so I quickly started phrasing it as “being healthy,” which people will accept as a reason to work out excessively while eating far less than an active person should to support their body.

However, exercise also had some amazing effects on my mental health (though obviously not in the body image and eating department). I went off medication about a year before I started exercising. My mood swings were constant and dangerous. I would be entirely bed-ridden for days. Other days I would be at 142% and bouncing off the walls. I had multiple episodes were my depression made me aggressive. It felt like being possessed. My mom remembers that period of my existence as being an entirely separate person from who I was before and after that year.

When I was exercising, I was being consistent enough for it be creating the chemical equivalent of a strong anti-depressant. Obviously I was still dealing with mood swings and really horrifying thought habits, but I was generally a lot more stable and happy. Working out was compensating for my brain.

I’d used food and over-eating to cope with my emotions and mental illness for many years leading up to this period. I never saw it that way, but in hindsight, it was absolutely an issue. It vanished temporarily when I changed my lifestyle. 

And then it came back. At first, only occasionally, with immediate horror afterwords. Triggers were varied, but often came from days were I had either particularly high emotion (feeling impervious to food) or incredibly low emotion or stress (a need for something comforting). It increased in frequency over the next two years, but was still fairly “controlled.” It was the minority. The rest of what I was doing in diet and exercise more than compensated for it. No one could tell it was happening, and the few people who had the details to put two and two together didn’t.

Over this period I would occasionally gaining a bit of weight, rarely noticeable to anyone but I was losing weight when I wasn’t gaining it. (I actually have a major anxiety around that. It’s been so long since I felt like I was doing anything other than gaining or losing weight. I never know how to stabilize and maintain.) And while my mental health wasn’t perfect by any means, I was overall doing okay. Some hopelessness, but I was moving along in life.

Then this year happened.

I wasn’t able to easily work out the way I’d been. I decided this would okay. I would eat a bit less than when I’d been active. I’d still do some in-home muscle routine things to keep myself a little active, and I’d rely on dance class to be the more rigorous activity. And for a period, this kind of worked. This period also had complications. There were two boys who I placed a lot of undue meaning on to validate me, neither of which were ready to validate themselves, much less another scared person. I also made a very dumb decision and got cast in my college’s production of Spring Awakening, which was incredibly triggering and stressful.

Suddenly my mental health was failing. I’d started drinking, never able to do so without having at least five or seven drinks, but averaging on ten. I was having mood swings again, though thankfully rarely as extreme as they were in high school. I was losing interest in things I cared about. I was regularly considering self-harm and suicide.

In my theory, my brain was freaking out. The things that truly used to help it function better, like exercise and routine, were gone. The things that I added to my life, like alcohol and boys and sex, were not giving it the consistent lift it needed. And my brain was searching for anything to get the endorphins it wasn’t getting. That’s when my diet changed again.

I decided I didn’t care about being vegan anymore, which is a valid decision on its own, but it was for the wrong reasons. I needed something to self-medicate with. Binging “healthy vegan” food was not satisfying enough. My brain needed more. So I stopped being vegan.

I was eating like someone who was going to die the next day. It was the kind of eating that got addicting quickly, especially since I have a disposition to addiction. It also didn’t do the job my brain indulged in it for. It gave an extremely brief feeling of freedom, before immediately switching to self-hatred and depression.

But my brain still needed something. For brief periods where I’d allow myself to drink again, alcohol would take over as the solution, but alcohol was a lot more intrusive and harder to hide, so food reigned as #1. And that’s how things were for several horrible months.

I was gaining weight consistently. Clothes started wearing different. I could see the change in my body, and a few other people did too.

And then it stopped again when I started dating the boy who would become my first boyfriend. I wanted to take better care of myself again, and the high of a new relationship supplemented needing a different regular coping mechanism. (To be clear though, the relationship was actually incredibly healthy and positive. It’s unfortunate that I wasn’t finding other sources of stability, but it was a positive source.) I stopped binging as regularly. I completely stopped drinking. I applied myself more in dance and all my classes. I ate more consciously, but not strictly. For two months, I was stable, and really happy and confident.

And then that high ended too. The boy started growing distant and I was losing steam. I starting binging more. I started drinking again. And then, for entirely unrelated and very good reasons, we broke up a little before the semester ended.

And that’s how we get to the last two months. No school or routine. A few brief periods of eating better and exercising, and then binging daily and occasionally getting drunk. And unsurprisingly, I’m incredibly unhappy.

And then in the past two or three weeks, I started getting on the horse again. Falling off, but then getting back on. It’s been five days of being on it now, and, though I may be a little optimistic, it feels like it’s going to stick this time. I found a nearby park to run at. I’m eating well, though perhaps a little restricted. I’m being more productive. My mental health is getting to a better place, and the effects of physical activity should get stronger over the next month.

Today I looked in app were I have a few progress photos from two periods of my time actively trying to lose weight. They don’t have dates and I don’t remember exactly how far apart they were taken, but I’m fairly certain I was taking a picture once a week. I remember being able to see the change when I took them, but being frustrated by how slow I was changing. Looking at them now, it’s terrifying (in every sense of the word) how fast my body is able to change if I give it the right variables.

I’m not above wanting to lose weight. And I don’t know if that’s good or not. I want to get back to the weight I was a year ago. I know I’ve never been satisfied, but I’d like to fit all my clothes again and feel good about myself again. If I’m truly happier and healthier, what’s wrong with wanting to lose weight?

I’m worried I’ll start the same cycle again. And that’s why I’m writing all this out for the first time in a coherent way. The last four years have been a incredible, if not terrifying, learning experience for how my body and mind work for and against each other. And that’s what I’m reassuring myself with. I’ve learned. The same thing can’t repeat because I’ve learned. I won’t go off the deep end again because I learned.

It’s a new horse and I’m a better rider now.