#I think it's for the same reason WordPress doesn't

[roseapprentice]

Question for my tech mutuals:

Google drive is finally getting broken enough that I'm considering switching to etherpad. Since I'm in google's device ecosystem (and I probably wouldn't know how to run etherpad anyway), that seems to mean I need an online service that already hosts etherpad on their own servers.

Can anyone recommend a good one? With easy UI, since I'm not as tech-savvy as I tend to sound?

I use both duckduckgo and chrome browsers, if that makes a difference

[n7punk]

Tumblr Backup Options: None of them do everything

Cheeky but true. I'll go through what's good and bad about each option though so you can decide which balances out for you.

Covered: native export, WordPress (kinda), TumblThree, tumblr-utils (kinda)

Native Export

If you go to "https://www.tumblr.com/settings/blog/yourblogname", at the bottom of the page is an export option

Once you hit the button to start the request, it will start processing. Feel free to log off, this is going to to take a few hours. You don't need to keep it open. ~22k posts took roughly a day for me. If you have a small number of posts and get stuck, you're probably broken.

When it's done processing, you can hit that download backup button and then wait some more as you wait for the zip file to download. Mine failed the first time after like twenty minutes, and then I had to start over. I think it took 1-2 hour(s) and I'm almost certain that was on Tumblr and not my internet. And that was the zip file! So make sure your computer can be on for a while before getting this started.

So what do you get?

A media folder, conversations folder, and posts folder

Media folder: Every single photo, gif, and video that has ever been on your blog or in your DMs. There is no context data attached (except for dm images which do say which conversation they're from at least), but they seem to be in chronological order because they seem to be titled by the post's ID (the string of numbers in the address bar after "/post/"). They look like "100868498227", "100868498228_0", "100868498228_1"

When you see something end with "_0" and up that means the photos are in the same post, so _0 represents the first image in the post, _1 represents the second, etc (at least, I think).

Conversations folder: HTML export files of every DM history you have on your blog. These are actually pretty well formatted, see example here.

Posts folder: html subfolder and posts_index.html file

posts_index.html: File listing every single post on your blog by post ID on its own line with no other context. Example of a line: "Post: 780053389730037760". The ID number will link to the post in the html folder

html subfolder: contains a submissions subfolder and stripped html file versions of every post on your blog. See below first what the post looks like on Tumblr, and second what the post looks like in the html folder

The way you seem to be intended to use this is to open the file index, select a post ID, and be jumped to where that post is saved as an html file, but I don't know why you would bother when the index doesn't provide any information about the posts inside it. The posts all have extremely minimal formatting. See a reblog chain below.

Notice I said ALL posts on your blog. Photo posts without a caption will just have a broken image icon and then the date and tags. Theoretically, it might be that if you unzip the entire export folder that allows it to automatically link to the image saved in your media folder. I have no fucking idea, unzipping the folder was estimated to take two hours so I didn't do it. Let me know if you do though so I can update this post!

The submissions folder is such a rabbithole I made a post just on it but long story short it's asks you haven't replied to

What do I see as the main reasons to opt for this option? 1) you don't want to download any programs or files from the internet just to backup your blog, 2) your blog is relatively small, so digging through the ID files isn't a big deal, 3) you mostly just want to download either the images (which will be browsable via thumbnail previews in the media folder if you unzip it) or conversation history, which are fairly well formatted, 4) you don't need to update your export often/ever, because you'd have to request it from the start and download the entire thing all over again, 5) you want to be able to read your text posts clearly and don't care about preserving the full formatting, and/or 6) you don't plan to reupload this information elsewhere (say on... a WordPress blog)

WordPress Automatic Ex/Import

Move your post's from Matt's right hand to his left! WordPress (another product of Automattic) has a native Tumblr importer found under your WP Admin dashboard for your site under Tools > Import > Tumblr.

How does this work? No idea! I hit import 2 days ago and it has done nothing. Maybe I'm stuck, maybe it's permanently broken. It says to contact support if it's been over 24 hours but they don't make that easy. I disconnected from Tumblr (you can only port over a blog you have the login of) and reconnected and it still said it was importing. I don't think it's ever going to do anything.

Presumably it's supposed to 1:1 import every post on your blog onto the WordPress site, which will result in a whole lot of stolen art because there's no way to select just your original posts. Also, you'd need enough storage on your webhost to house all the posts (this honestly might be my problem, but I was planning to delete all the non-original posts once it imported.... anything and backfill what it didn't get to). The one thing I'll say about this option is that it's the only one I've seen so far that exports drafts and queues as well.

I mean, if it exported anything. If this ever does anything I'll update this post, but either my blog is too large or this tool isn't totally functional anymore.

TumblThree

(previously TumblTwo, etc)

TumblThree is an all-in-one program requiring no extra downloads beyond the main Zip, and was last updated fairly recently at the time of this post. In order to run it, unzip it into one folder and run the main .exe. It has a full UI interface with lots of very descriptive helper text to help you select the right options for you without looking at the wiki. I think it's user-friendly for non-tech people.

There are a lot of options in TumblThree to change what output it gives you, but I'm going to start with the largely universal parts first:

Everything from one blog will be exported to one folder, no subfolders or sorting. As a result, the output is very messy and difficult to wade through, but post metadata and the photos are named in the same way so you can scroll, see an image preview, and then click on the metadata txt for that post and read the caption.

Depending on your settings, you can export all photos, videos, text posts, etc as their own files or exclude them from the export entirely. For the different types of media posts, you can independently select if you what to download just the media, just the metadata for it (everything that surrounds the post when you see it on Tumblr, such as the caption, OP, tags, etc), or both.

Master txt file: For every type of media metadata you export, a correspondingly named txt file will be created (images.txt, answers.txt, etc) that contains the text/metadata of every post of that type in one txt file. This is also the default behavior for exporting text posts.

Note: for text posts (which includes asks/answers), it only creates a master txt file if you do not select "Save texts as individual files", in which case it will only save each text as an individual txt file and not make a master file.

The formatting on these files is so brutal I won't even give examples, but they're unreadable. Being a .txt file, there is no native formatting, so it exports in html formatting.

Example: instead of a post that says "I want to go swimming", it exports: "I want to go < b >swimming< / b >" (minus the spaces around the b) as the post body, which is a big part of what makes it unreadable, because there are a lot of hyperlinks in all the header information listed below.

Each post in the master txt exports with: Post ID, date, post URL, slug, reblog key (no idea what that is), reblog URL, reblog name, title, [the text/caption itself], and tags.

Theoretically this means you could ctrl+f "cybertrucks" in the master txt file and then browse all your posts making fun of Tesla owners by tabbing through the returns. This is not possible with any of the previous options, and only is possible because it's all in one file, as ridiculous as it is, which is why getting that master file is so important.

For the trick to get both the individual text posts and master text.txt & answers.txt file, as well as my recommended settings and details on how updating backups works, see the read more at the end of this post.

The images.txt includes all the information listed above, but with the following additions: photo url (NOTE: this is the url on Tumblr, not a link to where it is in your folder), photo set URLs, photo caption, and "downloaded files" (NOTE: this is the name of the file it has downloaded)

The video.txt is similar to the above

The use case for this would be similar to what I described for text posts above: search keywords from captions, tags, etc and when you find what you think is what you want, copy the name from "downloaded files" and search your folder to find the actual image

I really hated TumblThree's output the first time I looked at it and then I realized the single file is the only way to make browsing tags workable, because otherwise you would have to have a folder for every tag, and posts with multiple tags would have to be duplicated between them. I'm not pressed on finding a txt to HTML converter right now but it could be an option in the future if you wanted to make things more readable.

Okay, let's get into the non-universal stuff you can customize in settings, because it's like, everything:

File names: We've already established you can search with the downloaded file name for images, but what will that be? Whatever you fucking want. Post date, reblogger name, post ID, post title, original file name, you can make it any and all of these in any order you want! You can have actually useful file names! Personally I like %e_%p_%q_%i_%x which exports as DateTime_PostTitle_BlogOriginName_PostID_IteratingNumber (note: you need some kind of unique iterator to be valid so two files don't have the same name, such as multiple photos from one post). Look how much searchable information that gives me, in chronological order! It decreases your need for the master txt file.

Tip I wish I thought of before doing my massive export: make one of the unique headers from the master txt file part of the exported file name so it's easy to search for it after identifying it in the master file.

Files scanned: this is the only method I've found that lets you back everything up, remember what it backed up, and then lets you add any new posts since that date without having to download the whole thing again. That's a game changer, but see the read more below for limitations.

You also have the option to rescan the entire thing if you want.

Post type: T3 (I'm abbreviating it now) also lets you export just your original posts, just reblogs, etc - again, giving you the most control of any options. It also lets you export replies. I, uh, would not do this because if you have any popular post on your blog it might have hundreds, or thousands of replies but hey, you can do it!

You also have the option to only download posts with a certain tag.

Blog options: You can export literally any blog you have the URL of. In fact, if you copy a blog URL while it's open, it will automatically add that blog to its UI and create an empty folder for it. It makes it easy, no private key required. I do have mixed feelings about the concept of exporting someone else's blog... but I'm also planning to do it to some of Crew-ra's blogs so... my digital horde must grow.

You can also queue blogs up and leave it to run through a lot of them. It is a lot faster than Tumblr's native export, I started this import well after I started typing this post and it took a few hours, probably not all that much longer than just downloading Tumblr's export took (and that's while running it alongside other data copy operations because I'm backing up a lot of stuff right now).

I do recommend doing a test export with a sideblog, I was able to use wild-bitchofthenorthwoods as a test import since it only has one post and it has media, so it was super quick.

(I do want to note, I think the number of downloadable items starts out matching the number of posts on your blog without scanning them until you start the export - but if you choose to export everything as its own file, you're going to end up with way more than that because a post with three images would be multiple files)

Things T3 cannot export:

Since in its simplest form it's just accessing the public upload of your blog, it cannot export your drafts, queue, or conversations

It cannot export posts as HTML files, and thus cannot export them with readable formatting natively

What do I see as the main reasons to opt for this option? 1) you don't care about exporting your DMs/conversations, 2) you want the ability to export only certain kinds of posts (original, photos, using a tag, etc), 3) you want to control the titles of the exported files 4) you don't mind wading through massive folders, 5) you want the ability to search tags (using the txt files), 6) you want the ability to update your export without starting over from the beginning, 7) you either don't want to reupload this information somewhere else, or you want to upload it somewhere that supports automatic HTML conversion (for instance, you can switch a Tumblr post from a rich text format to HTML, same with AO3, so you can put it in as HTML and then hit post to see it turn into a rich format. This techically makes T3 the most versatile/useful export option if you're planning to do anything with it other than browse your own files).

tumblr-utils

Full disclosure: haven't tried this one. But others have! tumblr-utils is a no-UI, python-based backup software. This means in order to use it you have to type commands into the terminal. If you don't know what I just said, don't use this one.

If you do, you'll need to separately download python and youtube-dl just to get this one running. You'll also need to give it your personal Tumblr API key and feed it commands deciphered from the wiki page I linked. Here are two different guides people have written on how to use it. Output:

Obviously I'm guessing based on the documentation, but one thing that is nice is this tool allows you to save each post in its own folder. Presumably each post is multiple files like we saw with T3, so this would make it easy to group them, but it also means you'd have to look in every single folder to find anything.

It seems to break posts up into timestamp folders by month, again, helping with management to narrow down where you have to search

It allows you to save only certain kinds of posts at a time like T3

It allows you to backup posts only from a certain time period (so if you keep a little .txt note of the last time you backed up, you can easily add only the new posts into your backup without having to start over from the beginning)

It allows you to only save posts under a certain tag like T3

It allows you to save only original posts

It's the only one I've found that lets you back up your liked posts

What do I see as the main reasons to opt for this option? 1) you don't care about exporting your DMs/conversations, 2) you want the ability to export only certain kinds of posts (original, photos, using a tag, etc), (okay now we get to the points that aren't also covered by T3), 3) you want posts to export already broken into folders, whether by post or by month, 4) you want to back up your likes, 5) you don't care what file names look like, 6) you're comfortable with the command line/coding and don't need a UI.

Summary:

None of these options are ideal for reuploading your files anywhere (except WordPress), but I do think TumblThree is the best of the options because of the written HTML formatting in the txt files being useful for websites that support automatic conversion (or require HTML input).

For starting another blog, WordPress wins. If it works. I'm trying to be generous here.

For searchability, T3 wins again.

For versatility... yeah you know it's T3, but tumblr-utils has a lot of the same features, too!

For sentimentality (aka conversations), it has to be the native export. There literally is not any other option.

For queues and drafts, the only theoretical option is WordPress. If it works.

For likes, the only option is tumblr-utils.

Every option does something the others don't, so theoretically to cover everything, you have to do all four options. Actually I would say do the native export if you don't have a lot of posts and aren't a freak like me, check it out, and if it doesn't work (I know it's finnicky) or you don't like the export, go with TumblThree. This also means you'll at least have your conversations even if you don't end up using the native export any other way.

And I wish it could go without saying, but don't repost people's shit, y'all. I'm backing up everything for my records only and it will never be shared with anyone else, or even browsed as long as using Tumblr instead is an option.

TumblThree adding to old backup quirks, recommended settings, & master file backup solution:

Adding to backup quirks:

From my tests, when you scan a blog you've already backed up to just add new posts to it, it does not update the master file, so if you want to update it, you'll have to do the steps I list at the end of this post. It might be possible it does update if you force rescan, but I highly doubt it.

If you scan a blog you previously backed up under more restrictive settings - say you only backed up original text posts as one file before and now you've selected to back up absolutely everything - it will only download up until the time you last backed up that blog. It will not blow past where you last downloaded to download all the photos and videos it didn't get before just because they're selected now. This is great for doing after using the master file solution I'm showing below, but if you do need to download everything after doing a more restrictive scan, you can once again follow the first few steps below to do so.

Recommended settings:

This will obviously vary by what you're trying to do, but one or two things weren't immediately obvious to me and I did say I think this was the best solution for less technical users, so I want give my personal recommendations. Settings can obviously be found under the settings button at the bottom of the screen (you may need to use the scrollbar on the UI for, which is separate from the scrollbar on the blogs panel), but when you click on a blog, when you click "Details" in the right sidebar, you can also see your most important settings at a glance and adjust them to whatever you want them to be "per blog". I believe TumblThree remembers what you last used for the blog and applies the things in settings only to new/other blogs.

The thing that is going to vary the most is how many different types of posts you want to back up (text, video, reblogs included, etc), so I'll leave that up to you. If you're going to export a media type, though, I generally recommend exporting the metadata too.

I already gave my preferred file names above and again that's going to be something that varies a lot by people. Hover over the "Filename template" box and it will give you all the options in the legend you can combine via underscores.

Leave "Skip .gif files" off unless you're hurting for hard drive space. This removes all the gifs from your download, and the reason this is provided as a separate setting is because gifs have relatively massive files (at least compared to a text file)

I'll be honest I haven't seen a difference between turning on and off "Group photo sets". Because of the way file names work, most conventions will naturally lead to photos from the same post all being in a row.

"Save texts as individual files": if you only want texts to be saved as their master text.txt and answers.txt files, uncheck this. If you want the individual files I highly recommend you also download the master file for searching purposes, in which case my recommendation is this:

1) Select to export texts only, leaving off all media options, and uncheck the "Save texts as individual files" option. 2) Export the blog. This will only result in two files, answers.txt and texts.txt. 3) Move these files elsewhere on the computer to save them. 4) With T3 closed, delete the folder for the blog and the blog's Indexes (see instructions at the end of this post for finding these). 5) Reopen T3, which shouldn't remember it ever saw the blog and create a new folder for it. Turn on the "Save texts as individual files", as well as any other media posts you want to download. 6) Export the entire blog again. 7) Move the texts.txt and answers.txt file back into the blog's folder.

I leave all other options on the Details tab off, except for:

"Force rescan" scans past the point it last backed up and searches the whole blog again. If you have a big blog, this is going to burn time. This is needed for the number of downloaded items in the panel to be accurate but I don't know why you would care or turn this on unless it lets you skip steps 3-4 above, but my blog is too big to burn through testing that, so if you try it, let me know and I'll update this post!

Master file backup solution:

See my 7 steps from above to skip having to do this, but if you accidentally do things out of order and then realize you still need the master files for texts post after backing everything else up, here's how you get it with minimal pain:

T3 will make an "Index" folder in both the main folder for the program where the exe is located and the destination folder where you have your blogs backing up (note: these were two very different places for me, if you just have it back up to the automatic Blogs folder within T3's folder, it might not create a second Index folder).

To make T3 "forget" what it has backed up previously so it goes through to the beginning and makes a master file that includes everything, all you have to do is remove the Index file(s) for the blog while it's closed so it doesn't remember it anymore. I backed my index up in another folder.

Check off for it to only download text posts, and then uncheck the "Save texts in individual files" option. This will cause it to only create the master answers.txt and texts.txt file on the rescan.

The combination of only going for one post type and only downloading one file for it means this rescan is relatively fast. When you look at your Blogs folder, you'll find a new folder has been created for your blog name (in my case, there was "n7punk" and "n7punk_2) and your output is in the new folder. I just moved it over to the original folder.

At this point you can restore the indexes, though I've only gotten it to half recognize them. I can get it to recognize my original n7punk folder so everything can stay there, but the total downloaded items is stuck at what it was when I did just the text posts. I don't really care, it was mainly the folder thing I wanted to fix. If you have lag between your last full backup and your master-only backup, this might cause some issues? I don't know because I made sure there wasn't lag, so I recommend doing another backup to add any missing items before doing this method.

You can also use this technique if you want to download only your original posts and then download everything else to a second folder. Adjust the setting to only download original posts, download the whole blog, close T3 and delete the indexes, rename the folder to whatever you want ("n7punk_original", etc), and then reopen T3 and set it to download everything and run it again from the start.

[alicelufenia]

I've finished up reading book 2 of Pale Lights

And with that, I'm officially caught up with ALL of EE's writing! It took about 3 months (I think I started and finished on the same day - the 27th of December and of March respectively) but it feels like no time at all at the same time.

Thoughts time, and anticipation for book 3 and what lies in the future for ErraticErrata.

To start off, for anyone interested in the series but hasn't heard the news, Pale Lights will no longer be updating on WordPress, but will instead live on the (functionally more friendly to read on) Royal Road site. Which is fine by me, as it means cover art to show off, and @gwennafran's gorgeous designs. [book 1 and book 2] I love the choice of scene for book 1, probably Tristan's best chapter in Lost Things, while book 2's cover is a brilliant visualization of the Great Orrery, and our main setting for the series (probably).

Getting into spoilers below:

I'm just gonna lead with this: words cannot express how VINDICATED I feel to have been in Angie's corner since the very beginning, despite all the hate her character gets! Huh, it seems like now EVERYONE in the Thirteenth Brigade is a Problematic Fave.

Shame, that.

Except Izel, maybe, he's shaping up to be Just a BigLittle Guy like Tristan pretends but for real. I'm watching you, Coyac. You'll get your time, lad.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I was totally on the money in calling Scholomance Murder Harvard in my book 1 thoughts. I like that we've reached the point that "fantastical school designed to train Elite Badasses in the most unethical way imaginable" has become such a solid trope, there's no need to make comparisons to any hypothetical wizard schools that would remain unnamed or I'll block you on sight. I know that I was imagining book 1 as a really ambitious Blades in the Dark campaign with some custom rules for contracts, but now I'm picturing in my head a full on Pale Lights-flavored hack that introduces the 7 different covenants as the playbooks, corruption rules for aether entity possession, gloam exposure and sainthood—as much as I've waffled between systems to place the Guide in, I think Pale Lights fits nicely into the Forged in the Dark family of games. Especially since, by book 2's end, everyone in the Thirteenth has leveled up their capacity for intrigue and skullduggery, and not just killing/blowing shit up. More on that later.

Something I've noticed EE does regularly is he'll write one "book" that is technically two in one, as the plots on Tolomentara and at Scholomance are pretty neatly separated from those on Asphodel, such that I could see them being divided up in a hypothetical future publication. I've gotten a look at his latest AMA, and it doesn't seem like that's in the plans, aside from tightening up the part 1 pacing, but I can't be the only one who feels this way, and not just because the Guide is getting this treatment.

Not that it's a negative in any way, I enjoyed both sequences immensely, and how the characters changed and grew over even this single book is honestly really impressive. You can really tell he's gotten everyone to where he wants them to really start rolling on this series (assuming it's going to be as long lived as the Guide and not wrapped up in 3 or 4 books total).

That being said, phew it was really touch and go in that first part, huh? The thing they don't tell you about Bands of Misfits, is that they're often Misfits for a reason, and won't necessarily work well with each other just cause they're all equally anti-social/unhinged. And man, the way this team fights with each other, UGH, it gets BRUTAL at so many times. Like, Hakram and Catherine's fight was cathartic and rough, but things get ugly between members of the Thirteenth, and they don't really get better until they've all been reforged in the fire of Asphodel's revolution.

And speaking of one of those fights, uuuuh so this was probably real funny for anyone reading my book 1 thoughts and was caught up on this one, when I laid out how there's no way Song could have been the one to have shot Isobel back on the island. And no, "Song and Ferranda both shot her" doesn't change that, the intent and attempt was there and she'd do it again. Damn. So two things about that; my biggest reason to disbelieve it originally was because if that was the case, it was a phenomenally stupid thing for Song to do if she intended for Angharad to remain an ally. And not only was it still a terrible idea, not coming clean about it at the end of the trials when all was revealed was what sealed the betrayal, as far as Angharad was concerned. Which, yeah, that would have been the time to come clean, but sadly the Song from Dominion is not the same as the Song from Asphodel in terms of lessons learned. In her attempts to keep her "hand on the chisel" as she puts it, she treated those around her as her hammer, her tools, and that's something she had to learn not to do the hard way.

The second thing about that is, since we've now confirmed that, since she did in fact shoot Isobel, then we all can agree she definitely also shot Lan later on when they were all escaping the battle with the devils, yeah? She was down and wounded, Angie charging into danger after her, only for Lan to then be taken out in the exact way she thought Isobel had been shot (spun from the impact to account for her facing). Which is immediately followed by Song shouting for Angharad to come back out of danger. In fact that also answers how Isobel died facing Song and Ferranda, as it wouldn't have made sense for her to turn back to face them while they were all running from hollows; shot went through her head from behind and spun her, making it appear from Angharad's perspective that she was shot from the front and spun around (I guess muskets don't leave obvious exit wounds compared to entrances? I have no idea.)

That second thing hasn't actually come up yet, as only Tristan seems to remember Ju and Lan, but if it ever does, I called it.

Anyway, yeah I knew that Angie was gonna be mad about that. Emotion-manipulation contract or not, it still means Song executed someone she cared about but even worse, made that choice for supposedly her own good. Honestly I think Angharad took it pretty well despite how furious she was during their argument, if I had Angie's skills I can't say I'd trust myself with my sword at hand during that conversation.

I'm still glad it came out eventually, even though Angharad had to ask not once, but twice, for a straight answer from Song. Especially since that first time was right after Song was saved by Maryam's shade and woke up to the fact she needed to connect better with her squadmates, and then just didn't apply that to Angie. Needless to say I was not a fan of Song for a while there, but by the time of her dealings with the Yellow Earth and her dealing with the assassination attempt on Evander I was back in her court. In fact I'm gonna say everyone in the Thirteenth were lowered in my estimates at some point or another, only to rise back up and exceed my expectations.

Which I think is definitely something EE as an author is just amazing at; letting characters make mistakes, be genuinely flawed and at times unlikable people, and then put them through a crucible where they are forced into a position where they need to, not just trust someone, but put their faith in them. And come out the other end a somewhat better person, and better for it as well. I eat it up every time :D

Speaking of, the last few chapters were real standouts, it's kinda hard to pick a favorite, but by far the most impactful ones were Tristan and Maryam. Izel is here! And Cressida... is not a friend, but she's still in the story, which is good cause I like her. And Maryam! She has a sister, and she's her Stand! What? Okay! And their big moment was so cool, Tristan being willing to die by Maryam's side was barely a footnote in the same chapter by comparison, and that was also a moment of amazing sweetness.

So book 2 ends at pretty much the most cliffhanger cutoff point. How is everyone reacting to Angie staying on? How frigid are Maryam and Song toward Izel? Is anyone gonna ask about why Maryam now has a ghost popping out of her chest? Does Hooks count as a member of the Thirteenth? I have so many questions!

Speaking of new members, with Izel added on, EE has confirmed two more figures in the banner

So it now is confirmed to be Song - - Angie - - Izel - - Maryam - - Tristan - - ????

I have no clue on who the sixth member is. I'm not banking on anyone we know so far, it seems more likely to me they'll be someone introduced in book 3, same with how Izel was introduced to us and recruited in the same book.

I also notice the brigade membership cap happens to also be the same as the number of covenants at Scholomance. So far we have Academy/Stripes (Song), Skiritai/Militants (Angharad), Akellare/Navigators (Maryam), Krypteia/Masks (Tristan), and now Umuthi/Tinkers (Izel). All we're missing are Peiling/Savants (Scholars) and Arthashastra/Laurels (Diplomats). Hmmm. Given that Hooks has access to the Cauldron, were she to somehow end up in a separate covenant she could be Peiling with all that knowledge, but I have a feeling she's more attached to Maryam (being her Nav and all). So we have the potential for TWO more members from what are so far the two covenants we know the least about.

I'm looking forward to the next book taking place back on Tolomentara, I really liked that place and wanted to see more. A deadly school that's trying to eat you while you attend class is amazing, and there's still so much potential there. And now that everyone has been through their second major adventure, and, as I said before, seem to be at the place where EE wanted them to be so they can actually be a functional team for once, I look forward to what further intrigue they're going to get into.

So far it seems their skill sets have grown more broad rather than deep; Angie is slightly better at using her contract in a fight, but where she really excels with it now is information gathering, espionage that's nearly undetectable (able to know what's in a safe without opening it? Potentially busted when it comes to intrigue!). Song reading people better will make her both a better leader and tactician, if not any more deadly with a gun. Maryam and Hooks have a literal library in their brain(s). And Tristan has the potential to have gotten the biggest boost compared to any of them with his probability sight, but could lead to him taking more risks and leaps of faith, as he just did.

I feel like we're also gonna see what genre the book is gonna land in come book 3. We've broadened out from pure dark fantasy this time, but since what the team seems to be building themselves toward is getting deeper into intrigue and skullduggery, and then thriving in chaos when it inevitably breaks out, I can't really say we're gonna go full high fantasy again like in the Guide. Like Asphodel was the Thirteenth punching WAY above their weight class, and that was given circumstances lining up for them to even attempt it. But as a hint of what's some of the bigger threats out in the world? That was thoroughly demonstrated, and will likely have consequences for what further instructions/assignments they get now.

I have to say, it feels really nice to finally be caught up, and to actually be waiting on reading weekly updates instead of binging. This must be a fraction of what One Piece fans feel when they've caught up. I like it :)

Until next time (which shouldn't be too long, I may do more live reading highlights now that I can take my time)

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Heyyyy totally random but if Tumblr ever goes up in smoke, is there another place you hang out online?

There are a few places I lurk, but none where I actually post besides here. A couple of Discords, but even there I'm not really active in posting, just use them for specific purposes.

There are many things wrong with Tumblr, but I don't think the internet has an equivalent to it. I like that you can post anything you want on any topic, instead of following each specific subsection's rules like on Reddit. I guess Instagram allows that too, but Instagram has actual celebrities on it, which is horrifying to me. Same with other mainstream social media options. And even if it weren't for the political connotations, can you imagine me trying to distill my ramblings into a Twitter thread?

Discord has a similar thing to Reddit, in that you're posting in a community thread with predetermined rules about the topic and responding to other people, rather than just being able to say anything. Also, while Discord's private nature is very useful for some things, I do use my Tumblr posts to try to find people who share my niche interests and want to chat about them, and I don't already know enough of those people to want to take this out of the public sphere. I just want to be in a part of the public sphere that's only for nerds and does not contain any of the actual famous people I write about.

There is a comedy message board where I lurk quite frequently and occasionally I'll get annoyed enough about something that gets said there so that I'll come on Tumblr and respond to it to people who don't have the context and it doesn't make sense. But I haven't got the confidence to actually post on there.

If Tumblr did go up in smoke, I might start a substack or a WordPress or something. But they don't have the same social functions as Tumblr, and like I said, I like using this site to make friends. But making friends entirely on my own terms, by posting my own thoughts that don't have to follow any existing discussions. There's a reason this place is the autistic people's sanctuary.

I've actually hardly posted on Tumblr for the last couple of weeks, I got very busy + fell down a couple of rabbit holes that made me so busy consuming comedy I didn't have time to stop and write about it. But I have a few posts I'm working on at the moment, and I'll be back. I'll keep coming back here until this site goes up in smoke.

[echoweaver]

So, I played the Riffins for the first time since I dunno. The first serious time on the new computer, definitely.

I have a bunch posts worth of screenshot backlog for all of my saves, I think, so in theory I could start posting again now. It's really just a matter of doing it.

What follows is some geeking that may interest nobody, but this is just how I roll.

The first silly thing is that I now have screenshots in 16:10 aspect ratio. On my old computer, I ran Windows at a low resolution partly for performance and partly because I could keep the 4:3 aspect ratio, i.e. a much narrower display for the same height. My reasoning is that when you post pics, either on Wordpress or here, the width of the image determines the size you see. A wider aspect ratio gets sized down to the width of the dashboard you're looking at, and everything is smaller. In my current setup. I pretty much have to run at a higher screen resolution, and it looks awfully nice honestly. Sims 3 doesn't have any 4:3 aspect ratio options for modern computer resolutions. I may see if I can hack it in the options file. If I can't, it'll be reeeealy obvious when I move on to the new gameplay 🤷‍♀️.

For technical nerds, if in fact there are any reading this, I'm experimenting with playing the game on Codeweavers Crossover, a distribution of wine, which in turn is an implementation of Windows API for Mac users. I have traditionally played the game on a Windows virtual machine in Parallels. Running an entire second operating system in order to play one game is a bit much, but you do what you can do. I have messed around in Mac 64-bit, and it does really super smoothly for a new game, but it doesn't support core mods (no ErrorTrap or UntranslatedKey), and existing saves (at least modded ones) have not for me without crashing.

I tried Sims with Crossover on my old Intel Mac (man that thing was so top-of-the-line six years ago), and it ran delightfully fast and crashed within 10 minutes. Crossover has done a lot of updates to its 32-bit support since then, but only for the newer Mac architecture. Now that I have one of these fancy Apple Silicon doohickies, I tried again. The play was not as dizzyingly fast as it was on Intel, with the advantage that it played smoothly with all mods for an entire session of about 1.5 hours. Sooooo.... maybe this will work? I don't want to jinx it. I do have Parallels+Windows to run some other stuff if this doesn't cut it.

I'm not even going to try Reshade. It's too exciting that this no-Windows approach might actually work at all. Plus with the higher resolution and the lack of Windows, the game just looks better to me anyway.

I haven't tried to play the Samples yet with all their weird skintones and custom everything. The decades history challenge might even be worse in that regard. The Riffins at least run in an EA world. We. Shall. See.

[patopansir]

Reddit is full of contrarians

I should try another website. I really wish I had a better hobby I could do during my break at work. Maybe I should start a wordpress or tumblr (Hi :D)

Not always, but sometimes, I am faced with a full table of contrarians when I share something to help people. Recently a small one liner to find every package you have installed that has a bin version, there was another time where I shared noise-repellent which removes background noise, and this time recently another user shared their extension that removes any element you select from a website.

When you shared what you make often times users act like they have to perform an audit on what you shared and put you under great scrutiny. Which is something I can appreciate sometimes because it helps you improve, but on Reddit it is very often that people take a stretch to devalue what you had shared and they don't actually help. They are blatantly wrong when they criticize you or disregard things you said, they demand for changes that aren't necessary, or they tell you to forget about your work and to use the alternative instead. It's ironic that this platform is also extremely against haters and doesn't like that they put things under great scrutiny (linux) or point out a small flaw.

There's just no thank you, or even a like. Just, not a shred of a positive interaction. Every time I always feel tempted to feel regret. The only reason I don't feel regret is because I try to make myself the main motivator for my actions rather than relying on the approval of others. It's because of that that I feel satisfied with what I did.

I try to not pay attention to the score because what it represents never makes sense to me, and it is biased in a very bizarre manner. It doesn't feel like it truly represents the real count of votes. The way it works is bizarre to me. When I talk about the way people interact with me with their comments, I find it hard to not thinking that the votes are highly representative of their behavior.

But, again, like I said. **Not always, but sometimes**. I shared the exact same thing on another part of Reddit, and even though no one said "thank you for sharing" people pressed that upvote. I share this because this is still pretty common regardless, and it's been a problem for more than 5 years. I used to have an account on Reddit before this one. I left that account because I got fed up with the way this site works for this very reason. I came back on a new account for many reasons. I may find enjoyment on the website, but I will never like the site itself. It influences every problem I face with the interactions I have here.

[b0oker18]

Ooh, saw your IWTB tags:

I think I love the movie as it could have been, rather than what it is. And that dissonance between what it could have been-- the simplicity of that possibility-- and the reality that hits me every once in a while makes meeeeeeeeeeeeee not like it even more. XDDDD

But truly, if it had been well done? The movie of all time. It had all the beats I would've liked in a movie: cinematography, score, main lead actors, etc. etc. So, I 100% understand. (Same with the Revival lovers: I get it, I just don't think it happened as we would have wished, y'know?)

Anyway, HAPPY EARLY NEW YEAR!!!!!! :DDDDDD

@randomfoggytiger I completely understand what you are saying, and I certainly don't disagree!

I think the reason why I love IWTB is for purely for nostalgia. It was my gateway into The X Files. Wayyy back in the day my Dad, who is also a huge X Files fan rented the movie on netflix (back in the DVD days) I watched it on a whim and I completely fell in love with the characters and the universe. I think I watched just about every episode on MegaVideo in under 6 months until I eventually saved up enough money and bought every season on DVD.... Those were good times!

Trust me, the amount of mental gymnastics I have to perform for this movie to make any any sense would impress an olympic athlete but as I've stated in the past, its a movie I can't help but love. I often wonder how different the movie could have been if there was no writers strike as it was being filmed, but alas we will never know.

However I will say, reading the IWTB novel helped me process the movie a little better. I think it does a decent job at getting into Scully's headspace and makes her decisions a little more... understandable I guess? But that may just be pure copium on my part XD. Its like $7 on amazon if you ever want to read it but if you don't trust me, I understand. In some ways I think it's better than the movie honestly BUT it has some lines of dialog that are just bad, really bad.

I 100% agree with you on the revival. When I watched it live I loved it like most everyone else but as time went on I started poking holes in it. To the point where I really don't like it anymore. Its funny how the Revival doesn't hold anywhere near the level of nostalgia that IWTB holds.

Also, I recently rediscovered a WordPress article that heavily criticizes the revival that was written by a hardcore X Files fan. Its very long and it can be just a little too nitpicky at times but I think It's well written and I pretty much agree with everything the writer said. I think you would find it interesting: https://xfilesanalysis.wordpress.com/

Sorry for the long post, but sometimes I gotta vent this shit out and this is the only platform I can do it on and not be judged XD

Happy new year to you as well my friend!

[drbased]

Why tumblr, and not wordpress, or medium, or substack?

When I started writing, I had an instinctual trust that I knew what I was talking about, but I had for so long locked my own subjectivity into its own pocket dimension inside my head and discounted my ability to be in any way comprehensible. So it made intuitive sense to me to begin writing on a platform where I could get immediate feedback from others. Tumblr facilitates a sense of communication and community, which is something you can't really get from those other platforms.

But moreover, as per my relationship with self-imposed obligation - or 'perfectionism', as you may call it - I made a deliberate choice to write on a platform that doesn't require me to write long, thought-out essays. I've discovered I enjoy rogue-like video-games for the exact same reason: the less pressure I have to do something 'in full', or for a certain length of time, the more I can end up in flow and paradoxically end up doing more of it. I don't start my writing with the intention of creating something extraordinarily long - I do so because communicating ideas is validating, gratifying, and I guess fun to me.

I still have that 'tug' of obligation - it's essentially an addiction, except it's an addiction that is easily accessible 24/7. I think the closest analogue is being a workaholic or having an eating disorder - on the surface, you're doing things that a lot of people value as healthy self-discipline, but that means it's extraordinarily difficult to register them as problems. Moreover, the fact that you need to eat and you need to work means that if you have a disordered relationship with these things you can never fully escape them, unlike say an addiction to alchohol which you can go the rest of your life never touching. But even with those things there's a theoretical element of compartmentalisation which I can't have (I hope this comes across in the matter-of-fact way it was intended; I am not ranking mental disorders nor claiming to be uniquely cursed): I have to always have some level of consciousness and make very present decisions not to feed this addictive desire - it is still hard for me to parse the difference between real-life consequences and my deep-seated belief that negative consequences = a bad grade in the life-long classroom that is life.

I take a while responding to anons such as this for this reason, and there are two major components to this. One, I have this craving to be understood/comprehensible, and for other people to be interested in me - I want to be validated as per my desire to recieve a 'good grade' at life in the form of positive consequences. But also, the fact that someone has sent me a message at all then sparks that sense of obligation to respond. I know logically that nobody sending a message, especially anonymously, desires an instant response or would judge me for not responding - and even if they did, I would think they were a major asshole. But it's still not habitual yet for me to internalise that feeling. I'm still working on parsing the difference between wanting to respond because 1. I like writing about stuff 2. I like sharing knowledge/what I've learned and 3. I like not disappointing people when they ask questions - and feeling obligated to respond because of some bizarre sense that the person would judge me for being messy, inconsistent and rude, and said person then becoming some conduit for the universe's omnipresent judgment of my character, as if I'm going to show up at the pearly gates and someone will tut-tut at my long list of times I've minorly inconvenienced someone else by being a human being with a personality.

One thing about the nature of tumblr that really helps is that even if I'm 'doing it wrong', then jesus christ there are people on this platform who are doing it even wrongerer. I know logically that that is not a metric I want to be living my life by - but we're all human and we do compare ourselves to others, and I'll take whatever psychological comforts I can get. There is a possibility that I will never feel at ease with writing 'properly', and I don't feel as comfortable knowing that as I would like - my self-awareness has me recognising that I still desire to 'work towards' writing properly, but I am also trying to be aware that if that ever does happen, it will be my choice at the time, so until then I must trust that I know what I'm doing, and so I will continue to post my long pieces here.

On a more practical, lizard-brain level, I just believe that I wouldn't get as much traction on another platform. There's something vaguely cold and unfeeling about writing essays on these other more traditional platforms - that sense that you're sending stuff into the void seems so palpable that I can detect it without having to try. Also here I can block people, and make sure my message is recieved and absorbed by my intended audience. Using those other platforms feels way too public, too accessible by bad actors, and it's dangerous enough to be talk about feminist theory online as it is. I like that I can monitor responses to what I write in real time - whenever a post of mine 'breaks containment', that's when I get a hate anon. And of course I can see people reblogging my stuff with their weak-ass copypasta deliberate misunderstandings of radfem theory, which is always a satisfying reminder that what I write is so out of the scope of what the bad actors are willing to engage with. In short, it just feels safer writing here, yanno? And number go up. I like seeing number go up.

[whimsicaldragonette]

Blog Tour: The Bump by Sidney Karger

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Publication Date: June 1, 2024

Welcome to The Bump Blog Tour with Berkley Publishing Group. (This Blog Tour post is also posted on my Wordpress book blog Whimsical Dragonette.)

Synopsis:

Two men expecting a baby via surrogate go on the road trip of a lifetime in this hilarious and poignant novel by Sidney Karger, author of Best Men. Wyatt Wallace is a practical, super organized director of TV commercials. Biz Petterelli is a child-actor-turned-magazine-writer who thrives on spontaneity. Though polar opposites, they are fully committed to their relationship and their life in Brooklyn with their dog, Matilda. They’re also about to have a baby together. And they’re freaking out. They’ve both dreamed of becoming parents, but now that it’s happening, they’re doubting everything. Their baby is due in a few weeks and instead of flying to California just before the birth as planned, Biz has a better idea. They could use one last hurrah, along with some serious “us-time” to mend the issues they’ve been having lately—before they get tied down by fatherhood and its impending responsibilities. So the daddies-to-be load up their 1992 Volkswagen Cabriolet and embark on an epic cross-country babymoon. They attempt to recharge at the beach in Provincetown, stumble through their impromptu baby shower in Chicago, and endure a Star Wars -themed wedding in Colorado before heading west for the baby.   But when they take several unexpected detours, old wounds are reopened and secrets spill out that could change their relationship for better or for worse, forcing the couple to reexamine the meaning of family while building their own. After all, what’s a road trip without a few bumps along the way?

My Rating: ★★★

*My Review below the cut.

My Review:

This was good, if a bit over the top for me. It was campy in a way that just doesn't appeal to me because it didn't really feel authentic and I could never get behind the characters 100% even though I did find many parts amusing.

What I really did appreciate was the topic. Road trip? Been done. Two men on a save the relationship road trip to reconnect before their baby is delivered? I haven't seen that before. If it had been slightly less over-the-top and I'd found the characters more relatable, I would have absolutely loved it.

As it was clearly intended to be a humorous and somewhat campy road trip, the situations and characters encountered, including Wyatt and Biz's family members and friends, were all over the top to the point that they felt like stereotypes. But then sometimes they would break through the stereotype and feel more real, and that I did enjoy.

It was told in alternating POV style, but for some reason whenever we were in Wyatt's POV and Biz said something, the dialogue tag would be Wyatt saying how Biz felt about it. The same happened in Biz's POV when Wyatt spoke. It was really strange and kept taking me out of the story because it didn't make sense for the characters to know what the other person was thinking, so maybe it was all assumptions? But it happened just about every time anything was said.

Wyatt and Biz also argued and were resentful and childish toward one another for the entire book. I was hoping they'd work things out, and a couple times thought they might, and then they'd revert to sniping at each other. It didn't give me a whole lot of confidence about their ability to handle actually raising a child together. The way it's told it's as if seeing the baby delivered magically fixes everything, cue the adorable 6 years later epilogue.

I liked it enough to continue to read the whole book, however, and I think it will appeal to a lot of people. Especially those who enjoy campy over the top humor.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for providing an early copy for review.

[walkingwiththegods1]

What I learned from an Headblind Godspouse, when I'm Psychic myself; and a Solitary Pagan. (Or... Why all the serious voices in Paganism, matter!)

In case you doesn't know yet, @darkamberdragon decided to leave Paganism; which is a news than saddens me, 'cause I had been her follower for many years; and bloggers so dedicated in what they do like her... Are not common in these days, when people just glossed the happy and almost perfect lifestyle that brings Paganism, and intentionally hide the not so glorious part of it. She was different: She said everything, and... I couldn't have been more thankful for a blooger liker her, that lives her life offline too and teached us in the same time; how to navigate in this path full of uncertainty; each and every day of our lives.

I doing this post, to honour the work and time than @darkamberdragon gave us in all the years she wrote her journey and experiences through LiveJournal; WordPress, Facebook... And Tumblr. Also, because she is one of the main reasons I dared to write about my own experiences with Deities online, despite than a I'm a shy person myself and a lonely Pagan; for lack of support for religious minorities in my nation, and... To encourages to any of you than feels or have felt, than because you can't hear; sense or see to The Gods or Spirits, you can't be a blogger. (Is not true: Of course, you can!.. Your voice is equally as important and valid, for all of us.)

And, now... What I learned from Dark Amber Dragon, through almost 11 years; as her follower and fan:

Devotion, Spirituality and Faith, is more important than been a Psychic/Medium: If you are serious in your path, does devotional work at the extent of your capacities and time; you are persistent in your Spiritual's Life, and your Faith is strong, even if sometimes we have doubted... You don't have to be a Psychic to be in Paganism, or for to be a Pagan Blogger.

Telling the not so good things... Teaches us more than the good things we experiences: We are so contaminated by the ''All is Happiness, Friendships and Music, here!...'' Than most of us doesn't want to hear about the negative part of being Pagans: Loss of Friends than abandoned us for our choice, the suffering than came with this path; Dealing with Loneliness and the despise of people than we knew, etc. That part, is needed to be said or wrote too; 'cause maybe someone than thinks they are suffering alone; or believes than they may be broke somehow, because ''Everybody is happy, but me: I must be doing something wrong...'' … Realizes than all of us have bad days and bad times, too. (Besides... I learned than I wasn't the only one harrased by spirits than mades me doubted of myself, and/or my relation with The Divine.) Another thing I learned from her without even trying, is than when you say than things with Deities have their not so good moments; is... Than maybe you can help to someone else to gives them a solution to their issues with Deities or Spiritual Beings, or at least than they will live with less anguish and more in peace. (If you have an experiences than wasn't totally perfect, post it when you feel ready: Who knows... You can help a person in need of help, to live in peace!)

Believing without Seeing, is a reward in itself: You maybe are unable to see or hear to your Deities... That doesn't matter! (Many others can, but... They still doesn't believe: They make excuses like they wasn't okay that day, they said to themselves than it didn't happen; than they imagine what they hear and/or saw; and after Deities get tired of being so rudely ignore, and left... They are the first in ask ''For a sign or miracle'', in their time of despair!) I believe in Deities, a few years before they started to appear in my life: I was rewarded for only believe, in the same way one of my favorite bloggers was! And, even if you never saw them or hear them in real life then; remember this: Most of The Pagan Community is like you, than ocassionally have visits in dreams with their Deities; so don't worry about it, because... You are in a very good company!

Being Rational and Research is key, in this path: Something than people doesn't know about depression, is than a rare sympton; is... Alucinations! (I have suffered that sympton, most of my life.) Thanks to reading to @darkamberdragon talking about Discernment, as an important part of an Spiritual's Path and in Paganism; I started to trained myself to learn to distinguish between Visions and Alucinations: Thanks to that, I realized than when Spirits and/or Deities acted in ways than terrified me; BUT... I wasn't feeling their energies at all, I realizes than it was only an Alucination; so I was able to detached emotionally of the scene till it ended, after many seconds of anguish of my part. Other important thing about being Rational when you are a Religious/Spiritual person... Is than if we spended thinking in Spirituality and/or Religion 24/7, then we are risking our personal life in The Human World: That's why Discernment is an habit that will keep us with our feet in the ground, to avoid to loses all that we can acomplish; when we put our Spiritual's Life, as our only priority. Research, is vital when you are posting about a complex subject as Religion; Spirituality; Occultism, Magic, Metaphysics and/or Paganism: @darkamberdragon, when she posted about any of these subjects; she delivered each post that was worthy to be read once and again for the interesting info in it; and for her impeccable writing. (I even learned a few things about life in Norway: Now I'm doing the same, but adding Taino Words and Myths when I have the chances to introduces them; and the subject justify to uses them, of course!)

Relations with Deities, have ''Their Highs and Lows...'' I thoughted I was the only one, with relations with Deities, than feels like ''One day, I woke up in Heaven!... And the next, in Hell!'' (For ten years, my relation with The Goddess of Love and The Trickster; was like that: When both were lovely and caring for me; and in others... They said hurtful things to me, and changes their appareances in a way that scared me; and leaved me alone for hours and days to no end, while I was crying and wondering if I should stay with them; or leave to both of them, for good: One day, after ten years of that... Both of them just appeared and hugged me, and after that hug and felt than their energies been the same as the time I met them; I knew than all that rough time, was finally over!) But she too talked about it, and I realized than relations with Deities, are not always harmonious and a constant source of emotional security: Sometimes, it can makes you fearful than you are doing something wrong; and the true thing is... The longer you are in any relation, (Be it with Deities, Humans; or Anything in between) the biggest the chances than you will have at least one or two moments of ''Fight, get angry; walk away... And wishing to never see to each other, again!''

Taking time to healed yourself of any Illness, or for taking care of your Emotional Wellbeing; is a duty to yourself and others: @darkamberdragon, had a time where she needed to attend to her health: I waited patiently, until she was better enough to write again. If you have to leave for a while, just said it and returned when everything is solved; or almost solved: If you continued to write so you doesn't loses your followers, you are not doing any favour to them; and neither to yourself. (If they really loves you and cares for you, they will stayed until you are better; and, if they doesn't stayed... They wasn't worthy of your time: Forget them... You will have better followers, someday!)

And, the last part of my post about what I learned from Darkamber Dragon, is... There is still Honesty and True in online blogs: As a Psychic, I have times where I don't feel the intentions of people, in and out of Internet. (It took me YEARS, to start to feel the energies of people in websites and blogs; with the good, and mostly the ugly part) After a few experiences online than left me crying and away of blogs for weeks... I can tell you one thing with total certainty: @darkamberdragon, is one of the few bloggers than I have felt she has been truthful in every and each single post, including the last one she posted. Another thing, I have to said; is than in all the time I have been reading her in LJ, WP; and Tumblr... Is than she is one of the few bloggers than I have followed, than was honest in all, including her devotion to each of her sites, and to her followers. (I wrote her, with my now lost account of Yahoo!; and for my surprise and joy, she answered my message: I was thrilled, 'cause I wasn't expecting than she answered it. [It was only a few words, but... I was in a very bad moment, and those few words... Were all that I need to go on, in life: Never underestimate the power of say something important, in the right moment!)

I saw many Pagan Sites, where bloggers sounded very serious and committed in this path; but... One day they left, without saying why they were leaving; or without say goodbye: I waited for days, weeks; months; a year, two years or more; until I realized than they onlywas posting ''Because Paganism was the trend in that moment'', or maybe they doesn't had the enough conviction in their beliefs; or simply the social pressure was to much and they backed to mainstream religions...

…@darkamberdragon, respect and care for all of us enough; to tell us why she left; and to at least say goodbye, to all of us: She is a human being than deserves our respect and admiration, 'cause she standed for all she believed and did in all this time, while I saw others leaving their blogs after a few months or years posting; and she was committed in heart and soul to put her mind and all she knew, with all her experiences and time than are the most invaluable thing you can give to others; and she wasn't afraid of being vulnerable. (I hasn't learned yet, to show being vulnerable in front of others, because of bad experiences; and trust issues for Childhood's Traumas, but... I hope to being like that in the near future, soon!)

I wish to have the chance to meet her in person, or a least to saw her from afar; thriving, surrounded by loyal friends and happy... (Well, a trip with route Caribbean – Northern Europe, is not very easy to make. [...Or, cheap!]) But... If I can make that trip, and the meeting never happen; I will take it, as ''It wasn't in my Fate!...'' And, if it happens; I can talk of anything 'cause I'm a ''Library'Mouse'', myself: If doesn't have to be about Spirituality, or Paganism at all; unless she wanted to talk about any of the two.

Darkamberdragon: If you are reading this, I hope only than to you can find happiness and peace in whatever you do; from now on. Also... You are a great writer: When you feel better, write about anything you want and than really inspires you in that moment: Writing and being able to transmit what you feel, is a rare and precious gift!

We could be Pagans today, but we doesn't know if we have to leave someday; and one of the things than I love about Paganism, is than we respect the right of any person than is respectful; to become part of the Pagan Community in real life, or online... And we respect their right to leave, when the need to go to a new place to continue with their next step; in their unique Spiritual's Path in life!

This is all in this post: A part of me wished than she stay, but... A human being than have knew so many times how she must feel, and I felt the emotions in her last post as a Pagan; I can only wished than she back someday, only if is what she desires.... But if she decided to never back to Paganism and/or Spirituality, again... I only wish than all the love and time she gave us, returns to her in form of blessings and of being surround by good people; so she can heal of the pain and sadness she is feeling, the sooner possible... And she back to be happy again!

Thanks for all, @darkamberdragon: I'm really going to miss you... And than you find Happiness and Light in your life, from now on!

Than all the Pagans than has to leave this path of life, will be well treated for all The Pagans than stay; and they will always have the support and love of all their Pagan Family, Friendships; The Pagan Community at large, and from all their loyal followers... So Be It!

[kimmiessimmies]

Just a ramble about aesthetics and things

Like most of us, I also saw that aesthetics question going round and since reading it and the responses to it, I've been thinking about it more than I should, which in turn got me thinking about other things Simblr and community related and I decided to share my two cents about it as well.

The question stated in the poll was "How important do you think 'aesthetic quality' is in the simblr community?" and the answers varied immensely. Doing a quick Tumblr/Simblr scroll, the answer would have to be 'very important', because most images showing up are very gorgeous: beautiful colours, great compositions, perfect lighting. However, when I check the tab that shows which posts I have liked, the pattern changes: it's the storytellers who get most of my Tumblr hearts. And then it doesn't matter whether it's part of an elaborate story that's been going on for years with several plot twists, or just a family having breakfast. I like both equally, because both tell a story. Sure, I like a nice Sim picture as much as the next person, but for me, it will always be about the story it tells much more than the aesthetics of it.

The same is true for my own posts: I just want to tell my stories, share my Sims, my town. Yes, I sometimes post picture posts of lots I've built. At first glance, you could say that's about aesthetics more than storytelling. But it's not. Because of the way I play, everything is connected: the story is Honeycomb Valley and everything from the lots to the Sims to the seemingly random things that happen to them are all part of it. Sure, I love creating beautiful lots, but that's mostly because I like realism in my game. I like to see my sims in places that look true to life. And because this is a self-created world, it can look like the best version of that life. 😉

In taking pictures, I try to get the best angle and before posting I run my pictures through Picmonkey to do a bit of basic editing, which is mostly just an auto adjust of brightness and shadows. Literally two clicks and I'm done. I hadn't even heard of Reshade and all those other -shades until a month or two ago. 😄

I read another reply saying how everyone who has a Simblr does so for the notes, because if you're not in it for the notes, why have a Simblr in the first place? This made me laugh. I get the point, but if I was in it for the notes, I might as well leave today. I averaged around 20 notes per post during my glory days and only around 9 since returning after my hiatus. I can think of many reasons why this is:

My posts can seem very incoherent: I can be posting about James Wyler one day and about Luke Bennett the next. These two have never even crossed paths and their stories have no apparent connection whatsoever. I can imagine how this makes my stories and my Sims hard to follow for most.

I don’t post my full stories on here. Reading them requires a visit to my WordPress blog. I understand how most people just want to do a quick scroll, read, like, and move on.

I am and will forever be TS3 player. And we're simply a smaller crowd in the Simblr universe currently.

I was gone for five years.

Now, I could change all of this (except for that last one) and possibly get more followers and more notes. But I don't want to. Yes, of course, I love getting a notification saying someone liked my post. I appreciate the support and the love and it makes me very happy to see there are people out there who like the stories I write, the lots I build and feel connected to my Sims to some degree. So in that sense, I get why someone would say we're all in it for the notes. But I don't care about the quantity. I love those 9 just as much as I love the 195 I once received on my much-reblogged post of The Greenery.

So, I'm not changing a thing. I'm keeping my WordPress blog as my main Sims home because that's where everything connects. Where it does make sense that I'm posting about James on day 1 and about Luke on day 2. Where the story is Honeycomb Valley. Where you can click from a story to a Sim profile and vice versa. And my Simblr will remain a place to just post bits and pieces (and rambles like this) and to stay connected to the ones who are interested in me, my stories and my Sims. I love my 9 notes and I love the 3 people who click on to visit my WordPress blog and read my full stories a little bit extra. 😉❤️

One last thing I would like to add to this already much too-long rant is how much I miss the old Sim community. The days of the forums and the tight-knit online group us Sims veterans were. Discovering and becoming a part of the Sim community back then has meant a lot to me. I miss that. I realise I sound like a grandmother now, reminiscing about the good old days, so maybe it's time to end this post. 😄

Anyway, that's my ramble of thoughts on aesthetics, Simblrs and community. Thanks for reading. 😊

[popculturegenealogy]

A different type of family tree: Applying family history concepts to animation

"Modern Cartoon Family Tree 2.0" by AlexB9598w

This family tree is unlike any other tree I've seen before. I thought I'd do a fun one this week. It's not focused on a specific character or on the draw of family, the latter which I wrote about before. Instead, this shows the connection between people and their different shows. It all starts out with Donovan Cook and moves down from there. I think this tree is interesting in that it shows the connection between these shows. However it is also, you could say, limiting. I say that because it doesn't exactly focus on the interconnection between people. I know that, for instance, that Rebecca Sugar and Ian Jones-Quartey are married, but this chart only shows them as writers. Similarly, I know about the controversy which enveloped Twelve Forever, leading to the end of the show, and Shadi Petosky, a trans woman, becoming the executive producer of the show and having her own project on the way. Since I don't know most of these shows, I'm narrowing it down to the shows I do know and working back from there. Let's start with one of my favorite shows, Cleopatra in Space, and focusing on the executive producer of that show, Doug Langdale.

Reprinted from my Genealogy in Popular Culture WordPress blog. Originally published on August 28, 2020.

I then expanded this by looking at the companies behind each one of these productions, and it starts to look more like a bit of a tree, showing the parent companies and production companies. Keep in mind that Sony Pictures Television, as of 2002, owns both Columbia divisions, so the chart would look a little different now. Additionally, DreamWorks is now owned by Universal Pictures, a division of NBC Universal, which is, itself, owned by Comcast. So, the chart would look different today.

Now, I wanted to expand this a little more, so I originally wanted to look at all those who have been listed as being on the Cleopatra in Space crew (herein called Cleo Crew), apart from Doug Langdale. Since that was 40 people, I narrowed it down to storyboarders, which consisted of 18 people in total: Aaron Brewer,  Abigail Davies, Adam Temple, Andrew Marshel, Bob Suarez, Chris Ybarra, Derek Thompson, Eugene Huang, Gary Ye, Ingrid Kan, Kevin Slawinski, Laurianne Uy, Samantha Suyi Lee, Scooter Tidwell, Thalia Tomlinson, Topher Parnell, and Wei Li. From there, I broke it down by the overlapping shows that they had worked on. [1] I ended up narrowing it down mainly to DreamWorks shows, as you'll see in the chart below:

We learn a lot from this. For one, Chris Ybarra and Bob Suarez had worked together and/or on two of the same shows: Big Mouth and Turbo Fast. Additionally, Adam Temple and Wei Li had both worked on Carmen Sandiego, while Abigail "Abby" Davies and Laur Uy had worked on Spirit Riding Free. We also find that Bob Suarez and Laur Uy worked on the same show too. Even more fascinating is the fact that ALL of these productions were on Netflix and most, apart from Carmen Sandiego, were tied to DreamWorks. We can conclude that many of the storyboarders probably knew each other and/or had worked with one another in the past. If we combine this with the information about Doug Langdale I showed earlier, it would mean that Langdale worked on the same team as Bob Suarez and Laur Uy on The Adventures of Puss and Boots. These connections were likely part of the reason they were hired in the first place.

In sum, this is a unique family tree of sorts, which shows connections between those in the animation industry. You can see who the "parents" (like DreamWorks and Houghton Mifflin) are and who the "children" (like Bob Suarez and Laur Uy) are as well. This sort of analysis is much better than the "modern cartoon family tree" shown at the beginning of that post. That post almost treats the connections between individuals as static. I may do another one about LGBTQ animations or something else. We'll see what happens! As always, comments are welcome, as I'm deeply unsure about what I'll write about next.

© 2020-2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Notes

[1] I also found that Aaron Brewer and Eugene Huang storyboarded Little Big Awesome, which was produced by Amazon Studios and Titmouse, Inc., and that Aaron Brewer and Bob Suarez storyboarded Niko and the Sword of Light, produced by the same groups. Additionally, Frank Squillace directed Jackie Chan Adventures, while Scooter Tidwell was a storyboarder. At the same time, Bob Suarez, Frank Squillace, and Scooter Tidwell storyboarded The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Furthermore, Abigail Davies worked on Cartoon Network's Ben 10, with Scooter Tidwell as a sequence director. Finally, Frank Squillace directed Transformers: Rescue Bots while Thalia Tomlinson worked as an animator for the same show.

[20dollarlolita]

30 day lolita challenge, day 2

I haven't forgotten about this. It's just that day #2 is "10 things you love about lolita" and this crap with my local community mods deciding that they rule the world and banning someone for not knowing their made-up redefinition of a term used for a very serious crime into accidentally posting selfies without asking has made me, you know, not really love lolita right now.

So let's go.

For those of you who missed the last post, I'm doing the 30 Day Lolita Challenge (in more than 30 days) that was created in 2011 by The Random Lolita. This series is tagged "20dollarlolita 30daylorlolita challenge" in case you want to black list that tag.

Okay.

One, I love the rules. I love having a really firm guideline on what elements of a look to build and wear. I spend a lot of time in normal fashion worrying about "this is wrong" but without anyone to explain why, so I love being in a fashion where it's more spelled out.

Two, I love the details. I like that, when you zoom in on any part of a nice lolita coordinate, there's more and more to look at. I like that our dresses are the high-resolution image and the rest of the world is a 3 megapixel JPEG.

Three, I love the absolute absurdity of it. I spent almost all of high school trying to not be weird, and I think that reflects in adult me by latching onto a fashion where no one outside the fashion will think it's normal.

Four, I love the way people react when they get to see a nice piece up close. Any time i get to show a dress to a coworker or friend who sews or does fashion, and they go, "I get why you're into this." It's just so nice.

Five, I love building things myself. I know how to make a dress, but when I make a really good lolita garment, I have a price tag to compare my work to. It's kind of discouraging as someone who sews when you spend $90 and 25 hours of work to make the same blouse that you can get at Walmart for $11, so the fact that a lolita blouse can be $200 makes me feel less bad about my work. I love creating my own lolita fashion for the same reason I love making my own coords. There's a set of rules, and I get to follow those rules, and I can do absolutely anything in the world as long as I follow those rules. The level of freedom you get when you go "You can do anything as long as it's X" is something that I think everyone craves in some form or another, so I love that I'm in a hobby where that's what it is.

Six, I love how people react to my clothes. I used to joke that it was because people see the clothes and judge based on that, so no stranger is judging the rest of you. You stand out, but that makes you more anonymous. Now, I say the exact same thing, but it's not a joke. I think being somewhat socially awkward often leads people to lolita fashion. I often joke that I'm not a person, and am actually either a time-traveling android or a hallucination caused by a sentient cloud, because it feels like the entire world got a How To Be Human manual except me. Well, when you don't have the manual, you make up the rules, and wearing lolita fashion out means that I take those rules away from everyone else, too. No stranger knows how to react to this shit, so it doesn't matter that I don't know what I'm doing, either.

Seven, I love the old Livejournal and Blogger and Wordpress blogs that are still around. I'm doing a lolita challenge that's 12 years old. When you read one of those, you're connected to them through time. Our lolita ancestors aren't too far away, but even if they've left the fashion, their wisdom lives on. So many people are still being helped by @lolita-tips even though the blog is no longer active. Connected to this is every Lolibrary post made by AmethystCitrine, who died in about 10 years ago (at the age of 25), but whose contributions to the lolita community are still used every day. We're connected to the people who've helped the lolita community before us, and we're connected to the future by the resources we create today. What people have given to the community will

Eight, I love Lolibrary. Y'all ever think about how absolutely insane it is that we have every single piece of the fashion that we can get our hands on documented and easily searchable? I don't know anything else that is like that. I love just looking through various years and trends. I love finding something online and immediately having access to what year it came out. Prior to Lolibrary, there was a site called HelloLace that tried to document all lolita fashion history, but it wasn't as thorough. Even though it's long gone, every time I see HelloLace links, I'm filled with massive nostalgia.

Nine, I love connecting with people through the fashion. Seeing people who are dressed in lolita, and having a secret kind of language like JSK and OP and knowing brands, sharing Taobao shopping services, all of that. It's an immediate connection with someone. I think this links back to socially awkward people using lolita fashion to help with social skills, but it's also a kind of connection that I just love.

Ten, I love how much everything is reused. Buying broken things and fixing them, restoring or reusing or recycling things. It gives us a connection to the past. Our culture of reuse before disposing of things isn't something I see so much in the rest of my life, so I love that I can retreat into it in lolita. Skills like how to fix and modify things are much more valuable in lolita fashion than in mainstream fashion. It's just very cool to me. I love finding things as class D on Wunderwelt or Closet Child and making them valuable to me.

I don't know if that's my top 10 things, but it's ten things. If tumblr would stop absolutely forcing things with 1) at the beginning into a really ugly looking list, I'd like that.

And with that bit of semi-forced positivity, it's time to go to sleep. Good night everyone.

[chewbokachoi]

Reblogging because I don't know when to stfu + this topic is a thing that has fascinated me for forever because I was raised in fandom.

I think it's the same reason fanart itself is more popular/easier to appreciate and, at this point, consume--it's visual. A picture's worth 1000 words, a picture is something a viewer can look at and immediately take information in. Whether or not it's an accurate take is a separate discussion. And on that note, looking at a picture takes far less time than reading a fic of pretty much any length.

Art also doesn't require speaking the same language, so it's going to just spread faster and easier than a written piece would.

And I think it helps there's more platforms out there that "support" art/the visual stuff rather than the written stuff. And I'd say that the stuff that spreads more artwork has more algorithm shenanniganry than the written stuff, so the artwork is also going to spread out more than the written work.

As a note, my only experience with spreading the written work is through WordPress, AO3, FF.net, and here. To my knowledge, none of those places have algorithms. Meanwhile, Twitter and Instagram do, and those platforms are more oriented toward the visual than written.

I could also be talking out my ass on all this.

A genuine question guys, what does really make controversial topics/elements in fanfics little more acceptable than in fanarts?

You see, we have lots of Dead Dove fanfics out there with many horrendous elements, but once someone draws it, fandom treats it like actual crime and attacks the artist. Is it because fanart are perceived as inherently romantized? Or is it easier to separate art from artist when it comes to writings?

I know this will bring out many complicated topics about morality but I'm genuinely curious because imo i believe an art piece is not a solid proof of the artist condoning any of those things irl, as well as shipping and liking characters. When i encounter the stuffs i don't like in fandom, i just move on because, in the end, it is a fictional world, character(s). Can someone please explain it to me? Pls be nice im just asking

[archivyrep]

Missing records, love, and mystery in "Bloom Into You" [Part 1]

Yuu in the student council record room

For today's post, I thought I'd look at the sixth episode of one of my favorite yuri anime, Bloom Into You (called Yagate Kimi ni Naru in romanized Japanese), titled "Words Kept Repressed / Words Used to Repress," where a record room in the Student Council building is shown and is a key part of the episode itself. For this post, I'm using the subtitled version rather than the dubbed version, since I prefer subs to dubs, but that's a discussion for another day.

Reprinted from my Wading Through the Cultural Stacks WordPress blog. Originally published on Nov. 14, 2020.

In the episode, Yuu talks to Sayaka, who tells her that Touko is so wrapped up in the stage show because of what happened to the Student Council president seven years prior and entreats Yuu to investigate it. She goes back to the Student Council building's records room [1] and finds that the whole book with records for that year is missing... I wonder why? Dun dun dun! She later locks up the student council building, after getting a key from her teacher (who will be mentioned later in this post) and determines that someone removed the documents specifically from seven years ago for a "specific reason," although she doesn't know what that reason is yet.

Oh no, the records are missing!

Later in the day, after her class ends, she goes to a records room, which you could call a records center or a repository more broadly, at her high school to do some more investigation. A teacher (basically like a records custodian) comes in to ask if she found what she was looking for and she says no. He also seems perplexed that the records are missing as well (he should have done better records management?). She thinks about it more while sitting behind the desk at her family's bookstore, asking herself, "even the records in the main building are missing?"

This is a case even worse than the deletion of records about the clone army by then-Jedi Dooku, later named Count Dooku! There is no Jocasta Nu to declare that if records aren't there they don't exist, an obvious falsehood, so that's good.

© 2022 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Continued in part 2

Notes

[1] The same room was also shown in the fourth episode, "The Distance Between Fondness and Kisses / Not One of the Characters." In that episode, there is a scene where Yuu is putting away files, along with Sayaka and later in the episode, Maki talks to Sayaka in that room about her insecurities, when it comes to Touko.

[y2sims]

Hi there Roosa 💕 I don't know if this will even work but is the hair found here (( simgoddess wordpress com/2010/03/17/the-inner-light-fabulousims-wavy-ponytail-pookd/ )) cool to be retextured for Teen-Elder? The poly count is 16K but it says the mesh is not available to elders for some reason... I thought elders shared the same mesh as adults and young adults? Anyway if it doesn't work it's okay 🙏 Appreciate you for all you do for our little Sims 2 community!

hi! yeah, i think it's possible to use the same mesh for elders (i do think the adult mesh fits the elder head as well?), but i just don't know how to enable meshes for other ages, lol. i don't know anything about meshes/meshing, really, so i can't do that. what i can do is try to retexture/recolor but that's all all 😅 sadly, none of the recolors i could find come with the elder stage included :(

the hair in question is agustin's wavy ponytail, btw, if someone else wants to take a look at the mesh.