#a decent month for quantity

[bookishfreedom]

may wrap up 🌸

[moonstruckme]

Ik you're probably busy rn and you don't have to write this ir you don't wanna-

So remus with. Sensitive reader? Like i, personally, get teary any time someone yells at me or is angry ot condescending and i feel like even though Remus is th sweetest person ever when it comes to scolding, being reprimanded by my favourite person would so make me cry.

And we all know that Remus can get abit hot headed around the full moon so maybe smth along hurt/comfort w that ❤️

Thank you for requesting lovely <3

cw: weed, mention of vomit (no description of any kind, just a brief reference)

Remus Lupin x fem!reader ♡ 755 words

You steal the blunt from between Remus’ lips, holding out your bag of crisps as a trade. 

He accepts, side-eyeing you in a way you choose to interpret as playful. Although you know the days leading up to the full moon are hell for Remus, neither of you mind this part so much. You’d prepared last weekend, stocking your shared flat with lavish quantities of chocolate and weed which you allow yourself to sample as payment for your efforts and general good-girlfriend standing. You think you’ve done a decent job; your boyfriend is lax on the couch next to you, the space between his brows wonderfully smooth and free of the wrinkles that accrue there when he’s having one of his migraines. 

“Alright, you’re done after that,” he says as you inhale.

“What?” You let your mouth drop open in faux indignation, a giggle building in your chest. “No fair.” 

“Mhm.” He crunches noisily on a crisp, mindless of your pouting. “You’ve had enough, dove.” 

“Fine."

He leans forward for the blunt and you hold it for him as wraps his lips around it, exhaling the smoke with an insouciant expertise. He reaches forward to take it from between your fingers, but you move quickly, leaning away from his reach to take a swift hit. You imagine the smoke curling and winding in your lungs as you suck in a great breath. You blow it out the corner of your mouth, your lips twisting into a grin. 

Remus isn’t smiling. 

“Are you serious?”

His tone is incredulous, and your giggly high fades as you realize he’s not joking. 

“I just said you’ve had enough,” he fumes, snatching the blunt from you and squashing it into the ashtray on the coffee table. “Are you trying to green out? Because I’m not in the mood to clean up your vomit.”

Your mouth has gone dry. “I’m sorry,” you whisper. 

Remus huffs, closing his eyes and tilting his head towards the ceiling. Your face burns. He’s exhausted with you.

“Why would you do that?” he asks, and though his tone has cooled slightly, the exasperation is almost worse.

“I don’t know,” you say. Your voice comes out squeaky and wrong. “I’m really sorry.” 

He looks over at you, some of the storminess clearing from his expression. 

“I thought we were playing, I—I wasn’t trying to—“ You take a shuddering breath, trying to keep the wetness in your eyes from escaping. “I won’t throw up, I promise.” 

“Hey.” He sounds almost confused, but it morphs quickly into alarm when you blink and a tear skids down your face. “Hey, don’t cry.” 

“I’m sorry.” You push your fingertips into your eyes as if you can forcibly dam the flow. Your skin is hot to the touch. “I’m not trying to.” 

“Dove, come on.” Remus’ hands encircle your wrists. He pulls them towards him. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be so harsh.” 

“No, you’re right.” Your voice quavers. “I wasn’t taking you seriously.” 

“I didn’t need to be stern with you,” he says, tone firm but soft as he raises your hands to his lips, brushing a kiss across your knuckles. “It was a misunderstanding. I shouldn’t have gone off on you like that.” 

You press your lips together, unsure how to respond but resolute on stopping your tears. 

Remus frowns. He sets your hands down carefully, using his thumbs to soothe over the hot tracks on your cheeks. 

“Sirius always says I get bitchy this time of the month,” he murmurs. A little laugh startles out of you, and he grins. You get the sense that was his aim. “Thank you for dealing with me when I get like this.” He kisses the tip of your nose. “I know you don’t have to, and I appreciate it. I’ll try to keep a better leash on my temper.” 

“I always want to deal with you,” you laugh, following it with a sniffle. “I think I need to keep a better leash on my delicate sensibilities.” 

“I love your sensibilities,” Remus argues. He mushes your face affectionately between his hands. “I’m sorry for scolding you, sweetheart. Do you feel sick?” 

You take hasty stock of yourself. You’ve definitely reached the point just past too much, but you’ll be okay. “Nope,” you report back happily. “But I do feel like I’d like some snacks, please.” 

Remus passes you the bag of crisps, then some chocolates, then a tin of biscuits. And you feast on kisses for the rest of the night.

[mayakern]

Update on Our Moving Process + Free Book Request!

Hey, y'all! I know that a lot of you guys have been a little bit confused about our moving process and what that is going to look like for the customers, so we wanted to explain some of that and lay out a timeline to give everyone a better idea of what will be occurring within the next few months.

First thing's first, on July 29th, our Luck & Folly products will be delisted from the store while Devin packs them for transfer to the new warehouse. Any returns for Luck & Folly items will be halted during that time period, so please hold tight until we get the 3PL going and are able to facilitate those once more.

After that, we will be delisting any remaining mini skirts during the August 19th-23rd time frame. We will be packing and transferring these as well, so returns will receive the same treatment as above.

On top of that, there is a good chance that the Luck & Folly short sleeve, long sleeve, and Farfalle crop tops will not be returning next year. Mini skirts will also be VERY limited next year if we decide to do them at all. None of these products have been selling well enough for us to produce them in the large quantities that we have been producing them up until now.

So, if you have had your eye on any of these items, we recommend getting them now, because they may not be returning next year! 

Next, we wanted to let our preorder customers know that preorders are now being handled by the 3PL. The timeline is a little shaky, but they should start somewhere between end of August and early September.

So if you ordered any of our preorder items, keep an eye out for those!

Lastly, we have a decent amount of Monster Pop books and Confetti Art Books left.

Not interested in purchasing or have already done so? We would like to request that any of our librarian customers that are interested in receiving donated copies for their local library please email us at hello@mayakern.com. Ash will gladly send some your way!

These are simply too heavy for us to ship to the 3PL, so this is the last chance to purchase or request donations for these books. Otherwise, we'll be donating them locally!

And if you managed to read this entire update, thank you for sticking with us! We know that this is just as confusing and awkward of a time for our customer base as it is for us, so we appreciate everyone's patience and understanding.

Be sure to follow our socials for more frequent updates! 

[evolutionsvoid]

Nectar Cows are one of the most common livestock species for dryads, as these big ol bugs are a great source of eggs, "nectar" and deliciously sweet meat! With how often we rear them and how wide spread they have become, it is obvious that different breeds arise. The Crescent Horn is a pretty well known one, but right behind that is the breed known as the Waxy Blue Nectar Cow! Just one look at it should explain pretty much everything about that name.

Waxy Blues are pretty easy to identify, though often outsiders mistake their strange coating as "fur." While it does look a bit fuzzy from a distance, all these white bits that form on their body is actually wax. They have many wax glands throughout their body, and over times it slowly builds up into thick patches or long fluffy looking "tails." Originally, wax production was used to wick up secreted fluids and move it away from the body, but breeding has turned it up to an incredible degree! Now it is in such quantities, that it actually serves as a deterrent for predators, as few beasts want to bite into a mouthful of wax! That, and it protects their hide if the foe does chomp down, as often they will miss actual flesh and will come off with nothing but loose wax. At that point, the confused predator is open to a nasty spray of their foul fluids or a spiky kick!

The Waxy Blue is obviously reared for these wax secretions, which the farmer will cut off and collect. These Nectar Cows are not shaved clean, rather they get a trimming, which removes excess but still leaves them with a decent coating. Due to this production being fueled purely by breeding instead of nature, the Waxy Blue can actually produce too much wax to the point where it will become a detriment. If not cut and maintained, they can easily bury themselves in thick sheets of wax, which may trap the very fluids they wished to wick away in the first place! Nectar and other gunk can build up and get stuck in spots, eventually becoming a breeding ground for infection or parasites!

The wax of this Nectar Cow is used as a substitute for beeswax, primarily in areas where apiaries are not as common. All the trimmings are melted down and combined into a wide range of products, like writing tablets, wax pencils, candles, water proofing mixtures and much more! They even make little Honey Bottle candies out of them, where the wax makes the outside "pod" and the inside is filled with nectar. You bite the tip off like you would an actual Honey Bottle, suck out the juice and then chew on the leftover wax! Some folk even like chewing on em without the sweet treat inside! Not really my thing, as I like a bit of flavor if I am going through the trouble of chewing. But if you rear Waxy Blues, then it is practically law that you are constantly gnawing on a gob of the stuff. Point this out to one of them at your own peril, as they are reeeaaal good at spitting it at people that annoy them. Why do I know this? Well, I just...know a lot of things! Yeah!

Also I am in the camp of people who are slightly disappointed that Waxy Blue wax is not blue. I mean, come on! It's right there in the name! And it would look beautiful too! How have we not bred that in yet?!

Chlora Myron

Dryad Natural Historian

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

"Waxy Blue Nectar Cow"

You know, if I posted things in order and didn't procrastinate/bounce around my posting folder, maybe the quality and look of my stuff wouldn't look wildly varied and inconsistent. You know, the classic, "lets post something I drew a month ago and then immediately follow it up with something three years old." Yeah. ButthatllneverhappensoANYWAYS...!

[m0tiv8me]

Let’s ROCKtober🤟

September is almost a wrap and I got some goals for October.

100 push-ups EVERYDAY

Pull ups EVERYDAY a single set to max out

Drink 128oz of water each day

7+ hours of sleep each day

Deeper dive into these goals:

1. I intended to do 100 push-ups everyday in September but fell off the wagon and missed about half the month so I’m going after this goal again in October and gonna nail it this time. @qrfit you still keeping at them in October push-up pal?

2. Pull ups are TOUGH! I once could do a decent amount of them until a severe shoulder injury took me out of them for a year and a half. Since then I’ve kind of avoided them somewhat out of fear and also out of frustration that I can’t do as many as I once could. So this is as good a time as any to get back into them. I’m not just going for quantity...it might only be 1 or a few a day and I’m telling myself that’s ok. Control and quality over just quantity. With a pull-up bar in my basement it will literally only take me a few minutes each day to do a set at any time. @coffeeandmuscles @onefitmama I was inspired by the suggestion so join in if you wish and adapt it however works best for you.

3. Drink 128oz of water a day. That’s a gallon…and a lot more peeing! That’s the goal…will I get it everyday…maybe not but I’m going to try because my water intake has been slacking lately and I need to improve it.

4. 7+ hours of sleep each day. Gonna be tough somedays especially with some possible work and travel days. I gotta get myself out of this staying up so late routine I’ve fallen into lately and get up earlier and into more of a regular routine. Adequate consistent sleep is often an overlooked factor in physical and mental health.

So there it is…my plan for October! I’ll be posting daily updates on progress and accomplishments for each of these goals. May tag a few inspiring people along the way but don’t want to annoy too much so I’ll keep these updates to mostly just personal tagless posts.

I invite ANYONE to join in with their own goal(s) for the next month. No pressure just an open invite to post and or tag me for some good ole fashioned accountability and motivation.

Let’s ROCKtober!🤟

[duckprintspress]

hello! as we slowly approach the monster erotica results date, i wanted to take a moment to ask: how does the team feel about the pool of applicants this time around? i know you said it was a particularly large bunch - 88 people iirc - but does the quality match the quantity? were you able to comfortably fill the spots, or did you find yourselves wishing for more slots to offer?

in short: what's the tea? 👀

Heya anon!

Yep, I'll be sending out the notifications tomorrow; we got everything squared away on our end over the weekend.

To spill the tea:

Total "New" Applicants: 88 Total "Returner" Applicants: 21 Combined Applications: 109

New Applicants Disqualified for Ineligibility: 7 (people who didn't meet our requirements as fanfiction authors; these people have already been notified) New Applicants Disqualified for Not Following the Submission Rules: 7 (people who submitted samples that were too long or pitches that included an explicitly disallowed element; these people have not yet been notified. dear the person who submitted 30,000 words for our "maximum 1,500 word sample" request: why?)

The disqualifications left us with 74 new applicants and 21 returners for for 15 total slots.

How was the pool?

Well, we'll be accepting 20 people for the 15 slots, AND we're going to be approaching 8 others about being in a second, different anthology.

I have read every single new author and returning author application that Duck Prints Press as received in the 4+ years since our founding (...except one... when my wife applied I read two sentences and went "fuck, this is my wife isn't it" and since anonymity is important I had to recuse myself. I still don't know how I knew it was hers, I just knew lmao). The pool of new applicant submissions we had for this anthology is the strongest pool we have ever received.

Like seriously. I was in shock how strong the overall quality was.

Usually, at most, I have one excerpt that I'll be like, "oh that was interesting I'd like to track the full story down on AO3." This time I had 3. There's one that all three of the raters (one of whom being me) indicated they wanted to read the rest, and I grabbed the AO3 username so we could all find it. Like, seriously, the overall quality was absolutely incredible. All 8 people who helped with rating the new applicants agreed that we were completely blown away.

I mentioned "a second, different anthology": so, a decent number of excellent samples and strong pitches shared a common issue, namely - they did not include courtship, which was required. We've decided to plan a second anthology, which may or may not end up being our main 2026 erotica anthology, using the exact same rules and terms and payment as this anthology, but with an adjacent theme that'll make a comfy home for the great applications that didn't include courtship. We'll have more details on this next month, but I'm mentioning it now so that if anyone who applied is reading this, it'll be known that this is in the works and won't come as a complete blindside at least.

But yeah. The T is. We got a huge amount of applications, and a fuckton of them were in.cred.i.ble.

(side note: returning applicants have already been notified on their application statuses; I e-mailed them yesterday.)

[studyblr-perhaps]

hello! I'm relatively new to studyblr and I find your posts extremely motivating.

Do you have any advice for like those who are also interested in posting similar content in the studyblr community?

Oooooh first of all, welcome to studyblr! I'm glad I can be motivating haha. As for tips, oh buckle up-

Post what you want. Forget being aesthetic, forget whatever others post. The key point is, what do you want to put out on your blog? Is it daily goals posts, where you edit and strike out the to do list on your posts; little one liner captions with photos; or a paragraph or two describing your day. Personally, I prefer writing about my day, so I use the latter one. You can experiment with different styles, and then decide which you prefer doing. Don't limit yourself to one option from the beginning.

Post original photos. This is obviously not a necessity. A lot of people post Pinterest pictures to make their posts aesthetic, or not post a picture at all. I have my opinions on Pinterest images, and I do not reblog them on my blog if I can notice, but regardless, the decision lies on you and your preference. Nonetheless, I would highly recommend posting your own pictures, because it serves as a good visual diary once you're two-three years down the line. Don't worry about the pictures being "unaesthetic" or if you're not good with camera and camera angles. I used to be the same, but now around two full years of this blog, I have learnt what camera angles and lighting I prefer (I can do a post on that if anyone wants 👀). If you're not confident about your pictures, you can tweak it around in your photo editor, I am sure most devices have a brightness; saturation; shadows and highlights; and grain options. Plus, it's another new skill under your belt. Don't worry if it's difficult at first, the first step to learning a skill is being bad at it.

Make friends. Reblog other people's posts, comment on posts, and in general be friendly. I have found innumerable good friends on this site, some I will stick with for life. Sometimes I like adding little snippets of my thoughts in the tags when I am reblogging people's posts. I cannot say for everyone but I know a significant amount of people love reading the little notes in their notifications (me included!). Moving on, for a disclaimer I don't know how old you are or how long you've been on the internet, so please bear with my overprotective mother nagging but, not everyone on the internet is a good person. If you are uncomfortable by a person or their texts, simply block them and move on. If they're harmful, report their account. You don't have to be friends with everyone, especially not at your expense. In general, don't be mean to people, if you don't like something, scroll (unless it's harmful or against guidelines, in which case, please report the post). If you like something, reblog, maybe leave a little note. Don't trust everything on the internet, and make sure you have fun!

Consistency is good, but it's not everything. Repeat after me: quality over quantity. Don't burn yourself out, whether it is studies or your blog. You don't need to post every single day, this is not instagram. Take your time, if you want to share on one particular day, share then. If you want to share daily, then great! I have disappeared for five whole months sometimes and been back as if I never left. Don't worry about how much you're posting, remember, you're doing this for fun. So make sure you're having it.

Don't chase clout. The clout will chase you lol. Jokes aside, don't care about numbers. I used to be very obsessed with numbers (and frankly, a lot of us are here for clout anyways) but I honestly did much better after I stopped caring. You never know when your posts will kick off, and that's social media for you! Regardless, it's easier on this website to gain a decent following by persisting than it is on other sites (*cough* I hate instagram *cough*). Either way, this site is the best as a formed community than a rat race, and it's genuinely better that way.

TL;DR: Have fun, experiment to see what you want to post, post original pictures, it's okay if you're not consistent, don't worry about number of notes or followers, instead, focus on making friends :)

[ayuwbfamily]

Please

Please do not ignore my plea,

"Hello, I am Ayoub from Gaza, 20 years old. My father struggled for 20 years with displacement. After much hesitation, I decided to launch a donation campaign to save my life and my family's. We need you and we have come to you with this urgent appeal.

I am like any young man who seeks a secure future, and my family is like any loving family that wishes for a decent life and safety. I was studying at university and my sisters were completing their education, but now we have nothing left; NO university, NO safe shelter.

Diseases are spreading in the displacement camps: my entire family has been exposed, and my father especially is in dire need of treatment abroad! My dear father is disabled and suffers from chronic diseases, diabetes, and heart pressure. He cannot move and is very affected by the lack of healthcare here.

OUR STORY MEANS LIFE OR DEATH.

Among this darkness, your generous donations can be a glimpse of hope to save my life and the lives of my family, especially my father's, so that we can all get the care and treatment we need.

Why Your Help is Critical

‏Ayoub is the sole breadwinner for his family, who has been displaced for months. Since the war started, Ayoub donated all of his money and is allocating 10% of the donations to serve children in need in the refugee camp where he lives.

Ayoub and his family are seeking **EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE** to alleviate the escalating violence and shortages of water, food, and resources in Gaza. Thanks to Ayoub’s tireless spirit of goodwill, a portion of all donations will continue to help refugee children in Gaza through direct cash support, purchase of basic necessities, and preparing and delivering large quantities of food.

‏To stay up to date with Ayoub’s ongoing efforts to help children, please follow his Instagram profile

‏Here’s how You can make a difference

‏DONATE: every contribution, no matter how small, will bring us closer to our goal. Your donations will directly contribute to Ayoub’s family survival and to supporting children in the refugee camp.

‏SHARE: please share our story on your social media, within your community, and with friends and family. The power of collective support can make a huge impact!

Please respond to our call and let us show the world the power of compassion and solidarity. Thank you for your generosity and support!

Ayoub from Gaza"

How Will Your Donation Help?

Every cent donated will go directly to Ayoub to provide:

Daily meals to ensure no one goes hungry.

Essential medicines to treat illnesses and prevent further suffering.

Basic Necessities, such as warm clothing, blankets, and hygiene products to survive.

TOGETHER, we can bring hope and healing to this family and the children in the camp. Your generosity can be the lifeline they desperately need. Please share this campaign with your friends, family, and networks. Even if you can’t donate, SPREADING THE WORD CAN SAVE LIVES!

From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for your compassion and kindness.

[ladyaj-13]

Sidekick app - A Comprehensive Review

Or, if you have a question about it that I've missed covering, I honestly don't know how that happened.

-

I've been using the Sidekick app for about eight months now, so I wanted to write a review - all the thoughts that have come to me as I use it (and I probably do use it three weeks out of every four), so you can decide if it'd work for you.

Firstly, I never planned to get a year's subscription. I planned to let my free month trial roll over for a paid second month, but it charged me for a year straight off. So that's point one to be aware of if you do a free trial. More under the cut because this got LENGTHY.

Ethos

The thinking behind the app, I really like. Using ingredients over multiple meals to prevent waste? An obvious move, but not something I'm great at when left to my own devices!

Having said that, sometimes the amount of ingredient used feels unnecessary - you could use less crème fraiche or fewer herbs for the same result, but we'll use it all because then we've used up the pack (even if dinner now looks like the compost heap after my Dad's mowed the back lawn).

I also really like that nutritional information for the meals is available, but has to be turned on. It's not always good to be looking at calorie counts, especially if you're vulnerable to disordered eating, so having that opt-in instead of opt-out is great.

The calorie counts often feel high for what the meal is, though, and a lot of that is probably the amounts of oil and butter used. So if this is a consideration for you, a quick tip - it's unnecessary most of the time. You can probably halve it, or do two thirds, and be fine.

Quantities

Speaking of, I realise the recipes have been developed by the kitchen team, which from what we've seen in the Sorted videos seems to be all male? So maybe that's driving it, but I eat a reasonable amount - I'm definitely not bird-like or have a 'small appetite' - yet I often get three meals out of every cook (I've got it set to two people, as I like leftovers). Sometimes I even get four decent portions!

When you've then got three meals to make, you're generating anything from six up to twelve portions for the week, or drifting into the following week and hoping the ingredients haven't gone off.

This is more cost-effective and lowers the high calorie counts, but means eating a lot of the same thing. (I could eat down my freezer enough to fit things in it again and save them for later, but hey.) It also means there's no real opportunity, for me and how I end up using the app, of a one-off cook (e.g. pancakes on pancake day, or something I'm randomly craving), but am instead very tied to the pack.

Recipe design

The quality of the recipes is key! And I would say it's usually fair to good - most get 3 or 4 stars out of 5 from me.

I've cooked 47 recipes so far, and there have been a couple that were very bland and needed doctoring, and maybe 6 or 7 really delicious ones I want to keep for life. (There's an amazing mushroom gochujang udon dish, a really easy halloumi tray bake, and a lamb and feta orzo (that I twist and add some extra veg to) that's great.)

I live in the UK, so am closely aligned to what the recipe creators will have available. I'd like to see potential substitute info added, though. (For ages my local supermarket didn't stock ciabatta, which is used in loads of their recipes, and I can only imagine this is more of an issue for those living elsewhere.) The app allows users to post 'twists', so that can be helpful where other people have faced the same issue, but this feels like a relatively easy addition that would be valuable for everyone, but especially those with allergies or more restricted access to global foods. It would also be helpful for vegetarians - if a chicken recipe would work equally well with tofu, you've widened your veggie (or even vegan) recipe offering.

I also find that pack sizes listed don't always match those in the supermarket, but working across multiple stores and serving sizes must be a nightmare (and that's before you consider multiple countries!), so I'll let them off that one 😉

Their shopping list function (which tells you exactly what you need for the week's recipes, and you can check off as you go along) is really clear and easy - it's such a valuable function. Having an extra step of possible substitutes that you could feed through to it would just be the icing on top.

I'm an omnivore, but I'd also like more variety in the make-up of the packs. If you get a "meat" pack you're likely eating meat every day (and the amount of meat per person is normally too high for me - I'll often halve it and sub in some veg, as in the meat meals the veg content can be pretty low). They also often do themed packs - a pasta pack or a Mexican pack - and as someone using this pack for the week, I'd prefer the variety of more packs where you get one Mexican dish, one pasta dish, and one other dish all in the same pack, rather than eating pasta for every meal. (I realise it's designed to be three meals out of a week, but even so, that's a fair amount of pasta, and I love pasta.) More recently released packs do seem to address this a bit more, so maybe it's feedback they've already received.

It might be worth knowing there are currently 110 recipes tagged vegan and 433 tagged vegetarian - so a pretty decent range!

Recipe steps are listed in order, obviously. But these don't always seem the most sensible order - e.g., you boil a kettle right at the beginning, but by the time you get to needing hot water thirty minutes later, you kind of need to re-boil it. Putting that step later on would be more logical. Sometimes things overcook because there wasn't enough time to fit in all the later steps and have things be ready at the same time. You can get around this to an extent by reading through the recipe first and applying common sense/your own cooking expertise, but the app seems designed to do this sort of thing for you and be a real 'beginners and up' tool - it just doesn't quite work in all instances.

Recipes highlight what equipment you need, which is so helpful! A word of advice, though, that their 'medium frying pan' is my largest frying pan. 'Small' is not one of those single-egg frying pans - I don't think they acknowledge the existence of those🤣 Whenever it says a large frying pan, I use a casserole dish, or it WILL end up all over my hob.

Also ensure you have pans that can go from hob to grill/oven, and a mini chopper. They seem able to blend things with a hand blender that I will never manage, but the mini chopper saves me. And you will need it, as a number of the packs include at least one sauce or soup or pesto, so it would take some dodging to only do recipes that don't need pureeing in some fashion. Honestly though - what witchcraft powers their stick blender?

Final thought on recipes - wouldn't it be cool if they include an option to add dessert?

'Benefits'?

The advertising of the app - when they talk about it in their videos - often emphasises there are no "use up" meals. I would disagree with that; in some packs there's a clear shoehorned third to get through the odds and ends! Which is fine, that's how it works sometimes, but own it 😀

Another selling point they promote is that using the app will save you money - this is, of course, all relative. Using a wider variety of ingredients (some of them more specialist) is likely to increase your shop cost, especially in the short term. Similarly, personally the app has encouraged me to eat more meat than I might otherwise just because of what looked good, but that is more expensive. So take that selling point with a pinch of salt, depending on your current eating habits and recipe choices!

The app is great at getting you to try ingredients and recipes you might not have gone to before, though, so for getting out of a cooking rut (which I was in!), it's fantastic. Sometimes this is forced - you get that third recipe you're not sure about (hello corn and kimchi lasagne) along with the two that look really good! - but also just knowing that you'll be told exactly what you need to do makes it easier to take that risk and try new things. (And that lasagne was actually pretty decent, for sounding so weird.)

Timings

In terms of skill level, I would say I'm a middling cook - I'm not a beginner, but also no chef. I can and will go off piste and create decent things from scratch. I've been cooking for myself for over a decade. I'll host friends for dinner and not panic about it. But - and I touched on this earlier with prep taking longer - I can't cook Sidekick recipes in the time allotted!

Are these timings based on the Sorted food team? Their knife skills are going to be better than mine. So are the normals', as after however many years with chef-directed instruction, they're not actually normal any more. I'd appreciate more realistic timings, accounting for the fact that most people will have to get the ingredient out of their cupboard, and weigh it out, and maybe remove the cat from the countertop. Even aside from this kind of time slip, their estimates for how long X takes to brown, or Y takes to boil, always seem too low. If they say Z is cooked now, it probably needs a few more minutes.

I don't know, I'd just prefer a recipe say it takes 40 minutes and it takes 30, than it take an hour, and it's always the latter for me. Probably that's personal preference and other people would find the opposite more annoying. But Sidekick timings given seem to be the absolute quickest possible time, and who is a) able or b) wants to cook at superspeed after a long day?

The app itself

It's really nicely designed and inviting to use, and has several useful features such as being able to guide it's recommendations via marking favourite cuisines, diet types of vegetarian/vegan/pescatarian only, and adding your allergies, dislikes and intolerances. You can also search by ingredient or by cooking time, and packs are coloured according to diet type, so it's really easy to spot veggie or meat or fish packs.

Using it to cook along - the app automatically keeps your phone screen active, which is good. It also includes timers you can set for each stage, really handy, although a niggle I've noticed is that you can't see multiple timers at once without clicking out of the main recipe, and sometimes you will have mutliple going (or one finished, but they don't automatically disappear).

I don't use the voiceover option, but I can see the value in it and having different ways to follow a recipe is cool.

Also great - new recipes are released weekly, so there's always something new!

However, the app is glitchy. Several times it's crashed while rating a recipe, which sometimes pops up a while after you cooked it, as you're trying to cook the next one. It's never yet prevented me from being able to cook (or shop), but it's been close a few times and would be pretty disastrous if you're standing in your kitchen trying to get dinner on the table!

Final thoughts

So. Will I renew my subscription for another year? At this point, I'm not sure. The app makes it easy to eat more variety, easy to choose a week's menu 'in one', easy to shop using the auto-generated shopping list. But I sometimes feel tied in by it, and I'd like a higher hit rate of 'this is delicious' recipes to justify the cost. At the moment I'm leaning towards cancel... we'll see if that changes by April.

If you got to the end of this actual essay (I didn't realise I had SO much to say), congratulations on your staying power! I'm very fond of the Sorted crew since I discovered their YouTube channel about a year ago, and I hope you've found this fair, balanced, and helpful.

Do you subscribe to Sidekick? Or do you want to try it out? 💖

[bookishfreedom]

November Wrap-Up 🍁

a decent month in quantity, a meh month in quality

[aotopmha]

I have been really feeling the limitations of my physical disability recently.

I didn't use to rely on public transport this much for just general movement – I only used it to go to places I really needed to which were a decent distance away from where I needed to go (which I actually very much regret because it was free to me for a while as part of my disability and no longer isn't; I should have used the opportunity more, our public transport is not perfect, but decent enough to be used without massive issues).

Today that reached an high point where I completely forgot to check in my ticket card (we have a card check-in system with busses where you add money or a specific type of ticket to it and use it on a check-in device installed in the bus each time you enter the bus) and got a fine for it as a result for the first time in my life due to a regular inspection.

It was a mess of a ride because the bus was packed and people fainted and ER had to be called, but I still had a bunch of time to check in and just forgot. I was even going to recheck just in case, but inspection hit first, so it was all me.

(Which at the very least was after the ER incident.)

And I realised just how much I have been using transport to get to places because of how exhaustion has now turned into pain, awkwardness and discomfort when walking mildly longer distances.

Not super extreme pain, but rather milder annoying pain, which coupled with all of the above has really been testing my limitations in a way I'm not used to.

And at the start of the year I was feeling especially great about my progress, having gotten into a great routine for working on my walking and posture and everything great coming with it.

I was finally able to find a daily exercise routine that really worked for me and it did wonders to my physical and emotional health.

Current wip theory is that I ended up overdoing it and I'm feeling the consequences in all facets, in unexpected ways.

And I hate it.

I finally found courage and desire to not let my disability limit myself so much – actually exploring the city and trying stuff I've never tried before, actually spending more time outside and enjoying it.

I used to do the bare minimum in terms of going outside because I didn't think there was anything to do because I didn't have friends or money and both are still in fairly limited quantities for me, but recently I started exploring local food places since none of them are hyper-expensive and even if they are, I realised it's okay to treat yourself a few times in a month if you budget properly and keep things balanced.

I realised it's okay to get yourself something good from a local bakery or sushi or burger place occasionally, to add more spice in your life.

Through that also have started to try and diversify and be more smart about my diet as much as possible, too. It's been a gradual process since I moved to just get into a proper self-caring routine.

Eating healthy/properly nutritious and diverse food, keeping up proper hygiene, getting all my chores and responsibilities done as soon as they need to be done, exercising regularly.

Even the fact that I one day decided it's okay to use some of my money for non-essential stuff like games or manga was a long journey because of how limited my money has been my whole life.

In fact, the fine I got isn't too much of a hit because I have been budgeting properly for any possible hits.

And it all has culminated in me genuinely enjoying to go outside, even if it's just a 10-minute walk for groceries.

But hey, guess what, seems my knee decided otherwise and decided it makes my leg an awkward stick after anything more extensive than some walking.

I'm probably going to pull back on my outside time as a first step to see how it effects my walking and really figure out my current limitations and then see how active I can be within those limitations.

And maybe then take a look at further medical help since I've already told my doctors.

I very much fucking hate it, though.

But I'm also very grateful because many people in my position don't have this opportunity to live as full life as possible with the disabilities they live with.

I think I would be at a much more difficult place would I not have a disability pension or some opportunities offered to me to better myself, even as imperfect as they are. And oh boy is it imperfect, but I very much value it.

[pulau-harimau]

Setting Profile: Age System

Sumatran tigers live approximately 15-20 years with quite long childhoods, and the cats of Pulau Harimau are no different. This post details the colonies' aging system, including appropriate times for learning different skills and earning names.

The tigers of the Island measure their age in seasons. In Warriors terms, 1 season = 3 moons; 4 seasons = 1 year. The colonies do not have a cultural concept of zero*; instead, an unspecified quantity is assumed to be "one."

A cub is therefore always at least "one" season old. To specify that you are one season old is redundant (if you're even capable of speaking yet!). To specify that your cubs are one season old is very nearly disrespectful to whoever you are speaking to; if the cub is born, clearly they're at least one season!

Cubs begin eating solid foods around 6-8 weeks, but are not fully weaned until their second season-- about 6 months old. At the end of the second season they have lived through, a cub begins to identify themselves as "two seasons old" and may show their age by holding up the claw on their outermost digit on their dominant paw. (Ages are counted up along the paw in this manner; at three seasons, the outermost two digits are held up; at four seasons, the outermost three, and so on.)

For example, if a cub was born in January (after the Long Night/Winter Solstice), they will not be considered "two seasons old" until the Summer Solstice. As a result, cubs born earlier in a season tend to be bigger, stronger, and more talkative than their age-mates.

At two seasons old, it is considered appropriate to start teaching a cub how to hunt. At this point, they will receive their first holy name: [Teacher]'s Paw. For example, the student of Jequirity Drum would be known as Jequirity Drum's Paw. A teacher is often one of a cub's parents, but older siblings or favored friends and relatives are also common, especially in larger litters.

However, two season old cubs are still babies. They begin to learn the basic moves of combat, but they are not primarily training to be fighters.

At five seasons, most tigers have their adult teeth. The emergence of the first adult tooth is a joyful occasion, and a sign that a cub is approaching adolescence. At six seasons (1.5 years), an age reported by showing a full paw full of claws**, a cub is considered eligible to become a kachnya, or claw-cat. A prospective kachnya must complete a hunting assessment, after which an adult holy name can be conferred onto them after being earned.

Becoming a kachnya is a tiger's proper step into adolescence. By this point it is appropriate to begin lighthearted adolescent relationships and become your own person, separate from your family and your teacher. This is the age at which kachnya begin learning to fight in earnest.

By 12 seasons, a kachnya is considered to be a young adult. It would be embarrassing to not have an "adult" holy name by this point. 12-16 seasons is when most tigers finish puberty, which means this is also the age at which relationships become more serious and more messy. A 12-season old tiger is expected to have a decent grasp of both hunting and fighting. This is the age at which they leave behind Mesha's blessing; therefore, it is no longer dishonorable for older tigers to engage them in battle.

Most tigers will not begin having cubs until they are roughly 25 seasons, and very often later if they are pursuing a position as a herald. This is considered the age of good judgement; tigers of this age are now eligible to become heralds (assuming they began training early!) and are assumed to have enough life experience to pass it onto their cubs. Those who have cubs before this point are somewhat looked down on and are expected to have HEAVY family support, especially from older relatives.

By a tiger's 40th season, they are considered a veteran. By their late 40s, most tigers stop having cubs. While pregnancy is possible until death, the rate of dangerous complications starts to go up rapidly at this point.

Most tigers will retire from some or all of their duties as a kachnya and a member of the colony around their 60th season. 60-80 seasons is considered a normal time to die of old age. The oldest non-Blessed tiger who ever lived, so the stories say, was 104 seasons; according to the story, at this age he became so old that he turned right back into being an unborn cub.*** "You're so old you're practically a newborn" is a reasonably common saying because of this story.

*Because of the way the number system is related to age, a hypothetical future where zero is invented would probably make it round to represent a pregnant tiger's belly.

**As a result of one's number of digits being related to the age at which they become teenagers, polydactyl tigers are considered children a little longer and are thought to mature slower as a result.

***This is related to the number system. For reasons that are very complicated to explain, 105 (the number of seasons such a figure would be "born" at if he was conceived at "104 seasons") is a nice, round number to an Island tiger; starting over from 1 makes more sense than continuing to 106.

[sailorspazz]

10 Dance merch lottery results

I've made it obvious in other posts that I love collecting merch, and have tried my best to get all of the 10 Dance stuff I can, of which there is sadly little to be had. But through means such as proxy buying, secondhand sellers like Yahoo Auctions, and even in person events in Japan, I've gotten a decent amount. Still, when it was announced that online merch lottery site Oshi Challe would be offering 10 Dance goods, I was immediately prepared to throw money at it lol.

As Oshi Challe requires users to register a Japanese phone number and address, it's necessary to use some sort of proxy service for those living outside of Japan. The site itself officially mentions Tenso, and users on the 10 Dance Discord mentioned that Neokyo and FromJapan worked for them. Luckily, I have friends living in Japan who were able to register their info, and even screen shared the experience for me so I could see what it was like.

After you've registered, you can select how many pulls you want to make. Knowing that there was a bonus sticker given for every 10 pulls, I requested that we start with 10. The screen shows a tree with little Pokeballs capsule hanging in it, then a stick figure comes and pushes against the tree until a capsule falls out. It then opens and reveals which prize you won. Since I did 10 pulls, it then continued like this for each one, showing the tree shaking and capsule falling, until all prizes were revealed (including the 11th prize, the bonus sticker).

My results were mostly C (mini acrylic stands) and D (mini art boards) level prizes, with one repeat among them. I was like, yeah, that's pretty good...but I still yearned for a bit more. So was like, fuck it, we're doing 10 more! And my first prize of the second round was a B (acrylic diorama) level! Then I got some Es (acrylic cards), another B, and a couple more Cs and Ds, some being repeats of my first round. I was satisfied at that point, and didn't want to risk getting too many more doubles, so I called it there.

So here's my complete prize list! Out of 22 pulls, 19 new items to add to my collection, with three repeats. I think I'm gonna need a new shelf in my 10 Dance display lol. Can't wait for these to arrive (in a couple months from now...I assume they produce the quantity needed based on how many people won each prize, which is a pretty good idea to avoid ending up with too much inventory). There's still about a week left if anyone else wants to try, and make sure to share your results!

[cortexreaver]

it's a shame that bioware never designed a satisfying crafting system at any point in the dragon age series because crafting can add a little somethin to a game not just in terms of strategy (i.e. what a player can do with crafted items) or character depth (i.e. what skills does a character have as a person beyond combat and/or magical prowess) but also as a means of familiarizing the player with the world or at least the region they're in by providing them with another way of interacting with it–it tells them which plants are native to an area, what kinds of animal products its inhabitants use, which metals are common and which are rare, and so on. origins has a nice range of items, but its range of components, most of which are poorly described, is relatively limited, resulting in a system where (for me) the recipes all kind of blend together because the main variation ends up being in component quantities instead of combinations. dragon age 2 had a nine month production period. inquisition has the widest range of components and a decent range of biomes to find them in, but the crafting system is still one in which quality and quantity are essentially the same thing, and in the case of consumables (excluding runes) is out of the player's hands again and contains a glaring disconnect between the herbs that go in and the potions/tonics/grenades that come out. idk what my conclusion was meant to be here or why these stupid fucking games still have me in their grasp. im like 2 months dragon age sober except for the time i booted up origins a couple weeks ago to look at my elves which doesn't count because i wasn't Sober sober at the time. my elves are in there serah

[beardedmrbean]

A baby spider monkey and two rattlesnakes were discovered at the home of a suspect who was busted for methamphetamine during a traffic stop in California, police said.

The incident began on May 6 when Solano County Sheriff’s Deputies conducted a traffic stop on 50-year-old Clifford Vincenty in Vallejo, California, and discovered half a pound of methamphetamine in his vehicle, police said.

Vincenty, who is also a Vallejo resident, was taken into custody without incident and charged with possession of a controlled substance for sale.

However, the following day, Solano County Vice Detectives and the Solano County Sheriff’s Enforcement Team served a search warrant at Vincenty’s residence in Vallejo which is when they discovered more evidence in the case against Vincenty.

“The Solano County Sheriff’s Office has made a significant drug-related arrest following a traffic stop and subsequent search warrant that uncovered a large quantity of methamphetamine worth approximately $26,000 street value, and the discovery of additional contraband, cash, and exotic animals,” police said. “The search yielded an additional pound of methamphetamine, more than $2,000 cash, a live spider monkey, and two live rattlesnakes.”

Animal Control safely removed the animals, who were evaluated for proper care, and the spider monkey was later placed in the Oakland Zoo with the help of California Fish and Wildlife, officials said.

The primate, who was named Violeta by Oakland Zoo staff, was reported to be in decent health and is thought to be around 18-months-old, zoo officials said.

“Veterinary Hospital staff are taking measures to ensure Violeta's overall wellbeing and have reported that she is doing well in her temporary home where keepers have set up enrichment, along with blankets and toys to keep her comfortable and stimulated,” officials said. “They are providing her with a healthy diet that includes a variety of fruits and vegetables, and she is drinking formula that will help to minimize the likelihood of pathologic bony fractures.”

Wildlife trafficking is one of the largest illegal trades in the world, second only to drug and human trafficking, according to the Oakland Zoo, who says the trade is often fueled by the demand for these animals as pets or for profit-driven businesses, such as photo opportunities and interactive experiences.

“Wildlife trafficking is a growing conservation crisis, driving countless species, like spider monkeys and other nonhuman primates, toward extinction. These animals are often exploited through the exotic pet trade, kept in unsafe, inhumane conditions that threaten both their welfare and public safety. The Captive Primate Safety Act, recently introduced in Congress is a critical step toward ending this exploitation by banning the private ownership of primates and reinforcing our national commitment to responsible wildlife protection,” says Nik Dehejia, CEO at Oakland Zoo.

Meanwhile, Vincenty now faces additional charges, including possession of a controlled substance for sale and potential violations related to the possession of exotic animals.

“This operation demonstrates our commitment to disrupting illegal drug activity in Solano County,” said Undersheriff Brad DeWall.

The investigation into the case is currently ongoing.

[purplekoop]

Koop's 2024 Year of Art in Review

This year's been a strange one to be certain, going a whole year without a PC that can run the full suite of modern games and streaming I built a habit of using in 2023, but looking back it was a shockingly productive one in terms of art. Guess that's what not having OW on PC sucking away my attention span. I didn't get something made every month, but had a pretty substantial output anyways, so I wanted to recap the months I did have something.

January:

January got some notable additions to the War Bots cast with the polar opposites Nekross and Harmony, as well as some Kirby humanizations! Honestly a lot to revisit here, these WB characters need some polish and I've never been content with this as "my" Susie. Might give her another pass and try and also humanize the Mage Sisters, that's well overdue at this point.

February:

So this month brought Dredge, the most recent addition to my lineup of Splatoon OCs. Not much to say other than every day I haven't drawn these goofy splesbians weighs heavy on my soul.

March:

March brought the last Bot to get art this year, since Lyonn's only art is years old. Honestly pretty happy with Otto's art, cheaping out on some details aside I think this nails his unique look. at least until that Minion-lookin-ass-poser came around...

April:

Was busy with work, travel, device repairs, and Endless Ocean Blue World this month, so no art. Oops.

May:

Yeah this was all I made this month. Can't complain, this was fun to draw and got decent notes by my standards. I might come back to these two, this art is relatively on-model but I keep seeing people have too much fun being more creative with Queen and Tasque Manager's designs, especially with bigger poofier hair for the latter. Eh, I'll think of something when I have the time.

June:

The smell of artistic combat on the horizon... and also humanized Queen Sectonia is here for some reason. This was when I updated Mugie and Shadow Boxer too, the tip of the iceberg for DWS this year, though at the time it was just for the sake of Art Fight. And the peak of getting ready for the month was Grand Machino, one of my favorite original guys getting his best design yet. Of course, this month's output would look shallow compared to...

July:

Art Fight month is always a doozy, and after an underwhelming run last year and one final reference update in my DnD OC Zecanna, I'm much prouder of my output this year. Maybe not in terms of quantity, but I put out some high-effort individual pieces and really tried to push to go bigger and better... as demonstrated by the two attacks I chose to highlight here. I'm happy to report that the bottom art of my partner's DnD bad guy is proudly displayed in her bathroom in a custom frame, which is probably one of my highest honors.

August:

Not much out of my post Art Fight stupor and birthday month, but I did get a proper art for my current DnD character Lightspring. These always feel like special pieces, considering my DnD characters have a guaranteed fanbase of at least the 6 other people in the campaign.

September:

This was the only thing to come out of September and it was very clearly both an effort to get out of a slump in art and also an omen of things to come. The more big mario princesses I draw in a year the better that year thusly is.

October:

Darkworld-oween folks!! The only way for my output to rival any given July was for another month-long art endeavor, this one dedicated to my original seasonally-fitting fighting game project Darkworld Showdown. Extremely proud of how much I got done, and how well I managed to update a cast in desperate need of it. Obviously given how I got like 20 designs done, I only showcased some of my favorites from the earlier end of the month here.

November:

An oddly productive month for being right after a major month-long art project and on a month where I went out of town for about a week. These are only a couple of the big (in. a few senses.) pieces I got done, starting with a marginally late Halloween piece and ending with one of a couple Mario-themed pieces. er... Maria, as I later decided is the context these pieces take place in. I also dabbled in some Pokemon anthro characters to get in some more body type practice and sate the insatiable need for further avenues of yuri.

December:

Rounding out the year, December was extremely busy with work and holiday prep, so I only had time for a couple gift pieces to friends, one of which was a personal art for my partner, but this one here is of one of my friend's player characters in an upcoming superhero-themed TTRPG game I plan to run next year. We did a secret santa event in my one friend group, and I knew I had to go the extra mile with my friend's delightfully insane robot design who certainly deserves it. Certainly not a shabby way to end the year, I'd say.

I'm not sure what all 2025 holds in terms of what I hope to accomplish art-wise. For a basic and realistic goal I'd love to finish the War Bots cast with art for its final four characters, and perhaps take this October to do the same for Darkworld Showdown. I may also talk about my other major dream game project, City of Desos, though considering how far out any serious work on that is I'm not in a hurry. With my new PC I could even start on actually developing a game... maybe not a full-on platform fighter or team shooter to start, but it'd be nice to start working on those skills properly. The new PC also means streaming is back on the table, and while my setup isn't perfect for it I think I can figure out something. I do also have a whole dang TTRPG system to develop now, so. That might keep me busy. Either way, I'm looking forward to spending plenty of time with friends this year after a lot of plans got bottlenecked by not having a PC that could do half the stuff I wanted. But honestly, as much as anything I wanna have fun with art this year, something I'd say I did pretty good on in 2024. I chased a lot of ideas without any grander ambition besides it sounding fun, and it was refreshing. Maybe I'd like to set up commissions and hope to find an audience for the nonsense I got up to in November, or just have a side space to focus on that indulgent sort of thing more. That might mean spanning out to more social platforms, been putting off making a bluesky account for long enough maybe... maybe. I dunno, got a whole year ahead of me, and plenty more after that.

To anyone reading this far, thanks for indulging me. That goes even further for anyone who's been following for however much longer, or just checking a few posts. Sorry December's been quiet, hopefully I'm not too wrapped up in PC games and the rest of my holiday-gotten backlog to remember to do some art this year, maybe even enough to not need to skip any months next year. I still gotta do that New Donk City poll winner piece... the WIP of the first part is somewhere around here...

But all that said, here's to a bright 2025, let's make it as great as it can be! Happy New Year!!!!