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unproduciblesmackdown · 5 years ago

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thank you teresa and soph for tagging me for 2020 Creator Wrap: Favorite Works

Rules: it’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 (or so) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought to the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread love and link each other to awesome works!

no particular order lol. wait also i didn’t quite follow “favorite” i suppose, i like, judged by Significance. but in a way that was still plenty subjective, so

tayston kiss on the Mouth - self-explanatory like of course it was crucial to draw a Tayston Kiss and i finally got around to it. also when i opened it now it was like “oh nice that’s cuter than i was remembering it even” lol. rly enjoy taylor here too like them in a tee and i like that they’re leaning back a bit but w/drawing their forearms/hands where i did it feels like they’re pulling winston in and i’m just overall like “nice that turned out well” @ drawing them here. i also personally enjoy the Blush Patch drawn in one linear stroke between them. it’s fun to try to have that essential detail be both Soft enough but also have some geometry to it b/c i’m always On That

riawin kiss on the Mouth - same thing all over again lol of course i had to draw it. and it started with several different failed attempts which was annoying but then i got this one in one night and it works well enough. also has a fun clothing detail in rian w/a hoodie (of winston’s) and once again i draw the hand-on-jaw l’intimacy and i think it Works Well again b/c why wouldn’t it, classic. also i’d been intending to draw the Lines detailing rian’s hair curls rather than silhouette and that was pretty fun to just jump into. oh i did the same thing with the Blush also, s/o to that. and the fact that there Is that height diff as depicted here....hopefully artistically successful in having you Think About It

tayston embrayston Cuddling - i think the first proper Fanart Of Fic? so that’s crucial. helping put the essential tayston ideas into the world and hopefully helping put People into Reading Said Fic, i’m glad this turned out to have enough of a relaxed vibe to do the concept’s written execution some justice....this was also just a success of “the colors i put down originally managed to be really Incongruous palette-wise” and i had to wrangle that situation with some added Layers lol but now they’re soft and nice i think, a much more Congruous pink-purple and i’m now remembering i struggled a lot picking a Solid Bg Color even though now a pale yellow seems like an obvious choice, s/o to the little border highlight around them i like that too....things turned out solidly here....enjoying the Geometry going on re: winston’s sleeve lol

agtikbi reprise - again i think it was Important to have done something for this absolutely iconic bit of media, thank you so much obcr for including this track. did a bunch of coloring for it (ft. many purple overlays as usual lol but that was always the plan) and the lineart i knocked out pretty fast w/o worrying about editing it super hard but it turned out solidly which is always a gift. really this was one of those “yeah it takes a while but i make pretty consistent progress and just knock it out in a couple of days” works ft. a decent amount of detail and that’s always an Epic Win and again i love agtikbi reprise so much so it was Very Good to have officially done something for it. also i’d been meaning to draw jeremy again for eons so that accomplished that goal too

monthlong riawinning - the opposite experience but also I Guess its own kind of win, where drawing is not quite as cooperative and one thing takes me A Month where it’s v much not consistent progress and i Do edit a lot which has pros (looks kinda fancy i guess) and cons (sweating details unnecessarily / overthinking or second guessing stuff / forest for trees or whatever / it takes ages and was it worth it....) like when i started with the Lineart Layer i was like “uh oh i’ve Cleaned This Up a lot but there’s already stuff i like too much to Restart this even though i’m not even close to halfway done yet” and yeah it took me ages to finish with lineart that’s been entirely Cleaned Up but then hey, you get this one thing with Completely Exhaustively Edited Lineart....i’m very Particular about like these self-imposed geometry rules re: lineart / shapes according to my own ~aesthetic sensibilities~ and stuff so like, it’s not even just a matter of Are The Lines Fairly Uniform Width / erasing stray marks / making sure the lines are all Closed and stuff, and even w/ the finished product it’s like “oh i could’ve connected some lines in rian’s hair for more Flow or moved this thing over by a few pixels or w/e,” isn’t that always the way though....it’s fun to have 1 Thing from this year v polished though. and i like the riawin contribution of “what if winston went down on rian and then there was this Snapshot Of Affection afterwards ft. an embrace and a kiss and the love language of tenderly feeling him up in the process” i was like “is this all Obvious or am i being too coy” and i was being too coy but here come opportunities like this one right here to make the meaning clearer i hope. that’s part of this pic’s Importance as well lmfao. the content of it and all

(everyone is tagged i think lol)

#now the cheating zone of Honorable Menchies #Winston Looking Sadly At His Phone. implied benston! colors! lighting 4 once! composition notebook! his Expression is good i think!#winston the autistic quant bicon moodboard! further Self Explanatory Importance. s/o to having a usable Winston Pic now/like other pix used #Dollar Bill Harassing Winston Video: what could be more transformative than getting some fun out if that. handful of well timed moments lol #Are You Bi(lingual). jokes. prescience (cassandra). bisexuality. my 1st formal attempt drawing rian & turned out well. love Tiny Winston #Riawin(ston Billions Gets Pegged): obviously! a lot of care put into it obviously! i am V happy w/a lot of the details around winston's Head #and then of course for similar reasons Tay(win)ston Billions Gets Pegged. the colors there are Chefs Kiss & again love how tay turned out

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vatrixsta · 6 years ago

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Pierced (2/?)

Siiiiigh all of your lovely comments on part 1 have forced me into this course I wanted to take anyway and I just hope you’re proud of yourself. Shout out to @csmarchmadness for the always handy gun to the head - all the ladies there are awesome and I enjoy stalking their conversations when I finally get online again at my obscene times of day and night. :D I’m going to try to update this with some regularity, so I hope you enjoy! And we’re off.

Also on AO3

Emma had to cancel this date that was absolutely not a date.

There was just no possible way it was a good idea, date or no date. Not only were his eyes too blue and his smile too bright and his hands too… perfect when they touched hers, but she wouldn’t even be able to ruin it quickly by sleeping with him too fast because of the fucking piercing she gave him.

She was feeding Henry an incredibly nutritious dinner of Spaghettios and carrot sticks (he was going through a phase where he hated basically everything and at least she was still getting carrot sticks past his rapidly shrinking palette) when she realized that she didn’t actually have Killian’s number and would have to figure something out tomorrow, maybe ask Ruby to run interference. Except Ruby wouldn’t, the whore, because she wanted Emma to make nice with the Sex God.

She was making sure Henry took a bath (six year old boys would pay almost any price to continue smelling like street urchins, she’d found) when it occurred to her that despite his flirtations, it was possible he didn’t intend for it to be a date. Maybe he really did just want her to design a tattoo for him and he was pleased with her professionalism and artwork. God that would be embarrassing, if she told him she couldn’t go out with him and he basically responded with, who asked you?

She was halfway through reading Henry his favorite book of fairy tales when she realized all the princes (and a few of the pirates) suddenly had blue eyes and British accents in her head and you know what, that’s enough for tonight, Henry, light’s out and I’ll see you in the morning, love bug.

She was laying in bed, staring at the ceiling, when she remembered he’d had to fill out the consent form for the procedure and would have had to put his number on there. If she got to work early enough, she could go into the client files she wasn’t supposed to snoop in unless an actual emergency occurred and tell him she was dying or moving to Yemen or anything that would stop this train before it ran straight over her heart.

She was waking up with a groan and Henry’s knee connecting with her pelvis when she realized that the idea of canceling this date that was definitely, absolutely not a date actually bummed her out. It was lunch and he was nice. She could design a tattoo for him -- he’d tipped her extremely well for the piercing -- and maybe finally be able to afford that new video game console upgrade Henry had been not so subtly hinting at for Christmas, which meant there were only fifty-two more shopping days until Black Friday.

She was walking Henry to the school bus, teasing him about the crush he had on a little blonde girl his age that he swore was not a crush at all, that they were going to be best friends forever and she just wanted to kiss his his precious little cheek so she did, glad that he only scrunched his face a little in distaste, when she seriously considered that she might be losing her mind. It wasn’t normal to think about someone you’d just met this much, to obsess over a virtual stranger (if you could consider someone whose cock you’d pierced with a 12 gauge barbell a stranger) to this degree. She definitely, absolutely had to cancel.

“His paperwork? Oh, yeah, I threw it out. I was drinking coffee while I filed last night and, well. Oopsie.”

Fucking Ruby.

Sending her friend and boss a glare that clearly communicated I do not believe you, you lying whore and glaring harder when Ruby’s unrepentant grin widened, Emma left the back office area and stomped over to her station for the only therapeutic option left to her: sketching.

The small notebook she used was the ninth of its kind since she’d started working at Red, White and Tattoo. She kept them all, tucked behind her little book of cocks, as Killian had referred to it (OHMYGOD STOP THINKING ABOUT HIM!!!) and filled with some sketches that had turned into elaborate pieces that decorated backs and wrists and ankles and every other body part conceivable to little half finished works she’d never fully cracked. There were also incredibly personal drawings she’d asked Ruby to ink on her own skin -- Emma had done the buttercup herself, but it was a process she’d rather not repeat.

Killian had said he’d be by to collect her at 12:30. It was currently 10:00 and Emma was praying someone would take advantage of the early bird special so she’d have something else to focus on.

After straightening up her station (twice) and sketching an elaborate oceanscape (she refused to actually color it; she knew the waves would match his eyes as well as her supplies could manage she did not need this fuckery) Emma was ready to crawl out of her skin, pissed at herself and Killian for getting her into this state. This was why she had her rules! This was why the last date she’d gone on had been a hit it and quit it one night stand with the dorky guy who’d sold them the front desk display case. That had been... three years ago? Oh, Christ. No wonder she was insane now.

Killian was thoughtfully fifteen minutes early, as he if he could sense his date was crawling out of her skin. He entered the shop with that wide, easy smile on his face and Emma forced a smile of her own that she hoped didn’t look too forced, because she didn’t want him to take her jittery mood personally even though it was 100% his fault.

Ushering them quickly out the door (she didn’t want to risk another embarrassing moment with Ruby playing the world’s most obvious matchmaker) Emma asked where they were eating.

“There’s a place I like to go, down by the water,” he said, adorably rubbing at the back of his right ear. “It’s probably the last of the nice weather for the year so I thought we could walk?”

“Sure,” Emma said, stuffing her hands in her pockets so she wouldn’t be tempted to do something stupid like reach for his.

They fell into a slightly awkward silence that actually should have been a lot more awkward, given they didn’t know each other too well.

“Robin - my partner? - he was shocked speechless I actually went through with it,” Killian said after a few quiet minutes.

“Are you following the after care instructions?” Emma said, probably a lot more sternly than was necessary.

“Yes, Mistress,” Killian teased.

Emma rolled her eyes. “You’d be surprised how many people blow it off,” she muttered. “An infected piercing is never fun. An infected genital piercing?”

“Emma, you have my word that I shall heed your every instruction,” he said, both teasing and serious at the same time. How did he do that?

They arrived at a seafood place Emma had been dying to try but always found other uses for her paycheck - luxuries like new winter boots for Henry and electricity.

“Um, this place is a little fancy,” she said, looking down at her work outfit of dark wash denim jeans, white tank top and red leather jacket.

Killian indicated his own attire - black jeans that were a little less tight than the ones he’d worn yesterday (a good sign he was obeying her instructions), a dark blue t-shirt and a black leather jacket of his own that looked more suited to riding a motorcycle than catching criminals, but what did she know?

“Casual dress at lunch,” he assured her. “To die for lobster rolls.”

Emma mentally calculated how much a lobster roll would set back her food budget as Killian placed his hand on her lower back and urged her into the restaurant.

She was going to have to make a rule about him not being allowed to touch her because her brain short circuited and she suddenly couldn’t recall what a budget was or how one accommodated for it.

They were seated at a table by the water and the view really was spectacular, the horizon a calming sight Emma was desperately in need of. Killian had good table manners (because of course he did), filling her water glass from the bottle their server left on the table before he attended to his own, confirming with her that the lobster roll sounded good (it really, really, really did) before ordering for them both. He added a pitcher of fresh blueberry lemonade for them to split, promising her it was not to be missed. Emma’s eyes bugged at the prices but she decided to give herself this afternoon with an unfairly attractive man who genuinely seemed to like her and wanted her to eat lobster rolls with him. There was plenty of time for reality to come crashing down when she couldn’t smell the sea and watch the flickers of sunlight play in Killian’s eyes the exact same way it did on the waves.

She tried this once, the dating someone new thing. Neal had pretty much decimated the part of her brain (and her heart) capable of trusting, but she thought, maybe there was a guy out there who’d remind her they weren’t all like Neal. (Never mind that she still remembered what it had been like at the start, her and him against the world, the mischievous flicker in Henry’s eyes reminding her that she could never really hate him the way she wanted to, because the best parts of him were like a gift every time she looked at her little boy.)

Once she got settled into work at the tattoo shop, she’d gone on a few dates, Ruby and Mulan eagerly offering to babysit toddler Henry. There had been five - maybe six? - guys total and every single one of them had been visibly deflated by the news that the hot 20-year-old blonde had a kid at home. Though the one she disliked the most had been the guy who’d feigned interest in Henry so he could sleep with her.

Emma realized that she really wasn’t looking forward to watching that disappointment cross Killian’s face. No one expected the hot (now 24) year old blonde who worked at the tattoo shop to have a kid. She suspected Killian was a little older than her (she’d have put him around 30 given his job and the slight laugh lines around his eyes) but she knew a single mom wasn’t exactly a highly sought dating prospect. She just felt shitty not telling him about Henry, when he was the best thing that had ever happened to her, just so she could, what? Enjoy a hot guy eating a lobster roll?

Yeah, okay, so maybe a little bit that. Besides, it wasn’t going to go anywhere. He didn’t need to know about her life because this was a friendly meal and she was supposed to be asking him about his tattoo not picturing him naked (and she could. From the waist down, at least, all dark hair and lean muscle and definitely a shower, not a grower--STOP IT EMMA) and nervously peeling a bread roll.

“Luv?”

Emma blinked. “Sorry, what?”

Killian smiled, but it was a little forced. “I, uh, suppose you were woolgathering.”

Great and now she’d been so lost in her social anxiety that she’d completely missed him speaking to her. If this were a date, she’d have pretty much blown it.

“I don’t get much time out by the water,” she said a little lamely. “I don’t get much time out, period,” she added ruefully.

“Workaholic?” he asked.

“Sort of,” she hedged. She took a lot of shifts at work to earn enough money to keep her and Henry far from the poorhouse. Ruby’s grandmother lived in the same building and watched Henry after school most days. She also let him stay over when the shop stayed open late on the weekends. There was a little sleeping bag zone in back dubbed Henry’s corner that he’d filled with books and toys and the oldest of his handheld video games. “What about you?”

There, that was nice and sociable.

“I enjoy my work,” Killian said. “But I have other… priorities that keep me from the workaholic label. Which, I suppose, brings us nicely to the subject of this lunch.”

Right. Not a date. He wanted a tattoo and she’d broken Rule #2 for him.

She gave him a professional smile. “Tell me a little bit about what you’re looking for.”

His lips pursed in thought for a moment, then he shrugged. “I suppose that’s part of the problem. I know what I want it to convey and I know the meaning behind it, but I’m not sure I know what symbol will best represent it to permanently ink on my body.”

Her smile turned a little more personal, because she could relate. Her buttercup was easy - the other tattoos she’d had were a little less… on the nose and direct. It had taken her months to settle on them. “Why don’t we try this. Tell me why you want it and some of the ideas you’ve had and I’ll do my job to get you some sketches to narrow it down.”

He puffed his cheeks out like an adorable chipmunk with no idea how attractive it was. Damn it, she was so screwed.

“Brilliant.” He reached into a satchel and pulled out an old, battered copy of Peter Pan, then set it before her almost reverently.

“Okay,” she said slowly. “Big fan?”

His smile widened. “My brother and I read the tale a great deal during our childhood - he’s older, so some of my earliest memories are the little crush he always had on Wendy Darling.”

Emma laughed. “And you?”

Killian shrugged. “I’ve always preferred the company of real women.”

“Yeah, that’s just about what I’d figure you’d say,” she muttered. Damn chipmunk knew exactly how attractive he was.

“Though I confess, the last few years, there’s really only been the one woman in my life,” he added.

That confession definitely gave Emma pause. If he had a girlfriend -- a steady one at that -- it meant this was definitely just a business thing and she was suddenly mortified at the idea that she’d tried to call off a date that wasn’t even a date. That was what mortification felt like, right? That vice like grip around her heart that felt like disappointment and the death of some possibility, some flutter of perhaps when you met someone new?

“And is that lucky lady the other inspiration for the tattoo?” Emma asked, swallowing down the disappointment - because that was exactly what it was. She should have been used to it by now.

His smile didn’t widen - it glowed. Emma kind of wanted to vomit, which was perfect timing, because the lobster rolls were delivered by their efficient but discreet waiter. The blueberry lemonade was spectacular, too, damn the charming chipmunk who was obviously not available.

He’d said he was though, hadn’t he? When they’d been talking about his after care for the piercing? She could have sworn he’d said he didn’t have to worry about any sexual partners! She wasn’t so delusional that she’d made that up.

She was about to open her mouth and say something stupid and accusatory like how dare you get a single mom’s hopes up even though I’m not really interested because I’m an emotional cripple, but seriously how dare you sir - when his phone went off.

“Damn it,” he muttered as he stared down at a text. “I’m so sorry, it’s an emergency at work - please, enjoy the food and feel free to wrap mine up and take it with you.” He was waving the waiter down and scrolling through his phone. “Are you busy tomorrow night? A mate of mine is playing at a pub and I promised I’d go, but we can discuss this a bit more then. I’ll be much less likely to be called in at night, as well.” He shot her a charming grin and she was so dazzled that she forgot all her questions and simply rattled off her phone number. He responded by sending her two emojis, one that was lifting its eyebrow and the other giving her a cheesy grin.

Seriously, who the hell did he think he was?

Then he was gone and a few seconds later she got another text with an address and the time of 7:30, tomorrow night.

She was going to have to ask Granny to watch Henry, because apparently she was a total idiot for this guy. He’d left the copy of Peter Pan so at the very least she’d need to return it to him, since it meant so much.

When the waiter returned to ask if she’d like anything else, Emma had another moment of panic - she was going to have to pay for both of their lobster rolls. But when she said she’d only like to go containers and a check, the waiter said Killian had taken care of the bill on his way out.

Sneaky, multitasking little profiler - Emma took a grudging bite of her lobster roll, then couldn’t quite muffle an involuntary moan. It was amazing and she wasn’t above gloating a little that she would get to have his for dinner. He may have a girlfriend that was getting a loving and thoughtful tattoo out of him (even though she could have sworn he said he didn’t have one) but Emma could re-prioritize. She could enjoy spending some time with a very attractive man who was apparently willing to buy her delicious food in exchange for said time while she got to design a beautiful piece of art for him.

That was the definition of win-win.

So why did she feel vaguely shitty about the whole thing?

She texted him back anyway, with a thumbs up emoji. Then she started flipping through Peter Pan while she carefully kept her lobster roll hand separate from her page turning one.

Another text dinged on her phone. Killian - yes, she’d added him to her contacts, so what, shut up.

Great! Really sorry I had to run out on you - I should warn you, this does tend to happen a fair bit. So please don’t take it personally - you are as lovely and charming as a bloke could hope for and I’m looking forward to getting to know you better.

Seriously, who texted like that? Who had a right to be so thoughtful and flirty but not over the line flirty and perfect and apparently have a girlfriend even though he definitely said he did not have one?!

Emma took an angry bite of her lobster roll.

And responded with another thumbs up text.

#cs fic #my stuff #my cs fic #pierced #csmarchmadness

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theanimeview · 4 years ago

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Comic-Con@Home 2021 - For Indy Comics Creators: How to Powerfully Brand Yourself - Notes

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Credit: Peggy Sue Wood | @pswediting

About the Event

Date: 24 July 2021 | Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yad9Tjnx0ac&ab_channel=Comic-ConInternational

Panel Description: Brian Pulido has been a thriving, independent comic book creator for thirty years, and has a clear easy to identify brand. What role does branding play in the world of independently-produced comics? Through his “branding rules,” case studies, and examples, Pulido will show you all you need to know . . . and more!

Notes

Brian Pulido is back again at Comic-Con 2021 to host a panel on branding. We have notes from two other panels that he has done before, “Calling All Creators: How To Build a Loyal Fan Base From Scratch” from Wonder Con 2021 and “How to Thrive as an Indy Comics Creator Now!” from last year’s Comic-Con (2020). He’s an experienced creator and well-known name in the industry, which makes this panel a must for our “Notes!” style of posts.

What is a brand?

A brand is more than just a color palette or logo. Pulido asserts that it could also include a state of mind for your company. It’s a way to look at what kind of outcome you are hoping to create for your company and audience. For example, his company, Coffin Comics, aims to create fun and excitement in the domain of rock and roll-inspired supernatural comics. That’s what Coffin Comics is about in terms of branding. So content focuses on that, and everything serves that mentality.

If you think of Nike, you think of their logo (a swoosh) and the simple design of it; you may also think of sports and highly physical activity. They focus on the spirit of moving forward quickly and with excitement.

Rule 1: Define Your Brand

You need to define yourself and your potential customer/patron. This could be anything and everything from your name to your logo and color choices--even fonts.

The goal is to create something that is instantaneously definable or recognizable. Think of Google, Nike, or other major brands and how easy it is to define and identify them in comparison to other companies in the same industries.

Rule 2: Create a Value Proposition

What is your brand doing for others? How is it worth supporting? Is it entertaining? Is it educational? What makes you valuable to the audience is the key point. Define it and keep it in mind as you are branding, advertising, and creating.

Rule 3: Find Your Brand Voice

Clarity - Speak clearly, without complicating your message. Select some buzz words that are easy to categorize your content and focus your way of writing/producing things under those categories so that the audience knows what you are about as a person/company.

Consistency & Constancy - The premise of this is that, no matter what, you are always out there communicating. You never stop, and you repeat processes or styles consistently.

Rule 4: Keep it Real & Authentic

Be your genuine self and do what you love. If you hate it, that will show even if you put on a smile. You need to do what you love so that you can push through and use that passion even if you have a rough day.

Don’t guess the marketplace. Following trends might work for a short while, but you'll come to hate the work if you don't have a passion for the subject. Moreover, you won’t really build a brand because you won’t have a base to build off of for your content to succeed long term.

Consider being aspirational in nature. The literal definition of aspirational is “having or characterized by aspirations to achieve social prestige and material success.” It’s a good mindset to have and can help you remember that gaining the success you want will mean more if it’s because of who you really are and not who you pretend to be.

Rule 5: Let the Work Rule!

Your purpose and your work should be obvious to people within one second of looking at your website/logo.

Let the work do the talking. For example, it would be better to write in a query letter: "Hi, my name is ___. I have a story about _____, and I'm looking for an opportunity to have someone read it."

This is way better than being boastful and long, like saying: “I wrote the best thing ever and if you need to read it because it will make us rich” or “it’s about [insert long summary].”

Rule 6: Stand Out from the Crowd

This seems obvious, but it’s not always easy. Branding on a personal level and for a company can look different. For example, a personal brand might be a uniform or hairstyle. But a company needs those categorical breakdowns and logos. A key message to stick to and evolve from--think Disney and the “magical” part of their branding. It’s a primary focus, it’s their key message, and it works.

For Coffin Comics, the key message is great customer service and building trust with customers. That’s the key message and what they strive for behind the scenes. Pulido asserts that “there’s no sense in having the greatest book in the world, or anything, unless people really trust you and they could trust you if you are worthy of their trust.”

Branding could also be working inside a particular genre, powerfully. For example, this could mean you work in horror, and your "powerful" approach uses a particular art style that is more so associated with cutesy stuff than typical dark/horror styles. (Like, Happy Tree Friends...)

Carve out a niche in your genre, essentially.

Rule 7: Live Your Brand

This isn’t just image. It’s that key message part. Living the philosophy of what you want your brand to be is part of it.

One way to do this is to tell your story. The more you show, the more people know, and the more likely you are to build trust (look at Pulido's Wonder Con 2021 panel, “Calling All Creators: How To Build a Loyal Fan Base From Scratch” to understand better what this means.)

You need a website and a presence on social media. Content-wise, it’s always good to do a bit of documentation such as in what you are doing/who you are out with, etc. It’s a powerful way to show your audience the kind of person/company you are without needing to stray from your message or get too personal.

Rule 8: Repeat Rules 1-7!

Like everything, it takes work. It takes time. And it takes passion.

Good luck!

#COMIC CON #COMIC-CON #COMICCON #COMIC CON 2021 #COMIC-CON 2021 #CC@HOME #CC@HOME21 #COMICCON@HOME 2021 #COMIC-CON@HOME 2021 #COMICCON 2021 #SUMMER 2021 #NOTES #san diego comic con

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thesarcasticside · 4 years ago

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Anything-$00000DEE

NAME Dylan ID 42 33 77 52 11 ALIENRACE human hybrid (unknown) OCCUPATION computer scientist

Chapter Warnings mind control, illusions, manipulation, death threat, emotional abuse, psychological horror, swearing Chapter Characters Janus, Remus, The Dragon Witch, Virgil (mentioned)

HINT 4: MESSAGE STOP (See AO3 for end of fic notes/comment section for secret message)

AO3 Chapter 1 Previous Chapter end

The curtains—their color and texture analogous to that of verdure scraped across a canvas with a palette knife—were suspended by bronze colored curtain rods. Chips and scratches revealed a true grey metal beneath the metallic paint. Sunlight poked through holes in the fabric like constellations. The glass of the panes was fogged, years of weathering clinging to the transparent wall.

Dee’s real hand clenched, the desire to run his fingers through the texture palpable. He gripped the edge of the curtain, the finished seam like the edge of a dull blade against his palm.

Leaning against the glass, Dee let the coolness creep into his pressed limbs, torso, and forehead—he let the filtered light soak into his skin. Dee took a deep breath, exhaled, and let his eyes wander the room—his room.

A single mattress laid on a bed of wires, the metal columns and springs and screws poking out, ready to scrape his shins. The white sheets were clean, just as if they were bought yesterday, but the quilts and crocheted blankets were worn, their colors desaturated over time, into charcoal browns and dead leaves.

Dee could not remove the image of Remus—without hesitation—lifting boxes of junk out of a spare room, clearing it out, for him.

Knowing that Dee had nowhere else to go.

The hardwood floors and paneling were in good condition despite the scratch marks. The walls were covered in random posters and framed pictures, probably to hide more so than decorate. Strings of warm light were strung across the ceiling and wall at the head of the bed.

Bookshelves covered an entire wall—books that Dee did not care to read, judging by their titles.

It was simple—It could be much more elaborate—the memories of grand halls, filigree, murals, he saw on his missions came to mind. Yet it was million times better than the crisp, perfect white walls, the red carpets, the geometric planter boxes, the red tinted windows…

It hurt—that is what it felt like, that swelling in his chest. Certainly not anything that would make him feel giddy with glee, anything that would bring warmth to his visage, or anything that would make him feel welcomed for once in his goddamn life—It hurt that Remus did not hold it over him.

He could come and go as he pleased.

Dee left the window, and left his room, and Remus was there in the kitchen, making some god-awful abomination that might taste good or kill them both.

Dee walked to an open counter.

The ritual of making coffee was quite relaxing. Dee enjoyed it immensely, carefully measuring and grinding the beans. He stood in the kitchen, waiting, watching the coffee dripping through the hourglass, the aroma meeting his senses.

Remus in the background was loud, clunks and clicks, hardy laughter, shimmying shoulders, traversing the small kitchen with skips. Dee was barely halfway through the coffee making process when Remus turned around, jumped in the air like a cat, just noticing his presence, with a yelp. His eyes widened with glee, amused by the scare.

“Mornin’!”

Dee shot out a sigh with a smile and replied, “morning.”

“Hey, if you want, we can go out shopping today for more stuff for your new room, roomie.” By shopping, Dee figured Remus meant dumpster diving. Though, if he asked, Dee was sure that Remus would be willing to travel somewhere off planet for things.

Problem was, Dee never had any possessions before. He did not know what he needed. It was as if Remus was shoveling piles of stuff into his arms, and Dee was starting to get overwhelmed by his generosity.

“Eh, I’m good. Would rather chill today,” Dee, after all his years under Dei’dra, did not feel like doing anything.

“Alrighty then, I had a dream last night and, in my dream, I came up with the perfect recipe for scrambled eggs. Decided to test that out. You’ll be my first taste-tester—Hey Dee? You alright?”

Dee had stopped moving. The coffee held in his hands crashed to the floor.

Dee tried to blink away the silence pouring into his ears, drowning out Remus. He tried to hear the colors and mismatched filigree of Remus’s cramped kitchen, but there was nothing—but white walls and red carpet and grey floors.

He was alone, in a room, suddenly, like every moment he spent by Remus’ side had been a dream.

He blinked again and Dei’dra was there in front of him. The room was off—the dimensions were too small. He could feel her breath, which stunk of stale coffee and vomit, on his face, as he looked up at her.

He did not let this shake him. He repeated in his mind that Dei’dra was taken care of. That he was in a Junkyard. That this was not real. He spent long enough not feeling real to know the difference.

“Good day, doll. I hope you’ve enjoyed your vacation in the trash heap. Soon enough, I’ll have another mission for you.”

“Go get fucked Dei’dra. You and I both know you’re going to rot in jail for the rest of your sad human life.”

Dei’dra laughed, but there was a tone in there that seemed to acknowledge that as being somewhat true.

“The reality is, you and I are in this together. Forever..” And he felt a pulling sensation in his mind, like ropes against his brain, the friction drawing blood. “I have a plan—just like I always do—and you’re going to follow it.”

“Oh, really?” He scoffed, “How about you make me? Going to override my systems? Make me Project $DEE again? Good fucking luck.”

“Oh… All that research put to waste, disabled by the hands of a fish.” Dei’dra’s face was twisted—at first, she had appeared as he met her, put together and clean, but soon enough the knotted frizzy hairs and crumpled skin begun to fade into view. “Alrighty then, I’ll call you later. Nice knowing you.” She turned around, leaving this strange room of his mind’s own making.

“Rot in hell,” he managed, his throat filling with sand. She turned around, eyes blinking with colors, colors like the device that was now in pieces.

“Oh, before you go, darling. You remember that house plant of mine?” She was talking about Virgil. He was free. He made sure of it. He watched over him, as he healed, as he flew far away from him and her. No longer burdened with the dragon’s horde.

A chilly unease crawled along his back, gripping his shoulders with icy talons.

“You were quite fond of him, weren’t you?”

“What of him?”

He had to play indifferent. He could not get sucked into this trap. Yet he knew he could not hide this from her. He could never hide from Dei’dra.

“I’m going to be blunt; he is as good as dead. I can kill him at a touch of a button.” And then the woman had the nerve to smile and point at the bracelet at her wrist. “I would love to press it—oh, I want to press it, especially after his big betrayal.” Then she pouted, “It’d be a shame if I had a reason to keep him alive.”

“You’re full of bull, and that’s a lot coming from me.”

“You really think that tracker was all that was keeping him here?” Her eyes were red. “That after all these years, I didn’t think to up my security. Upgrade his controller?” She burst out laughing, “Doll, you are a riot!”

“Leave Virgil alone. He’s free. You lost. He won. Die in prison, you bastard.” He found that his voice was cracking, tumbling into silence.

“I won’t.” Dei’dra’s eyes were shining, bright, like an angel. “Unless you cooperate.”

—And in his mind, amidst the sand, a doorway appeared to him. Texture like that of sandstone, he could feel himself run his hands down the door frame. He could read the engravings, like pieces of memories put back together, but not as it was before—like a sculpture instead.

And he was back in the present, Dei’dra fading from view. And he was rumbling, wind blowing through him, sand blasting at his ribcage, ready to burst from his throat. Dei’dra faded from his mind, but she already got what she wanted.

He had to play this game. It was a rematch. He was just at the loading screen. He would bide his time, play along, lie, and wait.

But he would change the rules. The player characters would be different. The mechanics would shift. He would change.

He was on the ground. He lifted his head. Remus was standing over him, semi-crouched, blunt concern on his face, confusion upon his brows. He stood up, dismissed the offered hand. He brushed his coat, took in a breath, and turned to face Remus.

He was not doll.

He was not $DEE.

He was not even Dee.

But he was going to stop her—kill her—whatever he had to—so he could live his life how he wanted—because fuck Dei’dra.

Remus was staring at him, waiting for an explanation.

“Remus, from now on, please call me—"

He was, “—Janus.”

#ts (In Other Worlds)#ts (INW)#ts Janus #ts deceit #ts the dragon witch #ts storytime #ts storytime 2021 #ts big bang #ts Virgil #sarcasm writes #sarcasm ts fic #thomas sanders #sander sides #sander sides fic #ts Anything #ts Remus

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runningfromexplosions · 8 years ago

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Chalk Drawings

------Lazytown fluff and friendship fic------

Robbie curled up in his fluffy orange chair and plopped a large tome on his lap. “Ahh, time for a relaxing read,” he sighed contentedly. He opened the volume, called “Magic and Folklore,” to where he had last left off and removed his silky purple bookmark.

“The pentacle,” he read aloud, “Is a magical symbol often used as a shield against malevolent spirits. An amulet with a pentacle carved into it can be worn around one’s neck to ward off evil. Drawing a pentacle on one’s door is said to keep demons, elves, and other tricksters from entering one’s house. Hmm. Interesting. Wait, ELVES?!” Robbie did a double-take and re-read the sentence. “It says elves!” The cogwheels of mayhem began to whir inside his imagination. Slower, with a mischievous grin spreading across his face, he repeated to himself, “It says elves. And Sportacus is an elf, which means…”

The villain sprung out of his seat and clapped his hands together. “I am a genius!” he declared to the audience of only himself. “It’s disguise time.” He danced over to his display of costumes. “Too flashy,” he said, looking at a sequined dress. “Too clashy,” he said about an ugly leotard with conflicting patterns and colors. “Too…moustachey,” he said about a pair of moustache-print pajamas. The next outfit in line was a simple brown suit with a colorful tie, a pin that looked like an artist’s palette, a beret, and a thin moustache that curled wildly at the ends. “Perfect!” In a whirlwind of magic, the disguise disappeared from its display and reappeared on Robbie. “Now I just need one more thing…”

Ziggy was strolling through town, sucking on a lollipop (as usual), when he saw a big chalk star drawn on the ground. Followed by another big star. And another. A pathway of stars! Curious, Ziggy followed the path to its end, where the man behind the drawings was squatting and drawing yet another star on the pavement with a purple stick of chalk. Ziggy saw that the man had an entire bucket full of all different colors of chalk.

“Hey mister, what are you doing?” Ziggy asked the artist. The artist looked up, frowned, and raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to talk to strangers?” he said, waving his chalk at the boy like a chiding finger. “Hmm, maybe…I don’t remember. But you’re talking to me, and I’m a stranger to you, right?” “Go away, kid, can’t you see that I’m working on a very important public art project?” said the artist, who could not possibly be Robbie Rotten in any conceivable way. “An art project? What kind of art project?” “I’m drawing stars all over Lazytown,” the artist announced proudly, “It’s going to be a masterpiece! That is, so long as some messy child doesn’t interfere.” “I sure hope not!” said Ziggy, missing the point of Robbie’s snide remark. “Oh! Could I be your artist’s assistant? Please?” “Er…” Robbie hesitated. The brat was persistent, and Robbie doubted that the kid would quietly walk away if he told him to leave again. Besides, if Zippy or whatever his name was helped draw the pentacles, it would save Robbie some time. “Fine. But you have to draw stars like mine, okay?” “I’ll do my best!” the boy said, eagerly picking out a blue chalk stick from the bucket. Robbie went back to his work and tried to ignore the child. That is, until the kid sighed. “Aww…” Robbie put down his chalk. “What is it?” he asked offhandedly. “I don’t think it turned out so good,” said Ziggy, dropping his chalk in defeat. Well, Robbie thought, the boy’s star…had points, he supposed. Not the correct number of five, but the thing looked more like a star than it did a scribble. “Here, I’ll help you,” said Robbie, picking up Ziggy’s chalk, “I’ll hold onto the top, and you hold on to the bottom.” Ziggy grasped the bottom of the chalk as suggested. Robbie helped guide the chalk over the pavement until they had drawn a complete star. “There, see?” Robbie said. “Yes. This one looks a lot better. Thank you!” “You’re…welcome?” Robbie mentally slapped himself. He was a villain, not a babysitter, for crying out loud! Maybe the pink one had been right and he was a big softie. “Hi Ziggy!” Speak of the eight-year-old devil. There she was, a pink and white soccer ball under one arm, and…oh boy, the other children were coming over as well. The geeky one, the pigtailed one, and the greedy one- the entire Brat Brigade- surrounded Robbie. “What’cha doing, Ziggy?” asked Pixel. “I’m helping Mr. Artist draw stars!” said Ziggy. “Sounds like fun. We were going to invite you to play soccer with us, but it’s cool if you want to keep drawing.” “Ooh, chalk drawings?” said Trixie, interested. “We can play soccer later; I wanna draw!” “Mr. Artist, can my friends draw, too?” Ziggy asked Robbie. “All right,” Robbie said, realizing that he had no escape from the kids, “But be quiet, because I am trying to concentrate on my work. And remember, we are drawing these stars.” He gestured to the first star he had drawn. “What if we want to draw things other than stars?” asked Stephanie. “Excuse you, Miss Pink, but who is the artist here?” Stephanie rolled her eyes, but went to pick out a stick of chalk from the bucket anyway. Pink, of course.

Despite Robbie’s rule about only drawing stars, the children managed to be creative. Pixel drew entire constellations. Stingy drew stars which he labeled “MINE.” He drew arrows towards the other kids’ stars, and labeled those “MINE,” too. Stephanie and Ziggy worked on a gigantic smiley face design with a star for each of the eyes. Trixie drew on the side of a house. “Trixie, that’s someone’s house! You can’t draw there!” Stephanie warned. “Oh yeah? And who’s going to stop me?” “No one! That’s my house,” Robbie lied, “And you have my permission to draw all over it!” “All right!” the prankster cheered. She spent the next few minutes drawing large stars on the sides of the house until she ran out of space. At least, she had run out of space that she could reach. Trixie’s next move was to climb onto the window ledge. She raised her chalk, prepared to draw a star above the window, when she lost her balance. “Whooooa!” Trixie fell backwards, but rather than land painfully on the ground, she landed safely in someone’s arms. “I got you!” said Trixie’s rescuer. “Sportacus!” all the kids cheered at once, while Robbie growled. Sportacus gently set Trixie back on her feet. “Trixie, why were you drawing on that house?” Sportacus asked, his arms crossed. He wasn’t angry, but his tone was serious. “It’s the artist’s house, and he said I could draw on it,” Trixie explained, “Besides, it’s just chalk. It’ll wash off when it rains.” Robbie wailed. He should have thought of that. If the anti-elf magic wasn’t activated soon, Sportacus would be able to come back once the rain had washed the pentacles away. “Artist?” Sportacus said, looking at the man who had just made the anguished noise. “Yes, hello, that’s me,” Robbie said, masking his frustration with a forced smile. “We’re helping him with his art project,” said Stephanie. “Oh! Sportacus, would you like to draw with us?” “NO!” Robbie interjected. Stephanie glared at him. “Why not? You let everyone else draw.” “Yes, but…he’d ruin our work. He can’t draw! He doesn’t know how!” “I can draw,” said Sportacus, slightly puzzled. “Uh, actually, I meant to say I have a special job in mind for you,” Robbie improvised. Sportacus bounced on his feet in anticipation. “I’m always ready to help! What can I do?” “I need you to go stand in the center of that big star,” Robbie said, pointing to the largest of his pentacles. All the kids had stopped drawing to watch Sportacus move to the designated location. They wondered what the artist planned for the hero. “Like this?” Sportacus gestured to himself, now standing in the pentagon of the star. Robbie rested one hand under his chin and squinted his eyes, pretending to contemplate Sportacus as one would a work of art. He circled around Sportacus, making sure that every part of the elf was inside the star. “Yes, good. Now tell me: do you feel like…skedaddling? Running for the hills?” Robbie wiggled his fingers in the direction of the mountains beyond Lazytown. “Well, I always enjoy running,” said Sportacus, who began to jog in place. “No, no, not running!” Robbie clamped a hand on each of Sportacus’ shoulders to stop his jogging. “I mean, do you even feel a little, teensy, tiny urge to leave Lazytown?” He leaned in towards Sportacus in a way he hoped was intimidating, and whispered in his ear: “For EVER?” Sportacus laughed. “No. I like it here!” He began to do jumping jacks, and Robbie was forced to let go of him. “AAAAARGGH!” Robbie shouted, “WHY ISN’T IT WORKING?” “Was something supposed to happen?” Sportacus asked, pausing mid-jumping jack. Robbie, in a fit, plucked off his fake moustache and threw his beret to the ground. He stomped on the beret several times. “Robbie Rotten!” the children gasped. “Robbie Rotten!” Robbie mocked, “Yes, of course it’s me! I take off my fake moustache and my hat, and suddenly, it’s like you can recognize faces!” Stephanie put her hands on her hips and frowned at the villain. “Robbie, what were you trying to do to Sportacus?” “If you really must know, Pinkie, I was drawing magical symbols to banish Sportafool from Lazytown. But for some reason, they didn’t work.” “Magical symbols? They look like stars to me. I would know, because they’re mine,” asserted Stingy. The other kids giggled. Sportacus smiled at them before turning his gaze to Robbie. “You know what I think?” Sportacus said with a twinkle in his eye, “I think Robbie just wanted to be friends and draw pictures with all of you!” “No!” said Robbie. “Yes!” said Ziggy. “Robbie taught me how to draw a star. See?” He pointed to his first drawing. “I couldn’t do it at first, but he helped me!” Ziggy pointed to the star that he and Robbie had drawn together. Robbie spluttered, unable to deny being helpful. Sportacus gently laid a hand on Robbie’s shoulder. “You did a good thing, Robbie,” Sportacus said softly. Robbie suddenly felt very queasy. “Good?” he whined, “I’m a villain! I can’t be good!” Beyond embarrassed, Robbie snatched up his hat and moustache from the ground. He started to stomp away, but he paused briefly to turn his reddened face and spit out a few more words at his frie—no! Not friends! Annoying acquaintances. “S-smell you later, Sportastink, brats!” “Okay. See you later, Robbie!” Sportacus called after Robbie had turned away again. “See you later!” the children echoed. Robbie felt strangely calmed by their words. Although he had shouted rudely at the kids and the hero, they had replied with kindness. Ugh, why did they have to make it so difficult for him to keep up his grouchy act? Robbie wouldn’t have admitted it to anyone else, but drawing with the kids had almost been... Fun.

#lazytown #lazytown fic #mine

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artoftakogami-blog · 8 years ago

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Please click the “Read More” for the full explanation! <3

For months (or a year now), I've been having difficulties with the grayscale to color technique. I've only recently started to get the process after several tutorials and frustrations. I mainly watch youtube for the processes and watch speedpaints to soak in the process. I once gave up with this technique when after several tries the colors came out muddy. I've been used to the color first technique. I'll be listing the pro's and con's of starting out with a greyscale technique. Do keep in mind that these are all subject to my opinion/observations and I am in no way teaching this as the only way to deal with it. I am just merely sharing my own way of dealing with it xD The example above is made with a hooman head but this can be done with any subject as well as a subject with a background C: Pro's: - Your values are always in check. - You do not get stuck with what colors to use only to re-do them again. With greyscale, the values are set and separate from the color layers. You can redo the colors without re-doing everything. - You limit yourself to only using the grey palette providing you focus on the values first instead of details (e.g . Con's: - Depending on the way it is dealt, it adds another couple of hours to the process in finishing a piece. Sketch > Base > Greyscale > Color > Color corrections > Details > Refining - Colors can get muddy with the finished product so you have to to always keep your values in check. Below are the steps with the explanations of each steps. I did my very best to explain each and I have also included the palette I used. This can be applied in any art program (as long as they have layer adjustments like color/soft light and overlay to name a few). Steps: HOLD ON! First and foremost let's go ahead and check my brush setting. I use a slightly tweaked round hard brush with a 10% spacing and transfer turned on (both in pen pressure option). I have my brush in either 80% or 100% opacity. I rely mostly with how hard I press my pen than with the flow and opacity settings. However if you would rather do the opposite, you can tweak with the flow and opacity options to have the effect you want when painting. - Palette I used. I only used a grey as my neutral color and a slightly darker purple as my shade. I never use black or white when I shade. I always have the shadows, even when very very dark, to at least have a little bit of colorf in them. It prevents the muddy look. Same with the highlight. - Layers I have. I almost always only have less than 5 layers when I paint. This is different with larger and full illustrations with complex bgs. Sketch: This is where everything starts. Depending on how big the piece will be, it will be a plain sketch or a sketch from a thumbnail. Either way, this is where you will start. You don't have to make it very very clean. It's just the "skeleton" to your piece. You do not need to fuss on details in this stage, be free and do not be afraid of mistakes at this point. Just let your hand draw what your mind wants it to draw. I have my sketch as a normal layer. Tako, I have finished my sketch! Base + Shadow:Good job! The next path you will take is laying the base. Choose a very neutral gray for it. After that, it's time for you to take that dark color (not black) and lay it where light does not hit your subject. This will be your shadow. I have the layer locked so I won't be able to paint outside of the base color. Always remember to take not of how hard you press with your pen (pen pressure) when laying in the shadows and highlights and when blending the shadow to the base. In this stage it is best to paint like a sculptor like this. You will need knowledge with how 3d objects work. Color: You are done with the greyscale yay! Now time to lay in the colors. This is somewhat hard for those attempting this technique for the first time. I have experienced muddy colors afterwards but I will explain to you how to avoid that. First, set your brush at 80% opacity and create a new layer above the base layer and set it in Color mode. I found this mode to be the best as it does not affect your values too much. Lay in a base color (a reddish brown tone) to set in the final colors. Next carefully lay in the proper colors of your subject. At this stage, I took in mind the rule of Color zones of the face. He will look like an alien for a time but do not fret we are just beginning C: What about the highlights, where are they?? Highlights: It is now time for it, do not worry! You have to have confidence and merge the color layer with the base. Then create a new layer on top and set it to Soft light and choose a light shade of your light source. Then lightly brush it along the planes where light will touch your subject. I made sure to be careful in this stage to avoid a very overly exposed subject because this is not the final stage. Refining: Next step I do is I merge the highlights layer with my original layer. Once that is done, it is time for me to paint and refine the shadows and highlights as well as to fix the colors of the subject. This is the stage where you would also want to correct any mistakes you want to change such as anatomy or additional stuff you want to add in. Details: Once I am satisfied with the overall look of my subject: the colors, shadows and highlights. I start to lay in the details starting with the eyes. Viewers will most usually focus on faces first so this is the part where I lay in the details first. Any color that seems to be dominant which are not supposed to be, I paint it over lightly. I slowly build up the look and paint over everything to refine it. Finalizing: I am now overly satisfied with everything with my piece and if you are too it is time for us to finalize stuff. I put in more reflective lights and create a new layer and set it to overlay. I then choose a nice shade of any saturated warm color and lightly brush it wherever the light touches my subject. It is also the stage where I finally go and paint the freckles and his scars. I then create a new layer adjustment called Levels and Curves to adjust the final overall values and color of the subject. IT IS DONE! Yay! It is a very long process and you will need patience and of course the passion for it. Your art will look "shitty" at the start as all creations look in the beginning but once you push through and be patient with it will become what you want. Usually xD It is also helpful to study how the old masters paint! Anyways, thank you for reading and I hope that this is helpful in any way! Feel free to ask in the comments below and I will do my best to answer. Some helpful videos: - How to paint like the old masters - Grayscale to Color Tutorial - Sara Tepes - Grayscale to Color Tutorial - Artgerm - Grayscale to Color Tutorial search results youtube/a> and James Gurney xD gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/

#myart #tutorials #process #grayscaltocolor #howto #art #illustration #walkthrough #stepbystep #artwithexplanation #painting

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the-returnist-blog · 6 years ago

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WARDROBE STYLIST vs. PERSONAL STYLIST

There is loads of information on how to become a personal stylist and plenty of examples of people who have built successful personal styling careers. There is very little written on the world of commercial wardrobe styling. Because of this, people often assume I take on personal clients because I am someone who shops for a living, but the fact of the matter is that personal styling is a complete different skillset than what I do as a commercial wardrobe stylist.

As a commercial stylist, I’m communicating with the producer, photographer/director and the ad agency prior to the shoot. Everything is so fast moving in advertising, I usually start getting information at the last possible minute, at most one week prior to the shoot. I’m often on a conference call to go over the layouts and direction of the project, then I’m giving a list of talent and their sizes. I almost never see anything more than a headshot of the bodies I’m shopping for prior to going out to shop, and often have to shop for 10 or more people with only a few days prior to the shoot. There are certain “rules of thumb” that I need to follow when I’m shopping for projects because there are certain things that across the board never look good on camera. For example, no heavy prints, nothing that is billowy in shape, NO LOGOS. Beyond that, I have to also think about the client requests. I’m often shopping within specific color guidelines, for the opposite season of what is actually available in store, and for particular demographic for the product we’re trying to sell. These are just examples, the list of what I need to consider when I’m scanning through a store can even be longer than this. You can equate it to an actor remembering a script before they go on stage. If you get it wrong, say you buy the wrong size pants for one of the talent because you misread your notes, buy pinks and maroons even though the client requested no red because that is the competitor’s brand color, then all of that work you put into finding those items gets wasted. You now not only can’t use those garments, you also will need to do more returns once the project is over, on top of having to shop more for the correct items. It is critical that you are organized and accurate notes before you shop and it helps to have most of it memorized so that you don’t look suspicious having to read your paper over and over again while you pass the employees.

A personal stylist meets with the client, they get to see their body in person, and they discuss with their client what they’re hoping to achieve with their look. It’s a much more personal connection with a lot more communication from beginning to end. You really get to learn throughout the process what the client likes and dislikes, and you’re able to see what works on their body. If items don’t work, you often have the option to go out and shop some more.

I like to think of commercial shoots with the same type of weight as a wedding day. Unless there is a fitting prior to the shoot (often for television commercials they ask the actors to come in the day before the shoot to makes sure the wardrobe fits and is liked by the agency) it’s a one and done deal. You HAVE to be prepared with a ton of options and sizes to make sure there will be plenty of things that work because you can’t tell the rest of the crew to sit tight on the shoot day so that you can go grab some more options. Today is the day. Commercial shoots generally cost on the low end $25,000 to 1 million dollars for a television commercial. If the wardrobe is off, the shoot is off, and a painstaking amount of money is lost because you didn’t come through with your end of the deal. Being prepared for every little hiccup that could come your way is what the experience stylists get paid to do. The easiest part of the job is putting together outfits, the hardest part is knowing what to prepare for because there will be hiccups.

There are also different goals for a wardrobe and personal stylist. For a personal stylist, you really want your client to look and feel great, and most of all be happy with the outfits you curated for them. For a wardrobe stylist, it’s not about the outfit that looks the best on the talent, it’s more about the outfit the works the best within the total concept of the campaign. It may have to do with the story that each garment is telling, or the color palette of the overall look. Unlike what the personal stylist is considering while shopping, the current trends may not matter, the cute heels aren’t speaking to the right demographic and the perfect fitting jacket that works beautifully with the story and fits the talent like a glove actually has a logo on it that hasn’t been approved by the legal team.

If you’re still with me after reading all of this I hope you can see that wardrobe styling and personal styling are two very different jobs. I think it would be hard to be really great at doing both types of styling. I have never dipped into personal styling because my interests lie in telling the story through the wardrobe. It is still important that I have an understanding of trends and fit, but I like the challenge of executing it within a larger concept. I also have no interest in “fixing” someone’s style. When I see someone who’s style is all over the place I take a mental note of what that is saying about that person. How to go about changing their look so that they feel great is not where my passion lies, it’s rather all about the stories we can tell through what we choose to wear.

#wardrobestylist

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yesterdaysdreams · 7 years ago

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How To Choose The Right White Paint

We always get a lot of questions about white paint around here. And while it’s not rocket science, I totally get why people are apprehensive at first! There are so many different shades at the store and there’s nothing worse than painting an entire room only to have regrets and want to do it all over again.

So, today’s question is: How do you choose the perfect white paint? What rooms should we not use white in?

Elsie: It was only recently that I discovered a lot of people don’t love white walls as much as I do. And I will say the new trends of boldly-colored walls are truly inspiring to me! Like wow! But, even still, there is nothing that feels like home to me as much as a clean, fresh palette of mostly white. So this post is all about white walls (and trim, and bookcases, and cabinets and whitewashed floors) and why they make me so happy. Feel free to disagree with me because I love hearing different opinions and I definitely consider this an opinion post not some kind of “design rules.”

Here’s what I love about white paint:

It reflects light!

So, the room photographed above is actually one of the darkest rooms in our home because the windows are shaded by a giant magnolia tree. When we first moved in, I had read a post on another blog about how it’s not best to paint dark rooms white. So I painted it grey (and hated it) and then painted it darker charcoal (and hated it too), and then finally resolved to just go with my gut and paint the whole thing white. White walls, white fireplace, whitewashed floors, white shelves. And I LOVE it. It feels bright and airy in the daytime and cozy at night when we’re catching up on Westworld.

A neutral and low contrast look is easy to pull off.

-A colorful or high contrast room takes a lot more work and talent to pull off. I feel like white and neutrals are very forgiving. It’s easy to pull together on a lower budget because you can just paint something white if you don’t like it.

It feels like home to me.

-This is different for everyone, and a total opinion, but I don’t relate with people who say all white rooms feel clinical. I think they feel great! One way to discover this for yourself is to just notice how other people’s rooms (and also restaurants, hotels or shops) make you feel. A lot of white feels comforting, fresh and clean to me. Almost like I can breathe easier.

Here’s how I choose the right white for my rooms:

-I like to stick with bright, untinted white for trim, cabinets or bookshelves. This is pretty much across the board for me. I also like to do semi-gloss for those so they are a little shinier and brighter white, allowing them to pop a little bit.

-I know a lot of people, including Laura, use untinted white on their walls (I’ll let her talk more about that below). For me, personally, I never want my white to read as blue because I have a strong preference for warmer tones. In our previous home, I went with a color with a pretty strong warm tint and in our current home, I went with one that is closer to pure white with a subtle warm tone.

-I prefer to use ONE color of white throughout the home because it’s easier to keep track of and touch up over time. I mean, do you really want to keep track of different shades for different rooms?

The way I choose is I paint a (large) sample section of the white I am considering in the brightest AND the darkest room of our home. Then I look at it in the daylight and at night in the artificial light to make sure there are no surprises. Simple!

To answer the second question: What rooms should we not use white in? My personal opinion is that there is no wrong room to paint white. I have heard that advice, and like I said above, I even followed it. But I truly believe that the FEEL you want in your rooms should be the ultimate deciding factor. For my personal preference, I like to use wallpapers, colors or patterns in rooms where we spend less time (guest room, entryway, formal dining room) and fresh white paint in rooms where we spend more time.

I’ll pass the baton to Laura now.

Laura: Like Elsie said above, white is definitely a subjective choice based on your preferences. I always use an untinted white because I personally like my whites to be as bright as humanly possible! I do have a few shades of white decor items that aren’t a totally pure white, and I’ve become OK with that lately (any hint of off-white or cream used to drive me crazy), but I still choose a totally pure white for all my paint colors and large white pieces. I think for me, the pure white just looks and feels the freshest out of all the white choices and I never have to remember what color shade I used for which room.

It makes rooms feel larger.

-While pretty much all lighter shades of paint also do this, especially if you are repainting a small space that was originally a darker color, white that gives you the maximum amount of space. Our ’60s ranch-style home has a lot of small rooms with small windows and white definitely helps the rooms feel larger.

Is there a downside?

-I will say there can be one particular downside about having white walls at times, and that is you can have some “color bleed” from other large areas of colors in the room that project themselves onto your white walls, making them look a different color at times. For example, I have mint-colored closet doors in our bedroom and depending on how the light is hitting the space, that green can bounce off of the rest of the white room and make the white areas a bit green, too (this tends to show up more in photos than in real life, for some reason). So, just a note to be aware of that if you have white walls and then paint a green ceiling (which we had at our last office space) you’ll have a bit of a green bouncing off of the white in certain scenarios. This happens mostly with large areas of color rather than a pillow, but just something to be aware of if you think that will bother you.

We hope this was helpful for some of you! Don’t stress too much about white painting … just do the testing that I mentioned above and you’ll be good! xx – Elsie

Credits//Author: Elsie Larson and Laura Gummerman, Photography: Amber Ulmer. Photo edited with A Color Story Desktop.

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jakehglover · 7 years ago

Text

Time to Declutter

By Dr. Mercola

Moving through life, most have a tendency to accumulate “stuff.” You may have drawers full of pictures and mementos, a closet full of clothes you no longer wear or a kitchen full of utensils you can’t remember how to use. It is a common human condition to acquire “things” from places you’ve been or events you want to remember.

You may often crave more room or space to live in, which may mean you’re looking for a larger home every 10 years. But, what if you could create more in your life for yourself and your family by living with less?

This is the basic premise in a popular movement toward minimalism. The minimalist movement began in the 1960s in the art world, when sculptures and paintings began to focus on the art medium and not an overt expression of emotion or symbolism.1 Today, minimalism has become a tool to help you live with greater freedom in your life.2 It is not a set of rules or restrictions, but rather an approach to help reduce a consumer culture that breeds a need for goods.

According to The Minimalists, Joshua Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, minimalism is quite simply “a tool to rid yourself of life’s excess in favor of focusing on what’s important — so you can find happiness, fulfillment and freedom.”3 Therefore, you define how much you want to live without and enjoy greater freedom. There are several psychological reasons to declutter your life and bring greater organization to the “stuff” you continue to own, and simple strategies to make the process go smoothly.

How Clutter Affects Your Brain

You may think the decision to buy an item is based on logic, but far more often it is grounded in an emotional response that marketing professionals understand how to trigger. For instance, the mere act of touching an item may increase your emotional attachment to the item and your desire to purchase it.4 In one study researchers found the longer you hold an item, the more you’re likely to pay for it. Apple stores are built on the premise that if you can hold, handle and use their product, you’re more likely to purchase it.

As you introduce new items into your life, you assign a value to the item, making it more difficult to give it up. Assigned to an item are memories, hopes and dreams, which means that if you get rid of them you may have failed.5 Getting rid of the skinny jeans you haven’t worn in years may mean you’ve given up hope of ever fitting into them again. However, the excess you keep around has an impact on your ability to focus and process information.

A team from Princeton University found those working in a physically cluttered environment experienced greater stress and had a reduction in performance.6 Another study from Los Angeles found mothers whose homes were filled with toys and clutter experienced cortisol level spikes at home that dropped after they left.7 These studies, and more, demonstrate clutter has a similar effect on your brain as multitasking, overloading your senses, increasing stress and reducing productivity.

However, clutter isn’t necessarily reserved for the physical world. Your computer desktop, phone’s home screen or the incessant notifications from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat can also clutter your mind space and trigger similar responses. There is an emotional cost to living in a cluttered space, or working on a messy desk. TreeHugger founder Graham Hill moved from a million-dollar mansion to a 420 square-foot apartment.8 In an interview with The New York Times he talked about his decision, saying:9

“I like material things as much as anyone. I studied product design in school. I’m into gadgets, clothing and all kinds of things. But my experiences show that after a certain point, material objects have a tendency to crowd out the emotional needs they are meant to support.”

Clutter assaults your mind with stimuli, distracts your attention, inhibits creativity and productivity and prevents you from locating what you need quickly.10 Unfortunately, this signals your brain that your work is not done, making it difficult to relax. Psychologist Audrey Sherman, Ph.D., writes frequently about the links between physical chaos and mental depression and anxiety.

She says,11 “Although it appears to be a mundane sort of thing, I find disorganization and chaos to be one of the biggest problems reported by depressed and anxious individuals.” Fortunately, unlike other commonly recognized sources of stress, this may be one of the easier stressors to fix, and you may experience the benefits far quicker.

Living With Less May Bring You More

This is not an esoteric, philosophical argument for pitching your worldly goods, but rather a realistic and functional result of learning how to live with less. For instance, a decluttered and clean kitchen is likely to make it easier to eat healthier foods at home and enjoy cooking.12

Removing clutter also reduces the amount of places dust particles can cling, improving your overall indoor air quality, and may improve your allergy symptoms. Dr. Robert London, a New York-based psychiatrist, believes it may also help you feel better about yourself and help you to tackle deeper problems, saying:

"The clutter leads to anxiety, embarrassment, family stresses — some kind of despair. When you relieve the problem and learn to throw things away, you feel better. You'll find theories of why people do this. They might have unconscious guilt, so they assuage that guilt by carrying out these rituals."

Another benefit to decluttering your home and life is that you have more time to spend on the things that truly matter to you. When you don’t spend time maintaining the things you own, you have more time to spend with the people you love or on achieving your goals. The gift of your time is the most valued and important thing you can give to the people you love, as it strengthens your relationships and builds memories that last a lifetime.

By reducing stress and improving your focus you may also find your productivity and creativity improve,13 leading to greater improvements in your financial situation. Decluttering your environment at home and at work improves your mood and gives you a sense of accomplishment.

Room by Room

If you begin by looking at your entire home, it can be overwhelming to figure out what you want to keep, give away or fix. It’s important to take the task one step at a time, in the same way you would address any big project. You can’t finish in one hour, but you can easily and painlessly finish by taking 30 minutes out of each week to go through areas of each room.

Schedule these 30 minutes on your calendar the way you would a meeting, and keep that meeting with yourself. Here are some tips that may help you sort through your home:

Choose quality and emotional attachment

As you move through each room and evaluate your furniture, equipment, clothing and home goods, remember to choose quality of items over quantity. You likely can reduce the number of blankets if you have a high quality lightweight and heavier blanket to use throughout all seasons. Decorate with items that bring you joy. No matter how basic the item — a candle, book or throw — keep what brings you pleasure as you use the room.

Pare your wardrobe

Plan your clothing as you would a campaign. Your closet has finite space and it’s your job to use the space optimally. This means that most of your clothing should coordinate together. Choose a color palette you enjoy and you look good in. Choose pieces that coordinate and can be mixed and matched. The rest can be given away. Then, before bringing anything new into your closet, make a rule you must get rid of something else.

You might consider choosing the items you keep or give away using this strategy. Turn all your hangers so the hook is backward, or facing you. Once you wear a piece of clothing, turn the hanger around so it’s facing the wall again. If you have clothing that remains on hangers facing backward as you pass through a season, you know you haven’t worn them and can safely give them away.

Digital sweep

Consider going paperless with your bills and correspondence. Most of your paper clutter is from mail you don’t read and likely don’t want. Keep a shredder in your office and daily send through the machine mail that you don’t need to keep or file. Use the option to be digitally billed by your credit cards, utilities and other companies to whom you may owe money, such as for medical care or loans. This also reduces your paper trail.

Unsubscribe from mailing lists or catalogs you don’t read. The same is true for online newsletters. If you don’t routinely read them, it helps to declutter your inbox more so by unsubscribing than by hitting the delete button each week.

Bed and bath

In your bathroom, start with your cabinet space. Take everything out of the cabinets and drawers, discard any cosmetics or supplies that may have expired. Move any medications to the kitchen, away from humidity that may damage drugs.

Separate everything from your cabinets into three piles — keeping, fixing, pitching/giving away. Everything that is kept may be placed back, while what is pitched should be put into a garbage bag, what is being given away into another bag and what needs to be fixed onto a table. Label the bags “Pitch” and “Giveaway” and move on.

Once in your bedroom, make the bed and clean out the nightstand in much the same way you cleared the bathroom cabinets. Any books you’ve read and want to donate should be given away while books you want to keep can be stored on bookshelves.

Throw out or recycle anything you no longer want or use. Next, move to your drawers. Take everything out and sort through all items. Anything you no longer use or wear should be pitched or marked to be given away.

As you’re putting items back, be sure they are folded neatly or hung in the closet to reduce wrinkling, keeping them ready to wear when needed. Set up a laundry basket if you don’t already use one. Decide if you want it kept in your bedroom, bathroom or with your washer/dryer.

Kitchen

Your kitchen may be challenging as it’s often a place where multiple types of items are used and stored, especially if you have a built-in office desk where you pay bills. It may make the most sense to attack this room by zones.

Completely empty a specific space, cabinet, drawer, shelf or pantry. Clean the shelf with warm water and vinegar to remove any greasy or sticky substances. Assess each item and determine if you want to keep it, pitch it or give it away.

Anything that you keep may be returned to the space and organized so what is used most often is close to the front of the space. Anything you haven’t used in a year should be given an honest appraisal and given away or pitched if you think you won’t use it in the near future.

Living area

This is likely the most difficult room to keep picked up during the day, especially if you have children. You use the family room throughout the day and it often doesn’t have a lot of storage space. The key in this room is to find a storage area for items you commonly use, such as books, magazines, remote controls and throws.

One at a time, empty any piece of furniture that has storage, such as an end table, television cabinet or bookcase. Choose items carefully that you want to keep or pitch. If you have read a book and don’t need it to clutter your library shelves, then consider donating it.

If you have children, consider using a toy bin where your children store their toys each evening before bed. Go through your children’s toys to pitch any that don’t work and giveaway any they may have outgrown. Get them involved in the process to help them give items to other children and help them understand the importance of picking up each evening.

Edit the Noise

Once you’ve decluttered your home, office and computer, it’s important to develop habits that keep them clean and clear. Without new habits you’ll likely fall into the same the same patterns that resulted in your mess in the first place. Here are several simple strategies.

• Reduce your spending

By purchasing only what you actually require to live, you also gain financial freedom. At the same time you are reducing the clutter in your physical and mental space, you are reducing your financial expenditures and thus increasing the amount of money you keep for yourself. Financial hardship and work stress are significant contributors to depression and anxiety. One important strategy is to buy less.

• Use the “tape date” trick

Sometimes you keep items “just in case.” You think you may need them “later,” but it may be years, or even a decade, later before you realize you haven’t touched the item and may not remember why you kept it. In the meantime, it’s taking up space at home or creating a new bill at a storage facility.

If you’re not sure if you want to keep something or really “need” it, place a piece of tape on the item with the current date. Then, put a reminder in your calendar to check the item in two months. If you haven’t removed the tape or used the item, you likely can give it away.

• Do a monthly review

Once you’ve paired down everything at home or at the office to what you actually want to keep, do a quick monthly review. This will reduce the potential your collection of “things” will once again get overwhelming. Remember to remove what you don’t use and don’t purchase until a need arises and you are ready to use the new item immediately.

• One in, one out

Use the same mindset for your home that you use in your closet. In other words, once your home is pared down to the essentials of what you require and enjoy, don’t purchase anything else until you’re ready to get rid of something you already own.

• Daily declutter your desktop

If you work on a computer, facing a cluttered desktop can give you a daily uneasy feeling as you literally are facing items that need to be done or haven’t been completed. At the end of each day, find a place to file your documents, complete your tasks, or add them to one folder at the bottom of the desktop you can easily access the next morning.

from HealthyLife via Jake Glover on Inoreader https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2018/02/03/declutter-your-life.aspx

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sherristockman · 7 years ago

Link

Time to Declutter Dr. Mercola By Dr. Mercola Moving through life, most have a tendency to accumulate “stuff.” You may have drawers full of pictures and mementos, a closet full of clothes you no longer wear or a kitchen full of utensils you can’t remember how to use. It is a common human condition to acquire “things” from places you’ve been or events you want to remember. You may often crave more room or space to live in, which may mean you’re looking for a larger home every 10 years. But, what if you could create more in your life for yourself and your family by living with less? This is the basic premise in a popular movement toward minimalism. The minimalist movement began in the 1960s in the art world, when sculptures and paintings began to focus on the art medium and not an overt expression of emotion or symbolism.1 Today, minimalism has become a tool to help you live with greater freedom in your life.2 It is not a set of rules or restrictions, but rather an approach to help reduce a consumer culture that breeds a need for goods. According to The Minimalists, Joshua Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, minimalism is quite simply “a tool to rid yourself of life’s excess in favor of focusing on what’s important — so you can find happiness, fulfillment and freedom.”3 Therefore, you define how much you want to live without and enjoy greater freedom. There are several psychological reasons to declutter your life and bring greater organization to the “stuff” you continue to own, and simple strategies to make the process go smoothly. How Clutter Affects Your Brain You may think the decision to buy an item is based on logic, but far more often it is grounded in an emotional response that marketing professionals understand how to trigger. For instance, the mere act of touching an item may increase your emotional attachment to the item and your desire to purchase it.4 In one study researchers found the longer you hold an item, the more you’re likely to pay for it. Apple stores are built on the premise that if you can hold, handle and use their product, you’re more likely to purchase it. As you introduce new items into your life, you assign a value to the item, making it more difficult to give it up. Assigned to an item are memories, hopes and dreams, which means that if you get rid of them you may have failed.5 Getting rid of the skinny jeans you haven’t worn in years may mean you’ve given up hope of ever fitting into them again. However, the excess you keep around has an impact on your ability to focus and process information. A team from Princeton University found those working in a physically cluttered environment experienced greater stress and had a reduction in performance.6 Another study from Los Angeles found mothers whose homes were filled with toys and clutter experienced cortisol level spikes at home that dropped after they left.7 These studies, and more, demonstrate clutter has a similar effect on your brain as multitasking, overloading your senses, increasing stress and reducing productivity. However, clutter isn’t necessarily reserved for the physical world. Your computer desktop, phone’s home screen or the incessant notifications from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat can also clutter your mind space and trigger similar responses. There is an emotional cost to living in a cluttered space, or working on a messy desk. TreeHugger founder Graham Hill moved from a million-dollar mansion to a 420 square-foot apartment.8 In an interview with The New York Times he talked about his decision, saying:9 “I like material things as much as anyone. I studied product design in school. I’m into gadgets, clothing and all kinds of things. But my experiences show that after a certain point, material objects have a tendency to crowd out the emotional needs they are meant to support.” Clutter assaults your mind with stimuli, distracts your attention, inhibits creativity and productivity and prevents you from locating what you need quickly.10 Unfortunately, this signals your brain that your work is not done, making it difficult to relax. Psychologist Audrey Sherman, Ph.D., writes frequently about the links between physical chaos and mental depression and anxiety. She says,11 “Although it appears to be a mundane sort of thing, I find disorganization and chaos to be one of the biggest problems reported by depressed and anxious individuals.” Fortunately, unlike other commonly recognized sources of stress, this may be one of the easier stressors to fix, and you may experience the benefits far quicker. Living With Less May Bring You More This is not an esoteric, philosophical argument for pitching your worldly goods, but rather a realistic and functional result of learning how to live with less. For instance, a decluttered and clean kitchen is likely to make it easier to eat healthier foods at home and enjoy cooking.12 Removing clutter also reduces the amount of places dust particles can cling, improving your overall indoor air quality, and may improve your allergy symptoms. Dr. Robert London, a New York-based psychiatrist, believes it may also help you feel better about yourself and help you to tackle deeper problems, saying: "The clutter leads to anxiety, embarrassment, family stresses — some kind of despair. When you relieve the problem and learn to throw things away, you feel better. You'll find theories of why people do this. They might have unconscious guilt, so they assuage that guilt by carrying out these rituals." Another benefit to decluttering your home and life is that you have more time to spend on the things that truly matter to you. When you don’t spend time maintaining the things you own, you have more time to spend with the people you love or on achieving your goals. The gift of your time is the most valued and important thing you can give to the people you love, as it strengthens your relationships and builds memories that last a lifetime. By reducing stress and improving your focus you may also find your productivity and creativity improve,13 leading to greater improvements in your financial situation. Decluttering your environment at home and at work improves your mood and gives you a sense of accomplishment. Room by Room If you begin by looking at your entire home, it can be overwhelming to figure out what you want to keep, give away or fix. It’s important to take the task one step at a time, in the same way you would address any big project. You can’t finish in one hour, but you can easily and painlessly finish by taking 30 minutes out of each week to go through areas of each room. Schedule these 30 minutes on your calendar the way you would a meeting, and keep that meeting with yourself. Here are some tips that may help you sort through your home: Choose quality and emotional attachment As you move through each room and evaluate your furniture, equipment, clothing and home goods, remember to choose quality of items over quantity. You likely can reduce the number of blankets if you have a high quality lightweight and heavier blanket to use throughout all seasons. Decorate with items that bring you joy. No matter how basic the item — a candle, book or throw — keep what brings you pleasure as you use the room. Pare your wardrobe Plan your clothing as you would a campaign. Your closet has finite space and it’s your job to use the space optimally. This means that most of your clothing should coordinate together. Choose a color palette you enjoy and you look good in. Choose pieces that coordinate and can be mixed and matched. The rest can be given away. Then, before bringing anything new into your closet, make a rule you must get rid of something else. You might consider choosing the items you keep or give away using this strategy. Turn all your hangers so the hook is backward, or facing you. Once you wear a piece of clothing, turn the hanger around so it’s facing the wall again. If you have clothing that remains on hangers facing backward as you pass through a season, you know you haven’t worn them and can safely give them away. Digital sweep Consider going paperless with your bills and correspondence. Most of your paper clutter is from mail you don’t read and likely don’t want. Keep a shredder in your office and daily send through the machine mail that you don’t need to keep or file. Use the option to be digitally billed by your credit cards, utilities and other companies to whom you may owe money, such as for medical care or loans. This also reduces your paper trail. Unsubscribe from mailing lists or catalogs you don’t read. The same is true for online newsletters. If you don’t routinely read them, it helps to declutter your inbox more so by unsubscribing than by hitting the delete button each week. Bed and bath In your bathroom, start with your cabinet space. Take everything out of the cabinets and drawers, discard any cosmetics or supplies that may have expired. Move any medications to the kitchen, away from humidity that may damage drugs. Separate everything from your cabinets into three piles — keeping, fixing, pitching/giving away. Everything that is kept may be placed back, while what is pitched should be put into a garbage bag, what is being given away into another bag and what needs to be fixed onto a table. Label the bags “Pitch” and “Giveaway” and move on. Once in your bedroom, make the bed and clean out the nightstand in much the same way you cleared the bathroom cabinets. Any books you’ve read and want to donate should be given away while books you want to keep can be stored on bookshelves. Throw out or recycle anything you no longer want or use. Next, move to your drawers. Take everything out and sort through all items. Anything you no longer use or wear should be pitched or marked to be given away. As you’re putting items back, be sure they are folded neatly or hung in the closet to reduce wrinkling, keeping them ready to wear when needed. Set up a laundry basket if you don’t already use one. Decide if you want it kept in your bedroom, bathroom or with your washer/dryer. Kitchen Your kitchen may be challenging as it’s often a place where multiple types of items are used and stored, especially if you have a built-in office desk where you pay bills. It may make the most sense to attack this room by zones. Completely empty a specific space, cabinet, drawer, shelf or pantry. Clean the shelf with warm water and vinegar to remove any greasy or sticky substances. Assess each item and determine if you want to keep it, pitch it or give it away. Anything that you keep may be returned to the space and organized so what is used most often is close to the front of the space. Anything you haven’t used in a year should be given an honest appraisal and given away or pitched if you think you won’t use it in the near future. Living area This is likely the most difficult room to keep picked up during the day, especially if you have children. You use the family room throughout the day and it often doesn’t have a lot of storage space. The key in this room is to find a storage area for items you commonly use, such as books, magazines, remote controls and throws. One at a time, empty any piece of furniture that has storage, such as an end table, television cabinet or bookcase. Choose items carefully that you want to keep or pitch. If you have read a book and don’t need it to clutter your library shelves, then consider donating it. If you have children, consider using a toy bin where your children store their toys each evening before bed. Go through your children’s toys to pitch any that don’t work and giveaway any they may have outgrown. Get them involved in the process to help them give items to other children and help them understand the importance of picking up each evening. Edit the Noise Once you’ve decluttered your home, office and computer, it’s important to develop habits that keep them clean and clear. Without new habits you’ll likely fall into the same the same patterns that resulted in your mess in the first place. Here are several simple strategies. • Reduce your spending By purchasing only what you actually require to live, you also gain financial freedom. At the same time you are reducing the clutter in your physical and mental space, you are reducing your financial expenditures and thus increasing the amount of money you keep for yourself. Financial hardship and work stress are significant contributors to depression and anxiety. One important strategy is to buy less. • Use the “tape date” trick Sometimes you keep items “just in case.” You think you may need them “later,” but it may be years, or even a decade, later before you realize you haven’t touched the item and may not remember why you kept it. In the meantime, it’s taking up space at home or creating a new bill at a storage facility. If you’re not sure if you want to keep something or really “need” it, place a piece of tape on the item with the current date. Then, put a reminder in your calendar to check the item in two months. If you haven’t removed the tape or used the item, you likely can give it away. • Do a monthly review Once you’ve paired down everything at home or at the office to what you actually want to keep, do a quick monthly review. This will reduce the potential your collection of “things” will once again get overwhelming. Remember to remove what you don’t use and don’t purchase until a need arises and you are ready to use the new item immediately. • One in, one out Use the same mindset for your home that you use in your closet. In other words, once your home is pared down to the essentials of what you require and enjoy, don’t purchase anything else until you’re ready to get rid of something you already own. • Daily declutter your desktop If you work on a computer, facing a cluttered desktop can give you a daily uneasy feeling as you literally are facing items that need to be done or haven’t been completed. At the end of each day, find a place to file your documents, complete your tasks, or add them to one folder at the bottom of the desktop you can easily access the next morning.

#VitalityPath

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deverodesign · 8 years ago

Link

Reading Time: 9 minutes

Knowing how to combine fonts is one of those skills that are hard to learn and even harder to master. This was at least my own experience. I struggled with learning how to combine fonts for a long time. And, I still find myself in doubt sometimes even today. Since other designers also know this struggle, I decided to put together six tips to make this practice easier. These tips are nothing new under the sun. However, they helped me the most. And, I hope they will help you as well.

Table of Contents:

Typeface vs font

No.1: Start with serif and sans-serif

No.2: Use just one font family

No.3: Don’t use too similar typefaces

No.4: Focus on contrast

No.5: Use complementary typefaces

No.6: Use typefaces made by the same designer

Closing thoughts on how to combine fonts and typefaces

Typeface vs font

One quick note before we begin. When we talk about typography, there are two terms that are often used in the wrong way. These terms are “font” and “typeface”. A lot of people use these terms as the same thing. However, they are not the same. Put simply, typeface is specific design. When you think about the printing machine, typeface describes all metal blocks printer can use to print the text using that specific design, like Helvetica, Futura or Georgia. These are typefaces.

Font is a subset of these blocks. Every font has specific weight and size. So, when we talk about Gotham or Proxima Nova, we are talking about typefaces. We are talking about the whole range of styles, weights, sizes and so on. When we talk about light Gotham in 18 point, or italicized Proxima Nova in 12 point, we are talking about fonts. These are different subsets of these typefaces. And, yes, Proxima Nova in 12 point and italicized Proxima Nova in 12 point are also different fonts.

This means that designers choose typefaces for projects, like Open Sans. After that, they use fonts to create the final design, like regular or bold Open Sans in 12 point. So, one more time. Typeface is the whole package (design) while font is subset of the typeface. Every weight, style and size are different fonts. I have to admit that I still sometimes use the wrong term. If I did this mistake in the following text, accept my apology and don’t let it discourage you. In the end, we all make mistakes.

No.1: Start with serif and sans-serif

This is between the first and easiest tips on how to successfully combine fonts. It is also one of the most popular principle for creating winning typeface combinations. One could safely call it a classic that can’t go wrong, usually. When you want to combine fonts easily, even without a lot of knowledge, pick one serif and one sans-serif. That is it. You probably saw this many times. Many websites combine sans-serif typeface for headings and serif typeface for body.

This is probably the easiest road you can take. Keep it simple. Stay away from exotic things such as scripts and decorative typefaces. Stick with one serif and one sans-serif. Try different combinations and see what works. There is one thing I have to mention. Avoid trying to combine fonts of the same classification. Don’t combine two serifs, two sans-serifs or two slab serifs etc. The only exception is that they are distinctly different. Then, it might work.

This is especially true in case of slab serif typefaces. Slab serifs usually have a very distinct personalities. This is not a problem if you use just one slab serif. However, when you combine fonts, and both are slab serifs, their personalities will probably start to fight for domination. Put two slab serifs together and the only result will be tension. This is something you want to avoid. If you want to use one slab serif, choose serif or sans-serif as your second choice.

No.2: Use just one font family

How many typefaces do you think you need to create great typography palette? Two, three or even more? What if I told you that you can use just one typeface, for the whole project? This may sound a little bit crazy since you usually see examples using at least two. However, this is not a rule that is “set in stone”. In a fact, the decision to use a single typeface from the same family can be the safest bet you can make. How can you combine fonts in a wrong way if you use just one?

There is one thing that is necessary to make this tip work. The typeface of your choice has to come with a range of different weights, styles or cases. When you look for a single typeface for your project, you have to make sure that you have resources to create variation. You can’t achieve this with one typeface that has one weight and style. Do it and all typography elements will look the same. You can create visual hierarchy using different size of the typeface. Still, you can do better.

Planning visual hierarchy is important if you want to combine fonts from the same family. You have to think about how will you create contrast. What sizes, weight (light, regular, medium, bold) and cases (upper, lower, small caps) you want to use? Also, do you want to use italics, extended or condensed version of the font? All these properties can help you create beautiful visual hierarchy using a single font. However, it is easy to overdo it. So, think and plan ahead.

One benefit of using single typeface is that it can save you a lot of time. Finding the right combination of typefaces can take a lot of time. It can take more time if you are a perfectionist. Then, you can spend whole days trying different combinations without success. The problem is that typography is important piece of design. As a result, you may not be able to take another step. If you have one typeface, try to play just with that. Who knows, maybe that one is all you need.

No.3: Don’t use too similar typefaces

This is more a follow-up on the point, about using typefaces of the same classification, we discussed in the beginning. Yes, you should be looking for typefaces sharing some characteristics. You want to combine fonts that play well together. So, they can’t be completely different. However, you should not combine fonts or typefaces that look like twins. Remember that there has to always be some contrast. Meaning, there has to be some small differences.

Put simply, people should be able to recognize that they are looking at two different fonts or typefaces. If not, you should rethink your choices. In addition, it should also look like something that was intended. Don’t combine fonts or typefaces that are only slightly different so they make people think something went wrong with the browser. Sure, the majority of people using your product will not be experts on typography. However, this should not be a prerequisite.

So, if your choices look too similar, you have to change one of them.

No.4: Focus on contrast

Another approach to combine fonts or typefaces, that works well, is focusing on contrast. This is why combining serif and sans-serif typefaces works. This combination naturally creates contrast. What does it mean to create contrast? It means bringing together multiple concepts such as styles, weights, sizes, spacing, colors and so on. As you probably guessed, it is again about creating visual hierarchy and some simple way for people to recognize different typography elements.

One example of combination that can create sufficient contrast is using a bold font with thin. Or, using extended font with condensed. These choices are the exact opposites of each other. They are both on different ends of the spectrum. However, it is this visible contrast what helps them work well together. As we discussed, you don’t want to combine fonts or typefaces that look similar. Instead, you should use these differences and let them shine as individual part of the design.

Remember that differences can help you create different roles for each font and typeface you chose. This will also help you communicate the message better. And, it will help you make some pieces of the message stand out. Here is the thing. Every design conveys some message. When you design anything, it is with some purpose. In some sense, the design is constantly communicating with user. Design helps the user understand what is more important and what is less important.

This is one example of using contrast to make this communication more clear. You use one weight or/and size for heading and another for body copy. The same is true for smaller chunks of information. Publishing dates on blog will probably use smaller size and lighter color than titles of posts. Both these elements have different importance and role. Use contrast to mirror it.

No.5: Use complementary typefaces

Every typeface has a specific character or mood. There are typefaces that are playful while other are “cold” or intense. Some typeface are elegant while others are relaxed or even comical. First, when you want to combine fonts for your next project, make sure to choose those with the right mood. Decorative and curved typeface will work great in design where kids are the main audience. It will not work that well for audience that is more casual. For example, a website for a bank.

Also, some typefaces like slab serifs have stronger personality than others, as we discussed in the beginning. When you have some playful typeface or typeface with stronger personality, it is a good idea to combine it with typeface that is neutral. You don’t have to go for typeface that is on the opposite side of the spectrum. There are safer things you can try. For example, if one of your typefaces is Lobster (who uses Lobster?), you can try to combine it with Raleway.

This is what you should keep in mind. It is often a bad idea to try to “balance” one extreme with another. Sure, this can work. However, you are walking on thin ice. If one of your typefaces has a strong character (like many display fonts), the best choice will be using neutral typeface. This one will not fight for attention with your first choice. It will usually support your first choice by making it stand out more. In the worst case, your second choice will work as a filler. It will do nothing.

The problem with choosing the right complementary font or typeface is that there is no set of steps to follow. You have to use the good old method of trial and error and see what works.

No.6: Use typefaces made by the same designer

The last piece of advice I will give you is to use typefaces made by the same designer. This is something we often forget when we look for ways to combine fonts or typefaces and make them work. Also, it is one of the mistakes I still do today. Yet, this can make the work much easier. Do you need to find two typefaces that play well together? There is no reason for spending the whole day browsing Google Fonts or Typekit. You can find the right typefaces by sticking to one designer.

The reason why this usually works is quite simple. When some designer creates multiple typefaces, these typefaces usually share some aesthetic components. In other words, they can often look somewhat similar because they share some characteristics. For example, these typefaces can have the same x-height or even some letter can look similar. So, it can be better to spend a couple of minutes researching typeface designers instead of typefaces.

There is another reason why this can help you combine fonts or typefaces. Sometimes, designers create more than one classification of the typeface. In plain English, some designers create both, serif and sans-serif. Merriweather is one example. This typeface created by Sorkin Type Co comes in two classifications. There is Merriweather (serif) as well as Merriweather Sans (sans-serif). These two are designed for designers wanting to combine fonts or typefaces by using serif with sans-serif.

When you choose typefaces such as these two, it is almost guaranteed that they will work great together. In the end, this is usually at least one of the reasons why designer created both of them. So, when in doubt, look for typefaces from one designer. And, look for those with multiple classifications or versions. This is very much a safe bet.

Closing thoughts on how to combine fonts and typefaces

Any closing thoughts? Well, I have two. The first one is that you have to practice how to combine fonts and typefaces if you want to get better at it. Nothing comes easy. This is especially true when there is no precise scientific method you could follow to achieve certain result every time. Combining fonts and typefaces is one of those areas. There are some practices. Still, you have to trust your intuition. Luckily, the more you practice, the better and sharpen your intuition will get.

My second closing thought is to take the tips I gave you today and throw them out the window sometimes. Once in a while, breaking established practices and rules will work better than following them. In addition, it can help you learn when and why some choices don’t work. We often take rules as something absolute or sacred. As a result, we are afraid of doing anything that could lead to breaking them. This is true in design as well.

The problem is that you can’t innovate without breaking or ignoring the rules. Innovation requires striking new paths instead of following the existing ones. However, this doesn’t mean that you should break the rules just for the sake of it. Also, it doesn’t mean you should ignore them before you learn them properly. Here is the thing. You have to learn the rules. Then, you will know how to break them to create something special.

This brings us back to practice. Back up the learning about how to combine fonts and typefaces with practice. Soon, you will find it easier to create good combinations fonts for your projects. You will combine font with confidence. What was once a result of coincidence will become result of a skill. Just be patient. Learning about typography and building foundation of knowledge is usually faster than training your intuition and developing an eye for design. Don’t give up.

Thank you very much for your time.

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The post 6 Quick Tips On How to Combine Fonts & Typefaces appeared first on Alex Devero Blog.

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harlequinboardgaming-blog · 8 years ago

Text

[Fields of Green] Review

Overview

Fields of Green is a 2-4 players card-drafting game with an engine building element, where players take the role of farmers trying to expand their lands and properties, planning the location of each building to maximize the production of their fields and livestocks. The game takes the concept and basic rules from Among the Stars, adds an extra resource to manage (wheat), and introduces an additional scoring phase between rounds (harvest). At the end of the game, the player with the most VPs win.

Gameplay

Before setup, each type of card is separated and shuffled to form 4 piles of cards and each player receives a starting Silo and Water Tower. Then, at the beginning of each of the 4 rounds, each player draws a total of 6 cards from those 4 decks and a common draft sequence begins, with each player choosing one card and either building that structure or discarding the card and replace it for one of the basic cards or some money.

Once each player has taken an action, the hands are rotated and the drafting continues until all cards have been exhausted. Then, the end of round scoring (harvest) takes place, and each player must pay the harvest cost for the harvest buildings and claim the rewards, or turn into any building whose cost was not paid into an Open Area. This process repeats for the subsequent rounds, and after the 4th harvest, the end game scoring takes place.

However, during a 2-player game, the common drafting is replaced and instead, both players’ hands are shuffled together, 6 of the cards are put for display and players take turns picking one from the set, then 2 more cards are revealed and the process continues until the 12 cards are used.

During the game, you soon discover you will need more fields to feed your livestock, but then you need more water towers to water your fields, and you have to keep building more water towers to get more fresh water, and more silos to hold the food, and more construction to get some bonus, and more buildings to get scoring options, but they ask for more fields, so you go buy more fields but the 4th year has passed and you look at your huge randomly-organized farmland. You then reshuffle all decks and start again trying to do everything better this time.

Components

Fields of Green (Artipia Games, 2016) includes 33 cards for each of the four types (Field, Livestock, Construction and Buildings), 14 silos, 20 water towers, 4 player aids and 1 scoring card. This gives a total of 171 cards. The size of the cards is 70x70mm and sleeves can be found easily, either from Artipia Games or from any other major brand.

It also includes a set of cardboard tokens for the coins and victory points, starting player marker, a round marker and a scoring pad. The best part of the components are the custom shaped tokens for the wheat and for the water.

At first glance it seems like a small footprint game, but as the game progresses, the farms grow in size a lot so it is recommended to have around 60×40 cm of table space for each player, plus a similar space for the supply. In the end, a standard 90×90 cm table can provide enough space for a 2-player game. If space is a problem, I would suggest a house-rule to limit the amount of cards you can place in each direction so that players can plan accordingly.

The Review

Times played: 3 (2-Players)

I will begin with probably the least important subject, the components. The cards are of good quality, I would prefer if they were slightly smaller to save on table space, but I can live with the size. The wooden tokens are great and are not too fiddly. The cardboard coins will soon be replaced for my almighty poker chips because I don’t like handling different sized coins. What I like the most about the components is the art. I like the style and the color palettes used. I think it fits quite nice with the farmland theme of the game.

Now for the important part, let me begin by saying that my only previous experience with card drafting games comes from 7 Wonders and Imperial Settlers so these will be my reference.

The card drafting is just standard drafting but I prefer the rules in 7 wonders where the last card gets discarded because you have a little more options (and thus control) in the round and you are not forced to do something with the last card. Of course you can always trade that card for a Water Tower or a Silo, but they are only needed at specific times so you might still feel like you wasted a turn with a subpar card.

The engine building is there and I enjoy it quite a bit. It will be confusing for new players because you will get either too many fields and not enough livestock to benefit from all the food, or too many livestock and not enough fields to feed them, or too few Water Towers and not enough water to (duh) water your fields… There is often a delicate balance to be found and it will be a challenge, especially because with 2 players you are looking at 48 out of the 132 cards in the game. Odds are that what worked for you before won’t show up again. If you like the random setups, you will probably like dealing with the first hand here, but if you prefer perfect information from the get go, 7 Wonders would be better.

I remember Imperial Settlers was demoralizing for first time players because they would have a weak engine and they would be forced to pass early while the rest of the players kept going and going and going. This is not a problem here because everyone has a set number of turns, and even a farm with no harvest abilities feels good to look at.

There is no player interaction at all. The only interaction comes from looking at your hand and deciding if taking the card that works for you and scores you a couple points is better than taking the card that would score the opponent a couple points. That’s it. There are no cards that affect other players, and there is not even the war points comparison that 7 Wonders have. The 2-player game is a bit more interactive in this same way because of the 2-player rules where all cards are available to you in a given turn, so you can steal a card right after you see your opponent taking part of the combo.

Speaking of which, the 2-player rules add a nice change of pace, but it felt somewhat imbalanced because the new cards are revealed after the second player’s turn, so the first player has the advantage of always being able to grab the new cards before the opponent. This is something I really disliked about the rules and I am still trying to house rule something to fix this.

I have some mixed feeling about the randomness of the game. I like random, or at least some of it. I like the random setup in Dominion mixed with the random hands after every shuffle, or Agricola’s hand mixed with the new activities coming at slightly variable order. In this case, the initial hand gives me a little of that feeling because you start planning what you can do with those cards and thinking ahead what other cards you might need in future rounds. My problem comes after the second round because by that time you know exactly what card you want, so you draw 4 cards from the livestock deck hoping those Rabbits will show up, or preferably two Rabbits because you are last player and your opponent will steal the rabbits before you have a chance to act. I would say the randomness in Fields of Green feel very similar to the randomness in Imperial Settlers without any card drawing bonus, or to the randomness in Race for the Galaxy without access to the explore action.

TLDR;

The Good

Replayability – With the random cards, the game offers huge replayability, at least at low player counts. Fast – It is a fast playing game once you know what the cards do. Tense – There are times where you really want that card, but grabbing that could mean your opponent grabs something else you need and you end the round with not enough resources to pay for the harvest cost. Math-y – It is a game of efficiency, about how can you maximize the points that each card will give you and when in the game it will be best to build it. Grabbing the Rabbits in the last turn might give you a lot of food, but you might be better off getting the Oranges and scoring the 2 points without spending as much. Artwork & Theme – I really like the art style, and the theme is one of my favourites since my SNES days of Harvest Moon.

The Bad

2-player rules – I usually game with my GF so 2-player rules are important to us. I feel this game could be improved by adding some sort of dummy player that randomly steals a card every turn, or by each player looking at their hand, drawing 6 more cards per round, shuffling and discarding 6 at random to simulate that extra player. Of course, card-drafting games are usually not good at 2 players, and it is probably the best of the three games I have experienced with this player count. No interaction – I don’t mind some conflict in my games, but I do like interaction. It would be interesting if there were some cards that gave a bonus for all cards in game, similar to Suburbia’s Airports. Slow with new players – There are too many different cards and too many things to read for a new player, so it will certainly slow the game down quite a bit. Math-y – It is a game of efficiency and all the maths behind it can turn it into an AP fest if everyone stops to do all the math for each of the cards they received.

The Score

3/5 I like it, will play it again.

#FieldsOfGreen BoardGames ArtipiaGames Review

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cytaoplasm · 8 years ago

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i'm sorry to hear you're having a hard time right now :( and don't worry about ranting on tumblr it's your blog and we're always here to listen. things maybe shitty right now but i promise they'll get better you always have us to rely on :)

You’re supposed to pay for everything you list on the form.Hello anon. Thank you for taking your time sending me this message. I’m just afraid that people might take a screenshot of my rant and send it to the person I am upset about. I don’t like starting beef with people (even if they’re shitty) but yeah thanks for that. I hope it will be better soon because I feel really upset right now and I’m trying very hard to be positive. I will rant below so keep reading. Please do not attack the person or trying to find them. I’m not trying to start beef with this person. I just want to get this off my chest not starting a drama. If you cared for my mental being please do not DO NOT screenshot this and send this to other people.

So yesterday, I saw one of the group order person opened a korean good form. so I decided to buy a pair of contact lense that i cant get in the US along with a SM COEX exo keychain for my friend who is moving away soon. Since this is my first time group ordering with this person and I don’t know the expectation that well so I got worried about item and thought about how OP’s sister who is traveling to Korea for vacation (which is why they opened a GO) might not be able to find it so I put down an etude house palette as an alternative option and said that in case if it’s a disconveinet for them to find the lense they can just get this palette for me which can easily find in korean road shop

My order:

Lensme Cocktail Hologram Kalua Milk 1+2 event (Please get Peach Crush + Blue Hawaii if they allow you to choose)

http://lens-me.com/product/detail.html?product_no=917&cate_no=82&display_group=1#prdDetail

Lenseme

Power: L- 4.5 R - 4.00

20,000 ($17.69 USD)

but if the lenseme shop is kinda far away from you and there’s an olense store nearby or something:

Olense Russian Velvet Gray http://www.o-lens.com/product/search.html?banner_action=&keyword=%EB%9F%AC%EC%8B%9C%EC%95%88%EB%B2%A8%EB%B2%B3

Olense

Power: 0

20,000 ($17.69 USD)

If you can’t find the lense please get me this instead:

Etude House Personal Color Palette Warm Tone http://www.etude.co.kr/product.do?method=view&prdCd=101001241 Etude House

35,000 ($30.95 USD)

Other orders beside the lense:

EXO Lightstick White Chanyeol Key Chain https://detail.tmall.hk/hk/item.htm?spm=a1z10.15-b.w4011-14804704346.51.q16QAx&id=544589047475&rn=05a7455bb212062bbc9c6b5c4678b91b

94.00 Yuan ($13.68)

SM SUM

Please note that I am trying to make both side: myself and them happy. I don’t want to cause a hassle for them but I also want to get stuff from Korea myself which is why I put down an alternative option. She doesn’t have to get it. If she can find the lense, that’s great If she can’t find it, she can stop by an Etude House road shop which is all over the place in Korea and get the palette for me.

However, the problem is that the palette is $30.95, so I was wondering if I have to pay for that too so I send her an Ask:

“Hey so I just send u the payment and stuff immediately right after the order. On the form I ordered a pair of contact lense & a keychain from Coex but I put an alternative option in case they can’t find it. Do I also have to pay for that option before or can I do it after they confirm they cant ?“

and this is why she told me ( I copied and paste the reply)

“You’re supposed to pay for everything you list on the form.”

The way she replied was very cold and it didn’t answer my question. The palette is not my primary choice. She can chose not to buy it. So I asked her again.

“Ok so I’m gonna send you the payment for the alternative option. I just want to confirm this again (sorry for being annoying) but you will refund me back that money after your sister’s back right? Thank you for your patience I really appreciate it”

and her replies:

“If she can’t find the goods, your payment will be refunded.”

She still didn’t answer my question clearly. Maybe I guess I’m just slow. IDk you make the judgement.

The thing is I want to get some goods from korea and i dont want them to go through the process of refunding my money u know so I thought it would better to just keep it and spend it on the alternative option which can easily be found in road shop. That way both side will be happy.

I was actually thinking about sending them an extra $13.26 so that even if she cant find the lense she still have $17 smth (money that i gave her for the lense) and she can use that extra money + the money for the lense to buy it so I messaged a friend of mine who is in the NA EXO G.O who I thought might have her line ID but it turned out to be the wrong person. So yeah then, I found out she refunded my order and send me this email:

“I cancelled your order and refunded you your payment. My sister isn’t a personal shopper to be on the lookout for alternatives for you as the point of her getting items for people are if you are 100% sure you want that good. If you list the item in your form, you pay for it and if she can’t find it, your payment is refunded. There are no alternatives as she doesn’t have time to be catering to just your order. She’s going on vacation and will not be spending her whole time for just you.You also asked if there will be a fee for domestic, then said you live in Dallas, Texas? I only do meet-ups in Houston, so of course there will be a fee for me to send you your goods.Also, my orders don’t have anything to do with Chen USA Union. I run both, but they are separate entities. Different rules apply.”

Also I forgot to mention, since her form didn’t said anything about paying domestic fee so I asked. I didn’t know if I have to pay for domestic shipping fee since we’re in the same state. I did shopping on eBay and a lot of sellers who is in the same state do free shipping so I was just curious.

Secondly she said "They will also take special requests yet do not guarantee that they will be able to find them.“ She did not said we’re not your personal shopper and we do not have time to take special request. She said on the form, she said they WILL ALSO TAKE SPECIAL REQUEST.

HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT????? I CANT READ HER MIND OR WHAT SHE WANT. PLYS ETUDE HOUSE ROAD SHOP IS ALL OVER THE PLACE IN SEOUL. IF SHE HAVE TIME TO BUY MY STUFF THAT’S GREAT IF SHE DOESN’T THAT FINE TOO. I DON’T MIND.

BUt out of courtesy I send her an apology email. Even though I personally think I did nothing wrong.

“I apologize for my actions. I did not know that what I was doing was wrong. This is my first group order so I just wanted to clarify and follow the rules correctly and send in my payment, so everything would work out and not becoming a huge mess. I don’t have the knowledge about the obvious reason of paying domestic fee since again, this is my first time doing something like this. I have looked at all of the information and read everything closely in the form. I did not know that putting in an alternative option would offend you. I was simply trying to be specific like what you said on the form so you didn’t have to email me about different concerns. So I apologize for that along with my foolishness and lack of thought when ordering from you. It was my inexperience with group ordering and group order expectations from you that caused you and your sister some inconveniences. I am not sure if I am in your blacklist or not but if your sister is willing to take my order to buy the lenses from Lensme and an EXO COEX good that please let me know. I will resend my payment to you. I am very willing to pay for the domestic fee as well. But if you and your sister are not willing to, I understand and I wish you the best and I also wish your sister to enjoy her vacation. If she has the time, I would definitely recommend her to go to this cute sheep cafe called Thanks Nature Cafe. I don’t remember the address but I think it’s in Hongdae. You can go search it up! My cousin went there during her vacation early this year and said it was really nice. Thank you and have a nice day.”

IT IS NOT MY FAULT THAT I CAN’T READ HER MIND. I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HER OR THIS KIND OF STUFF.

I READ THE FORM AND IT WAS SO UNCLEAR. ALL THE INFORMATION SHE TOLD ME WAS NOT IN THE FORM. EVEN BETTER YET, SHE INDIRECTLY SHADEH ME ON TWITTER. SHE DOESN’T EVEN BOTHER TO REPLY TO MY EMAIL TOO.

SHE DIDN’T EVEN LET ME EXPLAIN MYSELF AND FUCKING SHUT ME DOWN.

*took a deep breath* I put the options as a good gesture. I honestly don’t know why is she getting triggered by my actions. Can she just inform me in a nice way? Instead of criticizing me and make me look like a shitty person? I have never missed my payment nor back out an order. I was just simply trying to follow directions and trying to clarify some information because it’s my responsibility to know what I’m getting into and not causing trouble for other people. I do not understand why this person is mad.

So yeah. Don’t do group order, guys. They take a long time and group order master always sounds like they’re moody 24/7. If you tripped up once, they will kill you. I get that their job is stressful but do they feel the need to take it on an innocent person who just simply trying to abide by the rule ?

DM if you want screenshot and links and actual proof. I didn’t make up any of this. I have never lied once in my life. If I’m upset there’s a reason why. I don’t get upset by things easily but when I do it’s serious.

#message #rant #Anonymous

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