#and I am too lazy to update this (oops)

[cometcats-fr]

His name is Knife, let him into your house and home

[emmettkane]

The Making of Derelict

I made a videogame!

So…

That’s pretty neat.

The original plan was to spend two weeks on the bulk of the work, then to spend two more weeks beta testing, polishing, and releasing.

It took me three months, which...well, oops. Regardless, I learned a lot along the way and I’m happy with the end result, so allow me to take you on a journey behind the scenes of Derelict: Deep Space Salvage.

All good games start with a concept, a central idea, a defining through-line upon which the whole of the experience is balanced. More 𝒸𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓉𝒾𝓋𝑒 developers usually don’t make that idea the title of their game, but I don’t want to be a creative developer, I want to be a good one.

In this case, I wanted to make a game about plundering the leftovers of those too stupid, or simply not fortunate enough, to survive the dangers of the infinite, starlit expanses.

Easy, just make it then, right?

Wrong! What do you think I am, a swiss army knife with legs? No, my friend, first thing’s first: skill set! What can I actually do on my own? If it wasn’t obvious, I’m a writer first and foremost (cough, ahem, cough). I can do a little programming too, a little java, a little C#, a little HTML.

Therefore my decision became simple as dirt: A text-adventure game needs no audio, minimal graphics, only basic programming, and a shitload of writing. (I used Twine, for those interested)

That’s not to say I haven’t considered adding some pizzazz. Some snappy ear-candy for when the player clicks a button might be nice, a little ethereal, industrial ambience could really sell the lost-in-space vibe, and I did whip up a sorta-lazy cover image, something to get the job done. Still, you have to choose your battles.

That’s actually the most important lesson, by the way. I ran two months overtime because I could afford to, and I focused on polishing the narrative experience because that was the heart of what makes Derelict fun. I even added achievements to the game…

…because that gives the player a good reason to play again and try to new things, to see more of the writing that I came up with and experience the game more fully. That was worth the extra time because it contributes to the primary experience, however subtly.

All the extra stuff I wanted to do but didn’t get to is now in a list for future consideration. Maybe I’ll come back and update Derelict, maybe I’ll make a sequel, maybe I’ll just try to add this stuff to some future project. What’s important is that I made something with intention, and that it got done.

Speaking of which, you can go play it yourself right now, for free, on my Itch.

Hell, you could even leave a review if you like it.

[mojo-chojoo]

welcome on my current temporary blog as the main one is hidden because of a oopsie daisy i did (forgor to crop out a part of my fanart i should have oops)

my name is Mojo Chojo, you can call me Mojo!

any pronoun! she/he/they/or even potato i couldn’t care less

here are all my links, info etc

this is my side blog with my bloodborne ocs

you can find all kind of art i make on the my art tag or mojo art

i also answer to some asks about art tips,

you can find them under the tag mojo brain juice

COMMISSION STATUS: open

commission info

CHARITY COMMISSION INFO

i try to reply to asks as much as i can but lately it’s been getting pretty busy (it’s not as easy bein a student as i would like it to be i cry) and i can’t answer to all of them so i’ll apologize in advance for all the unanswered asks (i do read all of them and they’re really fun to read so thank you for sending asks!)

i jump from one fan to another pretty fast and i am too lazy to make new blogs so this is gonna be a pretty big mush of random fanart and shitposting

i will try to update the masterpost when i can but i’ll try to do it frequently so it doesn’t get lost

if you want to see just art you can check my pixiv where it’s somewhat more organised

[ketchup0-0]

It’s been like 24 days since I last posted oops-

Sorry for no life updates for such a long time, I kinda just realized I left off on a bad update so I’ve come to in form u all that I am in fact alive lol

A lot has been going on and I’ve started to feel super depressed again so I just kinda took a break. Even getting out of bed was super hard so just thinking abt taking time to post something made me feel exhausted.

I’ve privated my Instagram and changed what I wear to school to a sweater and either sweat pants or pj pants because a lot of people at school didn’t rlly seem to like me ig, idk why but it’s whatever. I rlly hate wearing these clothes to school tho so it’s kinda made school like, extra miserable.

I went to the gym with my bf today, I feel rlly bad abt it. He rlly likes the gym and always offers me to go with him so I said yes this time cuz I wanted to spend time with him and make him happy but I just couldn’t. I did somethings like squats and other work outs with him too but I just couldn’t stop crying. It’s not because I can’t work out or that I’m a lazy fuck (even tho I kinda am) it’s cuz of where I was. Being in public is hard for me a lot of the time, I rlly don’t like going out of my room in general actually. If I want food I will wait till all my family members are out of the kitchen to get some so that way I don’t bump into anyone, it’s kinda sad ik but what I’m trying to say is that going out is hard for me. Not to mention my extremely low self esteem, so being in a room with lots of people and one that’s meant for people to focus on their body’s with lots of windows and mirrors around made me just, cry ig. I probably looked rlly pathetic but I just couldn’t help it, I just wanted to go home and cry and hide away in my room where no one could see me and I feel so bad for it. He was trying so hard to have a good time and I ruined it, I always have to ruin it some how. I dunno if he still reads these but if u do then I’m rlly rlly sorry and ik I’ve said it already but I rlly am I just didn’t know what to do

[like-likes]

This is just a ramble

I've been so busy. Every day I wake up, drive 40 minutes to my future home which used to be my father's farm house originally built in the 1700's - my husband and I recently decided to inherit this property. As a first project, I've been working on my one of my son's rooms (this kid get's his own living room and bedroom) so he can move in.

The room I've been working on has been a nightmare of old wallpaper and horsehair plaster to smooth out and fix up in order to paint. A celling full of cracks that I've taped over with joint compound... Who knows when this room was really last updated - 50, 60 years? more? There are very cool and unique looking old wood floors I've had to fill in the gaps in between and prep for paint too - the floors were originally painted long ago before my father moved in - I just didn't want to deal with sanding and staining them myself, so I opted to lightly sand and prime them instead to be re-painted once more.

My son wants some kind of dark gothic Victorian feel to this room -and I am so happy to play with this concept! I've been priming out the walls, trim and floors with GREY Killz primer, this is after a few rounds of using up my own personal leftover "oops" paint through the process to help myself see all the imperfections in the walls better to mud and smooth out all the existing horse hair plaster. Horse hair plaster is a bitch to smooth out. Ultimate challenge for any professional (Which I am not, just doing my best).

I had to give up on painting the ceiling because bits of the ceiling layers were coming off into the paint roller, which would've resulted in myself having to re-mud and re-paint for fucking years for all I know (I'd never get it done). We're going with tiling the ceiling with some very cool products I found via Amazon while searching for ceiling ideas. I can totally get away with these vintage looking options in an old farmhouse for sure and will really tie into this "gothic victorian" look my son is going for.

Well, that's it for now -

This blog is just a placeholder for now. I just wanted to blah blah blah my thoughts and add pictures later and then I will re-blog. I have many progress pictures on my phone yet I'm on my computer at the moment and I'm not that focused - I'm lazy right now but I've been working hard every day!

[autumnshighlady]

me rising from the dead to finally update my fic after leaving y’all hanging for almost 2 months…. oops.

anywho, this chapter is VERY different but has some key moments and some cameos y’all will be very happy with. please give it a read and give me every single thought you have, i love getting asks and comments with peoples reactions to my fic, it’s the main reasons i’ve stayed loyal to writing it!

also when reading keep in mind i am a terrible author and will always be a terrible author because i haven’t looked at this fic in two months and i do not ever go back and check/reread anything so i’m going off pure memory for some details so if things don’t line up and make sense yes they do (some of it may be plot related some of it may just be me being stupid and too lazy to double check my facts lmaooo) so yeah be patient w me

[cits-ocs]

oops I completely forgot tumblr and this blog exists. It's 5:24 am as I start writing this, so I'll use this opportunity to ramble about Emil (I updated his personality so he's more asshole-y)

Emil is 14 and experienced the deepest heartbreak he'll ever have so far in his life. he realized the boy he loves was just using him. this is the start of a cycle he knows he won't get out of in a while. the same cycle his mom is in, the same one he despises so much. but what this teaches him is how men ain't shit and if he wants to retain some level and power, then he should learn how to control people to stay below him. in hindsight it's kind of funny how a single break up makes Emil start becoming an evil manipulative teenage boy but, well, It's kind of from a build-up of years of witnessing his mom being weak and wanting a bit of power at least.

he has his exceptions ofc, like his mom and generally just the people he cares about. he finds them safe enough that he doesn't need his guard up all the time.

so how does it manifest, generally? he's completely ignorant of people he looks down upon. he doesn't give a shit. he's forgetful about people's names not because he's bad with names, but because they're so unimportant to him that they just don't register to him at all.

he's a generally sociable person, because yk connections are important and he wants to stay friendly enough to most people's views. he has to make a conscious effort to act like he likes the people he's with. the people at the army base he's stationed at could be spouting homophobic stuff and Emil laughs and nods at their jokes because he needs to get on most people's good side. if he was a girl, he could be described as a pick-me I guess? how I visualize Emil visualizing this, is like a vast social web with color coded lines indicating the relationship status and notes about if they're fine or not. oh, and Emil says enough about himself that seem vulnerable enough, but can make up the rest of the smaller details so nobody else can really figure him out, especially in an environment like the army.

since Emil curates this image of himself to the vast majority of people, there's stuff he keeps very hidden ofc. this one he also hides from the people he holds close to his heart. it's the fact he's an actual complete mess when nobody is watching.

since his mom is hospitalized and he's the only one in the house (when he's not in the army), it's very unkempt because everything reminds him of his mom and how she won't be here long, so it sends him into a spiral and he stays depressed for a while. he doesn't bother taking care of himself either. after a while, he realizes that he's being lazy, so he pushes himself too much because he has to live up to the expectations he himself created.

anyways yeahhhh Emil manipulates people's weakness to stay above them bc he's scared people will find out he's an extremely vulnerable mess of a person (finished writing this at 5:44 am)

[scarletlizzard]

I thibk im an anon but my emoji got found out by too many people so hello again😭

Anons

There's a list of emojis that have been on here at some point! I am too lazy to update the ones not active so, oops

[infelious]

Happy New Year!

I just want thank everyone for their likes, reblogs, and follows related to the art I've done this year. It's fun combing through notifications and seeing how people enjoy my silly precure fanart even for just a moment.

It's helped me a lot with wanting to keep this lil art blog alive! This actually been around for quite a while but between posting anxiety and rl situations impacting my time to draw it kinda collected a bit of dust...So part of my promise to myself this year is to make sure that doesn't happen again (unless this place goes kaput ofc)

Def more fanart things in the future, but I am wanting to kinda share my magical girl oc's too (with lazy character sheets + bios and all that) Reason why I haven't posted a Cure Majesty to finish the most recent set is because I really really wanted to draw self-indulgent OC stuff. So she remains a WIP till like later this month oop.

I'm hope for a more productive year art wise even though there's...quite a bit of rl things happening that might cause a pause or two. Im trying to make some major changes to improve my own QOL.

I hope to anyone reading that this year also gives you the QOL updates that you need too. Lets hope for a kinder year :)

[ohoshi]

y-your carrd ;-; so beautiful 💫😌

JAGSJAGAJ thank u mwah 😽💕

[iclaimedtobethebetterbard]

analogical week 2022 - masterpost

Welcome back, beloveds!! Analogical Week has returned and I am SO HYPED!! Check back here every day for the most updated version of this post.

This series takes place in my Starlight Universe!

To be on my taglist for this series, or my general taglist, just shoot me an ask or a DM!

All the fics in this week take place in my Starlight universe, but will be at different points in time and not posted in chronological order (the starlight universe masterpost is in chronological order, though). You should be able to jump in at any point, without needing to read anything else for each individual work to make sense! Have fun!

my fic masterpost

Starlight Universe masterpost

analogical week 2022 AO3 link

Links to individual fics below the cut:

Day 1 - out, and the complexities thereof | tumblr | AO3 Summary: Something's upsetting Logan. Virgil doesn't like that.

Day 1 - kiss sweet as marshmallow | tumblr | AO3 Summary: Logan and Virgil's first vacation as a married couple is going very well and is full of fun plans and activities, but it's still nice to take some time alone to relax in each other's company.

Day 2 - funny little thing called love | tumblr | AO3 Summary: Logan and Virgil each come to an important realization, albeit at different times than each other.

Day 2 - confessions & concerts | tumblr | AO3 Summary: Logan is pretty sure he’s picked the best anniversary gift for his husband. Only one way to find out.

Day 3 - puddles & patches | tumblr | AO3 Summary: It’s totally platonic. Trust Virgil. Not even a little bit gay. Why would you even think that?

Day 3 - ties, and then some jam and bread | tumblr | AO3 Summary: It’s impossible to pick a favorite thing about being married to Logan, but the soft casual domesticity of helping his husband prepare for the day is definitely up there for Virgil.

Day 4 - tropes and teasing | tumblr | AO3 Summary: Logan did not intend for anyone to ever find this secret out. Oops.

Day 4 - fly away home | tumblr | AO3 Summary: Logan has a surprise for Virgil. He just hopes his husband won’t be too annoyed over his method of delivery.

Day 5 - rainy rescue | tumblr | AO3 Summary: Logan gets caught in the rain. Luckily, he has a husband to stage a daring rescue.

Day 5 - lazy summer days | tumblr | AO3 Summary: Working at a college library, in a college town, during the summer, without air conditioning, is not a particularly interesting or enjoyable job. Having a cute boyfriend in town makes up for it, though.

Day 6 - now and then | tumblr | AO3 Summary: A chaotic group sleepover in senior year of college winds down into soft cuddles and talk of the future. It’s a scary topic, but Virgil thinks that Logan is maybe the best person he could possibly be having this conversation with.

Day 6 - home (your arms around me) | tumblr | AO3 Summary: They’ve woken up in each other’s arms before. But they’ve never woken up as husbands before. Logan thinks that being married might be the most magical thing in the world.

Day 7 - marry me | tumblr | AO3 Summary: Logan has a question.

Fun fact: the word “husband” appears 61 times in the fics linked in this post! Analogical are the ultimate husbands and this is the proof, thank u very much <3

[dhs-in-disguise]

Just gonna put the last update and this one into one giant post cause reasons. Anways, here we go:

0815 (something that is just mid)

alle Arsch lang („every ass long“, no idea how to translate this, definitely smth to do with semi frequently doing something)

die Arschkarte haben („having the ass card“, meaning bad luck)

ALTER! (Just the German version of „DUDEEE!“)

sich den Arsch aufreißen („ripping my ass open“ means that one put in a lot of effort, often for someone else, but a lot of the time it‘s said when that person is not appreciative)

Halt die Fresse (Just means „Shut the fuck up“, literally „Hold your mouth“)

Blut und Wasser schwitzen („sweating blood and water“ when you’re really anxious or stressed) similarly…

Rotz und Wasser heulen („crying snot and water“ meaning you’re really REALLY sad)

nüscht (/nichts) is („nothing is“, I say this a LOT, mostly when I hoped for something to happen but it didn’t or something bad happened, like „Oh I hoped it wouldn’t rain today. Nüscht is“)

Ehrenmann/Ehrenfrau („Honor man/ Honor Woman“, Just recent slang that describes someone who did something good or cool)

Hat dir wer ins Gehirn geschissen? („Did someone shit in your brain?“ pretty obvious that it‘s just an insult for when someone does something stupid)

Arschkeks („Ass Cookie“, my mum uses this specifically when one of us is a little bit annoying, but not sure about anyone else)

HURENSOHN („whore son“ basically the same as bastard)

Ratzie Fatzie/Ruckie Zucki (the spelling on this is questionable, also no translation, just an expression that means smth is done fast)

huch („oops“, idk why ok I just think it‘s funny as shit)

Fiffi/Pfiffie (again, questionable spelling, just means small dog basically, and sometimes a wig for old men)

Klein aber oho („Small but oho“, smth is small but impressive)

Werden wir sehen, sprach der Blinde und tappte im Dunkeln („We will see, said the blind man and walked in darkness“, yeah… 🫤🫤)

Zu blöd zum scheißen („too stupid to shit“)

Geht den Menschen wie den Leuten (too lazy to translate, just means that a lot of people feel a certain way, said when someone complains)

Rotzbremse (slang term for the thick kinda beard above the lips under the nose, it‘s formally called a „Schnauzbart“ here)

Schenkelklopfer (a funny joke)

sich wie ein Backfisch benehmen („behave like a backed fish“, old idiom from like the 60‘s to say that someone is being silly)

geht mir am Arsch vorbei („goes right past my ass“, when you don’t care about smth)

(VER)PISS DICH (no direct translation, basically fuck off but cooler)

Scheiß dir mal nich ins Hemd („don‘t shit into your shirt“, response to when someone is scared for no good reason)

Gönnung (a lil treat basically)

Thanks for reading about silly German idioms, they are my passion 🫶🫶

Literally why are all the lists of „Haha funny german idioms“ so outdated and cringe as hell?! Like bro, no one says „Geh dahin wo der Pfeffer wächst!“ anymore.

Luckily I’ve been collecting a few things my family and friends say, meaning that these „Funny german idioms“ are actually funny (at least to me) and actually in use (can‘t guarantee I‘m accurately translating these though):

Hätte hätte Fahrradkette (basically mocking someone who says that they COULD HAVE done something better, „Would have, could have bicycle chain“)

Willste gleich eine oder später? („Do you want one now or later?“ My mum says this a LOT, it‘s rhetorically asking someone if they wanna be slapped now or later if they did smth stupid) (I‘m not being abused ok it‘s just a saying)

Kek (there isn‘t a translation for the word, it just appeared in my friend‘s vocabulary a year ago, smth like „stupid“)

Opfer (alternatively „Opfa“) (insult similar to Kek, just meaning that someone is in some way always unlucky or something, „victim“)

Ach fick dich doch ins Knie (Not really a saying, I just think the sentence that literally translates to „Oh fuck yourself in the knee“ is funny)

Du kannst mich mal am Arsch(e) lecken (It’s like telling someone to fuck off, but by saying that they can lick your ass)

Leck mich an die Füße (When something is hard to do or something stupid happens we just say this, „Lick my feet“)

Der Wind bläst keine fetten Ärsche (It‘s kinda fatphobic, basically meaning „The wind doesn’t blow fat asses“ if someone eats a lot)

Das würde nur ne Missgeburt sagen (Missgeburt is a similar insult to bastard, but doesn’t have a direct English translation, I am thanking my friend @callmefranordie for this one)

Erzähl mich nichts (/nüscht) vom Pferd („Don‘t lie“ basically, but in a more condescending way, dunno how to describe it but it literally says „Don‘t spin tales of a horse“)

Is dunkel wie im Bärenarsch hier (Meaning that it‘s as dark as a bear‘s asshole, this one has to be my favourite of the bunch)

[mushibashiraas]

🛒 I JUSR REALIZED HOW AWFUL AND ROBOTIC I SOUNDFJDJDJ LIKE. i come back after posting the ruggie fic and redoing my theme only to drop a to do list and dip againdjsjdjs ah. uh.

so life update ig? eh. i can talk more about my chronic migraines too since the life update is mainly about themfjdjdj oops. BUCKLE TF UP BC THIS'LL BE LONG (still dont know how to add the "more under the cut" thing on mobile tumblr. too lazy to get out my laptop)

this whole week has been insane! context: my migraines are triggered by bright light, loud sounds, motion-sickness-games (i.e. genshin, Identity V, etc.), weather pressure changes, rainy days/nights, storms, and dramatic temperature fluctuations..... but mainly the last four.

anyway. this week had the first and the second triggers. (and towards the end of this week is supposed to have the last trigger. yay!) one of the things that happens (IF i push myself to power through and "stay conscious" — more on that in a bit) is that i faint. like. not "faint for a couple minutes." nahhhh! i go out for like 10-40 minutes; normally the max is 20. but occasionally, a 40 minute episode'll occur and those are the scary ones.

on tuesday, i had a doctor appointment with my cardiologist pertaining to said migraines and fainting. while waiting to check in, i passed out and fell (i was standing at the time). and the staff and nurses were worried i hit my head so they called for an ambulance to drive me across the street to the hospital ER. i was there all afternoon and almost all night. i finally went home at 11pm. i'll spare yall of the more personal details (what tests were done, the overall experience, etc). all i'll say is that there's a reason why i hate hospitals and needles.

but the visit was long and tedious and terrifying and painful. i cried several times, as well as fainted a few more times between when i came to just as the paramedics arrived and a little after the technicians performed EKGs, etc. [like they usually do whenever someone is first admitted to the ER]. those fainting episodes were only a few minutes tho. not long at all. don't worry!

*sighs* anyway. that visit defined my entire week tho bc i ended up missing a day of work on thursday and a korean language class on wednesday. still felt the usual symptoms (most likely the aftermath) like dizziness, nausea, a heavy, sluggish feeling, soreness/headaches, loss of eyesight, etc.

hope this explanation helps??? i'll get back to writing and gaming soon. aaaaa i have a guaranteed yelan to get ready for anyway. heehee

EDIT: i forgot to add that yall shouldnt worry too much! sorry if i scared yall! these migraines and fainting episodes aren't manageable yet. even tho i can go to work sometimes, i cant drive, take horseback riding lessons (i used to take them), and go to/continue college,,,, i've had them since 2013?? 2014?? and am on medication for them as well as going to a neurologist and cardiologist who are both monitoring my condition and trying to help me and get them manageable so i can do all the aforementioned things i said i can't do.

also, it's not as uncommon as i seem to make it to be. several celebrities (look up Ben Affleck migraines) have chronic migraines, as well as several families/people/co-workers also have or have dealt with chronic migraines and passing out due to them. my own mom and older brother — altho they aren't biologically related to me — also have bad/chronic migraines. my family actually make jokes about my migraines and say i'm a walking barometer lol if anyone lives in the northeastern U.S. text me and check if a storm is coming. lol i can most likely tell you; if i migraine than yes. if i don't than no. lol /j but all jokes aside,,, again. don't worry too much for me. ok? i'm still functioning even if it's at low-HP/hu tao levels (a little genshin/gamer joke/comparison for yall). i'm still shino/em, someone who is so in love with jamil and xiao and rindou that they'll devote all their time and resources to taking care of them. heehee! ❤️❤️

[rigelmejo]

2/1/2023 Update on progress using Glossika Japanese. Lessons listened to: 37

This update is mostly for my personal tracking later. 

Downsides: I am struggling to get myself to listen to lessons. Based on time I have per day to listen to audio in the background, I should have gone through at least 100 lessons by now, and easily could’ve gone through 300. So 37 is... disappointing. I do relisten to the audios sometimes, so even though I’ve only gotten through 37 lessons I have probably listened to lessons 100 times. I suppose the upside is relistening to lessons before moving on is the actual way glossika recommends to study - listen to the prior day’s lesson before listening to the current day’s lesson. However, I was not trying to study how glossika recommended. I was trying to cram through as many audio lessons as possible so I could review if simply doing that and only that, was enough to learn a decent amount and see improvement. 

I desperately would like to get through all 312 lessons in a month. Just so I could finish and prove to myself if it helps or not! 

Since for me, a decent portion of these lessons are a form of audio review for me, so I do not need to be spending as much time on them as I am. I wanted to use these to review my knowledge and reinforce it, and strengthen my listening skills (and pronunciation knowledge) since I currently recognize more words by kanji meaning than by actually knowing their pronunciation (meaning I can’t recognize in listening words that I’d know if I was reading). So I feel I am... wasting a lot of my own time here, drilling beginner things I already know and working through the glossika lessons too slowly. Which is a bad perfectionist habit of mine that I often fall into when doing japanese study. oops.

I unfortunately have no solution to this tendency I have to avoid going through the lessons. I clearly am not super interested in the glossika lessons lol, they must bore me. For anyone else considering using glossika let this be useful to you: if you find it so plain its hard to listen to, it might be hard for you to push yourself to go through the lessons. The lessons are GOOD, don’t get me wrong. I just find it much ‘easier’ to make myself listen to a condensed audio of a video game (even though I know less words), or to play a japanese video game and look up words, than I find it to get myself to listen to simple boring daily life sentences in japanese/english. Just my personal focus issue. My brain loves to be challenged I think, even though I think in some cases like this it can make things less efficient.

Side studying I’ve been doing in japanese: I’ve played about 10 hours FFX and Persona 3 in japanese now. I went through about 300 memrise words in Nukemarine’s LLJ memrise courses before I got burned out with memrise again. I also have been playing like 50+ hours in the Yakuza games with english subs lately. While this doesn’t actually count as studying since I’m using english subs, I do hear the japanese audio frequently and I do think it helps me remember new words I’ve learned recently since I’m hearing them regularly and when I listen sometimes I try to compare the japanese I hear to the english subs and see if the translation changed anything. So all in all lets call the 50+ Yakuza games with english subs ‘mild review’ and count it as 10 study ‘review’ hours. 

So total study time these past 3 months has been: 10 hours video games in japanese, 10 hours japanese audio with english subs (so review but not real study), 50 hours of glossika audio (each audio is about a half hour and I relistened to most lessons 2-3 times so I’m guessing around 50 hours total), maybe 5 hours memrise and trying out the Listlang app, maybe 4 hours on Satori Reader (which later on in my journey I think will be an excellent study tool to prepare for reading but I don’t have the money for a subscription right now). 10+10+50+5+4= 79 study hours. ToT

79 study hours over 3 months. Yikes. I sure am lazy. so in ~90 days I did on average ~50 minutes of study a day. Okay... not entirely awful I guess. I usually make good progress with chinese at 1-2 hours study a day on average, so 50 minutes isn’t way below that amount... it could be way worse. I’m frankly amazed I made noticeable progress in the last few months then, damn, considering it wasn’t like a few hundred hours...

Upsides: Despite my apparently not very high study hours... I actually have noticed significant improvement. 

With Persona 3 - I played it 1 year ago and it took 1 hour to get to the save point. This month, it took about 20 minutes to get to the save point and I was able to get to the save point 3 times. So I was able to play the game 3 times faster, therefore I was able to read 3x faster. That’s a pretty huge improvement. I also was able to look up less words. When I played it a year ago I had to look up words frequently (about once every 2-3 minutes or more) and gave up even trying to read once I got to the school I just skipped text and tried to get to the save point as quick as possible and it still took an hour. This month when I played it I was able to only look up a word around once every 5 minutes, I could read the text fast enough that I did not need to skip text sessions to ‘speed up’ my playtime. I was able to spend some time actually exploring the character’s bedroom and school since reading was faster and therefore much more bearable. A 3 times faster reading speed is a REALLY noticeable improvement, I can’t express just how much easier everything feels when I can read faster. It makes the experience much easier and more bearable. Hiragana words and slang still made me feel very drained trying to understand wtf they meant by guessing, but it still felt 3 times easier than last year lol. 

With Final Fantasy X - I’m noticing improvement AS I play. When I started, the menu was challenging, now I find navigating the menu quite easy and honestly a game menu is a great way to repeatedly practice recognizing words until you learn them. So is the combat menu. It’s like how in english we never knew the word ‘ultima’ or ‘aeon’ as far as the actual attack or creature they mean in a game, but we learn because a game teaches us. This is comforting, we have to learn these kinds of words even when playing games in english... so learning them in japanese is not really much different. So yeah, the pause menu and combat menu are already notably easier 10 hours in then when I started. Common words specific to this game were also picked up fast - I know know summoner, summon, defeat, cheer, pray, temple, monster, magic, boat, port, waruiwa - (used as ‘im sorry this is a bad time’ sort of like sumimasen but casual to end a conversation), a lot of more casual word endings or word forms (Tidus and Wakka...). This is comforting, as now I expect if I played something like say Nier Automata I would pick up the technology words eventually simply because they’re used a lot. Or in Kingdom Hearts I sure would pick up hearts, darkness, light, friends, friendship, worlds, keyblade, fast lol. I am also noticing it’s much easier to follow what’s being said in scenes then when I started. When I started I’d usually understand 1 part of a sentence but not all of it, or 1 sentence but then not 2 more then understand on again. Whereas now 10 hours in I watched the scene on Mihen High Road where Yuna and Tidus talk in front of the sunset. I understood every word of every single line, except 1 single line I didn’t know one clause within it. So I understood the scene Really Well, well enough to compare the japanese translation to the english translation I remember. There’s still lines where I only understand part of them (like when Seymour says ‘Then pretend I didn’t say it’ I understood that line but not the one right before it, or when Gatta says Chappu says spending time with your girl is nice but... I did not catch the part where I know in english he says ‘protecting your girl from’ sin is better. I only caught the ‘your girl’ part beforehand and ‘sin’ part toward the end). But I AM understanding a great deal of full lines, which is fun as I’ve been comparing it to the english translation I remember to see what was changed in english or kept the same. Lulu is... really direct in japanese just like she is in english, which I was surprised by. There’s also a part where Seymour asks Auron “It’s been 10 years, how have you been” or whatever, and Auron literally says “I’m Yuna’s guardian, I’m busy” then walks away. It was just really funny to me how directly he shuts Seymour down. Or when Gatta says when he told Lulu about Chappu, she hit him too. 

When I started playing FFX this month I did not expect that I was going to eventually be able to understand the lines to this degree of detail. I thought at best I was going only be able to follow the main idea. Now to be fair: I’ve played this game before in english so I have that remembered english script in my memory to help me guess unknown words or lines. I expect a game I’ve NEVER played before would be considerably harder. However, this speed of progress bodes well for if I wanted to play Nier Replicant or Nier Automata. Apparently the navigation menus will not take more then a few hours to get comfortable with in japanese, and after enough hours I will be able to enjoy understanding the detail of a lot of the japanese lines. Which is definitely a good motivation to want to play more games in japanese - I am very interested in comparing the japanese script and choices with the english translation, and knowing it will be possible to do that is exciting. 

With manga - an unexpected improvement. I’ve been opening up manga from time to time. I am finding some easier to read now. I think the improvement is mainly due to reviewing information I knew already because I’m using japanese more. I still find heavy adverb use and hiragana word usage hard and that’s where a majority of the unknown words I don’t understand but that are important are. 

Basically - I’m seeing a significant reading improvement in both skill and especially speed at 3x faster than last year, ability to follow the speed up japanese in of cutscenes/follow the speed of japanese in audio much better than before, significant improvement in recognizing stuff I’ve studied before faster/easier, and some small but solid improvement in vocabulary. I did not expect any noticeable improvement until I’d studied a few hundred more hours, so honestly this is really great and a lot more than I expected.

In regard to the Glossika lessons: I DO think they’ve been helping, I Do think they’ve been reinforcing my knowledge I already knew and giving me good review, and while I struggle to listen to them often I do think they work similarly well for me as anki/memrise do except without requiring 100% of my focus when I do them. So the glossika lessons (audio flashcards) are easier for me to actually study. While I wish I was doing them more, I’m happy to say I do think they’re helping me improve like I hoped they would.

[botwstoriesandsuch]

hey Kip! I’m sending asks into different writer’s askboxes, inquiring about cool themes/development facts/stuff the author wants to share about their personal favorite work of their own. What’s yours? :)

Ok so this ask is old and when I first got it I was like “dang I don’t really have a lot to talk about, what should I talk about I could those revalink headcanons the Kip Cut that turned into a working fic uhh hmm maybe I’ll just make something new to talk about real quick” and then I did and now there is a 12+ chapter Revalink fic in my drafts and I’m gonna talk about that now, whoopsie doopsie [click "j" to skip]

aHEM, OK so allow me to break out the primary school white board because yeah, I have a lot of thoughts and the oxford comma has not yet made it’s home into my brain. oh and spoilers for paraphrase. for both all of Chapter one and future events in later chapters, but it’s really nothing you couldn’t surmise from the AO3 tags

so I really wanted to tell the story of Revali and Link learning and struggling to love again after the less-than-fortunate events of Botw, but I wanted a...how you say...fresher, approach on the subject? Like I know we always say that fanfic writers writing the same tropes and stories time and time again is good because we eat that shit up--but at the same time I had asian parenting as was told never to half ass anything ever, no matter what. So now I'm gay and extra and have depression maybe and oh would you look at that @motherhyrule has dropped a beautiful revalink prompt right into my lap

Great so now that we have, that, I shall take you on the step by step process on how to make a :sparkles: story. So step one is to spend at least five to eleven business days for your white board to dismantle your genre and themes and work them around your character arcs. Luckily I have prepared one ahead of time

s*breaks out those laser pointers that uni professors use* So let's start with defining genre. As define because I HATE you, fuck you. I want you to suffer and writhe on the ground, motherfucker. How dare you think that I would give you nothing but pure predictable fluff, fuck you and yours

is the set of expectations that your audience has when consuming a piece of media

And the great thing about fanfiction is that unlike movies or book where the genres are more vague like, "oh it's a noir mystery genre. so there's a crime, maybe a murder, and a detective and a criminal." or "oh it's a teen romance. so there's some white people and a morally questionable six-pack 18 year old love interest that will be painted as desirable for some reason" BUT with fanfiction HALF of the work out the window, because as soon as you see those #revalink #aro sidon #zelpha #revali is an idiot and #found family tags you already know what's up.

Now what's so great about genre and expectation? Well the fun thing about it is that

I will use it to fucking break you.

... ... ...

<3 For example! <3

In Chapter 1: Holes, you already expect there to be revalink, you already expect them to be soulmates with the soulmarks and there's angst and yadayada ya. Revali and Link have to match because thatttss what this is all about, this is about them! This is about cute, little soulmarks and romantic words!

But whoooopsie doopsie [disney channel laugh track plays] they DON'T match anymore! Link's got a different mark! The number one rule of this entire genre has been broken whoooooooooooooooops. *ba dum tiss*

You might notice with a lot of my writing that I do this a lot, this whole..."oop but there's one little thing that's different." TebaSaki sick fic? Ok cool, but what if Teba burns an irreplaceable relic of the Rito champion to fight a wizzrobe first to characterize why his dumbass clicks with Saki. Mipha deciding to persue Link? Ok what if she chases after a dragon to externalize this conflict as she pierces it's flesh for a scale. Link fighting a Lynel? Ok but what if it's actually a sidlink angst fic in disguise and it's also world building on how Link deals with the bloodmoon that erases all of his efforts which is sort of similar to how his existence was erased from Hyrule 100 years ago mwaahahaha! Ok now that I say this outloud I think I just have a pattern of using fight scenes to externalize character growth. I like fight scenes...anyways.

I think another great thing about the realm of fanfiction is that with the tagging system, I can basically use a chekhov's gun sort of deal, without doing any writing. You know I'm gonna use that gun marked "soulmates" but you don't know when I'm gonna shoot it, and you SURE as hell don't know how.

And huzzah! One of the main points of conflict both drives the tension between Revali and Link, solidifies the unique genre and setting of this world, while also creating a new mystery that will carry over for the next few chapters.

Is Revali right in that Link's rebirth makes him destined for someone new now? What will Link do with the information that his soulmark has changed? Why did it change? Did Revali's change as well? How does anything fucking work right now?

And sure, you might be able to tell where things will end with them, but you sure as fuck will not know how because I HATE you. Fuck you. I want you to suffer and writhe on the ground, motherfucker. How dare you think that I would give you nothing but pure predictable fluff. I am not your goddamn fairy godmother, I will do as I fucking please. You will suffer as you fucking deserve, fuck you and your little tiny--

/j

Oh! But you might have noticed on my little planning whiteboard thing that there was a little T-Chart! For Revali and Link! That's because the next important thing besides plot (and in a lot of cases, including this one, it's argued to be even MORE important than plot) is

~CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT~

[to the tune of that history of the world video on youtube]

So yes, it's a little T-Chart outlining their character views in relation to the themes. And the great thing about themes is that they're not something you can necessarily predict in the same way you can with the genre and plot.

But now see, I'm very lazy so I'm just gonna plagiarize @hyrule-kingdom-updates thingy [that you should read btw] because they said my point quite clear enough

Now I don't really need to care about those points about bond and relationships and being understood, because I'm dealing with already established canon characters. I'm not some NERD who dabbles with entire casts of ocs who even cares about ocs not me that's for sure ahaahahaahahahahahaahahahahahAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH *cries in my orphaned WTTU fic* AHAHAHA*sobs*DONT FUCKING LOOK AT ME THAT WAY I SWEAR--

/j I love ocs

But the points I do wanna focus on is the idea that characters provide new perspectives on the theme, and that characters growth can be tracked based on their wants, lies, and needs.

So see, themes can be predicted the same as genre/plot because while you can have the same fanfic plots and tropes, theme will always vary!

Sometimes it's a journey of selfworth with Revali! Sometimes it's an exploration of trauma with Link. Sometimes it's about how you deal with the vulnerabilities of love with Mipha. Sometimes there's straight up NOOOO theme, and people just be fucking, and kissing, and baking, and having a good time. And that is totally fine too!

But I'm not a fucking coward.

I'm gonna weave in themes with my plot, because I fucking can.

I'm not a weakling like you.

Do you hear me, 2019 Kip? Do you hear me Demmers? Do you hear me Quill? I'm coming for your ass. You think you're so great, but I'm coming for you. Rest assured that your graves will be as deep as your sculptured pride--

Heeeere is that T-Chart again, plus more!

yyyyyYou might notice that Revali and Link are quite parallel, to paraphrase. Ayoooo, see what I did there? *dabs* I'm a genius. Anywho

They both start off the same way: 100 years ago they were in love and happy. Basically the equivalent of childish naivety. For the first time in their lives, life is whimsical and charming, and they make each other happy. In fact, it's almost a flaw with how they perceive this happiness. But don't worry! It doesn't last long!

You know what happens.

I think the chart is pretty self explanatory. Revali builds walls fast enough to give a republican a wet dream. Meanwhile Link makes every aromantic in the chat groan with his doubled down sentiments in the idea that his chances of being truly happy again are gone.

Now, I can't exactly describe the full on process of the inbetweens, and where Revali and Link are gonna go from here, because...you have to read it for yourself! Heehee...but something I did think was fun was how these character views on the themes are revealed. Because you'll notice that, I never give exposition. Ever.

Ok well, let me rephrase that. I never give exposition scenes. I will never give you a big LOTR fancy wizard scene explaining the ins and outs of a character's question or the world's magic or whatever. I'm a very impatient Kip, and I value efficiency. Nonono, it's all about multi tasking, baby!

Chapter 1: Holes is divided into three parts.

Post 100 Years - Medoh (Establishes Ghost Rev/Bonk Head Link's view)

100 Years Ago - Flight Range (Establishes old Revalink views)

Post 100 years - Mark (Develops Ghost Rev/Bonk Head Link's view in contrast to who they once were)

I think the way that you structure flashbacks is incredible vital, as it's a very quick way to characterize people without having them say stuff like "I used to be like you, until I took an arrow to the knee" or whatever.

And with the main structure of the chapters and the fic as a whole is focus on their characters, that means I can hide whatever other stuff I want in those scenes, becuase you're too busy absorbing the fun character stuff to realizing I'm giving you boring exposition. Like for example:

Post 100 Years - Medoh and Mark

Foreshadowing for the end of the fic

Set up connection to Medoh with Revali

Link has defeated Windblight

Link has been visiting Revali every night for the past few days

Link has already met Kass and presumably Teba

Link doesn't have the Mastersword

Revali's Gale is still an ability that needs master and practice on Link's end

And that's just some of the stuff.

And see, the only reason I can efficiently give all of this information regarding character, and even exposition, is because of the theme. The themes make everything relevant, and everything circles and encompasses one another, so there's absolutely no wasted space. I mean don't even get me started on how it's gonna be to characterize the other characters around this

I don't wanna talk about the other characters too much either because that's spoilers, but you can probably take a gandar based on my notes.

And oh my god this is just on the theme of the faults that come with "soulmates" and "true love" and all that, and how even magical destined relationships still require work and effort, and that no one thing or person solves all your problems. And that's not even TOUCHING the shit on trauma and scars. I didn't think it was even possible for me to talk about botw without touching on that, ha. Ah well, I've been talking for too long.

Revalink has a lot o' writing potential so das pretty cool yeah, I am excite

[sinnohqueen]

list of urls/blogs i have that nobody asked for but discord is down and im bored anyway

tsunade-hime ; was a naruto blog but i was like 'well im too lazy to tag shit anyway and idk why am i hiding my passion for naruto women on another blog. slap that shit on main'

julesyena ; made this when i was still in my twitch streaming era and i was going with a new username but obviously i never streamed again and i stopped caring oops

sinnohking ; one time when i had anon on years ago someone sent me an asking telling me they hoped i would find my sinnoh king one day. i laughed in lesbian and hoarded the URL. used to be an art reference blog, is now a kpop blog that i actually dont use anymore. embarrassing amount of bts on there. sorry everyone (at least i saved you all from seeing it on my main blog)

darkpulse ; think a friend gave me this url??? using it for a writing resource blog, again hasnt been updated in 1+ year. maybe some day i will revamp it. it could be an oc blog idk

jortshipping ; sometimes i forget that am and i were solely responsible for coining the official name for the malva/cynthia/diantha ship. also hasnt been updated in a very long time because theres barely content for malva/diantha as it is :(

sinnohmeme ; a while back i thought it was funny to hoard this url. that's it

sinnohkingdomfics ; i said one day that i was going to finally get back into writing and posting fanfiction. literally did NOT happen. it's there just in case but oh well

pokegifstudios ; tried running a pokemon gif blog again before realizing i actually get more notes on this account also i was bored AIOSDIJSAD i want to get back into gif making eventually so like. idk. i'll probably just use my main