#i love making lists and adding links to things in posts and organizing files

[dailypokemoncrochet]

End of January 2025 Update

It's February now! Which means Jan-New-Ary is over and the next art challenge up is Fae-bruary! Potentially that means I'll crochet all fairy types. Woohoo!

The spreadsheet is updated up through January now. I'm at 723 total crocheted, and 19 done this past month! Wow! Started with Brambleghast, ended with Espathra. I think my favorite right now is Chien-Pao. I've been much more consistent with this than I thought I would. I've been operating with the intent of crocheting every day instead of finishing a crochet every day, which is a good way of not pushing myself too hard, and I think it's working for me.

Additionally, I added a page for the monthly art challenges on my website! Currently it has a link to the checklist and a bingo card generator for the 2025 crochet pool (haven't found a clean way to update for the ones I've done so far).

I'm working on taking the pokeamidex photos for the January pokemon, and then I'll add those to the queue which is getting pretty low. Hopefully I'll get into a better groove this upcoming month regarding organizing my stuff and setting up things and whatnot. We'll find out!

[youtry2replaceurself]

Update: this post is at 69 notes!

Another update: what.

good morning, good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight!

Also nothing about this post is organized but I would like to add that yes I do take drawing requests and they are very very encouraged, and there's a 50/50 chance the drawing will be shit :3

And I have a huge tag list so ask me if you want to be on it or if you want to be taken off it

Pronouns are anything other than she/her, preferably they/them

Wattpad is @asri3l_dreemurr, @spamton-detector is my gimmick blog, @thermodynamics-lawyer-esq was abandoned 💔,

aalso @redleavesandteardrops WAs my WoF side blog but fuck you

and @sonder-wof is my fan-made WoF continent blog thing

dni if you're a bitch I guess, don't want a long ass list of terms I don't like lmao

Btw I'm a lynx, reindeer, and crow/magpie (idfk I'm trying to figure out) therian wahoo !! And also some kind of owl but I'm not sure and I'm really confused help

Important links I think people should see: (actually mostly stuff I just want to go back to later)

Alright, usually, I put the most recent links at the bottom, but I need y'all to reblog this now.

This might be already on here but, if you find someone that tried to commit suicide via pills:

Internet safety and how to identify pdf files/pedophiles

Important sites for while Trump is president

How to be prepared for Trump's presidency

Like the above link

Something to remember about Project 2025

What to do if you suddenly find yourself homeless

^ written by someone who has been homeless

Text... Font... Thing...

Writing resourcesssss

TIME TRAVEL, BITCH

Books Trump might ban, I think

Depression tips

Words instead of "said"

When your character...

Rizz

Some links for a bad day

Suicide hotline that isn't call (was told this isn't working at the moment)

Goodbye medical debt!!

Tree noise<3

Petition to ban perfume in schools

How to bypass YouTube's anti ad blocker thingy

I didn't have the attention span to. Fully read this so I am so so sorry I can't summarize this properly but I'm fairly sure that it is important and worth reading if you're, unlike me, capable of reading this

Thank You Mister Deli Woman

Kewl resources for artists

In the US? Wanna learn new and terrible things about where you live?

Cold shock response

????WHAT THE FUCK ???????

BOYCOTT COCA COLA PRODUCTS AND NESTLE PRODUCTS!

Classic meme templates

THIS ANIMATIC MADE ME CRY

Self care assessment thingy

free movies

How to draw arms and legs

Lineart turorial

Becoming an adult cheat sheet

taxes

How to fight back against ICE agents

Something something food recalls. I'm stupid and don't know what this means but I've heard it talked about seriously

WoF headcanons I wanna go back to

Fuck Google

Sound

Wobble worble

"Jesus in a hot topic"

Call the police on their pedophile ass

“I have all these OCs! But no story…”

Fuck ice, know your rights

Web games

Fuck paywalls

Survive the next 4 years

Might have another similar thing here but how to identify AI (writing, voices, videos, "art")

Literally everything you need to make a character

Holidays :)

Buy stuff from native people!!

Wholesome thing I wanna save so I can go back to it

AO3 summaries: help

Site to totally avoid

Speaking from ignorance

Top surgery tips!

Consent

Project Gutenburg

Finding your lost pets/your lost non-human family

First aid for seizures

Dragons and unicorns.

Food or drugs that have been recalled

What to do if...

STATISTICS

Substitutes for AI!

The whole untitled wolf sheep comic thing

Kris. K-kris. I don't smoke weed. I DONT SMOKE WEED! I DONT SMOKE WEED! I DONT SMOKE WEED !!! KRIS !!!!!!!

tips

VERY important tips

Deltarune animation I very much love, chapter 3 spoilers beware

Yet another deltarune animation I love, again, ch3 spoilers

Tenna gifs (thank you ezgif I love you ezgif)

Education is a right, not a service

2dollarbeer

TENNA MOUSE??

Fun behaviors to give dragons

Mpreg.

Stop nonconsensual intimate image abuse

Essay about Ralsei i like a lot

Deltarune divorce chart?

Dads and lesbians and lumberjacks

How to make a cookie in a mug

Weird dreams I had

Sans is from deltarune (ch3 + ch4 spoilers)

THIS SPECIFIC PIECE OF FANART I LOVE IT SO MANY............

"how to be a sub and not kill yourself in the process" I think. This is here so people don't do that. dont die by being stupid please

Evacuation prep

Not even a Tumblr post but a funnee thing I saw on YouTube

A bunch of stuff

This post it makes me wanna cryyy

Disability-friendly recipes!

Ralsei roasts the fuck out of Susie (canon)

Kris and FRIEND interaction thing

SOUND THE EFFECTS!

Anygays here's my other platforms bc I'm so slay

og art blog:

Will wood blinky is made by @skelpiescool

Deny defend depose blinky made by me :3 if you use mine please credit btw, not "credit to the artist" that's not credit

[alltimefail]

Hi! Welcome to my page!

➪ My name is V (she/her) and I’m 28 years old. I'm very bad at writing "about me" blurbs and I'm slow to respond to DMs, but if you send me an ask/private message I promise I will do my best to get back to you in a timely manner! 🖤

➪ I really LOVE Dead Boy Detectives. Help me save Dead Boy Detectives by streaming it on Netflix and by signing our renewal petition HERE. 💜💀🔎

➪ If you are in the Dead Boy Detectives fandom and want to access my "To-Do" list for saving our show, CLICK HERE.

➪ Save Queer Stories: see how you can help the fight for representation.

➪ Follow me on Twitter for more shitposting, I'm atfsims1!

➪ My simblr is HERE (@alltimefail-sims).

➪ Every fundraiser or resource I’ve posted for Palestine can be found HERE. Please check this tag if you can help financially in any way or are willing to reblog the fundraisers to boost their visibility. FREE PALESTINE! 🍉

Navigate my fandoms and commonly used tags below ↓

➪ It shouldn't need to be said but DNI if you're racist, homophobic, transphobic/a rad fem/a TERF, ableist, and so on. You lot wouldn't like it here anyway. 👍

Dead Boy Detectives 💀🔎 (Main Tag) - Meta/Analysis - Gif Sets - Memes/Funny Text Posts - Behind the Scenes/Cast-specific posts ➪ This is my main fandom currently which is why the tag is so organized lol.

Other various fandoms I'm in but don't have super organized tags for include: #Stranger Things #Twenty One Pilots #The Goldfinch #Scott Pilgrim #ILITW "It Lives In The Woods" #ILW "It Lives Within" (ILITW Fan Project) #The Haunting of Hill House / Bly Manor #Midnight Mass #The Midnight Club #Watcher (Puppet History, Ghost Files, Mystery Files, and so on) #ACNH #Julie and the Phantoms #The Quarry #Heartstopper #RWRB "Red, White, and Royal Blue"

Note: I'm constantly adding to this list, this is just the stuff off the top of my head honestly. If you like any of this stuff feel free to follow! Also some of these tags will have less than 10 posts because I've just recently started being mindful of tagging my reblogs lol.

General and random tags I use often: #Fanart (One of my most used tags probably. I don't make it, but I do reblog it! There's a shit ton of good stuff in here!!) #Art (I don't make it, but I reblog it!) #Writing Inspo (Lots of poems and text posts tbh) #Personal (Where I shitpost)

➪ If any links seem broken, please try opening them in a browser!

[eintsein]

After a few years of trial and error, I think I've finally found the perfect organization method.

In the early years of high school, I had a bullet journal. I was an artsy kid who found a way to combine art with organization in a way that benefited other parts of my life.

However, as I approached the end of high school, my schedule got busier, and I was involved in a lot more things, so owning a bullet journal was less practical. Because of that, I switched to an app called Edo Agenda.

I continued with digital planning in college since I knew I wasn't going to have as much time. But all the apps I tried out—Taskade, Actions by Moleskine, Any.do, Todoist, Wunderlist—weren't suited to my planning and organizational needs. They didn't have the specific functions I required and didn't incorporate an organization system I liked to use. The predefined apps were too restraining, but the more customizable apps weren't customizable enough.

So then I switched to a bare bones, uber minimalist bullet journal method. That worked pretty well my second semester. It was simple, portable, and most importantly, flexible—all the things one could wish for in a planning system. However, it wasn't always the most convenient to use since I couldn't effectively integrate all the different aspects of my life, which, to no surprise, is mostly recorded digitally.

There was just one huge problem with my digital organization system that made me hesitant to switch back in the first place: everything was fragmented. Notes were in Google Docs. Financial records were in Google Sheets. To-Do Lists were in my bullet journal. Team projects were in Trello. My poetry was on Bear. Things I wanted to try are carelessly pinned to random pinterest boards or added to my YouTube "watch later" playlist. It was a mess.

Over the summer, I found out about Notion from a friend, and I thought, this has so much potential, it could even be exactly what I need. It's essentially like an empty notebook on your computer with functions that make it 10x more powerful. Notion allows you to integrate all aspects of your life and work into one app. Some of the advantages that have made me partial to Notion are:

Even greater customization level. Notion is a blank canvas with tons of predefined blocks and different file types. You can make databases, spreadsheets, Kanban boards, to do lists, etc. Also, you can remain connected to other digital services. You can link websites, collaborate with other users, use different structures (e.g. documents, databases, tasks), embed images and videos, etc. There are also tons of formatting options, e.g. text color, highlight, heading v. body text.

Better organization. Notion allows you to have pages within pages within pages within pages—an infinite hierarchy that you can organize with tables of contents. These pages are made of blocks, e.g. tables, checklists, boards, databases.  Both pages and blocks can be rearranged by simply dragging and dropping them to where you want them to be. In other words, I guess it's kind of like building a website to organize your life. Plus, their database feature is especially powerful as it allows you to connect all your data and get into as much detail as you wish (each entry in a database is its own page).

Templates. There are tons of templates created by both Notion and the community that you can use. These are especially helpful in the beginning since Notion does have a rather steep learning curve. There are template for almost every category: personal, planning, finance, job applications, design roadmap, etc. Check out their template gallery, this medium article called "10 Notion templates to inspire your use", or read on for my own examples!

Shortcuts. This makes typing and documenting so much faster. Notion uses Markdown, which is a text-to-HTML conversion tool, e.g. # = Heading 1, *, - = bullet point, etc.

Notion has some pretty awesome features, but how does one actually use it? Personally, I have four top-level pages: my planner, my personal journal, songwriting, and blogging.

Planner

I've been using my planner to, well, plan and track my day to day activities as well as my week and month. The way I've structured it is a calendar or monthly overview with links to pages of weekly overviews, and if needed, daily overviews within the weekly overview. This links things up so nicely, i.e. I don't have to be constantly flipping pages in my physical bullet journal or planner to find what I need.

I also have entertainment lists, which is mainly a table with all the shows I want to watch, the books I want to read, etc. I keep track of whether or not I've watched them, as well as my personal ratings. What I love most about this is that each entry is its own page, so I can type my notes for each book, show, or film and easily find them in the future. (Also the reason why I have plural “lists” instead of just one entertainment list is because you can filter entries by type of entertainment, e.g. movies, tv shows, books, articles.)

Personal

For personal notes, goals, journal entries, etc. This is kind of like an extension of my daily journal and just where I dump all my thoughts and keep track of the different aspects of my life: mental, emotional, spiritual, social, physical, and travel.

Another page I have is called "Stray Thoughts" and, well, it's pretty self explanatory. It's a lot easier to dump all my thoughts as they come and reorganize them later. Of course, this requires sacrificing the rawness of journaling, i.e. when the thoughts come and how you process them, which is why I still keep a regular journal that I write in daily.

Songwriting

I've been writing a lot of music over the summer and it's often hard to keep track of all of my songs and how far I've gotten in the songwriting process. So I created a table of songs - each entry of a song is a page with its lyrics. These are then tagged with the status of the lyrics (i.e. completed, in progress) and the status of the music itself (i.e. melody only, instrumental, mixing, mastering, revised). Eventually, I'll include demos in the database by embedding audio files in the document.

I have a separate section for inspiration and ideas, which is a kind of brain dump, e.g. words I think would make a good song, a certain theme for a song, a melody that's been stuck in my head, a vibe I'd like to try out, etc.

I've also been watching a lot of tutorials for music production and there's a section where I write my notes for that.

Eintsein

The last section of my Notion app is for this blog. Which has pages for

New posts. These are ideas for future posts, asks that I think would need longer answers, as well as posts that are currently in the draft stage (like this one was before I posted it)

Design assets. This is where I put all the visual branding material for Eintsein.com to be used in posts and any visual material on the blog.

FAQ. Having an FAQ document just makes it so much easier to make changes to your existing FAQ. Plus, if you ever change your FAQ theme, you just have to copy and paste what you already have.

Post directory. I keep track of all my previous masterposts, infographics, and generally longer and more comprehensive posts. It's the exact same as what you see on my Navigation page. And yes, the document contains direct links to the post.

New theme. A project I've been working on the past couple days is trying to create my own theme for my blog. This is where I put all my outlines, brainstorming notes, design inspiration, code snippets, etc.There are some pretty awesome features I’ve made use of in this page:

As you can probably tell, I'm absolutely obsessed with Notion since it has such awesome features and endless possibilities for customization. So far I've been using Notion for personal projects, which, since they are quite big in scale and have no set deadline, are important to organize well. My summer courses were only 6 weeks and weren't difficult to organize.

The formats above are just how I personally use notion. You could make some of your own, or if you don't think you want to build your pages from scratch, there are tons of templates to choose from. Here are some I think I'll be using in the near future and may be helpful for others as well, especially students like myself:

One drawback, however, is that Notion has a rather steep learning curve, but there are tons of tutorials online (especially YouTube) and I guarantee you it's all worth it.

Notion is not just a productivity app. It's a way to concretize your entire life.

Notion is free to use, but there are higher tiers that allow for more blocks, greater file size, etc. I use a personal account, which is $4 per month with unlimited block storage and no file upload limit (although I got it for $33/year). Personally I think the free plan would suit most people's needs, especially if you're not uploading large files.

[927roses-and-stuff]

Miracles in Gotham: Chapter 3: Unwelcome Discoveries (Part 1)

Hey, guys! This fic is inspired by @ozmav mav’s Maribat AU. Shoutout to @mystery-5-5  for brainstorming ideas with me for this fic. 

Midterms have got me acting up. Despite the quarantine, I literally wasn’t motivated to write until the moment I could use writing to procrastinate. Absolutely brilliant logic. Truly. Thank you guys so much for the wait and I hope you enjoy this chapter.  

If you want to see more, follow: #miraclesingotham or ask to be added to the tag list.

P.S. For the sake of continuity, I’m going to ignore the Heroes United thing because that episode was basically a fanfic of the fanfic and as much as I loved the animation and the new characters...I’ve seen better plots and explanations for a lot of the similar problems in the Maribat fandom. Also Sparrow is probably a reference to Batman, anyways. Also, canon has just gone out the window...I guess...whoops. 

P.P.S. Swearing tw, death tw. 

Please remember this is rated M for a reason. Also, it is my headcanon that not everyone who dies during the akuma attacks come back. Of course, it’s not mentioned in a children’s show, but I’ve always seen the Miraculous Cure as a cure for physical, non-living objects as they’re easier to fix, and lives take a lot more effort and energy from the user to revive. And since Marinette is a child, there’s not going to be a lot of energy to spare.

Tag list: @northernbluetongue @spicybelladonna @my-name-is-michell @legendaryneckjudgestudent @lokiifriggasonn @zerotosiki

First Previous Next Fanfic

To the members of the Justice League…

I am writing to you as Chat Noir, superhero of Paris and holder of the Black Cat Miraculous of Destruction, and partner to Ladybug, the official Guardian and the holder of the Ladybug Miraculous of Creation. I come to you with a plea similar to ones that we have sent you a year ago. The magical terrorist, Hawkmoth, is still at large here in Paris, France. If you are not aware of who he is, Hawkmoth is a domestic terrorist in Paris who relies on the power of the Butterfly Miraculous to create a physical and amplified manifestation of a person’s negative emotions, using the victim as a host, using magical butterflies as his form of transmission. These are called akumas. The akuma allows Hakwmoth to essentially get inside the mind of  his victims and manipulate and amplify their emotions.  We have been fortunate enough to have a failsafe in Ladybug, who can repair any physical damages, and even bring back lives, from these attacks. However, both Ladybug and I have reached our wits’ ends with no lead to Hawkmoth’s true identity. The people of Paris are suffering both from emotional trauma and the physical trauma of being subjugated, manipulated, experiencing bouts of amnesia, and even resurrecting multiple times. Hawkmoth has even taken to exclusively targeting a middle-school class at College Francois-Dupont.

Ladybug and I are aware of the risks superhero presence may bring since we will not survive a fight if any more experienced superheroes such as yourselves are akumatized. However, I feel that we have no other choice. Our Master has recently been put out of commission and the rest of our comrades have had their identities compromised. Ladybug is now the Guardian of the rest of the Miraculous. And although she will not approve of my plea, even your  advice or insight will be of use to us.

Please consider our plight and contact us as soon as you can.

Chat Noir 

Bruce Wayne was not a perfect man, he will admit. However, he did pride himself on his sense of logic and adaptability to most situations, as long as they stayed within the mortal realms of believability that is. Magic, however, or anything pertaining to the supernatural was out of his forte; in fact, he often liked to pretend it did not exist despite having acquaintances and enemies whose entire lives revolved around it. There was a reason he did not tolerate the  prolonged presence of meta-humans in Gotham, after all. 

He re-read through the email once, twice, again and again, desperately wishing that it had not been his shift to look through the messages that the Justice League received on a daily basis. Why couldn’t it have been Superman or Wonder Woman? Or better yet, Dr. Fate or Zatanna, never mind the fact that the latter was technically retired. Any of them would’ve made sense of this gibberish that was laid out in front of him. 

Initially, he thought it had been a coded message. It made perfect sense, in his opinion. The only concrete fact he could dissect out of this nonsense was the presence of a domestic terrorist and how they were targeting some middle school students for whatever reason. His mind recalled  the recent conversation he had with André Bourgeois yesterday. Even he had mentioned a domestic terrorist going after his daughter’s class, which was why he reached out to Bruce, since Bruce would be the most fitted to protect them with his resources, despite Gotham being the crime capital of the world. He nodded to himself; the facts were consistent then. There was a terrorist and middle school students were the targets. 

On one of the other screen monitors, he had pulled up records of College Francois Dupont School for a background check using a VPN to connect to French service networks. Both the email from this Chat Noir (Selina would get a kick out of that) and André failed to mention the terrorist’s intentions with these kids. However, looking through the different classes, there had been a special note besides Mme. Bustier’s class that stated:

“High vulnerability to akumas.”

This was where Bruce was once again stumped. Of course, he really couldn’t deny the existence of magic, but accepting that meant accepting that the terrorist used magical butterflies as his form of attack. Bruce wasn’t a qualified psychologist or any sort of specialist, but surely magical butterflies could not give you emotional trauma, mind-control, or even as Chat Noir had implied, a means to murder. 

Bruce scanned through Mme. Bustier’s class to look for anything that might be different from other classes. If he recalled correctly, this was the same class that André’s kid was in. He took note of the name, Chloé Bourgeois, and other notable names such as Adrien Agreste (who’s father was a fashion mogul and a model in his own right), Lila Rossi (a diplomat’s daughter), Max Kanté (a genius, and he noted to himself to see if that held true when the class was under his supervision), Marinette Dupain-Cheng (the class president and the designer of a recent rock album according to Jason who had obsessed over the cover for a few weeks before Alfred confiscated it), and Alya Césaire (an aspiring journalist who ran a blog called the Ladyblog). 

Okay, he rationalized. While not all of these kids were significant, some, like the Mayor’s own daughter, would be prime targets for a terrorist, so that made some sort of sense in Bruce’s mind. 

He sighed again, wishing that he had a cup of coffee or an energy drink with him at the moment. Unfortunately, Tim’s recent addiction meant no one could have it. Bruce scoffed underneath his breath. Alfred had really weird rules when it came to show “family support.” Tim was a grown man who should suffer his own consequences. Alas, no one argues with Alfred lest they risked his wrath. 

Bruce hovered over the link under Mlle. Césaire’s file, the Ladyblog. Perhaps it would give him some answers. 

As a bright ladybug designed website popped up, Bruce realized he might have been so wrong. 

He scrolled through the website thoroughly from the latest posts to the earliest. He noticed a concerning trend where the later blog posts centered more around one of Césaire’s classmates, Lila Rossi, and shaky videos of a red and black spotted figurem and a black cat figure fleeing the scene, or fighting some sort of abomination that Bruce did not even attempt to understand. In one video it was the two heroes against a flock of pigeons, or a gigantic baby, or whatever else. Bruce had half a mind to dismiss the entire blog as based on falsities, however one of the videos caught his eye. 

It was a video titled: “Syren: Paris Going Underwater!!” 

That was concerning, considering a flooded Paris would’ve featured on international news, not just on an amateur blog by a middle schooler. Fortunately for him, the video quality was clearer, allowing him to watch as the camera recorded the scene of that day. 

Bruce jolted awake and snapped to attention when he realized it was being filmed on a rooftop, and that the water levels were still rising as the video progressed. From what the camera captured, there were only a handful of people on each rooftop; not even making up a fifth of the Parisian population in total. 

What the fuck?

Then, as the video concluded, gigantic swarms of red and white bugs (ladybugs?) filled the camera’s frame and when it disappeared, everything was back to what he presumed was normal. The video then faded to black, posting statistics that chilled Bruce to the fucking bone. 

“Death count: 1.528 million Parisians

Resurrection count: 1.51 million Parisians

Injured count: 10 000 Parisians

Permanent death count: 18 000 Parisians

In honour of the Parisians who were not revived and were injured during the attack, the Ladyblog, offers our condolences, and will help in any way we can online and offline.  The akuma victim, as always, will remain anonymous for safety purposes.  Links to help organizations and donation funds to the peoples and families affected will be posted below. Additional links will be posted for available online mental health services.”

And, if Chat Noir was to be believed, some people had died multiple times. 

After making sure the video was not doctored in any way (though that would be cruel to assume about a kid’s blog), Bruce sent Chat Noir’s email (along with the earlier videos from both heroes and an email from Marinette Dupain-Cheng that he had found) and all of the links he had amassed to his own computer in the Bat Cave before closing all the tabs on the monitors. Swerving around, he stormed to the Batmobile, eyebrows furrowed in solemnity. 

Magic or not, whatever terrorist was plaguing Paris had a pretty damn high casualty count, and the only people that were stopping him were this Ladybug and Chat Noir people, who did not seem to be properly equipped (the Ladybug heroine was using a yoyo, for fuck’s sake) to deal with someone of this power. Not to mention, Bruce winced, their mentor  was “out of commission” whatever that meant, with their peers being compromised, so they probably had no outside help.

And it seems, Bruce’s features darkened into a scowl, his dear friend André Bourgeois had a lot of explaining to do. Police department has it handled, his ass. 

In the meantime, he was going to make damn sure the class under his care would have a relaxing reprieve even if he had to lock up every villain in Arkham Asylum himself. 

________________________________________________________________

Dear Diary, 

The talk with Chat was a bust. I know he thinks I don’t trust him, but I wish he knew how much I’m trying to, but it’s not as simple as he makes it out to be...right?  And of course I trust him with my life, but as the Guardian, I can’t just make impulsive decisions like going to other superheroes, especially when there’s no guarantee they would help us, or can even be trusted in the first place! And I can’t just reveal our identities to each other either. It would put Chat and the rest of the Miraculous at risk. And I really don’t want a repeat of Chat Blanc…

That future will never happen on my watch. I forbid it. 

Speaking of other superheroes, I think there might be someone though, who could help us, even a little bit. 

Marianne. 

She wasn’t a Guardian, but she was a Ladybug user for a while and was really close to Master Fu. She must know something. She’s in London so she might not be available but...

I’ll check up on her today after class! If she has any helpful advice, I’ll be sure to share it with Chat too. 

Gotta go!

Bisoux, 

Marinette

Scrambling to get ready, Marinette fumbled with her pigtails and shoulder bag simultaneously, trying to make sure that her pigtails were just right. Tikki zoomed around, helping her get ready by shoving stray pens and pencils into her pockets. When they were done, Marinette rushed downstairs, swiping one of the freshly-made quiche along the way. Just before she exited the store, she turned back to give her Maman and Papa a smooch. Hastily, she then left the bakery, the bakery’s bell ringing behind her as she sprinted to school. 

It was a mystery for most people, but despite living less than five minutes away from the school, Marinette was always late. Marinette liked to blame her Ladybug duties when Tikki asked, but she knew better. She had the habit of being late since before she knew the Miraculous existed. 

To be fair though, Marinette usually slept in because she was exhausted from schoolwork, designing,

and Ladybug duties. Was it her fault that Hawkmoth liked making 3 AM akumas? Was it her fault that coffee- for all the espresso and sugar she dumped into it, and despite all those hipster blogs saying otherwise- did nothing to help her stay awake? Of course not. If anything she was a victim here; a victim of late night akumas and faulty biology. 

Fortunately for her (and her quiche), she was actually earlier today than usual. She could see students milling around the courtyard behind the school. Some sat with their friend groups while others huddled to catch up on the homework from the night before. 

Unfortunately, one of those groups was Lila and her friends. Lila sat on one of the picnic tables, talking about whatever grand adventure she supposedly went on or whichever famous celebrity she supposedly saved from a rare type of cancer or something while her friends sat around her, captivated with every word. Marinette rolled her eyes. It was too early for this. 

She steered away from them towards the other side of the yard, where she could see Alya and Nino cuddling while finishing their homework. She glanced back at Lila, who waved at the couple before going back to whatever story she was regaling to her loving audience. It was probably because Alya and Nino hadn’t seen Lila greet them in the first place, but Marinette couldn’t help feeling a bit happy that they didn’t return her greeting. 

“Morning, guys!” She greeted as she approached their table, sitting on the other side. 

Alya looked up first. “Hey! You woke up early today,” she teased, giving her shoulder a friendly nudge.

“Heh, guess it’s my lucky day today,” she said. As she sat down, she began eating the quiche she had swiped earlier. “Well, almost, anyway.”

Alya rolled her eyes and smirked. “You live in front of the school. It’s your own damn fault at this point.” 

Nino, who had been pouring over a worksheet that was due today, finally looked up. Upon seeing Marinette, he smiled. “Hey, dude. You’re actually early!” 

At Marinette’s exasperated groan, both Alya and Nino fell into giggles, Marinette shortly following along. 

“Keep that up, and I’m not gonna let you guys eat at my place for lunch,” she teased, wagging a finger at them. 

Alya wagged her own finger, engaging in a finger sword fight. “As if your mom would ever let us starve!” 

Marinette laughed, as she wrapped her finger around Alya’s and lightly slammed it onto the table, declaring her victory. 

“Okay, okay, you got me.” Marinette went back to eating her quiche, devouring it before it got too cold. For once, she was in a pretty good mood. 

“Hey, Alya, Nino,”

And of course, she just had  to jinx it. 

Marinette didn’t even try to join in the conversation to acknowledge Lila’s presence. If Lila wanted to talk to her, she needed to stop lying about everything; and with her supposed “lying disease,” that wasn’t happening anytime soon. She only wished Adrien was here so someone could sympathize with her. 

“Oh, hey Lila,” Alya greeted, having gained her hand back and waved. “Ignore Nino here. He forgot about Mendeleiv’s worksheet due today.” 

“Oh, I see.” Lila said. “Well, you know, Nino. If you ever need help with science, one of my cousins actually won a Noble Peace Prize for his contributions in molecular chemistry.” 

Nino, to his credit, only muttered an “uh huh” before turning the worksheet over and frantically scribbling all over it. Marinette briefly wondered if Nino understood what he was writing down- or if he cared. 

Alya perked up. “Wow, that’s amazing Lila! What did your cousin do?”

Lila smiled bashfully, and looked away, waving her hand. “Oh, you know, it was the discovery of some man-made element.” Marinette had to give Lila credit- she knew how to fake her blushes really well. “I’m nowhere near as smart as my cousin, you know? All the scientific words get me so confused!” 

Marinette buried her head in her arms. Did she need to be here for this? She could just slip away? Glancing at Lila, who caught her eyes, she decided against it. Like hell she was letting Lila take away her time with her  friends. 

Alya laughed good-naturedly. “Oh, I understand completely. English is so much more of my forté, you know?” 

“Yeah I totally get what you mean.” Lila stopped laughing as her gaze landed on Marinette. Only she seemed to notice the glare she gave her.  “Oh, hi, Marinette. Glad to see you’re early today.” 

“Yeah,” she deadpanned. “Hi.” With a fake smile, she robotically waved at her. 

“Well, anyways I got to go. See you later Alya.”  Lila said, waving her fingers before finally walking away. Marinette exhaled. Thank kwami. She may have been less obnoxious today but that was probably because of Alya’s presence. 

Speaking of, the said girl turned towards her. “You could be nicer towards her.” 

“She almost got me expelled.” Marinette had had this conversation with Alya many times before. At this point, her responses came like clockwork. She contemplated telling Alya’s threat back in Lila’s first day, but she really wasn’t ready for the backlash if Alya accused her  of lying. 

“Well,” Alya stuttered. “It was because she has an illness that makes her lie uncontrollably.” 

Marinette was pretty sure there was no such illness but at this point, Lila had somehow convinced everyone it was an actual illness. That, or no one wanted to point out the obvious lie, including administration. Which would be pretty negligent of the school admin so she hoped not. 

“Alya, if it was just an illness that makes her tell lies, pray tell, who put the test answers in my bag and the necklace in my locker?” she asked. 

“Maybe, well,” Alya tried coming up with an answer but failed, thereby changing the subjects. “Look, both of you are my friends, and I don’t want to get in between the two of you.” 

Marinette sighed. “Yeah, yeah.” She picked up the discarded quiche container and her bag. “I gotta go to class and see if Mme. Bustier needs help.” 

Alya frowned. “Marinette, wait.” 

“It’s okay, really.” Marinette assured her, before walking away. When she was climbing up the steps to the entrance, she sighed heavily. She didn’t really understand Alya’s logic sometimes. If she knew about Lila’s supposed lying disease, why did she put Lila’s trash on the Ladyblog? If Alya knew Lila’s lies had led to Marinette’s initial expulsion, why still defend her? Marinette shook the thoughts away, not wanting to get into that impeding headache. Lila Rossi was never worth her time. 

When she reached the entrance, Lila was leaning against the doors, her arms crossed. Her olive green eyes were glaring right at her. 

“Dupain-Cheng.” 

“Rossi.” 

Lila strutted up to her, getting uncomfortably close to her face. “I told you what would happen if you didn’t play along.” 

Marinette stared back, unimpressed. She really had more pressing issues than this weird power play Lila wanted to play. Leaning back and stepping to the side, she said, “I already told you I’m not scared of you, Lila.” 

Marinette didn’t spare her another glance. In some ways, she pitied Lila. What kind of life did you have that you were so desperate for attention you lied about everything, and tried to get rid of anyone else who called you out? 

She really hoped Alya would soon see sense. Adrien had once told her to take the high road, and honestly? Sometimes, it felt good to not let Lila’s lies get under her skin. 

Then again, when did Lila ever go down so simply? 

[anjalena123]

What are the cheaper, better alternatives to Mailchimp?

I was looking for free or cheapest alternatives and the first one I started using was Mailchimp but it’s not the best one for me.

Then I try GetResponse and find it the best and cheaper email marketing software. I am still using it. GetResponse is one of the most popular email marketing services.

With the addition of Autofunnel (now known as Conversion Funnel), GetResponse has become a great tool for building sales funnel as well.

GetResponse is a perfect tool for both beginners and professional marketers. It has tools to become an email marketing service, build a sales funnel, become a checkout software, or you can create social media ads using it.

It’s like a complete tool for internet marketers. Even if you require tools like drip automation, retargeting, and tagging for e-commerce, GetResponse has everything. You get a 100+ email template to match your brand and niche.

I’ve been a GetResponse user for a long time. I keep testing to multiple tools, but GetResponse is the best I’ve ever used. Not just me, but people that I’ve referred GetResponse, a bunch of clients, have never had any issues with it.

GetResponse allows you to build automation workflow, create autoresponders, retarget website visitors with drip campaigns, and more. You can even set up an e-commerce store using an in-built payment processor.

All in all, it does everything an internet marketer, blogger, small business owner, or e-course seller would ask for.

Here are some of it’s best features:

·

One of the best email marketing software that is beginner-friendly and equally powerful for scaling businesses.

·Conversion Funnel allows you to build sales funnels.

Webinar software integrated with GetResponse’s marketing platform.

·A checkout page with a payment processor already integrated.

Landing page builder with 50+ templates.

Marketing automation.

Opt-in form builder and integration with popular lead generation tools.

Retargeting automation workflow.

Drip campaigns.

Custom workflow builder with the visual editor.

·150+ email templates for various niches and industries

Facebook Ads integration and builder.

Unlimited email autoresponders.

GetResponse Email Marketing

The biggest challenge for any beginner is to setup automation workflows with email autoresponders. Most of the tools have a cluttered dashboard and a block-based automation builder.

GetResponse, on the other hand, has a visual automation builder.

Using the visual editor, you can create custom automation without much trouble. It’s easy, and with the help of pre-made templates, you can create autoresponder emails quickly and save tons of time.

The visual editor is fairly simple to use. GetResponse allows you to create autoresponder emails and use them in marketing automation.

You can set autoresponder cycles. A cycle will define how many days should pass after a subscriber is added to your email list.

You can choose which days the autoresponder is active. It could be active the whole week, only on weekends, and so on.

Well written emails should also look good, and based on your industry, how your emails look and feel will make a difference in conversions.

Take the pets niche, for example. Pet owners are extremely devoted and caring. They don’t compromise on quality. Emails that look basic won’t generate high conversions in such a niche.

What would work is an email written in a professional tone and looks like a pet lover sent it. And GetResponse has templates that’ll help you convert your emails in such a beautiful and personalized format.

GetResponse has email templates specifically curated for hundreds of niches and the purpose of your email.

You can choose from email templates designed for:

Selling products.

·Promoting services.

Educate subscribers.

·Welcome leads.

·Celebration.

Custom email templates are also a possibility. You can create a new HTML template using the CSS block-based drag n drop editor and save it for future purposes and repetitive use.

Speaking about templates, GetResponse has a landing page builder too. It’s not just a basic page builder. Just like emails, you have landing page templates too.

These landing page templates are also optimized for a high conversion rate. Host your landing pages on a custom domain or on a GetResponse URL. It’s your choice.

The pages connect with your funnels and email lists instantly.

You can upload media files straight to GetResponse to add them to your emails quickly. You get 2 GB of file storage.

Most of the time, you’ll send your email according to your regional timing. But your subscribers will receive your emails at their regional timing.

This situation results in a lower open rate and an even lower clickthrough rate. GetResponse has a feature called Perfect Timing.

Perfect Timing is a feature that allows you to send emails at the time that each subscriber is more likely to open and read your email. Perfect Timing is based on data collected by GetResponse.

When you use Perfect Timing, even when you click on send, the email isn’t sent instantly. GetResponse analyzes each subscriber, then according to the generated data, emails are sent when the response rate is recorded at the highest.

Their email marketing software is robust. GetResponse looks very clean and the dashboard is well organized.

In fact, it is the best looking and put-together email marketing dashboard.

You will easily find mailing list sats, email reports, automation insights, sales numbers, and other settings right on the dashboard.

There are two versions of API offered by GetResponse V2 and V3. The API V3 gives you slightly more control and access to commands over the connection at GetResponse.

If you’re looking to survey your audience, you can create survey forms to collect leads using GetResponse.

You can create multiple email lists inside your GetResponse account. Multiple lists can be interconnected using segments inside automation workflows.

Each list allows you to tag individual subscribers. This tagging function works on two things:

·Automation

Lead generation tools/Manually

Firstly, you can tag subscribers by creating an automation workflow. I’ll show you how to in the tutorial below.

Secondly, you can use a lead generation tool like Privy or Thrive Leads to tag subscribers based on the opt-in form they signup from. Or you can also tag them manually.

Unlike other email marketing services, GetResponse allows you to send a double-optin confirmation email twice. Suppose someone subscribes to your list but forgets to confirm the double-optin.

In such a case, you can resend the confirmation email by going to your mailing list. To resend a confirmation email, go to your mailing list.

Then click on the list name and click on the “Unconfirmed” link. This will open a new page where everyone who hasn’t confirmed their subscription will appear. Click on the three dots and select “Re-send.”

You get tons of options for optimizing your email marketing campaigns. GetResponse has an active A/B testing feature. Using A/B testing, you can compare two different emails and identify which one got more open rate and clicks.

A/B testing is a good way to measure the success of email templates, colors, text font, writing style, etc. It shows you what your subscribers are really loving and what’s not working.

I actively use A/B testing to check the difference between multiple subject variations. This one practice has helped to increase the open rate of my RSS digest emails. I highly recommend you to test two subjects every time you send an email broadcast.

To automate things up a little bit, there is an option to use a blog RSS feed to automatically send emails to your subscribers. Every time you publish a blog post, your RSS feeds get’s updated as well. Utilizing your feeds, GetResponse prepares an email and automatically sends it to your subscribers.

Set how the email looks, whether it will be sent immediately when a post is published or weekly as a digest. I use it for sending a weekly digest to my subscribers.

Transactional emails are triggered by emails. Emails such as account creation details, password recovery, cart recovery, checkout assistance are all known as transactional emails. Since these emails are sent to individual subscribers, they are not considered as a typical marketing email sent to bulk email subscribers in a list.

It runs a spam check every time you write an email. If it doesn’t pass the spam score check, you’ll have to edit the email content.

You can send a test message to check how your email will look when it’s sent to your subscribers.

GetResponse also shows you the global preview where you can see your emails getting accessed live by different devices. This will help you to identify any HTML or CSS issues within your template before they get sent.

All in all, GetResponse has tons of features. It might sound overwhelming, but the platform is very well optimized for ease of access, and it makes managing your email marketing campaigns swift.

GetResponse also has a mobile application to help you manage your email marketing and sales funnels on the go. The app is supported on both Android and iOS.

The GetResponse smartphone app lets you:

·Send emails and track statistics.

Keep in touch with new contacts.

Manage your mailing list

Get marketing insights

You can also create social media ads using their Social Ads creator. You’ll get the app download link once you register for a GetResponse account.

GetResponse Conversion Funnel

Conversion Funnel basically helps you to create a sales funnel, with no prior knowledge required. Unlike other sales funnel software, GetResponse Conversion Funnel is built for beginners and small businesses.

It consisted of beginner-friendly sales funnel templates and a shop listing platform. The sales funnel templates are what make Conversion Funnel so much interesting and popular.

Using the sales funnel template, you can build a complete lead-to-sale funnel optimized for high conversion in a few clicks.

You can choose from a bunch of templates depending on your need and industry.

There are three categories of sales funnel inside the GetResponse conversion funnel:

That means you won’t have to bother building a sales funnel from scratch if you are going to sell a product, promote a webinar, or looking to build your email list.

Beginners will highly appreciate the pre-built sales funnels offered by Conversion Funnel. It eliminates the guesswork, which is why most beginners fail at creating a highly successful sales funnel.

Using the pre-built funnels, you’ll slightly ensure the success of your sales funnel. Because these templates are built by successful email marketers and CROs. If your product/service and customer onboarding system is solid, these sales funnels will not fail.

All GetResponse Conversion Funnel templates are optimized for higher customer retention and high sales. You just have to fill in the blank and edit the sales funnel templates with your product information, services, and other stuff. It’s that easy.

GetResponse has over 30 conversion-optimized scenarios created by professional marketers.

That’s just not it. Conversion Funnel is a combination of additional features such as:

Social Ads creator

Lead generation form builder including exit-intent popup forms

·Product manager and listing – both physical and digital (you can use the product listed directly in your emails)

·Sales page optimized for a higher click-through rate.

Perfectly timed emails to recover cart abandonment (automatic setup)

For example, if you choose to build a sales funnel to sell products, the default settings will:

·Automatically retarget your email subscribers and online store visitors.

·Send autoresponders to create specifically for selling products.

·Automatically send confirmation emails (you don’t have to pay for transactional email)

Process credit card, stripe, and PayPal payments

·Automatically display and send upsell offers.

Automatically recommend new products based on past transactions.

If your goal is to generate more leads, use the lead magnet funnel. Prepare a checklist, an eBook, or a free PDF report and offer it on your website as an incentive in exchange for an email.

Using GetResponse lead magnet funnel, you can deliver the lead agent and nurture the subscriber.

GetResponse Support

When it comes to supporting, GetResponse is not the best.

Their platform is good, so I haven’t’ had any frequent issues. But I’m an online marketer, so I can tackle most of the issues on the front-end myself.

However, not everyone using GetResponse will be a professional.

GetResponse says they are the world’s easiest email marketing platform, and yes, they are. Most of the issues are solved quickly.

There is live chat support, 24×7 accessible. You can send an email for ticket support in over 8 languages.

Resolutions come pretty fast for normal, day to day issues. You won’t have any delays in getting an answer as well as done-for-you support.

But GetResponse support is quite weak at resolving complex issues. Their support staff is knowledgeable just enough to answer and solve front-end software issues and errors.

GetRespone Integrations

One of the many reasons people are afraid to migrate to a new email marketing service is integrating their current software with the new platform.

Many times, the only reason you might not shift to a more powerful tool could be as simple as this:

You are afraid to lose control and disrupt the sync among the software you’re using. You don’t want the hassle of adding a new tool and changing the way you operate.

Well, that’s not an issue with GetResponse. It integrates with 120+ software, cloud-apps, and web services. It also connects with Zapier to further integrate with over 1300+ apps.

It integrates with all popular and not-so-popular landing page builders, funnels and pipeline software, CRM, and chatbot software, just to name a few.

You can also connect it with a custom app using the newer version of the GetResponse API key.

GetResponse Pricing & Plans Basic $15 plus $49 professional $99

GetResponse Pros

Things that I liked about GetResponse are:

Intuitive dashboard, quick navigation across all marketing software and apps.

Powerful email marketing templates for various niches. This makes it easy to generate more conversion, even if you are a novice.

Marketing automation to personalize and automate your email communication based on your audience habits and preferences.

Straight forward sales funnel builder. Sales funnel templates are possibly the biggest advantage over its competitors.

Ecommerce store platform built-in. You can list physical and digital products right inside GetResponse and sell using the integrated funnel and email marketing automation.

Allows affiliate marketers to send raw affiliate links.

The landing page builder is quite powerful and has the qualities of a full-fledged page builder.

Integrates with PayPal and other payment processors. You get a built-in high performing checkout page as standard.

Social Ads creator to publish Facebook and Instagram Ads. It’s much easier to use GetResponse Ads creator than Facebook.

GetResponse Cons

Here are the things I didn’t like about it:

The support is decent, but if you need solutions to complex marketing requirements, you’d better be buying the enterprise or Professional plan.

Deleted emails are still counted towards the invoice for the month.

The form builder is quite basic

GetResponse Review: The Conclusion

Overall, GetResponse is a complete marketing solution, but at the core, it is one of the best email marketing services.

It is a beginner-friendly, has tons of powerful features, and allows you to create complex marketing automation workflow with ease.

With its Autofunnel Conversion Funnel software, building sales funnels and lead pipelines are easy as it gets.

If you’re a beginner or small business, GetResponse seems to be the perfect tool for you.

But, if you’re looking for something to scale your e-commerce store or a tool that allows you to customize content for your customers, you might want to consider Drip or Keap.

Start a 30 days free trial.

[kimyoonmiauthor]

Myka and James Stauffer rehoming a disabled child--What more can you do?

I wrote this once, but then it wouldn’t post. So this is a second time, excuse it if it’s not as eloquent as it should be. I’m an international adoptee, so we’re more affected by this case than most because according to Reuters 2013 more of us are “rehomed” than others. Because of this, I’ve also been following the case since 2010. So all of the people “shocked” by this terminology needs to listen to adoptees. Over the last 10 years or so, I’ve been collecting resources and things YOU as non-adoptees can do to help. This has included listening to Birth Parents, Adoptees, Adoptive Parents, Former Foster Youth, and basically using my Anthropology training to collect a list. I have to remind you that going after the Stauffers alone isn’t enough. We have to go after the systems that enabled them to do this in the first place so this does not happen to another child. I get it. Vigilante justice feels good. It’s short, sweet and you get results and to see the face of the individual. A system doesn’t have a face you can gloat over. But if you really do care, you’d go after prevention and long term change, otherwise your outrage--and I’m including all of those youtubers I had to sort through (which was painful at best, but so goes advocacy), is empty. You only care about your own self-satisfaction rather than the long term cause or the people involved themselves. (My anti-Cancel Crew objections are along this line of thought.) Since I’ve been asked what this looks like and re-pasting it over and over is a pain, I decided to centralize the post with the levels of justification for the action. I get this post is longish, but take the part you need to make that change you want to advocate for.

If you want to take parts of this post, you can take the links without credit, but not the specific words. And don’t take credit for work you didn’t do.

What is Rehoming?

The often legal, but immoral act of placing a child without oversight of the state or government by placing them on the internet or doing backyard deals. We adoptees have been battling facebook pages for years to shut it down. I am not naming them, because I don’t want to encourage the behavior.

This is separate from dissolution of adoption. This is done with home study and legal oversight.

Why is this a Problem?

Adoptive parents go through a long, long process call home study this can take anywhere from a few months to a year. This has evolved over the years. Since this specific case involves international adoption, I’ll do a run down of the evolution of how home study has evolved in the International adoption community. I know it’s dry and boring, but it’s important to understand why the Stauffer case is egregious and why I am holding Holt responsible.

Home study used to be, “Are you Christian?” as done by the Holts. To be clear, social workers and his translator at the time objected to this. His reasoning? He thought all Christians are good people. (Though if you check the qualifiers for genocide by the UN, this is loosely on the list.) Adoptees were lucky to even get half a page.

This resulted in children being put into sex trafficking rings and child slavery. Social workers and Adoptees legislated against the Holts and the restrictions went up. (The whole list of immoral, yet not illegal crimes the organization has done as a whole, is a whole other story. I know it backwards and forwards as an adoptee with dates and countries since I’ve been in the adoptee community since roughly 1999.) This took 20 years from the first children in 1940′s and 1950′s. The home study in the 1970′s was still thin, but the amount of abuse cases went down. By the 1980′s, there was pressure to actually care about the children, so ESWS (one of the Korean agencies) and the other agencies in Korea started pushing for more extensive home studies (at the behest of Adoptees). The packet and requirements were thin. This included things like checking the financials of the family in question. Giving the parents language lessons, and then a packet usually about an inch thick. They would also get family statements and recommendations. A social worker would come and check the safety of the home. By about the 1990′s the packet has increased, and psychological evaluations started to be put into place. There were lists of books added to the list. (I asked Adoptive Parents to help me with this.) These were “suggestions” but no one tested if the prospective parents read them. So the packets given were about 6 inches deep, with the books about a foot. The in-class studies, several honest Adoptive Parents called “laughable” there was no race training at all and most of it was hanging out.

By the early 2000′s, they started to finally let parents of color adopt in larger numbers. (I know) The rehoming had gotten far more decent. The psych evaluations got deeper. They started to exclude criminal activity, do background checks on the parents, and do deeper psych evaluations, requiring deeper studies. But the Adoptive Parents I talked to said they were not getting the support they needed. The agencies weren’t listening on what they needed to parent their child. This is about the time I started collecting a wishlist and sending it to agencies. As far as I’m connected, nothing has really changed since then. The problem with rehoming is that it sets us back to 1950′s rules. All of this progress that Adoptees, Social workers, and well-meaning Adoptive Parents have fought hard for is done in an instant. There is no home study and the former parents get away with it because Adoptees and Foster Kids are not protected by the same laws that children from birth are.

What does this have to do with the Stauffers?

The Stauffers, a few years ago, decided to adopt a kid from China. They are social influencers. So they asked to fund their child’s adoption. They opted to have a child with special needs and by reports “checked 99% of them.” They paid zero for the adoption, and then used him to boost one of their channels and Instagram follower’s accounts. Their channel boosted by a ton of money, such that they could move into a mansion, their “dream home”, go on several large family vacations, made off of publicizing his story for their own “disability savior” points. Some of the videos, however, were problematic.

He was later said to have autism, and was in speech therapy, by Myka who wanted to “save” money on him by bringing him to a cheaper therapist. Despite this, the channel grew.

Then suddenly the boy disappeared from the channel. After months of pressuring her, they released a video saying they had “rehomed” him. The internet was enraged by this and went after her and James Stauffer. They tried to push Myka to receive all the blame to protect James Stauffer’s channel. All of the videos of this little boy were still up and monetized. They came up with a petition to force all of the videos down. The monetized videos came down and a new petition started: https://www.change.org/p/youtube-shut-down-myka-stauffer-s-youtube-account?signed=true

I also started a letter writing campaign to the governor to make sure it was getting investigated. Everyone else posting about it was trying to go after Myka Stauffer, but I wanted legal change. With me and my network, we worked three days straight to finally get an answer and make sure that the boy they had adopted and “rehomed” was safe.

Is Rehoming New?

Internet Amnesia is real. No. It’s been happening to public knowledge since 2010.

There was the NYC case which got turned into a Law and Order Special Victims Unit episode: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/svu-shines-a-light-on-the_b_4735153

There was the Justin Harris case.

There was the Hart case. (They rehomed once and were able to adopt two more times.)

And if you didn’t think it was covered before then there is also:

https://www.today.com/parents/it-takes-more-love-what-happens-when-adoption-fails-918076

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/11/children-who-have-second-adoptions/575902/

https://mljadoptions.com/blog/adoption-rehoming-disruption-dissolution-20140520

I’ve been riding my own state to institute laws against rehoming, and they finally did it, after the Governor vetoed it once, and I chased him about it. You could be a person that does this too.

So What Can I Do to be a Part of the Change? Here is a PDF of the current anti-rehoming laws. Press for the ones in your state to be cleaned up/invented. https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/custody_transfers.pdf Here's contacts for the city where they live if you want to make sure they get justice for him. http://www.delawareohio.net/agendas-motions-summaries-meeting-recordings/meet-city-council-2/ You can contact Governor Mike DeWine and ask him to do something similar to this law https://www.writing.ucsb.edu/sites/secure.lsit.ucsb.edu.writ.d7/files/sitefiles/publications/2010_Sho.pdf which would give Huxley 90% of the earnings in a trust fund and protect the other Stauffer kids: https://governor.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/governor/contact The petition to take down their videos is here (They shifted their channels, but still have Huxley's content up.): https://www.change.org/p/youtube-demand-the-stauffers-remove-all-monetized-content-ft-huxley-from-their-youtube-channel?recruiter=1095019618

There is a more strict petition here: https://www.change.org/p/youtube-shut-down-myka-stauffer-s-youtube-account?signed=true There is a federal law that's been in the works since about 2015, when the Justin Harris case broke. Langevin has been trying to get it passed. It has bipartisan support.  https://langevin.house.gov/press-release/bipartisan-bill-will-protect-adopted-children-rehoming He is the one that said that cats and dogs have more protections than adoptees or foster care youth have. 

https://willbrownsberger.com/rehoming-of-adopted-children/

Send them love and support for working on this for so long. I think if people really, really did care, they'd call their Senators and make sure they are supporting this bill (It has bipartisan support): https://www.senate.gov/senators/How_to_correspond_senators.htm

Why and How to Hold Holt Responsible

Holt wasn’t responsible for the placement of this young boy. However, he is still their charge. When they absorbed the other agency, they should have checked on their charges and made sure they were doing well. But they didn’t.

This seems like a mild crime in most people’s eyes, but case after case, their failure to give Adoptive Parents support and check on them has resulted in a huge list of them saying, “This is unfortunate.”, but then not changing their contracts and trying to clean up the system they perpetuate. Since they are the largest of the International Adoption agencies, they also could set an example, by say, not enabling people to adopt on repeat from them if they’ve rehomed a child. (Shouldn’t their records show that?) and creating a network of adoption agencies to prevent abuse and rehoming so the Hart case doesn’t repeat.

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/nyregion/chinas-adoption-scandal-sends-chills-through-families-in-united-states.html https://books.google.com/books?id=ABEoAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA224&lpg=PA224&dq=Holt+International+abuse&source=bl&ots=3tvNla8X2x&sig=ACfU3U00GO4BzWMLUnU9dnI_EYqy1VwilA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi546nirOvpAhV3HzQIHWTwCow4ChDoATAFegQIDBAB#v=onepage&q=Holt%20International%20abuse&f=false And this is the complete list: http://poundpuplegacy.org/node/6194

Their contact:

https://www.holtinternational.org/contactus.php

But what do I ask for?

I compiled this list with the help of Adoptive Parents who have dealt with Holt before.

- Psych evaluations to take out the Narcissistic people (though stop selling it as a Savior Project would also help.) - Check their parenting styles--some styles do and some styles don't work for adoptees because of the initial trauma. - Minimum Foster Care training.

Many adopters go the rehoming route because they believe the Foster Care system is broken and listen to the news. It is, but they should work with Social Workers because Backyard deals are less than that. Obama (no matter how you feel about him) suggested Foster Care training for all Adoptive Parents which is more rigorous than home study for most states (though this also needs revision). - Make them learn the language of the adoptee they are adopting for at least one year (where it applies and they would have to pass with a C or better.) This is mostly so they learn the cultural standards of the country and it helps cement ideas about socialization as well that is hard to describe otherwise. - Holt specifically forbids Adoptive Parents from contacting Foster Parents after placement--reverse that.  Adoptive Parents had to work around them and those that did had better outcomes for their child. Often the Foster Parents were eager to help. - Adoption agencies would be required with any international adoption to give a run down from the foster parents of some basics of socialization (for the country), and maybe some basic training. This would be interactive. (as supposed to the next item)

- Give a basic rundown sheet of things to help the child transition from standard socialization practices. How to comfort the child? What specific foods was the child eating? Is there a brand of detergent that was used in their original home? Where does the child sleep? What are their sleeping hours? What type of clothes do they wear? Things people take for granted and think are universal. Anthropologists and Foster Parents could help with this. - For parents taking on disabilities, they should be required prior to encounter the disability and meet more seasoned parents currently dealing with the disability in question--especially adoptive parents. So they can ask questions, network and really, really see if they can handle it. Don't take their word for it. - Adoptees, PoC, etc and any other diversity labels involved with the child should be required to be in close contact with them. i.e. not the internet. Basic race, etc training should apply and they have to pass a test.

-Check on the Adoptee after placement.

After Adoption care. Several APs said they would have really liked this, but then they were left in the dark. In fact their agencies gave them zero support. And the baby would cry and cry and they were totally lost on what to do. They were lost on which experts to ask, and who they could contact. This is unacceptable. Dogs and cats get more checks and aftercare than human children.

On the consequences end,

Child trafficking and Abandonment--Holt should press for those laws. APs that care are for this. They said, why aren’t there these laws?

Also any adopters that rehome would be banned from adopting again, and they would be added to a general blacklist and spread that information to other agencies.

Through this dissolution of adoption should be the key.

If they break the contract, you can sue.

Lastly, don’t believe you are alone. Your anger can make change. At least let your anger last long enough to make this change to the laws so we adoptees don’t have to hear next year how people are shocked yet again by another rehoming case. Be the change the world needs. You aren’t helpless.

[lindsaydoeslanguages]

All The Indigenous and Endangered Language Learning Apps You Need

2019 is the International Year of Indigenous Languages as designated by UNESCO. If you’ve not yet had a chance to learn a little of an indigenous language this year, I’m making it as easy as possible and bringing you a long list of minority, indigenous and endangered language learning apps.

Before we get to the list of apps, I’ve made you a video to explain the differences between minority/minoritised, indigenous, and endangered languages.

Free Ultimate List of Language Learning Resources

I’ve added a tab with the links to these apps to my huge and ever-growing free Google Sheets file the Ultimate List of Language Learning Resources. Woohoo!

Click the image below to get free access now.

Heads up: apps and tech is ever-changing. So if there’s something that no longer works on this list or you’ve got a suggestion for a new one that does, let me know!

Ok, ready? Let’s get into this. I’m going to order things by regions as best as possible. For each region, I’ll also be starting by listing some “bigger” apps you may already know that have courses/support for indigenous or endangered languages.

North America

Below you’ve got a list of apps and developers that are designed to help people learn indigenous languages from North America. I’m including Canada, USA, and Greenland in that, but not Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America. Languages from these places are included in the section below – Latin America.

Related: Language Stories – Episode 1: New York + The 7 Line

Memrise

Memrise has a selection of courses for indigenous Native North American languages, including…

Cherokee Algonquian Alutiiq Choctaw Citizen Potawatomi Greenlandic Inuktitut Lakota Other Native American Languages

Drops

Drops has a growing range of languages, including…

Hawaiian

Duolingo

Duolingo has you covered for two North American languages:

Navajo Hawaiian

Master Any Language

Master Any Language is a website and app (Apple and Android) I discovered during my research for this article. And, wow, there’s a huge range of languages on it! Expect to see it listed under more regions below too.

Cree Greenlandic Inuktitut Inupiaq Navajo Ojibwe (and more I may have missed!)

File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council Education Department

This developer has apps for a number of languages: Cree, Dakota, Lakota, Nakota, Saulteaux.

Prince Albert Grand Council

Prince Albert Grand Council has a couple of apps available for Swampy Cree and Dakota.

Binasii Inc

There’s a good number of apps from this developer for a range of languages: Dakota, Opaskwayak Cree, Saysi Dene, Long Plain Ojibway and more.

The Language Conservancy

The Language Conservancy has a large selection of apps for indigenous North American languages: Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Cheyenne, Yanktonai, Keres, Nakoda, Crow, Omaha, Maskoke.

Miromaa Aboriginal Language and Technology Centre

There’s a small selection of apps from this developer for Pomoan languages, a language family from northern California: Northern Pomo, Central Pomo, Southern Pomo, bahtssal.

Ogoki Learning Systems Inc

Quite a few apps and languages here: Ojibway, Saulteaux, Blackfeet, Cree, Meskwaki, Northern Tutchone and more.

Thornton Media Inc

There’s Apple and Android apps for these languages from this developer: Cree, Mohawk, Tsuut’ina, Chickasaw, Yugtun, Omaha and more.

First Peoples’ Heritage Language and Culture Council

I love how much I’ve learnt from writing this post. Before, I had no idea about any of the languages that this developer has apps for: Xeni Gwet’in, Secwépemc, Hlgaagilda Xaayda Kil, and more.

Yamózha Kúé Society

Still in awe at how many apps there are out there for indigenous and endangered languages? There’s still more to come!

Yamózha Kúé Society has apps for these languages: Inuinnaqtun, Gwich’in, Shutaot’ine, South Slavey, Tlicho, NWT Cree, Denededline.

Christopher Horsethief

Christopher Horsethief has various apps out there for the following languages: Cree, Navajo, Muckleshoot, Osage, Ktunaxa, Salish.

Aidan Pine

Aidan Pine is the developer behind Mother Tongues, a company that’s (in their own words) “Committed to creating thoughtful language revitalization tools for people”, which is pretty exciting.

So far, there’s three apps available for Apple and Android: Inuttitut, Ayajuthem, Gitksan.

Gabriel Dumont Institute

Now we’re reaching the developers specialising with one language. The first is the Gabriel Dumont Institute with an app for Michif.

Pinnguaq

Pinnguaq have an app just for Inuktitut.

Smith River Rancheria Waa-tr’vslh-‘a~ Department

One app here for Tolowa Dee-ni’.

Samson Cree Nation

An app from this developer for Maskwacis Cree.

Dakota Iapi

There’s an Apple and Android version of this app for Dakota Iapi.

Lakota Language Consortium for Lakota

There’s a really helpful selection of apps for Lakota (media player, vocab, dictionary, and keyboard) from the Lakota Language Consortium.

Old Sun Community College for Blackfoot

There’s an app for Blackfoot from Old Sun Community College.

Neechee for Ojibwe

This app is a great verb help if you’re learning Ojibwe.

Wikwemikong Heritage Organization for Anishinaabemowin

There’s an Apple and Android version of this app to help you learn Anishinaabemowin.

Latin America

There’s some support here from bigger apps but also some great options you may not have heard of too!

Related: Language Stories: Guaraní in the Heart of South America – Episode 12

Memrise

Memrise has courses for Yucatec Maya, Guarani, Nahuatl, Quechua, and Ayamara (in Spanish).

Nahuatl (some more options designed for Spanish (Mexico) and Spanish (Spain) speakers.) Yucatec Maya (plus a couple for Spanish (Spain) and Spanish (Mexico) speakers.) K’iche’ Quechua (more listed under Spanish (Mexico) Spanish (Spain) speakers.) Aymara: there’s a small number of courses listed under Spanish (Spain) and Spanish (Mexico) but none in English. Guarani (and some more courses for Spanish (Spain) and Spanish (Mexico) speakers.)

Duolingo

If you switch your language on Duolingo to Spanish, you’ll be able to access the Guarani course. Note however, that this course is actually Jopara, the mix of Guarani and Spanish spoken by many people in Paraguay.

Master Any Language

Master Any Language has simple courses for Guarani, Quechua, and Aymara on Apple and Android on their main app.

Centro Cultural de España en México

There’s Apple and Android versions for these apps from the Centro Cultural de España en México for Náhuatl, Mixteco, and Purépecha.

John Garcia

John Garcia has created two apps for Mexican languages Mixteco and Nahuatl.

IIAP

There’s a couple now that are only on the Google Play Store (as far as I could find). This huge selection of apps from IIAP includes apps for Ashaninka, Taushiro, Bora, Quechua and more.

SimiDic

Another one that’s only on the Google Play Store. This is a dictionary app that translates between three South American languages: Aymara, Guarani, Quechua.

Runashimi

This app available for both Apple and Android is to help you with Quechua.

Guaranglish

I have to include this one! We actually spoke with the developers of the app Guaranglish for our podcast and video series Language Stories.

Niuki for Wixárika

Wixárika is a language spoken in parts of Mexico by nearly 45,000 people. This app focuses on that one language.

Australasia

In this section, we’ll cover apps for indigenous and endangered languages from Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific Islands.

uTalk

Maori is available on uTalk, as well as Samoan and Fijian.

Drops

Maori and Samoan are also both available on Drops.

Master Any Language

Maori, Samoan, Fijian, Tongan, Tahitian, Nauruan, Marshallese, and possibly more I’ve missed are all included on Master Any Language, which has apps for both Apple and Android. (Some languages don’t have their own app, and are available on the main ‘Master Any Language’ app.)

Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages

The Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages has developed a great range of apps for a selection of indigenous Australian languages including Tyalingi, Wadawurrung, Wemba Wemba, Taungurung and more.

Wiradjuri Condobolin Corporation Limited

Again, another chance to keep learning about languages I knew nothing about whilst I was wriitng this article!

Wiradjuri Condobolin Corporation Limited has both Apple and Android apps for Wonnarua, Yitha Yitha, Yorta Yorta, Mutti Mutti, Wiradjuri, Barngarla, and Nari Nari.

Benedict Foley

There’s a good selection of apps here for a variety of indigenous Australian languages including Pertame, Kune, Kayardilt, Gamilaraay, Yuwaalaraay, and many more. There’s even an app to help identify birds using a range of languages that are no longer spoken but have aboriginal bird names and knowledge to be shared.

NTLanguages

There’s Apple and Android versions of this collection of apps from NTLanguages for Anindilyakwa, Eastside Kriol, Ritharrngu, Tiwi, Wubuy

Pollen

Pollen have developed a few apps for the Yorta Yorta, Gamilaraay, and Yuwaalaraay languages.

Mawng

Available on both Apple and Android, this app is the work of linguists and community members on South Goulburn Island around 300km east of Darwin.

Yawuru Ngan-ga

This app has a dictionary and vocab lists for Yawuru Ngan-ga, a language spoken in Broome, Western Australia.

Tipu Te Reo Māori

Available on both Apple and Android, Tipu Te Reo Māori is an app to help you learn Maori.

Peter Akuhata

Another one for Māori!

Te Pūmanawa

More for Maori, this time available on Apple and Android.

AUT University

One more option here for Maori learners available on both Apple and Android.

TATAU

The final one of this little run of Maori options! TATAU is a little different though as it’s focused solely on counting.

SPIKIT

Designed to teach a selection of African languages, there’s also an option here for the Australian language of Yolunu. It’s available on Apple and Android.

Charles Darwin University

The LAAL Reader from Charles Darwin University is a really cool one. With stories in over 25 languages from the Northern Territories in Australia, it’s a good way to begin to learn more about aboriginal cultures and languages.

It’s available on both Apple and Android.

Government of Western Australia

Sharing the Dreaming is an app developed by the Government of Western Australia that shares Dreamtime stories, and words and translations in the Nyoongar language.

Indigenous Remote Communications Association

The Indigenous Remote Communications Associations have developed a few apps, mainly radio stations for indigenous languages in Australia. However, there’s also indigiTUBE, which, in their own words, is “the national online media platform by and for First Nations people, preserving language and culture for our future generations.”

Asia

According to Ethnologue, Asia actually has the most indigenous languages spoken and used there, closely followed by Africa.

In this section, I’m including the Middle East here as it’s not a region I know as much about. (If you do and can help me expand it into its own section, please do let me know!)

Also, seeing as it would be a whole host of other blog articles in itself to list all the apps out there for Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, Korean…etc, I’m focusing here on endangered languages in Asia. Even then, I’m having to be a little more specific and focus on endangered languages I already know of.

You know, to try and actually be able to publish this article at some point in my lifetime!

Related: Language Stories: Kristang – A Tale of Two Cities

Memrise

Memrise has a great range of courses listed for us here. These include…

Kristang (a creole language so not really classed as indigenous, but endangered, which is what we’re focused on for this section) Ainu Jeju Western Armenian

uTalk

uTalk has a great number of indigenous Asian languages available, many are spoken by big numbers of people so not endangered, but I do want to give a mention here to uTalk for the sheer number of languages they’ve covered.

Master Any Language

Komi, a language spoken in Russia is available on Master Any Language. It’s on the main app on Apple or Android.

Africa

Again, so many indigenous languages in Africa that it’s tricky to know where to begin! And seeing as many people have never learnt an African language (myself included), I’m doing things a little differently here.

So instead, I’m focusing mainly on the key apps I’ve found that have courses in a wide range of indigenous African languages. Many have millions of speakers and yet you may never have heard of some of them! (I definitely learnt something new from putting this section together too!)

uTalk

Just like in regards to Asia, uTalk has a really exciting number of indigenous African languages available. Not all are endangered, but many are of course indigenous.

Memrise

Just from the Memrise groupings on the sidebar, there’s a lot to learn here…

Akan-Twi, Amharic, Hausa, Kaonde, Kinyarwanda, Luganda, Malagasy, Mandinka, Nyanja/Chichewa, Somali, Soninke, Swahili, Wolof, Zulu, and more.

SPIKIT

I mentioned SPIKIT above in the Australasia section because they have a simple course for a language spoken in Australia.

However, the moin focus of this app is Shona, Xhosa, Zulu, and Ndebele. And the good news is it’s on Apple and Android.

Master Any Language

So. many. options.

Master Any Language has really been one of the gems I’ve discovered writing this article. The interface is retro but that doesn’t matter when you’re short on resources. Their app is on both Apple and Android.

Europe

Again, obviously there’s English, French, Spanish, and many other widely spoken and studied languages spoken technically indigenously in Europe. However, to keep things simple, we’re going to focus on smaller indigenous European languages that may or may not be endangered.

uTalk

uTalk has a huge range of European languages including Welsh, Sicilian, Scottish Gaelic, Scots, Sardinian, Southern Saami, Neopolitan, Manx, Irish, Galician, Catalan, and Basque.

Memrise

Similarly to uTalk, Memrise has a large range of options here, including…

Basque Breton Catalan Cornish Corsican Faroese Galician Ladino Manx Neapolitan Occitan Romani Sami languages Scots Scottish Gaelic Sicilian Yiddish

Duolingo

Duolingo exists for Welsh and Catalan. Yay!

Master Any Language

There’s a whole range of European languages on Master Any Language including Cornish, Breton, Corsican, and more.

Remember that you can get this app on both Apple and Android.

SaySomethingIn…

A great series available in a range of indigenous British languages as well as a few others: Welsh and Manx available on apps, and more on their website.

Free Ultimate List of Language Learning Resources

And that’s the list! Yay!

Missed it at the start of the post? I’ve added a tab with the links to these apps to my huge and ever-growing free Google Sheets file the Ultimate List of Language Learning Resources. Woohoo!

Click the image below to get free access now.

Have you got an app that needs adding to this list? Let me know by sharing it in the comments below!

The post All The Indigenous and Endangered Language Learning Apps You Need appeared first on Lindsay Does Languages.

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[streamworthytv]

Pictured: My Venmo address (@StreamworthyTV, for any donations to keep the channel going), as well as some pics of me, both after and before before I got ill with physical disabilities (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, MCAS, POTS/dysautonomia) & psych issues (like depression, anxiety, & agoraphobia, after I was pushed from my job...shortly after I first showed up in my chair - despite having the highest performance rating possible).

WHAT IS @StreamworthyTV ALL ABOUT?

#StreamworthyTV is meant to be a free, quick resource, for all major streaming platforms. We cover #Netflix, #Hulu, #PrimeVideo, #DisneyPlus, & even #AppleTV. (Other platforms, like #Starz, & #HBO, may also be added, based on demand!)

WHAT DO I OFFER?

I see myself as a sort of #TVGuide for the most popular, relevant streaming platforms. I’ll let you know about #arrivals & #departures to each platform, while also providing other news/info, such as #renewals, #cancellations, & #recommendations. If I haven’t seen a show or movie, I do my best due diligence, researching IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, & box office numbers, to help factor in recommendations.

All news & updates are COLOR-CODED for your convenience, to help you quickly find what’s related to each platform. These colors were set as those most associated with the platform...so Netflix updates are outlined in red, Hulu in light green, PrimeVideo in blue, Disney+ in gold/yellow (since blue was already taken!), & AppleTV is in white or black, based on the image.

Info is also set up to be read quickly. Info on new shows is set up as follows:

PLATFORM:

GENRE(S):

QUICK INFO:

THE DEETS:

(Any links are at the bottom of a post.)

Starting off with the platform means that you don’t read all about a show you don’t have access to, & keeping the genre at the top also helps you find programming you’ll be interested in. The separation of “Quick Info” vs “The Deets” lets YOU decide just how much you want to read about a program, and if you want more detailed information, or not. And any links are conveniently found at the bottom of a post, just above any hashtags.

I will also be offering specially curated, cross-platform lists, such as the upcoming “Actor of the Week.” This will let you know where to find all of a popular actor or actress’ work, ACROSS platforms. For example, if you want to go on a #TomHanks binge, we’ll let you know where to find each of his movies that are available, across the major platforms. Then you can watch them all, or only watch what’s on the platform that you have...so every Hanks fan wins! (Hit up my comments or DMs to make any actor suggestions!!)

I will also have other curated lists (you’ll have to wait on those...#TopSecret!!). Plus, I’ll soon have some of these lists up on #YouTube, along with some reaction videos, some review videos on #hiddengems and #oddities that I’ve found, & some comedy clips on movies/shows I’ve found that were flat out #CRINGE AF!!

😱There will also be...FREE GIVEAWAYS!!😱

WHO IS BEHIND StreamworthyTV??

My name is Kelly, & I became disabled, physically and psychologically, over the past few years...the pic on the left is of me now, while the pic on the right was just a few short years ago, when I was capable of working and commuting long hours, and doing 10ks, & even a half-marathon! I’m a hard worker, but my conditions - #EhlersDanlosSyndrome, #MastCellActivationSyndrome, #POTSsyndrome/#dysautonomia, now require me to use a #powerchair.

Once I showed up to my last job in my chair, despite having a pristine record, and the highest rating possible - I was soon pushed out, via refusal to grant me #accessibility (after previously enduring #bullying & #discrimination for years, once it was known that I had health issues).

Because of the #trauma that I faced in how I was treated by my job, I was soon caught in a deep #depression, facing #anxiety, panic attacks, & #agoraphobia. These issues worsened my physical conditions, causing many flareups. My job found a way to make me lose 6/8 months of free insurance coverage I was to get from my union, after I tried to file a lawsuit. My health, not surprisingly, further spiraled out of control. I was too ill too work, and was in fact #bedbound for over 2 full years.

In working towards “making a comeback at life” I wanted to find - or CREATE - a job that fit within the parameters of what I could still do...watch TV, research things online, be a wiz at organization, make great art, & write well (all channel art & write-ups, unless stated otherwise, are my own!). Also, I have a hell of a sense of humor, that I can’t WAIT to share on #YouTube!! I have materials ready to set up, & several treatments (scripts) nearly or partially finished.

Plus, I love to help people, and to make things easier for them. I’m a proud #Aspie, & I know that this channel will be the most efficient way of finding all you need, about ALL THINGS STREAMING!! I just need a bit more time to finish setting up some templates and get into a groove, and after that, I’ll always have you on the cutting edge!

I’m eventually hoping that this is a success, that I can maybe even get a Patreon for!! But until then, you can decide if you’d like to help me continue to release content - which will ALWAYS be free - on my new Venmo account, @StreamworthyTV. This channel is a lot more work than some may realize, and all money donated will go towards things like my #healthinsurance, my #medications, durable medical equipment (like the upkeep of my powerchair), & towards funding professional training lessons for my #servicedogintraining, @TheWorkingWigglebutt.

Mikka has been owner-trained for the most part, to this point...& has an amazing sense of smell, with many natural alerting/medical response instincts. However, my agoraphobia & other health issues, as well as costs of training being too high, contributed to her not getting enough socialization. She already does several tasks for me at home, but could really use the training to learn more, & also to learn how to behave as a proper SD in public, so that she doesn’t need to remain as only an “at home” service dog. (I may post a video of her doing a fantastic medical response revival for me, when I’d only had her 4 months - in the future.) Mikka definitely has service dog potential, & at not quite 16 months, she still has time to make the changes that I need from her, in order for her to help me in public (and perhaps to make me feel safe enough to break me of my agoraphobia!)

In any case, thanks so much to anyone that has taken the time to read!! I look forward to helping you find what to watch, whether you can contribute financially, or just with like, follows, comments, & shares!! (And don’t worry, I won’t repeatedly bother you for 💰!) As always, happy streaming!!

Find me at @StreamworthyTV on:

-IG

-Twitter

-Tumblr (streamworthytv.tumblr.com), where I link to some of my extended info/reviews

-Facebook (fb.me/StreamworthyTV)

-Snapchat (I’m new to it, but should be fun!)

And, of course, on #Venmo, @StreamworthyTV, as pictured above.

YouTube is coming as soon as I finish filming some clips!!!

#StreamworthyTV #streamworthy #whattowatch #disabledblogger

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT NEWS, RESOURCES & STUDIES, July 19 2020

Welcome to my latest summary of recent ecommerce news, resources & studies including search, analytics, content marketing, social media & Etsy! This covers articles, podcasts, videos and infographics I came across since the late June report, although some may be older than that.

I‘m still working on Etsy search testing and a few new blog posts and pages for my website, so it is still difficult for me to get this summary out more than 1-2 times a month. All suggestions on solutions to my time crunch are welcome. 

If you have an questions, comments or suggestions about my Tumblr or my blog, please contact me here or on my website. I’d love to know what you think! 

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES 

Latest change from Google: the free Google Shopping listings will now show up in US organic search as part of product knowledge panels. Unfortunately, since they are only doing this for product knowledge panels to begin with, it likely won't help handmade sellers, but could be useful to sellers of vintage & supply items that are known products that will have a knowledge panel. It may be a sign that they are planning on moving free ads to more Google "surfaces" over time, however. Note that it appears that all product knowledge panel ads will be free starting this summer (US only), so that means that any Etsy paid ads for these types of items will become free ads that you won't have to pay EOA fees on if you get a sale. Google claims the free ads are bringing more searcher engagement to Shopping.  

Amazon announced they will begin to show US sellers’ business name and address on the Seller Profile page as of September 1. The same requirement already exists in Europe, Japan and Mexico. 

The USPS will no longer be delivering mail as promptly every day, to cut costs. This potentially affects anyone shipping to a destination in the United States. 

How 7 different companies grew profits during the last recession - there will still be business opportunities during the upcoming recession, but you have to be positioned to take them. 

ETSY NEWS 

Etsy Labels no longer offer USPS international shipping options for all packages under 4.4 pounds other than Canadian orders, replacing them with the Global Postal Shipping Program (GPSP). Many US sellers dislike the GPSP, and have moved on to outside providers that integrate with an Etsy shop and other services, such as Pirate Ship, Shippo, Stamps, and Shipstation. 

The quarterly category & attributes updates are limited to face mask & hand sanitizer attributes for July. Etsy also made some other minor updates recently, including allowing us to set a message auto reply for up to 5 days. 

You may have noticed that Etsy is really pushing Etsy Ads on sellers right now, despite the numerous complaints about the average cost per click becoming far too high last year. I’ve turned mine off permanently, but if you are interested in trying them or fine-tuning them, Etsy released an article and a related podcast with a transcript.

Louisiana and Mississippi have been added to the list of states that Etsy collects sales tax from. 

Etsy raised fees on Reverb to 5%, “to make further investments on behalf of our sellers.” 

Etsy will release the second quarter results on August 5. We already know that April and May were record-setting, and June was also probably pretty good. 

The site has continued to receive decent media coverage for the mask initiative; Etsy is mentioned in several articles/broadcasts a day as a place to get masks, including stylish ones. This article briefly interviews a seller and looks at what Etsy will do next, as the mask demand peak might be over. 

Now that people think of Etsy for things like face masks, Etsy is continuing to market itself as a place to buy everyday items, something it shied away from for a few years. (Remember when Etsy was all about “owning special”?) They’ve added “Everyday Finds” links & Editors Picks pages, and have published tips on what pandemic shoppers are looking for. (Note that the year over year values compare this April to last April, and so were during peak lockdown for the US.)  “Keeping surfaces clean is top of mind these days, and shoppers are searching on Etsy for many types of cleaners, from all-purpose scrubs to washable sponges...134% YoY increase in searches on Etsy containing “ceramic sponge holder.”...”74% YoY increase in searches on Etsy containing “mug”...”352% YoY increase in searches on Etsy containing “diy”.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but this page on the search and ads algorithms appears to be relatively new. 

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES 

The sea change in online buyer behaviour during the pandemic may mean that you need to update your keyword research. Keyword volumes have changed, some very dramatically. For example “‘adult bikes’ shows a massive upturn.This represents over ten times as many searches for this term compared to just under a year ago. If you projected this back in 2019 you’d probably be laughed at.”

Speaking of keyword research, if you need a refresher on why you should do it and how to approach it, here is a recent article. 

There are many different ways to get backlinks; here are a few that are pretty easy [video & text]. 

Are longer blog posts better for SEO? Not necessarily, as long as you cover the topic well. The exception is that blog posts under 300 words are usually not worth writing. 

Most SEOs think there was an unannounced Google update around the third week of June. Some are reporting that sites that specialize made gains, as opposed to those who have more general material. That same study reports Etsy had one of the largest traffic increases, but not as much as Pinterest (I’ve been seeing a lot more pins when Googling lately, so this seems likely.) Government websites also seem to have received better visibility. “As Google has described in their document on how they fight disinformation, they describe that their systems are designed to prefer authority over other factors “in times of crisis”. If this truly is related to what we saw happen in June, these changes could possibly be reversed once the worldwide pandemic situation improves.”

Bing released a few basic tips on how to use its keyword planner. 

(CONTENT) MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA (includes blogging & emails) 

TikTok has moved out of Hong Kong, while the US government may be looking at banning them, following India’s move on July 6. With TikTok in peril, many people are now downloading its competitor Byte. 

If you use Facebook for your business, please read up on the changes required to comply with California’s new privacy law. 

Instagram is now testing an Instagram Shop tab, which allows users to filter by category. 

Twitter is planning on starting a subscription service, but deleted some of the details  from the job listing just hours later. 

One of the results of the big Twitter hack on July 15th was Google removing the Twitter carousel from its search results. 

Pinterest searches involving Christmas started way earlier this year, with a 77% increase YOY in April. “That includes a 3x increase in searches for “Christmas gift ideas”, while other queries like “holiday recipes” and “Christmas” were up more than 90% and 80% respectively.” These are good stats for marketers to have, helping us decide when to release and promote new products.

ONLINE ADVERTISING (SEARCH ENGINES, SOCIAL MEDIA, & OTHERS) 

Spending too much on Facebook ads? Here are some common mistakes and some suggestions on fixing them. 

If you already know that ROAS stands for “return on ad spend” then some of this article may be old news to you. 

STATS, DATA, OTHER TRACKING 

If you are using Google Shopping with your website, be aware that the Google bots may be inflating your abandoned cart rate. 

Google Analytics can help you track the effects of changes to your website, or other business conditions. You can also get alerts when certain types of events happen, or when traffic is abnormal. 

ECOMMERCE NEWS, IDEAS, TRENDS 

Walmart is expected to launch Walmart+, similar to Amazon Prime, this month. But note that while many brick & mortar businesses are now doing a lot more business online, it is more expensive for them. 

For those of you who use Stitch Labs, they have been purchased by Square, and the existing services will likely be cut in 2021. 

Deja vu for Etsy sellers - eBay was apparently offering incentive payments for signing up for their new Managed Payments system by mid-July. (Etsy did the same with its Etsy Payments system, but only for Americans.)

Is Amazon Handmade as good for small makers as it claims? Maybe not. If you sell on Amazon, consider these strategies to protect your core business from being swamped by the big A. 

Wix has introduced an ecommerce version with a lot more options and integrations. 

Shopify’s new “Shop” app has some good features but also some issues. [podcast & edited transcript]

BigCommerce filed to go public, and added Ayden as a payment option. More details on the Ayden move here. 

Did you know there are sites you can use to sell your ecommerce business? Here are 10 of them. 

BUSINESS & CONSUMER STUDIES, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE 

US ecommerce sales are now expected to grow 18% this year, while overall retail is predicted to be down 10.5%. “In a pandemic economy, consumers have gravitated toward trusted and reliable retailers. As a result, we can expect the top 10 ecommerce retail businesses to grow at above average rates (21.8%). Amazon will gain US ecommerce market share this year, while Walmart's accelerating ecommerce growth will take it to the No. 2 position for the first time.”

Fear of missing out (FOMO) is a factor you can use to drive sales; here are 6 tips. 

Generation Z is acutely attached to internet use, and is more likely to be planning on starting their own business than any other generation. 

MISCELLANEOUS 

It’s possible that the increase in people working from home will lead to more work hours and therefore more burnout.

[bedlamgames]

Q&A #103

Today we have the Twine conversion, lesbian training mantras, social lube, a bunch of random stuff from the discord, and a whole lot more. 

[Anonymous said]: I'm really curious what the tally means for your twine conversion posts. Can't seem to figure out what its suppose to represent progress wise...

- Answered this last Q&A. Because of you asking I’ve now also added the explanation to what it’s about to every stream post so I hope that helped with understanding what’s going on with that.

[Anonymous said]: Suggestion: For races that start with a random corruption (ie: Succubi), have an option in full custom to spend points to either narrow what that corruption is (to be one of the four types, for example) or to outright pick one (for a much higher cost).

- That’s a good idea. Being able to pick specifically I think would be too much. There are ALOT of corruptions so that would mean many many menus to be able to select everything. Being able to pick one of the four types seems fair to me as something to spend points on in Full Custom. Added it to my notes. 

[Anonymous said]: Have a succubus slaver who used to be a lamia. On level up, she had the option to get the Fleet trait, which I thought was off-limits for Lamia due to their body shape. I think it's a bug?

- Good spot and should be fixed as of the last update. 

[Anonymous said]: Noticed a bug with No Haven 0.903: If you select a human (or once-human) for your character, and then quick restart, your next character will keep the human's Racial aspect Social Lube. On the topic of that Racial, it says " includes one human, and three other different races/subtypes gain an additional Success" Does that mean one human and three non-humans, or one human and three slavers each of a different race from each other?

-Took me awhile to work this out as going from human to human seemed fine. However you’re right that those with a heritage like demi-angels or succubi will incorrectly keep the previous racial. 

The second so as long as you have at least one human you can get the buff by say having a northerner, noble, wastelander, and convent. 

[Anonymous said]: hi bud, xfto/x421 here, its been a long time i guess. wanted to ask about the status of the no haven/twine conversation. i joined your picardo lately but couldnt post some reports since you dont allow guest-posts. well anyway, the report is about something ridiculous i have found after some restarts, the chosen main charakter (lamia) starts as male with the hard carry aspect(immense shaft) and different description than the ones the perks would give. 1/2

another question, feels like i asked something similiar in the past, how about the integration of different artpacks/access to older pics, or deletion of those that never get used? i guess that would requiere some more access to the game than you allow atm. maybe with twine? do you have a roadmap on tfgames or somewhere for the future of no haven? i know there are some more races you want to implement and improve some systems, but thats it, hope you are doing well in these times. 2/2

I do an update on the patreon every two weeks which is linked on the twitter. You do not need to be a patron to read these and is the best way to stay informed about what I’ve been up to. That includes the status of the conversion. To quickly sum it up;

It's at a stage where all the RAGS to Twine code conversion is basically done. What I need to do now is translate all that work into something playable and there's currently big logic issues with a bunch of the conditions and passages. So what I'm currently doing is trying to tidy up the visual look of the code with a bunch of idents with the theory that will make finding the errors easier.

Alas it’s not me disallowing guest posts... Picarto had some massive stonking issues and so they locked things down hard due to that preventing guests from chatting. I suggest a throwaway email site to get around that.

I don’t think there’s any art in the game file that’s not used as I try to keep on top of deleting the old ones. Not really down for doing art packs of the old ones as due to that not being my art so I see them as placeholder only until they can be replaced by commissions. 

I probably do need to do some kind of roadmap sometime. I’m less keen as it’s kind of a dirty word these days as due to the miss-use of them by others it’s got some bad connontations, but I’m also aware the alternative which is me randomly mentioning stuff on discord/picarto streams leaves the vast majority of my audience in the dark which is also really not ideal.

[Anonymous said]: [no haven 0.903] [Crit no longer grants Bimboborn] okay, but how do I get bimboborn now?

- It’s a corruption. Specifically Blessings of Perversion. 

[Anonymous said]: With the change to training where hypnotic slavers can fully embed the relevant mantras for blowjob, bimbo, and sissy training, could we also get that for lesbian training?

- Yes that’s the plan when I do the third part of lesbian training. Got a set of commissions planned just got to sort the funding and work out who I’m getting to do it. 

[Anonymous said]: hey bud, x421 here, again, might be already fixed because thats from no haven .903, but i recently had the witch queen super rare quest, you might want to proof read the quest and results, there are a few typos. i really did enjoy the writing nonetheless, just a quick question about that quest, as far as i understood this one, you only change your odds of the final result depending on how good you do on your way to the final, but the reward in the end only depends on the final result? 1/2

2/2 it just dawned on me that its been a while since you made an Q&A post so i guess i ll go and lurk on the tfgames forum in the next days, just one last question: i asked early in development about camp upgrades and you were not that convinced about that stuff, i understand you want the slaver camp as some bandit camp and not some castle/bastion or whatever, but since you added camp upgrades, maybe add proximity to a certain region? or something to spend supplies and gold in a 13month+ run?

- Hah! Okay will give it another read through.That’s correct yes. There’s also rewards on the way if you Critical those parts. 

There is a new gold sink coming soon in an upcoming update. I’ve also got plans for more camp upgrades coming later. 

[From the Patreon]: I'm that guy you replied to about the patch notes in Q&A 101. Solid updates. Bugs in the outfit system has driven me nuts since like, 2015, has it been that long already? I think it has. I like collecting them and something always blows up. This time, I ended up with a slaver wearing both the ooze outfit and ponygirl outfit. So there's that. Also I was disappointed the new Quicker then You'd Like wasn't interactive. Solid in any case though, thanks!

- I'll get them all one day I swear! Don't suppose you remember the chain of events that led to that? New QAYL was a patron requested one with the idea of having a big pay off for playing submissive which often involves playing sub-optimally.

[From the Patreon]: 1-ive been noticing when you choose to repick choices for an slave training assignment the slave gets added to the list of choices 2-also just how rare is the post-slave princess city assignment, cause i can never seem to get it even after selling multiple slave princesses 3-another thing is that the nightly puppet-leader stat is almost impossible to get again(either that or i have bedwarmers incapable of usurping me even thought i my current stats mean i couldnt win against even the subbiest slave)

- Will check 3 as you've not been the only person to mention that. 2 I know exists for sure as other people have definitely got it. Should be no rarer than any other rare City assignment, and thanks for the spot on 1.

[From the Discord]: Top 3 Animes of the 2010 to 2020

Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica the series was staggeringly good. Just redefined what anime could be to me. Film is a... well it was a thing. A beautiful thing with an ending which I still quite know how to feel about. 

Shirobako. It’s about creativity, craft, and about how people can come together to make something. It might not be something good, but dangit it’s been made and that’s worthwhile. It’s also from personal experience by miles the most accurate depiction of working in an office I’ve ever seen.

Oh man this is very very hard deciding on the third so pick one of the following and I could probably make a strong case for it. 

Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon, Darling in the FranXX (yes really, yes even the ending), Lupin III: Part 5, Kill la Kill, Monster Musume, Flip Flappers, Demi-chan wa Kataritai, Zombieland Saga, or Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai.

Also while I was taking the question to mean series both Your Name and Promare are absolutely phenonemal films. 

[From the Discord]: Best recent Eurovision Act

Lena. Always Lena. 

[From the Discord]: What's the agricultural technological level of No Haven like 

It’s not hit industrialization yet. What makes the difference is and allows cities like Aversol and even bigger to exist is that the organization of the human empire is far better than it has any right to be for the other levels of development being able to keep an incredibly complex supply chain constantly flowing even if on the ground level it barely seems to be moving at all. There are also some much, much larger farms both on the Great Plains and further to the north compared to the much more isolated single/couple of households ones that your slavers raid. 

[From the Discord]: What have been some of your all-time favourite assignments, both in terms of working on them and how they turned out?

Love When Week’s End Comes for a recent one. Writing all the results in colour commentary (and all the variations for weather, events and outcomes) was a real challenge and I do like how it came out. 

Witch-Queen and Arisin’ for being the first times I tried to go for a different, more potentially disturbing/freaky mood, and I’m pleased with the results. 

Sable Masquerade as I really like the ‘bad end’ I came up with. Actually I like the whole thing as while the pitch from the patron obviously helped, a lot of it was inspired by a random superhero bondage party picture I saw on HF, which I decided to run with, and had a bunch of fun exploring. 

[From the Discord]: Weirdest bug and most difficult bug

The one that resulted in a male wisp riding a griffon was a fun one. 

Most difficult has to be the clothing management which as a previous question suggests I’ve still not entirely solved. 

[From the Discord]: If No Haven was an MMO, what race/class would you play?

Kreen rogue mainly as I really like the edit I did for the portrait which MidnightonMars later translated into a commission. 

If not definitely a lamia. 

[From the Discord]: Knowing what you do now about the design of the game, are there any game mechanics you wish you'd have implemented differently?

Clothing management. So very much clothing management. I’ve redone it entirely twice now, and it’s still not where I want it to be. 

[From the Discord]: What was your inspiration for creating the setting of No Haven?  Has the direction the game has gone varied from your initial idea? If so what has been the biggest change?

- It started off with adapting the chan game Deeper Dungeons which was basically a certain popular mmo with nothing different about it outside of it being porn along with some possibly unwise options of personal abuse. I first changed it by ditching gnomes for neko which to my mind was a clear upgrade. There even used to be an examine refference in the RAGS version to suggest they’d been in the region of the dungeons before being driven out.

Then it was a gradual process of adding with the occasional subtractions to get it closer to a more Warhammer feeling setting which has always been a major love of mine when I was still doing Whorelock’s in RAGS.

With No Haven it was a case of building on what I’ve done there and expanding upon that with the race lore and assignment descriptions. Biggest was probably when I did the favoured/unfavoured stuff and added a ton of extra backstory to various races to justify the choices made there. 

[rinaris-skyrim]

2. Tweaks

I wish I had a better category name for these. These are small changes, some of them atmospheric, some of them just nice to have. They don’t change anything terribly significant about the game, just add some flavor here, an item there, a little immersive utility yonder.

---

A Matter of Time

In-game clock widget. Useful for checking to see when shops should be open, checking the phases of the moons if you’re a werewolf, figuring out if it’ll be dark soon. Just a gem. [link]

Aime’s Craftable Lockpicks

WISOTT - What it says on the tin. One iron ingot equals five lockpicks. No more complicated than that. [link]

Alchemist’s Journal

More for roleplaying purposes than anything. A simple book, craftable at a tanning rack, that lists ingredient effects as you discover them. [link]

Atlas Map Markers - Updated

The original Atlas Map Markers is brilliant, adding map markers for most things in Skyrim you might want on your map — the smaller camps, shops, shrines out in the wilderness, interesting spots, landmarks, whatnot. Kryptopyr updated it with an mod configuration menu. You’ll need the original [here], and then install Kryptopyr’s update [here] over it (”merge” option in Mod Organizer).

Better Stealing

A somewhat controversial tweak, one I’m not sure works well for balance, especially given various perk overhauls and other mods that allow multiple ways for you to offload stolen goods. However, I always found it stupid that shopkeepers would preternaturally “know” what was stolen and what wasn’t. This makes it simple: if it’s relatively inexpensive and no one sees you take it, it won’t be marked as “stolen” in your inventory (though the owners might still send some thugs after you after the fact, once they realize it’s missing!). Simple SKSE plugin. [link]

CS Soul Fragments to Soul Gems

Finally a use for all of those “Soul Gem Fragments” you find out in ruins or in random barrels! “Polish” the fragments with a linen rag at a forge, then combine them to make empty soul gems of the size you desire. You can also “smash” soul gems to reforge one large gem into several smaller ones, if you prefer, or combine smaller ones into larger gems. Why was this not in the base game? [link]

Dark Brotherhood for Good Guys

Why do I want this mod for a group that’s all about playing a murdering edgelord? Well, basically, because not all Brotherhood members are edgy dark edgelords, and usually when people want someone murdered, it’s for a reason. This gives you a somewhat different perspective on the Brotherhood and their victims: information, backstories, the philosophy of Sithis as morally neutral chaos instead of pure evil. I tend to play on the good-ish side of things, and I love reading and lore, so I like this. Add to taste. Be sure to merge the base mod with the provided hotfix. [link]

Dragon Wall Wisdom - Readable Dragon Walls

You’re the Dragonborn, right? Learning the dragon language, right? Gifted with an understanding of the dragon tongue and preternatural knowledge, right? Then you should really be able to read these dragon wall inscriptions in the game. This offers funny, quirky, and sometimes just downright mundane translations for these ancient arcane inscriptions. SHBITBG - Should have been in the base game. [link]

EK_RingLimiter

You have ten fingers. Why only one ring? This allows you to wear more — though for balance reasons I recommend sticking with the default of two, or perhaps four. Something something about magical auras interfering if the trinkets are worn too close to one another. ;) [link]

Even Better Quest Objectives

The default in-game journal is rather pathetic. It rarely gives you your motivations, or even a text version of where you’re supposed to go next. I very much miss Morrowind’s journal, where every conversation and relevant tidbit was recorded. This helps. [link]

Farmers Sell Produce

Seriously, again, why wasn’t this in the base game? It’s close to necessary if you’re going to use a needs mod, or something that uses produce to create medicines for diseases. Assuming, of course, you’re not inclined to go rampaging across farmers’ carefully-tended fields. [link]

Faster Transform - To Werewolf and VampireLord

Just a nice tweak. Again, time is valuable, it’s nice not to have quite such a large window in which I’m being wailed on by enemies, and I like the more monstrous touch. The middle option - only half the vanilla time to transform - is recommended for realism and balance reasons. [link]

Female Vampires Have Fangs

One of the very few purely aesthetic changes here. All vampires should have fangs. (I’m gay. Fangs hot.) [link]

Harvest Overhaul

Find it stupid you only get one flower from that whole patch of mountain flowers? Yeah, me too. This fixes that. [link]

iHUD - Immersive HUD

Neatly stows away the status bars when you don’t need them (when they’re full and you’re not in combat). Also hides the compass, because how does your character preternaturally know there’s this thing that way if they can’t see it? [link]

Immersive Dragons

Just gives dragons a larger wingspan so they can maybe actually lift themselves into the air. Another aesthetics tweak, with the goal of immersion. [link]

Jaxonz Lights Please

Incredibly useful for those using magical lighting. This maps both Candlelight and Magelight to hotkeys, removing the need to constantly switch spells. It also means you can easily toggle Candlelight on and off like a lantern or torch. Works well with mods that affect lighting and darkness, which I do. [link]

Jaxonz Map Markers

The best custom map marker mod I’ve found. Want to keep track of... well, anything? Ore deposits, NPCs, followers, your horse, that little camp... This is it! Uses the game’s built-in quest and quest objective system for map markers. Super easy to use. [link]

Kryptopyr’s Clothing and Clutter Fixes

This maybe should have gone in the “Fixes” post, but it’s... not quite “just” fixes. “Hooded robes” are separated into hoods and robes for mixing and matching, some NPCs clothing is changed to be more lore-friendly, alongside some behind-the-scenes fixes like weight adjustments. Optional, officially. [link]

Kryptopyr’s Weapon and Armor Fixes Remade

This also maybe should have gone in the “Fixes” post, but again, it’s a bit more of an overhaul, adjusting weights of things and armor scaling for consistency. Required for Kryptopyr’s great crafting overhaul, CCOR, so we definitely want this. [link]

Learn Alchemy From Recipes

WISOTT. Reading a recipe “discovers” those ingredient effects for you. Again, why was this not in the original game? [link]

Living Takes Time

I’ll be honest, I deactivate most of the features of this mod, except for “training takes time” and “reading takes time” (and increases speech skill). Crafting takes time just gets onerous, especially in the early game when you need all this gear and your bandoliers and you have needs you need to fill... And blocking the inventory or magic menu during combat is just... no. Still, the mod itself adds some nice functionality, and it can be fully tweaked to taste. If you’re using an alternate spell learning mod, be sure to set the “spell learning” time to zero. [link]

Mortal Enemies - De-Aimbot Your Foes

Once an enemy has started an attack, they’re locked into that direction and attack. This makes you able to dodge or move out of range of the attack, and they can no longer hit you anyways. They move slower when aiming or channeling as well. No instant pivots, and two-handed weapons feel heavier than one-handed ones. All in all, it makes combat feel more realistic, and allows them to miss you if you’re clever. But beware! These changes apply to you, too! [link]

No Psychic Lock Knowledge

WISOTT. You don’t somehow magically know how hard a lock is going to be just by looking at it. You just try to pick it, like... you actually would if you decide to pick a lock. [link]

No Silver at Jorrvaskr

Because a group of warriors whose upper echelons are all werewolves would totally be eating off silver. Not. [link] (in the optional files section)

Non-Exploitable Crossbow Reloading

Allows you to reload crossbows on your own time, by pressing the fire button, before firing again, without messing with your equipped ammunition. Simple and lovely. [link]

People Are Strangers

You don’t somehow magically know the names of people before you talk to them! I personally favor the “race” variant, just because... less generic, and I can usually see if someone is a Wood Elf or an Argonian anyways, but you can adjust the “stranger” label to taste. [link]

Point the Way

Roads actually have more signposts to direct people to the smaller towns as well as the large cities, and have them at more junctions. Signs also point the right way. Especially helpful along some of the more windy roads. No need to puzzle things out on your map quite so much. [link]

Realistic Capacity

Without a bag, you can only carry as much as you can feasibly wear, really. It’s that simple. This mod dynamically adjusts your capacity and allows for the armor you’re wearing and a few different weapons, e.g. a bow, a one-handed weapon, a shield, a knife or two, making those effectively weightless, and assume pockets for some meager supplies, but aside from that — backpacks and bags are mandatory. Makes things harder for a packrat like me, but it does make me think. [link]

Realistic Humanoid Movement Speed

This one takes a bit of the sting out of Realistic Capacity. Movement speed is adjusted to feel more realistic overall — you walk faster, jog more slowly (when sneaking, too), and don’t sprint like a gazelle. Take the optional horse speed modifier file to also add more value to horses: they walk and gallop faster as well now, in addition to their other benefits. [link]

Realistic Nights

Wondering why torches and night eye were even added to the game? Annoyed at how, well, bright the nights are? Put an end to that! Darker nights make light sources actually useful, and provides a good reason for sneaky types to actually consider the day/night cycle. Light adjusted based on the moons, snow reflecting night, and various other factors for an even better experience. [link]

Run For Your Lives

NPCs who are not guards or warriors run inside and hide from both dragons and vampire attacks. Like anyone with any sense of self-preservation would. I mean, I guess Nords don’t exactly revere self-preservation, but... this just seems more sensible to me, especially if we’re talking little old ladies armed with a steel dagger. [link]

SCRR - Skyrim Coin Replacer Redux

“Modern” Septims have no business deep in ancient Nordic burial mounds or Dwemer ruins. The Stormcloaks aren’t too ecstatic about Imperial money, either, and are creating their own silver currency, though gold is gold. Now silver Haralds are found in barrows, and ebony Dumacs in Dwemer ruins. All can be be melted down to ingots of their respective metals, or traded with merchants for “regular” currency. This adds massively to immersion, not to mention offering a supply of useful materials for smithing. [link]

Sleep Tight

Simple change that makes NPCs change into robes or clothes for sleeping, instead of going to bed in that hard iron armor (though for balance reasons, and modesty, people still wear chest armor). Accordingly, they’ll also take more damage if you can catch them unawares. [link]

Take Notes - Journal of the Dragonborn

I love this. I love this so so much. The ability to write a custom journal from in the game, and export it if I want to, adds so much to roleplaying. It means I can create a proper backstory, examine character motivations, process events of the game through my character’s lens, and record it all for myself later. Just, magnificent. Get it. You won’t regret it. [link]

The Choice is Yours - Fewer Forced Quests - Improved Dialogue Options

WISOTT. Just talking to someone doesn’t automatically add a quest to your inventory. You can turn an offer down or defer an errand until later. Some things a character just wouldn’t want to do. Now that’s not cluttering up your journal. Again, SHBITBG - should have been in the base game. [link]

Timing is Everything - Quest Delay and Timing Control

This allows you to space out the steps of the main quest as seems realistic (e.g. NPCs taking some time for research), as well as control when (at which level) various quests will start. There are also a few other tweaks to be found, such as Meridia’s Beacon not responding to vampires, werewolves randomly attacking, and Thalmor ignoring you unless certain quest conditions are fulfilled, instead of attack squads simply triggering at a certain level. [link]

TK Dodge

Gives you the ability to quickly sideroll and dodge a blow. Makes light armors a lot more viable in close combat, and plays nicely with Mortal Enemies. [link]

Trade and Barter

A fantastic mod that adjusts prices, merchant gold, and other parameters around trading based on race, faction alliance, personal relationships, location, and more. Highly customizable, highly compatible, brilliant. [link]

TravelMounts

You need to have a horse in order to be able to fast travel. Offers more of a reason to drop that 1000 gold, and this small tweak makes it feel much more immersive (after all, a rider can outrun and avoid many things someone on foot can’t). [link]

Truly Absorb Dragon Souls

For every dragon you kill and dragon soul you absorb, you get just that little bit stronger, gain a little more magicka, health, stamina, movement speed, carry weight, shout cooldown, armor, and magic resist. Set the amount gained for each dragon soul on install; I recommend medium to low values for each gain, just to offer longevity. [link]

Understandable Draugrs

In the vein of “Dragon Wall Wisdom,” you can now understand the draugr when they yell at you in a fight. Just adds the English translation in parentheses to the end of the subtitled Dragon language dialogue. Now your Dragonborn will be able to understand what’s being constantly shouted at them, even if it isn’t anything particularly nice or uplifting. [link]

Wearable Lanterns

No need to constantly toggle between a torch and a shield, or fight blind in a dark ruin. Just hook a lantern to your belt, that can easily be toggled on and off (and also automatically put out when you sneak, if you’re That Sort™). Incredibly nifty and useful. [link]

---

...I’m sure I’ll be adding to this later. I’m sure, honestly. Maybe with an “optional tweaks” post, too, that are very much a preference thing. Or, y’know, just reblog myself. That might actually be the best option.

[age-sliding-flug]

FAQ/Q&A

Figured I outta do this, just so everyone knows my pronouns/so I can answer some questions in advance.

PERSONAL QUESTIONS

Q: What are your pronouns? A: He/Him, please.

Q: What’s your name? A: Harrison [REDACTED], but y’all can call me Harry :3

Q: How old are you? A: [REDACTED] (Not comfortable with sharing, but I am 18+)

Q: How long have you been writing? A: 6+ years; pretty much all fanfiction. Working on a few original projects, but I’ll probably never share them here.

Q: Why so secretive? A: I hate to admit it, but age-sliding isn’t exactly well received by most folks, as most people associate mental regression with DDLG/CGL sexual play, which is... problematic, to say the least. Also, I’m very shy. (I swear to fuck if any of you send my series to Alan, I will fucking kill you. I would die of embarrassment.)

Q: Is Harry even your real name? A: No, it’s not my most preferred name. I’m a trans guy, so I’m already coming up with a new name for myself; thought I’d experiment with one I liked on here, even if I already pretty much have my new name figured out. (And no, it’s not Harry as in Harry Potter, it’s Harry as in Harry Dresden from The Dresden Files)

Q: Do you age-slide? What even IS age-sliding? A: Yes, I do indeed age-slide, but it’s not as often as it used to be for me; a lot of this series is me low-key coping with my age-sliding issues. As for what age-sliding is, age-sliding is when someone- typically an adult/older teenager- will mentally regress. More often than not, this is due to trauma from the age-slider’s youth (such is the case with me), and is the mind’s attempt to return to what was perceived to be a simpler/safer time. It’s different for everyone, and can be on different levels of manageable/difficult to deal with.

Q: Why is your AO3 username BottomDeathstroke if you’ve only written Villainous fics on there? A: That account was never intended to be for this series- which wasn’t planned to even be a series to begin with- and was intended to be a place for me to write and post NSFW/unrelated mental regression DCU fanfiction (starring Deathstroke usually, because I love him). Once this series is done, I’ll probably post that sort of content on there, but for now Villainous has taken over my life.

Q: What’s your main account? Both on AO3 and Tumblr? A: [REDACTED] and [REDACTED]

Q: What did you think of Villainous’ pilot? A: I absolutely loved it! I actually wrote an alternate ending fic for it set in the AU, which you can check out here! The pilot is very good, please watch it on YouTube and support the people behind it!

Q: Are you okay with getting asks/questions/prompts? A: Absolutely! I’m always happy to answer people’s questions; whether they’re about age-sliding, the series, or just from a few curious anons!

Q: Can people do fanart? A: YES!!! A thousands times yes!!! Gosh, that would absolutely make my day! If you do any fanart, please either send me a link/submit it to me and I’ll make sure to check it out/post it on this blog! If you want to be labeled as anonymous through a submission, please let me know so that I can list you as such!

FIC/SERIES QUESTIONS

Q: Did any other fics inspire this one? A: Yes! “Spare the Rod and Spoil the Scientist” on AO3 by yucky was a HUGE inspiration for this series. I know they haven’t updated in awhile, but the fic in general is very good, and definitely has some elements that I really like! Please check it out if you can, and send the author your support!

Q: What made you start writing this fic series? A: TBH, I dunno. I had just moved to [REDACTED] at the time I started, and was feeling incredibly lonely (I also was just getting over 1+ year’s worth of writer’s block). I only intended the first fic to be a one off sorta deal, but to my surprise, people seemed to actually like it, so that gave me the courage to keep going and, well... I got thinking about the rules of this AU’s universe/added the Heroic Crew, and from there everything spiraled out of control.

Q: Where can I find your fic series? A: I plan on posting full descriptions/links on this blog at some point, but for now, here’s a link to my AO3 profile: BottomDeathstroke.

Q: How old is everyone in the fic series? A: Okay, lemme list the ages from oldest to youngest: Black Hat: 1000+ White Hat: 1000+ Clemencia: 32 Demencia: 31 Slug: 22 Flug: 18 505: 2 606: 2

Q: Is this series going to go on forever or is there a planned ending? A: All too often I see age-sliding/mental regression fics go on for a bit, only to suddenly stop updating, which is pretty disappointing tbh. I do plan on having a big finale (that’s gonna be one hell of an emotional roller-coaster), but that’s not for quite awhile, as I want to fulfill all my planned fics (Flug confronting his mom, talking about where tf Slug and Flug’s dad went, Black Hat and White Hat origins, Clemencia and Demencia babysitting, winter holiday special, Halloween special, Black Hat teaching Flug to play the piano, etc) as well as do a few requests/ideas for the readers.

Q: What’s the ending gonna be? A: ;3

Q: Why is Flug trans? A: Because I’m trans and projecting, next question.

Q: Any other LGBT+ headcanons for the cast? A: Uuuuuuuuuh, Clemencia’s a lesbian, Demencia and Black Hat are bi af, White Hat is pan, Slug is gay and in the closet, Flug and BH are both trans but handle it in very different ways, and 505 and 606 are... bears. Yeah. I also see Flug as ace, so there’s that. The projection is strong with him.

Q: How old are Black Hat and White EXACTLY? A: Fuck if I know. They’re supposed to be from the very dawn of man, but the few times I’ve mentioned their ages during different time periods, I’ve realized how much I’ve fucked myself over doing that. Does it really matter? Probably not, but I like to be organized and flesh out the universe, so I’m dying, y’all.

Q: Why so much world building? A: I dunno, it’s just the way I am. I like a precise set of rules within my stories, and I like to delve into the politics of that story out of sheer curiosity. Besides, I’ve always been a huge superhero/supervillain fan, so getting into how those professions would actually WORK in a developed universe is fun for me!

Q: Has canon content ruined anything for you? A: Not really, but it’s changed my theories for people quite a bit (particularly for BH’s origins and Flug’s backstory). I’ll admit, there are certain things that I sometimes wish I had done differently, if only to fit my current theories for where the series is heading. But I don’t regret the headcanons I used for this series, and I’m gonna stick to them throughout, even if I don’t believe all of them are true anymore! (Y’all can take trans Flug from my cold, head fucking hands, tho.)

Q: Why are you writing a Heroic backstory fic if they’re not even canon characters? A: First of all, they’re canon in my heart. Second of all, I just thought it would be fun to write, and it definitely has been! Writing it has been interesting to say the least (and an important lesson on why long WIPs are a bad idea for me, rip), but I don’t regret it, and I’m proud of how it’s going so far! Still, definitely looking forward to getting back to our villainous favorites.

Q: When ARE you getting back to the Villainous characters? A: Soon, I promise. In the meantime, I DID write a fic with them in it recently,. Which, again, you can check out over here, as it’s an alternate ending rewrite for the pilot episode. But yeah, they’ll be back soon, I just want to finish “Taming a Stray” first.

I think that’s it for now! Lemme know if you guys have anymore questions that need answering, and I’ll be sure to add them to this post (or answer separately)! Have a good day!

[digital-baf-blog]

materia, 2018-2019

I don’t get a lot of time to read on my commute from my home near the university to downtown. Many of my colleagues have a long commute on which they read their books (which we go over in our work book club, something I really love to listen to. My commute is chopped up and I spent a lot of time going up and down stairs or weaving between people. 

My return commute is longer (an hour or more) and much less hurried, and late night buses are infrequent. While I’m waiting for a bus or a train, I sometimes add to a body of my favorite words, or word sounds, ordered and spaced according to how I want them to sound together in this concatenation. It’s calming and feels like a puzzle, or the last stretch of editing an essay or a letter when you want to communicate something very subjective with the most specificity (also subjective). It feels satisfying, healthy, and sharpening.

I first shared this on my Instagram stories in June. I had taken the train in the wrong direction, had to get out and run to the other platform, and wait about fifteen minutes in the tunnel. I rearranged some things before taking screenshots - I was planning on getting a new phone soon, and wasn’t sure if my notes would make it because I never back it up, and the visual references felt genuine and I want to be more in the habit of allowing the small creative habits I’m trying to maintain to carry the same importance I used to reserve only for painting. It seemed to resonate with my friends, which was nice, since it feels like sharing a very private artifact but knowing that they found it pleasant to read too was a pleasure. Pleasant.

The first word is from the title of a publication by Japanese photographer Rinko Kawauchi. I love her work, but I’m unsure in what form “Materia” actually exists because I saw the cover from a Tumblr post, the same way I discovered her body of work, and it’s not on her website. 

I first heard the word “materia” as the Final Fantasy term for powers/abilities/knowledge. Of course that’s just been a point of departure for developing a difference sense of the word, but I think of that first.

Certain other words on the list come from internet searches, articles, jargon that you hear a lot in exhibition titles and the smattering of graduate degrees dealing with digital or new media art in some way (a degree in “digital futures,” ... also things like Speculative Ecologies or Poetic Computation) . And other words used to talk about symbols or gestures in modern painting, popular in writing probably from the 60s through the 80s, in reference to Rauschenberg or Gorky (reify, oscillate, allegory). Some are from video games. Some are food items, usually in a mental image of in that vibrant, highly saturated hue of a dye transfer print because produce is aesthetically beautiful, sculptural and totally mundane and poetic. On its own. There is a lot of labor that goes into farming industry and marketing produce to put the melon on the stand, which is not what I always think of when I get the melon out of season and out of the region where I live. The melon is also the rectangular prism of the Melona ice cream. Green fruit and ice is editorial. Rice is nostalgic. 

A lot of them are words I use to describe my feelings in therapy. Sediment, threat, compulsion, self-possessing, though these are all terms that can be applied to artwork as well. I like that they are aspirational, in terms of how I want to be, and critical of how I feel. And not all of them have singular images or meanings. They belong under materia for that. There are more lists in materia, but these make the most sense together. 

I know this blog was created for class, and I intend to keep adding excerpts from books, articles, texts relevant to embodiment, landscape, technology and perception, and navigation. materia is an organized reminder of recurring themes (visual motifs, aural motifs, tangential to embodiment or perception or memory), and I’ve been reading too many good things to not try to connect them back to one another - in my conversations, in small moments of video that remind me of those themes, in game tropes or mechanics or emulations, or poetic writing - using links, tags, and a platform that allows reblogging, or easier appropriation of those images and the chain of provenance. I’m aiming for something essayistic, something like an index for that reading, a database for things I forget and then remember and forget. I kind of hate that Facebook allows you to remember people you could have forgotten happened to you, and how it prolongs some acquaintanceships/connections/relationships longer than is natural for the memory. I know a lot of things that aren’t my business, and that those things show up on my internet activity alongside things that I forget too quickly.

It’s a repository for sediment and it’s not that deep but it’s more visible and more connected than separated by written pages or filed away, so thanks

[kymmiejournals]

2021 My Life Planner by Blushing Notes

This post contains affiliate links. If you take action (i.e. make a purchase) after clicking my affiliate links, I’ll probably earn a few bucks which will help keep this website running or just to buy a cup of coffee. You know I only recommend products that I actually use, love and trust, right?

Hi friend, 

Wow! It's been a while since my last planner review. I’ve been busy with a lot of things lately and I had to organize everything before our big move. This is the year I get to leave everything behind and start a new life with my husband, which means I have to quit my job, sell my car and stocks, then book a one-way ticket to another country. I’m so excited for this new chapter in my life.

Tools and Resources

Any note-taking apps (such as Goodnotes or Noteshelf)

iPad Pro 4th Gen 12.9”

iPad 7th Gen 10.2”

Apple Pencil 1st Gen

Apple Pencil 2nd Gen

Paperlike matte screen protector

ESR standing case for iPad Pro 4th Gen 12.9”

Details

When you purchase the My Life Digital Undated Planner, you will receive 2 PDF files:

the digital planner in PDF

2 Covers

6 hyperlinked sections or tabs 

Calendar templates

Personal templates

Project templates

Finance trackers

Wellness templates

4 Paper templates

Matching Hex Color Codes and Font

Welcome Guide with Goodnotes tutorials

a welcome guide

2021 my life digital planner

2 Covers

What's amazing about this planner is you get to choose between these 2 beautiful blush covers, or you can use any of the free covers of @blushingnotes.

Introduction

You can customize this page however you want. Just like with every planner, there is always a page to introduce yourself and write the purpose of this planner.

Content

This page serves as the Index or the Table of Contents for the whole planner. Some tabs redirect to the same page the side tabs have.

Inbox

Use the Inbox template to write your To-Do's, project ideas and random thoughts.

Overview

Use this page to categorize what you've written in your Inbox. This will help you to focus on what's more important and work your way through the list.

Calendar

This section has all the calendar-related templates such as Year At A Glance, Important Dates, Monthly, Weekly and Daily pages. This planner only has the Monday-start, although it'd be nice if there's also a Sunday-start so you won't have to customize the days of the week every now and then.

Calendar Content

This page shows tabs to different calendar-related templates

Year At A Glance

I have added the numbers and customize the font of the Months, then added some color codes for each category such as Work, Rest Day, Vacation, Busy Day. You can totally add your own codes, maybe track Anniversaries and Birthdays too!

Important Dates

I customized the font of the Months here to add some personality into it, then I drew a box for each month so it's easy for me to view each month, added stickers and texts. You can put important dates such as Anniversaries, Holidays, Birthdays, even appointments.

Monthly

I know it's April 2021 already, but here's what I've done for March 2021. Since it's Spring time, I decided to use this cute floral stickers, added the dates, thought of color codes, a long positive affirmation and ofcourse my planner entries for the month.

My Week

This has three different weekly templates. You can use it interchangeably, or stick to one per month by just duplicating the template you want.

Weekly Schedule

For this page, if you prefer to stick to a certain schedule then this is the perfect weekly template for you. Along with the My Week, you can also use this as your main weekly page. The highlights you see are color codes such as if you have one activity for a specific time everyday for example, lights off at 10pm everyday.

Day Planner

There are 2 different Day Planner templates, the left side has a timestamp schedule if you want to stick with your timely routine or if not, you can use the template on the right side which has the list layout.

Personal

This section has all the personal-related templates such as Inspiration Board, Life Aspirations List, Habit & Routines, Organize & Declutter list, Cleaning Routine, Weekly Cleaning Schedule, and it also includes the Goals and other tracker pages.

Personal Content

This page shows tabs to different personal-related templates

Inspiration Board

There are 2 inspiration board templates - horizontal & vertical. I added some photos, quotes and a title or header. You can watch my IGTV on how I decorate my inspiration board!

Goals Overview

Track your goals per category in this page. As you can see in the image, I categorize all my project ideas or random thoughts per topic so it'll be much easier for me which one to prioritize.

Goals Progress

This page lets you track your progress per goal so you can stick to your deadline.

Goal Planner

There are 2 goal planner templates to choose from. If you want a straight-forward goal planner then you should use the template on the right side, but if you want to also track your 'emotional' aspect on how this goal affects you, then choose the template on the left side.

Habits and Routines

This page helps you to track your habits and routines by writing your target goal and the total of what you have done. For example, the Water Intake, my goal is to drink 8 glasses of water everyday for the whole month (atleast 25 days which is what I put in the Goal field). The other 4 or 5 days I can drink milk tea, wine, mojito or cocktails. Then, since I drank 8 glasses of water for 27 days, I put 27 on the Total field, which means I was able to meet my goal. If I completed my goal, I can mark the heart icon just beside Day 31. 

Organize and Declutter

This page helps you track which things don't spark joy anymore. 

Weekly Cleaning

Cleaning doesn’t always apply to tangible items, you can clean your cloud storage, your notion templates, your Procreate projects, your unused digital planners, or just try to clear your mind.

Cleaning Routine

Same with Weekly Cleaning's purpose, this page is for Daily, Weekly and Monthly cleaning schedule. If you can't think of things to clean, just refer to my image above for inspiration.

Life Aspirations List

This page is for your life aspirations - what you want to achieve or accomplish, whether it's for a short or long term goals. Once you achieved it, you can highlight it and move to the next goal in the list.

To Read

Add your favorite books or books to read, currently reading, to be reviewed. You can also add ratings!

To Watch

Add your favorite shows, movies, new series to watch, and you can also add ratings or even cover photos of the movie or show.

To Listen

I don't really plan what songs to listen to or write songs on my planner, I prefer to have a playlist on my fave music app. However, I think this page does not only talk about songs, you can also write your fave podcast, audio books, ted talks or whatever floats your boat. Right now, my fave song to listen to is Leave The Door Open by Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak (Silk Sonic) which is a feel-good R&B and Soul music.

Projects

This section has all the project-related templates such as Project Overview, Project Planner, Group Project Plan and Project Ideas.

Projects Content

This page shows tabs to different project-related templates.

Project Overview

Perfect if you have projects in school or just at home. For example, I have a project called #getplannerfeatured, and I use this to track my progress and timeline.

Project Planner

Once you've determined your project, you can use this page to help you identify your objectives, progress, action steps, add notes and due date.

Group Project Plan

If you are working with other people on a project, then use this page to assign task or role for the members of your group.

Project Ideas

This page can be used to brainstorm ideas for your projects.

Wellness

This section has all the wellness-related templates such as Health Plan, Workout Routine, Period Tracker, Meal Plan, Shopping List and Inventory, Self-Care Ideas, Gratitude and Reflection pages.

Wellness Content

This page shows tabs to different wellness-related templates

Weekly Health Plan

Track your workout plan and habits weekly using this template. There's also a weekly meal plan included in the page.

Workout Routine

Write your workout plans and routines, how many reps, distance or sets per workout. You can do it!

Weekly Meal Plan

The Meal Plan doesn't require you to just eat pure leafy and healthy meal. You are allowed to include even the hearty and greasy meal you want. Write down the fried onion rings and buffalo chicken wings you've been craving for!

Daily Meal Planner

Break the weekly meal planner into daily. Write what you're having for breakfast, snack, lunch, dinner for the day.

Inventory

Keep a list of your pantry's inventory and check if you need to do grocery shopping.

Shopping List

Once you've determined which stocks you are running low, it's time to hit the grocery store! Don't forget to bring your shopping list with you!

Period Tracker

This page is to track your mensies and before you barf, take a minute to really understand your period cycle. Tracking it will help you understand your mood swings (that's PMS) and how to avoid cramps.

Gratitude List

Definitely one of my favorite pages, this is super helpful for your personal growth. You have to be appreciative even with the little things.

Year In Color

Mood tracker can be really vague but you can make it fun by putting your own legends or mood colors.

Affirmations

Add your daily mantras or powerful and positive quotes that will help you turn a bad day into a great one!

My Happiness

This page serves as a journal page where you can put which habits or things that make you feel good or happy, what you like to see manifest this week, what limits you the most right now and how you can change it, write both your positive and negative traits, describe the person you want to be and include your values.

Self-Care Ideas

Write your ideas of self-care, it can be anything! You can check the image above for some of the self-care ideas for mind, body and environment.

Reflection

Reflect on the things that made you happy or cry and use that to improve yourself and be prepared for what life will throw your way.

Finance

This section has all the finance-related templates such as My Budget, Income, Expense, Savings and Bill Tracker, and Subscriptions.

Finance Content

This page shows tabs to different finance-related templates.

My Budget

It's time to track your budget for the whole year! Add your source of income, fixed and other expenses then compute the difference so you'd know which things to let go so you can save up more!

Income Tracker

Track all your cash flow using this page. There are a lot of ways how to earn money, you can write your part-time job or side-hustle business too!

Expense Tracker

Take your time writing your expenses, so you'd know which one is important or not, which one to let go of, which things to buy only when necessary

Bill Tracker

It's relevant to track your bills to avoid penalties, interests, or unexpected fines that you may incur when you don't pay your bills in advance or on time.

Savings Tracker

Use this page when you want to save up for something. For me, I'm saving for a brand new MacBook or iMac because I want to focus on my blog, online business and graphic design & videography.

Subscriptions

I love managing my subscriptions! It's easy since it's recurring and has a fixed amount. You don't have to worry about how much you'll pay the next month, unlike your electricity or water bills. You can also cancel some inactive apps or plans. Take advantage of those promotional plans such as 40% off for your 3 months or whatever.

Notes

This page section has all the notes-related templates such as Lined, Dot, Grid and Blank.

Notes Content

This page shows tabs to different paper templates.

Notes Paper Templates

You can choose from different paper templates to help you write anything under the sun! Use this for your journaling, scrapbooking, memory keeping, tracking, or just create a list.

Back Pocket

One of my favorite pages uniquely created by Sophie, I also decorated the back pocket on her Dusty Pink Undated Digital Planner.

My Life Planner Welcome Guide

 Along with the planner, you also get this guide to help you navigate through the planner. It contains:

Welcome note from Sophie of BlushingNotes

Table of Contents

Installation Guide

Navigating the My Life Digital Planner

How to duplicate and delete pages in Goodnotes app

Color codes and fonts 

Basic tips on how to customize the pages

Hex Color Code and Fonts

The Hex color code will be provided to you on the Welcome Guide. I just covered it here to protect the rights of the owner.

Check out my other review for Blushing Notes:

Links

Blushing Notes on Instagram

Blushing Notes on Etsy

Shop at Blushing Notes’ website

Buy 2021 My Life Planner now

Use discount code, KYMMIE15 for 15% off on any Blushing Notes’ products!

Notes

This post is not sponsored nor paid by Blushing Notes, I am only reviewing products that I use and love [know more]

The fonts and graphics used are separate purchases and not included in the planner

feedback

What do you love most about this digital planner?

Any questions or suggestions about this blog post?

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[elizabethjournals]

I know, I know, its May and I am just now posting my 2017 overview… I have no excuse, but here it is! Here is an overview of each month’s bullet journal layout in 2017 cover to cover!

This post may contain affiliate links

  [mailerlite_form form_id=20]

    Introductory Pages

These are the pages I put at the beginning of the 2017 section in my notebook.

    January

January and February’s layouts were in a different notebook than the rest of the year, they were also created before I began blogging about my bullet journal. These layouts are incredibly simple and nearly identical.

  January Tools

Essential Gridline Notebook, A5 size

Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip Pens, Tropical & Assorted Colors

    February

At the end of February I had decided to switch notebooks, February is almost identical to January.

  February Tools

Essential Gridline Notebook, A5 size

Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip Pens, Tropical & Assorted Colors

    New Notebook Intro Pages

I decided to go crazy with my new notebook, and in addition to transferring over old introductory layouts, I added some trackers and a title page!

    March

March is the first month I began writing about my bullet journals on Jihi Elephant. I decided to splurge and get myself a new notebook! I was so inspired by the research I did for my Simple Bullet Journal Page Ideas post that I had to re-do the design was using before March. For this journal, I also invested in some new pens.

  March Tools

Essential Gridline Notebook, A5 size

Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip Pens, Tropical & Assorted Colors

Tombow Dual Brush Pens (# 885, 346, 158, 177, 977, 993, 475, N15)

    April

For my bullet journal in the month of April, I decided to make some changes that were much-needed. In March’s spread, I talked about some things that I needed to change and add for April. I listened to myself and made those changes.

  April Tools

Essential Gridline Notebook, A5 size

Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip Pens, Tropical & Assorted Colors

Tombow Dual Brush Pens (# 885, 346, 158, 177, 977, 993, 475, 565, 679, 847, N15)

    May

May’s bullet journal was very similar to that of April. It is simple, short, and organized.

  May Tools

Essential Gridline Notebook, A5 size

Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip Pens, Tropical & Assorted Colors

Tombow Dual Brush Pens (# 885, 346, 158, 177, 977, 993, 475, 925, 847, 992, N15)

    June

There are quite a few aesthetic changes to my bullet journal spreads from May to June. While I was doing my pages for this month, I decided that I enjoyed their functionality but had become bored with the way they looked. So, for June, I got fun and funky with fonts and ever so slightly crazy with colors.

  June Tools

Essential Gridline Notebook, A5 size

Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip Pens, Tropical & Assorted Colors

Tombow Dual Brush Pens (# 885, 346, 158, 177, 977, 993, 475, 925, 847, 679, 992, 603, N15)

    July

July was a crazy month for me with my move to North Carolina taking place and everything that goes down with such a drastic move. Because of this, I had placed a very specific list, and tracking pages smack dab in the middle of my weekly pages. I was also inspired by some bullet journal pages on Instagram and decided to get artsy. I broke out my Tombow Pens and went to work!

  July Tools

Essential Gridline Notebook, A5 size

Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip Pens, Tropical & Assorted Colors

Tombow Dual Brush Pens (# 847, 565, 925, 158, 346, 885, 977, 993, 475, 177, 679, 603, N15)

    August

August’s bullet journal spread was entirely different from the creative, artsy look of July’s spread. For August, I decided to keep it classic and clean looking. I did not stray from color or creativity, I just kept it incredibly simple and functional. With this being the first month in North Carolina, and with it being the month both work and school started, the layouts had very much changed.

  August Tools

Essential Gridline Notebook, A5 size

Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip Pens, Tropical & Assorted Colors

Tombow Dual Brush Pens (# 847, 925, 158, 346, 885, 992, 993, 177, 679, 603, N15)

    September

When I created September’s spread, my goal was to leave a lot of white space and keep it minimalistic. I had just got new fine tip pens and wanted to put them to use. I am not sure that I loved having SO much white space. I definitely improved from here.

  September Tools

Essential Gridline Notebook, A5 size

Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip Pens, Tropical & Assorted Colors

Tombow Dual Brush Pens (# 925, 346, 885, 993, 177, 679, N15)

Paper Mate InkJoy Gel Pens, Fine Point

    October

For October’s bullet journal, I chose to take a completely new approach. Until this point I had not really used tools like stickers or washi tape, I also had not utilized welcome or title pages. However, for October I created a title page that I absolutely love. I also decided to use houseplant stickers, cactus washi tape, and succulent washi tape, as well as houseplant doodles to add personality and color to my weekly layouts. I also decided to add a ton of list pages, check it out!

  October Tools

Essential Gridline Notebook, A5 size

Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip Pens, Tropical & Assorted Colors

Tombow Dual Brush Pens (# 925, 346, 993,158, 177, 977, 847, N15)

Floral Washi Tape

Paper Mate InkJoy Gel Pens, Fine Point

Houseplant stickers

Cacti & Succulent washi tape

    November

For November’s Bullet Journal planning spread, I did an experiment! I bought some letter and number stamps and tried to implement them tastefully. I really like the turnout! The stamps gave it a newspaper feel if you ask me. The theme for November’s spread (other than using stamps), was fall colors so you will see a lot of red, orange, yellow, and brown. Let’s get started!

  November Tools

Essential Gridline Notebook, A5 size

Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip Pens, Tropical & Assorted Colors

Tombow Dual Brush Pens (# 925, 847, 885, 997, N15)

Paper Mate InkJoy Gel Pens, Fine Point

Estone Number Alphabet Letter Wood Rubber Stamp

Washi tape

    December

December’s layout has a central theme: CHRISTMAS! I tried to stick with red, green, and gold. I found this beautiful hello December inspiration (with minor modifications and my own touch of course). This is the simplest and least sparkly page I created for December, featuring a reindeer!

  December Tools

Essential Gridline Notebook, A5 size

Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip Pens, Tropical & Assorted Colors

Tombow Dual Brush Pens (# 847, 158, 177, N15)

Arteza Real Brush Pens Watercolor Markers

Garage sale stamps

Silver & Gold washi tape

Floral Gold washi tape

Pilot Gold and Silver Metallic Permanent Paint Markers

    Want to keep up with my bullet journal daily? Follow my Instagram!!

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  2017 Bullet Journal Cover to Cover I know, I know, its May and I am just now posting my 2017 overview… I have no excuse, but here it is!