#i might change my layout and name and stuff or something

[the-nox-syndicate]

SysNotes devlog 1

Hiya! We're a web developer by trade and we wanted to build ourselves a web-app to manage our system and to get to know each other better. We thought it would be fun to make a sort of a devlog on this blog to show off the development! The working title of this project is SysNotes (but better ideas are welcome!)

What SysNotes is✅:

A place to store profiles of all of our parts

A tool to figure out who is in front

A way to explore our inner world

A private chat similar to PluralKit

A way to combine info about our system with info about our OCs etc as an all-encompassing "brain-world" management system

A personal and tailor-made tool made for our needs

What SysNotes is not❌:

A fronting tracker (we see no need for it in our system)

A social media where users can interact (but we're open to make it so if people are interested)

A public platform that can be used by others (we don't have much experience actually hosting web-apps, but will consider it if there is enough interest!)

An offline app

So if this sounds interesting to you, you can find the first devlog below the cut (it's a long one!):

(I have used word highlighting and emojis as it helps me read large chunks of text, I hope it's alright with y'all!)

Tech stack & setup (feel free to skip if you don't care!)

The project is set up using:

Database: MySQL 8.4.3

Language: PHP 8.3

Framework: Laravel 10 with Breeze (authentication and user accounts) and Livewire 3 (front end integration)

Styling: Tailwind v4

I tried to set up Laragon to easily run the backend, but I ran into issues so I'm just running "php artisan serve" for now and using Laragon to run the DB. Also I'm compiling styles in real time with "npm run dev". Speaking of the DB, I just migrated the default auth tables for now. I will be making app-related DB tables in the next devlog. The awesome thing about Laravel is its Breeze starter kit, which gives you fully functioning authentication and basic account management out of the box, as well as optional Livewire to integrate server-side processing into HTML in the sexiest way. This means that I could get all the boring stuff out of the way with one terminal command. Win!

Styling and layout (for the UI nerds - you can skip this too!)

I changed the default accent color from purple to orange (personal preference) and used an emoji as a placeholder for the logo. I actually kinda like the emoji AS a logo so I might keep it.

Laravel Breeze came with a basic dashboard page, which I expanded with a few containers for the different sections of the page. I made use of the components that come with Breeze to reuse code for buttons etc throughout the code, and made new components as the need arose. Man, I love clean code 😌

I liked the dotted default Laravel page background, so I added it to the dashboard to create the look of a bullet journal. I like the journal-type visuals for this project as it goes with the theme of a notebook/file. I found the code for it here.

I also added some placeholder menu items for the pages that I would like to have in the app - Profile, (Inner) World, Front Decider, and Chat.

i ran into an issue dynamically building Tailwind classes such as class="bg-{{$activeStatus['color']}}-400" - turns out dynamically-created classes aren't supported, even if they're constructed in the component rather than the blade file. You learn something new every day huh…

Also, coming from Tailwind v3, "ps-*" and "pe-*" were confusing to get used to since my muscle memory is "pl-*" and "pr-*" 😂

Feature 1: Profiles page - proof of concept

This is a page where each alter's profiles will be displayed. You can switch between the profiles by clicking on each person's name. The current profile is highlighted in the list using a pale orange colour.

The logic for the profiles functionality uses a Livewire component called Profiles, which loads profile data and passes it into the blade view to be displayed. It also handles logic such as switching between the profiles and formatting data. Currently, the data is hardcoded into the component using an associative array, but I will be converting it to use the database in the next devlog.

New profile (TBC)

You will be able to create new profiles on the same page (this is yet to be implemented). My vision is that the New Alter form will unfold under the button, and fold back up again once the form has been submitted.

Alter name, pronouns, status

The most interesting component here is the status, which is currently set to a hardcoded list of "active", "dormant", and "unknown". However, I envision this to be a customisable list where I can add new statuses to the list from a settings menu (yet to be implemented).

Alter image

I wanted the folder that contained alter images and other assets to be outside of my Laravel project, in the Pictures folder of my operating system. I wanted to do this so that I can back up the assets folder whenever I back up my Pictures folder lol (not for adding/deleting the files - this all happens through the app to maintain data integrity!). However, I learned that Laravel does not support that and it will not be able to see my files because they are external. I found a workaround by using symbolic links (symlinks) 🔗. Basically, they allow to have one folder of identical contents in more than one place. I ran "mklink /D [external path] [internal path]" to create the symlink between my Pictures folder and Laravel's internal assets folder, so that any files that I add to my Pictures folder automatically copy over to Laravel's folder. I changed a couple lines in filesystems.php to point to the symlinked folder:

And I was also getting a "404 file not found" error - I think the issue was because the port wasn't originally specified. I changed the base app URL to the localhost IP address in .env:

…And after all this messing around, it works!

(My Pictures folder)

(My Laravel storage)

(And here is Alice's photo displayed - dw I DO know Ibuki's actual name)

Alter description and history

The description and history fields support HTML, so I can format these fields however I like, and add custom features like tables and bullet point lists.

This is done by using blade's HTML preservation tags "{!! !!}" as opposed to the plain text tags "{{ }}".

(Here I define Alice's description contents)

(And here I insert them into the template)

Traits, likes, dislikes, front triggers

These are saved as separate lists and rendered as fun badges. These will be used in the Front Decider (anyone has a better name for it?? 🤔) tool to help me identify which alter "I" am as it's a big struggle for us. Front Decider will work similar to FlowCharty.

What next?

There's lots more things I want to do with SysNotes! But I will take it one step at a time - here is the plan for the next devlog:

Setting up database tables for the profile data

Adding the "New Profile" form so I can create alters from within the app

Adding ability to edit each field on the profile

I tried my best to explain my work process in a way that wold somewhat make sense to non-coders - if you have any feedback for the future format of these devlogs, let me know!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Disclaimers:

I have not used AI in the making of this app and I do NOT support the Vibe Coding mind virus that is currently on the loose. Programming is a form of art, and I will defend manual coding until the day I die.

Any alter data found in the screenshots is dummy data that does not represent our actual system.

I will not be making the code publicly available until it is a bit more fleshed out, this so far is just a trial for a concept I had bouncing around my head over the weekend.

We are SYSCOURSE NEUTRAL! Please don't start fights under this post

[2024-grimoire-challenge]

January Week 1

Welcome welcome to the 2024 Grimoire Challenge! Time to really get started everyone! This week will have a lot of stuff all jammed in. So buckle up, grab your grimoire and your supplies, and let’s get to work!

Monday

Name your book - this may seem silly and you definitely don’t need to name your book. Not properly at least. Other than “my grimoire” or “book of shadows” or what have you, which is totally fine. But some of us might feel the need to give it a proper title. “The Basil Grimoire” or “Hazel’s Handwritten Workings” something, anything, that ties the book to you and your craft. Make a title page! If you feel so inclined. If not, that’s fine too.

Definitions (New Page) - ritual and spell. Let’s define a few things. Make a page specifically for definitions, that we’ll add to through the challenge. Let’s start with a couple simple definitions. Define spell. And define ritual. Within the confines of magic, witchcraft and your practice. What is a spell? What is a ritual? What are the differences?

Study (herb) - Pick another herb from that list we made, and dig into the details. Make a page for it on its own, or add its info to another page! Whatever works for your craft. The questions to ask for these study prompts are going to continue to remain the same. Where did it come from, where does it grow, how does it grow, what are its mundane and practical uses. What are the myths and legends and stories surrounding the herb? What are its magical properties and why/ how do you think the other information you've learned about it have influenced its magical associations?

Tuesday

Outline/ index (New Page!) - it helped me a great deal to have an index or outline to my grimoire. I started this as a file on my computer as my grimoire grew and changed I could more easily manage it and rearrange it as I saw fit. Then eventually I could make it into a handwritten copy.

Study (gem) - Like our herb prompt, the gem prompts are going to always use the same outline and questions. Where does the gem come from? What is it used for in a practical and mundane sense? What are its physical properties? What are any myths, legends or stories? Where and how does it form? How does all of that relate to its magical correspondences and what does the herb mean to and for you in your craft?

Spellwriting 101 (New Page!) - make a new page dedicated to spellwriting. This is going to be one of those prompts that is focused on you and your craft. How do you write spells? How do you set them up? What components do you use? What is the format? How is it done? What does it require? From materials to timing and circumstances? Write it all out in your lab notebook. Make it a work in progress. Not all spells are going to work out the same or function the same as you perform them, but having a general layout and method helps to focus your practice.

Wednesday

Common tools - What are the common tools in your craft? That is, you don't need to have a list of every single tool ever used in witchcraft, just the tools that you use in yours. Both regularly and less regularly. What are they used for specifically? What purposes do they serve in the magical and practical sense? Are they ceremonial and symbolic or do they serve an actual physical purpose? (i.e. a wand used to direct energy serves many purposes, while an incense burner could literally just be that, an incense burner)

Year outline/ calendar - not everyone celebrates the same days, holidays or even the same holidays the same way. What are the special occasions and days in your calendar? Mark them and when the proper season/ holiday comes around, we can make pages dedicated to those days. This week this will simply be a list of these days, while later we will actually make pages for them individually. Think of it like the Wheel of the Year, Yule to Midsummer and so on. What days are important to you and your practice? Are they actual holidays? Or simply days of power like the full moon? Or is it simply days that are significant for other reasons, like the anniversary of the day you began practicing witchcraft?

Practical - tool usage - practice using your tools. For example if you use a wand. Practice using it to direct energies or whatever it is you utilize it for.

Thursday

Altar design/ work space (New Page!) - make a page dedicated to your altar and its setup. Why are things where they are? The reasoning can be simple as “that’s where it fits” or you can give it a more meaningful reason. Candles in front of or behind something to represent some purpose. Do you have items that represent the elements? Deities? Different sources of power or directionality? Different colors for different meanings? Why is your altar the way it is?

Practical - cleansing space - practice cleansing your space and tools. This is of course a physical and 'energetic' cleansing. Tidy it up, redecorate your space, clean the tools if they have dust or ash or anything on them. Sometimes it is good to have a clean start.

Friday

Personal practices - this is just a thought provoking prompt tied in with the Journal prompt below. What are some of your personal practices that you've brought into your witchcraft? Anything from little habits from your every day life to things brought from religion or family traditions. No matter how hard we try, we carry within us echoes of things not related to our practices into it. And that is totally okay. Recognizing them, acknowledging them, and truly incorporating them can be a huge step toward understanding ourselves, our beliefs and our practices all around.

Journal/ introspective/ meditations - Think about the above and write any of it down that you come to terms with. Self understanding is important in and outside of witchcraft.

Thank you all and I hope this week's prompts aren't too overwhelming! Stay tuned next week for the next set of prompts!

-Mod Hazel

[queenscatorccio]

A Long-Ass Post On Nat's Music Taste (Biblically Accurate)

I have thought about Yellowjackets + music a very normal amount which is why I have this imperfect and probably non-exhaustive but hopefully canon-accurate list of all the music we know Natalie Scatorccio likes (with reference photos.)

There will probably be a pt 2 with some of my own actual thoughts or a Nat-specific soundtrack rant but I imagine this one could be helpful to writers or smthing so I'm posting it as is.

Pictured above, from left to right: me presenting you with this post, me writing this post

FROM NAT’S STORAGE UNIT

'Kevyn's Mix 4 Nat'

'New Order 1987' -> I think this is their 1987 compilation Substance aka Substance 1987

D.O.A

'Crawford Mix' - the 1st Crawford that came to my mind here is the music journalist Scott Crawford who wrote and directed Something Better Change, a documentary about D.O.A's frontman Joey Shithead, amongst other things. In the 80s-90s he covered the Washington, DC punk scene; maybe Nat is an avid Metrozine reader and made a tape based on Crawford's recs? Music nerd Nat confirmation or does someone else have a less convoluted take?

'Halloween Mix'

'Fine Young Cannibals' - This definitely has some double meaning esp since it's p different from her other stuff

Dinosaur Jr. - Without A Sound. It's blurry as hell but imo the layout + colors are a perfect match. Also: methinks this is a strong contender for Nat's fave album/artist; it's the only tape that doesn't look self-made and in the 1x04 flashback Nat and Kevyn Tan listen to 'Feel the Pain' (the album's opener) and he tries to impress her by claiming that Kurt Cobain wanted J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.'s singer-guitarist) to join Nirvana (it's true btw)

'Mix For Nat' (this is the mixtape made by Kevyn that Nat retrieves in 1x04; the connect-the-dots-Os match)

for the life of me I cannot read this label :(

'The Gathering' They've undergone a few genre chances since but the Gathering of 1990s was a metal band

'The Actors/The Gathering' - I'm not certain about. Actors (without the the) is a post punk/dark wave band that I do think Nat would dig but it's presence here is a anachronism; the band was formed in 2012. My money is that "The Actors/The Gathering" is just a lil wink from the set designers

this one I think says "SUMMER 4EVER" but it's honestly anyone's guess

'New Wave Mix' - New Order and Blondie (more about them in a minute) are definitely featured!

'Bauhaus Mix'

the Team Dresch tickets!! Hopefully bi!Nat foreshadowing but could also be set designers calling the Yellowjackets gaywads

Tuscadero (pop punk band with heavy girlgroup influences)

FROM NAT'S TEENAGE BEDROOM

her biggest poster is of Debbie Harry so she's definitely a Blondie fan

a riot grrrl poster (so many headcanons but I digress)

Nat has several Megan O'Neil poster and I have no idea she is. There is a Megan O'Neil on the Yellowjackets crew so it might be a reference to her? Or there is a Meghan O'Neil (Pennie) whose music I think Nat would enjoy. She has a signature dark pixie which this poster could reference - but why would the name be spelled wrong?

Nat's room has a shitload of Sub Pop stickers(??) In the flashback, Nat and Kevyn actually talk about Nirvana leaving Sub Pop, an indie record label, for a major label deal.

MEGAN O'NEIL WHO ARE YOU? She has me crashing out. The poster is v visible during the 1x04 scenes at the Scatorccio trailer so idk why they would make two posters for an artist that doesn't exist. If you have any information about Megan 0'Neil, Schrödinger's missing niche (or I'll feel v stupid) riot grrrl act, please reach out!

a poster for Betti-Cola, Cub's debut album

ASSORTED BAND SHIRTS

In 1x02, Nat wears a Black Sabbath shirt - my best guess is that it's for Heaven and Hell but honestly metal isn't my sandbox so idk

Nat wears a Death to the Pixies shirt (which refers to the Pixies' 1997 compilation album) in 1x02 and 1x03 (pictured)

In 1x05, Nat wears a Pink Floyd Europe '77 shirt - if you want to take this as an indication of her fav Pink Floyd album, the 1977 In the Flesh tour was for Animals (1977) but they also performed the all of Wish You Were Here (1975)

In 1x09 and 1x10, she wears and Amyl and the Sniffers shirt

If you notice mistakes or missing pieces - no you don't! But also feel free to tell me or add on etc

tl;dr: Nat has taste and I need someone to tell me who Megan O'Neil is.

[peachhcs]

first of all i love the new layout!! second, i would love to see a continuation of the girl talk blurb between blaire and samy!

omg thank you!! i wanted to change it up since the holiday season is over :) also yesss i love girl talk. maybe this time blaire asks samy how she deals with being in the spotlight all the time because will’s in the nhl and her brothers

edit: wow this is so longer overdue i’m so sorry �� (and so short i seem to be struggling to write long fics atm) my mack and blaire baes i promise i didn’t forget about y’all

au masterlist

the guys went out golfing and because samy and blaire weren’t that interested in joining them, they decided to head downtown to get brunch together. blaire brought samy to one of her favorite spots since being in san jose.

“this might be a weird question, but how are you so like..chill with all the media and constant conversation about yours and will's relationship?" blaire wondered once they ordered and the waiter took the menus away.

samy flushed a bit, "umm..i don't really know. i guess i'm just really used to it by now that most of it just rolls off my back?"

"but like..were you ever not used to it?"

"i mean, yeah for sure. when quinn and jack started like..making a name for themselves and i was still like thirteen it was definitely weird to see people talking about me online and comparing me to my brothers. i definitely cried about it a few times," samy laughed a little. "but, i guess i just got used to it? or i started learning to not engage with it and just let it go because the people online don't even know anything about my life they're just making assumptions."

"i just feel like being with mack people are gonna start saying stuff about me and i guess i've never been in that situation before, so i don't really know how to handle it," blaire admitted shyly and the brunette's features softened.

"that's okay. it can be really scary at first when thousands of people have something to say about you, but it's good to remember that their opinion doesn't matter like at all. all that matters is what you think and what mack thinks. and if it ever does really get to you, it's important to talk to him or someone so you don't hold it in and let it bottle up," samy reached over to squeeze the younger girl's arm.

"thanks, i appreciate that. i feel like you and will are such pros at just letting things go and not paying attention to any of it."

"it was definitely something we had to learn, but we just try to really separate ourselves from it because it can really get to your head if you think about it too much, you know? i think we always just try and remember that we love one another and the things people say online about us are pretty much irrelevant because they don't know us, you know?"

blaire nodded. she was a bit jealous at how well samy and will were at ignoring the media and comments online about their relationship, but the younger girl knew it was just something that would take some getting used to. she had to remember she was dating a pretty big-shot hockey player nowadays and not one that was just popular with the girls at shattuck anymore.

[finnlongman]

Hi! I found this* blog post you made really interesting (and your dedication really impressive). Reading about how much care you put into presenting the views of the time makes me really look forward to being able to read The Wolf and His King.

I was just wondering how do you initially flag that a word or concept might be anachronistic? Do you have any specific methods to try and find stuff that might be off or is it just naturally spotted from your research and understanding of the period?

*https://finnlongman.com/word-by-word/

A lot of it relies on my pre-existing understandings of the period, which is of course dangerous -- I'm certain that I have blindspots, and will have missed things that others will notice. I pay more attention to the elements that are thematically relevant to the book or more closely connected to my research (these two facts usually go together), and obviously those are the things that I know more about, so that helps; hopefully, things that have slipped through the cracks are also things that are not particularly load-bearing, because if they were, I would have noticed.

Some of it comes from seeing other people discussing related topics (for example, I had no idea that "silhouette" was named after a specific person from the late 18th century until I saw KJ Charles posting about it) and just gradually accumulating that kind of knowledge over several years.

It also comes as a side-effect of other research. For example, I might spend a bunch of time researching castle layouts and sleeping arrangements and so on, and that'll draw my attention to different attitudes towards privacy and personal space, and I might go through the book and look for ideas relating to that. Or I might be researching clothing, and that'll send me down a rabbithole where I chase up terms relating to that (but also to do with materials and material culture more broadly...).

Then very often it's an accident. I'll be looking up a synonym for a word because I've used it too many times in close succession, and I'll be using the historical thesaurus, and I'll realise that there actually isn't a good alternative and in fact the entire simile was a problem. I'm very picky about the rhythm of sentences, so I often find myself looking up words that I didn't have any gut feeling about, just to see if I could find something that sounded better, and discovering extra reasons to change it. A lot of the time I was trying to replace a cliche with something more creative and realised the cliche was, itself, way too modern and relied on concepts the characters wouldn't understand. Idioms and imagery are a key place where those ideas slip in, so starting with those can be helpful.

In general, there's a strong domino effect to it. Partly, this is because the more you settle into a character's mindset and attitude to emotions and other people and so on, the easier it is to spot that something's out of place -- not because it flags as historically inaccurate, but because it seems wrong for that character. And then also, the more attention you pay, the easier it is to look at a word or phrase and go, "Hang on, that looks like a 19th century metaphor about steam engines, I can't use that," and to look at another and go, "Well, that's clearly from Latin, that's probably okay, but let's just check."

Mostly it's pretty laborious, with a high possibility for error unless you're willing to check every single word -- but since the purpose is about getting into the mindset of the character, there eventually comes a tipping point where you can tell quite quickly if something is right for the character and setting. And if it's anachronistic but it's 'right' in tone and attitude, then unless an obvious alternative suggests itself, I'd leave it, and if it's historically accurate but it's 'wrong', then I'd go for something that gets me closer to the character's worldview.

This is the part that's important, not the date a word is attested. The anachronistic use of rosary in the ARCs isn't the bit that matters: the anachronistic attitude to prayer and penance is, and the word rosary is the symptom, not the problem itself. Swapping out the terminology wasn't enough; I needed to rework that whole paragraph to better reflect the theological context of the characters. (And did, so the final version is slightly different.)

[paikothecateater]

Alright, Danish Slaughterhouse rant.

So I first read this fic a while back. It was recommended to me by a friend. Now, they'd recommended me pretty weird stuff before (Iceland X fridge crack ship stuff) so I was a little bit skeptical when I started reading it. I wasn't super into the hetalia fandom at the time, so I had never seen anyone talking about this fic before.

Now I could rant about how fucking disgusting this story is, but that's already been done. This writer has managed to write a story so bad that people looked over some pretty major stuff.

Like how the writing is a fucking crime against humanity.

First I'd just like to say that I mean no hate towards the person who wrote this fic. It was a long time ago and I doubt they still stand by it. I'm sure they cringe at the thought of having been the one to write it. I will not be mentioning their name as 1) I don't even know it and 2) I don't want anyone harassing them.

It's pretty rare to become infamous in your fandom. Especially writing fan fics. The creator of Gutters, Glassmilk (I believe that's their name) made a fic that was so genuinely good and heartbreaking that they became famous among the fandom. The creator of the Danish slaughterhouse however, because famous in the fandom for making a fic that was genuinely so appalling people couldn't help talking about it.

I'll be using the names they gave the characters to make things easier.

I'll go ahead and bring up what is in my opinion a huge literary crime.

The lack of descriptivism.

I'd like to mention that I've written novels before. I've just been unable to publish them due to the lack of resources. It's hard publishing an English novel in an Arabic nation. Regardless, I think I know a thing or two about this whole process.

Descriptivism is something that I personally think is very important for a good story. This story left so much to be desired. All I could imagine for Mathias' house? Flat, solid colours, generic furniture, unclear structure. It had absolutely no character. You could have given it a design that would have reflected his personality and made it easier to understand the layout with just a few sentences. I know describing a layout is tough because it's a little tricky to stay consistent and it gets a bit repetitive in writing, but an attempt could have at least been made.

When we reach the second half of the fic, it becomes very hard to get invested in the suspense of what's happening because the layout is so confusing. Whenever a hiding place is mentioned, it's crucial that the layout is clear because if it isn't then the following questions will always distract from the anxiety: where is this hiding place in the house? Where is it in reference to the place Mathias is at? How escapable is it?

It genuinely gets too distracting.

Next there is character development.

I don't even have to be the one to say that the portrayal of Mathias' character is extremely butchered. Let's not even mention the weak ass motive for all this, but it is so genuinely weird how shit seems to go from zero to one hundred with this shit. More on that in a second.

The characters are genuinely some of the most one dimensional characters I think I've ever seen. Like seriously? How am I as a reader supposed to route for a wooden plank?

Emil is just 'emo teenager with headphones'

Lukas? 'barely mentioned overprotective brother'

Berwald is pretty much the same with 'overprotective father'

Tino 'every single mom in a survival movie'

And of course Mr. Mathias 'kill kill stab stab because pain and misery is fun?'

See? Incredibly one dimensional. At this point, you might as well route for Mathias to get this bullshit done quicker. None of them have genuinely lovable moments.

Peter is a whole other issue, because if you're a decent human being, you're going to be concerned for the child, but it doesn't change the fact that for the first half, he's also incredibly one dimensional.

Then is another huge issue, the red flags.

We all know what eventually happens between Mathias and Peter. The way this is portrayed is so fucking awful.

You're telling me Peter was found injured in a locked office and no one questioned it? Either Tino and Berwald are awful fucking parents or they're incredibly stupid. Lock picking? The absolute fuck? That doesn't even make a little sense. If it was my child I'd be freaking out. I'd immediately nope the fuck out of there because clearly this is not a safe place for my child. All they do is lightly chastise this poor child and move on?

I've never personally been a fan of Nordic ships because I see their relationship as platonic. I also have other reasons for genuinely disliking these ships, but I won't get into that.

That being said, The Peter situation was not the only or first red flag. Mathias is shown very early on to be very disrespectful of Lukas' boundaries and actually assaulted him. It was just brushed over as relationship drama. What even the fuck?

Then there's the situation with Emil. Arguably the worst one ever.

I hate to say it, but the portrayal of both Peter and Emil post the traumatic situation was actually pretty consistent with someone who has actually been through something like this. With Peter, the mannerisms of a victimised child are all present. Which further reinforces the fact that Tino and Berwald are absolutely brainless and I'll get into that in a second.

With Emil there's the conflicting feelings that come with being victimised by someone you genuinely trusted. The initial panic followed by the Internal conflict. When someone is attacked by someone they trust, there's a very common sense of confusion that follows. I'll try my best to explain it as well as I can.

Realistically, he'll have panicked, screamed, cursed, etcetera during the attack, however, afterwards, in a non-adrenalin induced state, his brain would begin to flood with so many things. There's the anger, hurt, sadness about being attacked. There's the devastating fear that this person who he'd trusted his entire life and relied on is now completely severed from his life. The fear that it'll happen again. And the overwhelming anxiety about having to deal with the situation.

I'll try to make a light comparison here.

Imagine you're in school and have to give a speech for whatever reason. You're in the middle of it, when someone suddenly walks up to you, slaps you across the face and insults you in front of the whole audience. Obviously, everyone saw, no one is blaming you, realistically, no matter what you say, everyone is on your side.

However, the pressure to respond to the situation is overwhelming. You have to address it because it happened and everyone knows it happened. You may still be very emotional about it and it may be too sensitive to talk about immediately, or you're just so confused about how to properly respond. Do you get angry? Do you play the saint and pretend it didn't affect you? Do you pretend it never happened? Regardless, you have to respond because everyone wants to know how it affected you, what happened? Why it happened?, etcetera.

This is exactly the situation Emil is in. So what does Lukas do as a good big brother?

He gently and patiently waits for Emil to open up to him while letting him know that he's safe and that he will be believed no matter what-

I'm just kidding, he violently pushes Emil for a response in a way that could only further traumatise him. He makes him feel like his emotional response isn't valid and that he somehow did something wrong instead of waiting until he's ready to talk or even take matters into his own hands and confront Mathias.

It is fucking horrible.

Then when their fight gets louder and the other three get involved (Berwald, Tino and Peter) and Peter finally confesses to having been hurt Tino puts on this whole caring act like 'oh remember how we taught you about this stuff?'

Bitch, what?

So this is a conversation that has happened before. And you still couldn't recognise the signs that something changed in Peter's behaviour? You teach the child about how to recognise when he's being victimised without teaching yourself how to recognise when your child is being victimised?

What the actual fuck?

I'd like to say that during this scene, Lukas feels guilty for the way he approached the situation which, yes, it was bad, you should be guilty, but it's not like he fucking does anything to rectify it.

Emil listens to Peter talking and has to come to the realisation that he was hurt. That his world was crumbling down. Still, Lukas makes no effort to make him feel supported.

Suddenly, this infuriating scene is interrupted by an even more infuriating one.

Berwald is understandably beating the absolute shit out of Mathias. The others run in and watch until Tino screams for Berwald to stop. Why? Because he's scaring Peter.

Hello? Then get Peter the fuck out. Surely this can't be the priority. Peter will survive watching his attacker get absolutely fucked up. I promise you. He will.

I'd also love to point out the sheer lack of fucks given about Emil and how this is affecting him. I'd like to give Tino the benefit of the doubt and say he was also concerned for Emil, but it doesn't even matter.

So like a fucking idiot, Berwald gets off of Mathias and they all start heading towards the door.

I'd like to mention that Mathias having already shot Emil in the leg was even more incentive for them to leave because even if it was an accident, clearly something is not quite right here. Surely Emil would prefer to heal at home and if Lukas was such a good brother he'd insist on taking Emil home.

Anyway, so, Mathias reveals his true intentions and the hunt begins.

Do I have to mention how stupid this is? A hunt? If he did actually have a motive he'd prefer to go for the easy kill, use those weird shock things and just murder them. If he's too sadistic for that he could also just casually immobilise them and torture them, but no, it has to be a hunt. Sure whatever.

As I said, the layout gets super complicated, but that's not the only issue.

He allegedly shot Emil to even out the playing field, but uh... What about Peter? Oh he gets to team up with the others? That's stupid and also doesn't solve the problem. Now you have to run for your life and lug a child around? It's just so damn weird because he was so committed to things being fair and as such shot him in the fucking leg, but Peter can go to hell?

Berwald and Tino are killed off pretty instantly, so I'll immediately skip onto the other two.

Why was Emil's situation so fucking weird? Also, I'm sorry for the weird topic, but how the fuck does the author think piss works? It's such a weird element to include in the story. It served no purpose to the story as Mathias already knew Emil was in the room. It just made it all grosser.

Also, again with the one dimensional characters. You're telling me Mathias never once felt pity?

It would have improved the story if maybe during the scene where he tries to drown Emil and presumes him dead for him to have a moment of remorse. Tear up about the fact that he murdered someone he cared about. It could've made Emil feel like there was hope for him. Just because your character is a monster that doesn't necessarily make them a psycho. It would've enhanced the story, but no.

And you're telling me after this whole situation everyone is just... Fine? Emil and Peter are just playing together? Emil had to abandon Peter to save himself, surely there will be a bit of tension about that.

Also, Mathias' motive is just bad. It's inconsistent with his character and doesn't make any sense.

This is a hetalia fic, no? There is a rule according to the canon that a nations decisions are secondary to their bosses. That being said, I've never met the Danish royal family, but I doubt the words 'go fuck your entire family' has ever left their mouths.

Another motive could've been that he was just fed up with how he was generally treated by the others. It's a weak motive, but it's better than that bullshit.

Also, the populations of the countries immigrating to Denmark because the Nordics are trapped at Mathias'?

Emil has been on long trips to visit south East Asia. His population stayed put then. So how does this work?

Overall, this fic is just badly written. It needs some serious work. It's inconsistent, dull, confusing, appalling and just downright criminal.

[phrogggslayer]

The shitty books have a really cool attraction (if you ignore several completely pointless features that make it a fucking death trap for no reason) called Freddy's Fortress.

It's a tube maze, with slides and climbing stuff and ball pits in it that stretches across the entire pizzaplex, with a lil robot helper guy with foam finger hands and an orange emergency light bulb thing on top of its head. It's called Happs, which stands for something I think but I forget what, and this one little guy travels the entire maze, cleaning and disinfecting it as it goes and helping lost kids find their way back out again. It also closes off any paths in the maze that are damaged or in need of maintenance or whatever, and when this happens, a panel with a mirror on it slides into place and blocks it off. Which ya know... means the maze layout is changing pretty regularly too.

I like to adopt this thing into my own stuff but less uh... death-trappy? Because ya know... Andrea wrote it so it's an absolute death trap for no reason whatsoever. Maybe don't read the Happs story. It sucks.

Anyway, I have a hypothetical on this for you I'll put in another ask, but well. I'd like to hear your thoughts on this attraction? Like, just in general? Do you think it would be a cool thing for the Plex? Would your blorbos like it? Would you like it? I mean, it's got potential, right?

Would you name it after literally anyone but Freddy too cause that man has enough named after him in my opinion smh smh lmao

~@monty-glasses-roxy

That does sound really cool! Sounds like a bit of a hazard in any emergency, or a huge pain in the ass for parents who need to find their kids, but from a kid's point of view it sounds awesome.

Gregory and Cassie would definitely love it! Helpy might enjoy it, but get too scared to go too deep into the maze.

As for who to name it after... I'm not sure! Freddy definitely has enough things named after him. Maybe it could be given a broader name like the Superstar-cade has.

[quibbs126]

Oh yeah, I made this last night

I was complaining yesterday about how I can’t draw, and while I tried and failed to draw traditionally (I think I’ve been out of practice too long and I can’t adjust to the layout of it not being right in front of my face at the same angle, if that makes sense), I decided maybe I can try drawing these guys again

I’m pretty happy with how the main trio turned out in this redesign, I think I was able to give them all distinct looks

Cassidy got some changes, Rasmus pretty much stayed the same other than a permanent ponytail, and Rowan's hair got completely changed. Mostly because I wanted to make his hair have a more distinct shape

I still need to come up with new names for them though. Best I got is Rowan becomes Rusty, but I don’t know for the other two. All I know is that in another world, Cassidy would be Peppermint, or some other variation of mint

Anyways, a while ago I was considering changing the setting of the story to be cowboy themed. It was mostly because at the time, a Discord I was on was making a Cookie Run cowboy AU that I really like, but also because the story never had a clear time period setting. It was part modern day, part fantasy, and I never really got it to be consistent

Though the big problem is that I’m pretty unfamiliar with cowboys and how they operate. Which is ironic because I’ve been living in Texas for over a decade. But like, I’ve never been that interested in Westerns or that cowboy stuff, probably in part because I heavily dislike country music. So I don't really know much about the era other than Victorian times were also happening

I would also have to change some things around so that they fit in the time period, most importantly the whole situation with Rasmus and the others. I'm thinking maybe I can turn that from science experiment to witchcraft and have magic be more of a thing, since they are meant to have magic

I've given a little thought into how the story works now, like that these three got hired either to drive cattle to a certain area or keep watch of a ranch. I guess if they got to travel, then the former, but if I just want them to hang out, then the latter. Former's probably better though, since if I want to make an actual plot, there's your overarching goal

I think I need to do more research on the time period though, so I know what I'm doing. Though also this isn't going to be like, completely historically accurate. I mean these guys are fictional goat thing people with magic powers. I don't think something like the Civil War happened recently, and I'm not sure I want sexism to be a prevalent thing in the plot. And I think I also personally I need that reminder since sometimes I forget that I can give myself wiggle room

In that vein, the cattle are probably also semi fictional, or at least maybe they shouldn't be exactly the same as real cows. I don't know, I feel like it'd be really jarring to have normal cows alongside brightly colored goat people

Anyways I trailed off, back to the actual drawings

So because of the cowboy consideration, I tried to sketch out outfits they could wear. As well as body types (though they didn't turn out as varied as I'd like). Cassidy and Rasmus I think are fine, but Rowan might need more tweaking. I also need more cowboy refs, especially ones that aren't just costumes or AI pictures in Google Images

Then afterwards I decided to start sketching some of the other characters I've made up. Which just so happen to be the parents of the main characters. Who also have names because I came up with the naming scheme at that point

Top to bottom is Periwinkle, Basil and Silver

Of those three, I think Periwinkle turned out the best, but for one thing, she's been in my mind much longer than the other two, so I have a much clearer idea of what she's supposed to look like. And on top of that, I've actually drawn her before, so I know what to change. Basil and Silver are very much first drafts, and first drafts are usually not the best when it comes to designing new characters. No wonder redesigns of characters usually end up better than the original, since you have a base design where you already know what works and doesn't, as opposed to working from the ground up

And with Silver, I made it a point that he and his son don't look anything alike other than both having darker hair, so I quite literally had nothing to work with, unlike Basil or Perri

I'm also realizing that I've made a pattern with the parent designs, namely that all three of the main characters pretty much exclusively look similar to their moms. I suppose you can't tell much here, since Rasmus was born green but got changed via the experimentation, while I drew Silver, Rowan's dad that he looks nothing like, with the mom he does look like not being depicted. But yes, Cassidy and her bio mom are blue, Rasmus and Basil are green, and Rowan and his mom are red

Periwinkle and Cassidy are probably the two who look the most distinct from another, in part because they're two different shades of blue. Which is ironic because in my more recent working of this world, I made it a point that Perri's family has crazy strong genes, with everyone in the family (outside of marriage) is blue. I might have to take that out or just change how this works

I mean with Rowan, I don't really know how to change it, since his dad's family is all in the greyscale, so him being red would have to come from his mom. And with Rasmus, his parents are supposed to be green and red, with the idea that it's plausible that he could turn out brown, while in reality he was born green. But I mean I guess I could turn him a more yellow-ish green? I don't know, I'll figure it out

And uh yeah, I guess that's it. Not really anything that remarkable, but at least I drew something

[themessengervevo]

Hello everyone! Before I begin, I have to say I very much thank everyone who shared my story around. It may not be much, but it could lead to something more. Thank you for doing that.

Since my goal with my original post was to not only address my sudden unfair banning from the platform but to also give attention to other problems with this platform, I decided to give this operation a catchy name of sorts. You can call it

Operation Take That!

or anything else really. Hopefully that will give this movement more of an identity.

In other news though, I may have discovered some very peculiar bugs that affect the Youtube experience for me, and I'll show these in this post to give bugfix suggestions. For the sake of clarity, and also because I like old stuff, I will be showing these screenshots with CustomTube enabled. It's an extension for Chrome and Firefox that changes the look of the Youtube layout to older ones, specifically mid 2014 in this case.

First on my examination will be the home page. For this and other instances, I will be comparing how a banned user sees a page with the same tab but in a container so as to show how a normal user sees the same page. So how does the home page should usually look like? It should look as shown here:

Notice the sidebar on the left. Now lets compare it with the non-container homepage, and see what we get:

You can immediately see how the sidebar is gone. Why? If you can't login into a youtube account, why remove the sidebar? It still wouldnt let you sign in anyway because you are terminated. It is simply unnessesary!

Now lets move onto the watch page, and see how that is different, here is a screengrab of a random video I took from the home page in the container:

Again, notice the sidebar, but also the Like and Dislike buttons and the row of buttons from "About" to "More". Lets also compare the comments section, here is how it looks in container:

Great, right? Now lets see how those two look without container:

Notice how wrong everything looks? The lack of sidebar again, the misshapen Like button, the Save button here is the default one, the Share button has been replaced with a number, and the More button has three dots underneath it. Odd right? Lets see the comment section now:

Oh wait, there is no comment section here, because it's stuck in a loading loop! Again, why does this need to happen when you get banned? This is just unnessesary again!

Here's some other issues that I know of or found that I feel like need to be fixed:

The Like and Dislike buttons in comment sections lead to the sign in, unlike the ones under the video itself.

There's been performance issues for users of Firefox, including an intentional 5-second slowdown and big lag. The lag one in particular seems to be happening to everyone, not just me with an almost decade-old laptop at this point. Some speculate these changes were made by Google as part of a tactic to get non-Chrome users to, well, use Chrome, and see it as just plain being greedy. I think so too.

Occasionally, when I enter the home page from a watch page, the tab assumes I am logged in and shows my pfp and notification bell and all. I can click the pfp to open what would be the menu there, but is stuck in an endless loop. As well, the page im on shows a "Something went wrong" error. Very weird. That needs to be fixed too I think.

Again, please reblog and share this post around to not only hear my story but to hear my criticisms and suggestions too. I might make more of these posts to show how bad Youtube's getting as a platform. Also I am still considering whether to get a Boosty or not. Maybe even a Ko-fi if they allow that. Again, thank you for your support so far, I couldn't be more happy to hear your thoughts on this, and if any of you had or have the same experience I'm having, please reach out!

- Thank you, The Messenger.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2009): Legacy of Suffering

Hey, kids. Ya wanna play some Deum 3 on Doom 2?

…

Okay, it’s not really Doom 3, but… eh… that will do.

G5: Legacy of Suffering

Main author(s): Logan MTM

Release date: November 28th, 2009 (original release)

Version(s) played: updated

Required port compatibility: GZDoom

Levels: 10 (8 regular ones, 1 post-credits and something called LOSINV01)

Now here is something weird from Brazil – Legacy of Suffering, AKA another one of those WADs that released its first part, and nothing else after promising more. In the case of this stillborn WAD series, we also have mixing original Doom games with elements of Doom 3. That, and the shotgun with four barrels (I’ll get to that in the longer moment).

This project started as a combination of two old projects, one from 2006 by Logan himself and 2007’s Dark Base by Maurício Rocks. The plot was different from what we got, there was supposed to be more artwork and even some 3D stuff; so basically, typical stuff that was changed in production.

The plot, meanwhile, happening right after Doom 3, focuses on a super soldier bloke, who got arrested because he was going insane, is now on a moon base, and that base ends up attacked by demons.

Since we will be tackling one of those ZDoom WADs that likes to use a huge chunk of the source port’s features (you know, those smelly wankers), I can only hope that it won’t annoy me as much as many others before it. Let’s take a look.

Disclaimer: Review based on two playthroughs without secret hunting.

You know how Doom 3 was around 75% walking through some dark tech base with occasional trips outside and in hell? Well, in this WAD, it’s, without counting the post-credits map along with taking place on the Moon instead of Mars, always walking through some tech base crap, except it doesn’t feel as dark as the original release of Doom 3.

That doesn’t mean the base looks bad; it looks good, and it has some nice details here and there, I especially like the sixth act with a monorail. I just wish it had more map styles.

The music is… good, I guess? I recognized tracks from Painkiller (I need to replay that game one day) and the remix of Sign of Evil at Act VIII fits like a glove; I just wish it wasn’t that loud (turn down the music volume just in case). Also, and it’s a more personal problem, I listened to so many great MIDIs from the past and future WADs that listening to the music with actual instruments in Classic Doom mods feels off. It doesn’t boil my blood as much as MIDIs.

The design of the levels doesn’t really feel that complicated. Even though the automap doesn’t show the layout (yep, it’s one of those), it was still a far cry from some of the bigger moon-logic crap I’ve played. I still recommend using IDDT on the map (at least on your second playthrough); I don’t think there is a shame in doing that in cases like this.

Our protagonist has regenerating health, so if you want to, you can wait in the corner like it’s another Gears of War or Call of Duty to come back to full health (although it’s kind of slow). I don’t really mind it.

I feel like the ZDoom cutscenes might be the least obnoxious ones I have experienced in ZDoom WADs. Sure, there are moments where it takes control out of you, but these are rather short, there is no annoying, pretentious dialogue, and most of the time, these are rather dynamic; they actually show stuff. You can even outright skip some of the longer cutscenes. It’s like the cutscenes evolved into being passable at worst, and if they are worse, then they almost evolved into this state.

As I mentioned earlier, there is a secret map that you can play after the credits roll. It’s good, I guess? It kind of reminded me of the first trip to hell in Doom 3 (maybe it inspired that map).

Despite its name, Legacy of Suffering won’t really let you suffer with its difficulty. It is challenging, don’t get me wrong (mostly because projectiles are now faster -_-), but it’s not really a ball buster.

It gets interesting since the enemies have some new moves on their sleeves. Shotgunners and Chaingunners can now dash-attack after being hurt (luckily, the latter start firing much later), Pinkies barely feel pain and have a chance to ram at you (spectres don’t get these bonuses), Revenants fire two missiles instead of one (and can fire after throwing a punch), Barons have a chance to shoot three fireballs instead of one, Arachnotrons drop cells after they completely disappear (like all of the other demons), and Lost Souls have reduced health (and new, more annoying sound effects).

The WAD also adds three new enemies to the roster. One is the regular mob – Super Shotgunner, wielding its namesake and having more health than any other zombie (from what I’ve experienced).

The other two enemies are bosses; there is a super Hoovy that has an upgraded chaingun that occasionally fires rockets as well. The other is called Shadow Guardian, which is basically a digitalized Hell Knight from Doom 3, that can be only hurt by plasma, and fires a deadly AOE attack after getting hurt.

Typically for such WADs, you also get new weapons. I mentioned a shotgun with four barrels at the beginning of the review, and that’s what the cannon shotgun is. You can fire from one barrel or from all four at once with the alt-fire; it is also the only weapon that requires manual reloading.

The second new weapon is launcher chaingun (or what the fuck is it called), which you steal from the uber Hoovy. It’s basically a chaingun on steroids with a small rocket launcher attached to it.

Like the old enemies, the old weapons get some changes. You reload the super shotgun slightly faster; there is a small delay before the regular chaingun starts firing; you punch faster but weaker (you can also kick); you can swing your chainsaw now with the alt-fire; and the plasma gun now fires a blue BFG ball with the alt.

Legacy of Suffering is an interesting specimen. Out of all of the ZDoom WADs from the 2000s that sacrifice the fun and gameplay to focus more on the source port’s features, this one feels like it could age the least poorly.

Do I still recommend it? Kind of? It’s worth taking a look at it but not for more than one or two playthroughs at once.

The next WAD on the list is an interesting case since it requires Skulltag to play. I’ll see what I can do with it. If the first map breaks down, I’ll let you know and probably cancel the review of the next WAD.

We will see.

[shock-micro]

i think it's so charming that cassette beasts takes so much from its predecessor, lenna's inception

(spoilers ahead for games i really care about under the cut. go play 'em! or, if you haven't played either, maybe this'll convince you?)

it has a few designs inspired by it, the titular lenna actually shows up as a secret boss WITH A VOCAL MIX OF MULTIPLE THEMES FROM THE GAME AS HER BATTLE THEME WHICH SLAPS, and overall it seems to learn a lot from the game's successes and failures

lenna's inception, if nothing else, was procedural to a fault. the final dungeon is the only one that has a set layout, for example, and the whole world layout down to the name itself is based on a seed. but i dunno, it's a neat little experiment, it's still filled with its own charm despite going to great lengths to parody the legend of zelda at times. the story is fairly goofy, but i like the homages to old glitches and how it turns "going out of bounds" into a real game mechanic. oh yeah, and the music slaps, but i feel like choosing between the 32-bit and 8-bit styles was kinda oversold when the 32-bit is the clear winner.

cassette beasts, in contrast, is far larger of a game, and much less experimental. the world is quite well-designed, and the procedural stuff is kept to places where it's actually warranted. the way to unlock the final dungeon is revealed based on a song, fragments of which are obtained by beating bosses- and the song (along with the location it points to) is actually picked randomly when you first start a save. i love that! it's a nice and natural way to freshen up subsequent playthroughs, complementing its more open-world style and its theme.

the game has a far more involved type system than its inspiration, and far more ways to influence your beasts' types in battle. fitting that, the game has a system for dynamically recoloring your beast depending on what type it currently is! this works in tandem with the game's equivalent of shiny pokemon, bootlegs, which also change the type and color- but if the coating and bootleg happen to be the same, it changes a completely different part. the fusion system also plays into this, with each beast having a unique body and face that are dynamically combined with each other when you fuse, and a fusion power move depending on their types. it's not ai, just smart programming!

i also love the smaller ways it builds on and references its predecessor, like the archangel of capitalism being named mammon in both games, how both "deus ex calibur" and "deus hex machina" are plays on the same trope and are used by the true main villain of each game, how the main female sidekicks both have a lesbian crush on archangels despite potentially being in a relationship with you, and just generally how they criticize the tropes of their respective genres while also adding something unique gameplay-wise.

...both also got updates later on to add new caves? that one might be a bit of a stretch. i'm gonna be real here- lenna's inception is definitely the worse of the two, but i think it's still very worthwhile as a charming experiment that you should look into if you have the time. you all know my opinion on cassette beasts. play the damn game. i've tried so hard to not mention the music and i still did it in the opening comparison! cassette beasts is living proof that monster tamers outside of pokemon can be amazing and unique in both style and gameplay.

[ofthecrowsandcranes]

thoughts of the week

i went into this intending to write a reflection on the grimoire challenge for this week but ended up thinking more about general reflections of my practice instead, so, thoughts:

like i said in this reblog, i'm using this challenge (and a bunch of other stuff) as frameworks, because i haven't really written down much of my practice. most of it lives in my head. i have (2) partial grimoires, one that's evolved into just a notetaking notebook and another that was digital that i don't really use because even though digitization makes it easier to organise, there's something about paper that i really, really like.

so my goal/intention for this challenge is to practice consistency. attempting the prompts that make sense to me, even if for some of them i know they're going to be a rough draft of what my practice ends up being. for the spellwriting 101 one, i haven't even done enough spellwork to know what process works best for me (consequences of being more pagan than witch for the past few years), so i took notes from @breelandwalker's how to write spells post since her process is concise and feels like a good checklist of "did i consider this aspect? am i being specific enough or not?" obviously my methods may change as i do more practical work but having a good starting point is what matters the most

one of my general goals for 2024 was to just Do things, and worry less about the finished product and more about the process. so some of my pages are messy and i don't have a specific order for things. i'm filling in the index/table of contents last so i can use it as a "where did i put this" list instead of a "this will go here" list. in the future, i'll probably use a binder or something with easily insertable pages/entries as a formal grimoire, but for now, i'm recording and practicing and that's what matters most for me, since i haven't done that before. despite four years of doing stuff on and off.

i'm gonna put a cut here because otherwise this post will be Massive but i'm gonna go into more detail about some of the pages/things that i did for reference.

monday

name your book: done! i just called it my spiritual lab notebook, since that's what it is.

definitions (ritual and spell): done! very UPG, but to me a ritual and a spell differ because a ritual is to affect the Now and a spell is to affect the Later. also rituals have more broad intentions vs a spell which has very specific intentions

Study herb: bay laurel! i did a bay leaf wish ritual on new year's day with my family and my mom asked why bay leaves, and i was like "hm, i don't know the specifics of why they're associated with wishmaking" so i added them to my herbs list so i could find out, and then learned it's because they're fucking bay laurel. i feel extremely stupid for not making that connection but! now i know!

tuesday:

outline: done! it's blank, i won't fill it in until the notebook is full

study gem: not done, still trying to decide how to substitute this. i might do tarot spreads instead.

spellwriting 101: done! discussed above

wednesday:

common tools: done! i really only put three things for now, but i'll probably go back and add things as i remember/find new tools. so far i've got tarot cards, embroidery thread, and candles, but in writing this i've remembered bells and jars and beads also

year outline/calendar: done! added the Big 4 (solstices & equinoxes), samhain, lughnasadh, and christmas (since my family celebrates it). will definitely be adding more as i go, but that's what i want to celebrate (or do celebrate) for now

Practical (tool usage): done! did a 3 card pull with my elemental power tarot, since i want to use it more as a reflective tool.

thursday:

altar design/workspace: done! sketched a layout of my current altar + wrote some wishes/dreams for when i have a different space.

practical (cleansing): not done yet—around this part of the week my chronic illness stuff started to flare up, and since cleansing involves actual cleaning for me, i couldn't really do it while resting. it's on my backburner for later.

friday:

personal practices: done! did a quick journal entry in DayOne

and that's all! if i can get to cleansing today i'll do it, but i have many other things to do also, so i'll get to it eventually.

[unlimitedtrees]

u ever heard of Pepsi in Sonic 1

(alternative title for this post: the weird rom hack i made 6 years ago)

hello. at the time of me writing this opening paragraph, it is november 7th, and my old rom hack 'Pepsi in Sonic 1' turns six years old today.

you probably have not have heard of it. if you have, you probably either watched somecallmejohnny play it once, or you ran into it while looking up sonic rom hacks on youtube, or you got a random DM from me asking "u ever heard of pepsi in sonic 1" for no reason other than because its funny.

if you already know me, you know i am bad with words and conversation and stuff. but if you dont, i hope that helps a bit of understanding in why i might randomly ask u if u heard of this weird little rom hack. i am bad with starting a conversation ! and my dumb little sense of humor thinks it's funny to bring up a rom hack that doesnt even represent any of the things i currently do !

anyways, even though i joke a lot about this rom hack now and for a few years even Hated its very existence... i also have a deep love for it, as it was one of the few fangames ive made that i feel were made of pure, unrestrained passion. and i dont think i would be the same person i am now if not for this dumb little hack existing.

so, if u wish.. you can click the little 'read more' thingy to learn a bit about this crazy sonic hack i made when i was like, 13.

Alright, so Pepsi in Sonic 1 is a rom hack of (you guessed it) Sonic 1 that i made in 2016 for the sonic hacking contest. at that point, i had only been making games for 2 years and this was one of my first rom hacks ive ever made...

On the Surface, it looks like just a simple joke hack that replaces Sonic with a can of Pepsi. there's also a ton of other sprites that get changed into random little jokes, with some of the more notable changes being Big the Cat replacing Eggman, Jimmy Neutron replacing the Newtron badniks, and the wrecking ball sprite being replaced by a sprite based off Somecallmejohnny's "amiibo face". The game also has a ton of other silly little jokes, such as changing every level's names to something dumb or changing the level art slightly. And the people who played it pretty much wrote it off as just that... just a weird little joke hack that you may or may not have found funny.

but let me tell u.. there is more to this dumb little rom hack than u think ! one of the most major changes to the original game is that every level has been edited to have almost completely new level design.. and honestly a lot of the levels hold up pretty well. the Are some problems which come from the way they were designed.. for u see, i still didnt know a whole lot so a lot of the levels are built on top of the original Sonic 1 layouts, with some sections in some levels being kept the same, as well as all of the levels being forced within the original size limits of the levels (on Top of me having to deal with all the hardcoded bullshit from certain levels like Labyrinth and Scrap Brain).

So, some levels like 'Not Green Hill Zone', 'Dimps Place Zone', and 'Pepsi City Zone' have some really huge changes to the level layouts, while the rest of the game is still a little recognizable from the original Sonic 1 levels.. but i managed to make enough changes to where the whole game feels wildly different from vanilla Sonic 1. Not Only are all the levels different.. but all of them have a hidden "emerald monitor" which u can find to unlock one of the emeralds. they're in pretty difficult to find places, and when u collect all 6 emeralds they give you extra lives when destroyed. The only problem with them is that you can keep collecting the same emerald monitor in a level by dying... so you could cheat and get all 6 emeralds in one level. Still, it's a nice little thing that i put a lot of effort into making.

another one of the main big things in the hack is the Playable Characters. the main character is just a Pepsi Can who is basically just a sprite replacement of Sonic, However there are three other characters in the game that you can play. there is Pepsiman, who's main gimmick is that he can't actually do Damage while spinning. he's basically the game's hard mode, and you actually have to explore the third act of each level to find an invincibility monitor, as he also can't do damage to the bosses. he is the Running Hero, after all ! his only desire is to quench your thirst.. oh and also he can destroy eggman monitors without taking damage from them so. Yea.

You can also play as Classic Sonic, who is his own separate character and uses sprites from the 8-bit games. unlike the other characters, he actually has his own special move: The Drop Dash. You See, in the middle of the hack's development, Sonic Mania was revealed. So, as soon as i saw the drop dash in that game i just Had to implement it in this game. And Well, with it being one of the first instances of the drop dash in a fangame, it is implemented Very Poorly. But It Exists ! and there's actually secret paths you can take using it in the levels (something i wish Sonic Mania did but oh well..). Something that Classic Sonic doesnt have that the Pepsi Can and Pepsiman have is that they can perform the 'Shield Double Jump', in which you are given the ability to double jump while having a Shield. the double jump is pretty powerful, but it stops your speed. i didnt give it to Classic Sonic for Balancing reasons (AKA: i wanted there to be a reason to actually play as the other characters)

the only other character is actually a very hidden secret character: a Very Broken version of Knuckles. all of his sprites are broken and also i think it plays loud music while u play as him. thats all there is to him LOL!

Anyways. Um Yea. i put a lot of work into this rom hack back then. i was still pretty new to ROM hacking, with this being my first time using a disassembly. so i had to both learn basic ASM aswell as figure out how a ton of tools worked just for this game.. and i didn't even understand how most of the stuff worked by the end of it ! and i spent pretty much every weekend Exclusively on working on the hack. also, i had pretty much No Help with this game, with me having to rely on the Very Old and Outdated sonic retro wiki aswell as old forum posts just to implement the things i wanted (and there's still a ton of ideas i didnt get to implement)

when the game finally released at the hacking contest, i was very proud of it but also very Burnt Out. there was still a Ton of issues with this game... for One, all of the pixel art was pretty Bad. not only that, but my method for implementing artwork was very Confusing and Time consuming, with the different playable characters being a huge hassel as i did not know how to make them have different "mappings", which made making the different characters very restricting. there's also little problems with the level design, such as certain "chunks" being misused at some points and also Labyrinth Zone being not as edited as the other zones

i think one of the biggest mistakes i made with this game is with the jimmy neutron sprite... You See, in the original Sonic 1, the Newton badnik has two variants with different behaviors. one uses the first palette line, which contains the colors used for Sonic and most of the objects in the game. the Other varient uses a separate palette line specific to Green Hill Zone, which gives it a more green color scheme. You See.. the jimmy neutron sprite wasnt implemented until the Very End of the game's development... and i never bothered to check the other variant of the jimmy neutron sprite to see if it worked with the new palette and Um..

Yeah . it is not supposed to look like that. this is something that i didnt realize until awhile ago when i replayed the hack for this post. i feel pretty stupid for not noticing it sooner.

anyways. part of what made me hate this game for awhile is The Humor. you see, when it came out, a lot of the people in the hacking community thought it was Unfunny and Dumb. So, by extension, i also started Hating it for being a Dumb and Unfunny rom hack. And well... i made this hack when i was 13, so there Are a lot of dumb unfunny stuff in this hack, like replacing the Points sprite with 'GAY', or having one of the sprites be of ken penders' face.

a lot of things in this hack havent aged well, but i think ive grown to accept this hack's existence. its one of the first things ive made that got Some sort of public knowledge, even if still very few people have played it. And i think, if it werent for me making this hack and joining the hacking community, i wouldnt have ended up in the crazy situation i am in today..

i may joke about askin people if theyve heard of pepsi in sonic 1, and although i would prefer if people checked out my newer stuff, i also hope at least Some One, Some Where, can appreciate the dumb little hack i made. this hack was very important to me when i made it, it was made before i even fully interacted with the hacking community. it has all sorts of dumb little ideas that i tried to do despite all the restrictions i had.. and it was a little soul crushing back then when no one payed much attention to the game i spent Months working on. nowadays, i think ive come to accept being a niche little game dev.. but also i cant help but wonder if there are people out there who like my strange little creations as much as i do...

anyways. Idont know. i probably am missing out a lot of things that i wanted to say. this whole thing is probably incomprehensible (i am currently writing this paragraph at 1 am on November 13). it has been Very Hard for me to Do Things or to even Write Down my thoughts on things. but i hope you appreciate this little thing i wrote about the thing i made.

Oh, And By the Way, pepsi in sonic 1 is open source on github. mostly for archival reasons but if for some reason you wish to mess around with it... it is there for u to do whatever u want with it. Lol.

that is all. goopbye

[paradoxcase]

This reblog of this post came across my dash yesterday, I casually looked this up, and while this is pretty strange, I'm hard-pressed to see where the scam actually is.

So this is the original article about the girl who supposedly names Chinese babies, who is not this lady and whose name is Beau Jessup, from the BBC.

Then Buzzfeed has this article about some questionable things they see about this girl's website.

It's worth noting that several other usually reputable news sites also ran stories similar to the BBC's, and as far as I can tell, none of them have been redacted in any way, and also as far as I can tell, Buzzfeed is the only organization calling this out at all. That doesn't necessarily mean that Buzzfeed is wrong, but I'm just pointing that out.

The Buzzfeed article doesn't really outline how this is definitely a scam, it just points out some odd stuff about the website. IMO, stock photos on a website put together by a teenager is not really a red flag of any kind - Buzzfeed seems to think that some of the photos are meant to be pictures of "employees" working for this girl, but like, she was 16 and all of the other articles are presenting this like she is doing this on her own, and not actually running a company or employing anyone, other than hiring a freelance web developer to make the site. (The Chinese text on the site claims that she is the CEO of a company, but does not mention any employees. Or rather, that's what it did claim at the time of the Buzzfeed article - there are no longer any stock photos on the website and the layout seems to have changed since then.) One interesting thing Buzzfeed does find is that the website is owned by her father's company - they claim there's an actually completely reasonable explanation for why this is the case, which is that you have to own a Chinese bank account to get a Chinese domain name and she can't get a Chinese bank account because she's 16 and lives in the UK. That sounds totally believable to me, and either Buzzfeed didn't discover this was false, or they just didn't check at all. The father's company is also about educating Chinese people about western culture, so sure, it seems like maybe it's not so much that she is doing this on her own as that her father is actually running this.

Except... the website doesn't actually seem to be doing business. According to what Buzzfeed found, it didn't have much traffic according to Alexa, and most actual Chinese people were not aware that the website existed until after it was reported on. Also, the number given for the number of babies named is impossible if you are going with the idea that this was done by one person in the span of time during which the website's domain name was even registered, but a CNBC article is claiming that the generation of the actual names is done automatically using a fairly simple database lookup, so she doesn't actually have to do this manually (and if you go to the modern 2024 website, you can indeed get a list of names with just a few clicks). It looks like they put in the absolute minimum amount of effort necessary to get the website on a Chinese domain name and visible in China and that might have been it.

So, if the website is not actually doing any business and no one who can read the language its written in knows it exists, it's hard to see where this could be scamming anyone. Was it just bait for news articles like this? The articles don't even mention her father's company, so it's hard to see what the point of that could be. Is it a front for something? Maybe they were hoping the news coverage would make Chinese people aware of the website and hook the first clients, but like, the father already runs a business targeting Chinese people, so you would think he would have no trouble getting his daughter's site out there. Was this just a ploy to beef up the daughter's future resume? Or, maybe Alexa and/or Buzzfeed was wrong about the site traffic for some reason, and Chinese people are in fact using it. I have no idea. It's kind of strange, mainly just because of the site traffic stats, but I think it's probably not a scam. The technical details of what the CNBC article describes her doing with the automatic name choosing system are simple enough that it would probably actually be more effort to set up a scam than just write an algorithm and populate a database to do what she claims she's doing.

I wish this was my job.

[fmp2owilliambulmer]

Poster development and ideas

I want a cool stylized poster using an actual picture of my sculpture and using various tools in photoshop to give it a cool stylised look. As such, I looked at a few old movie posters and some previous student work for reference before I took the pictures.

This stood out to me most and I knew I wanted to create a similar effect on my own work. I also wanted to make it a warning or something informative to give people directions in case of disaster, similar to how this student did it.

These are all posters from the Left4Dead game series, which is a world ravaged by an aggressive zombie virus that mutates people into various types of infected and turning most people into violent sprinters. This is one of the first things I thought of when wanting to make a poster with similar.

As for real world examples, Polio is up there with one of the scariest diseases I could think of and so I had a look at some of the posters that might have been around during that time for some inspiration on layout, slogans and any other relevant design elements. I particularly liked the "Research will mean Victory!" slogan and the guidelines on the left poster.

I also looked at older stuff from the world wars mostly regarding slogans that discouraged careless conversation and sharing of secrets.

Starting off the creation of the actual poster, I took a few pictures and played with lighting and sprayed water over it in an attempt to highlight certain features. The above image is the one I like the most and want to take into photoshop to manipulate.

I applied a filter using a "cutout" style and it gave a similar effect to the previous students' poster further up.

Once I achieved my ideal effect, I moved onto gradient mapping to mess around with shadows and colour overlays.

I put a few different combinations of words into google translate until I got a name I liked, then found a couple of fonts that I thought would fit. I wanted something that matched the serious nature of the proposed creature for the headline and something more relaxed for a slogan or tagline.

I brought it all together and changed the gradient mapping on the sculpture, which left me with something that I thought brought a satisfying contrast to the yellow background and the red highlights.

After some slight adjustments and spell checking, this is the finished product. The simple colour palette and use of different fonts all comes together to create an effective and eye catching poster with a simple but satisfying set of contrasting colours.

[rootvegetableboy]

cm dev log #11 - september 2024

hi everyone! i hope you all had a fabulous september. i’m posting this two days earlier than normal because i’m getting top surgery tomorrow (yahoo!!!) and i expect to not have much energy on the 1st. i’ve had a pretty busy month with personal life/surgery prep things so this dev log is going to be fairly light on actual game content; instead, i’ve prepared some concept art i thought you all might be interested in!

CHARACTER SKETCHES!

a lot of what i worked on this month was stuff that i can’t show you: namely the script, the story’s outline, this world’s timeline, figuring out emotional beats & thematic through lines, etc. but i also did some character sketches: behold, These Guys!

alda is the player character, which you may have already gleaned if you’re a Project CM Certified Lorehound. also depicted here are thea and lyle; thea is a fat lesbian with a huge sword that can & will kick your ass. lyle is thea’s best friend/resident pretty boy and is the #1 women’s wrongs supporter. he’s extremely emotional, chaotic, and he always wants to see the best in people; thea is a lot more restrained, logical, and direct.

i love them all a lot. i wanted to have digitally drawn portraits of all three of them ready for this dev log, but my arm started cramping up, so i only have thea’s… anyway, i’m really excited for you to meet them :)

ENEMY SKETCHES!

i only have two enemies in the game right now, but i’ve been cooking up a lot of other guys to fight! here are some regular-tier (not mini/bosses) enemy concepts that i’ve been playing around with.

i’ve also been sketching out a particular boss idea… not much to say here lest i say a little too much, or lest i end up deciding to change something down the line. but i am very excited for you all to meet her, as well >:)

UI… SKETCH…ES?

this is probably only exciting to me, because no casual player should be paying much attention to the layout of the user interface. long-time followers of my development logs may recall that i have a pretty unique save/load system in place for this game; i’ve been sketching out different ideas for how i want it to look on paper, because it’s much less time consuming to do a little drawing as opposed to spending two hours coding something only to realize it doesn’t even look that good.

actually, this sketch harkens back to a drawing i did over a year ago, when i was first starting to conceptualize how i wanted the game to look:

things have turned out pretty different from the initial concept i had in mind while drawing this, but it’s still really beautiful, so i’m glad i’ll still be able to use the basic layout in some way!

that’s all i have for this log. i’ll see you all in november for my one year anniversary of development <3 i'm so excited for this little project's birthday!

see you then!