#or pay with my sanity

[xia0ming56]

GUESS WHAT FINALLY CAME AFTER FIGHTING AB TAX FEES FOR A WEEK!!!!!!

[bennetsbonnet]

'Go to hell' is basic. 'I hope one of your favourite characters in all of fiction constantly gets their personality and motivations misrepresented in posts that go viral online, leading to persistent misunderstanding of them as all of their flaws are excused and their character arc is flattened' is real. It's possible. It's terrifying. It happened to me. Again.

(Obviously not my screenshot as for starters I wouldn't 'like' such a thing... but anyway I quit that hideous website long ago. This is yet another terrible Mr Darcy take courtesy of Pinterest... why is it always on there that I find these horrendous takes?!)

At what precise point in the narrative was Mr Darcy ever shy?

He certainly seemed to have no problem with speech when it came to insulting Elizabeth at the Meryton assembly when he publicly insulted her, nor was he so overcome by 🥺social anxiety🥺 that it prevented him from making it abundantly clear that he was singling her out as the subject of his disparaging remark:

'Which do you mean?' and turning round [Mr Darcy] looked for a moment at Elizabeth, till catching her eye, he withdrew his own and coldly said: 'She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me; I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men...'

But Darcy was not simply awful about Elizabeth in her presence. Oh no, he was also quite happy to insult her looks to his friends;

Mr Darcy had at first scarcely allowed her to be pretty; he had looked at her without admiration at the ball; and when they next met, he looked at her only to criticise. But no sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she hardly had a good feature in her face...

As well as making Elizabeth and her family the butt of his jokes, as Caroline Bingley later informs us:

'I remember, when we first knew her in Hertfordshire, how amazed we all were to find that she was a reputed beauty; and I particularly recollect [Mr Darcy] saying one night, after they had been dining at Netherfield, "She a beauty!—I should as soon call her mother a wit."'

Nor did Mr Darcy (who we are explicitly told has no difficulty making long speeches) have any problem with telling Elizabeth to her face exactly how far he considered her beneath him during his proposal to her:

[Darcy] spoke well; but there were feelings besides those of the heart to be detailed; and he was not more eloquent on the subject of tenderness than of pride. His sense of her inferiority— of its being a degradation—of the family obstacles which had always opposed to inclination...

All while he insulted her intelligence as he insisted that he's Such A Catch that he could have easily flattered his way into her heart:

These offenses might have been overlooked, had not your pride been hurt by my honest confession of the scruples that had long prevented my forming any serious design. These bitter accusations might have been suppressed, had I, with greater policy, concealed my struggles, and flattered you...

Idk... he doesn't seem so shy to me!

The only way any of this behaviour could be accidental was if Darcy was a full-time somnambulist. But given that he doesn't use that excuse in his letter, I'm inclined to believe that wasn't the case...

Also, I feel like shy and aloof is sort of a contradiction. Shy people are less inclined to be outgoing and talkative by their very nature, but it does not necessarily follow that they are rude and if they are, innate shyness is no excuse to hurt anyone's feelings. To be aloof, to me, seems to be a conscious choice rather than merely someone's nature. So, while I would agree that Darcy is aloof, he absolutely knows how to speak to people; he knows how to be polite. But he chooses not to be, because he thinks everyone else is beneath him...

Mr Darcy's choice to be rude and treat those that he viewed beneath him with utter contempt, as they were not worth the effort it would require from him to simply be civil, is such a fundamental aspect of his character. It is absolutely vital to grasp if you are ever to fully appreciate Pride and Prejudice for the masterpiece that it is.

Otherwise there's no pride and no prejudice... so what are we left with... 'and'? Doesn't exactly sound like a page-turner to me...

[respectthepetty]

Mark is obviously gorgeous and knows how to act, but I don't care what he says about Sweet Tooth, Good Dentist! I know my colors and these two cannot be purple x green, right?

I know Sant is wearing an odd combination of colors in episode two @poetry-protest-pornography, but J(w)ay is in blue.

And he drinks regular brown coffee.

While Sant enjoys a colorful reddish sweetdrink.

So I don't think Jay is purple. He has to be a reliable and intelligent Boring Boy.

And Sant is the Pastel Person who is about to fall in love with him!

Jay is already giving his heart to Sant multiple times.

And now they are sitting on rooftops surrounded by pink.

Sharing traumas and promising to never leave each other's side.

So even if Sant was too drunk to remember all of this, I know my colors, and I know the pink = 💕love💕

And Jay is in deep love with Sant.

Like, letting Sant sleep in him after giving him all his heart beer, deep in love.

And I also know that they cannot be purple x green! They are pink/purple and brown /blue!

So even though Sant is in green next week, Jay is still in blue, so now I'm even more upset that Mark is making me doubt myself!

Can't even focus on who the hell Jeng is because I'm so perturbed by Mark's color theory!

TAKE IT BACK, MARK!

[meadowlade]

🍊 Q1 June Update: A Little Something About My Modding Experience So Far

This isn't something I talk about publicly, but I feel like I finally should: recent attitudes about my mods have really solidified my decision to not provide any tech support whatsoever anywhere outside of their respective mod pages - this includes the official SDV Discord server - and only if my directions in the pinned post are followed.

This is going to be a bit of a ramble post, so I'll keep things under the cut:

🍊 How It Started...

Cozy Rustic Farmhouse is by far the most popular mod I've ever created. I'm happy with that of course; I put in a lot of effort to make a notoriously janky kind of map mod, and it turned out great. Farmhouses are still cursed, even with the mod author-aimed features added in the 1.6 update, Content Patcher's new powers, and the valiant efforts of certain mapmaking framework authors, so this is kind of a huge deal to me.

I'm happy with what I've achieved, and I'm happy that people found joy in using this mod. It certainly boosted my popularity and I have a bigger audience now, and that's great! I'm happy that motivated me to make even more mods. However, I am NOT happy about the increasing amount of user incompetence I'm seeing in my comments and bug reports.

Within 5 days of release, Cozy Rustic Farmhouse gained just about 100 new comments, and that was overwhelming. Quite a lot of those comments are people asking why there's issues with the mods and reporting "bugs" in the comments (liable to be buried and forgotten), which... turned out to be a case of "not reading the mod description".

So I shut down the Posts section, and set up a pinned post that was henceforth copied across all of my mods' Posts section: an instruction on what to do in the event of a bug, and a warning statement that I reserve the right to ignore or delete reports that either don't follow the instructions I listed or can be solved by reading mod descriptions, mine or otherwise a dependency's.

Alas, the problem did not stop despite my efforts.

🍊 To Bug or Not to Bug

Here's the thing: modding is a huge world. Not everything is going to work with each other, and that's okay; as a user, you're allowed to be concerned that something is potentially gamebreaking, and mod authors are allowed to not want to accommodate for incompatibilities, because we do this as a hobby and out of passion.

However, the least you can do as a user is to read the mod description thoroughly. We put in a lot of effort there not just to market the features of what we ship out (as much as I loathe to describe mods as a product or especially the dreaded term 'content', we do need to do a little marketing work here and there), but also for the sake of users. Config options, installation instructions, potential conflicts and compatibility issues, known issues... it's all important info!

When an issue is encountered, I really wish more people followed something like these steps when finding a bug:

Read the mod description again, and check the Compatibility or Known Issues section. Make sure it's actually an issue with the mod you're going to report to, not your mod loadout (e.g. accidental conflicts).

Else, read the description of that mod's dependencies and their Bugs section to see if there's any similar issues.

Else, check the mod's Bugs section to see if someone else has reported a similar issue. On this note, "+1" or "bump" or "me too" does absolutely nothing unless you provide a SMAPI log like the original reporter.

Once you're sure it's an issue with the mod and there's no other similar reports, make your complete report. A SMAPI log is mandatory for a proper diagnosis; even if there are no error messages, a log displays your entire modlist and trace-level logs where mod authors can track what changes are made where by which mods.

Following these steps makes things not only more pleasant for everyone involved, it ensures your issues can be diagnosed and resolved promptly. A SMAPI log is the bare minimum but images of the issue will help as well!

Also, and I can't believe that I had to add this to my pinned posts, if you are having VISUAL issues you need to send VISUAL PROOF of said issue. Mod authors can't see what you're seeing on your screen. We sure as hell can't read your mind either.

🍊 Writing Woes

Writing the mod description is a lot of effort, and a special kind of effort for ESL people like me. As fluent as I am, English still is not my primary language and stuff like implied tone, technical terms, turns of phrases etc. can trip me up sometimes. And as an ESL person I know how frustrating it could get to not be able to comprehend stuff due to language barriers, so I take care to explain things as simply as possible.

I've dabbled in what I do for quite a while. Suffice to say, I know what I am doing, and I can generally immediately pinpoint the cause of a bug (unless it's conflicts caused by a mod I'm not aware of that patches something that mine also patched). If I don't, I will give follow-up questions or instructions to better diagnose/solve your problem.

Because of that, you will notice that I never use the word "please" when giving these instructions. It's because I am not requesting you to follow my instructions, I am telling you to do so because I know that's how we can take one more step towards solving the bug.

Does that make me sound curt? Definitely. Do I care? No, because in the end of the day you (general you) as a user are the one having the problem, I offered my (steps to reach the) solution, but then you don't do as I say, so feel free to have your issue remain unsolved. You may request help from someone else then - maybe in the modding tech support channel in the main Discord server - but good luck getting anything fixed if you don't follow the troubleshooting instructions they give you.

My experience also means I can confidently say that 8 times out of 10 a "bug" is actually a PEBCAK. And I have put a warning about this, so in the event of your concerns being ignored for weeks or even immediately deleted, you can assume that I have read your comment/report but deliberately ignored it because either 1) it's not a real issue, or 2) it's answered in the mod description.

🍊 ... How It's Going

I really like making mods for Stardew Valley. I like seeing people be happy about my mods. I read your comments, all of them. I pretty much check Nexus and this blog daily to see if there's anything.

I may be quiet, but know that I greatly appreciate all the nice comments you guys leave. And those from my fellow author friends, I always appreciate your support and enthusiasm during the working stage.

This also means that I read all the inflammatory and entitled comments I get on occasion.

I've had someone call me an asshole (more or less) because I deleted their "bug" report and publicly declare they won't be using my mods again. The report I deleted because... I warned that I would delete. Because they didn't read the config options. Which, okay, whatever suits you, because not using my mods won't impact my livelihood. This is a hobby, after all.

I've had someone deliberately misinterpret my instructions for an issue they're having, then turn around and say I'm not being clear and I should be clearer "next time", which I took as especially condescending because of the ESL thing and the fact that I spend a LOT of time writing up my descriptions and instructions.

I've had quite a bit of cases where people share/ask around with screenshots of my maps (especially Cozy Rustic Farmhouse) asking why it appears 'broken' or 'messed up' - I do not appreciate that wording because it sounds like I'm being accused of shipping a broken mod, when it's because I know for a fact they did not know a neat little Recolor config option exists for certain mods, which can be solved by... reading the mod description! Again! Why does it all come back to that!

The most recent case is someone DMing me just to say that they've read my replies to "people asking nice questions" - which in practice ranged from "could've been solved by reading" to "your mod does not cater to my specific tastes and you must make an effort to fulfill this" - and conclude that I must be a miserable person. This, I find hilarious because modding is actually going really great for me. In fact, I am presently more miserable about my consistent skill issue as Dante despite nearly 10 years of playing the Devil May Cry games.

All of the many, many, many non-issue "bug reports" I collected had gotten so bad that I genuinely get excited whenever someone reports a real issue. This is a problem but at least I'm getting some entertainment from debugging I guess?

🍊 Some Parting Words

All in all, it's been a ride, and I'm so glad I've had practice in not taking things to heart. Thank you, my thesis supervisor professor in uni (except you're actually incredibly skilled and helpful, just Loud and Harsh in wording). Also, nobody I encounter online will be as scary as my professor going on one of his tirades, I think, so I'm good.

If you made it this far through this (probably my only) rant post, thanks for reading. For the folks on Tumblr, thank you for consistently being nice and encouraging and enthusiastic, you're all very motivational. It's really filled my dark soul with light! (light! light!)

Until next time! 🧡

[scoriarose]

Does anyone know what kind of worm this is?

It burrowed out of my plant pot.

[leafdragon16]

Sketchbook Friday #23

Alternate Title: OH GOD HE’S GOT ME SOMEONE HELP M

Alright so it’s been over a year since I posted one of these (HOW) but I have been trying to draw regularly again so here we go

Vehicon practice for an upcoming AU sketch :)

Read through almost the entirety of IDW and I cannot stress enough how fast I’d die for Nickel if she asked me to

And speaking of IDW

GET HIM OUT OF MY BRAIN OH MY GODD

IT’S OVERLORD HOUR 24/7 MAKE HIM STOP

[charmac]

hi charmac i would just like to thank you for your service to the sunny community i don't follow any of the main cast on ig for my own sanity so it's awesome to be able to get such thorough updates on here!! was also a very helpful resource for learning sunny lore/cast lore & controversy when i first joined lol so thank you!!

Thanks back at you, I'm glad there is an audience to share and discuss with :)

[deus-ex-mona]

me:

my phone screen:

[3-aem]

my toxic trait is picking up random hobbies on a whim like today i went shopping for a cardigan but found No cardigan i liked and so i naturally decided that i can just knit one even tho the only thing i have ever knit was a 8” by 3” rectangle in 5th grade that just looked so pathetic-

[zakiyah]

.

[avichor]

updated my rules! under the cut so yall don’t need to search for it

IMPORTANT: i understand some people put deadlines on when they expect interactions, but i operate incredibly slowly if the expectation is on me to initiate. if we are mutuals, i have every intention of interacting with you both ic and ooc, it just takes me longer to write, and that could take up to several months. i try to make up for it with dash interactions ( e.g. liking your posts, commenting, sending memes, etc. ) i will not adhere to any deadlines as it makes me feel pressured, as if my time with my hobby is a job, and makes my reaching out to you feel inauthentic. if you feel it is taking too long, you are more than welcome to initiate interactions with me! i always reply, just slowly. interactions are a two - way street. i never ignore anyone on purpose, if i'm active on dash it's just because it's easier to be " brain - empty " and i'd want to provide a substantial, sensible response for you, especially if we're plotting. i'm also a big believer in building community, curating a space where it's fun to vibe on dash. doesn't necessarily mean we need to write immediately. <3 ty!

[phangays]

Have mercy on my soul please

[the-blossica-fan]

Kantilda

No bc this is 100% percent Canon. Especially when they reunite again and Matilda just says "Wait... Is that my wallet?!"

They're so cute they should have an emotional connection with one another (and stop stealing wallets)

Imagine they're on a date that Kanjira planned, she's paying for everything and then Matilda notices something. She's paying with HER money.

[gqhastlyqueer]

@kane5-5

[augustsgrass]

this parallel… im unwell

[gasstationpopcorn]

I hope kris goes through every day remembering that someone somewhere out there wants to fuck his dad. I hope he never forgets that.