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#2016 resolutions
tigresslanzhu · 8 months
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New Moon Scale
Buster: [standing on the scale in his office] I’m gaining weight…
Suki: I’m not surprised. Every time someone brings in cookies, you eat them all so that Artica and Nooshy don’t get to eat any.
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lailuhhh · 8 months
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Jack + Power + Trust
Being able to do a job without having to be worried about hostiles getting the jump on you required an immense amount of trust, and Jack was pretty sure he lost Mac’s completely
Or
Mac gets shot
Read it here!
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not be deliriously flipping through the hetalia tag to try and stave off sleep and not wanting to do any more calendarizing or budgeting
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specters · 1 year
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going to talk to my cousin this weekend abt figuring out a way to come out to my dad. i genuinely just don't know how he feels about trans people because i see him maybe twice a year and we just don't talk about this stuff. & sometimes i feel stupid for worrying bc people tell me i don't see him anyway so why should i care but he calls me every day to check to see if i'm okay and i don't want to lose that.
i sometimes think abt how much loss we've experienced as a family these past few years with multiple siblings tragically passing and wonder if these experiences might shape his reaction but like... my moms experience w loss did not stop her from pushing me away. so i feel scared and stuck and i hate how reactions to this specific thing is so impossible to gauge bc sometimes the people you think are going to be good about it bc of past experiences just. aren't
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brynnmclean · 10 months
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y'all, I feel like I've said this a lot, it is truly a joy to be a GM, but I am so fucking ready to get out of the chair and be a player again
#the goalpost keeps moving#i think i have 10 more sessions in me max#those sessions will be PACKED. have to have a mini boss fight. the breaking of a curse. the boss fight. some kind of arc resolution#that will be player driven! whatever they want to do with relations between two groups before they go north!#and THEN the long awaited audience with gil galad to hopefully broker some kind of alliance between them and tar miriel.#winter will arrive and it will see them either at sea or in lindon. hoping for lindon but they could fuck up negotiations for sure.#the problem with my notes tbh is that there is a lot of stuff in my brain but not a lot on paper#anyway. christ. what is it like just showing up to a d&d session with a character sheet and a notebook.#AKB will be 3 years old in january#i think i'm still in the hot seat until april#i love this campaign. i do i really do. but hoooooo boy. i want a real break.#this last hiatus doesn't feel like it counted because it was schedule driven and i still have to keep things spinning in my mental space.#not to mention no one GMed anything in the meantime#there was some poll recently that was about being a player for a long form campaign like what type of characters have you played#and one-shots and campaigns that fizzled out <3 sessions in don't count#i looked at that poll and was like well damn. i haven't been a player in a long form campaign since probably... 2016. GURPs 4e.#wait that's not true-- the 5e/Star Wars Saga ed hybrid campaign that was a mixed bag. scoundrel ship mechanic zabrak life.#ha! checked my notes! that ended in july 2022#i feel like that one barely counts though because my PC was wrangling the group to keep us on task (frustrating. i am a plot hound player)#these tags are out of hand#i'm just tired and struggling with stat blocks nbd#to be deleted i guess#do i need a loremaster tag?
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skeletalheartattack · 10 months
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My computer is like 8 years old and runs lethal company fine. I think it might hate hosting but the graphics are well optimized and low in the first place
that's what i was thinking, though i had someone send a few messages my way that they weren't certain my computer could run it. granted they don't really know anything about my setup (nor do i really, beyond some basic stuff).
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kuromi-hoemie · 1 year
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where are the local cute puppy bois 。⁠:゚⁠(⁠;⁠´⁠∩⁠`⁠;⁠)゚⁠:⁠。💕 i could be soooooo good as a foster mom i would take care of them. spoil them even if i could.
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filosofablogger · 9 months
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Some Thoughts As We Bid 'Adieu' To 2023
I just spent two hours working on a post for today … it’s still not finished, and as I read back through it, I decided it was simply too dark for this morning’s post.  It’s New Year’s Eve, a time when we should be looking ahead, not through rose-coloured glasses, but also not through glasses so dark that they filter out all the light.  I am a realist, which sometimes makes it hard for me to “look…
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ayo-edebiri · 2 months
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THE GOOD PLACE (2016 - 2020) I 2.02 Dance Dance Resolution
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suppermariobroth · 9 months
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Mario's New Year's resolutions shared by Nintendo of America's official Facebook account in 2016.
Main Blog | Twitter | Patreon | Small Findings | Source
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richardmhicks · 2 years
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Always On VPN and Split DNS
Always On VPN and Split DNS
Split DNS, sometimes called ‘split brain’ DNS, is when an organization uses the same DNS namespace internally and externally. For example, the internal Active Directory domain name is example.com, so internal resources are accessed using a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) like dc1.example.com. Additionally, external properties such as mail and web services use the same namespace so that a…
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txttletale · 6 months
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i saw an old post of yours about racial coding where you mentioned “the taako wars.” i tried looking it up and couldn’t find anything. i know who the character taako is, i’ve listened to TAZ, and i know that in the podcast griffin refrained from making Lup’s full name chalupa because that could be stereotypical, but what were the taako wars? were they related to that or am i going in the wrong direction
so taako (ik you know this but i'm explaining for the layman) was a character on the adventure zone, a comedy d&d podcast. his name was taako taaco and he was on a quest to invent the taco. pretty typical d&d podcast comedy stuff.
& then fans, who, to be fair to them, were probably just being well-meaning but dumb teens with a warped idea of 2015-era Social Justice Concepts, decided that this meant that taako was mexican-coded (because his name was taako) and that therefore it was racist that he loved stealing (because, yknow, d&d comedy podcast), and, in a mindbending piece of tautology, that he was called 'taako'. now obviously it would be insanely racist if white boy justin mcelroy made a mexican d&d character called taco taco. but he didn't. taako is like. an elf.
so then this controversy gained another, dumber layer, when the graphic novels were printed and taako was green. this kicked off two rounds of discourse. one: that green skin was an antisemitic stereotype, a claim that i've literally never seen sourced to anywhere than tumblr blogs and never heard in any context other than taako discourse. two, that it was cultural erasure to make him green because he should be a brown-skinned mexican. the guy named taako taaco. who loves stealing and wants to invent the taco.
then in the funniest possible resolutionm to this griffin mcelroy, the DM, decided to avoid having this elf Culturally Appropriate from mexicans by inventing the taco anmd so had a mexican kid from the real world isekaied into the fnatasy world. to teach hjim how to make a taco. i still cant believe that was the actual resolution
anyway tuymblr in like 2016 was a very silly place
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reasonsforhope · 2 months
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— Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon dropped to its lowest level since March 2018, according to new data from the Brazilian government.
— Deforestation for the year to date is down 40% compared to 2023, with expectations for a significant annual decline when the “deforestation year” concludes on July 31.
— Despite declining deforestation in the Amazon, the region is experiencing a rise in forest fires due to a severe drought...
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon continued to plummet in May [2024], reaching the lowest level since March 2018, according to new data from the alert system run by Brazil’s national space research institute, INPE.
According to INPE’s DETER system, deforestation in May 2024 amounted to 501 square kilometers (193 square miles), an area 147 times the size of New York City’s Central Park. This tally brings the accumulated deforestation detected by DETER over the past year to 4,350 square kilometers, down 54% from the same time last year.
For the year to date, DETER has detected 1,182 square kilometers of forest clearance, down 40% from the 1,986 square kilometers recorded at this point in 2023.
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[Note: January 2023 is when Lula da Silva was elected in Brazil. As you can see, after that, deforestation immediately plummeted. He is doing SO MUCH for the environment, we are SO lucky he beat Bolsonaro (the big pro-deforestation guy) for president of Brazil.
Also, in case the above chart makes you think we're doing worse than ever, that chart actually starts on a major low point for deforestation, toward the end of Lula da Silva's first term. Here's another chart that gives a longer-term picture, from 2002 to 2023. If we are lucky, Lula da Silva will bring the kind of drop in deforestation to us now that he did during his first term: an almost 80% drop in deforestation.]
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Pictured: Annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon since 2002 under each presidential administration, according to INPE’s PRODES system. Note: Temer took office on 31 Aug 2016 replacing Rousseff, while other presidents started their terms Jan 1. Also 2023 data is preliminary.
The decline in deforestation registered by DETER mirrors the trend recorded by an independent system maintained by Imazon, a Brazilian NGO. Imazon’s system is seen as a check against official data.
The alert data suggests observers should expect a sharp drop in deforestation for the 12 months ending July 31, the period Brazil uses for measuring annual deforestation. July 31 corresponds with the peak of the dry season across much of the Brazilian Amazon, when cloud cover is at a minimum, facilitating efforts to measure changes in forest cover.
For the annual assessment, Brazil uses higher resolution satellite imagery, which requires more time for analysis. In contrast, the shorter timeframe of DETER enables authorities to take action against illegal deforestation if there is interest in doing so. Data from DETER and PRODES, the annual system, have a strong correlation.
-via GoodGoodGood, July 2, 2024
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gabrielleragusi · 6 days
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For Artists: My Experience with Commission Platforms and Illustration Agencies
Hi there! I’ve been wanting to compile a list of commission platforms that I’ve personally used for the longest time, and I finally did it! I’ve highlighted the still-active commission platforms in bold and struck those that don't exist anymore so you can jump to the sections that interest you without needing to read my entire story.
Let me start by briefly introducing myself.
I’m Gabrielle, a fantasy illustrator. Since 2014, I’ve been working on book covers and illustrations for publishers, authors, and book subscription boxes. Early on, work wasn’t as frequent as it is now. I had to search for opportunities myself, and even small private commissions were important for building my portfolio and earning some money, which I’d spend on materials, books, and online courses. Like many other artists, I started out by trying my luck with the biggest art community available at the time.
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DeviantArt
2009-2018
Once upon a time, there was a virtual haven called DeviantArt. To my teenage self, it was a magical place. I signed up in 2009 and thought I’d never leave!
At first, I created an account just to share my work and learn. I didn’t even think about commissions for four or five years. But when that first inquiry finally landed in my inbox, things took off! My mum swears she remembers my excitement when I got my first commission, but for some reason, I’ve completely forgotten about it. I can't remember what it was or how much it paid. It might have been a portrait of a fantasy character.
Commissions on DeviantArt were fairly frequent, especially considering my cheap prices at the time. I used to offer discounts and post my rates in my DeviantArt journal, or in Commission groups that featured artists either monthly or weekly. After checking out my profile, a client could simply send me a private message and from there, we’d discuss payment, deadlines, and other details, and the platform didn’t take any fees, much like how ArtStation works today. Everything happened through private messages or email, with direct contact between artist and client.
The downside of this process was that there was no dispute resolution system on the platform. I had to handle all issues myself, and unfortunately, problems did arise sometimes: there were clients changing their minds about commissions, asking for refunds after work was delivered, refusing to pay, or just ghosting me. These issues didn’t happen because clients were evil, but rather because I was inexperienced and allowed some to take advantage of my naivety.
However, all that frustration helped me develop my commission process through trial and error (mostly error). And despite the challenges, I can say with satisfaction that most of the commissions I received through my DeviantArt profile were positive experiences.
DeviantArt eventually introduced a commission feature for Core (Premium) users, which came with a platform fee, but I didn’t use it much, and I’m not sure if it still exists.
The real beauty of dA, though, was the connections I made. I was able to meet people, both artists and clients, that I’m still in contact with today, and some of whom I still collaborate with.
I closed my account in 2018 or 2019, but by that time, I hadn’t really used it for a couple of years. The new user interface was a bit of a turn-off for me. I had always loved the geeky, and dare I say cozy, look of the old green and grey aesthetic, with its customisable panels that you could move around and personalise with HTML code... But I digress.
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Artists and Clients
2013-2016
While taking small commissions on DeviantArt, I discovered Artists & Clients. It was a nice platform for clients to get things like their D&D characters or groups illustrated for relatively cheap. I think my highest price was $50 for a single character portrait, with the platform taking a 15% cut. I used it for about two or three years before the platform started to change.
As more artists with hentai art styles flooded in, the homepage shifted, and so did the clientele. There’s nothing wrong with drawing naked anime girls, of course, but you can understand that if a client is looking for a fantasy, semi-realistic painting of their female orc character, or a realistic portrait of their spouse, it's more than likely that they won't bother sifting through a sea of anime girls to find the style they want, imagining it isn't here. Let's just say that, at the time, the website took a definite direction that wasn't in line with my genre, but this direction didn't make the different, more realistic art styles stand out either.
Soon, commissions slowed down for me, so I closed my account, but by then I was already working elsewhere.
That said, this platform could still be a useful tool if you’re looking to take on smaller commissions.
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DreamUp
2014-2015
DreamUp wasn’t an AI generator back then. It was actually a subsidiary of DeviantArt, where clients could post projects and artists could apply. It was a competitive platform that offered well-paid work–very well-paid. I remember seeing jobs posted that ranged from $300 to $1,200. DreamUp was a very professional platform for clients with a mid to high budget.
I believe I landed my very first book cover commission through this website when I was in my last year of high school. I remember getting the job and going to school the next morning, excited to share the news with my classmates. Everyone was super thrilled for me (we were a really close-knit class!), and I felt like I was walking on air.
Unfortunately, as far as I know, that book was never released, but it didn’t matter because I was moving forward, and fast.
I’m not sure when DreamUp was shut down, but I do know that DeviantArt held onto the copyrighted name, assigning it to something so anti-old DreamUp that it still boggles my mind.
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ArtCorgi
Now Artistree
2014-2019
When I received an invitation to join ArtCorgi from its founder, I already had a somewhat consistent portfolio. I was painting portraits and fantasy illustrations, and the clients on this platform were looking for both–your typical wedding and pet portraits, as well as book covers, which were what really interested me. To get to the latter, I had to do the former. Over the years, I’ve painted so many realistic portraits that now I have a strict rule for my own sanity not to do them any more. I have great respect for portrait artists, but it’s just not me.
When I first submitted my prices to the person I was in contact with, she kindly suggested that I raise them... a lot. That was a major step forward in my professional career. I went from charging $50 to $100/$200 overnight. And to my surprise, people actually wanted to commission me at those prices!
From 2014 to 2019, I took nearly every commission that came my way. I never spoke directly with the clients; all instructions and feedback went through my point of contact, which helped maintain a level of professionalism, although now that I’m used to working directly with clients, I’m not sure I’d want to go back to having an intermediary.
Sadly, as with all good things, this chapter came to an end. My point of contact eventually left communication in the hands of someone else, and shortly after, the commission fee changed to, I believe, 30%.
Simply put, 30% is an unrealistic cut for a website like this. For an agent that gets you all kinds of big work in the publishing industry, sure, but since this was not the case I had to stop taking commissions. Despite that, my overall experience with ArtCorgi was very positive.
Today, ArtCorgi joined another platform, Artistree. As far as I can tell, Artistree doesn’t take any fees from artists, with clients covering a small cost instead.
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Sketchmob (?)
2016-2020
This was probably the platform I used the most. I’ve lost count of how many commissions I received through Sketchmob. Many. Enough to generate a steady income at the time. With reasonable fees and a variety of art styles available, clients contacted me almost daily. Communication was direct between artists and clients, and payments could be split. The review system also worked very well… for a while.
Once I raised my prices, requests became fewer and farther apart. But by then, I was already working with my own clients.
Is this platform still active? Who knows. The website is still up and the chat feature works, but I’ve seen users complain that money available for withdrawal never arrived via PayPal (the only payment method the platform accepted, if I remember correctly). Personally, I wouldn’t risk completing a job through Sketchmob right now, at least not until they release an update.
If you’ve used the platform recently and successfully received payment within the last six months, please let me know, and I’d be happy to update this section!
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Upwork
2017-2019
In 2017, I was determined to break into the book publishing industry. After trying out Fiverr and Freelancer.com with no success (the competition was too fierce for someone just starting out), I decided to give Upwork a shot. The platform looked very professional, and while the process sounded a bit complicated, I wanted to land the interesting projects I saw featured in my category. I really wanted to work with a big client… but big clients didn’t seem to want me, despite having the Rising Talent badge.
In two years of bidding for jobs and submitting proposals, I only landed two projects: a small commission from a private client who actually reached out to me, and another project that I bid on.
Don’t get me wrong, I was ecstatic at the time and truly appreciated every opportunity that came my way. But looking back, I can see why Upwork didn’t work out for me. The platform just wasn’t the right fit for my style and niche, which is fantasy illustration. Graphic design, however, was (and still is) in much higher demand.
The commission process on Upwork wasn’t as simple as on other platforms. For instance, at the time, costs were calculated hourly, which was a challenge for someone like me who prefers working with flat fees (having already calculated my average hours spent on an illustration). From what I’ve seen, this has since changed.
One positive aspect of Upwork is its current 10% cut on what artists earn. I don’t recall if this has changed over the years, but 10% is quite reasonable in my experience. Of course, 0% would be even better, but for a platform as large as Upwork, 10% is fair.
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Illustration Agency
2019-2021
By 2019, I had built a solid, consistent portfolio thanks to my personal work and commissions. I had a simple website in place, my Instagram following was growing… I was steadily working toward my goal of illustrating covers for big publishers (which didn't happen until two years ago).
So, when an illustration agency reached out to me one day, I was over the moon. I had always heard that artists were the ones who had to approach agencies, not the other way around.
Well, that should have been my first red flag.
I won’t name this agency because, unfortunately, I have nothing positive to say about it. In fact, the word “nothing” perfectly describes my involvement with them. Nothing came of this barely there experience.
The agency invited me to sign up, not on an exclusive basis, but they assured me they’d get me work. That work never came. Once in a while, I’d receive messages saying they were trying to pitch my portfolio to a French publisher or another client, but... nothing.
Please understand that meanwhile I was already working directly with shops and authors, so I don’t believe my portfolio was the problem. The real issue was something I didn’t realise at the time: some agencies do this. They feature talented artists in their catalogue without having actual clients lined up, just to appear more professional and credible to potential clients. Did this strategy work for them? Maybe. I’ll never know.
In 2021, I politely asked them to remove my portfolio from their website, and that was the end of it.
After that, I never actively sought out an agent again. By the time my portfolio was strong enough to approach a serious agency, I just didn’t need representation anymore.
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Hireillo
2019-2022
My experience with Hire an Illustrator, or Hireillo, is mixed. At the time, Hireillo was a platform that hosted artists' portfolios, featured artist-submitted news, provided useful articles, resources, and directories of artists and agents. I joined the site hoping to catch the eye of publishers, but I was mostly contacted by authors and one fellow artist for a graphic novel.
Unfortunately, most inquiries didn’t go beyond the first couple of messages due to budget constraints. I did, however, have fun sharing news about my painting process and projects I landed on my own, which were often featured by the website. Additionally, if I had questions about 'complicated' things like copyright, or just needed advice, I could ask the website’s owner and that was incredibly helpful.
Despite these benefits, I didn’t see any real results, which was a little disappointing. The subscription fee was also... odd, for lack of a better word. $5 per week. In the end I just couldn’t justify the cost, so I stopped using the website altogether.
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Reedsy
2019-2022
Finally, we come to the turning point.
I remember stumbling upon Reedsy randomly. It wasn’t very well known at the time, and I think it still isn’t. I was nervous when I submitted my portfolio because their catalogue features the best of the best: designers who’ve created covers for bestsellers, THE bestsellers, people who’ve worked on Stephen King covers, or George R.R. Martin's. Designers, editors, and marketers who are veterans. I didn’t have high hopes for my application. So, I was in shock when it got accepted.
I had an introductory Skype call with a representative from Reedsy, who explained how everything worked. Before the call ended, I remember asking if there was a good chance I’d get work through the platform. The rep laughed and said, “Yes.”
A few weeks in, I understood that laugh.
Reedsy has an overwhelming demand for book covers and commercial projects. For every designer there are many more clients. In peak seasons, I was getting requests almost every day. I’m not exaggerating.
Reedsy transformed my portfolio and my pricing structure. Thanks to the income I earned through the platform, I was finally able not to take everything that came my way but be selective and choose only the projects that really interested me.
The commission process is simple: artists pretty much decide how to split payments, what to include in agreements, and the best part, the most beautiful and helpful feature of all, they can request and adjust deadlines. For someone like me who's terrible with deadlines, this feature was a lifesaver. The admins are also very kind and responsive, available via email or chat.
Unfortunately (this is my last 'unfortunately', I promise), my time on Reedsy came to an end for personal reasons. I’ll explain since it’s no secret.
All my images on Reedsy were watermarked with my signature (my full name), which apparently violated the platform’s rules. Why? Because if a client saw my last name, they could contact me directly and bypass Reedsy, which meant the platform lost potential fees. I’ll admit this did happen a few times, but I had the good sense to redirect the client back to Reedsy.
After three years, an admin finally noticed and asked me to remove my full name from the watermark and any text on my profile. It was a simple and reasonable request, but here’s where the problem started. Profiles on Reedsy are public, and images appear in search engines like Google Images, meaning anyone could download my work and use it without permission. Sure, watermarks can be removed, but uploading my work without one in the first place felt like a bad idea. Btw, not only do I use watermarks, but I also use Glaze to protect my illustrations before sharing them online.
Anyway, for this reason, and also because I couldn’t get over the fact that full names were public at the time, something I won’t get into because, believe me, I tried over email, and my reasons went into the void (now, last names are just initialised, like Gabrielle R. Okay. Sure.), I had to close my account–they would have done it anyway because it was already 'flagged'.
Overall, if you’re willing to overlook the last name conundrum, I can’t recommend Reedsy enough. If you have a killer, solid portfolio and a love for books and editorial projects, go for it!
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I hope you'll find this useful! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask (: Oh, and here's an old article I wrote in 2020, titled:
Tips to freelance illustrators to avoid being screwed over
Who knows, maybe I'll write another 'article' post in four years!
Instagram  - ArtStation - Website - Inprnt - Etsy - TikTok
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the-cimmerians · 1 month
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Queer and trans folk around the world often take an interest in the athletes from our community, and Outsports even collects a database of all the the out LGBTQ competitors. While JK Rowling and 99 percent of conservative media were harassing two cis women boxers, 195 QT athletes represented 26 nations and none, but we’ll get to that. That makes this the queerest Olympics ever, beating out the total of 186 out athletes in Tokyo and, if Queer Nation granted citizenships, would be the 14th largest national contingent at the games. That hypothetical Queer Nation would also have placed sixth in the medal count, tying the Netherlands with 15 golds but falling neatly between the Dutch and host country France on the strength of silvers and bronzes.
One happy bit of news is that in both golds and overall medal count, Queer Nation beat out every single country in the world that criminalizes same-sex boinking. The only bad news seems to be that people competing in the men’s events seem a little underqueered compared to the women. Can’t we at least get a few interested in the Greco-Roman wrestling? Yr Wonkette is just asking.
...
Sure, justice in silver and gold for badass bisexual Black woman Sha’Carri Richardson, excluded from Tokyo on the basis of smoking legal weed in Eugene, Oregon, was as sweet as sativa; it was fun to see Diana Taurasi go out on the queer top with her sixth Olympic gold in a row (team USA’s eighth consecutive women’s basketball gold); and seeing the shoulders on those women rugby players was a dream come true. But we want to speak about someone who didn’t represent any country at all: Cindy Ngamba.
Ngamba is a middleweight (75kg) boxer originally from Cameroon. At 11 years old some family members fled to the United Kingdom as refugees, and brought Ngamba along. The family maintains it had the proper approval for Cindy, but that when her uncle returned to Cameroon it was lost. The UK Home Office has been threatening to deport her since the age of 16, when she was accepted to university and realized she couldn’t produce her visa for her college paperwork.
Despite the threats, Ngamba fought and won many times in the UK’s amateur boxing competitions, having started as a hobbyist in the local Bolton Lads and Girls Club program. She also went on to get an undergraduate degree with honors, all while threats of deportation hung over her head. After winning a UK national championship, she met then-PM Theresa May celebrating her win and the efforts of the Lads & Girls Club where she trained. One might think that the UK might eventually forgive an 11-year-old girl for not keeping track of her paperwork herself, but the Home Office has remained resolute denying Ngamba regularized status.
What makes all this both horrifyingly inhumane and also relevant to this article is that Ngamba is an out lesbian. She has been consistently denied a path to citizenship or even legal residency, only escaping deportation because of her ability to document horror after horror inflicted on queer residents of Cameroon. International law prohibits sending a refugee back to their nation of citizenship or previous residence if they would face persecution and risk of great harm, a crime called “refoulement.”
“If I was sent back, I can be in danger,” Ngamba said. “So, I was given the refugee status to be safe and protected."
Unable to represent the UK and unable to compete in qualifying competitions in Cameroon, Ngamba got an opportunity that no other stateless athlete had ever shared before 2016: she was named to the IOC Refugee Olympic Team. So far that team has only been allowed to compete in the summer games, and only in Rio, Tokyo, and this year in Paris. (They will be allowed to compete in the Winter Games for the first time in 2026.) Given the incredible barriers most refugees face, it is perhaps not surprising that no Refugee Team member has ever won a medal. But while Ngamba has faced incredible legal problems and a ruthlessly anti-immigrant government her entire time in the UK, she at least had better training facilities in her local Lads & Girls than most refugees can dream.
And the dreams paid off. Team Refugee got its first medal ever when Ngamba took home middleweight bronze. "I just want to tell every refugee out there, whether they are an athlete or not, to never give up,” she said after being asked to carry the Olympic flag at the opening of the games. When she won, the whole refugee team took to the internet to celebrate:
“The Refugee Olympic Team is incredibly proud of Cindy Ngamba, the first EOR athlete and the first-ever refugee medallist at the Olympics,” the team posted on X, formerly Twitter. “Today, we are speechless. Cindy did it. Refugees did it!”
Yes, yes you did.
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erika-xero · 1 year
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My obsession with Yennefer (long post!)
Yennefer was ALWAYS my favourite character from an entire Witcher franchise and easily my favourite character from any fictional story. I drew her, sketched her, wrote about her obsessively since I first read the Witcher in 2013.
Let's give it a try and gather all of the Yennefer pieces and sketches I ever did, because I had a Witcher brainrot for many, many years. Spoler alert: all of my Yens are totally different!
This one from 2014 was probably inspired by the The Bounds of Reason.
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The one that was inspired by the very first Yennefer render from CDProjektRed.
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The weird one. I don't really like her.
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2015! The Shard of Ice Yennefer:
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Don't have much to say about this one either, I guess it was an experiment.
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The one I don't remember drawing. Somehow I predicted the Netflix!Yen having these exact eyeshadows.
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Oh I love this one! This is a mix of game!Yen and book!Yen:
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The next one is pure game!Yennefer, even though I never liked her in-game design (especially the bangs, the small nose and the lips):
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Basically, this is how I saw it: game!Yen meeting the book!Yen.
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Late 2015/early 2016 traditional sketches (yes, the second one is Yen from the Hexer):
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THE FAVOURITE ONE. I haven't watched Farscape until 2018 and when I first saw Claudia Black I GASPED, because to me she looked exactly like this Yen version I drew back in 2016 and still is madly in love with.
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Apparently there was an infinished second piece of this exact Yen design but I never posted the high resolution of it which is kinda sad.
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2017! I saw early game!Yen designs and did a sketchy portrait of her. And then I decided to make the second version with the book!Yen:
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Finally, Yennefer from 2022 (original sketch and the colored sketch). This design seems the most book accurate to me, but I still love all the previous ones I did (except the weird one, she is creepy).
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And the last, but not the least: my own Thanedd ball outfit for Netflix!Yen, portrayed by Anya Chalotra.
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And a small bonus! The very first Yennefer sketch I ever did (2013!)
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