#I mean I might make a million new things off the same concept

[deoidesign]

A short comic I made for an anthology

[barbarastreisandof]

You might have seen that Warner Bros has shelved another finished movie, this time with Coyote vs Acme. It's a movie that tested extremely well, had high praise from advanced critic screenings, and was generally being talked about as one of the best uses of mixed live action/animation ever put to film.

And it will never be seen again.

Why do studios do this? Why are there more and more finished movies getting destroyed before they're ever released? Why would a studio bother spending $150 million on a film just to never release it?

Greed, obviously, but the specific mechanism was something I was never quite clear on so I wanted to write a simple explainer for how this works.

Note: None of these are exact numbers or percentages, this is just an example to explain the concept so I'm using numbers and amounts that are easier to illustrate.

Imagine you're Warner Bros and you've made $100 million in one year. Let's suppose your tax rate is 50%. In that case, you would owe $50 million on your earnings. Now let's say of that $100 that you made, you put $50 million into producing Coyote vs Acme. The average marketing budget for a movie is between 50-150% of the production cost, and since this is a franchise release, let's say the marketing budget is somewhere in the middle at 100%. That means spending $50 million to market Coyote vs Acme on top of the $50 million production costs.

So now, you've made $100 million, but between production costs and marketing budget, you've spent all of it on your new movie. Plus, you owe $50 million taxes.

For Coyote vs Acme to be worth it, then, you'd need to make back the $50 million in production, the $50 million in marketing, and then another $50 million to cover your taxes. For this movie to be profitable, you'd need to make over $150 million, or three times its initial budget. Which means you started with $100 million and are now $50 million in debt unless you can make $150 million in which case, you break even and have made $0.

But what happens if you shelve it? What if you destroy all prints of the movie and never release it?

Well the studios can benefit from a tax law that says that if they produce a movie but never release it, they can write it off as a loss and use that to reduce their taxable income.

So in this scenario, if you never release Coyote vs Acme, you can write its budget off as a loss and then the money you spent making it won't be taxed. Which means that instead of being taxed on $100 million, you'll be taxed on $50 million. Which means instead of owing $50 million in taxes, you'll owe $25 million. Which means you started with $100 million and after production costs and taxes, you walk away with $25 million. Which means in effect the movie only cost you $25 million to make.

Compare that to the other option - of marketing and releasing the film - where you would need to make $175 million at the box office just to get to the same place, and you can see why films get shelved.

It's not that studios make money doing this, it's that they avoid LOSING money. Studios are doing this because after the movie is finished, they play it for test audiences and select critics and try to gauge how much money it'll make if it's released. If they have any doubts about whether it can make back more than what they'd save by shelving it, they play it safe and shelve it.

This is happening more now not because studios are getting greedier, but because they're floundering. They're being taken over and run by people whose previous jobs were maximizing profit margins for companies that manufacture porcelain for bathroom fixtures. The CEOs have no idea how art or entertainment or film work so they just shelve and destroy anything that they think won't be a guaranteed hit and in the meantime, are gradually eroding their own business and destroying their ability to actually make anything.

Assuming things continue as is, companies like Warner Bros are on track to be scrapped and sold for parts to Apple or Amazon or Xfinity within a few years. One of the truisms of media is that not everything needs to be a big hit or make money - it's the interesting and cult and niche and "mid" films that collectively comprise people's attachments to the theater experience. So maybe Coyote vs Acme on its own loses money or just breaks even, but if it's acclaimed and loved by a decent number of people, that's that many more people who are now more attached to films as a medium and excited about the movie going experience, which will make them more receptive and interested in future releases.

Looking at another industry, it's why Xbox has been tailing Playstation and Switch. It's not about the blockbuster releases, though those helps, it's about all the smaller genre releases that keep people playing and engaged and curious and loyal. You get none of that if you only release things you're certain are going to smash hits. All you do then is make increasingly focused grouped, and thus predictable, entertainment and art that over time becomes less and less engaging to people and as a result, leads to people moving on to other activities and pass times and media.

Studios shelve movies because it ensures they hold on to a little more money in the short term, meanwhile, they're slowly but surely doing everything they can to lock themselves into eventual bankruptcy and collapse.

[getvalentined]

Something else that I think a lot of people in fandom need to remember—particularly my main fandom, particularly right now—is that every piece of popular media we enjoy is a product.

I'm talking very specifically about popular media here, mass media studio projects with marketing budgets and teams of hundreds or thousands of people, so put down your whataboutisms about indy projects and creating for the love of the craft and please meet me where I am actually standing.

Now, to be clear, good media is very rarely something that the creators see as nothing more than a profit endeavor. This is their work, and they want it to be good! That's why they started creating things in the first place!

However.

The development of popular media is inherently profit-driven, and the act of monetizing that media isn't inherently greedy or predatory. This applies all across the board, really; if you have a problem with the people who made an award-winning piece of media wanting to get paid for making it, you also have a problem with a tiny artist like me having a Patreon. By insisting that any creator trying to monetize their work has to be doing it strictly out of greed and must only have chosen to create because they wanted money is bullshit—in demanding that any creator do what they love to do exclusively because they love it and not because they need to eat and pay their bills, you're devaluing the entire concept of art.

There are legalities at play for some fields—fanfiction is a profitless endeavor because it's illegal to monetize, that doesn't mean those people don't deserve financial support—but that's a tangent we're not going to go off on right now. Again, meet me where I'm standing, not where you might think you found a "gotcha" to disprove my point.

I'm not saying "waaah think of the studios," I'm saying that insisting a work of popular media should be both accessible enough to build a big fandom where you can have a huge global community (hence the "popular" in "popular media") while also having absolutely no monetization in any capacity is absolutely ludicrous. It would be cool if that were possible, but it's not. Not at this scale, not in this way.

If you believe that the only way for creators to prove that they "respect" their own work (whatever the hell that means) is for your favorite piece of popular media to be entirely and permanently unmonetized, released globally and consistently maintained out of the goodness of the creators' hearts, you're on the wrong side of this argument.

At the end of the day, regardless of your feelings or your fandom, one fact continues to ring true:

Popular media is a product.

It always has been. Products need to be paid for, one way or another. Going on unhinged tirades about paying for a piece of popular media in your favorite series because you've decided that creators continuing to create new titles in one of their favorite series to work on means they have no respect for the original work they created is so far off the path of common sense it boggles the mind.

To get more specific to the fandom in question: you know this is a video game, right? The original was too! Whatever copy you played, however you played it, someone paid for it. It was monetized. The sequel film also cost money. So did every other game in the series. Every single title, all of which were developed with oversight from the same team and headed by the same people, the same writers and directors and artists, has been monetized. The only difference with the new one is that the monetization is shittier—but it's also entirely optional!

This game is important to you, I get it—it's important to me too! But as a creator, as an artist, I can't even fathom the mindset that putting multiple years and millions of dollars into the development of a product in one of the most popular IPs in the field and monetizing the result is "undeniable proof" that the team behind it are bloodsucking fiends with no love for their craft and no respect for their audience.

These are the same people that made the first one. The one that you're saying is the best thing ever created. They wrote that, they designed that, they directed that. If they want to keep playing around in the universe that they made, they're allowed, and we can't expect them to do it without seeing the result as a product because THE ORIGINAL WAS ALSO A PRODUCT.

And if you have a problem with any of that, guess what?

YOU DON'T HAVE TO PLAY IT.

Being nasty to the people who are interested, who are enjoying themselves, declaring that you are the true fan and they're all disrespectful idiots and infants with no sense because you don't like that popular media is always a product is, frankly, much more disrespectful and infantile behavior than someone sitting on the bus playing a fucking mobile game for fun.

Also the previous mobile title they did that lasted less than a year was killed because of actual real life financial fraud, not because of a lack of interest, downloads, or concurrent players. At the time that it got the axe, they were in the midst of approving a third wave of ambassadorships, they had active sponsorships running in the game, it was doing well—particularly for being the series' first foray into a new genre. But, to the shock and bewilderment of everyone in the entire world, we are in the timeline where the co-creator of Sonic the Hedgehog used his position in the development of a Final Fantasy VII battle royale mobile game to facilitate insider trading. Look it up.

[rosanna-writer]

So…what about an ACOTAR Regency!AU? Maybe something a la Pride and Prejudice with Feysand?

There's a post I saw on my dash a while ago (I wanna say it was from @temperedink?) about P&P and ACOTAR that came to the conclusion that a true P&P retelling is hard to make work for ACOTAR without more or less twisting the characters into something unrecognizable, which tbh I broadly agree with. At least for Feysand, Rhys is too suave to be a Darcy, you know?

Also A Rake By Any Other Name and As The River Flows are top-notch regency (or regency-with-magic) feysand fics that I highly recommend!

But anyway putting this under a cut because....the thoughts are long.

I DO love the idea of exploring a regency-adjacent setting with fae nobility within the realm of ACOTAR fic. Mating bonds add a ton of interesting wrinkles to the typical storylines you see in a regency setting (Is it less of a scandal if the person you run off and elope with is your mate? Marrying for money vs being with your mate??? In a world where the mating bond is revered above everything else??? The DRAMA!!!)

So I really think to do the concept justice, the fic would HAVE to be, at its heart, three interlocking stories, one for each of the Archeron sisters. Because in a setting like regency, a world where women don't have a lot of economic independence and family reputation has such tangible effects, there are so many difficult situations you can put the sisters in where their choices affect each other. For example, if Nesta follows her heart and runs off with Cassian, she might be happy, but is a bastard-born Illyrian foot soldier going to be able to support her sisters, too? Or will that choice just heighten Elain and Feyre's sense of duty to marry for money? Elain and Lucien might be mates, but since he's Tamlin's emissary and exiled from Autumn, does that mean if Papa Archeron dies, Feyre and Nesta will need to pack up and move to Spring until they're married off?

And then of course.....if Nesta and Elain both follow their hearts, that leaves known awkward wild-child Feyre to "save the day" (assuming this is a scenario like P&P where the sisters can't inherit). There's plenty of potential for Rhys's parents to still be alive (and disapprove or be openly skeptical of Feyre as future Lady of the Night Court, potential shenanigans with his sister causing problems....) OR for Rhys to be more worried about coming into his own as a new, grief-stricken High Lord than finding a wife (and maybe getting pressure to find one anyway).

You could easily wind up in a situation where each sister is simultaneously embroiled in a love triangle of her own (probably something like Neris vs Nessian, Feylin vs Feysand, and Elriel vs Elucien), which sounds INCREDIBLE to read but my god the outlining that would require!!!

AND there's the whole question of if the Archerons are fae nobility in this AU.....where are they from? Velaris? The Court of Nightmares? A different Court entirely????

There is SO MUCH POTENTIAL with this concept, and I may return to it when I feel like I have the bandwidth to write something with like....ten million things going on in the same fic.

[fansblogarchive]

Trend-Servants (part 1 cuz it hit the text limit -mod)

Greetings to my loyal minions, I have held you captive for several weeks awaiting further commands by your leader! Haha, no, that's what I'd say if I was conceited enough to take advantage of my numerous adoring supporters. All seven of them! Yeah, I know… IT’S TOO MANY TO COUNT ON ONE HAND! But anyway, I started thinking about the concept of popularity in general. Y'know, the current “cool” standard, which I would, naturally, lift from a stage musical - “hanging with the right cohorts, being good at sports”. Despite Test Tube’s optimistic support (She tells me, “You could be a delightful asset to a checkers team!”), I unquestionably fail at both of these. It makes me question, do fame and notoriety really matter in the grand scheme of things? To answer in short: "Lolnope". Any sane figure would lecture you about these values, probably the same shreds of sentimentality I'd have shared with you before I joined this series. Would I be biased to claim popularity is irrelevant since I’ve never been too popular myself? Well, luckily we don’t have to worry about that. Like I said, seven whole people are reading this right now! Yet alas, you start to think outside the box once you're on a reality show where viewer vote dictates who stays and who goes. Seriously, the status quo around here is basically be well-liked or be forced to bid adieu prematurely. It makes you hold a lot more value in the things people say. I’d love to just write off users like Fanisworsethaneverything237, but his vote might be what stands between me and a million, life-changing dollars. Not to mention this game basically revolves around a series of social situations, which I'd much prefer to look for any reason to stay out of, for, well, obvious reasons (#self-deprecation). But even after volunteering to get away from the action and stay in the comfort of a soccer goal, the world seemed like it was still tearing me apart… literally. It’s really all too easy to fall into the trap of believing popularity is all that matters when you're trapped under the bubble of a reality show, or some high school, or heck, even box office totals. Yeah, the hilarious new installment in one of my favorite franchises was released last weekend, but made less green than from what I’ve been hearing is a poorly executed young adult novel adaptation. Yes, yet ANOTHER one of those, I mean, that market’s really starting to become bloated. To avoid possible fan outrage I'm not going to say any names, so I diverge, er, digress. It really goes to show, people only like what they've come to know. They want the same thing over and over again, like an assembly line. Or "__ Run" game apps, which ironically, are so numerous I find I can’t run FROM them. Sigh… not everything can be as unique as this book I’m planning involving a love triangle amidst an effort to survive a dystopian future! Working title is “The Disparate Games”, keep an eye on the shelves. When something fresh or original like that comes along, not many people care. That is, unless word of mouth kicks in from some well-respected sources that tell people what they should like. Then all of a sudden the initial popularity starts… I don’t know, compounding continuously, there's a math formula involved, it escapes me. And this “formula” changes every day. So if it's temporary, what does popularity really mean? Well while I'd love to say absolutely nothing, I must admit that is not the truth. Being popular means having connections and opportunities to have doors opened for you. But I can say that even if it’s not nothing, it’s also not everything. You'll be kicked out of those doors if it's made clear you're not actually as good those connections implied. There’s a big difference between these “coattail riders” and “climbing risers”, as I like to call them. Sure, you have limits now, and your outlook may seem hopeless, but carrying a sense of self-awareness is the key. Always be yourself, but try to be conscious of how others might react. Just don't let those reactions mold you into some convoluted mesh of various others’ expect

[scipiosmith]

Hey smith, I was thinking about your SAPR story if you were to rewrite. (after talking with a few friends it was interesting scenario)

Let’s say that weiss was the main character in your story: how would that dynamic go with her new team..

I know would be awkward to for weiss and jaune relationship considering jaune was… too focused on her.

Pyrrha would be interesting because she didn’t want to be on a team with weiss.

Plus with her family drama could make the story more unpredictable.

Side note: maybe ruby joins Cardin, russel, and flash? (Maybe ruby could help Cardin overcome his problem? Ruby always did like helping everyone.)

First of all, as a minor thing, I would rather you call me Scipio than Smith, if you don't mind.

On the main point of your ask, I'm sorry, but I am not rewriting this again! Once was enough! It was only about in the moderate hundreds of thousands of words the last time I started, it's something like 3 million words now, I'm not going through all that again!

Hopefully that plethora of exclamation marks came across as hyperbolically exaggerated exasperation rather than hostility, because the truth is that I think your idea has the potential to be a stronger story than the one I went with, because Weiss has the potential to have more interesting relationships with Pyrrha and Sunset than Ruby does.

With Pyrrha... yes, Pyrrha didn't want to be on the same team as her, but on the other hand, other authors than myself have done a lot of good work showing how there a lot of similarities between them, their relationships with fame, with family expectations (especially with Pyrrha's aristocratic backstory that I gave her for SAPR), contrasting Atlesian and Mistralian concepts of what it means to be an aristocrat, noblesse oblige, that kind of thing.

Meanwhile, with Sunset, even in the story as it currently exists, you can see little bits in Volume 1 of hostility between her and Sunset, and it would be fun to do more with that, these two very strong personalities, both of them kind of arrogant, and then you have Weiss unconscious racism and classism thrown into the mix, why is this upstart faunus the leader instead of me, who does she think she is? It could be fun.

Not to mention that having Weiss on Team SAPR would link them more to Blake/Rainbow Dash and the Atlas side of things, even as Weiss could get involved with Adam and the White Fang stuff too.

Where we disagree is with regard to Weiss and Jaune; I think that Jaune actually comes out of his pursuit of Weiss in SAPR pretty well, all things considered: he attempts to approach her a couple of times, he gets told to knock it off, and he does, before getting together with Pyrrha in pretty short order. So I wouldn't write him as pestering Weiss while she can't even get away from him, I think that would make him very unsympathetic to the readers. I think that I would have Weiss tell him what she told Flash: that she's not interested in dating, she's trying to take her school and her training seriously and she needs to focus on that, and then have Jaune accept it with all the grace and maturity that he can muster.

As far as Ruby trying to help Cardin, I'm not sure, Ruby wants to help people in general but when it comes to people as individuals she can be a little bit judgey from her high horse, and she might take that line with Cardin instead. Which, in itself, would offer the potential for drama.

So, all in all, you have some good ideas there, but you'll have to write them yourself because I'm not going through all that again.

[pensiveant]

Sorry but I'm full of opinions about this and I actually understand what I'm talking about, so I can't shut up. "Ethically sourced AI art generation" is not a thing because "unethically sourced AI art generation" is ALSO not a thing. If you campaign for image generation algorithms to be trained only on data banks gathered """with consent""" (i.e. consent from the original artists, many of which are long dead anyway) and for anything else to be punishable under law, then you better be ready to advocate for the 13 year old drawing anime characters for the first time to be sued, fined, and/or incarcerated too because. it's the exact. same. thing. It's the same principle.

The neural network looks at millions of photographs and art depictions of an apple and learns to recognize what it looks like. It learns to recognize what red means in relation to an apple, what bright means, what dramatic shadows mean. And then it creates an entirely new picture from scratch, putting together the information it collected from looking at all those examples and what they have in common. It does not copy, trace, crop and glue bits together, or whatever else people are imagining. It's not the same technology as applying a filter to an existing picture to modify it.

A budding artist learning to draw does the exact same thing. They look at reference pictures, they look at other people's art and how they depict certain elements of color, shadows, light, etc. They're inspired by other people's art styles. It's not just practiced but even recommended that starting out, new artists trace over reference photos or other people's art for private practice in order to get of sense of how to build certain shapes, how to manipulate perspective, and so on. They learn the exact same way the AI does, and they both need some time and practice to get it right.

It's impossible to legally ban one without hurting the other. Where do you draw the line? The difference between the two might seem clear to you now, but it could easily be argued that it's nonexistent by a determined enough asshole looking to sue someone. And who do you think that is going to affect the most if not people who were already vulnerable in front of the law as is?

Furthermore, it's impossible to copyright art style. That's just not a thing. Copyright is already a nebulous concept when it comes to art (not just the visual type either) and how strictly it is applied depends on how much of a dick someone wants to be. People claim this kind of AI is putting small artists doing commissions out of business, but do you realize that the overwhelming majority of commission artists are regularly selling art of characters they do not legally own? That both the artist and the commissioner are participating in copyright infringement? That neither of them actually owns that piece of art? Or do copyright laws apply only when it makes you angry?

Someone including an artist's portfolio in training datasets even after explicitly being asked by said artist not to do that is a bit of an asshole move, yeah. I agree and I wouldn't want anything to do with someone like that either. But it is not an immoral act. And under no circumstances whatsoever should it be an illegal one. It's just a shit thing to do, but I promise you can live with it. Put your pitchfork and torch down for a moment and think what kind of future you're asking for by asking for stricter copyright laws because I don't think most people realize what a hellish authoritarian system that would be.

The conversations we should be having regarding the ethical use of AI revolve around its use to replace and lay off employees, impersonate actors by using their voice and likeness without their agreement, impersonate real people in general (more easily so, not that this is a new issue strictly related to the rising popularity of image generators), bloat internet spaces with irrelevant or erroneous information and ads, decrease the reliability and general usefulness of search engines, and so on and so forth. Yet what most people froth at the mouth about are topics like "AI art is not real art" and "AI art is stolen art" and "AI art is not valid because a human didn't put in effort" etc. which are all completely asinine topics that will never lead to productive discussions.

If you want to take a stand against AI art, do it for the right reasons, not out of misinformed kneejerk reactionary panic and stubbornness.

[pryotra]

Hi! Im the anon who asked about fate lore before. And omg, the age of will concept is so cool. Learning more about it and im surprised how i never learned about it before. Its such a cool concept for humanity to leave the earth as their next evolution step. Though i do have a question, would this mean that the gil ending of ccc is connected to it in someway? Also voyager being the last servant and gil being the first servant makes my brain go crazy lol i love it. But yea age of wills is awesome its dragged me into a brainrot 🫶

I honestly love it as a concept. And it sort of works for Fate as the 'good alternative' to the other potential futures for humanity.

Hehe, this has actually been a long standing theory of mine. That CCC-verse is, at the moment, the only universe we've seen to actually reach the point where the Age of Will is about to begin. Since that's what Gil references when he mentions that he sees the light of humanity progressing for millions of years, until even he can't see anymore. At this point, Gil and Hakuno have the Moon Cell as a sort of...jumping off station, are 'humans can leave their bodies' to enter space. So...honestly it might qualify.

And YES. There's such a perfect match to it. Even more. Voyager's Golden Disk SEEMS to be doing the same thing as Gil's Gates. The only difference is that the Gate of Babylon seems to be connected to human ingenuity and the dreams of inventions, while Voyager seems to be able to summon the actual achievements of humanity. Which is a great nod to the idea that Voyager's disk was supposed to be a sort of 'humanity encapsulated' and even better a perfect ending. The first Servant carried humanity's dreams at the dawn of time, and the last Servant carries humanities achievements into a new future.

I WANT THEM TO INTERACT!

[peppertaemint]

So BTS’ “comeback” is actually an anthology album with only three new songs. 😐. Feels lazy to me. But of course Army is eating it up and already busy shooting down anyone who expresses the slightest bit of disappointment. This is why HYBE continues to get away with robbery. I am so underwhelmed. I was hoping for new songs, fresh tour, new stages. But it’s just gonna be the same old rinse and repeat I guess. Something told me that they haven’t seemed busy enough to be working on a whole new album, but I know in the past they’ve done a lot in short periods of time so I wasn’t too concerned. An anthology isn’t bad if it’s marketed for what it is, but this was promoted as a comeback, and I feel played. I don’t own any of their albums before MOTS 7 so I might just buy it to have a hard copy of those old songs, but at the same time I don’t want to reward HYBE’s laziness either, even if it’s not going to make a dent in the millions of sales they’re guaranteed to get. I hope we get a better idea of what else is going to be included when presale starts, so I can decide if it’s worth it. I’m literally so disappointed. They could have at least included a full disc of new songs along with a disc of old ones. How do you feel about this release?

Whoo boy, Anon. NGL, when I was told about the anthology this afternoon I was like... really? Like, really? The last album was 2020. And I am all for work-life balance. Take years off if you want, but this was promoted as a new album comeback (at least that's how it was taken) so I think this is stinging a lot of people. And they and you have every right to be meh about it. I'm less meh because I haven't liked anything they've done for quite some time so this feels... more like confirmation?

The three songs are likely (at least 2/3) to be big Billboard songs. Maybe the collab with Snoop or someone else. Because they can make sick money just doing that shit. Why would you bother with an entire album when you've got guaranteed top ten hits with collabs? I mean, pretty much guaranteed number ones. You're gonna do that. It's like printing money with the way army behaves (congratulations on your ATM status, army!).

There was a good quote-tweet going around the other day that was like, let's celebrate k-pop songs that were for the arts not the charts. And there were so many interesting songs and concepts shared from groups I had never even heard of. And I really think this is what it comes down to.

BTS and Big Hit/Hybe have been chasing the charts and US recognition for years and years. They've got it now, but this is who they are. They're not gonna change or "revert" back to something they never were in the first place. And that's totally okay. I just think for some fans it's not satisfying, and in that case, things are as they are.

Since they only do these "big hits" (lmfao) now, the ideal situation would be to have something like Psy and Suga's That That. But there is an irony there BTS have never had. Perhaps in the future things will change but a straight comparison of PTD (earnest high school musical number) vs That That (meta-modern pop) gives away the artistic differences.

[knickynoo]

The double Marty’s an interesting concept. I suppose the McFlys could pass him off as a cousin or something.

How would the rest of the series go? Would Doc drop TP Marty off with his family, head to the future, come back (and which Marty would get in the wreck with the Rolls Royce?)? Would only TP Marty get involved or would both go? Or do none of the events of the trilogy happen? Does this prevent Doc from merging Clara? And now that the McFlys know about time travel and it’s results do they try and keep both Marty’s away from Doc? Do any of the get pulled into time travel escapades? How do Dave and Linda handle another younger brother? And now Jennifer is with LP Marty so it’s just another thing TP Marty has lost. TP Marty might want to stay at Doc’s just because at least there’s more familiarity there and he doesn’t feel as left out. Maybe TP Marty starts going by Calvin just because it’s a convenient alias.

I’m sorry for the million questions but my mind is reeling with the possibilities!

Link to original ask here for anyone who missed it.

Ahahaha, Marty and his identical cousin: Also Marty.

I've honestly been thinking about this whole thing on and off all day, to the point that I think I may have to start jotting notes down in case I end up wanting to turn this into a fic.

I'm thinking that the two Martys thing would likely make Doc toss his own personal time travel plans out the window. He'd definitely feel like he needs to stay and help everyone sort through things. Unfortunately, yeah, that means no Clara.

I don't think the Rolls Royce accident would happen either. Lone Pine Marty would be way too wrapped up in "Oh, hey! There's another me here!" to do anything but stay at home freaking out.

I'm torn on how the McFlys would treat Doc in the aftermath. Not sure if they would want nothing to do with him or if they would actually lean on him for support in navigating their new lives. I think they'd be pretty firmly against any additional time travel, though. The only instance of potential time travel that might happen would be a trip back to the day before the experiment so that Doc can do something to convince LP Marty to go to the parking lot so that things could be "set right " BUT that comes with its own issues (paradoxes aside, because we're ignoring those for this concept), particularly if the McFlys are involved in the decision. I can't see them agreeing to it, knowing that it would "replace" the son they raised with the Marty from Twin Pines. Doesn't matter that Marty is essentially the same person or that the McFlys wouldn't remember the whole predicament--they wouldn't be able to approve such a decision. If anything, Doc would have to do it in secret.

Twin Pines Marty moving in with Doc is an interesting direction to go in. Maybe a little distance would be the best thing for everyone, at least in the beginning? I can't see it being the long term solution, though. Marty would miss his siblings and parents too much, even if they are different from what he remembers.

Finally, yes, I think Marty having an alias would also be necessary to avoid the confusion of having two Martys respond to the name. (And because it'd be like, impossible to write a fic without having a solid way to differentiate between Marty 1 and Marty 2). Calvin would be a good obvious choice.

Overall, I think any fic dealing with this scenario would likely be sort of dark and emotional. Maybe the kind where there isn't really a happy ending.

Ohh, so many ideas. There is a tornado happening in my head. Anon who posed this idea...where are you? I hope you're seeing the rabbit hole I'm now falling down.

Thanks for the ask!

[the-orangeauthor]

hey sunshine! how are you doing?

I hope you're good <3

since you have already graduated uni, I was wondering if you could help me with a little (big) problem I have that's making me stressed

(it's okay if you can't/don't have time/don't feel comfortable with sharing!!!!)

So, next year im in fourth year (if everything hopefully goes right🤞🏻) and that means I have to write a thesis, here called End of Grade Project or TFG. And although is entirely a thing for fourth year, my profs have already advised us that we should start thinking about topics and themes to write our thesis about

if you've done a thesis, how did you choose the topic you wanted to write about?

also if you have tips to spare, i'd love to know them, cause it's making me pretty anxious and rationally I know it's not a problem for Present Me, but I get nervous nonetheless

a million thank you's<33333333333333

(and, in case you can't help me, which is again totally valid, use this ask to tell me about your day, your writing or whatever interest you have atm, I'd love to read about those as well, haha)

Good evening my sweet cup of coffee, it has been a very long week but I am back to answer this for you ❤️

I have a link here to a post I made recently briefly covering how I did my thesis but I can go into more depth for you!!

You do a degree in psychology right? I don’t know how that would differ from mine but I asked around and here’s how it works:

Because I did a biomed degree we also had lab based thesis options which is what I went for as the practical experience was great for my masters application. I had quiet a few friends go for essay only projects and here what they did to prepare:

Read - every time, always, look at new research in your field, new studies, explore areas that you covered in lectures that caught your eye and see if there’s still more to discover - there always is

Personal experience - as with most science degrees / healthcare related degrees there’s always some kind of personal element you can link there, my friend wanted to research MS since someone in her family had it etc

Are you planning on further study in a specific field? I knew I wanted to do research in immunology so I went for the project most closely related to it so I could use that as an opportunity to research it more

Brainstorm - if you have several or few ideas make a brainstorm and just write what you know / don’t about each one, you may find that one of these topics leaves you with interesting questions you might want to pursue

Speak to your professors!!! Your professors are experts in their fields, talk to them about ideas that you’ve come up with, if they think there’s enough research out there for you to get good info for your project etc

Speak to your friends - you’ve all studied the same thing for years now, bounce ideas off of each other

Your notes - go back and look at what you’ve learnt. Where are the question marks in the research? Which of these experiments should have had more variables? How would a new demographic change the results you have?

Read read read read read read read read - you don’t have to read the whole article, the opening abstract will be enough to start sparking some ideas

Remember, your thesis isn’t about the results and data you gain, it’s about showing the professors that you are capable of evaluating large sums of information, selecting what is relevant, and drawing logical conclusions from what you’ve read.

Have fun with it, it’s a big project and you’re going to spend a lot of time on it. Make sure your final topic is interesting to you (absolutely does not matter if everyone else thinks it’s boring, this is for you) and make sure you understand at least a few foundational concepts for it. You’re already thinking about it pretty early on so you have plenty of time to bounce around ideas, and never be afraid to run it past your professors for advice, it’s what they get paid for!!

I hope you’ve had a lovely week ❤️❤️❤️

[a-non-ymouswriter]

OH THANK THE GODS HE DIDNT SEE THE REST OF TWITTER HOLY FUCK-

Ok ok ok… breathe.

So uh, there’s certainly a lot to unpack here, first of all, whoever is behind all of this has higher stakes than we may have realized and I’m very confused, who the hell are they!? Also: “We might be able to get Karl back, see Tommy again, and make sure this world doesn't end up like the last one." WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN!? WHAT LAST ONE? SEE TOMMY AGAIN? WHO ARE YOU DHFGCGFHFH WHAT DO YOU MEAN ‘MAY’ GET KARL BACK? IS HE IN THAT BAD OF A SHAPE? AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Second, finally, finally they figured it out! They know! They know now they know! 24 chapters in and they finally realized it’s not just an ARG dnchchfhcgdgdh. I am so happy. But yeah! This brings up a lot of problems and questions I’ve been stressing over for months now! Like, how Tubbo’s been unintentionally and unknowingly exposing End Kingdom secrets to literally millions of people! Or how they’ve all been watching these people without their consent go through things that they probably wouldn’t want to share with a bunch of strangers! Or how the hell are the streamers supposed to break the news of the situation and will Tommy and co. even believe them if whatever magic doesn’t let them show proof!?

Also, the morality of telling them! I’d be horrified to learn that thousands of strangers have been watching my life and getting entertainment off of it like some tv show without my knowledge, to the point where I’m not sure I’d want to know, especially if I can’t do anything to stop it. On the other hand, it’s their life so as mortifying as it may be for Wilbur to come clean and tell them what’s been going on, they deserve to know because refusing them that truth is refusing them agency in their own lives and allowing a horrible violation of privacy to continue without the people who’s privacy is being violated’s knowledge. Wilbur, you poor fuck, you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place atm, even when the right thing to is pretty obvious.

Also, minor detail I caught, might mot even be on purpose but… worldbuilding? “Who the fuck names themselves Wilbur?”. I’m fascinated by the concept of names in a world like Minecraft because you get to chose your own name, thats how we end up with things like Mumbo Jumbo, BadBoyHalo, or Ranboo, or Stressmonster, etc. and I’ve seen different writers tackle the subject of names in different ways when it comes to worldbuilding and find really interesting what they can come up with. Does this apply to Stream Labs universe as well? Are names there obtained differently than in our world? Are there any cultural norms surrounding names? Does it vary from place to place or from species to species or is it the same around the world?

okay! finally answering the big question here sdafh sorry it took so long dude but again, i had fun rereading the asks in my inbox as well as just, not being able to answer for a while.

asijdha there's a lot of things going on behind the scenes and a lot of things at stake here XD karl's more or less in worse shape than he really should be at the moment. you're gonna have to see for what i meant by 'last world' and 'see tommy again' for future chapters.

24 chapters in and we're FINALLY approaching the subject i know. i'm wondering if i should've done the pacing a bit differently. but what's done is done and we can finally progress a bit faster now :D

yeah the dilemma of the streamers having the ability, choice and decision to tell tommy and thus tubbo what happened- that's a big can of worms that they're gonna have to figure out soon. but they'll try their best!

don't worry, it won't be ONLY wilbur who has to be able do it soon... he's going to drag techno, and phil in because he's NOT doing it alone!! XDD

i'm glad that someone actually noticed that little tidbit! it is worldbuilding, and yeah people in the stream labs world have the choice and ability to choose their names- i'll try to get into it in the future and hopefully it'll make sense but i'll get to that in a later chapter. if i don't then just remind me and i'll get into it then!

[catboii]

(( hi to anyone who forgot they were following this DEADass blog!!

I've obviously not been on here, or on any RP blog at all, in forever. I'm gonna put this weird update(? more like a note to myself) under a cut, in case it gets kinda long... I might add updates to it later because there's alot I want to say. but I doubt anyone who would've been interested back when I was active, is still around (not to be negative! I don't expect them to be, I hope everyone I hung out with is living their best life!!) but I don't really know where else to collect my mess of thoughts on this character (I only sort of use twitter atm? and char limit lol), so for now, I'll post it here, and if I ever wanna link back to it, it's all neat and together...

if you've forgotten what this blog used to be since I changed URL and icons etc the last couple times it was active, it was Catboii, then before that SolicitorC. I have no idea if this character is actually dead, or if it is still out there somewhere, living it's best life (hopefully) maybe one day I'll tie up the loose ends, and finally set it free.... who knows

the reason I'm here, thinking about this character so fondly again, is I've actually been tentatively thinking about. writing things. again. I've been reading Homestuck fanfics again recently (i know right? in 2023?? what the shit) I doubt anyone who followed me on this blog knew me back on my other RP blogs, where I occasionally mentioned my fanfics (from 10 years ago aparently, mostly 2013 wow)..... most of which I'm embaressed about today so some I've orphaned, but the experience and practice was good in the long run

but the point is I've been thinking about writing something in my spare time (which I don't have much of, and I have multiple mental things that mean I have to re-read and correct and rearrange things I write like a million times. so far I've taken nearly 2 hours <now nearly 4 including eating and moving from upstairs to downstairs back upstairs...> to write and re-read this post, and I'm nowhere near done yet.... I'm gonna try to not be so anal about how this lays out because I've moved some paragraphs around and it sometimes doesn't make sense, but it literally doesn't matter! this is mostly just so I can look back on it in the future and be like, "oh yeah, I did that...")

I was thinking about trying to write some original fiction about one particular set of fantasy characters I have, and I like to remember the inspiration for their origins, so here we are.....

people who actually know me know I'm a HUGE slut for recycling characters. I have OCs who've been in literal hundreds of AUs, with either the same characters as always, or some different ones. and alot of my OCs, surprise surprise, started off as Tumblr RP muses.

I actually have a new version of this character, completely off tumblr or any other platform as of yet. although now he's completely diverged and I've created an entirely new timeline, new history, some actual lore of where he's come from and WHAT HE IS (finally) and how some of my other characters fit into the "universe". and I'll be honest, I did take some inspiration from some chatacters we met along the way. they have different names, I've changed their personalities somewhat, some are just loosely based off of the "concept" of a character we met, or the kind of relationship or interactions they had with my/other characters around,,, and they may not fit together with each other in this universe the way they did on Tumblr because they're not them, but the inspiration that I got from the interactions our characters had, had a big impact on the way this character has evetually turned out. I have BPD and "favourite people" reaches to more than just actual real life people for me, it reaches to characters, and I did have some "favourite muses" that really stuck with me, even if my muse wasn't a fan or they didn't really interact. there were also characters that my muse was really into, that I personally wasn't a fan of, but still mean alot to me and our progression

I obviously don't wanna just straight up plagierise someone else's character, and that wouldn't make sense anyway.... I can't copy someone else's character, and even if I COULD, they were probably fandom muses, which wouldn't work here in our new world. I can make up new characters, self indulge for the purposes of progressing my other character's stories... but that feels empty and pointless. these characters STILL hold a special place in my heart? and so some kind of weird tribute, without actually telling the person who made them, just makes sense to me I guess.... I wasn't gonna out mysef like this tbh, because to some people it might sound bad, I have alot of other characters who I've basically done the same thing with, took some loose inspiration from some OCs/fandom muses someone else made, and put some bits and pieces of them together in a completely different character of my own. I have a couple who are still mildly reminiscent of the originals, or are a very close paralell (with my own quirks), which I actually did get permission from the original creators to use and change... sometimes I think about actual TV or book characters who these smaller characters remind me of, and other RP blog characters or OCs, put bits of these characters together, then pick them apart, thinking about how they grew up, their family, friends, how that would've formed them as a person... frankensteining them together into some kind of guilt-free brain baby. this is essentially how you make characters, right? they're even initially inspired by real people, or real people's traits or personalities... then you squish them up and mould them into something else? it's not like I'm profiting off someone else's hard work and creativity... idk I don't really know how I feel about it.

for me, making characters is more than just "welp I need someone to be this guy's friend for a few chapters", they're a big part of the story, each one of my characters need to have some kind of background. even if that background is that we don't know anything about them for whatever reason.

anyway... back to the point I was getting to.

Tii, or Kiity, started off as... sort of a weird social experiment (at least that's what I'm calling it as a joke) on how out of character I can make a "normal" homestuck AU character, and not feel even the slightest bit bad about it. until I did.

the full timeline from when I was actually active is here but if you're not into long rambling explanations, here's, something..... (spoiler this turned into way longer than the timeline page, but this one has actual me in it, and my thoughts, rather than a sorta,,, emotionless list) if you DON'T wanna read the full timeline, but would like to read about my NEW character, I'll put this between these squigglies, and you can just skip it

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

homestuck stuff (so if you don't get HS then I'm sorry!): he started as just a normal post-game Sollux but he was god tier, didn't remember anything from the game or where his friends were, but couldn't die! fun! while he'd had the blog he got one of those pesky magin anons which turned him into a literal catboy, which he was actually really into bc people gave him alot of attention, so we made it permanent, there was some stuff with an Alternian uprising, human troll experimentation, he had his own lab, did experiments with parasites, especially brain worm type deals, I think this Sollux (I've had a few) didn't have Psionics? bc I'm a sucker for broken bois, it's been such a long time that I don't remember much myself. there was a phase with quadrant prostitution, hence the blog title "Solicitor". the first URL is where the nickname Lit came from. totally accidental but "it's Lit" was a great tag line. there was alot of memory loss in here, a universe's Signless manipulating Lit's memories to his own advantage... I have a terrible memory myself, and forgetting important things is a big fear of mine, so I thought I'd vent it out as a plot point, again, fun! it was also a handy plot ploint to let Lit forget muses who went inactive, rather than waiting around for them to return (since he was clingy but I'm realistic and have no problem if someone has a real life)

no more homestuck: there's a climax point where Lit was manipulated by a demonic creature called Kreed, which mostly happened off-blog. partially because I was too cringe thinking "lol demons" to actually go very far with it publicly. but in the end it worked out in my favour, because the story was getting REALLY DEPRESSING, and it was sorta going stale... this is where I dropped fandom and made Tii an OC, I was sort of feeling weird about the whole fandom thing since the character didn't feel like the actual canon character at all, with the memory loss and the manipulation. it was totally in character and it was story/character progression, but it didn't feel right calling it Sollux anymore, and honestly it was a little restricting.... it wasn't out of place though, because other people were making their fandom characters OCs around this time, rather than just starting up a whole new blog for the OC, having to get followers/interaction from scratch... you know, the grind.

there was a while at this point where Tii thought it was happy? but honestly no, it wasn't, and it was dragging me down a bit, which is why I kept dipping out, and I made a couple of ther blogs around this point. in general the blog experience was good, most of the interactions were great, but I'd put too much,,,,, brain? into emotions and the afterthoughts. I got too in my head, and in Tii's head, about the past. there were toxic muses that Tii dwelled on, and even if I tried to erase the memories, they would still pop up on it's dash and it would start a spiral, there would be posts on the vent blog regarding these people and Tii would be like "WHO DIS??" which was partially funny, but in the end exhausting.... it turned out, what I was *hoping* would be a superpower (forgetting traumatic events) turned out to be Tii's downfall.... I decided to go no-contact with my own character at some point. mostly I was just genuinely too busy, but I started to pop back on every now and again on mobile to see how things were going, say hi to a couple people, but eventually it would all start spiralling again, and it just wasn't enjoyable. I tried making another blog for an OC, which I don't think I even finished setting up before I decided I just didn't have the time or energy to start up.... but that's not Tii stuff, so nevermind that

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

today, Furui is a Nekomata (with some shapeshifting abilities), in a world where maybe 2% of the population is some kind of fantasy creature, living in hiding. most can blend in with general society, so humans think it's WAY less than that, although they know they're around...

I have a few "main characters", including Keisuke, who was a boy who grew up at the family temple/shrine (I'm not too familiar with Japanese culture, and I'm not about to pretend I am, so I forget which it is) where Furui lived back when he was an actual, literal cat. he frequented the site, even though his family told him not to go alone as the ghost of a black cat haunted it. it was actually just a Yokai. so much better... the Yokai grew quite fond of Keisuke, and hung around him, let him put a handmade collar on him so he could hear the tinkling bell when he was around. although Keisuke moved abroad to study when he was older, and when he returned after several years, the cat was gone. at some point, Furui, not understanding human language, so thinking Keisuke had just forgetten about him (even though he did try multiple times to say he was leaving,,, )and other humans pestering him and trying to chase him out, had gotten fed up, and turned into a malevolent spirit, burning down the temple/shrine, and killing several humans who'd tried to harm him

on a lighter note, fast farward a couple years, there's some goofy intro where Keisuke meets Furui in a human form, but he's an absolutely terrible human impersonator. they somehow end up being buddies and Keisuke teaches him how to person etc etc story things.

there are other main characters like Lyric the sweet but secretly manipulative Siren, or "Lyra" to humans. then there's Denali the reluctant Werewolf who I've actually toyed with being the protagonist. they have a complicated relationship where Lyric doesn't want Denali to be so self destructive (drinking and sleeping around), and doesnt actually know that he's a literal werewolf. because he won't tell her. he's worried she'll absolutely freak out about him getting hurt or hurting people... what he doesn't realise is she's just using him and has got him wrapped around her little finger, because she thinks he's just another stupid human. he, of course knows she's NOT a human, but think he's special, and she would NEVER use her powers on him.

Furui and Keisuke move abroad to [wherever I decide this takes place] where Lyric, Denali, and a bunch of other characters live. Furui quickly befriends Lyric because he can smell non-humans, being a cat and all, meets Denali and finds out he hasn't told Lyric his secret, so (as he's not a human, so doesn't have human values of trust and camaraderie, and is... not a nice person in general) threatens to out him if he doesn't play along with his games.. those games, being he's been the dark creature slowly picking off the werewolf packs roaming the streets killing people. one of those packs, being Denali's own. Furui takes great pleasure in making the guy choose between his relationship with Lyric, who he thinks he feels more than just platonically for, or his pack. this of course has alot of ways it could go, and I haven't fully decided.... but it's fun to theorise.

originally, Furui had a huge crush on Denali (which was gonna end in some kinda violent throwndown between him and Lyric), because in my mind he started out as this huge confident wolf boy, and who doesn't wanna fuck a werewolf, but as time's been going, he's been showing his vulnerabilities, and Furui will absolutely not be into anyone who is scared of anything, especially if it's not tangible... he's a ilteral spirit, he can't die or be killed. he toys with death on the daily, and I have a couple of quick little drabble scenes written up already (to get it out of my system) of him being absolutely annihilated, only to grotesquely and noisily pull his dislocated/broken limbs back into their sockets, and raise up from the ground gushing blood and bits of his insides all over the pavement.... you can't be second guessing your words in case you hurt someone's feelings around someone like that, if you want them to respect your physical prowess. on one hand, I like big confident scary Denali, but I also like confidence being a front, and secretly vulnerable doggo boi. it's a hard life.

anyway I'm just ranting now, and it's been.... like literally over 5 hours. I started writing this at half 4ish? and it's 10pm now. I feel better though, like I got something out of my system, and I got some of my story thoughts down, instead of just letting them swim around in my head then be forgotten.

if anyone did read all this for whatever reason, then I hope you have a great day, and thankyou for sharing this with me ...

[charissekenion]

Newsletter #60: Words are useless without action

Wow, it’s been a minute since I’ve sat down to write to you. I could give you a list of reasons for the delay, and I’m guessing a lot of them might make sense to you too. You see, I’ve been really trying to do the things. More than I’ve ever tried before.

Let me know if it’s the same for you, but I am definitely someone who can churn out work. I can work fast, I can get things done, particularly if it’s for a client. But what often happens is, the things that truly mean a lot to me personally, the things I’ve imagined myself doing - well, they kind of get pushed to the side. I still think of them, but there’s no action behind them. Something happened in the last four months though - I watched a video by one of my favourite YouTubers: Hindz. I don’t even remember which video it was - I did try to find out for you this morning but, deadlines prevented me from finding it. Besides, pretty much any video from Hindz can act as a wake up call, if you’re listening.

Now I am someone who has read a lot of books and watched a lot of videos and definitely listened to a lot of podcasts that are all focused on getting me to live up to my purpose - not find it. But for some reason, I’m finally understanding all that advice; maybe that’s what a moment of clarity is?

Watching the video gave me this insight: you say you want the things, you even write them down dutifully. You practise your affirmations in the mirror.

But all of that is USELESS, if you don’t take some kind of action towards The Thing/s.

This concept has been floating around in my head for the past month, and I knew my next newsletter would focus on it. But the reason I finally sat down to write to you, is because it’s that time of year where everyone is projecting what and who they’re going to be in 2023.

I love seeing friends on the internet saying that they are ‘claiming’ this or that. Some are claiming to have started entire movements and trends; others are a little less overt, and instead are claiming that their lives will be full of creativity/love/travel/wealth. A lot of this comes from a positive place - if you can’t say what you want to do or be, how can you do or be it?

But, what you really want is for others to say those things for you. How many people call themselves entrepreneurs and then you find out that this claim is based on the fact that they set up a website back in 2020 and they’re no longer in business?

How many call themselves trend-setters, and what they’re really doing is reading absolutely everything and turning an off-hand comment they made in 2021 into an Instagram carousel claiming I Said It First?

This is not a criticism by the way. This is an urgent point of view - I get that someone told you ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ but did they also tell you, with each little fake moment, that it really helps to add a little reality too?

I say this as much for myself as for you. I am a dreamer, but I do not want to live off dreams for ever. And dreams will never feed or dress me or get me on that plane to Tahiti.

Take a look at the seemingly new attention TikToker - and YouTuber, fashion designer, actor and model - Whitney Madueke is getting. She has been seen by millions in the past week, because she uploaded a video that saw her talking - in her real voice - about relationships and authenticity - while doing her makeup. The video has had over 1.6million views and over 300,000 likes on TikTok alone. And it has doubtless impacted sales of Givenchy’s Prism Libre Foundation worldwide.

Whitney did not set out to go viral. She has been creating content for NINE years; during which time she has been herself. In the viral video she is simply sharing an opinion and looking stunning while doing it. That’s it. There was nothing ‘special’ - she didn’t use a weirdly robotic voiceover and it doesn’t look like she’s used any filters. She was simply showing up.

Again, and again, and again.

Just like the rest of us, she has dreams and desires and perhaps that means she writes down affirmations and meditates every day - but she is also taking action. She’s planning her videos, she’s doing her makeup, she’s recording the videos - she’s editing them. She may well be ‘faking it’ towards some point we have no knowledge of, but she is also taking a step every single day. Nine years is a long time and I am thankful Whitney is being seen and showing us that if we’re gonna be all the things for 2023, we need to start now, actively.

Click to watch Whitney’s most popular video: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMFpC3SyX/

P.S. These past few months of focusing on action have made a big difference to me. Let me know if it works for you.

Speaking of being active, did you know I’ve produced a series of 25 ‘90s Beauty Moments as my alternative Advent Calendar?

From December 1st, until Christmas Day, I released one podcast and a matching video every single day. That’s 25 podcasts and 25 videos. I wanted to do it for several reasons: 1: to show myself I can be consistent and enjoy it; 2: to see if I noticed anything from being consistent when it comes to increased social following/listens/interactions and 3: I wanted to make it a gift to my listeners.

It went really well, and I am so grateful to everyone who shared a video or episode! It’s also got me inspired to take on former guest Dulma Altan’s 100 days challenge - she’s really good at challenging herself and along the way it’s undoubtedly helped her bring her unique take on women in business to a wider audience. The challenge is to pick a social platform and commit to posting every day for 100 days. If you want to know more, visit her Instagram @iamdulma.

If you haven’t checked out the ‘90s series yet, head to BeautyMe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music - anywhere you like to listen! You’ll find the matching videos over on my Instagram or my TikTok. I can’t wait to get started on a new series of podcasts for you and I’m always open to your suggestions so feel free to DM or email me beautymepodcast@gmail.com.

[rumblebumble22]

Why you should stop trying so hard

You want to get this degree, learn a new language or become a professional basketball player. You are studying or practising as hard as you can. You push yourself harder and harder, devote all your time to your goal. Making a pause to relax is just not for you. You are ready to do this at any price. But at some point, you just burn out. Insomnia, anxiety, anti-depressants — these words become all too familiar for you. You are tired. You need to relax. 

So you stop for a while. But who are you trying to cheat? You still have this goal. So you take a few days off and then dedicate all your life to success.

Do you think I've described some psychopat above? No, it's an average person in a modern society. We push ourselves so hard for something we crave for. We are always busy, insane and overhelmed. Yet, we feel that our achievements are never enough. 

Sounds horrific, right? If you think that I joke, just look at contemporary magazines and online media. They sell you a concept of a Superwealthy and Happy Person, who has no flaws and never makes mistakes. Between photos and lines you can easily read the good old message: ''Just do it.'' Just get this work, this girl, this house, this education. Just get a million followers, build a career, lose weight.

Just do it. What's the problem, fellow?

So we do and in order to do it we sacrifice everything. We get used to anti-depressants, sleeping pills and alcohol, these magic leverages, which help us to stay on the wave, even if we drown. We stop caring about our health, sleep badly and feel overwhelmed. Moreover, society only encourages this behaviour. Just recall some phrases which people have told you from your childhood.

''In order to success you should work a lot''

''Life is hard''

'You can't get what you want easily''

Our efforts are necessary, but not at the cost of our lives. 

Here's an interesting paradox: the more you want something, the less chances that you'll get it. Recall the last time you couldn't fall asleep. Did your desire to sleep really help you? The same with attraction: the more you try to chase someone, the less chance this person will be attracted by you. However, if you forget about him or her, you'll be contacted immediately. And what about shopping? I'm sure you have met this hyper-intensive seller who tried to sell you something. Have you noticed that the more he tried to sell, the less you wanted to buy? 

You might ask me why I gave you all these examples. The tricky thing is: in order to get what you want, you have to relax and remove this pressure of wanting. I know, it sounds ridiculous, but this is the only solution. You should stop trying so hard. The right way to do this? Find a middle path between action and not action. Combining work and relaxation is the key to success. 

Also, try to focus on the process, not the result. Stop thinking about your goal and concentrate on the present moment of practice. I agree that it's easier to say than do, but if you practise something which is really important for you, it will work. What do I mean by that? You should do something you truly want and your goal should be based on your values. In this case, you'll be able to enjoy the process. Example? I'm learning English because for me that's a fascinating experience. I'm a writer, a bookworm and learning just gives me pleasure. I'll use English for my work in the future, but first and foremost: I truly like it. 

So ask yourself: ''Why do you do something? Why do you want this exact thing?''' It'll help you to make authentic decisions for your life, rethink your notion of success and not feel like you struggle. When you do what you like, you stop "trying" to do it. Rather, you do it almost effortlessly and really enjoy it.

[hamzablogs009]

Know About Smart Contracts In Crypto With Examples Smart Contracts Crypto

Have you ever heard of Kickstarter its where you go, when you have an idea, but you don’t have the money, you make a page and show off your idea in hopes that other people donate to your project? For example, I might have an idea for a book that explains Cryptocurrency’s ideas and concepts. Well, I’d create a page and say that I have a goal of getting one thousand dollars in donations in turn, for people donating I’ll give out a book to everyone who donates at least ten dollars.

So I run the campaign and it takes around a week and I come up with thirteen hundred dollars in donations. Kickstarter will hold that money for me and since I reached my goal of one thousand dollars, it’ll give me all of the money that has been donated. However, if I didn’t reach the one thousand dollar goal, because, for example, my grandma didn’t donate or something then I wouldn’t get anything and all that money would be returned to the people that donated it.

1. Smart Contract

A smart contract is exactly like this. It’s a piece of code that does something. The most common smart contracts are written on the Ethereum network using something called Solidity, so let’s go over some examples of the purposes of smart contracts. You could write a piece of code that says, if you give me five Ethereum in turn, I will give you 20 basic attention tokens if you have at least 100 000 subscribers by the end of the year 20 Ethereum will be added to your account and if The temperature is over 95 degrees for more than four days in a row. This year Farmer john’s account will receive 100 000 as crop insurance. Now it would be really easy to write a smart contract where people could donate Ethereum to a certain address, and then, if that contract address reached a certain point, maybe say 500 Ethereum, then we could give each donor a portion of online work, such as an Artistic NFT or access to read an online book or even join a community. The purposes of smart contracts are endless, but when it comes to smart contracts, there are two main things that you need to know.

2. Coded on Blockchain

That makes them beneficial to everyone; number one they are immutable. This means they cannot change. So you remember how I said: some people call them if this than that, it’s because most smart contracts do something when they get triggered. They are just coded on the Blockchain that gets run and once it’s on the Blockchain, it can never be changed. Now, The downside of this you might be thinking is that if there is a bug or the code is inefficient, it will be a bug and it will be inefficient forever.

However, if you wanted to, you could just create a new smart contract and tell people not to use the old one. This happens very often. The second thing you need to know is that they are distributed.

This means there are no discrepancies. You can’t hire a lawyer and be like that “wasn’t our agreement”.

3. Execution of Contract

These smart contracts are an agreement between a few parties online that can be automatically executed if certain conditions are met. Smart contracts are a piece of code designed to remove human error and issues. You couldn’t hire a lawyer, even if you wanted to. The code is on a bunch of computers around the world. Anyone they wanted to could see your smart contract and how you participated in it. So now we have financial agreements that nobody can argue because they are code, they don’t change and everybody has access to them. Now you might not understand what the power of technology like this is, but to help you get the hang of it.

4. Examples

Let’s go over some examples, number one is a flash loan. What if I told you that you could borrow 10 million dollars with no money down well on the Ethereum network you absolutely can, but only if you write a smart contract that pays it back in the same minute that it is borrowed. That’s right: you can borrow millions of dollars to do something for you on the Ethereum network.

If you know how to code it so, here’s the catch, all of the money must be paid back. So you may be wondering why would we want to do this, Well, imagine you could buy some Dogecoin for 50 cents on Coinbase and then sell it for 55 cents on Gemini you could theoretically borrow 10 million dollars and buy a whole bunch of Dogecoin on Coinbase and then sell it to Gemini and then payback the original loan of 10 million dollars with some interest – this is called a flash loan and some guy made 360 000 in a few minutes by creating one of these. That did pretty much the example that I just described.

5. Advantages of Smart Contract

Here’s the kicker, The smart contract can check itself, it can run a simulation of what you programmed and it can see if what you told it to do would be able to pay back the lender after it does the code, and if it can do that, if it can Immediately pay back the lender, it runs the code and you can borrow those funds to do whatever you want to do. You could never do this with traditional finance, but you can on the Blockchain next up we have number two which is insurance. Did you know you can create an entire insurance company with just a few smart contracts, we would just write something simple like this?

6. Oracles

If farmer john gives us two thousand dollars and if it is more than 95 degrees for four days in a row in Missouri, farmer John would be paid ten thousand dollars, so this is called Insurance. Farmer, john can be sure that if his crops die from a heatwave, the smart contract will know that it happened due to temperature changes and pay him out his 100 000 insurance. Now you might be asking how the heck a smart contract or a piece of code knows what the temperature in Missouri is well with the help of something called Oracles.