#I think this every time I see memes about the preset or people making fun of it in their gameplays but I usually just quietly unfollow

[isimchi]

In the Sims 2 community there’s a certain maxis face preset that’s considered by many to be the ugliest preset, but literally it’s just a very non-Eurocentric face: it has the widest and thickest nose and lips of any of the other presets, and I also think it has the chubbiest cheeks/face.

I know there’s been modern criticism of Maxis’ lack of race and body diversity in CAS and a few other problematic instances in the Sims 2, but for the most part I think they remedied that in the later games.

When it comes to the sims 2 community though, it is disappointing to see these ideas about beauty still floating around today. No one can stop people from playing their games how they like, but imo at this age and point in time it’s worthwhile to at least question why you think certain features are funny or ugly looking.

[whimsykenzie]

Today we’re talking something I’m definitely passionate about and well-versed in: Instagram.

I know for a fact that I waste too much time on that app, so balance is definitely a goal for this year. But social media can also have really awesome impact!! I have met all of my best friends through this app…seriously. The first time I reached out to my best friend was some reply to her story saying that she looked super cute. I eventually worked up the courage to DM her and ask if she wanted to hang out some time…and here we are!

I met my other very best friend and future bridesmaid on Instagram as well. If you haven’t already read my “Meeting My Internet Friend IRL!” blog post here, you definitely should! The Internet, and social media especially, has opened me up to a world of possibilites, places, ideas, people, you name it! So I’m eternally greatful for that. ♡

As soon as I started my Instagram, I knew I wanted to be “aesthetic.” Yes, my account was private, and yes, my only followers at the time were my parents. My first post had a whopping 12 likes – including good ‘ol Mom & Dad, my aunts and uncles, a few close friends and even my friend’s mom. #therealones

I was always so focused on my “look,” growing up in the age of influencers, watching YouTubers do brand collabs and take trips to Bali. I knew I wanted my life to be like that. Which, granted, is a dream that I’m pretty sure every girl from 10 to 20 has wanted.

But seriously speaking, through Instagram I also began to develop my passion and figure out my career path. I’m no influencer yet – believe me, I know! But Instagram has become my creative playzone, a place to share about myself and my life and have a good time with it. Kinda like this blog!

I love spending time taking & editing photos and videos, figuring out color schemes and design along the way. One of the coolest things I think, is scrolling through somone’s Instagram and seeing how their theme and style has changed throughout the years! You can definitely see lots of different looks on mine…

LIGHTROOM

I’ve used a lot of photo editing apps and tricks throughout the years, but I’m currently hooked on Lightroom Mobile. As the beginner noobie I was when I switched from VSCO I was like what…the heck. What am I supposed to do with all these buttons?! And no filters!?

Turns out Lightroom is super easy to use, and filters here are called “presets.” I have finally curated my own preset that I’m pretty dang happy about (it only took me forever), but there are literally a million availble to purchase and some even for free.

Since I’m a cheapskate I’m obvi going to talk all about the free stuff today! So, when I started using Lightroom, I started with this free preset from Tara Kellie Smith.

my feed with the free Tara Kellie preset

Not only did I love it, it was free, and downloading it and accessing it turned out to be a piece of cake. I’ll leave a link to her video about it here, she goes step-by-step through the process and the link for the preset is in the description!

When I wanted to switch it up a bit, I started looking around on YouTube for free presets or free editing tutorials. I found this AMAZING goldmine of a playlist that I definitely recommend you check out! It’s got tons of presets for almost any influencer you could want: Aspyn Ovard, Jaci Marie Smith, Jess Conte, Marla Catherine, Zoelaz, and Brandon Woelfel, just to name a few. 😉 I’m not kidding, this playlist literally has over 100 videos on it. It also has lots of general presets for different themes and color schemes as well!

The way to maintain a cohesive Instagram feed is to edit all your photos similarly. You can use the same preset on every photo, just keep in mine that it may need to be tweaked a little bit depending on what the light level is, colors, etc.

PICSART

I love bringing my own creative elements into the picture (pun intended!) and playing around with different techniques. My favorite app to do this on by far is PicsArt.

It’s had its ups and downs for sure, but it’s a free app and has lots of amazing capabilities. In the past I used it when I went through my “doodle” stages and wanted to add drawings to my photos. Lately I have been using it for the “sticker” and “collage” options.

Having taken a couple of photography and design classes in high school, I got really used to Photoshop and Illustrator and loved them. Upon graduating, however, I was not willing to pay the hefty price tag just yet. PicsArt is the only app I’ve found so far that has so many Photoshop-like features yet is completely free!

So, when doodling on a photo I simply opt to go with the “draw” option. When making collages, I’ll pick the “freeform” option and select usually the max amount of photos allowed.

Processed with VSCO with c1 preset

  some photos from a cruise that I then doodled on after

my *very* bright doodle feed

Then comes the really fun part. The “sticker” button essentially is a cut-and-paste selection type of tool. Take a photo of yourself for example, and you can completely cut out the background. PicsArt even has some pretty decent facial recognition, which comes in handy when doing portraits!

  a couple of collages I have made, all on PicsArt. I simply gathered photos and tumblr posts/quotes from Pinterest and cropped and arranged as needed!

There are also thousands of stickers added by other people into the app that you can use for free, as well. You can search anything, from “tumblr” to “aesthetic” to whatever color scheme you’re going for. So get out there and spruce up your feed!

PHONTO

If you love creating Instagram stories, iPhone lockscreen quotes, or just tasteful memes, I highly recommend Phonto. It’s a super basic app that lets you put text on your photos. Free and simple, it has everything you need. You can even download fonts off the Internet and add them to the app super easily. I have my own growing library of fonts of all kinds.

      a collection of various wallpapers, lockscreens, and blog post photos I have made with Phonto

UNUM

UNUM is a fantastic app if you really want to plan out how your feed is going to look or even schedule Instagram posts. I mostly just use it to see how a certain photo will match up with the rest of my feed before posting, but you can also set up your caption and hashtags and post directly through the app!

UNFOLD

Unfold is the app you’ve probably seen influencers use but never knew what it was. With Unfold, you can create really gorgeous little setups of photos, videos, and text for your Instagram stories. I love to do it especially when I have story posts to make about my blog and blog posts.

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And those are pretty much all my photo editing tips & tricks! Everything I talked about is 100% free to get started with. I don’t use all of these apps on a daily basis, but they’re super helpful from time to time. I hope you enjoyed these post and found it super helpful, till next time, cheers!

Kindly, Kenzie Marie

HOW I EDIT MY INSTAGRAM PHOTOS Today we're talking something I'm definitely passionate about and well-versed in: Instagram. I know for a fact that I waste too much time on that app, so balance is definitely a goal for this year.

[flatsuke]

KBTBB Cell Phone Headcanons

a/n: these memelords, i swear

@maidofstars @bolt8826 @tsundere-eevee @themysticaldaydreamer @alolan-lillie lolol

Eisuke:

You betcha this guy owns the most expensive phone in the market. Practicality aside, he prioritizes prestige when it comes to using cell phones.

Uses this as a phone case. It’s luxurious, yet classy at the same time and hella pricey, too, this rich twat

He has MC on speed dial. On average, he probably calls her about 15 times a day. He claims to do it because he wants to give her errands, but, really, he just wants to hear her voice. Not that he’ll ever admit it out loud, this weenie.

His most used app is probably Gmail or some email app. This guy gets thousands of emails, and he has to skim through all of them in a day.

He has way too much paid apps. He’s the guy that buys his way through a game. 200,000 gold coins cost $59.99? No problem. He’ll buy 10 sets of those.

He never buys bootleg chargers or phone accessories. Why settle for the shitty ones when you can afford the original ones?

Because he’s a predictable weenie, his phone passcode is 0101.

His phone lock screen is a picture of some fancy wine he drank on a business trip, but his home screen is a picture he took of the coffee MC made for him.

He takes an unholy amount of selfies when he thinks no one is looking.

The photos on his phone are password-protected because he doesn’t want anyone to see the album full of secretly-taken candid shots of MC. They’re only for his viewing pleasure.

Soryu: 

He doesn’t really care much for the price or popularity of the phone model. Durability and functionality are what matter to him.

Has this as a phone case. Since his job involves a lot of physical activity and occasional violence, his phone case has to be shock-proof, drop-proof—everything-proof, basically.

He has a ton of ebooks saved on his phone, but he still prefers reading physical copies of the book.

He always accidentally drops his phone on his face because of how bulky his phone is. Ouch.

He blocked Baba and Mamoru as contacts. Baba kept spamming him with memes, and Mamoru’s name alone just pissed Soryu off.

He doesn’t really take pictures, but his phone album contains a few. Namely, a few pics of the Ice Dragons lined up, the penthouse crew messing around, and MC making omelettes, of course.

He has virtually no social media apps on his phone except  the app for the bidders group chat which he can’t seem to delete no matter how much he tries. Looks like someone hacked into it lol

He has Inui and Samejima on speed dial. Samejima’s always quick to answer his calls, but Inui has this annoying ass voice mail that Soryu hates listening to.

He mostly uses the generic settings of his phone. Generic wallpaper, ringtone, brightness, etc. One time, Ota snagged Soryu’s phone and messed with the settings. His wallpaper was a picture of Ota dabbing, and his ringtone was a recording of Mamoru’s sneezing. Soryu was pissed.

There was this one time MC wore a cheongsam, and Baba (before Soryu blocked him) sent him a pic of her wearing it. Needless to say, it was his phone home screen for weeks. 

Baba:

He’s not picky with his phones, so long as they have a decent amount of memory. He saves a ton of pics, videos, apps, etc.

Chose this phone case. He saw it at the mall and thought it looked really cool, so he bought it on a whim. Plus, it moves!

He definitely has almost every dating app on his phone. Tinder, OkCupid, Match.com—no wonder he’s always “busy.”

His photo album is full of juicy blackmail material of the other bidders (except MC, of course). No one tries to piss Baba off because only god knows what kind of secrets lie in his phone...

He has contact photos and names for everybody!

Everyone hates hearing his voice mail because he always adds a kissy sound effect at the end.

He’s extremely active on social media! He’s the guy who comments/likes the posts of all the other bidders. Too bad some of them blocked him lolol

No one can figure out what the hell his phone passcode is. The other bidders tried every conceivable combination that made sense, but they still haven’t figured it out yet. Baba can only shrug at them. Hint: it’s the day MC first met the bidders lol

His phone lock screen is a corny love quote, while his home screen is an even cornier love quote.

His phone rings every 0.001 seconds because of the obscene amount of notifications he gets.

Ota:

He usually has the latest model of whatever phone is on the market. Gotta stay young and fresh, right?

Has this phone case, which he designed himself. Of course, most of Ota’s accessories are DIY. 

His most used app is Instagram! He posts pictures of doggos, art, and MC. According to him, she’s aesthetic.

He always has to delete apps every now and then to make space in his phone because he always has too much pics saved. He probably has more than 10,000 photos saved.

He always spams the group chat with memes. He has a folder just for memes and reaction photos.

His phone lock screen is a puppy, while his home screen is a picture of the blue bird painting he made.

He has a ton of songs saved on his phone for inspiration. Since doesn’t take care of his earphones, they always do the thing where one ear has music, while the other doesn’t. Ota freaks out when that happens.

He has a drawing app for sudden strikes of inspiration. 

He always runs out of battery because he uses his phone too much, so he usually mooches off the other bidders’ chargers and portable batteries.

His ring tone is a nightcore version of Numa Numa. He purposely set it that way to annoy the others.

Mamoru:

He uses a relatively older model smartphone because he’s too lazy to buy a new one.

He’s dropped his phone so many times that the screen has cracks and scratches all over the place. He put tape on his phone in an attempt to fix it. It’s a miracle his phone still works.

He doesn’t own a phone case. Too much of a hassle to buy.

He doesn’t organize his apps, so they’re all mixed up. He probably has about five pages of unsorted apps, 98% of which he barely uses anymore.

He has waaaay too many unread messages, emails, missed calls, and notifications. He ignores people he doesn’t want to talk to.

He forgets to delete the spam texts, so whenever he checks his messages, it’s full of “YOU HAVE WON 1,000,000!!!”

He uses bootleg chargers, so he always has to replace them after a month or so, depending on how shitty the charger is. “Get a legit charger, dummy.” “Nah.”

He sets five alarms every day, but he never wakes up to any of them.

His phone lock screen is the generic preset wallpaper, but his home screen is a picture of him and Minami celebrating after they first cracked a case together.

He doesn’t usually call people, but when he does, he always hangs up first. 

Shuichi:

He originally had the same phone model as Eisuke, so when Shuichi found out about it, he immediately changed his phone out of spite.

Uses this phone case. It’s simple, not too flashy, and nice to look at.

All his apps are organized painstakingly, each in their own specific folders. Hell, he even has a ‘delete later’ folder for apps he doesn’t like.

He hates it when people try to look through his phone, so he never leaves it lying around. He doesn’t want anyone seeing pictures of him as Shu. Only Hikaru and MC have the privilege of looking through his phone.

He uses the touch ID/fingerprint ID as a phone lock, so no idiot can invade his privacy.

His phone has been in vibrate mode for as long as he can remember.

He’s always stressed, so he loves using those calming, stress-relief apps. One of those apps is a punching bag app where you get to put a pic of a person on a punching bag and hit it repeatedly. Shuichi put Eisuke’s face on it, and since then, his stress levels have reduced significantly.

His phone lock screen is a pic of a tranquil landscape, while his home screen his a pic of the cactus he’s taking care of.

He made a separate group chat just for himself, Hikaru, and MC. The chat’s name is called “vent”, and they mostly trash-talk a certain brunette CEO.

He has a chess app on his phone that he uses all the time. He plays with other players around the world, but he has yet to lose to any of them.

Luke:

He really doesn’t care about phones or owning one, but because of Eisuke’s insistence, he had to get a smartphone.

He’s not used to texting with a touchscreen, so most of his texts are full of typos. No one dares to make fun of him for it because MC will chew them out if they do.

He doesn’t use much apps, but he immensely enjoys Neko Atsume

He has never used social media until the other bidders forced him to.

His only contacts are the bidders, but even then, he still blocked them all (except for Eisuke and MC).

His phone is on airplane mode 90% of the time.

He originally didn’t want a phone case, but when MC gave him a cat phone case for his birthday, he loved it. Since then, he has never taken the case off.

He sets an everyday alarm for his precious tea time. God forbid he miss it.

His phone lock screen is a pic of a kitty he found, while his home screen is a pic of MC (with her collarbones showing, of course) cuddling that same kitten.

He doesn’t really reply to people when they text him. Even Eisuke has a hard time reaching Luke. The only time Luke replies fast is when MC texts him.

Hikaru:

This guy jailbroke, cracked, and modded his phone and all the apps in it. He messed with it so much that the interface doesn’t even look the same anymore.

He’s the prick that can get all the in-app purchases for free. The only reason he gets high scores in most of the apps is because he cheats lmao.

He has the loudest, most obnoxious-sounding ringtone so that when he loses his phone, he’ll be able to hear it right away when he calls it.

He purposely uses an unusual phone case so people will be less inclined to steal his phone.

His lock screen is pitch black, but his home screen is a pic of himself, Shuichi, and MC hanging out together.

He screencaps some moments from the group chat to use as receipts later on.

His passcode is 6969 just because.

He always tries to distract MC by flooding her with memes and badly-edited photos of the other guys.

He prefers texting to calling because he hates having to use his fake voice even on the phone.

Whenever he calls MC, they always argue about who should hang up first.

Bonus - MC:

She prefers using a smaller smartphone because of its portability and practicality.

She uses this phone case. There was something about the Alice in Wonderland design that attracted her to it...

Her phone is usually burning hot because the bidders spam her and the group chat with notifications all the damn time.

She tried blocking them all, but Hikaru hacked into her phone, and now she’s forever stuck with those pricks. She’s currently saving for a new phone.

She uses to-do list apps all the time. Most of the things on her list are strange requests from the other guys.

She purposely answers Eisuke’s calls after five rings just to piss him off.

Her lock screen is a picture of money to motivate herself to keep going to the penthouse. Her home screen is a group selfie she took during her birthday with the other bidders.

None of the bidders are aware, but she has a folder full of blackmail material, too.

She has dating sims on her phone to relieve her stress, much to the others’ jealousy.

Just like Baba, she has personalized contact names for the others. She even set personalized ringtones for them:

Eisuke: The Imperial March

Soryu: Guile’s Theme (SNES)

Baba: Careless Whisper

Ota: Dogsong

Mamoru: Mii Channel Music

Shuichi: Ironside (Kill Bill Sirens)

Luke: Spooky Scary Skeletons

Hikaru: Windows Gourmet Race