#I've always wanted to do a comment based design challenge

[the-lone-wolffe]

Sometimes I wish I talked about death omens more so more people knew about and were interested in death omens so I could do one of those comment based character design things for death omens.

[plushiegalaxy]

UPDATE: I'm Still Here!

Hi, friends! It's been a while since I last posted to Tumblr, but I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm alive and well, and have been very busy with a whole slew of commissions.

Here's what I've been up to for the past few months:

Personal Project: Princess Peach Showtime Dress-Up Doll

I have been OBSESSED with the Princess Peach game, and so have taken it upon myself to remake ALL of her outfits (13 total!) as my next big personal sewing project. I already have the base outfit completed, as well as Swordfighter Peach and Mermaid Peach (through I still need to add her pearls). Next up will either be Detective peach or Patisserie Peach. If you have a preference for which you'd like to see first, let me know in the comments!

Commission: Phoenix Wright "Beanix" Plushie

I received another commission for a "Beanix" Phoenix Wright from the Ace Attorney series. Unlike my last one, this client wanted darker skin with stubble and blue eyes, but it's mostly identical to the last one I made. Still, always nice to see this guy in plushie form.

Commission: Mousse from Food Fantasy

Another commission I received from a VERY obscure mobile game (so obscure that I could only find 2 images of this character!) This was one of the most complex outfits I've had to do yet, with lots of little details on the boots and the belt and the cape, and the client was thrilled with the result. Although it had my head spinning at times, I enjoy the challenge of simplifying complex designs like this.

Shark Plushie

This wasn't a commission or anything. My mom wanted to learn how I make plushies, so I taught her how to make a cute little shark. <3

Commission: FFXIV Player Characters

And my most recent commission: a pair of Final Fantasy XIV avatars! These guys are Kasumi and Moe, and they are the client and his wife's characters in-game. The client requested them for his wife's birthday, and I was happy to do so. The outfits were so cute and cozy, especially the big fluffy househoes. I even included a little message in Kasumi's sweater pocket.

I have one more commission I just finished, but since the person hasn't received it yet, I'm keeping that one secret for now...

ALSO,

I've recently updated my Etsy shop with some new listings, including some physical, ready-made plushies that are priced to sell! So if you're interested in either an order or a ready-made plush, please come by my Etsy and see what I've got: https://www.etsy.com/shop/PlushieGalaxy?ref=seller-platform-mcnav#items

That's all for now. Hope everyone is doing well!

[mariacallous]

SO! this is odd, but I've fallen down a rabbit hole of cults, cults documentaries really, and I listened to two different podcasts by 3 different former NXIVM members and one thing I found so very interesting is all 3 of them (and at least two of them were not Americans by birth, idk about one of them) all went out of their way to both sides the American political system, which the idea that people who vote for Joe Biden are "a little bit culty" vs people who you know Trump, there just isn't that same thing, for sure there are left wing political cults but they rarely have much influence in Democratic politics vs Qanon

any ways, it kinda dovetailed to something I'd thought/realized about cults, and maybe not all of them. People talk about how "any one" can fall for a cult and I get why they say that, but I think really they abuse people having narrower information bases than they think they have and abuse pop wisdom truisms. And like all of these people and a number of their Ex-cult member guests (even experts in cults) made different comments about being frustrated with the world and "our leaders" and politics and how "why can't they just get something done, it should be easy" and all of them wanting to or thinking they were saving the world/humanity by doing... nothing but being in this cult. And it's very that air of "I want change the world but don't want to do the work" you see (and that sounds mean, because these people worked themselves to the bone for these cults, but like not building schools or feeding the hungry) and also "these has to be a simple answer, it can't be this hard for everyone to just..."

and I think a lot, most, people reject complexity in and of itself, and lots of people believe the pop wisdom that corruption or selfishness is blinding "leaders" from the easy answer to fix the problems of the world. And I think thats what cults feed on, as well as people wanting to feel smart "you get the secret information, the answer, that everyone out in your normie life were too stupid or self involved to get"

idk hope you found those musings interesting since you're the queen of "it's complicated" and thats something I really admire about you.

First of all, I love being the queen of "it's complicated".

And it is! Most things in life are complicated, particularly in the world we live in today!

I think your musings are pretty on point - this all reminded me of a quote from Joan Didion's “Life Styles in the Golden Land” in Slouching Towards Bethlehem:

It’s a social movement, quintessentially romantic, the kind that recurs in times of real social crisis. The themes are always the same. A return to innocence. The invocation of an earlier authority and control. The mysteries of the blood. An itch for the transcendental, for purification. Right there you’ve got the ways that romanticism historically ends up in trouble, lends itself to authoritarianism. When the direction appears. How long do you think it’ll take for that to happen? is a question a San Francisco psychiatrist asked me.

The thing about cults and similar movements is that they take advantage of both a person's biases and a person's need to belong and be seen and be special, and in the world we live in now, you can specifically and narrowly tailor your news and information consumption in a way to exclude things that contradict or challenge you, and so much content, both entertainment and news-wise, is being more designed and set up to maintain that engagement and also evoke more emotional responses.

[jspark3000]

The last post you made is really good, I think that sort of attitude is really important in Christianity. But how do I keep that attitude, and understand that the bible has been interpreted in many ways, while not becoming doubtful of the bible and it's truth? How do I keep an open mind and still remember that God is unchanging? (I'm not sure if you take asks so don't feel pressured to answer, just thought I would say what I've been thinking for a while that your post reminded me of.)

Hey dear friend, I believe you’re referring to this post: http://jspark3000.tumblr.com/post/160231013138/because-the-bible-says-so

For reference, I wrote this: 

“Because the Bible says so.” Okay, but whose interpretation? Yours? Mine? From the era of the Crusades? When they were burning people at the stake? When it was used to support slavery? What if we have different conclusions? What if we’re both wrong? 

So first off: I got quite a lot of backlash on that post, and I had to take a break from my inbox and from looking at comments and reblogs. I don’t say that out of self-pity (there’s a lot more important stuff happening across the world), but rather to point out that I must’ve hit a nerve somewhere. Someone commented something like, “I thought he was one of the good guys.” I mean, I laughed, but I was also a little bummed out by the judgmental assumptions on the whole thing. Like, can we not ask these questions at all?

I wrote the post originally because a few people confronted me saying things like, “I unfollowed you because I don’t agree with you theologically” (which is fine, everyone has a right to unfollow) or “Your interpretation is off” or “You’re becoming a liberal” (as if liberal is a bad word). 

So I asked the questions out of sincere curiosity. How exactly do we meet in a place where we can intellectually discuss our disagreements if one party already presumes the higher ground? Really, when someone says “I disagree with your theology,” what they’re saying is, I disagree with your interpretation of theology based on my interpretation of theology. So where did that interpretation come from? Trace it back and it’s always from someone else. A person. With a tiny brain like yours and mine. Augustine or Calvin or Nietzsche or Osteen. Some church leader a thousand years ago, or some book written last year, or some preacher guessing at the Bible the best he or she knows how.

I’m not entirely sure how to discover which interpretation is the right one. Each of us have so much self-interest that we can use the Bible (and other stuff) to justify any position we want, even under the guise of “the common good” or “your benefit.” 

But I have two starting points. 1) I assume that my precious beliefs are always open to challenge, and 2) I must live by the beliefs I hold true, as honestly and as passionately as I can, by the grace of God, and God will sort that out. 

If my opinion and my interpretation of the Bible are always matching up, then it’s possible I’m just making God into my own image and forcing Him to conform to what I want. I’m basically just colluding with myself as my own accomplice into the crimes I want to commit. Then I wouldn’t be in dialogue with God, but rather manipulating a robot-idol I designed to do my bidding and to turn off at my convenience. If the Bible is timeless truth, then I’d expect that such truth would press against what I hold to be personally and culturally true. And we are all chronologically landlocked by ideas that don’t make sense and must be challenged and changed. I believe the Bible, read correctly, will usurp what is destructive and affirm what is constructive. And still, I assume that these ideas can be confronted and rebuked.

Once I land on a conviction, I assume God will sort out the outcome. History (at least hopefully and generally) will prove whether I was aligned with God’s purpose, or not. I know there are a ton of caveats and exceptions with this idea, but the natural world does usually unroll either benefits or consequences from our actions, or a mix of both, and in our limited three lb. brains, I think we can grasp an inkling of what God must want out of all we do.

Yet in the end, figuring out what God wants is not some mysterious, complicated puzzle. The more I have to justify and rationalize something, the more I can be sure it’s not from God. The Bible has made a lot of things pretty clear. Jesus said plainly: I must love people. There’s no equivocation or wavering there. How it happens might differ, but that it happens at all must not. 

— J.S.