#Mac Buying Guide

[joebustillos]

Tech Tuesdays: Happy Amazon Prime Day & Apple Products Not to Buy Right Now

With Amazon’s Prime Day beginning today and Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference over a month ago, one might have questions about what Apple products one can safely buy and which produces to wait until Apple’s traditional Fall Announcements. To quote Wall Street Journal reporter, Joanna Stern: Never double dip a chip, Never talk on speakerphone in public, Never buy an iPhone in the…

[shane8766]

How to choose the right computer

Before you start shopping for a new computer, it is important to assess your needs. Ask yourself what you will be using the computer for and what type of performance you require. This will help you narrow down your options.

1. Picking the right computer for your needs: When it comes to picking the right computer for your needs, it is important to consider what you will be using it for. If you need a computer for general use, then a basic model should suffice. However, if you plan on using your computer for more demanding tasks, such as gaming or video editing, then you will need to invest in a more powerful…

[englishotomegames]

OBSCURA

Release date (Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Steam) English (early access): September 9th, 2024

"I once heard a story...

There's a marketplace under the mountain where anything can be bought and sold. Visitors wear masks to become faceless strangers. It's home to the unscrupulous, the outcast, and the desperate.

You're one of the desperate.

Strangers with their own secrets and ambitions can show you ways through the market. They'll guide you to your goal, but don't trust them to have your best interests at heart."

First chapter available as a demo, first half of second chapter available in early access.

Choose the protagonist's name, pronouns, and mask.

Four mysterious love interests.

Over 120k words (70k in the demo, 50k in the early access release)

A dark, mature story with many ways to fail.

Timed choices! Or turn them off for an easier game.

Original music by Cajsa.

Use the default, OpenDyslexic, or Atkinson Hyperlegible font for ease of reading.

OBSCURA is now available in early access! You can try the demo or buy it from itch.io here, or from Steam here.

[dreamgrlarchive]

A Prissy Girl’s Guide to Spring

since i won’t be active on tumblr when next spring comes around, and i’ve done 3/4 seasons, i felt it was appropriate to go ahead and finish the series! if you find yourself inspired by my aesthetic/looks, you can absolutely use this as a guide for the next primavera season! 🐇

what’s the look this spring?

my personal forecast for fashion spring ‘24 is “pink pilates bimbo” for sure. the renewal of spring is the time for a wellness reset. so i’ll be engaging in a physical activity but i’ll still be in barbie attire. pink athleisure pieces with super girly additions is my predicted aesthetic. 🎀

first and foremost…

let’s talk about what spring symbolizes: renewal, cleansing, and restarting. that makes itself apparent in the seasons colors; the darkness of winter transitions to the soft pastels of spring.

preparation

start spring cleaning and prepping for seasonal allergies. stock up on in season fruits to keep in the house. take up outside activities like biking, outdoor yoga, and jogging. buy new fragrances. prep your skin and hair for the overtime humidity.

essentials

pretty umbrella

allergy meds/quarterly check up

new water bottle/tumbler

fresh and clean candles + home fragrances

matcha and jade citrus tea

humidifier

neti pot

clothes and accessories

pink athleisure. the lululemon strawberry milkshake jacket is a must! (or a dupe if you’re on budget)

foldover yoga pants

bedazzled pieces

pastel colored pieces

cute mini bags

victoria’s secret totes

tennis skirts

sheer + lacey tops

florals for spring? groundbreaking.

glitter + sequins

satin dresses

lace up sandals

hunter boots

coach baguettes

victoria’s secret co-ords, leggings and sweaters

ballet flats

ugg slippers + fluff sandals

cute gym shoes with pink/sparkly details

lace up pieces

baby blue is a staple color for spring

ruffle trims

warm materials + revealing cuts

“pastry princess” looks inspired by sweets and dessertz

cropped baby tees

stripper heelz

diamond jewelry

body jewelry + belly chainz

sparkly hair clips and headbands

butterfly aesthetics

ribbons and bows

ostrich feathers

sparkly keychains and wristlets

bodysuits + heels combo

statement jewelry like hello kitty, fruit or desserts

beauty

pretty eye pigments (try mac, huda or iconic london)

vibrant pinks

warm bronzer

glitter gloss

translucent glosses in pink and orange

charlotte tilbury flawless filter

nars super orgasm blush

morphe 8r complexion palette

morphe nikita palette

natasha denona diamond & glow (favvv)

a bunch of clear glosses

fenty diamond bomb

fenty fussy gloss bomb

urban decay moondust shadows

cake beauty products

joseon spf 50

bright and/or floral fragrances (gucci flora gorgeous gardenia, jimmy choo illicit flower, carolina herrera good girl blush, juliette has a gun collection, yves saint laurent mon paris intensement, marc jacobs daisy fragrances)

victoria’s secret love spell + warm and cozy + la crème fragrances

sol de janeiro body mists

body shimmer (fenty beauty or bath and body works)

sweet body butters

sol de janeiro beija flor

exfoliating gloves

juicy sheet masks

cetaphil moisturizing cream

native candy shop collection

victoria’s secret tease + eau so sexy

5 blade razors and post shave oil

cute mirrors to keep in my purses

glitter nails

lavenders and pinks

protein treatments for moisture overload

[ms-demeanor]

Since some people might want a Mac, I'll offer a Mac equivalent of your laptop guide from the perspective of a Mac/Linux person.

Even the cheapest Macs cost more than Windows laptops, but part of that is Apple not making anything for the low end of the tech spectrum. There is no equivalent Mac to an Intel i3 with 4 gigabytes of RAM. This makes it a lot easier to find the laptop you need.

That said, it is possible to buy the wrong Mac for you, and the wrong Mac for you is the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the Touch Bar. Get literally anything else. If it has an M2 chip in it, it's the most recent model and will serve you well for several years. Any new MacBook Air is a good pick.

(You could wait for new Macs with M3, but I wouldn't bother. If you are reading these guides the M3 isn't going to do anything you need done that a M2 couldn't.)

Macs now have integrated storage and memory, so you should be aware that whatever internal storage and RAM you get, you'll be stuck with. But if you would be willing to get a 256 gig SSD in a Windows laptop, the Mac laptop with 256 gigs of storage will be just as good, and if you'd be willing to get 8 gigs of RAM in a Windows laptop the Mac will perform slightly better with the same amount of memory.

Buy a small external hard drive and hook it up so Time Machine can make daily backups of your laptop. Turn on iCloud Drive so your documents are available anywhere you can use a web browser. And get AppleCare because it will almost certainly be a waste of money but wooooooow will you be glad it's there if you need it.

I get that you are trying to help and I am not trying to be mean to you specifically, but people shouldn't buy apple computers. That's why I didn't provide specs for them. Apple is a company that is absolutely terrible to its customers and its customers deserve better than what apple is willing to offer.

Apple charges $800 to upgrade the onboard storage from a 256GB SSD to a 2TB SSD.

A 2TB SSD costs between $75-100.

I maintain that any company that would charge you more than half the cost of a new device to install a $100 part on day one is a company making the wrong computer for you.

The point of being willing to tolerate a 256GB SSD or 8GB RAM in a Windows laptop is that you're deferring some of the cost to save money at the time of purchase so that you can spend a little bit in three years instead of having to replace the entire computer. Because, you see, many people cannot afford to pay $1000 for a computer and need to buy a computer that costs $650 and will add $200 worth of hardware at a later date.

My minimum specs recommendations for a mac would be to configure one with the max possible RAM and SSD, look at the cost, and choose to go buy three i7 windows laptops with the same storage and RAM for less than the sticker price of the macs.

So let's say you want to get a 14" Macbook pro with the lowest-level processor. That's $2000. Now let's bump that from 16GB RAM and a 512GB SSD to 32GB and 2TB. That gets you to $3000. (The SSD is $200 less than on the lower model, and they'll let you put in an 8TB SSD for $1800 on this model; that's not available on the 13" because apple's product development team is entirely staffed by assholes who think you deserve a shitty computer if you can't afford to pay the cost of two 1991 Jeep Cherokee Laredos for a single laptop).

For $3000 you can get 3 Lenovo Workstation laptops with i7 processors, 32GB RAM, and a 2TB SSD.

And look, for just $200 more I could go up to 48GB RAM and get a 4TB SSD - it costs $600 to upgrade the 14" mac from a 2TB SSD to a 4TB SSD so you could still get three laptops with more ram and the same amount of storage for the cost of one macbook.

I get that some people need to use Final Cut and Logic Pro, but hoo boy they sure are charging you through the nose to use products that have become industry standard. The words "capture" and "monopoly" come to mind even though they don't quite apply here.

"Hostile" does, though, especially since Mac users end up locked into the ecosystem through software and cloud services and become uncertain how to leave it behind if they ever decide that a computer should cost less than a month's rent on a shitty studio apartment in LA.

There's a very good reason I didn't give mac advice and that's because my mac advice is "DON'T."

[jjkilll]

the one when jungkook wants to take you stargazing

— pairing I ceo jk x architect y/n

— warning | implied smut, body worship kinda, they both super obsessed husband and wives. wonderful husband jungkook.

— song | stargazing - the neighbourhood

— wc | 0.8K

——-—-—-—-✫-—--—-—-——

Jungkook shakes you awake. “Baby? Baby come on I want to show you something.” yawn and look at the clock, “Jungkook it’s three in the morning.” You say rolling over. “come on the helicopter is waiting.”

“Helicopter?” You ask peeking up. “What the hell Jungkook?” He smiles “Come on baby I want to show you something.”

“Okay okay,” you say as he drags you out of bed. you quickly get dressed and you take the elevator to the roof.

The ride is short but beautiful nonetheless. The city lights of New York never fail to pull at your heartstrings, and with Jungkook by your side, you feel like you’ve won the lottery.

To stand at the dock. “a boat, jungkook?” he shushes you, “I promise it’s necessary.”

You roll your eyes and get on the boat. Cruising the water feels amazing, calming, and light. You look at your hands entangled with one another and that gorgeous diamond on your finger. You trace the tattoos on his arm. “I’m obsessed with you.” you say to him. he smiles, “How did I land someone like you. I’m so lucky.” you lean your head on his arm. “if anything I’m the lucky one,” he whispered.

“Oh look- look up” Jungkook points to the stars. Look at the bright one.” he spins you around and points. “it’s beautiful, baby.” You’re breathless. It shone right over a house right off the lake. “It’s yours,” he says warmly.

“I bought it.”

You turn to face him. “Jeon Jungkook no you didn’t buy me a fucking star!!” you scream. “You bought me a star! You’re the best husband in the whole world. You bought me a star!” You scream again. he watches you fondly as you jump in excitement. You kiss him deeply. “you bought me a fucking star.” you whisper against his lips. he hums and you kiss him again. “I’m giving you the best head when we get back.” he laughs, “There’s more wait.”

“There's more?!” You scream. Suddenly you dock at the house under the star. He grabs your hand covering your eyes with his hand. You stumble a bit. “Jungkook help.” He holds your waist guiding you onto the smooth payment. He stopped at the beautiful double doors. “these doors are amazing holy shit, look at the stained glass. You say as Jungkook opens the door. “Come on.” He grabs your hand and shuts the door behind you.

You step into the living room. The fireplace going and the lights are low. You walk over to the bookcase admiring the records. “holy shit this is original Fleetwood Mac and Bob Marley. What the fuck this is crazy.” You say exploring the shelf more. “Ooh, lemony snicket.” You say making your way to a shelf in the dining room before you stop. You look ahead at a Jungkook who's just watching you look around.

“wait.” you say walking to the other door into the kitchen. “this is…” follows behind. You walk up the stairs. Suddenly every turn is increasingly familiar. “…how did you?” He smiles at you as you turn to face him. “This is our house. You built our house?” He hums walking up to you. “yeah, I took your blueprint back in December, copied them, and put them right back, you never noticed shockingly. I bought a new copier just to get them.” He says you lean into him hugging him tightly. “I thought about what you said about raising kids in the city. I figured you’d want to do it in your dream house.” he smiles. You start to cry. “Why are you crying baby?” He asks patting your back and rubbing your head.

“You bought me a star and you built my house and you expect me not to cry.” You hit his chest softly as he chuckles. “I’m not sad. I'm just happy, I'm so fucking happy babe.” He smiles. You wipe your tears and kiss him. “wait so those records are mine?” You ask excitedly. He nods tucking his bottom lip between his teeth.

“Oh you gotta put a baby in me now.” you kiss him. “I’m serious. fuck me,” you say pulling him closer. his hand land on your waist finding their way to your ass giving it a squeeze. you gasp allowing him to slip his tongue in your mouth.

“Fuck.” He slaps your ass and you giggle. “You’re just so pretty.” He hums. He grabs your neck turning you so your back is against his chest. “My pretty pretty wife wants a baby, huh?” You nod whining. “Use your words, baby. Let me hear you.”

“Please, I wanna have your babies. fill me up.” You smile, “Oh you’re so fucking nasty, baby.” He says sucking your neck. “Gonna let me fuck you from the back?” He smiles. “Please, baby. touch me.” He gropes your tits through your shirt pulling your bra down. “You’re so fucking sexy. You just let me do whatever I want to you... like my own little doll.”

He pulls your shirt over your head and unhooks your bra watching your tits bounce. His big hands rub your body. He yanks your shorts down. “Bend over for me, baby”

——-—-—-—-✫-—--—-—-——

[kafus]

how to connect to wi-fi services in pokemon gen 4 (DPPT/HGSS)

it's still possible to access the wi-fi services of the gen 4 games after the official shutdown of nintendo's wii/ds wi-fi in 2013 due to fan efforts by changing your DNS settings in-game - this is called the DNS exploit. this is popularly used in gen 5 which really has no complications, but in gen 4 it's a bit more complicated because the games are So old that they can't connect to the internet through modern routers due to fancy modern internet encryption. the connection either needs to have no password, or have WEP encryption, which most modern routers do not support. i had some people asking me how to do this so here's a post lol

first, it should be noted i use the pkmnclassic service, and i think you should too. this gives you access to old mystery gifts as well as pretty much every other wi-fi feature. their website also allows you to view pokemon currently uploaded to either gen 4 or 5's GTS through your browser. once you get your wi-fi set up properly, connecting to the internet will be easy, but that setup comes first. below i am going to list all the options i am currently aware of and able to explain

option 1 - phone hotspot (easy/convenient, doesn't work for every type of phone)

some phone hotspots are able to use old WEP type encryption, or be password-less. if you have access to a phone hotspot, it's worth taking off the password if it lets you and trying to connect to the gen 4 wi-fi with it before trying any other method, since if it works it's super convenient, just turn on the hotspot any time you want to do something online in gen 4 and turn it back off when you're done. unfortunately this depends on the type of phone and what OS its on and i don't have a list of what phones or OSes are compatible, so good luck lol. mine personally is not, and i have a fully updated iphone

option 2 - guest wi-fi (a little less convenient but still easy if you have access to router settings)

in the same vein as phone hotspots, guest wi-fi hotspots can also work, and this is what i personally use myself. the catch is you have to have access to your router settings, so if you're a young person using a parents' router without access to those or some other situation like that, you may have to ask for assistance every time you want to turn this on/off, which could be a dealbreaker for some unfortunately. but if you're able to do that, simply make your guest wi-fi password-less and turn it on when you want to connect to gen 4 wi-fi and turn it back off when you're done. since these settings pages are so different per internet provider, i can't really give a guide on how to do that here, though mine through verizon fios is pretty straightforward. some guest wi-fi may not work for this but i think most should

option 3 - use an old router that supports WEP encryption (probably inaccessible for most, but only has to be set up once and then you're done)

i've done this in the past but i had my dad's help with the process, i cannot walk you through buying an old router lol. but yes if you purchase an old router and set that up you can have password protected gen 4 wi-fi permanently

option 4 - save backup + emulation through melonds (works pretty much 100% of the time if you have a hacked 3DS and some sort of PC)

MelonDS is a really great DS emulator that you can find here for windows/linux/mac: https://melonds.kuribo64.net/downloads.php

the basic idea is that you can backup your save file/game with a hacked 3DS using Checkpoint or TWLSaveTool (outside the scope of this guide but this is easy to do and you can walk through the steps here) and then run it through melonds, which can bypass all this WEP/encryption hell for you and simply connect to the internet. of course this is not very convenient if you have to constantly back up your saves to do wi-fi stuff but it's better than nothing if you have no other option.

unfortunately setting up the wi-fi can be a pain, and you also need DS BIOS files to run everything properly, which i cannot provide myself for legal reasons but they uh... aren't that hard to find lol, and you can back them up from an actual DS if you have access to the necessary tools for that.

if you use a windows PC, feel free to use my version of melonds which already has all the wifi shit set up, you'll just need to provide your own bios files under emu settings (it's a bit old but it works great for this purpose): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DQotaqFuBwXz1KYdQWiwxghtn3faLgj-/view?usp=sharing

edit: just found out right after posting this that the most recent version of melonds might work out the box without having to do any particular wi-fi setup? so feel free to try it instead of my version if you like

if you are using linux/mac or don't want to use my version, you'll have to use the melonDS FAQ/google to figure it out, i'm sorry!

by the way yes, this means even if you don't have a gen 4 cart and solely play over emulator, you can trade/battle/etc with people who are playing on DS - they connect to the same servers!

okay and NOW once you have one of those options set up, you can actually connect to wi-fi in game by doing the following:

(these screencaps are from my capture card, i am doing this on an actual DS, but you can also do this with melonds if you're using that option)

step 1: navigate to "NINTENDO WFC SETTINGS" in the menu where you press continue on your save file, in-game. in gen 4 you need to do it here and not in your DS settings.

step 2: tap "Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Settings" and pick any of the three connections here to start the set-up. if you already have some here, i'd click "erase settings" underneath to start from scratch.

step 3: search for an access point and pick your desired access point from the list that comes up, and put in a password if needed (this assumes you have set up your wifi properly at this point)

step 4: it will attempt a connection to the internet, and may or may not throw an error. regardless, the error doesn't really matter, you can just hit "OK" whether it's successful or not

step 5: go back into your new connection (the box that previously said "None" should now say "Ready") and scroll down until you see the option "Auto-obtain DNS" - change this to "No"

step 6: change the primary DNS to pkmnclassic's DNS, which is 178.62.43.212 - in layman's terms this will essentially let you connect to their servers instead of nintendo's, which are obviously down. as for the secondary DNS, either leave it at 0.0.0.0 or change it to the same DNS as the primary

step 7: now would be a good time for a connection test. tap "Test Connection" in the top right. there should be a successful connection. assuming there is a successful connection, congrats! save your settings and enter your game as normal. you'll need to go to the basement of any pokemon center and pick up your pal pad, then try entering the wi-fi club (middle NPC at the counter) to test it in-game and get your friend code.

if there isn't, try a few more times or get closer to your access point - sometimes it's not you, the service can just occasionally be spotty. if you keep getting errors, you can use this site to look up what the error code might mean. if you still can't solve the issue, you may have to try a different method of connection as listed above.

sorry i couldn't be more in depth but frankly i'm not an expert on this stuff either, i'm just doing my best. there are a couple other options for doing this, like taking the password off your modern home wi-fi, or bridging your connection to an old laptop/computer, but the first is particularly dangerous so i didn't want to include it in the list and the second is completely out of my league, i just know people have done it before

good luck feel free to ask questions but no promises i'll have answers. if you need troubleshooting help i'd recommend pkmnclassic's discord over me, they have channels for that stuff (yes i hate troubleshooting stuff moving to discord and not forums as much as the rest of you but it can't be helped lol)

[girlboss-enthusiast]

Please tell us how to get into IT without a degree! I have an interview for a small tech company this week and I’m going in as admin but as things expand I can bootstrap into a better role and I’d really appreciate knowing what skills are likely to be crucial for making that pivot.

Absolutely!! You'd be in a great position to switch to IT, since as an admin, you'd already have some familiarity with the systems and with the workplace in general. Moving between roles is easier in a smaller workplace, too.

So, this is a semi-brief guide to getting an entry-level position, for someone with zero IT experience. That position is almost always going to be help desk. You've probably heard a lot of shit about help desk, but I've always enjoyed it.

So, here we go! How to get into IT for beginners!

The most important thing on your resume will be

✨~🌟Certifications!!🌟~✨

Studying for certs can teach you a lot, especially if you're entirely new to the field. But they're also really important for getting interviews. Lots of jobs will require a cert or degree, and even if you have 5 years of experience doing exactly what the job description is, without one of those the ATS will shunt your resume into a black hole and neither HR or the IT manager will see it.

First, I recommend getting the CompTIA A+. This will teach you the basics of how the parts of a computer work together - hardware, software, how networking works, how operating systems work, troubleshooting skills, etc. If you don't have a specific area of IT you're interested in, this is REQUIRED. Even if you do, I suggest you get this cert just to get your foot in the door.

I recommend the CompTIA certs in general. They'll give you a good baseline and look good on your resume. I only got the A+ and the Network+, so can't speak for the other exams, but they weren't too tough.

If you're more into development or cybersecurity, check out these roadmaps. You'll still benefit from working help desk while pursuing one of those career paths.

The next most important thing is

🔥🔥Customer service & soft skills🔥🔥

Sorry about that.

I was hired for my first ever IT role on the strength of my interview. I definitely wasn't the only candidate with an A+, but I was the only one who knew how to handle customers (aka end-users). Which is, basically, be polite, make the end-user feel listened to, and don't make them feel stupid. It is ASTOUNDING how many IT people can't do that. I've worked with so many IT people who couldn't hide their scorn or impatience when dealing with non-tech-savvy coworkers.

Please note that you don't need to be a social butterfly or even that socially adept. I'm autistic and learned all my social skills by rote (I literally have flowcharts for social interactions), and I was still exceptional by IT standards.

Third thing, which is more for you than for your resume (although it helps):

🎇Do your own projects🎇

This is both the most and least important thing you can do for your IT career. Least important because this will have the smallest impact on your resume. Most important because this will help you learn (and figure out if IT is actually what you want to do).

The certs and interview might get you a job, but when it comes to doing your job well, hands-on experience is absolutely essential. Here are a few ideas for the complete beginner. Resources linked at the bottom.

Start using the command line. This is called Terminal on Mac and Linux. Use it for things as simple as navigating through file directories, opening apps, testing your connection, that kind of thing. The goal is to get used to using the command line, because you will use it professionally.

Build your own PC. This may sound really intimidating, but I swear it's easy! This is going to be cheaper than buying a prebuilt tower or gaming PC, and you'll learn a ton in the bargain.

Repair old PCs. If you don't want to or can't afford to build your own PC, look for cheap computers on Craiglist, secondhand stores, or elsewhere. I know a lot of universities will sell old technology for cheap. Try to buy a few and make a functioning computer out of parts, or just get one so you can feel comfortable working in the guts of a PC.

Learn Powershell or shell scripting. If you're comfortable with the command line already or just want to jump in the deep end, use scripts to automate tasks on your PC. I found this harder to do for myself than for work, because I mostly use my computer for web browsing. However, there are tons of projects out there for you to try!

Play around with a Raspberry Pi. These are mini-computers ranging from $15-$150+ and are great to experiment with. I've made a media server and a Pi hole (network-wide ad blocking) which were both fun and not too tough. If you're into torrenting, try making a seedbox!

Install Linux on your primary computer. I know, I know - I'm one of those people. But seriously, nothing will teach you more quickly than having to compile drivers through the command line so your Bluetooth headphones will work. Warning: this gets really annoying if you just want your computer to work. Dual-booting is advised.

If this sounds intimidating, that's totally normal. It is intimidating! You're going to have to do a ton of troubleshooting and things will almost never work properly on your first few projects. That is part of the fun!

Resources

Resources I've tried and liked are marked with an asterisk*

Professor Messor's Free A+ Training Course*

PC Building Simulator 2 (video game)

How to build a PC (video)

PC Part Picker (website)*

CompTIA A+ courses on Udemy

50 Basic Windows Commands with Examples*

Mac Terminal Commands Cheat Sheet

Powershell in a Month of Lunches (video series)

Getting Started with Linux (tutorial)* Note: this site is my favorite Linux resource, I highly recommend it.

Getting Started with Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi Projects for Beginners

/r/ITCareerQuestions*

Ask A Manager (advice blog on workplace etiquette and more)*

Reddit is helpful for tech questions in general. I have some other resources that involve sailing the seas; feel free to DM me or send an ask I can answer privately.

Tips

DO NOT work at an MSP. That stands for Managed Service Provider, and it's basically an IT department which companies contract to provide tech services. I recommend staying away from them. It's way better to work in an IT department where the end users are your coworkers, not your customers.

DO NOT trust remote entry-level IT jobs. At entry level, part of your job is schlepping around hardware and fixing PCs. A fully-remote position will almost definitely be a call center.

DO write a cover letter. YMMV on this, but every employer I've had has mentioned my cover letter as a reason to hire me.

DO ask your employer to pay for your certs. This applies only to people who either plan to move into IT in the same company, or are already in IT but want more certs.

DO NOT work anywhere without at least one woman in the department. My litmus test is two women, actually, but YMMV. If there is no woman in the department in 2024, and the department is more than 5 people, there is a reason why no women work there.

DO have patience with yourself and keep an open mind! Maybe this is just me, but if I can't do something right the first time, or if I don't love it right away, I get very discouraged. Remember that making mistakes is part of the process, and that IT is a huge field which ranges from UX design to hardware repair. There are tons of directions to go once you've got a little experience!

Disclaimer: this is based on my experience in my area of the US. Things may be different elsewhere, esp. outside of the US.

I hope this is helpful! Let me know if you have more questions!

[anxious-anura]

Fae Farm; A Basic Guide

POSSIBLE SPOILERS

THIS WILL BE UPDATED AS I HAVE TIME

Friend-able Characters

Eddy

Alaric

Cleo

Frida

Merritt

Drak

Wisp Mother

Oorlich

Zido

Igni

The Marquis

Bjorn

Kasper

Miles

Rita

Romance-able Characters

Argyle

Gifts: Blob Globs, Bug Juice, Bullfrog, Common Toad, Ecto Dew, Fae Dust, Flutter Dust, Frog Sweat, Nectar, Rainbow Frog

Pepper

Gifts: Berry Jam, Cheese, Clay Brick, Cotton Fabric, Fish Jerky, Flour, Fruit Preserves, Mushroom Jerky, Nut Butter, Pickled Greens, Pickled Roots, Pickled Shellfish, Pickled Veggies, Stone Brick, Wool Fabric

Galan

Gifts: Azure Spud, Baked Mac and Cheese, Charred Fish, Chili Pepper, Crystal Pepper, Deep-sea Delight, Flame Heart, Frost Beet, Grilled Mushroom, Magic Bean, Mystic Macarons, Scrambled Eggs with Fruit Salsa, Seafood Spaghetti, Twilight Salad

Jack

Gifts: Brown Snail, Candied Fruit, Deluxe Fruit Tart, Fruit Pies, Fruit Salad, Flutterwood Lumber, Grilled Fruit, Oak Lumber, Sporewood Lumber

Nhamashal

Gifts: Copper Ingot, Feyrite Ingot, Iron Ingot, Polished Amethyst, Polished Aquamarine, Polished Citrine, Polished Emerald, Polished Peridot, Polished Rose Quartz, Polished Sapphire, Polished Topaz, Silver Ingot

Pyria

Gifts: Berry Tea, Black Hyacinth, Black Lily, Black Rose, Black Zinnia, Blossom Brew, Fae Fairy, Gloom Shade, Milk Tea, Myst Fairy, Willow Wisp

Backpack Upgrades (Skye, Supplies and Sundry)

500 Florins

2,500 Florins

8,000 Florins

Home Upgrades

Starting Home

2,00 Florins , 25 Copper Ore, 25 Beech Log

4,000 Florins, 25 Iron Ore, 25 Oak Log

6,000 Florins, 3 Copper Ingot, 3 Beech Lumber

8,000 Florins, 3 Iron Ingot, 3 Oak Lumber

10,000 Florins, 15 Feyrite Ore, 15 Flutterwood Log

Hazy Haven

4,000 Florins, 3 Copper Ingot, 3 Beech Lumber

6,000 Florins, 3 Iron Ingot, 3 Oak Lumber

8,000 Florins, 2 Feyrite Ingot, 2 Flutterwood Lumber

10,000 Florins, 15 Silver Ore, 15 Sporewood Log

15,000 Florins, 3 Silver Ingot, 3 Sporewood Lumber

Fae Acres

…

Produce Stand

2,000 Florins

7,000 Florins

Tool Upgrades (All Tools)

Copper: 200 Florins, 1 Ingot

Iron: 500 Florins, 2 Ingot

Feyrite: 1,500 Florins, 3 Ingot

Silver: 2,500 Florins, 4 Ingot

Orichalcum: 3,500 Florins, 5 Ignot

Critter Net

Sturdy Critter Net: 1,000 Florins, Critter Catching Level 3, Critter Net

Advanced Critter Net: 2,500 Florins, Critter Catching Level 5, Sturdy Net

Master Critter Net: 5,000 Florins, Critter Catching Level 7, Advanced Net

Fishing Rod

Sturdy Rod: 1,000 Florins, Fishing Level 3, Basic Rod

Advanced Rod: 2,500 Florins, Fishing Level 5, Sturdy Rod

Master Rod: 5,000 Florins, Fishing Level 7, Advanced Rod

Animals (Coop and Barn must be unlocked before you can buy.)

Coop

Chickoo: 200 Florins

Cottontail: 200 Florins

Coop Trough Upgrade: 1,500 Florins

Barn

Mamoo: 300 Florins

Woolyhorn: 300 Florins

Barn Trough Upgrade: 1,500 Florins

Merchants

Fresh Out Of The Oven (Dominic)

Flour: 85 Florins

Butter: 35 Florins

Holly’s Seed Shop (Holly)

Turnip Seeds: 5 Florins

Cauliflower Seeds: 6 Florins

Bean Seeds: 12 Florins

Potato Seeds: 10 Florins, Farming Level 10

Corn Seeds: 15 Florins, Farming Level 15

Pepper Seeds: 20 Florins, Farming Level 20

Bounteous Fertilizer: 35 Florins, Farming Level 3

Zippy Fertilizer: 35 Florins, Farming Level 3

Magic Crop Swap Fertilizer: 50 Florins, Farming Level 3

Daisy Print Wallpaper: 100 Florins, 1 Paper, 1 Beech Lumber

Caramel Checkered Flooring: 100 Florins, 10 Clay, 1 Polished Topaz

Dry Bamboo Flooring: 100 Florins, 5 Sugarcane

Treemendous Trees (Willow)

All Fruit Saplings: 450 Florins

Beech Sapling: 20 Florins

Oak Sapling: 30 Florins

Fruit Wallpaper: 100 Florins, 1 Paper, 10 Chopped Fruit

Grass Flooring: 100 Florins, 50 Plant Fibers

Fresh Bamboo Flooring: 100 Florins, 5 Sugarcane

Supplies and Sundry (Skye)

Backpack Upgrades: ^^^^

Masonry Wallpaper: 100 Florins, 1 Paper, 10 Clay Brick

Cream Hardwood Flooring: 100 Florins, 5 Beech Lumber

Orange Brick Flooring: 100 Florins, 5 Clay Brick

Deep Azure Hardwood Flooring: 100 Florins, 5 Oak Lumber

Smokey Hardwood Flooring: 100 Florins, 5 Oak Lumber

Robin’s Egg Hardwood Flooring: 100 Florins, 5 Frostwood Lumber

Vermilion Hardwood Flooring: 100 Florins, 5 Ancient Lumber

Nautical Flooring: 100 Florins, 5 Sporewood Lumber

Fish Shelf: 200 Florins, 1 Small Empty Shelf

Tea Shelf: 200 Florins, 1 Small Empty Shelf

Pantry Shelf: 200 Florins, 1 Small Empty Shelf

Bag Hook: 100 Florins

Wall Clock: 300 Florins, 1 Copper Ingot, 1 Beech Lumber

Fishing Gear: 100 Florins, 5 Rope

Glass Bulbs: 100 Florins, 1 Rope, 1 Glass

Simple Ladder: 100 Florins, 1 Rope, 6 Oak Log

Wall Scroll: 100 Florin, 1 Paper, 1 Oak Log

Wonderful Wearables (Millie)

Charles’ Comfy Creations (Charles)

Emily’s Eccentric Extras (Emily)

Rose and Shine Flower Seeds (Rosalind)

House of Healing (Vera)

Millions of Bees (Mel)

Merchants’ Guild Shop (Pearl)

Comfy Critter Inn (Kasper)

Haute Cuisine (August)

Job Quests (You can only have ONE job quest active at a time)

THIS WILL BE UPDATED AS I COMPLETE THEM

Growing Goals - Holly (10 Total)

Harvest 30 Vegetables in one day.

Make florins selling 40 vegetables in one day.

Harvest 12 seasonal vegetables.

Use Zippy Fertilizer 12 times.

Harvest 12 potatoes.

Craft 12 pickled vegetables.

Harvest 12 Fae Crops.

Craft 12 Fae Seeds.

Make florins selling 48 Fae vegetables in one day.

Harvest 12 seasonal grains.

Reward: Farmer Outfit

Wings

Mystic Wings: 1 Polished Garnet, 10 Magenta Trillium, 10 Flutter Dust

Violet Wings: 1 Polished Amethyst, 10 Magenta Zinnia, 10 Flutter Dust

Butterfly Wings: 1 Polished Aquamarine, 10 ???, 10 Flutter Dust

Dragonfly Wings: 1 Polished Peridot, 10???, 10 Flutter Dust

Fae Wings: 1 Polished Rose Quarts, 10???, 10 Flutter Dust

Dark Wings: 1???, 10 Black Tulip, 10 Flutter Dust

Feathered Wings: 1???, 10???, 10 Flutter Dust

Violet Wings: 1 Polished Amethyst, 10???, 10 Flutter Dust

Silver Wings – 1???, 10???, 10 Flutter Dust

Color Palletes

Soft Yellow: 100 Florins, 30 Sand Dollar, 30 Yellow Tulip

Soft Orange: 100 Florins, 30 Ammonite, 15 Orange Rose

Soft Pink: 100 Florins, 30 Coral, 15 Pink Lily

Soft Teal: 100 Florins, 30 Oyster, 15 White Tulip

Vibrant Sepia: 500 Florins, ???, 30 Small Honeycomb

Vibrant Yellow: 1,000 Florins, ???, 30 Small Honeycomb

Vibrant Ochre: 500 Florins, ???, 30 Small Honeycomb

Vibrant Azure: 5,000 Florins, ???, 30 Blue Hyacinth

Vibrant Pink: 5k gold, 3 Polished Rose Quartz, 30 Pink Hyacinth

[joequiinn]

The Dos and Dont’s of Fake Dating - inspo guide!

When I'm working on a story, I draw on all kinds of media as inspiration. I make lists of characters' fav movies or playlists that remind me of them, etc.

These are just some things I took inspo from/relate to Dos and Don'ts! I'm taking a brief pause in writing, so hopefully these will hold us over!

@sheneedsrocknroll92 and @steeldaisies because yall showed some interest!!

Playlist

I have a lil playlist full of songs that fit this fic's vibes in some way or another. There are various genres and tones and themes, so if you aren't afraid of bouncing around between types of music, this may be a fun way to vibe with the fic!

Music

Mystery by Dio - this is 100% THEIR song, I've associated this with Eddie and ice princess since day one; it will also make an appearance in an upcoming chapter~

Just Tonight by the Pretty Reckless - this song is one I associate with a particular chapter that is drafted but not out yet, and the vibes in general really mesh with some of the themes of this fic.

Ghost, HIM/Ville Valo, & Twilight Creeps - I just listen to these artists a lot while brainstorming and writing this fic; some particular songs are on the playlist mentioned above!

David Bowie & Fleetwood Mac - sooo ice princess isn't really a music person, because I think it's a funny contrast to Eddie; however, I do think she has a few Bowie and Fleetwood vinyls/cassettes lying around that belonged to her mom, so that's the extent of her music knowledge lol

Movies

Can't Buy Me Love - originally, I wanted to write a story inspired by this movie; the setup is ridiculous and I love every minute of it, so if you want to see an early prototype Eddie x ice princess, I suggest watching this one!

10 Things I Hate About You - this was also a movie that I considered using as plot inspo; although they're not the same, I do think similarities can be found in the characters to some extent, especially Patrick = Eddie.

Heathers - the vibes and fashion speak to be, and in another world maybe Eddie and ice princess would serve up some JD and Veronica vibes~

Halloween - it hasn't come up yet in the fic, but ice princess is a closet horror movie fan whose favorite is Halloween (no it's not her fav bc it's my fav what do you mean).

Bride of Chucky - Chucky and Tiffany speak to me on a spiritual level, and I feel like Eddie x ice princess give some of these vibes??? Also RIP Eddie Munson, you would've LOVED Child's Play.

Labyrinth - I picture ice princess having a lot of similarities with Sarah, which I didn't initially notice when I was first writing. There have been many lines I've written that I can SO clearly hear in Jennifer Connelly's voice, so she's a big inspo for this fic. Also, I love Bowie

TV

That 70s Show - putting aside all the real-world controversies, I was obsessed with Jackie & Hyde when I was a kid, and I think you can clearly see a similar character dynamic with Eddie and ice princess.

Married... With Children - have yall SEEN Kelly Bundy??? enough said.

Other

Evil Ernie - maybe you've seen my other Eddie posts, but I've mentioned before that the vibes of this comic series and it's titular character remind me of Eddie, so that's all.

Flight of Icarus - yes, yes, I know that this is literally a book about Eddie, but I still think it's worth noting that I've used the book as some reference, but for the most part I haven't included it too much (I also haven't read it sorry not sorry)

[humorisstoredinthetits]

The Heathers + Veronica play Pokemon

I'm still working on the follow up to the Road Trip which is The Heathers + Veronica get Married, so in the meantime I made this

Mac has been a fan of Pokemon as long as she can remember

When her mom would stick in her front of the TV because she was tired of dealing with her, she would turn the channel to Cartoon Network, which was often playing episodes of the Pokemon Anime

Specifically it was the Black/White series and later the X/Y series

She was engrossed in this magical world where she could go on adventures with friends and her pokemon companions and where the power of friendship would always prevail

Plus Ash's mom was a kind caring person who wanted the best for her son, literally the exact opposite of her mom

She became hyperfixated on it

During class she would draw pictures of pokemon, she would daydream of being a pokemon trainer and during recess she would force Chandler to play pokemon with her

She even had a book called Pokemon; The Essential Guide, which she read so often that she could recall it from memory

Eventually after much begging Mac's mom eventually said 'If it will get you to shut the fuck up' and bought Mac a 3DS with X and Y and Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire

She blitzed through these games, playing them whenever she had a second that she didn't have to be doing anything else

Even when Chandler would come over to hang out Mac would just not acknowledge her existence and just keep playing

Her obsession started to really bother Chandler, she just wanted to spend time with her best friend, and she was spending all of her time on this stupid Chinese monster game!

She tried to not-so-gently tell Mac to put the stupid game away and hang out with her but Mac got upset so she reluctantly dropped it

Eventually Mac finished all of the games and wasn't so fixated on them, but she still played them a lot

She would even sneak it into school and play it at lunch

Of course, the more popular students saw it and started to make fun of her for it, calling her a baby and a nerd

One of them even tried grabbing the 3DS, causing it to bump into the lunch table and creating a small dent in the corner

This caused Mac to start crying, which only increased the taunts against her

Chandler, who up to that point had been telling Mac to just ignore it, launched into a fit of rage, beating the ever loving shit out of the bullies

Both her and Mac got suspended, her for obvious reasons and Mac for brining the 3DS to school

The bullies played dumb and because they were popular and well-liked they got off scot-free

That was one of many events that made Chandler realize that for her and Mac to survive school, they would have to be the popular ones

With the time she had while suspended, Chandler had time to think about how she was treating Mac and her newfound love for pokemon

She realized that she was being an awful friend, she wanted Mac to stop doing something she loves just so she could get what she wanted

She thought about how when Mac would try and talk to her about the game and what she was doing, trying to include her while she played, and how she just ignored it because she wasn't interested, not even considering how it would hurt Mac to realize that her best friend doesn't care about the things she likes and wouldn't even pretend to care

She realized that she would have to make it up to her

While her parents were sleeping she went down, found their credit cards, and went to amazon and searched for 'Pokemon'

Chandler knows she's not the best with words, she knows that if she tried to apologize to Mac she wouldn't be able to convey everything that she wanted to, and even worse she might say something wrong and only upset her more

Knowing that, she decided to make it up to her by doing what she knows how to do, and that's buying things

She searched the amazon pages, seeing cards, various toys, some really nasty posters with something called a Vaporeon? before finding the plushies

She knows that Mac likes those, so she picked some of the ones she recognized and ordered them

Luckily for her, her parents were so fucking rich that they didn't notice a few bucks missing

A few days later, once the package arrived, she went over to Mac's house to apologize

Mac was still really upset, not only was she suspended from school, but her mom was angry at her and lets just say that if you thought her mom was a bitch normally, she was even worse when angry

She went into her room, hiding the plushes behind her back

Mac was lying in bed, staring at the wall, not even acknowledging her presence

Chandler tried telling her that she wanted to apologize but before she could even show the plushes Mac started shouting

She yelled about how awful her mom was and that she took away her games and threatened to smash them with a hammer

Before Chandler could even get a word of condolence in Mac continued about how she knows when they go back to school things are gonna be even worse because those kids are gonna spread rumors about them

And again before Chandler can say a word Mac says that on top of all of that her best friend has been distant ever since she started liking pokemon and she's terrified that she's gonna lose her over it and she doesn't wanna lose her she's the best friend she's ever had and and

She starts sobbing

Chandler quickly rushes over to Mac, pulling her into a hug while she sobs into her shoulder

Once she calms down Chandler shows her the plushies, upon which Mac squeals in delight before hugging her and saying thank you thank you thank you, before they talk about what transpired

Chandler apologizes, saying that Mac was right and that she was being distant, but that was in the past and she would change and would listen when she talked about pokemon

It wasn't a great apology by any means, but it was good enough for Mac, and she pulled up Cartoon Network and made Chandler watch a bunch of episodes of the anime with her

She didn't really get it or find it all that interesting, but she knew how much it meant to Mac that she do this with her, so she asked some questions and listened when Mac went on tangents about aspects of the world

Throughout the years, Mac continued to love and play Pokemon

It toned down over time, as most childhood obsessions do, but she still never stopped loving it

She stopped playing all-together around when Sword/Shield came out, it was around when they started to become really popular and so Chandler made them drop any nerdish hobbies that could be used to ridicule them

Mac was ok with it because that was when Dexit happened and she was really upset that she wouldn't be able to transfer her previous teams to the newest generation

But then Veronica joined the Heathers, Mac and Chandler's relationship expanded to include Duke and Veronica, high school ended and popularity didn't mean a thing anymore, so Mac was free to pick up Pokemon again

It took her a while to get over Dexit (she was really upset that she couldn't bring her Delphox into Sword/Shield, it was her first pokemon damnit!) but she eventually did

It was around this time that Scarlet/Violet were about to come out and the hype was real

Duke is in the same boat as Chandler, she doesn't really get it but Mac loves it so she'll go along with it, but Veronica is only slightly less into it than Mac

She was similar to Mac, playing up until Sword/Shield and then stopping due to Dexit and a lack of interest, but bc she wasn't popular there wasn't the pressure to stop playing entirely, and once the DLC came out she became interested once again and picked up the games

She had a lot of fun teaching Mac about the gen 8 stuff, and they played and battled together while waiting for Scarlet/Violet to come out

**Line Break**

The day it came out they woke up at some ridiculous hour and waited outside Gamestop for hours in the dark and freezing temperatures until the store opened

There wasn't even anyone else waiting and they had pre-ordered copies, there was literally no reason to do it, they were just that excited

Mac got Scarlet and Veronica got Violet so they would be able to trade with the other for the version exclusives

Mac told her Dad that she wasn't coming in today and Veronica is self-employed, so they both spend the entire day playing the game

Eventually Chandler takes their switches and forces them to go to bed because "you two fucks have been playing this game for 14 hours straight with no breaks. Go. The Fuck. To. Bed."

They did go to bed, but they got up at 4am to keep playing

Chandler was about to ground them like children if they didn't put up the game for 5 minutes to eat something and take a shower, but Duke stepped in and said she would talk to them about maybe slowing down a little

Chandler waits for Duke to come back and let her know how it went

She waits, and waits, and waits some more, until she has had enough and goes out to the living room to see whats taking her so long

Duke is laying on the couch with them, her own switch in hand

During the time Chandler waited, Duke went down, tried talking to them only to see them having fun, asked a few questions, got super interested and forgot about why she went down there, got so interested that she went to the store, bought a switch and a game, and came back and started playing

Chandler is about to start beating her head against the wall

The three of them try for months and months to get her to actually play it, but she just isn't that interested

They need a fourth person for raids, and the only other person they know who plays is JD but he does le epic troll and will do stupid shit like bringing a Mewtwo knowing only metronome

Veronica eventually wins her over by appealing to her massive ego, saying that the whole point of the game is becoming better at everyone else, and that if she play she could eventually beat them too

Between that, Mac's puppy-dog eyes, and her getting tired of the relentless begging, she eventually picks up a game and starts playing

She gets more into it than Mac ever was or is

What draws her in is the sheer amount of different strategy that is available to her

There are just so many different pokemon, each of which has multiple different strategies that work for them, not to mention items and movesets and all of that

She thought pokemon was rather simple, but there was much more depth than she could've even imagined, and she gets lost in it

She blitzes not only through Scarlet/Violet and their DLC (She got both, she had to have access to every pokemon and you can't just do that in one version) but also Sword/Shield + DLC and Legends Arceus

And when it finally came time for them to battle, Chandler wiped the floor with the rest of them, it wasn't even close

It was so one-sided that it wasn't fun for the rest of them

Chandler sees this and starts to feel bad, she knows that she overdoes things sometimes, especially when her pride is on the line

She thinks about toning it down so they're on a more even playing field, but she doesn't think her fiancees would have fun winning if they knew that she was essentially allowing them to win

So instead on a lazy day she sits down with them and explains the basics of competitive battling, that way they'll all be on an even playing field

It works, and now when they battle together there's a chance for any of them to win

Now I'm just gonna go over some of their favorites about pokemon

Chandler

Game: B2W2, she loves the PWT and the strategy needed to beat the Champion's Cup

Pokemon: Blaziken, when she played ORAS she fell in love with Mega Blaziken, Speed Boost, and just how good it was

Part about Pokemon: Definitely strategy, its what drew her into the franchise in the first place. She loves trying out new and different strategies, and follows the VCG to keep up to date with all the newest ideas being put out

Duke

Game: USUM, it was the last game to have the National Dex, and so it was the game to contain the most pokemon in it

Pokemon: Sceptile, she just thinks that it's really cool. Plus its a lizard, and she loves lizards and has tried to convince Chandler to let her get a Madagascar Giant Day Gecko

Chandler can barely stand the snake so there's no way in hell that she will ever agree to getting a gecko, plus they're really creepy

Part about Pokemon: Collecting/Catching Pokemon, she loves completing Pokedexes, and its why she was so upset when she found out about dexit, there was less to collect and evolve

Mac

Game: XY, it was her first game, and even if it isn't the best game in the series, it holds a lot of nostalgia for her

Pokemon: Ampharos, she loves the entire line

She thinks Mareep is just sooooo cute, he's a tiny little sheep and he's so flufffffffy

She had one on her first ever playthough team and she was able to get a mega stone for it so it could mega evolve

She thinks the mega is just so ridiculous and it's a dragon?? but that's why she loves it so much

Plus, one of the first gifts Duke ever got for her when they started their relationship was a Mareep plush (Chandler gave her some pointers on what Mac would like)

She keeps it at a place of honor on her shelf and often sleeps with it

Part of Pokemon: Bonding with the Pokemon, she loves all the little minigames like Refresh and Amie where you can brush and pet and feed your pokemon

And even though she knows they're just lines of code, she does feel like she bonds with her Pokemon as she goes along a journey with them

Veronica

Game: SV, she has fond memories of her and Mac playing it when it came out, memories which she treasures dearly

Pokemon: Blastoise, to her its a perfect pokemon. It's simple yet effective, its a cute turtle that becomes a big turtle with freakin cannons on its back

Part of Pokemon: The interconnectivity. She loves battling and trading with her fiancees and just being able to bond with them over it, its something they can all do together that they all enjoy

Just kidding, she loves the cards

She is fucking addicted to opening cards, the Heathers have to drag her away from the card section every time they go to the store

JD enables it, him and Veronica will go buy packs and slushies and just sit and open them

She has boxes and boxes of commons sitting in her room that she refuses to get rid of

[starsurface]

Super fun idea (imo) - soft play! 🎠🪁Could you do MK1 Johnny Cage with a baby regressor (and toddler if that's fine) at one? Ty!

Hi!! Yes, I'm so sorry for how late this is!!! :(

This is a Johnny Cage w/ Babyspace Regressor pt 2, but the first for Toddlerspace Regressor!!

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

CG Johnny Cage MK1 w/ Baby(pt 2)-Toddlerspace Regressor Hcs

⭐ He loves any and all regressors, but toddlers are his best fit!!! He’s really good with baby regressors too!!

⭐ We’ll focus on toddler regressor for a second:

⭐ Energetic toddlers that like to run around his house? My, my your energetic!! Thank goodness your Dada can keep up because he’s just that awesome! 😎

⭐ A crafty toddler? Amazing!! He loves crafty regressors, toddler or baby!!

⭐ Your making a mac and cheese picture? Wait a minute, is that his mac and cheese? Did you ask to use that? . . . Maybe he can let it go this one, his baby’s work looks so gorgeous!!

⭐ A sneaky toddler or baby? Now, now Mister/Missy, just don’t do anything too bad now!!

⭐ He finds it really funny when you try to sneakily grab an extra piece of candy, but your giggling a bit too loudly and he can obviously tell what your doing . . . But he won’t stop you . . Atleast this time

⭐ He’ll let you wear his sunglasses!! You can look just as awesome as your Dada!! 💪

⭐ Karaoke? Or regressors that like singing? Disney song night!!! He’ll even help you with the big kid words!

⭐ Now, some baby regressor focus!!

⭐ For crafty littler regressors, he’ll help guide your hand, or will happily accept a pretty scribbled picture!! He’ll even frame it after it’s happy time on the fridge!! :D

⭐ He’ll get you separate sunglasses, but the exact same as his

⭐ Not that he doesn’t trust you!! . . . But some babies chew . . And he likes his sunglasses, darling

⭐ Any kind of padding you need, he will never, ever, be mean to you about!!

⭐ In fact, I once said in my CG Johnny Cage w/ Padding Regressor Hcs that if you ever felt embarrassed about padding, he’d wear one with you just to show you that they’re not bad

⭐ ^ I stand by this Hc, he’s got the (loving) ego for it

⭐ Plus he’s your Dada!! He can’t have his baby feeling icky or embarrassed about something they shouldn’t be!! And he’ll do whatever he can to make sure your okay!!

⭐ Ugh, bottle-feeding 🥺

⭐ He loves bottle-feeding you, you on his lap, or your head on his lap, near naptime or just while watching a movie, his baby in his arms <3

⭐ Some general Baby/Toddler Hcs now:

⭐ He finds it really funny if you try to copy him

⭐ You flex in the mirror after he flexes? Now you two are giggling and flexing your muscles!! 💪

⭐ The only thing he doesn’t like is his own potty mouth, it’s not a bad habit, but sometimes some no-no words slip . . . Let’s not repeat Dada’s big kid no-no words, alright, Sweetheart?

⭐ He’ll buy you custom items!!

⭐ A plushie from a show you really like? He can get one exactly like it, he likes seeing you happy!

⭐ Custom-designed pacis or sippies/bottles too!! Whatever design or aesthetic - Whatever you want really! How can he say no to his baby’s happiness? He has the money 🥺

⭐ One of you two’s a cuddle bug, and it’s not always you

⭐ Johnny’s a MASSIVE cuddlebug, especially when you're small!! (although all the time really)

⭐ Sometimes Johnny fears that the Pappirazzi will find out about your regression, and he’s already made an entire plan in his head (especially one where they look bad)

⭐ ^ It would never come to this, he makes sure of it

⭐ Which is why he’ll take you out sometimes when your small!! Maybe a bit more for older kiddos or age dreamers, but a trip to McDonalds won’t hurt anyone

⭐ Restablishing, but his favorite activity with all regressors is

⭐ Have you seen his wardrobe? He’s got fashion (and costumes!!)

⭐ With baby regressors he’ll get soft onesies, or character onesies, and help you have a fashion show by carrying you on your make shift run way

⭐ Toddler regressors he’ll get some cute outfits, or costumes like his Indiana Jones one, and cheer as you put on a show for him and his stuffies (they all loved your rpeformance by the way!!)

⭐ Baby or toddler, he’ll try to always carry

⭐ Your his baby, he’s Johnny Cage, why would you need to walk or crawl when your Dada’s a big, strong, action movie star? 🥺

⭐ One of his little nicknames for you would be Superstar!! <3

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Sorry for the long no posting guys, I had a hard time writing for some reason these past few days. But don't worry!! I'll post more soon!! Finals schedule is coming up so I should be able to write some things during that time, hopefully. <3

[ddsimmer]

🔨 TS4 Build mode cheat codes & shortcuts guide 🔨

Cheat codes are simple but essential tool to build more freely in The Sims and create detailed and interesting or realistic lots and enhance the overall experience even when playing with base game only. Cheat codes are not CC, therefore your build will appear CC free in the gallery if you're not using any custom content.

Cheat codes and shortcuts guide below

To enter cheats you have to click ctrl/control + ⇧ Shift + C on your keyboard, this will open a typing space on the top left of your screen where you can enter the cheats listed below. To close it simply click ctrl+Shift+C again. For PS4 and Xbox: Press all four bumper buttons.

bb.moveobjects (type and hit send key) - if you enable only one cheat let it be this one. This is essential to freely place the objects, scale them, rotate them and combine them.

This means the cheat is up and running - this will not slow down your game.

Now you can do a number of things with your items: If you click , and . you can turn the item left and right keeping it aligned to the base grid. If you want to place the item freely, ignoring the base grid and the regular game rules - that prevent you from placing objects on top of each other or even too close to each other - pick the item up and hold Alt (pc) Option (mac). To rotate the item ignoring the grid, pick up the item, hold Alt (pc) Option (mac) and drag. These shortcuts will allow you to create more interesting and realistic layouts by angling and layering object, and it also allows you to clutter surfaces more.

You can also change the size of the objects by clicking [ and ] (or ù depending on the keyboard).

Another super useful thing you can do is to raise an item after you placed it by clicking 9 (or ctrl + 9 if you don't want the build mode camera to move) and to lower it back by clicking 0. You can do this with mirror as well to change where they sit on the wall, and most importantly you can place clutter where there are no slot by raising the item, clicking Alt/Option ad dragging it in place.

Now that you know how to arrange items in an interesting way, you need items to arrange! You can find a whole catalog of FREE items by using two other cheat codes.

bb.showhiddenobjects and bb.showliveeditobjects - typing these two codes (hit send key after each one) in the cheat bar allows you to use thousands of items that are already in your game but that you can't normally see. To find them you need to search for debug in build/buy menu, and a long list will show up! Have fun!

There are two other combinations that you need to know to really master your builds: Clicking ctrl/control + F on your keyboard while you're placing the flooring in your room allows you to place smaller triangular tiles (one quarter of a tile). This is super useful to create interesting patterns on your floors or to make pathways more interesting.

Roofs can be challenging to deal with, but they are also crucial to the final build and can really make a difference. There is a way to unlock more options to curve your roofs by selecting the roof and clicking ctrl/control + Alt/Option + C. You will immediately see more manipulations handles appear, experiment with them! 

That's all for now, I hope this guide was useful for someone! Happy simming ✨ Dag Dag!

[englishotomegames]

Keepers of Astraela

Release date (Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Steam) English: September 25th, 2024

"Eva has a world inside her head: the land of Astraela, where Darkness and Corrupted beasts threaten eternal doom. Vivid dreams have given her four books as an up-and-coming author, but when undead fiends appear on Earth for a killing spree, she is caught in the crossfire between dreams and reality.

These creatures shouldn't exist outside the pages of her books—and neither should Emrys, the fictional hero who slips in from the shadows to tell her that Astraela is facing its ultimate destruction. With little information and a lot at stake, the player must guide Eva's actions in order to decipher what's going on as reality crumbles around her."

This is a commercial visual novel by GSE Studios! You can buy it or try the demo from itch.io here, or from Steam here.

[forest-falcon]

Whumpy/Angsty WIP

Trigger warning for blood, angst, shock, whump.

OCs: Tamara Fielding, Jonesy and Mac who work with Captain Cass McCready as firefighters.

💚♥️🚒👨‍🚒👩‍🚒🧑‍🚒

As far as Virgil could tell, only two figures had stood in the direct path of the falling glass; Alan, and the firefighter who had pushed him to safety.

Alan was clearly unharmed; already scrambling to his feet, ready to assess the situation. He may be the youngest Tracy, but he was International Rescue material through-and-through.

The firefighter who had dived to save Alan, however, was still curled in the same position on the floor. Her fire jacket, and the settling dust, making it nearly-impossible to tell whether Alan's Good Samaritan was even breathing.

Please be alive, please be alive…

Maybe, by some sheer miracle, she had dodged the shards unscathed?

Maybe, she was simply lying and waiting for the immediate danger to pass?

Another second, and her ragged breathing became apparent.

Shit.

At least she was alive. He could work with alive.

"TAM!" Jonesy dashed towards his prone friend.

"Wait!" Virgil made a quick scan of his immediate surroundings.

Of course, the fire helmets were properly stored, and not immediately reachable in the decimated foyer. He'd have to improvise.

There was an upturned coffee table. That could work.

"Okay, with me" he gestured, using the table for cover from further debris.

Alan had followed suit, sheltering under the canopy of a firefighter's jacket.

Admittedly, the risk of further falling glass was relatively low - a large portion of the roof above them was now sky, but the wind outside had picked up, toppling the odd piece of loose rubble with a flurry of silt.

Virgil knelt whilst simultaneously removing his plaid shirt.

The casualty's fingers were hovering, quivering above a ragged piece of glass protruding from her abdomen.

"Tam, was it?"

"T-Tam-mmm-m," she nodded as she shivered.

"Short for Tamara." Jonesy offered.

"Tam, I'm Virgil. I'm going to need you to lie nice and still for me."

"O-k-kay…”

The firefighter gave a small laugh as a few rogue tears ran from the corners of her eyes.

“I'm o-kay. M'okay. M’kay. This is ..fineee!" Tam grinned against the tears, as though merely rejecting the situation would suffice

Virgil bunched his shirt and gently guided the woman's quivering fingers away from the wound.

What he'd give for his baldric right now.

"Tam, I know it's hard, but I'd like you to focus on your breathing for me...nice n' steady. Try to control the shivering if you can. We want this wound nice n' still."

"D... don't know...w-why... I'm...sh-shivering so m-much. Doesn't hurt that much...if-f-f I s-stay s-still."

Jonesy was staring at him. A silent conversation passing between the first responders.

Confident the risk of further glass falling was negligible; Jonesy set the desk down to shield Tam's eyes from dust. Sliding himself under the table, he reached for his friend.

"Hold my hands."

"M-M'okay" Tam's protest was feeble, and somewhat pointless, given that she conceded with a simple look.

"I'm sorry Tam, but this will likely hurt." Virgil apologised as he covered the wound (barring the glass) with his shirt.

"Alan, I need you to keep the pressure on this for me, while I set up an IV."

Fielding's sharp wail flooded the room, before fading to a choked whimper as the pain swallowed her voice.

"Ambulance should be with us in five." Mac called.

Five minutes? She'd bleed out in that time.

"Great, thanks," he mustered with as much positivity as his voice could muster.

Virgil rummaged through the medical rucksack for supplies. There must be something...anything, that could buy them some time. First thing’s first; IV.

He turned back to Alan, who was staring at the darkening shirt, his arms slack.

"Like this." Virgil manually guided Alan's hands back down to put pressure back on the wound. His brother's hands were surprisingly cold and clammy.

He's going into shock.

Virgil willed the thought away. Alan was a professional, he'd seen numerous rescues - some arguably worse than this. And right now, he could use all the help he could get.

Professionals aren't immune to trauma, though. She saved his life, possibly at the expense of her own. You need to watch him.

As soon as Virgil removed his hands from Alan's, the necessary pressure was gone again. Jonesy was quick to fill in for Alan, though his face wore a similar shade of grey.

Alan slowly stood, staring at the blood still slick on his palms. He continued to stare as he silently stumbled away in no particular direction.

Virgil tapped at his watch and dialed his emergency code.

Within moments, John's voice washed over him like a tonic.

"Virgil, you've activated your emergency beacon."

"Multi-casualty situation. Building’s unstable. Alan's in shock. Require urgent assistance."

"FAB, we're on our way."

"Your status, Thunderbird Two?"

"Uninjured."

"S-s-lot of-blood. M' S-scared." Tam continued to shiver.

"Hey, hey Tam. Look at me. Look at me."

Wide eyes fixed on his.

"Do you trust me?"

Tam gave a hesitant half-nod.

"You just saved my youngest brother. Do you think there's even a chance I'd let anything happen to you?"

The prone firefighter managed a weak smile.

"I mean, a feat like that's gotta be worth...oooh...at least two drinks at a London bar."

"Two whole drinks, huh?" Her voice was breathy.

"Have you seen London prices? Last time Scottie and myself were here, they charged him £35 for a small measure of whisky! £35! Even I needed a drink after that."

Tam's smile grew a fraction before her eyes suddenly rolled back, and her head lolled to the side.

"Tam? Tam?”

[crmsndragonwngss]

Do you have any tips or guides on how to make gifs?

I do! Firstly, this guide here is probably the best guide I've seen for gif making. It's concise and easy to follow, and it's what I used to learn myself. They have a lot of resources as far as programs go, but I'll list what I use below. As always, never download and install anything from unknown sources without doing your own due diligence. Run everything through your antivirus and/or virustotal before installing always always always!

This is kinda long, so imma put it under the cut lol. Also note that I use windows (Win10), so things may not work the same way for mac or linux

Before you can actually make the gifs, you need a way to download high quality videos! I like jdownloader 2 because I find the interface to be user friendly, it gives you the option to download multiple elements (like srt files), and it works with more websites than lots of other video downloaders (and their user support is leagues better as well). My second choice is yt-dlp, which isn't necessarily more complex but might look a little more intimidating. Both are great programs, but a quick note about jd2: DO NOT download it from anywhere else but the link above. The developers package adware in all their installers EXCEPT for that one (I hate it too, and I think it's fundamentally unethical, but at least they're up front about it and they have an adware free version). Both methods automatically download the highest quality video available in your source link, so you don't have to worry about fiddling with that.

Now on to extracting frames! My method of choice is ffmpeg. It looks more intimidating than it is, and it's honestly the best way to extract frames imo. Like yt-dlp, it uses your computer's command console, which means you'll need the relevant command lines to run it. This tutorial is great to get you started, and it includes a command line for if you only want to extract frames from a specific part of your video. If you want to extract every frame from the entire video, you can either input the start and end times of the video into that command line, or you can use this version (I use both depending on what I'm doing):

ffmpeg -i "file path" "out-%05d.png"

Always make sure you're working with png files. To make quality gifs you have to start with quality images, and png files, unlike jpg, are lightweight and lossless, meaning you won't end up with compression artifacts and fuzziness

To get the file path for your video, select the file, then in the upper left hand corner of your window select home > copy path. It will copy the path in quotes, so replace the entire section "file path" with the path you just copied. Then copy and paste the entire line into your command console. The tutorial above says this as well, but be sure to create a folder for your frames, go into that folder and click the file path bar at the top of the window, then type "cmd" to open the console. This will ensure your files are dumped in that folder

So now you need a way to actually MAKE the gif. This is... a little more tricky. You can use gimp, I think, though it's certainly not my program of choice. You could buy PS but like... ew. OR you could do what I did and arr it. I use a portable version of CS6 that I downloaded literally a decade ago, and unfortunately the website I got it from isn't up anymore. I did a quick search and found this on reddit, but again, do your due diligence before downloading and installing anything!

Now I'll talk a little bit about my actual process. The actual process of making frames into layers into a gif I got from that first tutorial I linked. I took that process and made an action on PS so that I never have to do it manually again because I'm lazy and my memory is dogshit and I didn't want to have to consult a guide every time I wanted to do something lol. Everything else I learned through experimenting and my own experience as a photographer, so I encourage you to play around with everything to see what you like and what works for you

For coloring, I fiddle with levels, brightness/contrast, and color balance adjustment layers until I'm happy with how it looks. You can use curves instead of levels if you want finer control (or if you want to produce effects like matte), but levels works just as well and has a histogram right there in the panel, which makes it easier to adjust the exposure based on the image's actual data

For sharpening, I have a couple of custom actions I use. Here's what they look like:

The first one (bound to the F2 key) gives a smoother appearance, and I like to use it for kpop gifs where the subjects are already airbrushed and smooth without much texture, or wide shots where detail isn't super important

The second one (bound to the F3 key) is the one I use when I want to preserve texture in the image. Closeups of people where you can see their skin texture, or busy images with lots of detail benefit most from this one

The basic gist of it is, the "sharpen" filter does exactly what it says on the tin and it's usually all the sharpening an image needs, and the "surface blur" filter erases or dampens artifacting created by the sharpening filter. Sometimes I'll run the action twice, or use them both in combination to get the effect I want. Here's what the difference looks like in practice, featuring two very cute dudes:

F2 sharpening action

F3 sharpening action

You'll notice in the first two gifs, there's not much in the way of texture to preserve. Yoongi's skin is smooth and airbrushed, and the scenery is all metal and concrete shot with a wide aperture, which makes the background nice and blurry and smooth. In the second set, Jesse has facial hair and stubbly texture on his throat that I wanted to preserve, so I used the action with the lighter surface blur

My advice on all of this though, again, is to play around with it and see what you like! And if you have any more questions, feel free to ask! I'm by no means an expert, but I'll do what I can to help!

edit: oh, a quick note about speed! The tutorial I linked above mentions changing the delay to 0.05, and that's great for full speed gifs! But if you want them slow like my gifs above, I set the delay to 0.08. Sometimes I'll slow them down even more by setting the delay to 0.09 or 0.1, but any higher and you start to lose some of that smoothness