#Uploading three times weekly is hard

[aspiring-awesomeness]

Frank is NOT a fan of Tim stealing HIS FATHER FIGURE - HE was FIRST!

Little add-on to this one: https://www.tumblr.com/aspiring-awesomeness/711947256636604416/boogie-woogie-woogie?source=share

[screentones-webcomicresources]

There are many web hosting companies to choose from if you're taking the plunge into making your own website with a comic content management system (CMS) like ComicControl or Grawlix, a Wordpress comic theme like Toocheke or ComicPress, or a HTML template to cut/paste code like Rarebit. While these solutions are generally free, finding a home for them is... generally not. It can be hard to choose what's best for your webcomic AND your budget!

We took a look at a few of the top hosting services used by webcomics creators using webcomic CMSes, and we put out a poll to ask your feedback about your hosts!

This post may be updated as time goes on as new services enter the hosting arena, or other important updates come to light.

Questions:

💻 I can get a free account with Wix/Squarespace/Carrd, could I just use those for my comic? - Web hosts like this may have gallery functions that could be adapted to display a series of pages, but they are very basic and not intended for webcomics.

📚 Wait, I host on Webtoon, Tapas, Comic Fury, or some other comic website, why are they not here? - Those are comic platforms! We'll get into those in a future post!

🕵️‍♀️Why does it say "shared hosting"? Who am I sharing with? - "Shared hosting" refers to sharing the server space with other customers. They will not have access to your files or anything, so it is perfectly fine to use for most comic CMSes. You may experience slowing if there is too much activity on a server, so if you're planning to host large files or more than 10 comics, you may want to upgrade to a more robust plan in the future.

Web Host List

Neocities

Basic plan pricing: Free or $5/month. Free plan has more restrictions (1 GB space, no custom domain, and slower bandwidth, among other things)

Notes: Neocities does not have database support for paid or free accounts, and most comic CMS solutions require this (ComicCtrl, Grawlix, Wordpress). You will need to work with HTML/CSS files directly to make a website and post each page.

Hostinger

Basic plan pricing: $11.99/month or $7.99/month with four year commitment (monthly, 1, 2, and 4 year plans available).

Notes: Free domain for the 1st year. Free SSL Certifications. Weekly backups.

KnownHost

Basic plan pricing: $8.95/month or $7.99/month with four year commitment (monthly, 1, 2, and 4 year plans available).

Notes: Free DDOS protection. Free SSL Certifications.

InMotion Hosting

Basic plan pricing: $12.99/month or $9.99/month with three year commitment (monthly, 1, and 3 year plans available).

Notes:  Free SSL Certifications, free domain names for 1 and 3 year plans. 24/7 live customer service and 90-day money-back guarantee. Inmotion also advertises eco-friendly policies: We are the first-ever Green Data Center in Los Angeles. We cut cooling costs by nearly 70 percent and reduce our carbon output by more than 2,000 tons per year.

Reviews:

👍“I can't remember it ever going down.”

👍“InMotion has a pretty extensive library full of various guides on setting up and managing websites, servers, domains, etc. Customer service is also fairly quick on responding to inquiries.” 👎“I wish it was a bit faster with loading pages.”

Ionos Hosting

Basic plan pricing: $8/month or $6/month with three year commitment (monthly, 1, 2 and 3 year plans available).

Notes: Free domain for the first year, free SSL Certification, Daily backup and recovery is included. Site Scan and Repair is free for the first 30 days and then is $6/month.

Reviews:

👍“Very fast and simple” 👎“Customer service is mediocre and I can't upload large files”

Bluehost

Basic plan pricing: $15.99/month or $4.95/month with three year commitment (monthly, 1, 3 year plans available).

Notes: Free domain and SSL certificates (for first year only). 24/7 Customer Service. Built to handle higher traffic websites. Although they specialize in Wordpress websites and provide updates automatically, that's almost a bad thing for webcomic plugins because they will often break your site. Their cloud hosting services are currently in early access with not much additional information available.

Reviews:

👎"The fees keep going up. Like I could drop $100 to cover a whole year, but now I'm paying nearly $100 for just three months. It's really upsetting."

👎"I have previously used Bluehost’s Wordpress hosting service and have had negative experiences with the service, so please consider with a grain of salt. I can confirm at least that their 24/7 customer service was great, although needed FAR too often."

Dreamhost

Basic plan pricing: $7.99/month or $5.99/month with three year commitment (monthly, 1, 3 year plans available).

Notes: Free SSL Certificates, 24/7 support with all plans, 97-day moneyback guarantee. Not recommended for ComicCtrl CMS

Reviews:

👍“They've automatically patched 2 security holes I created/allowed by mistake.” 👍“Prices are very reasonable” 👎 “back end kind of annoying to use” 👎 “wordpress has some issues” 👎 “it's not as customizable as some might want“

GoDaddy

Basic plan pricing: $11.99/month or $9.99/month with three year commitment (monthly, 1, 2, and 3 year plans available).

Notes: Free 24/7 Customer service with all plans, Free SSL Certificates for 1 year, free domain and site migration.

Reviews:

👍Reasonable intro prices for their Economy hosting, which has 25GB of storage 👍Migrated email hosting service from cPanel to Microsoft Office, which has greater support but may not be useful for most webcomic creators. 👎 Many site issues and then being upsold during customer service attempts. 👎 Server quality found lacking in reviews 👎 Marketing scandals in the past with a reputation for making ads in poor taste. Have been attempting to clean up that image in recent years. 👎 “GoDaddy is the McDonald's of web hosting. Maybe the Wal-Mart of hosting would be better. If your website was an object you would need a shelf to put it on. You go to Wal-Mart and buy a shelf. It's not great. It's not fancy. It can only hold that one thing. And if we're being honest - if the shelf broke and your website died it wouldn't be the end of the world.The issue comes when you don't realize GoDaddy is the Wal-Mart of hosting. You go and try to do things you could do with a quality shelf. Like, move it. Or add more things to it.” MyWorkAccountThisIs on Reddit*

Things to consider for any host:

💸 Introductory/promotional pricing - Many hosting companies offer free or inexpensive deals to get you in the door, and then raise the cost for these features after the first year or when you renew. The prices in this post are the base prices that you can expect to pay after the promotional prices end, but may get outdated, so you are encouraged to do your own research as well.

💻 Wordpress hosting - Many of the companies below will have a separate offering for Wordpress-optimized hosting that will keep you updated with the latest Wordpress releases. This is usually not necessary for webcomic creators, and can be the source of many site-breaking headaches when comic plugins have not caught up to the latest Wordpress releases.

Any basic hosting plan on this list will be fine with Wordpress, but expect to stop or revert Wordpress versions if you go with this as your CMS.

🤝 You don't have to go it alone - While free hosts may be more limited, paid hosting on a web server will generally allow you to create different subdomains, or attach additional purchased domains to any folders you make. If you have other comic-making friends you know and trust, you can share your server space and split the cost!

Want to share your experience?

Feel free to contribute your hosting pros, cons, and quirks on our survey! We will be updating our list periodically with your feedback!

[matsui-sinclair]

hello fellow ape-heads today i bring you a humble offering of all the episodes of the short-lived 1974 planet of the apes tv show all on a google drive for free :)

the series is about two astronauts, peter and alan, who accidentally travel forward in time to the 3080s (about 900ish years before the first movie) and befriend a friendly ape named galen (played by roddy mcdowall). the episodes follow the three of them as they travel across future california, running from the gorilla cop urko as he chases them down for upsetting the natural order of ape society.

all these episodes are already up on archive.org but i don't know about anyone else but that website is sooo slow for me so i just went and downloaded all the episodes. but then my laptop didn't have enough space so i moved them to a hard drive and it got tedious for me to reconnect it every time i wanted to rewatch an episode, so i just thought for ease of access i'd upload them to a google drive, and i figured other people would probably be interested in watching so here you go!!

i first heard about this show because the youtube channel ape nation is currently going through each of the episodes so if you want you can watch along with his weekly reviews!

i absolutely love this show so much and i never see anyone talk about it on here so hopefully this means people can watch it and i won't be alone in my appreciation for it anymore 😭😭

so go forth and enjoy the glory of the 1974 pota tv show!!

[ewanmitchellcrumbs]

Dearest Ange, the final episode is upon us.

I too was victim to the spoilers via leaks, and I was really, really praying it was just a bad fever dream. I've accepted that at this point I will continue watching for a love of the actors and the characters, rather than for a meaningful, coherent storyline. There are so, so many things wrong with this episode, much of which we've discussed over the course of season two;

The horrible, horrible way that Ryan Condal and Sara Hess dealt with the greens. My heart really went out to Aemond in this episode because despite the fact that he's so, so messy, and flawed, he's the only one left of his family who's actually trying to keep them alive, to protect them even though he's not going about it the wrong way.

The way the show dealt with the aftermath of events

The horrible character development of so many characters

The terrible pacing

The annoying inclusion of the whole ASOIAF from the main series- please, please, please stop reminding me it exists

Aemond trying to kill Aegon on purpose.

And so much more

And while I'll get to the (few) positives, as I always try to do, there is one thing that made me have to pause my tablet in pure agitation and just being fucking fed up, and that, dear Ange, is that scene with Alicent and Rhaenyra.

What. the. Fuck.

Alicent just sacrificed Aegon for her own freedom, after forcing Aegon to claim a throne he didn't even want? Why is Rhaenyra still bringing up a son for a son? Did Jaehaerys's death mean nothing? Alicent only cares about Helaena and Jaehaera, but what about her sons? Daeron? Aemond and Aegon, despite their flaws, they are her sons, her children- where is the Alicent in s1 who screamed at Aegon that if Rhaenyra became Queen, they will die? It's more than butchering her character, it's just utter bullshit. I remember in season 1 I was such an Alicent sympathiser, I felt like the complexity of her character would be so interesting to see in s2, but my god was it a shitshow. Alicent takes one solo camping trip and she's ready to offer up her sons on a platter so she can try and absolve herself? What about her father? Her brother? All of whom are fighting for her son's cause? They don't have the luxury that Alicent seems to, if the greens lose, they will lose their heads. No question.

My heart ached for Aemond when he tried to reach out to Helaena hat one last time- yes, she has every right to be angry, because she's lost so much because of Aemond's actions, and yet, the look on his face broke me. He's trying so hard to fight for their survival, and not one member of his family cares. I've ranted on a bit about the negatives, so here are my few positives-

Daemon and Rhaenyra reunion, seeing them together again

At this point, any Aemond or Helaena screentime is a blessing, no matter what Ryan Condal's trying to do.

Daeron sneak peak

Rhaena and Sheepstealer

Helaena is so fucking pretty <3

Sharako Lohar (I wanna be one of her wives, thanks)

Ngl after Aemond burned Sharp Point I was ready to let him take out some more frustrations on me, hehe

I wanna say Bloodraven, but....that's not what I expected him to look like

Anyway, Ange, I've enjoyed our little weekly tradition. I'm looking forward to how the show is going to inspire the fandom for the next two years. I'll try not to disappear into a void, I'm still gonna hide behind anon for a while longer, but maybe by the time s3 rolls around, I'll be able to come out from hiding. I've written my own fics, though admittedly I'm only somewhat proud of one of them, that I'm not finished uploading from ao3 to tumblr. I feel some inspiration to write again after some time of no inspiration, so perhaps if I'm granted any time, I can finally write again. As always, look forward to seeing your takes, Ange <3

-🦋 anon

Hello, my love! I can't believe that after eight weeks of doing this, this will be our final one (until season three, anyway) - I hope you won't be a stranger until then! I will wait patiently for your first fic to post.

Anyway, on to my thoughts...

A lot of people’s gripe with season two of House of the Dragon has been its deviation from Fire and Blood.

I do not mind that. They did it in season one. My issue is that there is no consistency between the characters as they were presented in season one and how they behave in season two.

Alicent that put herself between a dragon and her son, that replied “you imbecile” to his question of “do you love me?” now offering up his head.

Aemond that toasted with his brother at the expense of his bastard nephews, and looked on in annoyance as Helaena danced with one of them, burning and torturing his brother and manhandling his sister.

This isn’t character development, it’s character assassination. Where is the family unit that closed ranks and defended one another when Viserys demanded to know which of them called Rhaenyra’s sons bastards?

The writers tore up the script for season one and said “actually, they all hate each other”. I don’t recognise these characters. They are trying to make the audience hate Aemond when he is the only one with any integrity, still fighting for his family’s cause.

And Daemon - Daemon’s defining quality has always been his ruthlessness, how cutting he is. They’ve softened him up to make Rhaenyra’s cause seem more sympathetic. Give me back the man that sat at the top table during a wedding feast and called Lord Royce an “old bronzed cunt”, the man who single-handedly took on the Crabfeeder’s army rather than accept help from his brother.

They’ve destroyed so much potential with the insistence on creating good guys. The whole appeal of the Dance is that everyone is shitty. We could have had that with the foundations that were laid in season one. I am so disappointed.

I'm annoyed that we didn't get to see Rhaena actually claim Sheepstealer, and when she does finally encounter him she reacts with wide eyed surprise? Girl, you're really shocked that you're seeing the creature that you've spent the last however long tracking and almost died of exposure for? That's like me looking around the supermarket for grapefruit and then screaming when I find it. That could have been way more badass, I'm not annoyed that they sacrificed Nettles' character for that.

What was the point of Aemond burning Sharp Point? Visually, it was stunning, but what purpose did it serve? Was that in place of him burning the Riverlands? We didn't even get to see him do it, just the aftermath!

Helaena telling Aemond how he dies, as well as Daemon seeing his own death were such dumb moves. Those deaths would have been epic for people who haven't read the book, and now they are spoiled. I am also now sceptical as to whether we will get Alysmond or not. It seems like they've stripped away the very foundation that made that pairing by making Helaena a seer and giving Daemon such a tight knit bond with Alys.

When I first read Fire and Blood I was very much Team Black. What brought me to neutral ground was watching season one and seeing how Team Green were fleshed out and made more complex. Season two has undone all of that. It feels almost like they are trying to turn the characters back to their book counterparts, but are making them into caricatures of themselves in the process.

They could never make me hate Aemond, and I think the only reason for that is Ewan's incredible performance of the character. He adds so much nuance to a personality that the writers are actively trying to destroy. I think if it were any other actor playing Aemond, I genuinely would not enjoy the character.

Anyway, so I'm not ending on a bum note, here's what I've enjoyed this season:

The acting - the cast have been absolutely phenomenal, every performance has been a joy to watch, despite the weak writing.

The lesbian fan service. I very much enjoyed the Rhaesaria kiss, though I am annoyed they never developed that any further. Sharako Lohar also - I know the character is a man in the book and making her a woman is very fan servicey, but I enjoyed her immensely.

Tyland Lannister. He has provided some much needed comic relief this season, whether it's being bullied by Aegon and Jaehaerys, terrorised by Aemond or mud wrestled by pirates, he's fun to watch.

Team Black - I was kind of "meh" towards characters like Baela and Jace in season one. I've grown to appreciate them so much more in season two, and I think that's because of the acting. Bethany and Harry have done an amazing job.

The dragons! I've enjoyed seeing them all, the designs for all of them are so interesting and I really like how different they all look. Caraxes will be my forever favourite, but Syrax has also stolen my heart this season, because of her cute little Boglin face.

I think that's it? My expectations for season three are low, so hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised. I will be knocking around in the meantime, writing fics as always! Lots of love to you xoxo

[thecryptidart1st]

hey everybody~

taking the time to let everybody know about the changes i’m trying to make to organize my three different art blogs

the short summary: I will be closing the ask box for thecryptidart1st blog on April 2nd!!

If you have a pressing question for the characters of the Soldered Wires AU, this would be your time to do it. The ask box will still be open for The Graveyard Shift and will become available on Year of the Spring Rabbit.

for additional details about the future for all blogs, follow me behind the read more

Hey how’s it going?

So having three different art blogs is fun, but it’s obvious I need a little more organization, because one of them is suffering

As much as I want to do daily drawings of murder man Willy Afton, I know I don’t have the time or the willpower to commit to 365 drawings of him. I’ve been trying to find a work-life balance where I can still draw sufficiently and have a job that keeps me preoccupied physically and pays my bills. So far my current job is doing that, but at the cost of commute occupying a couple hours of my day.

This doesn’t mean that I don’t want to stop Year of the Spring Rabbit either. I’m having too much fun drawing William and getting asks about people wanting to kiss and/or punch his face. It just means that we are not likely going to see 365 Williams. I’ve been in debate if this means that we reduce YotSR from a daily to a weekly upload or we substitute different content at the cost of a number of regular drawings (ie like having an animation of William at the cost of 20 daily drawings or something)

For now at least, I want to at least open up an ask box on the Year of the Spring Rabbit blog to get some more ideas on William drawings. I’ve been focusing too hard at incorporating Soldered Wires lore with every drawing so far, so I need some fresh perspective :) This inbox will open up after the main art blog closes.

Speaking of which, yes, I am closing this blog’s inbox on April 2nd (to avoid confusion closing it on April Fools’ Day)

I’m planning on tackling the backlog for Soldered Wires here, all the while answering asks for The Graveyard Shift that I can weave into the storyline I have going for Season 2.

Starting April 3rd, I’m going to try to keep to this upload schedule so I know what to work on. I know some days I can tackle more than one ask, I know other days I won’t have the motivation to draw (and I’ll inform when it does happen), so this will be a general idea on what I’m going to be doing each week :)

The main cryptidart1st blog will likely be closed until I can get it under 100 asks or TGS’s inbox exceeds 300 asks

So get those asks in, and in the meantime, feel free to leave some suggestions about the Year of the Spring Rabbit situation :)

[bairdcrevan]

Writing Update January 2023

Your prodigal transformers fanfic writer is back at it lol or at least trying to be! I’ve got a lot of plans coming up and I’m using these periodic posts to keep myself accountable and let you know what I’m working on.

First is EarthSpark SoundStar:

Not Starved but Famished on Ao3 (EarthSpark Soundwave/Starscream)

Wrote this before the second half of Season 1, so I think some things will end up being wrong- but it was fun to write and think about. Soundwave and Starscream have a conversation after not seeing each other for some time.

Coming to you soon is Febuwhump: lol get excited, these babies hurt-

The long awaited next installment of:

Pacifcation Link on Ao3 Starscream/Shockwave and Starscream/Thundercracker/Skywarp

Chapter 42 is getting uploaded on Friday 1/27, even if it kills me.

Edit: I DID IT: Chapter 42 up and ready for you

It’s been almost written for more than six months, but a combination of health crap related to BITLET made writing awful. I don’t know how I got my big bang fic done, honestly when every square inch of my body was going through intense, incessant itching.

Had a great conversation with some friends about Paci and the direction I was always heading, but they helped me with some specifics that had been bothering me. I’m trying to overwrite chapters so that I can do weekly updates again- and you all deserve the closure. I have these presents I wrapped a while ago in the fic and it’s time to open them.

This fic is going on three years old (holy shit lmfao). Let’s get this baby to the finish line.

Another fic that needs to hit the finish line:

Link to Exchanging Fire on Ao3 Starscream/Skyfire, Starscream/Jetfire, Starscream/Starscream/Skyfire (and other permutations lol)

Target Fic finish date: February 2023

This one is fun because of IDW Shattered Glass’s comics renewing everyone’s love for SG. I’m excited for the final swell here too and we are close to the finale, so we just have to write what I have planned. This is another one approaching 3 years old, omfg.

And I will SERIOUSLY reconsider ever writing a “meet your doppleganger” fanfic when they share the same name again. It has been HARD lol

And the last one that is majorly on the docket:

Link to Queen on the Throne on Ao3 Starscream/Optimus

Target next chapter: February 2023

This one I am excited to write for you because of what happens next- and it is always on my mind. Recent IRL experiences definitely will color some of the next chapters and give you some LOVELY angst you get to consume lol. This one is quickly crawling up through my ranks of top fics- outpacing a lot of what I had already finished. So again, happy to update it and reach the next steps for you, because the reception has been so nice.

I think that’s enough lol and I will likely break ALL of this- but I like setting high goals for myself lol

[jolapeno]

Hey my lovely Jo!! We’re going to start with a writing question before we get to 🤡.

When you’re writing a multi-chapter fic, are you writing it chapter by chapter or do you write a large chunk (or the entire fic) before posting the individual chapters?

Love you 💜💜

lovely lovely jenn! what a fabulous question, okay, I may ramble here, forgive meeeee.

previously, I have written a huge chunk of the fic to an outline I have (a skeleton, as I call it) and then begin posting when I’ve banked what I suspect is 30-40% of the fic, to allow for buffer time. this is mainly because I upload weekly and life can happen/sickness/etc.

late night texts was one I wrote three chapters of (thinking it would be five) and began posting and then spent every week writing the next and it was AMAZING! but I also didn’t have assignments then, one shots coming out of my ears (both my fault) or fandom friends to talk to. I just had writing. but with do me yourself, I had a chunk of that written and then I dedicated time aside to do as much of it as I could as i was posting but noticed near the end that I almost lost a thread 😂 like I didn’t close it up. I managed to sort but it kinda made me realise that when I do a slightly bigger plot (for me) my brain can forget little threads.

so I realised for actual series, I need to change it up.

HOWEVER, more recently, blue x frankie WAS supposed to be a collection of one shots that have somehow become a story? (let’s not even ask 😂) so, for this I’ve made a hard plan and made sure it has bullet points so I know what I’m doing.

but with new things, i am trying to write in full at least a draft. there’s something I’m working on that I’ve worked out could be around 12 chapters, and while I could get to four or five and begin posting, I really want to make sure for myself that I’m happy with elements before posting. so I won’t even be teasing that out into the universe because I’ll get excited and post 😂. (I succumb to peer pressure very easily).

now I’ve rambled a lot and I know you asked me for what I do, but I do want to stress there’s no right or wrong way, as long as you can be confident in what youve done. that’s all that matters.

I never used to be a planner, but I’ve found a tactic that works well for me. It’s good for my brain and how i work, and it’s taken years to craft and tweak it to be how i want. so if anyone is after advice: just try things.

and I think because I am now a planner who pants, that has changed me as an uploader, and I think I’ve learnt that I’d like to enjoy the process of posting it more if I know I’m completely done. its especially important as I’m trying to weave more things in and also make the readers lean a bit closer to OCs so people can really sink into them.

anyway, that’s a lot of ramble. but I hope I answered your question! thank you for it, it really made me think!

ily, jo

[thewolfwarriors]

15 Years of HTTYD! ANNIVERSARY POST!

tl;dr: Ive been in the fandom since the far off ancient year of 2007 so this is a brief reflection of all that

Posting this today on the Winter Solstice, an important day for the Vikings, seemed fitting. Expand for the full text (there's pictures too!)

In the Winter of 2007, my middle school English teacher took us to our weekly Thursday trip to the library. I'd check out any book with the word 'dragon' in the title. I came across How to Train your Dragon by Cressida Cowell and immediately checked it out. I became so obsessed with the book that I learned the hard way that you can only recheck out a book so many times. Thankfully, my parents had given me some money for Christmas and took me to Books-A-Million after the new year! I think the specific date was Jan 8th.

To my ecstatic delight, there was not one, but THREE BOOKS now! After buying them, we went to Cici's Pizza and I had to convince my parents to let me bring them inside. I promised them I would be careful not to get any pizza on them.

I carried those books around with me daily! They were always with me at school. They got scratches all over the covers but they were my friends so I always had them around. I made so many stories of my own through them.

I have this memory of my dad walking into my room while I was reading How to Speak Dragonese.

"You're reading that again?" he asked.

"Ye...."

"We need to get you some new books." was all he said.

It used to say Mew on the inside of the cover before I decided to put the date down instead. That was my first internet name from my ye olde Neopets days. I named myself and all my characters that because I was so bad with naming.

I came up with Mew (now Mewgull) as my first HTTYD OC! She was the an heir to a large kingdom and she turned into a wolf ( I was obsessed with Wolf's Rain and nu-metal AMVS ok? )Then came along her brothers, the Dreadful Drones and the Wolf Warriors as a whole, my first LGBT+ characters (that I can remember at least) and many many more. Mew became my first mascot for my art and eventually I made my own "fursona" (before I knew what that was) based off her.

Annnnnd of course, tons of fan art, animations and even a Doomfang fursuit head. Most of this stuff was lost to time but some I was able to keep! I'll be uploading what's left of my old artwork here soon! I plan to do some redraws as well! ^_^ Some are already on my ancient sarcophagus of a deviantART account

For memories and funnies: here's my Fishlegs cosplay for "Dress up as your favorite book character day" at school! I don't know if it's embarrassing or endearing but hey, man, it was 2012.

I made the helmet and the necklace myself! I kept the luck lobster claws for a long time but I guess I got rid of them. :( Maybe in the future I'll make another pair! And yes, that's my Horrowcow I'm holding! Thanks mom for takin the picture!

Anyway, if you stuck around this long, I sure do appreciate it. These were all some of the many core memories I had and I love talking about them. I'll probably have many more sentimental ramblings like this in the future (... Sure hope "the Dreadful Drone" doesn't take on a new meaning) and of course, my old art. I'm really happy with how well of a reception my art was got on here so far. Thank you all.

Until next time, Peace.

Signed,

Mr.Hatman aka Mew -Dragonologist, Wolf Rain's AMV lover, System of a Down/KoRn fan, Poke'mon Master, Cosplayer, Irken Invader, the most Random Epicest Artist xDDDD :3

[acquariusgb]

Talking it Over- HRC column

Hillary’s weekly column- 27th January 1996 Hillary’s view on divorce.  While I was traveling recently to promote my new book about children, a lot of people asked me about the Whitewater controversy, which I wrote about last week. But many more men and women were interested in discussing the issues of real life. They wanted to talk about family concerns from affordable health care to job lay-offs to how we can raise standards in our schools. In particular, my position on one subject - divorce - seems to have taken people by surprise. As I say in my book, I think getting a divorce should be much harder when children are involved. [...] Children living with one parent or in stepfamilies, for example, are more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems. Kids who grow up in single-parent families are also more likely to drop out of high school, become pregnant as teen-agers, abuse drugs, behave violently and become entangled with the law. Even if a parent marries again, it doesn't necessarily improve a child's odds. [...] Most married couples know that living happily ever after is not always an easy, or painless, proposition. My own marriage has become stronger, I believe, because Bill and I have worked hard at it, even when times were rough. As I told Barbara Walters in a recent interview, we have learned to compromise and bite our tongues when we need to. And like many other couples, we've learned to confront problems before they reach irreparable proportions. I'm not saying that divorce should never happen. I know of cases, as I'm sure you do, where divorce was the best option for all family members involved. No one should have to endure the physical and emotional abuse that my own late mother-inlaw, Virginia Kelley, recounted in her witty and touching autobiography, "Leading With the Heart." Virginia was married to an alcoholic who sometimes became abusive during drinking binges. She finally divorced him but re-married him three months later ~ against Bill's advice ~ because she felt sorry for him and believed he would change his ways. In later years, she told me she regretted not having stuck to her decision for the sake of her children. Full text  (if the document doesn’t upload, just save the pdf)

[whentherewerebicycles]

SORRY i have to do dear diary: work problems edition under the cut again

so on monday i volunteered to do this small project with the HR team to wrap up a massive project i’d led earlier (although of course it was one that my lead took over in the last 2% of work and now claims as her own achievement). got the go-ahead from my boss & my lead was copied on all the emails. so i set up meetings with the team today and tomorrow, circulated an agenda, and created a structure for us to use in brainstorming content. my lead was CC’d on all of this because i’m not allowed to email people without her knowing. then this morning she messaged to ask me to change the time of my meeting because she wanted to meet with the HR lead about something earlier in the day. so i was like ok whatever! annoying that you couldn’t find some other time and had to take this time but fine! i moved the meeting, sent out a note to the HR team, and don’t really think anything of it.

but THEN we just had our weekly meeting with our boss, and at this meeting ashley announced that she had met with the HR team this morning, gotten all the material needed the project, and would complete everything by the end of the day. i was just sitting there like “...i’m sorry?” and finally interrupted her to be like “so what should i do with them in the meeting?” and she was like “well you don’t really need to have it now. but you could just sit on the call with them and have them upload these three forms i need and email them to me if you want.” i just sat there gaping at her because what the ACTUAL fuck???? like you already block me from taking on projects and take credit for the projects i DO do and now you’ve escalated to stealing projects I’d claimed & completing them before i can finish them & then telling me that in front of my boss so it looks like either you didn’t trust me to do it myself or i was failing in some way and you had to pick up the slack? and also you make me look stupid in front of the HR team by scheduling your own private meetings with them and not telling me so i’m still communicating with them like i’m coordinating the project? like WHAT is this woman’s deal??? jesus christ!!!!

i have a meeting with her later (which she rescheduled earlier one minute before it was supposed to start without telling me) and i’m trying to decide if i bring it up with her to be like “that really fucking bothered me” in more professional language, or if i just let it go and use it as further fuel to get out of here. i feel like i keep letting things go because they’re annoying/insulting but they’re also just “oh i can explain...” enough that i feel dumb bringing them up because there’s that tiny voice in my head that’s like ‘did you miss something? did YOU fuck up? is someone mad at you? did your boss say yes to your face and then go over your head to tell your lead to do the project for you?’ which just makes me feel all uncomfortable and lowkey anxious even though i’m like if i DID fuck up recently somehow (how could i have fucked up?? i’ve been out for three weeks!!!! i literally have not had opportunity to fuck up!!!) and my boss handled it that way instead of addressing it with me, that’s just terrible management and should not be something i internalize. but AGH the fucking MIND GAMES in this team and just all! the! tiny! ways! my lead undermines me or tries to make me doubt myself. and THEN i have no idea if she’s doing it intentionally or if she’s just kinda shitty at supervising people or at communicating clearly (which is funny because she talks all the time about how she’s such a ~relator~ whose biggest skill is building relationships and communicating with people). idk man it just makes me feel bad and then it feels even worse to stew in the negative feelings all day. like i don’t actually ENJOY complaining i would much rather just have a job where i get to work hard alongside people i generally like and respect and all of my dear diary posts are about how rewarding i find my work or whatever!!! blehhhh okay gotta go do a quick lap around the house before i can face her in 5 minutes. 

[raymond-reddington-ruminations]

T-shirts and hoodies for your obscure fandoms.

When they announced The Blacklist was ending I kind of went a little nuts in terms of buying merchandise. But of course, The Blacklist doesn't have much in the way of official merchandise. So here's the apparel that I got, and what you need to know if you're interested in getting it yourself.

These are from a United States company called teepublic. Basically anybody can upload a design, and when someone wants to buy products with that design, the company prints it on t-shirts, hoodies, and a handful of other assorted things. The Creator gets a small portion of the sale.

I found plenty of Blacklist designs there, these are the ones that I went with.

They do three types of hoodies, I have experience with two. The lightweight hoodie runs two sizes too small. After learning this the hard way, I reordered the premium hoodie, and the company sent it with free shipping and the only thing I paid is the difference of the upgrade. The premium hoodie fits just right. I take a plus size, and I have no complaints about the premium version that I received.

I bought the premium version t-shirts, and have no issues with the sizing or quality there as well. The t-shirts feel lightweight but durable. I've been wearing them weekly for months and have not noticed any degrading.

The shipping is reasonable. I forget what I paid for the hoodie, but the two T-shirts ended up costing me $40 Canadian each, shipping included. Might sound steep for a t-shirt, but it is a fandim t-shirt, and I see Torrid charging $45 for t-shirts these days.

Overall, it was a positive experience ordering from them. Shipping was a bit slow on the very first order, but the others were reasonable time frames. Their customer service responded promptly when my original hoodie was too small.

I really like this company because you can go in there and pick any design that somebody has uploaded. And I've seen some crazy fun stuff. I didn't get this one myself, but just look at it..

I'm already planning to order another hoodie for the fall, Jeepers Creepers, one of my favorite horror movies. I don't think I've ever seen any merchandise for it anywhere.

[substituted-shinigami]

We… We have a lotta fun here xD

Channel Update!!!

Hello Everyone!!! Despite the, uh…rather silly presentation, I really have been working super hard on some fanworks in the background, and now I’m proud to finally present to you the “We Can’t All Be Winners” Fall Season Schedule! Plus I've got some previews for you to boot!!!

Let’s take a look!

"We Can’t All Be Winners" Fall Season Schedule plus FAQ and Previews!!!

(this post is already kinda long, (and is about to get a lot longer) so I put the rest underneath a tag xD)

October

Oct. 7th - Tiger Robe (fanfiction, renruki & Ichigo, hurt/comfort)

Oct. 14th - Three Times I Dreamed of You (fanfiction, renruki, some angsty longing but also fluff)

Oct. 21st - Who is Ichigo? (Karakura Gang Comic!)

Oct. 28th - Night Scare, Morning Care (fanfiction, renruki, hurt/comfort)

November

Nov. 4th - Double Feature! Bleach Book Club - Letters From The Other Side (light novel overview) + Roommates Assemble (Rukia & Ichigo + Karakura Gang drabble + fanart)

Nov. 11th - Bubble Tea (fanfiction, renruki + Yoruichi, slice of life, fluff)

Nov. 18th - Peaceful Day, Peaceful Night (fanfiction, renruki, fluff)

Nov. 25th - Commercial Break - Pocket Renji (Comic/fake ad)

December

Dec. 2nd - Bloodlines - Learning to Breathe (L2B) Prologue & Ch. 1 (multi-chapter fic, renruki, hurt/comfort, some angst, some humor)

Dec. 9th - L2B Ch. 2

Dec. 16th - L2B Ch. 3

Dec. 23 - L2B Ch. 4

Dec. 30 - L2B Ch. 5 & Epilogue

And that’s it! Yeah, Ichigo wasn’t kidding, it really is mostly just RenRuki fanfiction, haha!😅 Now I'm sure you all have some questions like: Wait…What is this?! Why is this?! How is this?! When is this?! And Where is this?! And I'll do my best to answer them in the FAQ below!

FAQ

Wait…What is this?!?

“We Can’t All Be Winners” or “WCABW” started out as an anthology series of RenRuki one-shots I started back in January. It contains a handful of stories featuring Renji, Rukia and occasionally others, and puts them in different scenarios, some of them canon-compliant and some of them in alternate universes. Originally, I planned to write and post one story a month, but I quickly fell behind. So I took a break and reassessed and decided to try posting in “seasons” instead. So now it’s a season of weekly uploaded fanworks to be posted from October to December, and will feature a variety of Bleach related content such as fanfiction, fanart, fan comics, bleach light novel overview, and, when I’m able to write one, a multi-chapter fic. All the fanfiction will be available on both Tumblr and AO3, but the rest will only be available on Tumblr (sorry!). Once this season is completed, I will mark the AO3 work as “completed”, and if I can do this again next year, I will start a new one!

Why is this?

Like most people, I originally planned to create and post fanworks whenever I finished them. However, I eventually found keeping up with a social media account stressful. Something about it makes you feel like you need to post all the time, even when no one else is pushing you. So I thought, hey, why not have a season! That way I have a predetermined end goal AND I don't feel like I gotta post outside of it! Plus if I feel like I need to just step away for a break (which I will most likely be doing once the queue starts running), it won't affect it since everything is already queued! So yeah, that's the idea behind it.

How do you plan to post this on AO3? It doesn’t have a queue system!

Yeah, that is a problem. My current plan is to have a tab open for each story/chapter I need to post, and then will just press the button to post it on the day it’s due to come out (or within 24 hrs). This will probably mean that the Tumblr post will link back to the table of contents of WCABW on AO3 rather than the chapter itself, so I would like to apologize for that in advance. I’ll try to fix it whenever I am able, or at the latest, when I become socially active on Tumblr again.

When is this?

Every Saturday from October 7 to December 30th at 11 am EST here on Tumblr, and within 24 hrs (either before or after) on AO3 (I'll try to make it before, but life happens sometimes). Now obviously this is no real substitute for the Bleach anime, not even close! But Saturdays were already a convenient day to post, so I thought, "Hey, why not?!" And just pushed the joke all the way!!!

Where is this?

Right here on Tumblr and on AO3 (links provided). On AO3, the one-shots will be posted under the We Can’t All Be Winners anthology series of one-shots that's already on there (if you haven't seen it yet, why not check it out? It already has some of my other one-shots on there!) The multi-chapter fic will have its own posting.

I have some questions/comments/concerns!

No problem! My ask box is always open! Now to be honest, I will be on break starting in early October, but I'll answer any I don’t see before then when I am able/get back! Also, if you are a part of the RenRuki discord, I may be checking in there from time to time even while on break.

And that’s it! Thank you all so much for reading this needlessly long and very silly announcement for Bleach fanworks of all things! To thank you for making it to the end, I added some previews for some of the upcoming works!! I hope you all enjoy!!! xD

PREVIEWS!!!

(Note: works are subject to minor changes)

Three Times I Dreamed of You

Chapter Summary:  Nightmares are always terrible. But they are made even worse when you aren’t even able to talk to the person that they are about. (RenRuki, some angsty longing but also fluff)

"Rukia!"

Renji awoke with a start, sweat dripping down his brow. He whipped his head around wildly, as he mopped off his forehead with his sleeve. He was alone, utterly alone. Quickly he reached out with his spiritual pressure to feel hers, his heart pounding loudly in his ears. Finally, he found her, a tiny cold gust on a frigid winter night. It felt so impossibly far away, but… it was enough. Renji left the Eleventh Division barrack's dorm and climbed on top of the roof to feel it better.

******************************************

Tiger Robe

Chapter Summary: While shopping with Ichigo in the World of the Living, Rukia finds a tiger print robe that reminds her of someone from her past. (renruki & Ichigo, hurt/comfort, Starts out in the Soul Society Arc, but then jumps around a couple of times)

“Okay, we're here,” Kurosaki Ichigo began as they entered the clothing store, “The women’s section is in the back.  If you need clothes, I don’t mind buying you a set or two, so can you just please stop stealing Yuzu’s?!? She’s starting to get suspicious…” But Rukia wasn't listening to him. Instead, she was looking around the store, completely enthralled.

“Woah! This is incredible!” Rukia replied with wonder, as her wide eyes flitted from one brightly colored clothing display to the next, “And you can afford such garments on your allowance alone?” Ichigo raised an eyebrow at her in response.

“Yeah…? It’s just a cheap department store, Rukia.”

“Incredible…” she muttered to herself again as she continued to look around the huge, lively store with a mixture of awe and nervousness. Several people passed them by, chatting as they filed in or out of the entrance, and loud music played on the speakers overhead. 

This is nothing like the open markets that sold only rags in Inuzuri, she thought, And once I got adopted by the Kuchiki Clan, the tailors came to me. I don’t think I’ve been to anything even resembling a regular clothing store since the Academy. There is too much choice! What should I…?

Rukia could feel Ichigo’s concerned eyes on the back of her neck. Quickly, she stood up straighter, and turned towards him.

“You said, I could get whatever I wanted, right?!” she asked with a devilish grin. Ichigo sighed heavily as if he was immediately regretting both this decision and his entire existence. He scratched the back of his head.

“Within reason! I’m not rich, you know," he scowled, "You can get one everyday outfit and one sleepwear, that’s it!” With that, he set off across the store.

“Ah! You're so stingy, Ichigo!” Rukia teased as she followed after him.

“Keep talking smack, and I’ll make you shop in the children’s section!”

“I might anyway,” Rukia mused, as they passed by a pair of child’s pajamas with bunnies on them, “children’s clothes have nicer prints.”

“Whatever,” Ichigo replied, “Wear what you want when you sleep, but when you are out and about, try to wear typical 'teen clothes'. Otherwise people might get the wrong idea when we are walking together.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rukia dismissed with a wave of her hand. As they continued walking along on their way to the back of the store, passing from the children's section into the men's, Rukia’s eyes were caught by a brightly colored robe. Turning towards it, she felt taken aback when she beheld the largest, tackiest tiger print bathrobe she had ever seen. Suddenly, she felt like she was thrown back over forty years…

******************************************

Bubble Tea

Chapter Summary: Relaxing is difficult when you are so used to fighting. Now that the Winter War is over, Rukia and Renji shoot the breeze and talk about the future. (renruki + Yoruichi, slice of life, fluff, During the Fullbringer Arc timeskip)

“Hmmm… Getting to know you without the fangs of death constantly nipping at our heels feels…weird,” Rukia commented suddenly, and a little too casually, one day as she sipped her bubble tea. Renji coughed in surprise. That or he got another tapioca pearl stuck in his throat, Rukia wasn't too sure.

“H-Huh?!" he spluttered, after he had finally begun to recover. 

"Well, think about it," Rukia continued, as she settled her cup down beside her upon the park bench. She began to list things off on her fingers, “First it was surviving in Rukongai, then Aizen's betrayal, and then the Winter War. Whenever we were together it felt like our lives were in constant mortal danger. That it was us against the world. But now…now there’s no real threat.”

"Oh yeah…" Renji agreed, looking up to the sky in thought, "I guess, you're right…huh." 

“Yeah," Rukia went on as she picked up her cup again, "The only other time it was seemingly this peaceful was when we were separated."

At that, Renji was silent for a moment, before asking quietly, "Kind of makes you wonder whether or not we're cursed, huh?" Rukia turned to look up at him, but Renji continued to stare up at the sky. 

"If we are cursed," she began slowly, "then whoever made it, absolutely sucks at making curses,"  Renji quirked an eyebrow at her as she turned back towards her tea, "Curses are meant to make you the most miserable, but despite the dangers, I'm always more miserable when we're apart." Renji stared at her wide-eyed as she went back to sipping her tea. 

******************************************

Learning to Breathe

Story Summary: Turns out purple eyes and short stature aren’t the only things that run in Hisana’s family, illness does as well. As Rukia and Renji try to help each other navigate through this new storm in their lives, will they remember to take time to breathe? (multi-chapter fic, renruki, hurt/comfort, some angst, some humor, Post TYBW, Rukia gets the same disease that killed Hisana. (Bloodlines AU))

Here’s a scene from chapter 1:

I faced an execution. I faced an espada's blade. I even faced a man who could literally murder me with fear. And yet, tiny medical needles are too much for me? You are utterly ridiculous, Kuchiki Rukia…  Rukia thought glumly to herself, as she laid in bed one chilly morning before yet another doctor’s appointment. She began chuckling wryly, I've heard the pen is mightier than the sword, but I think the medical needle might be mightier still. 

Rukia stared up at her bedroom ceiling, the sound of the room's clock ticking loudly in her ears. She'd been laying there for hours as sleep frustratingly eluded her. Sighing, she tried rolling over and closing her eyes again, but she couldn't shut out the anxious thoughts that plagued her mind.

I really hope today’s tests don’t have them. If I can’t get through these appointments without stressing out everytime I see one, then I’ll never convince him that he can rest, because I’ll be okay. That it will all be okay in the end. Hopefully…

Suddenly, Rukia’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the alarm on her soul pager going off. Again. Rukia’s hand shot out, flipped the infernal device open, and managed to press the snooze button for the third time that morning without even looking at it. She went back to staring up at the ceiling.  

Guess I better get up now, huh? Can't keep putting it off, after all… My friends, my brother, and…Renji… they’re all so worried about me, so I can’t… I can’t be weak… I must be strong for them.

Rukia sighed, her stomach already all up in knots. Taking a deep breath to center herself, she forced herself to sit up. As she looked out her bedroom window towards the sky, she saw that it was pitch-black, that even the stars were blocked out by clouds. 

Hmmm… Looks like a storm is rolling in too… Figures…

Rukia slowly pushed off her blankets and got up to search for her clothes. She thought about just wearing her black shinigami uniform, but she already knew neither her third seat nor her escort were going to let her go back to work this afternoon. Speaking of her escort…

Rukia left her room, a neatly folded dark blue kimono tucked underneath her arm, and approached the door of the guest room next to hers. She lifted her hand to knock, but paused.

I could just leave without waking him… she thought briefly, Let him sleep in. Gods know he needs it. That way, when I make it through the appointment on my own, he’ll see he has nothing to worry about! But she quickly shook herself. No! No, I don’t do that anymore! I don’t just run away... I talk about it. We talk about it. And even if we can’t figure it out, we still do even that together. Rukia took a deep breath, glared resolutely at the door, and knocked.

“Oi, Renji, you awake in there?” She heard what sounded like a groan to the affirmative. “Okay, just so you know, we’ve got to leave in an hour.”

“Mhmm… Yup. I got you,” he responded groggily. This was soon followed by the sound of very fast shuffling, a very loud bang, an almost as loud curse, and then more shuffling. Rukia raised an amused eyebrow at that.

“You good in there? All your limbs still present and accounted for?”

“Ha ha. Very funny. And yes, I’m fine. Thanks so much for your concern.”

“Of course!” Rukia smirked. However, the heavy feeling inside her soon dragged the corners of her lips back down. She took another deep breath. Here we go… "Oi, Renji…" she began quietly, "If you are too tired, it's okay, y'know? It's like I said before, it’s basically just a long doctor's appointment. I'll…I’ll be okay going by myself." 

At that, Rukia heard the stomping sound of footsteps coming rapidly towards her, followed by the shoji door immediately sliding open with a sharp bang. Renji looked rather frazzled, with his sleeping robe half hanging off of his shoulder and his hair loosely pulled into a messy braid. He also looked rather cute…at least until he started shouting.

“WHAT? NO! OF COURSE I'M COMING WITH YOU, IDIOT!”

“QUIET, RENJI! ARE YOU TRYING TO WAKE UP THE ENTIRE HOUSEHOLD WITH YOUR RACKET?!?”

"You are way louder than me!" Renji replied in his terrible attempt at a whisper, "In any case, don't try to change the subject like that. You are downplaying it again, I know it. They are running medical tests today too, and I know those tend to make you nervous.” He managed to actually say that last part quietly. Then he smiled at her, “We're in this together, ya?" His lips might have been smiling, but Rukia saw his eyes. He was exhausted. She felt her heart lurch into her throat.

"Ya, well…don't go overdoing it, okay?" Rukia told him firmly as she fixed his robe for him, but her fingers lingered on his shoulder. Renji placed his hand over hers.

"Hmph… As if I could ever do too much for you… I'm fine, Rukia, really. Go get changed."

"Okay…" she murmured quietly, looking down. However, her face must have betrayed her troubled thoughts, because when she tried to remove her hand from his shoulder, Renji held it firm. She looked back up at him and he tilted his head down closer to hers.

"I love you~" he whispered to her in a cheeky sing-song voice with that toothy grin of his. He was clearly trying to lighten the mood, to make her smile or push him off and call him a dork, but instead Rukia felt her heart, already firmly lodged in her throat, leap even higher into her mouth.

“I know…” she barely got out, “I know Renji, but…”

“Uh uh. No ‘buts’, Ru. Go ahead and take your bath. I’ll see you in an hour, alright?” He winked and let go of her hand as he cheerfully went back into the guest room, closing the door behind him. 

Rukia, on the other hand, just stood there, staring at the floor.

************************************************************************

And that's it for the previews! If you somehow made it all the way to the end, thanks so much for reading! The "We Can't All Be Winners" Fall Season starts next week! Hope to see you there!

[amouress16]

My 2022 Animation Overview

This last year was my first year getting into animation. While I’m not fortunate enough to be able to afford college to go the professional route of this kind of art career, I am lucky to have the support to try and push my way in as an amateur anyway. So now here I am, with eleven months of self teaching experience under my belt.

I started back in February with this one here. My first ever animation (and first ever copyright strike, yay for youtube’s auto flagger not knowing how fair use law works ;u;). I’ve been lucky that this one is only one of two of my animatics that I’ve been able to spot a mistake in post upload.

This one was a shorter one that I managed to get done in only a couple weeks, and probably the one I’m least proud of at this point from it’s lack of substance. Still, every bit helps me learn, and it was still cute.

And now to my most popular animation so far! I was very happy so many people liked this one, especially since Vincent is my favorite character in VTSoM, I got to have a lot of fun making it- I’ll definitely be making more Vincent centric ones. Like the one I have in the works right now... ;)

Ye ol classic meme animatic, The Hole. Everyone who watches meme animations for their fandoms has seen some variation of this one. This was mine. This was where I started using more repeat “assets” (read: drawings) for the sake of consistency and saving myself time, for the first time.

And another classic meme approach, vines. I plan on making two more of these for VTSoM in particular, but I will keep them spaced out since they’re a little more exhaustive to make. A lot of unrelated scenes with so many different characters being drawn out over two or three months is, well, a lot!

And finally something from a different fandom! ...listen, I am a fnaf fan on tumblr, Sun and Moon brainrot is par for the course here. This particular animatic was another short one that came after two months of bad art block and life stress and me getting sick back to back. I needed a simple thing to come back with. Not to mention, I got an art tablet as a gift during the holidays, which was a major upgrade for me, so I had to learn (and am still learning) to use a totally new animation program! Thus, this silly little thing.

And that’s all for ‘22!

If you read through this whole thing, thank you! I know I don’t really post my art as often as some folks so it’s harder to tell, but I do work hard and near constantly on creating things. Lately that’s been largely animations, so I don’t have a whole lot of time for other things. And while I’d love to do this all for free, we do live under capitalism and I have to be able to pay for vet bills and groceries. So if you’d like to and are able to yourself, please consider checking out my Patreon! I post weekly updates of my animation progress as well as occasional random WIPs and sketches. Anyway, thanks again, and happy 2023!

[pokeglitchden]

[A video is uploaded dated 4/20/23 8:15 PM

ID: A man is filming himself, slightly off center to the camera. He has dark hair and wears a lab coat and thick glasses. He is clearly sitting next to a hospital bed. The patient is hard to see next to him, but he is hooked to a number of medical machines and monitors. An oxygen mask is over his face to keep him breathing. His complexion is completely ashen. He speaks in a very low, hushed voice. His voice breaks a bit as he does. He's struggling to keep himself together.

Simon- It's currently about 8pm now. I've been at the hospital with �aver for about six hours now. At least three of them were spent still trying to get him into a stabilized condition. He's there now, resting. Recovery is... well we will know more as the anti-audiotoxin takes effect.

ID- He glances over at the bed for a long moment and the camera auto adjusts for a moment to the back. There are two others in the room with him who appear to be speaking quietly to one another. It adjusts back after a moment.

Simon- I know Professor Zzazz has already made a brief post about this, but I wanted to follow up here for a few reasons. First, I want evidence of what is happening here. If something should happen to one of us, to me or to Zzazz or someone else, I want there to be proof we were here. And also there are a few things I want to follow up on.

ID- He takes a breath. This is clearly difficult to do.

Simon- �aver was found in this state in the middle of his weekly mapping route. He was flown back by Eebee, having suffered an obvious attack from a 'Female Symbol' pokemon. His hearing protection was clearly targeted and destroyed, allowing him to fall prey to the Pokemon's audiotoxin. One of his Pokemon, the one he'd set out on, Flutter, is still missing.

ID- He pauses again, as if to clear his throat. He looks away from the camera.

Simon- From what we can tell it is unlikely this was an attack made at random. These pokemon are hunters, but they don't target small prey often, and they definitely don't often aim specifically for the head when attacking. Further, �aver is experienced in traversing Glitch City. It's unlikely that he would wander into the territory of this pokemon on his own. It appears, therefore, that this was a premeditated attack, one done with purpose, particularly aimed at preventing �aver from returning.

ID- Simon pauses again, and sits back, as if contemplating whether he should say the next thing on his mind. A ripple like static plays over his lab coat. It is difficult to tell if this is the camera quality, or if it is physically happening to him.

Simon- I'm going to now attempt some wild conjecture. So please bear with me. Statistically, since the injury �aver received was caused by a pokemon only found in Glitch City, and since the pokemon was clearly trained, it follows that it is most likely that someone from Glitch City trained the Female Symbol that attacked �aver.

ID- He brings the camera a bit closer and lowers his voice.

Simon- But frankly. I don't believe what is statistically likely here is necessarily the truth. I do not think a Glitch City resident is responsible for this. I believe it was done by an outsider. Someone from one of the regions. It is too much of a coincidence that this happened just as the path to Glitch City is becoming more conspicuous, just as �aver himself was put on Hoenn television. And �aver ended up the victim, with the pokemon he revealed to the world.

Simon- Now, this goes further. Since the pokemon used to carry out this deed was clearly well trained. I have worked with this type of pokemon before. It was nearly impossible to control for any length of time, so clearly this pokemon has been trained for years. But it would have been impossible for a trainer from the outside to catch one before only a few short months ago. Impossible, except for the one Female Symbol that I know was in Kanto. The one that I trained with myself at Silph.

Simon- Now, I am not sure what all this means, but when all other options have been proven false, one arrives at the truth no matter how unlikely. I will discover the meaning of this. It will take time. But I will succeed.

ID- There is some talking from offscreen. Simon nods before looking back at the camera.

Simon- That is all the time I can afford to spend recording right now. I will update as soon as anything else relevant comes to light]

[The recording ends here]

[teenmomcentral]

Jenelle Evans‘ last attempt to do a podcast crashed and burned faster than her husband David Eason‘s rap career, but the fired Teen Mom 2 star is apparently ready to try again.

Last month, the first signs that Jenelle was once again planning to do a podcast surfaced. Her “Time of the Day” brand Instagram account (which was initially going to be the name of her weird mushroom coffee product…which also crashed and burned before it really even came out) posted a pic of Jenelle wearing headphones, as well as a caption promising that a “weekly podcast” would be launching soon.

This week, more pics of a headphones-wearing, smirking Jenelle were uploaded to Instagram and Facebook, with the captions that “things are about to get interesting.” 

Further exploration into The Time of the Day website gives us a description of what we can expect from this podcast. 

And—predictably— it will be all about Jenelle. 

The website threatens promises to dive “deep into the life, experiences, and stories of Jenelle Evans.

“Join us as we navigate through the highs and lows, the triumphs and challenges of Jenelle’s journey, giving you an unfiltered perspective on the woman behind the headlines,” it reads.

Unlike most podcasts hosts, who usually bring in guests to discuss various topics, Jenelle plans to focus her podcast mainly on herself. 

The podcast website explains that each new episode will explore “various facets of Jenelle’s life – from her stardom to her personal struggles and more.”

It does also promise to bring in “exclusive interviews, expert insights and thought-provoking discussions.”

“Whether you’re a die-hard Jenelle fan or someone curious about the reality TV landscape, The Time of The Day offers a candid and authentic look into the world of a personality who has captured the public’s attention.”

The website says listeners will be taken on an “immersive journey through the life of Jenelle Evans.”

No. Seriously…it really says that. The Ashley can’t even make this stuff up.

“No topic is off-limits, and every story is told unfiltered,” the description adds.

Apparently, there will even be an online store where people going on this “immersive” Jenelle journey can go to buy podcast merchandise. (No products— not even JE Cosmetics eyebrow kits— are currently available, though.) 

This is just Jenelle’s latest attempt to get a podcast going. Her first stab at it came in 2021 when she “launched” (i.e. did three episodes and quit) The Jenelle Evans Podcast. For her second (of three) episodes, Jenelle brought on a very special guest: her husband David.

While there was no set topic of discussion, David filled the airwaves with uppercuts (and his special swamp humor) but discussing topics such as  Britney Spears‘ “boobies,” dogs pooping on the carpet and his sweat output.

(The Ashley isn’t being funny here; these things actually happened, in addition to various Easons burping into the podcasting mic throughout the 45-minute episode.)

Jenelle’s second attempt at doing a podcast came in April of that year, when she joined (and then was fired from) a collective podcast called Girl S**t.

In November of that year, Jenelle told The Sun that she was planning on bringing back her long-lost Jenelle Evans podcast and— as a special treat to whoever the hell is machoistic enough to listen— David was also planning to launch his own podcast with his friends. Both podcasts would be broadcasted from Jenelle’s She-Shed on The Land.

“David wants to do a podcast now with his friends. Once we have it all set up, we’ll be using the shed for a lot of stuff,” Jenelle told The Sun in November 2021.

Neither thing ended up happening, though. 

Currently, there is no launch date for The Time of the Day podcast and Jenelle has not publicly commented on when we can expect this straight-from-the-swamp special treat. 

[tekni-kali]

Day 40

08:05p, Wednesday, June 07, 2023

O...hai...so uh...remember the last time I was here and I was like "oh tomorrow is day 30..i've been doing such a good job...bla bla bla" then proceeded to essentially just fall off the face of the planet...

yeah...I'm good for that. I seem to be pretty good at consistently self-sabotaging when it comes to sticking with personal goals that I set for myself and seeing them through. When I set out to do this little science experiment, I also told me that I wouldn't be too hard on myself if I fell off the map a few times. So...I s'pose I'll be done harping on about not sticking with the routine and do my best to pick up and do better moving forward.

So..since there are a this many number of days that have gone by, I think I'll try to recap as I'm able...seems like a reasonable way to churn out some words. Let's give it a try shall we...

Day 30, Sun 05/28: Dropped Behb off at work then headed down to le mart of wal's to secure food for the afternoon bbq for 2. I did a pit stop in the section of wearable cloth and also picked up an appropriately festive shirt for eight bones. Now i officially have an America Holiday red n white shirt so woo July 4th attire is all set! Made it to friends and had a lovely time enjoying her company. We chit-chat at the table while the brats and asparagus were gettin' good on the grill and we were all wrapped up and parted ways right around 3p as Behb was getting home from work. Can't recall what was done with the remainder of the day, but I am thankful the highlight was good. It's not often I get to hang out in physical realm in the company of a friend these daze.

Day 31, Mon 05/29: Memorial day holiday was spent hiking in the natures with Behb. His brother tagged along and I drove us out to a new conservation park that none of us had visited before. It was called Three Creeks something or other, and lemme tell you....I was very unimpressed with all the no creeks that we saw after getting out there. I was, however, quite impressed with the walking tour that I listened to as we made our way along the trail. It seems the County has invested in an app that is available for free to download and has several of the area's conservation and nature parks listed within it. Each place has a walking tour that is associated with a stop along the trail and the talking lady auto-played and gave facts about the location, the ecosystem, and the conservation efforts along the way. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am looking forward to adventuring to some of the other places to listen to them all! I was a right pretty puddle by the time we made it back home but definitely enjoyed the day and will upload some pictures following all these words.

Day 32, Tue 05/30: Return to work was lackluster at best. I muddled through then headed out to the weekly Support group meeting. It was nice, again, and am very glad I found it and decided to go. I talked about some of the BS things that have felt fairly overwhelming and it felt good to provide commentary on various situations some of the others had dealt with during the past week.

Day 33, Wed 05/31: More work today, some meetings sprinkled throughout the day but mostly what I remember was dinner! We had fancy soup in bread bowls again and it was very very delicious! He's really amazing at making tasty foods and I appreciate that I have the luxury of not having to worry so much about remembering to feed myself...he does a pretty good job of making sure we get dinner, and it's usually always pretty tasty too!

Day 34, Thu 06/01: More work again and more memories that didn't really stick with me long enough to recall now that such time has passed. I do remember it was the day I was supposed to start using the timeclock...and I totally forgot to actually clock in when that started...so...that was obnoxious. Outside of that though, I mostly think I was thankful for the PTO time and the extra extra short week because of it.

Day 35, Fri 06/02: Spent waaaaaay too much time Stardewing the Valley. I'd told myself I'd be diligent and work on my resume..at the very least make it current. I did not even turn the computer on.

Day 36, Sat 06/03: Behb and I went for an adventure to a lil Toy and Comic expo out in Wesley Chapel. It was pretty small, only $5 entry, but there were still many people and lots of sensory as we entered and wandered around. We wore the matching yu yu hakusho shirts and I feel like I did a good job not getting overwhelmed by all the stimulation overload. We got a cupcake, that wasn't too bad, and a neat old school Pokedex to give to our friend who moved out of state last year. One day we'll actually get to the post office and mail it...maybe...

Day 37, Sun 06/04: Sunday we went on a big adventure to secure new housing for Mary Shelley -- she basically outgrew the little house she sleeps in and we wanted to find a nice upgrade for her. Turns out finding suitable reptile hides is kinda hard because most are smol for lizards n snakes not necessarily for larger growing tortoise girls. We went to a new place first and looked around before moving on and heading over to a store we'd been to before. We lucked out because not only did we find a good replacement house, but we also got a log and some of the tortoise pellets to supplement her diet! We set it up when we got home and she went straight into the log and started making happy leg dance moves!!!! She chilled out there for a bit before venturing into the house and burrowing in for the night. I hope she appreciates being able to actually fit thru the entry and have space to move around in her upgrade now. I can't believe how fast she's growing! Hopefully this one lasts for a little while...fingers crossed of course.

Day 38, Mon 06/05: Monday was a beach day! We adventured out to a new place, just he and I this time, and after realizing I'd driven 30 minutes in the wrong direction.....headed another 30 minutes in the correct direction and eventually we made it to our destination and took the ferry over to Caladesi Island! NGL, the ride there was not very fun at all because it started to rain and it was cold and I was not feeling it at all. By the time we arrived, it stopped raining though, the sun came out, and aside from the onslaught of mosquitos we had to walk thru, the beach itself wasn't too bad. It's def more of a natural Florida beach, not like the usual man-made dredged up tourist attractions we frequent. The water was cold, probably because of the rain, and I think if we go back, I'd def be more interested in hiking around the park instead of sitting by the beach...if that happens it'll definitely be in a long sleeve shirt or maybe during winter when all the bugs are dead again....i have bites and itchies everywhare!

Day 39, Tue 06/06: Returned to work and had a really really hard time mustering the motivation to be productive. I pulled through and finished the day but considering all the baggage that I'm purposefully trying not to spew all over the internets, i've acknowledged that I need to figure out what my game plan is going to be if I want to suck it up and deal with it or do what I need to do to start looking elsewhere. Til I do that though, I'll try to enjoy what I can and learn everything I can while I'm doing it. Went to Support meet up again (I think this was meeting number 3?) so proud of me for keeping up that streak....maybe next time I'll actually remember to bring cash to put in the basket!

Today: I skipped a lot of stuff in there but it's also been like an hour and I gotta go run an errand so I want to wrap this up and finish it before I'm done. Hopefully I'll come back and put the pictures up later. I really do want them up so I gotta make sure I actually do it. Therapy is on Thursday, looking forward to it I think...hermitting in the valley has been pretty consuming and that combined with all the no communication and hobby avoidance (e.g., writing activities) I've been doing is pretty strong indicators that sad brain status is back and active again....s'pose I'll bring it up with her and see what happens next.

At the very least...I did the post for today which officially breaks the streak of no posts...so...yea...it does help. I just gotta keep telling myself to sit down and be diligent about getting it done. Ah well....

Catch ya later...

-09:13p