#and then I can swap them out when it gets to March and I've done 80% of a side quest and less than 5% of a main goal

[garaksapprentice]

New Year, (some) new Goals

This post was originally published on my blog here.

An Unnecessarily In-Depth Explanation of How I Set Yearly Goals

It's a new year, which means that for me, it's time for a new set of annual goals. (These are NOT resolutions. Resolutions are fuzzy and vague, usually cliché things like "lose weight" or "be happier" or "achieve world peace". Goals are things that you can actually aim at, and with enough practice, hit.)

I started formally setting and tracking yearly targets a few years ago, and while I won't call it the cure to all that ails me, it's certainly been a helpful practice. And hey, 'tis the season for everyone's "how I set goals" posts, so who am I to rock the boat?

The TL;DR

I usually start this process sometime in December, whenever the urge to wrap up the current year and look towards the new one starts to itch me. (Incidentally, this is almost the exact same process I use when doing monthly goals, just with less introspection/review.)

It goes something like this:

Review the areas of my life and how things went over the last year.

Review last year's goals - what I hit, what I didn't, what needed changing part way through the year when it became apparent I'd picked an over-ambitious target/something I didn't actually care about, that kind of thing.

Do a brain dump of all the things I want to do next year. Delegate them by life area.

Refine the brain dump over a few days, until I have a reasonable number of targets to aim for over the coming year.

Break those targets down into the things I'll need to do to actually reach the goal I'm aiming for.

Review Last Year

I'll be honest, sometimes I do this after I've worked out the shiny new goals for next year. But I always try to do some form of yearly review, even if it's just a short, half-assed version of the "ideal".

I currently use a (heavily simplified) version of the practice laid out in Alex Vermeer's 8,760 Hours Guide for this step. Finding Alex's guide to use as a springboard was extremely helpful for me. I'd tried doing yearly reviews before, but they never really "stuck" or felt like they were worth the time. For whatever reason, 8,760 Hours was the guide that worked for me.

That being said, I've modified the review framework (usually by removing things) every year I've used it. Alex's guide is super in-depth - he takes a full week to do his review, and he goes hard. While I like to think I'm that kind of person, I'm really not. Some of the review questions and Life Areas Alex uses aren't applicable to me, so I removed or combined things where it made sense. While I love complexity (the PKM scene is like pseudo-academic catnip to my dopamine receptors), at the end of the day I need simplicity - something that both On The Ball Me and Off With The Fairies Me can do.

In the (checks notes) four years I've been using his guide as a framework, I've reduced Alex's twelve life areas down to eight. I've also removed, modified, and combined a LOT of the questions in each Deep Dive. (I removed two more while I was doing this year's review, in fact.) My ultimate goal is to get it down to where I can complete the entire review in about a day, while still feeling like I got my money's worth from the time spent navel-gazing instead of eating gingerbread and knitting.

Brain Dump

Reviewing one's past actions is great and helpful and definitely a path to world peace or Ultimate Effectiveness or whatever, but for me, the brain dump is where the rubber hits the road. I always start my longer-term planning with a list of things I want to do, whether it's for the year or the month. It's essentially a real-life version of "What could happen next?", the question I ask myself whenever I'm running out of plot in my fiction work.

This question is designed to be a free-for-all. I don't let little things like the space-time continuum get in the way at first - it's just one big bullet list of things I've been dying to get to, things that have been bugging me that I want to fix, and usually a few things I feel obliged to add (because I know they're important, but I'm not really enthused about them). Most of the time I've got the first list version finished in ten to fifteen minutes.

(Sometimes there's one specific pile of stuff that's bugging me, making it hard to focus on grander things. (Usually it's the fact that the WIP pile has blown out again, or the house has reached an ill-defined but completely unacceptable level of disrepute. This year it was both.) When that happens, I brain dump all that first, in a separate list. That usually shuts up the brain weasels, and frees up enough mental RAM to get the bigger picture/longer term stuff down.)

Refine the Brain Dump

Once I've got everything down, I keep the list open on my computer and let it percolate for a few days. This lets my subconscious chew on it while I add, remove, and change things. This year's brain dump list ended up with 22 items. That's a typical number for me (the most I've had is 25, the least is 19.) Some are pretty modest, but most are things that will take a fair chunk of the year and my dedication to accomplish (as befits yearly goals).

I also work out which buckets/life areas things fit into - there's usually clear distinctions for most goals (writing, fibre arts, health and fitness etc). If there's lots of goals in one or two areas, and only a couple in others, then that's a pretty good clue about what my next year is going to focus on.

Next comes the hard part - triage.

The first triage step is trying to narrow my "I definitely want to do this thing" choices down as much as possible. This is hard. Everything on the big list is shiny and new and feels so important and urgent right now. That's why I keep the list open after I've made it - looking at it frequently, but not necessarily actively engaging with it, helps my subconscious start to pick favourites. Even so, I'm doing well if I've narrowed the list by half after the first pass.

The second triage step is working out how many of my goals are process-oriented, and how many are product-focused. Process goals involve doing a thing on a regular basis, or for a certain amount of time, every {time period}. Weave for 2.5 hours a week, go hiking twice a month, that sort of thing. They're heavily focused on small, consistent efforts over time, and they're intended to last the entire year.

Product goals require me to do/make a thing, or achieve a benchmark. They're things like "sew X new items for my wardrobe", "finish revising novel Y", "compete in/attend X event". Once that thing or benchmark has been reached, that goal is finished and I don't have to worry about it any more. While I still have to put in time and effort to get to the finish line, it can be much more focused than with a process goal - if I want, I can spend three straight days sewing a shirt, and then not think about my wardrobe goal for six months.

It's both very important and extremely tricky to get the balance of Process to Product right. Human brains LOVE habitual activity and consistency, but they can only deal with so much of it being piled into them at once. (This goes doubly if you're neurodivergent.) I've learned to tilt the balance pretty heavily towards Product when I'm writing my final list.

I try to only have one new process-oriented goal to focus on, at most. Any more than that, and I'm less likely to hit what I was aiming for. (Many of my process goals carry over in some form from year to year. For instance, I always have a word count goal, and some form of fibre-related goal.)

An example: last year, three of my goals were writing related - establish a consistent writing routine, publish at least one blog post a month, and finish revising a novel. The first two were process goals, the last one product-focused.

While I made good progress on all of them, and was happy to declare success based on the spirit of the exercise, I didn't hit any going by the letter of it. Sure, I published 14 blog posts last year - two more than the target! - but there were three months when I posted zero. And while I made my yearly word count target, my consistency was, uh, not great.

Break down the targets you're aiming for

Which brings me to my next tactic. When possible, have more than one way to measure a goal's success.

This is especially important for process goals, which by their nature are easier to 'fail' week to week. Having multiple success conditions gives you greater leeway for when Life Happens At You. Nothing is more demoralising than something happening early in the year, that throws you off your so-far perfect streak, with no way to fix it.

How does this work in practice? I take the weekly or monthly goal that I'm aiming for, multiply that number out to a year, and use that as my secondary aiming point. So "weave 2.5 hours per week" becomes both "weave for at least 130 hours over the year" and "weave 10 hours and 50 minutes every month". If (when) I don't hit 2.5 hours one week, it isn't as big a deal - I can look at how many minutes I was short, and roll that into the weeks left in the current month.

This approach saved my bacon several times last year. I had a couple of big, multi-day conferences and camps that sucked a lot of time and brainpower out of my usual schedule. If I'd just been measuring weekly adherence, I would have "failed" in April and May when I simply didn't have the energy to do that much weaving on top of all the conference prep. But because I was measuring monthly as well as yearly, I simply rolled the two weeks I took off into the weeks before and after the events, and still hit my monthly weaving target.

It can help to think about what the actual point of the goal you're making is, too. For me, the ultimate goal of "establish a consistent writing routine" isn't to have a consistent routine - it's to write more words. I really had no idea what that looked like in January last year. So I decided that "consistent" writing was 30 minutes a day, three days a week. AND I set a year-long word count target of 75,000 words. (I beat the 75k goal by 48 words, but my consistency still sucks.)

Same with blogging. The point behind "publish a blog post a month" is partly to have a consistent output, but it's also to write more words. So as well as the one-a-month goal, I also set a year target of 12 posts, total. Did I post to the blog every single month? Nope. Did I post twelve or more times in the year? Yep! Was that more than I would have posted without having a goal to aim for? Absolutely!

Last, but definitely not least, is to update your approach as the year progresses. Whatever I pick as my 'yearly goals' right now don't have to be the things I work on all year. Life gets in the way, my needs change, I have more or less (usually less) time and energy available than I thought I would.

So I give my "final" goal list (and attached success metrics) a going-over in March to see how it's shaping up. Depending on the year, I'll give it another interrogation in June or July, and adjust or drop goals as needed. Remember, your goals serve YOU, not the other way around.

Last year I started January with nine goals - I had three life areas, and three goals in each area. It turns out that's too many for me to focus on over a year. In March, I dropped one of those goals, and by May, I'd dropped a second. (Both of the dropped items were process goals - things I wanted to do every day or week. They were also, not coincidentally, things I'd added out of a sense of obligation more than actual excitement.)

The Final List

No talk of goal setting would be complete if I didn't share my final list. (I'm also doing the Habitica's New Year's Resolutions set of Challenges again this year, and the first one involves sharing your goals on social media.)

Buy a house

Publish at least one blog post a month/12 blog posts in the year

Maintain daily streak on 4TheWords/write 75k new fiction and 15k non-fiction

Maintain a 5:1 spinning:weaving ratio (ie spend 5 hours spinning for every 1 hour of weaving)

Get - and then keep - the WIP pile below 10

Make at least three new items for my wardrobe (socks don't count)

Attend HEMA training at least four times a month during terms

Take the younger kid (and thus me) roller skating at least 6 times

If we're lucky (or unlucky if you dislike this sort of talk) I'll do a check-in around mid-year to see how I've been doing. If we're less lucky, I'll do a year-end wrap-up thingummy to close out the year.

Either way, hopefully this extremely long and somewhat rambling break-down of my goal-setting is useful to y'all.

[thethingswedotomorrow]

I love the Good Omens 'Night at Crowley's Flat' trope where after stopping the apocalypse in season 1, they go to Crowley's Flat and talk and kiss and fall in love and have a peaceful night, I do.

BUT

What if the night became 'The Night an Angel and a Demon Get Insanely Drunk and Teach Each Other How to Act'

Because honestly

They go to the flat, and ALL they know is they are going to have to swap themselves if they want to survive and finally be free from Heaven and Hell

But they have absolutely NO clue how to pull it off successfully

Sure, they know each other in and out.

Aziraphale has Crowley's eye color committed to memory (and also to paper, since Aziraphale spent 4-5 years in the late 80s trying to find a craft store in London that could help him do the color justice)

Crowley could find his angel in a crowd of millions (and not even just because only one single person in that crowd would be dressed in that ridiculous shade of tartan)

BUT they know they have to truly get this right, down to the exact detail.

So, naturally, they start by promptly opening the closest bottle of scotch that Crowley had available

Crowley was convinced this would be the easiest thing they've ever done

"Only you, Angel, would find a way to worry yourself to death AFTER stopping an apocalypse"

They begin with the easy part, switching corporations and clothing.

It was easy. Until Aziraphale realized he had to actually physically move in the very, very tight pants Crowley prefers.

The first three times he tries walking, he falls face down. And each time, realizes how it's equally hard to get back up again.

Not to mention that Crowley's corporation had learned that after 6000 years, it didn't really need all those vertebrae and bones since he never used them anyways

So now Aziraphale is just laying on the floor in terribly tight pants, very confused on how Crowley has managed all this time

(Crowley is also on the floor, having dropped there laughing after the 2nd attempt)

After they both get up (one much faster than the other) Crowley tries coaching the angel on how to walk like him

Until Crowley realizes he doesn't actually know how he walks, he just sort of wills himself forward and hopes his limbs keep up with him along the way

Eventually, after enough drinks, they settle on a technique called "Just pretend all your limbs are snakes. And you're a snake. Honestly, just as snake-y as you can manage, Angel."

Aziraphale, as difficult as this was for him, figures out that he may have gotten the easy side of this situation here. Crowley very much disagrees.

"Once an Angel, well, definitely not always an Angel, but close enough right?"

He very quickly realizes he may be wrong when Aziraphale asks Crowley to copy his walk

"Dear Lord Crowley, it cannot be that hard. You simply have to walk in a straight line"

It was indeed that hard.

Crowley has all his vertebrae now, but no knowledge of how they should be used

He tries to hold his hands behind his back and march forward, walking in what he thinks is probably, on some plane of reality, maybe a straight line

He's convinced that he's the perfect image of a stereotypical angel, head held high, an air of 'holier than thou' surrounding him

When Crowley asks Aziraphale, he only says, "Well, I suppose it will have to do for now."

Internally, Aziraphale thinks of the fact that Crowley looked identical to a bumbling penguin walking on ice.

When Crowly sits down, very pleased with himself for an impeccable performance ("As always, Angel. I've still got it." Aziraphale uncaps the vodka and drinks straight from the bottle, just staring into the distance.

He has just realized that their existence hinges on whether Crowley can figure out how to sit on a chair like a proper being with appendages and a spine.

And the odds are not in their favor, if they way the demon is sprawled out on the couch (reminding Aziraphale suddenly of a very well-done noodle, and suddenly he's starting to wonder if humans had the right idea with stress eating) is any indication

Crowley announces that he refuses to utter the words tickety boo, even if faced with destruction

"Honestly I think I'd rather have the holy water at that point" "Crowley." "I swear you just make sounds up sometimes, those aren't even real words"

4 bottles (and a very large order of takeout) later, they've got the act down well enough that it's starting to weird Crowley out

"Angel, seriously, enough with the nose. When have I ever done that with my nose? Exactly zero amount of times. I'm not a rabbit"

2 bottles later and Aziraphale has miracled Harry the Rabbit into the flat for a reason they can't quite remember

But they've got music playing from somewhere in the corner, and plenty of drinks, and the night goes on into the morning, and then they're sobering up and marching out for the most dramatic acting of their lives

And the world hasn't ended yet, so they'll probably be fine. Probably.

[schrodingers-egg]

28/06/23: Today these shorts arrived, I decided to start working out (spoiler alert I have not worked out at all in the 15 months since drafting this post), I registered with a local GP, and I decided to start saving so I can try and start HRT before the end of the year. More details below the break but there's also photos there so continue at your own peril ig.

I've never really liked taking photos of myself, I can count on one hand the number of selfies I've taken and putting up photos like this online is unheard of for me. I've barely even worn shorts. At this point I've only just started shaving my legs (and doing a terrible job, I want to get hair removal cream and then start epilating). I haven't done anything to my arms yet cause they're the most likely part to be visible to other people.

I'm not socially transitioned at all because I don't think my parents (dad specifically) would take it well and with my colleagues generally being older, as well as some comments one coworker has made about trans people in the past, I'm not comfortable with them either.

-------------

OKAY HI so It's been over a year since I last interacted with this draft, that's wild. So HRT stuff first, I started DIY at the end of Jan 2024, that's almost 9 months ago! I plan to swap from pills to patches when I order more stuff some time in November, and try starting with prog and dropping the bica. Sadly the photos above suck so won't be great for comparison, and I don't even know if that much has really changed (apparently my bust has been the same size for like 5 months, I suck at measuring) butttttt here:

There’s three photos cause the second one is closer to what I took last time but my arse looks flat so the third one is cope. Also you might be able to tell that I'm much more comfortable taking photos of myself, even if i still haven’t learned how to pose :P

I also very recently got a referral to the gender clinic, and back around March I did manage to get some initial bloods done after starting HRT, things looked fine, T was low, and my more recent bloods are also fine so that's great!

okay this post has like no structure, oops. Well I do take more photos of myself now, I can sometimes see myself in the mirror and think I'm cute, I'm a bit better at shaving my face (but still bad) and I just use a trimmer on my arms and legs cause it's more convenient and epilation hurts.

Oh and I picked the name Elsie! I imagine most people who care about this post know that already tho. I came out to my brother and sister-in-law cause I didn't want to sign the wedding guest book with my deadname but if I signed with Elsie they'd probably be confused, they were super accepting and told me they would always be a safe place for me! I know they have queer friends, which is mostly why I was comfortable coming out, and they even made a joke about being the token cishets of the group. Oh and I also came out to the mental health nurse (I had to go to sessions after getting my autism referral and I felt comfortable telling them - that's part of how I got to the point of having a gender clinic referral)

I'm still not out to my parents, and a month or two ago some of my coworkers were talking and said they were definitely on the side of Rowling, that only people who have daughters would understand because "I wouldn't want a man in the same changing room as my daughter" so yea that's suuuuper fun... Probably means I won't be coming out at work like, ever.

[wisecollectorofbooks]

Decided to do "National Clean Your Home" Month this year, because I found it randomly on my "explore" page like 2 weeks ago and, well, I need motivation to organize my house. I've only lived here for 11 months already.

So, here's to me trying this out, and using my tumblr to keep track. Let's see how long this goes. Pinned for my easy finding this month.

Nov 1 - took down all random plastic containers in my upstairs rooms that needed to be cleaned for recycling, cleaned them, and put them with the plastics for recycling.

Nov 2 - put away two stacks of CDs that have been sitting on my stairs since... March? I think that was when I unpacked them. Also vacuumed living room floor.

Nov 3 - Took full recycling bags out to shed.

Nov 4 - Not even noon yet here in UK and I've already finally ordered the three shelf storage thing I needed for my kitchen, cleaned off half of my table downstairs, and filled another recycling bag of paper. Who knows what I can complete by tonight? update - just a bit more organizing downstairs.

Nov 5 - put stuff in crawl space that I've been meaning to for months. Will hopefully get the shelf thing today, and put that together so I finally have a place to put the slow cooker, rice cooker, toaster, and coffee grinder which doesn't involve just rotating things between counters and the table. Also have taken out two more bags out to shed for Tuesday recycling day. Update: I did get the shelf, and put it together, and now most of the "big" things sitting around my kitchen/table are stored away!

Nov 6 - Folded most of my dry clothes, and prepared for recycling day tomorrow. It was a long day.

Nov 7 - Folded rest of the clothes, put out recycling and compost bins. Folded couch blanket, which was graciously re-nested by one or both of the feline overlords. I have been duly chastised.

Nov 8 - cleaned off my desk, finally. Had the excuse motivation that I finally got my work-provided laptop for my WFH days on Friday and today was my first WFH day since then, so needed to get it set up, but first I needed space for it, so... clean desk. Also put away the clothes I folded the last two days.

Nov 9 - I did not forget to do it, I just forgot to log it here. But my task yesterday was to finally hang up a three part picture I bought in Thailand like... `14 years ago, that has been one of those things just floating around between my table, some chairs, the stairs, and the table again. So, they are now hung up! I also went out and raked up leaves and did another round of weeding in the garden.

Nov 10 - Honestly, today was a long working day (it is only 445pm as I type this, but my working hours are 8am-345pm, and today was just overly long) because it was my last day before 1.5 weeks of annual leave. So I think the taking the full recycle basket downstairs to be sorted into the bags will be all I do today. I may do something more later, but who knows. Reader - that is all I did today.

Nov 11 - Swapped over to my "winter" duvet cover (fuzzy! Warm! silver and white like snow! Matching pillow cases!) and washed my other linens so that I could make use of **checks weather forecast** the ONLY sunny day of my entire 1.5 week break. May also finally finish clearing off that table. I won't hold my breath on that one though.

Nov 12 - Cleaned the litter boxes.

Nov 13 - Cleaned one step off.

Nov 14 - Busy day because landlord has an inspector coming tomorrow for the annual energy inspection? I was notified yesterday evening about this. Have so far (it is just before 10 am) sorted through the piles of stuff on my office floor, set aside papers for recycling and for shredding, vacuumed the office floor and upper hallway, raked the leaves into my remaining litter bags, and taken recycling bags to shed. Still on the list to be done today: Organize my bedroom closet, finish clearing off the table... vacuum the bedroom, vacuum the stairs.

[spinoff-antithesis]

[@distinguished-turtle-enjoyer ]

i actually have not stopped thinkin bout your bb!edit like,,,, its so good and scratches my brain right

how long have you been doin edits for? do have any tips for someone, who hypothetically, wants to start doin edits too? what programs do you use? how did you do the cool animated bits?

im so sorry for all the qustions 😭😭 i just think youre very talented and inspirational and i hope you have a good day ^_^

hi firstly oh my gosh you're literally so sweet i am gently shaking you i love you so much /p. secondly, i apologize for the long answer! (it's all under the cut. this got away from me. i'm so sorry apparently i have a lot to say.) (also you're so good about the questions i would constantly be asking one of my professors questions during class to the point where she said i didn't have to go "i have a question" every time i approached her)

i've been editing since 2016! around march/april, i think? loved it so much i went into film & video production in college as a major so i could do editing for a living. (i have done more motion graphics for my classmates than i have done edits outside of class assignments, BUT!)

the program i use is after effects - i started learning it when covid first hit the united states because i had nothing better to do with my time (other than music theory but i failed that bc my professor focused more on the history aspects than the actual theory soooo) and my ipad kept giving me the "no more storage" whenever i tried to use videostar lmao. (vs has, apparently, gotten a LOT of good updates, so if you're looking to start editing and have an ios system, i'd look into it! only downside is you have to pay for some of the cool stuff).

also the program i use for masking (i think i explain this later dwdw) is superimpose. i've been using it since 2014 and it's SO nice bc i can use my fingers to erase backgrounds & stuff instead of hoping i can get it to work correctly in ae or photoshop (photoshop my DETESTED i'll use it but i'll complain the entire time).

for people who want to start editing: tutorials on how your program works and how to do specific transitions are gonna be your best friend when you're first figuring things out! i forced a friend to literally walk me through how after effects worked when i was first figuring it out, and when i had swapped to videostar back in 2017/2018(?) i had watched a Lot of tutorials. that and played around a lot and figured things out on my own - which is also always a good way to start!! it's also totally valid to look at other people's edits for inspiration - most editors don't really care, as long as you don't flat-out remake their edit (some people don't like that!). i have a style insp folder on instagram where i save edits that i like so if i need transition ideas or i'm doing a different style, i can look there for inspiration. at the end of the day, as long as you're having fun with it that's all that matters!

also, starting simple is always okay!! my edits for a year were just me slapping gifs & video segments together on a timeline in cute cut pro bc imovie didn't load them lol & it'd crash every time i breathed. ++ it never hurts to ask people for feedback/constructive(!!!) criticism/etc! (also not to sound like everyone else but practice? good. it's so good. if i showed my 14/15y/o self some of the edits i can make now they would've passed out on the spot bc i was still trying to figure out transitions back then. programs can also sometimes make a difference in edits, but usually it's not super noticeable until you start getting to the Complicated Shit.)

a lot of popular programs i've seen are ones like video star (ios only), alight motion (android only), after effects (i recommend 🏴‍☠️ing it tbh, i only use it legally bc i had to use adobe programs for school), capcut, and i think some people still use sony vegas pro & maybe cute cut pro (i've heard it may have actually gotten better since i last used it in 2018)? i have no idea. programs also depend on whatever device you're using to edit on! since i've been using my laptop, i'm able to use after effects (it's computer-only), but when i used my phone/ipad to edit i used ccp & vs.

for the animation - it's a lot of cutting up the image and masking! more complex animations, like the one i had of leo walking down that red 'hallway' have several different layers that have been masked. (i removed the background & filled in the spot where leo originally was in two different apps - superimpose (taking leo out) & photoshop (filling in the bg)) in after effects, the way i've done this was mask out the specific thing i wanted to move (like an eye) and then put that mask on what i've called a "base" (not animated), and then stick a solid behind the base to match the color of the object. (some of my layers are not named appropriately; base 2 is the left arm & the four "SIX_[...]" layers are the mask/bandana tails)

an example of this would be for any of the eye blink animations i did! this (above) is the same shot, with and without the eye - since it's masked out and i have the background solid behind it, it doesn't look too unnatural/have a black outline/mass where his eye should be.

what it looks like without the solid layer behind it ^ (the red lines are from the null layers - ignore that)

this is what my timeline looks like if it's a more simplistic animation - the only five things being animated here are leo & raph's eyes. (there's only this many layers bc it's two characters in one shot & i was also animating their pupils - typically, an eye-blink animation is about 4-6 layers for me (solid, base, mask, & null to animate with, 6 if i'm animating both eyes & 4 if just one))

in after effects, there's this really cool tool called the puppet pin that one of my friends (lovingly) yelled at me for not knowing about - which. yeah fair she wasn't wrong it's SUPER useful in animating, provided you chop up your image first. if you don't it's a mess.

(separated by layer vs i should've really put the mask tails & leo's head on separate layers and didn't bc that was the 2nd to last animation i had to do and i was losing my mind bc i wanted to be done with the edit lmao)

the way people animate depends all on their style (there's two common ways to do blinking animation - having the anchor point at the bottom of the eye, or the middle of it) and the program they use. it's been a while, but i could probably tell you how to do some basic animations on videostar still even though i've been doing them in after effects for about 2-3years now. ALSO the best way to have an animation be noticeable is to over-exaggerate it/make them Big - which, yes, can mean 'breaking bones' and having the limbs be a little wonky at the start. (if you want it to be realistic though go Just to the point where it looks uncomfortable lmao)

uhm. again i am so sorry that this is so long i THINK this is everything? if not: my inbox/dms are always open if you ever want to ask more questions, wanna follow up on something, etc etc!! (also if you ever start editing please send me your edits!!! i'd love to see them <3)

[kingthreshie-official]

Now that I've had some time to sit with the epilogue story after a bit of going back and rereading it, I don't know if I should be excited for the future of these stories or not. I'm going to put my rant and contexts under a readmore because this is going to be me vomiting at a textbox and assuming someone else on the web will get it. But it's going to be a mix of thunder Junction and the epilogue.

When it comes to Magic the Gathering, I go back and forth with myself often about whether the story comes first or the cards come first. Some sets, Like (I will argue) Both Eldraine sets, Seem to have a lot more focus on their stories, and then make very flavorful cards based off of that. Other sets, like thunder junction, feel like the gimmick and cards were designed first, and then all of that had to be pasted into a story. While I get that it can be hard to make gameplay and story always line up, as you have to tow a line between a player always being confused, and a player feeling railroaded or obligated to stick to the story, Wizards never really has to deal with the stakes of "railroading too hard".Decks are always 100% customizable, you can't take that agency from a bunch of jerkasses at a table, so they have the ability to lean harder into their story than a lot of other games media does. The Writing decisions made by the stories team have the potential to completely adjust what cards get made if wotc was bold enough to follow through with actual adjustments to their world. But OTJ proves that that will never happen, and that any exciting consequence can be stepped back on in 2 stories for one card that will probably make a lot of bank, or to see a villain in a cool hat.

To be fair, Marchesa looks really cool as a cowpoke. her hat is very cool. But justifying going back on her fighting so hard for her kingdom just for a supposed villains set feels like a regression of her character, especially since she has almost always had someone else do her bidding. And a lot of the Villains seen in thunder junction didn't seem to be used or changed for the better, a lot of them felt like set pieces that could have been swapped out with anyone else in that story, and the results would have been similar. I can't think of any significant reason what it *Had* to be Tinybones, Breeches, or Eriette. The only characters that stand out to me as being irreplaceable in the main story are Oko (driving plot forward for Kellan), Geralf/ Gisa (Geralf patched one or two wounds, Gisa is a wild card that causes problems, but she is OH so Memorable I cannot imagine that train scene without her) and Annie Flash (Again, Kellans Concious/Catalyst to make sure the "right thing" for Kellan is done, and provides some context as to How and why Akul is dangerous.). And to be fair, I didn't mind that up until the final chapter. It was fun enough, not a world shaking MTG story but considering we're still at the beginning stages of seeing a world with Omenpaths (as players. This is set 3? 4?) And there's still a lot of questions to ask about creatures and planes (the Gisa and Geralf side story goes into this so well. I love those 2 they are ICONIC), It did its job OK and I wouldn't have had anything to write home about.

Until Jace.

I will admit, I'm not a huge fan of Jace, but it's mostly because he's boring. You know that once he's involved in plot the stakes are basically off, as regardless of how perilous the situation is, or how heinous of an action he performs, He's going to make it out with a few cuts/bruises/maybe a memory wipe and everything else will basically go back to a degree of status quo. It's not fun following a character who you know is going to be mostly fine and alive by sheer virtue of him being there. And I get its because over time he has become *the* mtg Mascot, but that's why I thought Phyrexia/March of the machines was interesting. It was finally a consequence for Jace that he couldn't fully shake himself out of, and his presumed death felt like the end of an Era and a potential for something new and interesting. You know, until he showed back up. And the story shows him getting out of what should have been certain death with a fever and another road trip back to Vryn. And I realized that I have been Punkd for the past few stories and of course nothing changes anymore its Jace Fucking Beleren and he's going to win again. And of course it's with Vraska again, If they make me go through the crime of having to listen to those two in an audiobook format again, at least this time I know not to order from drive through while listening to MTG story (so one of us has consequences, and it's not him). Being able to beat out glistening oil with a fever also felt cheap, but that may just be because I feel like there's better MTG characters that we lost due to the oil.The fact that we may never get them back feels like a kick to the shins.

However, I am also not totally doom and Gloom about Jace's reappearance in MTG story because we see a bit of the return of "Jerkass Jace". Contrary to my opinions about Jace, Jerkass Jace is a relic of a bygone Era and I Missed him so much, because he was unbearable! A total monster! An absolute pain to everyone around him! Unlikeable, Clever, and selfish! Cared about nobody! Jerkass Jace was so ethically bankrupt that I am going to be honest he may have the potential to turn this entire thing around. The BBEG MTG villains (Phyrexia, Eldrazi, the Dragon formerly known as Nicol Bolas), have been the predictable and therefore kind of dull villains for the longest time now. You can usually predict which one is next by the results of the previous ones fights. But Wizards could make Jace the big bad evil guy with Jerkass Jace! I think that would be incredibly refreshing. Get a new face in the Villains spotlight with a character who's powers have the potential for it (and as Annie mentioned, he is hiding something) and it could be really interesting! Jace has the motives! It could be a great way to bring intrigue to him! (And not the eldrazi. Or bolas using an omenpath and dipping off Ugins plane) Nobody will see it coming let him go NUTS!

[athingofvikings]

i've always figured that the Protestant Revolution as we know it couldn't happen in the context of ATOV because you've mentioned that anything born past the dates in-fic are no longer possible, i think due to snowball effects and history changing? I figure the Protestant REformation falls under similar grounds; i suppose some kind of shake up COULD happen, since Hiccup's thing is accidentally wrecking static societies, but i dont think it could be like the real Reformation's outcome?

Indeed.  The reason I have to keep bringing it up is because there’s a degree of... I call it “prescriptive history,” going on with people.  (I’m trying to find a better name for it; an accurate name for it would be “telological bias”, but that hardly rolls off the tongue!)  

The issue is specifically that the way we teach history is very often as a story, and in that story there are specific major events that are made into a specific narrative.  It’s the same mindset that informs and reinforces everything from the “March of Progress” of evolution, the classic image showing the progression of ape to man, to the idea that “history has an arc that bends towards justice” and so forth.  It’s embedded in every classroom history wall poster and every historical video game, especially with the “great inventor/great man of history” trope.  The thing is with evolution and with history is that nobody and nothing is working towards a specific outcome.  They are acting in their specific moment, doing things that make sense for them in that moment, using the tools they have available that others have made.

Let me give an example here to illustrate what I mean.

Johann Gutenberg is credited as having invented the printing press.

He didn’t.

What he did do was make it an economical proposition, and for that, he gets all of the credit.

Most of the technology that went into this thing had been around for centuries.  The lever in the center that presses down on the pad to mark the paper came from a paper press (where they squeezed out the water from the paper) and that came from a modified wine press.  

And people had been using those sorts of presses to print with woodblocks for over a thousand years before Gutenberg.

The problem with woodblock printing--or even using metal or ceramic blocks to print with--was that when they started to wear out (think of the soles of your shoes and how the pattern can wear out unevenly depending on how you walk), you were screwed, and you had to make the whole thing all over again.  And that was expensive.  

It was just easier to have scribes write out books than carve an expensive piece of wood that had to be just perfectly flat with intricate carvings that would only be good for a specific book and would only produce a certain number of copies of that page before it wore out. 

And in the 1040s, a Chinese polymath named Bi Sheng invented movable type specifically to address that problem; he made individual stamps that would each print one Chinese character that could be used together as a block, allowing more flexibility.  He made his out of porcelain, and they not only had problems with uneven wear as well, they could also crack--and when that happened, you still needed to get another one handmade which might then not fit in with the other handmade stamps without leaving gaps.  So still scribes were cheaper and faster.

So all of the technology for the printing press was there for centuries before Gutenberg.

What happened?

Well, a century before Gutenberg was a little thing called The Black Death, which wiped out a tremendous number of Europeans--including a lot of the scribes.  And when supply drops, demand grows and prices rise--so suddenly scribes were a lot pricier to hire.  So there was incentive to look at the printing press again...

And here’s Gutenberg’s breakthrough that let him get all of the credit.

See this?  This is a mold for casting identical letters.

There is a negative image at the bottom (itself derived from a hallmark punch stamp used by metal-smiths as a signature on their work), and molten metal was poured on top of it.  So worn out letters could be easily recycled and since they all came from the same mold, they were all the same size and could be easily swapped out with other letters.  

So Gutenberg was in the right place and time--a time when the existing supply of scribes was recovering from a massive blow, rendering a new printing mechanism economical, and having access to several technologies that he put together to solve a problem that he faced.  

And it spread like wildfire. 

He had no idea that, decades after his death, a young reforming priest would nail up 95 issues he had with the way the very centralized and corrupt Catholic Church acted onto the door of a church.  How could he?  After all, Gutenberg was just looking for a better way to rapidly copy texts that would be more economical than having an expensive scribe doing it one letter at a time.

But because Gutenberg had made printing economical, Luther’s 95 Theses and his followup material could be rapidly spread, instead of quashed like the Catholic Church had done to previous such reformers and their sects.  

So without those conditions--like, let’s say, if the Black Death had killed off a smaller part of the population, leaving the pool of scribes larger and not giving them a chance to push for higher wages, and thereby not giving Gutenberg a reason to invent his press--would the Reformation have happened as it did?

I’d say that, no, it wouldn’t have.  

And to that, I’d point at steam power.

Hero of Alexandria had invented a small steam engine as a toy back during the days of the Roman Empire, but it wouldn’t become economical to develop into a machine for over one and half thousand years--and that was because Newcomen was building a mine pump that was cheaper to fuel with the low-grade coal being brought up from the mines than it was to import animal feed.  

He wasn’t trying to invent a technology that would completely transform the world.

He was just trying to make a more efficient way to pump water out of mines.

But we aren’t taught it like this.  We’re taught that Newcomen invented it, James Watt refined it, and boom, trains and steamships!

And if you’re taught about the Protestant Reformation in absence of the context that birthed it, of course you’re going to view it as a historical inevitability, especially if the individual person ascribes a deep theological import to the event.  

So... I rambled, but yeah.  TL;DR: People don’t do things because it will have an effect in the future that they know nothing about--they do it because it makes sense for them in that moment.

[puncromancer]

March 9 2021 - Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

110 hours to 100% clear on Very Hard difficulty

spoiler free review under the cut. All of my thoughts on something that contains spoilers are after the review proper and are marked with a spoiler warning...

In this second installment Hyrule Warriors spinoff series you play as lovable Daruk in his quest to save Hyrule from Calamity Ganon. Or at least that was my experience anyway as Gorons are slept on and underutilized in the main series. You unlock all the Champions and some other recognizable units from Breath of the Wild in this game and are usually given free range on who you want to play as in a given mission. Any opportunity for me to play as Daruk was taken and I'll say I maxed out his weapon and character level with many missions to spare. Daruk gets his divine power Daruk's Protection that you unlock in BotW. However it is much more potent for Daruk as holding ZL gives you an impenetrable 360 degree shield that will block 99% of attacks (interesting to note is that great fairy kiss attacks and waterblight ganon's ice spear stabbing downward are the only attacks not effected by Daruk's Protection I think probably on accident)

The game takes place 100 years prior to the events of Breath of the Wild. Which adds a very prominent growing sense of dread as in the prologue of BotW- it is revealed that the Champions all died and Link fails in his mission to stop Calamity Ganon and had to go into 100 years of regenerative cryostasis to recover enough for round two. So every victory seems bittersweet as the player knows due to the events of BotW that everything must come crashing down on Link and his friends. Which gives the game a much darker theme than most mainline Zelda games.

The gameplay is fun and fresh. The warriors aspect shines through with outrageous kill counts and satisfying special attacks. Boss fights are a fun level of challenging and you get checkpoints after each objective in a given level so you don't have to pull an old school Fire Emblem and restart the whole chapter whenever you die. They also eased up on the tactical aspect of the Warriors games, Most objectives are not timed in the main levels and you are free to fight everything on the map as Daruk. Although you are able to swap between characters to make the levels faster. Usually the most stressful part of a Warriors game is managing when to move heroes where and doubling back to protect a base or intercepting enemy units. All of this is toned down immensely making a far more casual friendly gameplay.

They have also added gameplay mechanics from BotW like the flurry rush and perfect deflects (I've never done one in this game but I remember the tutorial mentioning them) as well as the shiekah slate runes. Boss characters will eventually telegraph their attacks and a big ol rune symbol will show up like their own personal scarlet letter. You just pop open the rune menu and select the shown rune to counter them and stun them giving you free reign to hammer down their stamina gauge and moving you closer to a cool finisher move.

Also sidenote: Link while using one handed weapons has a unique action of firing off five or so shots with a bow which if aimed at a boss' weak spot (same as in BotW like a lynel's head or a guardian's eye) you can stun it for a short period of time and open up the stamina gauge as well.

As you finish levels you unlock equipment for your characters and in the overworld map you can select different sidequests that help power up your characters for the fights ahead. It is a very helpful system that rewards players for playing alinearly.

The gameplay is not perfect, the camera can get really wonky at times- I had one lynel fight where the camera was firmly affixed to Daruk's ass for the duration. I was just lucky that I had all of Daruk's combos memorized and also that I was playing Daruk at the time so I could block all attacks while I was fighting blind. There are also sidequests that force you to play as Zelda and those are just absolute slogs because she is far and away the least enjoyable character to play as.

My least favorite mechanic are the sidequests with level timers. You need to complete all the objectives in ten minutes and you can see the clock running down as you go. On very hard difficulty the enemies have amped up attack health and defense so you do far less damage and take far more. So you have to fight bosses more strategically. Basically, for the timed missions you have to be so ridiculously overleveled to be able to complete the missions that you may as well just turn the difficulty down (also you don't get shit for completing everything on very hard). The timed missions just seem out of place for a game that did away with the timing headaches in the main story.

Overall I'd give the game a 5/5 stars- mostly because getting to play as Daruk was all I ever wanted since BotW came out so that more than makes up for any frustrations.

*Spoilers*

Just in case anyone wants to see my review and has not played or finished themselves I wanted to separate out the spoiler discussion.

The ending to this game is just the absolute worst fucking hand waving nintendo has ever pulled. Just when Calamity Ganon is reaching peak Calamity, and the Champions are all piloting their divine beasts while Link and Zelda are in the castle. You are on the edge of your seat waiting for that poignant emotional payoff of seeing the heroes fail and give into utter despair as they fail in their mission. The fucking descendant champions time travel and save their ancestors. At the time I thought this was a huge revelation, thinking maybe the descendants pull the original Champions through the time rift into the future post-BotW timeline and then maybe we'd get to see them or even hopefully play as them in the BotW sequel and explaining why they weren't in the timeline for the original BotW. But no, it's just another fucking alternate timeline in the already convoluted mess of the Legend of Zelda historia. Link and Zelda seal Calamity Ganon and bring peace to Hyrule- and it's totally underwhelming hand waving bullshit. All of buildup to Link's failure is just dissipated harmlessly like a leak in a whoopie cushion.

There is an attempt to make up for it as by completing a series of postgame sidequests allow you to unlock Calamity Ganon as a playable character. Daruk was maxed the fuck out a this point so it was fun to get a new main character to build up. And after you unlock his full moveset he is very rewarding to play as.

You also unlock the Great Fairies which are severely underwhelming. You fight all four fairies as sort of midgame sidequests. And they are the scariest fucking bosses you've ever faced. I had to burn through rods just to survive every time. And then after facing all four Great Fairies you unlock them. But they are so slow and large that they physically cannot dodge attacks. They have some great aoe attacks that make them great for clearing large swathes of enemies or trying to capture a base. But you better have another character there on standby because you straight up will not be able to face a boss encounter as them and live. Because even if you dodge an attack you still get hit by it.

Also getting all the koroks is a royal pain just like in BotW. The final sidequest requires all koroks be found in order to complete it and all you get for it is the fucking ocarina of time outfit for link but like you already have the barbarian armor at that point so what's the fucking point.

[queen-of-my-goofball-army]

"Family isn't always blood. It's the people you want in your life who want you in theirs; the ones who accept you for who you are. The ones who would do anything to you smile & love you no matter what."

I know that Valentine's Day is a holiday that is kind of meant for boyfriend's and girlfriend's but I see it as just as a regualr day to remind my friends why I love them! My best friend in the entire world if you don't personally know me and we've talked before is @littlebatinthenight.

This might be a super weird collage of characters because of the fact that they are all his favorites! (I still look at my screenshots that I took when he was first getting into My Hero Academia of his opinion on Tsu. He would fight anybody for her and it's honestly hysterical. I am still trying to presude him to watch Fruits Basket but Haru is his main husbando from that show to which I can't blame him.)

I first met Bats through an anime group chat last March. At first we didn't really talk a whole lot until that chat got deleted. That's when we really found that as best friends we had a ton in common instead of just a handful of favorite shows (I wanted to put some FullMetal stuff but eventually swapped it out for a Haru).

I think that if I could define my best friend in one word it would be chill. He could be friends with just about anybody. I've introduced him to a lot of my other friends and they've become friends with him as well! That's just the kind of person that he is because he has so many interests that they span so he can talk about nothing and everything at the same time.

Bats is one of the few people that I can say who legit changed the way that I think and act. Without him I would probably still be face down in the ditch that is pining. See, I have a really bad experience with love as a whole. The one time I came close to having a relationship it blew up in my face and I was left pining after the object of my affections for two years running. It wasn't until Bats looked at that relationship and went "Huh that isn't right" and talked me out of a relationship with my ex-best friend.

Bats you're my best friend in the entire world. I love talking with you about everything and nothing at the same time. You're the bestthing that ever happened to me due to the fact that you have helped me out of a lot of bad things in my life. I don't think I've ever really taken the opportunity to properly thank you for everything that you have done for me or told you how much I appreciate you. I love you so much, you're the Yakko to my Dot and I will always appreciate you for everything that you have done for me.

[seatosomert]

WHAT TO SHOOT IN LOCKDOWN.

9TH MARCH 2021

If you’re a keen photographer it’s been hard to not feel frustrated with the Covid Lockdown situation the last year.

I have done the right thing throughout, sticking to the rules regardless of how much they swapped and changed and become more difficult to understand at times. Yet, despite doing the right thing, I’d be lying if I said I’d done this without feeling begrudged in some way.

Mainly, if I am honest, because I’ve seen so many people just flouting the rules and not giving a shit about everyone else.

Putting that aside, as I have no desire to just whinge my way through this post, the main reason that this situation has had such an impact upon me is because at heart I love adventure and the outdoors. I love street photography and I love spending time with and talking to interesting people.

All things that I took for granted until they were taken away from us.

Photography is headspace for me. When I’m focused on photography I’m not stressing about other shit. I don’t think about work and I don’t worry about stuff hardly.

It engages the creative part of my brain. Creation is opposite to destruction. This is how I feel about it anyway in respect of art. I love photography. It feeds my soul.

Yet a great challenge for me over the last year has been what to shoot during lockdown periods. No longer can I hop on the train from Leeds to London for the day to shoot street photography. Or take a weekend break with my wife in the Lakes. All the things that were for me, not just a trip away with my wonderful wife, but an opportunity to immerse myself into my chosen art.

I’ve had to find things to shoot and so I’ve got a few images that I’ve shot in recent weeks and months during lockdown periods. All have been within a mile of my home unless stated.

The razor wire fence gave me a feeling of a prison or border control in an Eastern European locality. It's actually some land that travellers kept occupying and an earth mound around it didn't quite cut it. So about a year ago or so, this ugly and oppressive looking fencing was erected to keep them off the land. However, seeing this things in a different light in your mind's eye, then producing that in an image in a way to look as I've described involved exploring different shoot angles and using some creative colour grading to change the mood. I've thrown in the beer barrels and the sunset just to cheer the set up ha ha.

These images were [shot at home] related to travel (and my desire to be doing just that). So I used some lighting and softboxes with a reflector to produce these images using a film simulation on the Fujifilm Camera I have.

In and amongst all this I coached my son with his GCSE photography projects he was set by his tutor. That kept an interest for me and allowed me to have some father and son bonding time also.

So what do I have planned for the next few weeks?

Well here in the UK we can travel further afield for exercise now. We had to stay in our local town or village prior to the 8th March. So I intend to get out for some hiking as soon as work commitments allow and I'll take a small camera with me and capture some images en route.

I'm planning on setting up some studio lights at home and shooting some stuff with my wife, possibly a themed shoot, we'll see.

I'm starting to move my business towards more Product photography, so I'll be shooting more of that too.

I'm also planning to shoot some flat lays.

They're all things that require fore planning and pre visualisation and so they'll engage my creative brain greatly.

I'm going to get some of my best work printer also in large print.

Why? Because to truly shine as a great image, high quality prints are unbeatable for showcasing your work in my opinion.

So just a few ideas around what I've done during lockdown and what I am planning as we move forwards.

Any questions you have, just comment below or message me directly.

Have a great evening and see you all in the next blog, soon.

Kind regards.

Neil.