#but hopefully that shows how much easier the rest of it was lmfao

[damnation-if]

wrestling with canva like i’m crocodile dundee... this probably won’t end up being anything like a real UI because i don’t think a lot of it is Possible jsfdbgs

It looks amazing, how did you do that? 👀👀👀👀👀

hi, thank you for the compliment! i took a bit to answer this because i'm not really... equipped to be making Design tutorials haha. graphic design is my passion neither ironically nor unironically and i'm absolutely rubbish at art - however, canva has enough tools to help me feel like i'm building something visually interesting despite my. abject lack of talent XD i'll put a cut here and some like. explanation and tips underneath.

i have premium for my non-IF-related work, but the free version is what i started out on and it's honestly surprisingly good and has a generous licensing agreement. the biggest drawback for the free version for me is the inability to save files with a transparent background or resize files mid-edit, but for most people making banners or concept art you're not going to Need transparent files - that's more of a thing for actually creating assets.

the biggest ADVANTAGE of the free canva license is that you are licensed to use anything you make using the free assets in commercial products if you want/need (including games or promo for them). many similar design products only allow personal use for free licensing. (however, i'm not trying to sell canva to you; rather i'm pointing out that sticking with the free version is actually very convenient and the premium features are probably things you won't need lol)

basically canva allows you to search for graphic design elements by keyword and drag and drop them onto a design piece, mix them around, change their colours and sizes etc. and combine them together to make something. i'll talk a little bit about the UI design you're mentioning (the one i showed off here for anyone curious) not to brag about my Skillz(TM) but just to show how easy canva makes it for a total newb to make something that looks really neat!

there's about 30 different elements in that particular UI design - the "console-y" looking frame itself is half a dozen on its own: the basic frame (those cyberpunky lines at the top and bottom of the screen); a semi-transparent box i added to make it look like a holo-screen; the panel on the side, which was originally square until i cropped it down to make it look like a panel and colour-shifted to match the main box; the little connector between the side panel and the screen, which is actually two of the same asset with one upside-down and cropped; and then the various text assets, not to mention all the logos, which are also all separate (and also the little 2 unread messages symbol is another 2 separate design elements i put together lmfao).

canva will probably seem overwhelming once you first start using it because it has So Many tools, but most of these are for companies and you'll probably find you don't need to even look at the vast majority of them. for example, it'll probably ask you to choose a template to start a design, and there are like. 100s. that it'll want you to sort through. but you very probably won't ever use more than one or two. i think i've used three Ever for IF stuff - tumblr banner (for banners, obviously), social media banner, for the RO banners you can see on the ROs page, and 16:9 Blank Presentation, which is what i use for UI designs because it's just. a big blank page size. you can Literally ignore all the others unless you need something specific!

you can either use the pre-generated aspects of the template and simply replace their designs with ones you prefer, or do what i do and delete it all and put your own stuff in lmfao. the templates can help if you don't have much of an idea of what you want your design to look like but obviously for me with UI design it's a bit. Pointless because canva doesn't have a template for that XD

anyway once you have your blank canvas, you can search for "elements" in the search panel and look through them for ones you want to use. the pro version assets are labelled pretty clearly so you probably won't mistakenly pick something that requires paying to use and the search filters themselves are pretty hefty - i rarely run up against a search term that brings back nothing unless it's HIGHLY specific lol

here are just a couple of tips that help me get basically closer to what i want out of the whole thing:

when you're changing the size of an element, canva only increases or decreases its size by the exact ratio of its original dimensions - you can't Only make an image wider, for example, it will also automatically increase the height to match. that's why the "frame" asset in my Gone Dark UI design is centred in the page instead of taking up more of it - i couldn't make it wider without it getting taller and the top and bottom bars disappearing off the page. you can get around this by using elements that are mostly plain - i could have, for example, made the semitransparent screen box as wide as i wanted, because it's uniform in design and there'll be no visible difference in where i draw its boundaries as it all just looks like plain rectangle.

combining photo images and less realistic graphics can look jarring but there are handy image editing tools (found by clicking "edit image" in the top toolbar with the image selected, and then "show all" in the lefthand sidebar to show all of the filters) that you can use to make photos look Less Photolike - lowered blur and heightened clarity especially can make it easier to make photos fit better with other graphics.

some of the text effects (found by clicking "Effects" in the top toolbar with the textbox selected) can make it way easier for text to be visible against certain backgrounds - this is not much use if you're designing something for another medium like a UI, because you can't replicate them in other software, but if you're just producing an image like a banner they add a lot of neat flair.

when you have a lot of elements working together they often look a little better with at least a slightly lower transparency to hide that their borders/edges aren't uniform - 85-90% is usually opaque enough to not notice it's slightly transparent but soften the edges.

it can be hard to figure out the exact size (in pixels) of an element while you're In a design - there are rulers that can be applied through the settings menu, but the maths often fucks me up, so i find it's easier to resize the image by dragging the expand handles by like a single pixel and then putting it back to normal - while specifically holding the expand handles (until you let go of the mouse and "drop" it in the desired size) it will give you an exact reading of the height and width in pixels along the bottom toolbar that you can read easily.

this one is pretty specific but when you're making boxes to put behind text they often look better with a slight blur filter on them as well as transparency - for Gone Dark in particular the blur gives it a nice fuzz that makes it look even more like a projected screen. if you look closely you can see a slight difference between the text screen and the side panel screen background - that's because i forgot to blur the side panel lmfao.

aaaand that's probably all the advice i can offer. i'm far from an expert, but i do feel like i have fun with it XD i'm glad so many people have thought it looked cool! sorry this got so long but. it's hard to explain without actually Getting Into It haha

[imagining-in-the-margins]

I’ve been bitten by the new series bug. I’m struggling to write anything that isn’t The Birds & The Bees, lmao! I promise that I am still working on them, but I’m also halfway done with Part 3 already and I still have to post Part 2... I’m a mess. 

Anyway, onto some Anon Answers ❤️

1. I’m sorry that you’re having a hard week! I’m so glad that I can hopefully make it a little bit better. I hope that it passes quickly and easier than you anticipated. You deserve to have a safe place to rest, wherever that may be. I wish you the best of luck!

2. Hello friend! I am not a DNI blog for anything other than smut, so you’re all good (I prefer public interaction like asks). As for your question, it’s a bit tricky.

I’d probably need more context to tell you. If this is a BAU fic, though, the timeline will be wonky because it’ll depend on how often they see each other (and the need for spontaneous, unplanned trips to their place). My honest advice is actually that nothing you write will probably be so off base that it’s unbelievable.

With my current partner, we signed a lease together three months after we met. My partners before that were unfortunately abusive so the timeline is broken. But I would think that most people probably have a drawer by six months at least. I love you is generally not until around 3-9 months but can also vary even beyond that range.

With Spencer’s character, I could see both a very extended timeline and a very rushed one. Whatever you choose, you can always just show the character’s feelings about it being fast/slow. Everyone has a different comfort level, and we never saw Spencer have one in canon. People like Emily, though, I think would be a lot more guarded and take things much slower.

If you give me more specifics, I could definitely help you.

3. I love Ralvez/Reader but the idea pool for it is low because I am lazy. It’s also hard to motivate myself to write it since they are my poorest performers. But they are so cute and @httpnxtt deserves the world (go read her writing).

4. Ah, the days of the teacher crush. I actually don’t think I liked any of my high school teachers or my college professors. But I definitely had a thing for two of my TAs in undergrad. TAs are just so nerdy. I would just look at them and they would get nervous. Adorable. One of them admitted to me that he changed his entire route because he thought I would think he was creepy because we walked to class together... From the same class. Like this dude really walked an extra 15 minutes because he thought I would be scared of him. Wtf lmfao.

(he started walking with me again after we had a good laugh about it)

Anyway, enjoy your eye candy 🥰

5. Hahah, you’re all good! This isn’t something you really should know unless you’ve been around for a while. But essentially, the Discord server that I run regularly has “Fic Swaps,” which is basically Secret Santa but with fics. A bunch of writers sign up to be randomly assigned another writer, and everyone writes a fic for their person based on a number of prompts we come up with.

We’re currently in the middle of the posting schedule for the most recent swap, but I’ve organized two others, and you can see the fics that resulted here and here (they’re both linked on my Masterlist!) We post them in intervals so we don’t flood the tags and everyone has a chance to be noticed.

If you’re ever interested in participating, you can message me. The discord is open to everyone, but the fic swaps usually require that you show some sign of reliability. This was the first one that resulted in everyone getting a fic, and it’s way less fun when someone ghosts you. But I will be organizing another one eventually!

[artemidian]

okay i'm really tired so bear with me if this is messy

my stomach is feeling better now and i'm lying down for a bit. i can't really walk around my neighborhood but it's fine. i made a mental plan to go outside and get like. sun. or something because i'm so pale rn. but idk if that's gonna happen. i don't even know where i would go. how i would do it. idk i'll focus on it in august. i finished the movie with my friend which turned out to be a horror and she hadn't told me😐 but it was fine. idk i hate horror movies because i get so annoyed and anxious. i hate any sort of high suspense. and it wasn't gore but it was def graphic + very very bloody and i don't like that either so :/ now we're watching another one but i'm just tuning it out idk

the exhaustion thing. yeah you're right but i just think it feels good to be exhausted. yes if i think about it it's for bad reasons, but still. it's nice. i get what you're saying tho. and i hope things get better or kinder at least, especially because you've worked so hard. you deserve it bae

and yeah it's not fun. it's mostly concerning because my mom has chronic pain, ms, other things. kinda just concerning cause i don't wanna turn out like her. it's just one of those Childhood Things lmfao. i have a neurologist appointment in a few weeks so i hope they'll actually be helpful this time

pre cal isn't that bad but rn i'm so tired. my eyes are hurting too but i need to finish this lesson and at least start on the next one. we'll see what happens idk i don't feel good rn. it's like i did a bunch of shit but then bruschetta took up 2 extra hours but either way i kinda did everything i was supposed to do? that's the purpose of my schedule so i get everything done early, but now i'm just like. itching cause there's nothing to do

and yeah the hand thing sounds really painfully. i hope you can just rest and hopefully it'll heal up soon. it might be good just to stretch so your muscles loosen, and light exercise will help the soreness ease away. but whatever you choose. just stay relaxed. my brain is also dead so i hope you can think of something. maybe reading some tropes will inspire you? idk lol that's what i end up doing half the time. my daydreams are beyond cliche. and my laptop does that to because of tumblr's new text editor. i usually just save the post to my drafts and when i reopen it, it works. idk why it's annoying

okay first of all i just saw my typo and to clarify: my phone. my phone was about to die– i assume you understood but still it made me laugh a bit

okay first of all you should go to bed on the earlier side tonight babe. get some rest <3 and spending time outdoors is great if you can find a safe way to do it. i like to sit in the woods but that's not an option for everyone. i keep startling my neighbors because they'll be using the walking path and i'll just be There in the woods but i mean– can you blame me? no <3 anyways horror movies suck. you already know how i don't care much for movies in general but horror movies are worse because like i've said: i'm sensitive :)

with exhaustion– i've been there, and making the choice to change those thought processes is so much work. it's doable but it's hard. and thank you :') i try

hopefully the neurologist is helpful! becoming like your parents, whether through something genetic or in some other fashion, is a difficult thought to have, i get it. i'd joke about what i inherited from my parents but– no. lmao

pre-cal– i'm fairy certain that you're not doing great at the moment (or whatever moment my tumblr feed decided to show me when i opened this hellsite) but hopefully it's not so bad. things get better when you take it easier with yourself (lesson #48 from ap french)

i've been resting for most of the day. letting time pass without being aware of how much time is passing is one of my specialties <3 thank you ADD <3 i stretched a bit earlier because it's one of those things i'm just in the habit of. i just have a simple stretching routine and it's muscle memory at this point– it's the same one i do at dance lol. i'm still deciding on whether or not i'm going to workout because i can't figure out my core motivation behind it and i'm not risking that.

and i still haven't thought of any good daydreams to think about but i assumed that this would happen. i read through old fic ideas and some prompt lists but it's more of an "i don't believe this" than a "no thoughts head empty" sort of thing at this point so i guess we're just doing that again– tumblr hasn't sabotaged my typing (yet) but i figured it was probably tumblr and not my actual device because, well. it's tumblr lol

[nastymomcomic]

Totally sort of on hiatus, but WAIT

I left off on a note that I wasn’t doing good. So here’s what’s up. I quit my job that I hated and that hated me and it was killing me going there. Honestly the entire experience there could be a comic in of itself. I started changing almost instantly after starting there and my SO brought that to my attention close to when I decided to quit. My anxiety was through the roof, I was getting physically ill from it. It’s been about three months since I quit and I actually feel much better than I did.

The decision to quit came around the end of Christmas season (aka retail hell), my stress level hit it’s max. With work and with how things are at home, I became suicidal and started breaking my things instead of hurting myself. (On a side note I discovered I have a deep raspy yelling voice that would be perfect for an anime character) 

(This is kind of long so I’ll put one of those read more thingies)

I talked with my SO about it and I agreed to quit the job, get back on my anxiety medication , and get back into steady therapy. (I was given a new counselor and hadn’t been able to make it to therapy because of work.) Shortly after I started becoming viciously sick around my period, turns out I just have extremely bad pms to the point ai throw up and become Dr. Jekyll Mr. Hyde. It is horrible. I didn’t figure it was my period until recently though, for a while I thought I was bipolar or had the flu, even pregnant. Nope, it was just pms. I had no idea how common that is for women until it happened to me.

With the job, I had a lady curse me out because I had to charge her for  10 cent bag that she wanted a giant barrel of pretzels put into, which didn’t fit anyway. That wasn’t even my worst customer by far, but it’s definitely my favorite story to tell. (There will definitely be an episode about that bitch.) I hurt my wrist the first month I worked there and my supervisor never made a report refused to report it, so I wasn’t seen by their doctor, and none of my managers or coworkers were notified of my injury, so my workload and tasks weren’t changed. I went to the my doctor before quitting so I’d have the injury on record, he found it was a sprained wrist, and told me it wouldn’t heal because I’d been using it too much. (Which is why work is supposed to fucking change your work tasks when you have a fucking work related injury.) This same supervisor looked me up and down with the fucking stink eye during my interview and I knew she was going to be a problem, and I wasn’t wrong.

I spent a good two months trying to figure out exactly how to report that my workplace refused to make report for my injury, but at the end of it I just wanted to quit and be done with all of it. This lady had definitely been acting like that way before I worked there, there’s no way the company or at least the other managers weren’t aware of what she does. As much as I would like to get her fired for being a gigantic asshole, it’s not my job to babysit women in their damn 50’s. And she definitely wasn’t the only deciding factor. Besides the shitty customers treating me like shit on a daily basis, I only had  a handful of coworkers who were my saving grace there. They were awesome to work with and I genuinely looked forward to seeing them. But when they weren’t there, my calls would get ignored by my coworkers and managers, I’d find them all chilling out in the office, customers would be left waiting for over 30 minutes because no one wanted to answer me, it was just ridiculous. I could go on and on but I think my final straw was being told by a manager that I needed to “stop doodling” while at the register…. like fucking when??? I asked for clarification or a date on when I’d done such a thing and said manager refused to explain or anything.

I mean, that and when I changed my availability for health reasons. I was working full shifts and 4 days out of the week during peek Christmas season, and changed my availability to just one day a week. Car broke down and you know, I was suicidal and loosing my mind. I made sure to change my availability only after peek was over, but gave management a heads up so they had time to fill shifts. Shit supervisor was the one I had to talk to about it first and she said ‘You’re kidding me, you’re changing your availability during peek?” And I’d had enough of her shit so I sad=id back “No I’m changing it after peek next week, but I’m doing the considerate thing and notifying people now.”

Fucking bitch. Like wow I wrote it was for medical reasons, thank you so much for your fucking concern.

The ironic part was they said I was doing absolutely great, but I’d stopped giving all my fucks over a month ago and started half assing my job like the people who got all the credit for slacking off while others and myself did circles around them. Now that I stopped doing my job well, they liked me? lmfao hwwaaaaat? When I was busting my ass I was always told I was “straggling” and needed to do better. I just… how does that even work? forget it, I don’t work there anymore, it’s not my problem. I quit without giving two weeks notice. I wrote my resignation letter before my shift, and when my shift was done I quit on the spot. Shitty supervisor never looked happier. (lol I bet)

It was weird, that place had fast turnover, but also had people who had been working there for ears. (Shit supervisor had been working there 17+ years) And now I totally get why.

The minute I walked out of the break room knowing I never had to work there again, I felt a giant weight lifted from my entire body. It was absolutely amazing. Thing is, me not having that job doesn’t even make a dent in my income because it was so far away, it had shitty hours, and I was spending so much money on gas to get there. It was absolutely pointless. Now I can focus on things that actually benefit me and build my future.

So I’m back in therapy back on my meds, not having the life drained out of me, and Nmom has been in therapy for like 5 months now and she’s starting to actually be normal, it’s like she’s learning to manager her emotions or something. I don’t trust it, but it makes things a lot easier and I’ll take the quiet while I can get it. Bad news is my grandpa is in the hospital right now, he nearly died, had to have a pacemaker out in him. It’s been a big ordeal but it could be worse. SO things are changing for me again, someone has to be there for him and it’s actually going to be me and Nmom seeing as no one else will. Things are a bit up in the air but I know it could of been worse so I’m just thankful.

My SO is going to be moving soon to his own place and I’ll be living with him half of the week and the rest of the week with my mom and probably with my grandpa when he finally comes home. Honestly I am scared, but I’m also determined. I decided to go back to school, pay off bills, invest in things I need to do, and get back to what I love or I think my soul will die if I don’t.

The comic nasty mom will be back soon, and eventually, it will have to end as well. I’ve found that I tend to reopen wounds through my muse, so i need to find a way to really really, really make this comic for myself. I also tend to care about others more than myself, even in my art. I haven’t really been doing this comic for myself at all, I think I’ve been doing it for others more than for myself. And I need to change that. I’m glad my comic has been able to make others smile and laugh, and it definitely will continue to. But I need to change how I approach my art and life if I want to start taking care of myself seriously.

For now I’m going to start getting my feet wet again with my art and buy a new scanner because mine broke like 4 months ago, and the bastard gave me a bruise last week on my foot. (printers are evil!!!!) There will definitely be a lot of drawings and work sketches to show, so that’s good.

I just got on birth control last week and I’m starting to feel some of the changes and stuff. I’m taking care of my body and hopefully my pms doesn’t make me go crazy. Last week I cried because my SO bought me french fries, and an hour before that I wanted to throw my iced coffee at people because Starbucks mad it wring and I was already nauseated and I got more nauseated because there wasn’t enough creme…. yeah, I’m a mess ahahahah.

I’m doing a lot of soul searching for sure right now, but I’ll be back soon! And with more art! And possibly another comic for when this comic finishes! (Shhhh that part is a secret!)

Until next time, I’ll always reply to comments, and I have a ask box on my tumblr as well. I have tumblr and instagram so that should keep readers and friends a little entertained while I’m away!

[madearmor]

21, 35 and 40 for development qs.

What kind of relationships do they tend to intentionally seek out versus actually cultivate? What kind of social contact do they prefer, and why?

Ohhh he wants validation, a constant thrumming attention in the shape of a test audience that only ever rates his show as five stars. He seeks out yes men and then shit goes bad because he’s not perfect and the bullshit he thinks he should strive for is just that, bullshit, and suddenly he loathes his yes men and looks for someone to be the opposite.

He cultivates people who call him on his shit but still have something in them that stays loyal and loving. He hates to admit how much he craves it, how much he needs it, and when those people end up becoming too soft or too hard sometimes it makes him super frustrated. He craves the perfect balance of those things and unfortunately people are people so he has to learn to accept flaws.

You know, and his own lmfao.

He prefers full rooms and someone always listening. It doesn’t matter if it’s a person or some A.I. at the ready in his ear.

How and why do they internalize knowledge? What effect has that had on them?

Listen, always being mega aware of yourself and others and being like twenty steps ahead of people makes you honestly both terribly arrogant and also your worst enemy: the original doubter. He leaps ahead and he knows what he knows but then sometimes not everyone else does and until he can absolutely prove he is right he has a tendency to go into crisis mode.

Aka, time to go into the lab and create until im exhausted and keep going until I prove my theory is more than just a theory.

It’s taken him a while to get out of that funk and need to prove himself and simply be more like “i know what i know and you don’t and that’s okay” to the rest of the world.

When he finds other people like him though, smarter, it makes him happy to have people to share this shit with though.

What do they wonder about? What sparks their curiosity and imagination, and why? How is this expressed, if it is?

tony is constantly wondering how to make things easier for people, for humanity as a whole and he often feels like it’s his lot in life to shoulder the difficult things to be able to make them easier. If he has the mind for it and the money he thinks it’s only right and good and he’ll often work himself into pure exhaustion to create things that better humanity. He did not always do that and would often be lazy about his designs, trusting they were good and would make money. Aka he did weapons technology advancement easily.

There is nothing easy about turning that around and using his mind to effectively help grow the world while also hopefully not fully destroying it. It is, however,  far more fulfilling and brings him joy even if he keeps it to himself generally.

Which leads to..

What do they wonder about? What sparks their curiosity and imagination, and why? How is this expressed, if it is?

Efficiency. He’s always curious about how to streamline something. The amount of times Tony has sat there and really dreamt of a better world that’’s like.. Meet The Robinsons or whatever, it well up there pal. He’s realistic in that he knows there won’t be a perfect, Utopian world ever.. but he does think it’s possible to create a better, cleaner, safer world for people in the very least.

Granted this isn’t the only thing and like any person he has lots of random thoughts and shit about Life and Meaning but he generally finds his imagination is better suited to creating solutions where others can’t seem to find one or offer one. It makes him happy and if it means discovering the needs and culture of some new people it’s even better for him because he’s striving to not be someone who creates self centered projects anymore.