#but i can't keep the link up! check the other site if you must but not saying what it is lol

[liquidstar]

Edit: Link removed. If you saw, you saw. If you didn't, you didn't.

[zarla-s]

I just read your TF2 bot post and I’m fascinated. It has left me with a few questions though. Why/how were bots a problem for so long? What was the main incentive for botting (is it botting or boting??) Was it just to be an asshole? What’s your favorite baked good? Have a lovely day and don’t worry about answering my questions if you’re not in the mood :]

The bots were a problem for so long because Valve just didn't care, sorry to say. They just let it happen. I'm not sure when they started coming in in force, maybe after the Jungle Inferno update like six years ago? But they just kept pouring in and Valve just ignored it. It's really shameful how bad they let it get, honestly. They just kept putting out community updates like nothing was wrong.

Eventually after a lot of community pressure a year ago (#savetf2) they tweeted saying they were aware of the problem and then nothing happened. Then there was ANOTHER community movement this June (#fixtf2), and THEN at the end of June they ACTUALLY did something, which is why everyone was so shocked and skeptical at the time. Like the bots got so bad, it's hard to get across just how bad it got if you weren't playing at the time. It was bad. To suddenly go from that to totally bot-free was unbelievable. Frankly I'm still shocked they're gone! No one knows why Valve's acting now or how they're doing it (personally, I think they must have been working on these anti-bot measures for a while... maybe even since their initial tweet, but no one knows), but I hope they keep it up. I can finally teach people how to play in peace!

As for why they'd do this, yeah, it's just to be jerks. They just want to make people miserable. They have websites on Neocities you can find under the tf2 tag (I was looking through it for sites to link to my tf2 site) and they state themselves that they just like making people mad. I don't think they actually hate TF2 so much as they love the power rush from destroying something so famous that so many people love. Kind of a power-trip/control thing, with a dose of being desperate for attention. A lot of the more notorious bot hosters had twitters or youtube accounts where they invited people to rage at them uselessly, they loved it. They've also formed communities around botting and trolling people, so they have kind of a social investment in it (although they were quick to turn on each other when they suspected someone was a mole). Some of them sell their bot software or "bot immunity" for money but I think that was just pocket change, I don't think that was a real motivator.

After having free reign for so long, they reacted violently to the community movement in June. They were positive that nothing would happen to them, so they kept doing more and more outrageous things to prove it. They DDoS'd and DMCA'd the site for the petition multiple times, they doxxed and swatted one of the main bot fighters, they impersonated figureheads and posted illegal links to things, like they were really stepping over the line and gloating about it. They were extremely confident and to be fair, who could blame them? Valve's negligence let them get away with it for years. To suddenly have that power taken away from them without warning made them absolutely furious. They're still seething about it right now and plotting ways to get back in, but they haven't found one yet. It's a matter of pride for them at this point I think, that and a childish tantrum about not being able to ruin other people's fun anymore. Them targeting a baby game version of TF2 (TC2) also points to it being a power trip. If they can't ruin TF2 anymore then by god they've got to ruin SOMEthing!

Even now I'm not sure Valve can hold the line and I keep checking TF2 Casual every now and then to look for bots, haha. It's just hard to believe! I greatly enjoy hearing about bot hosters raging about it and suffering though, they deserve nothing less. Die mad about it!!!

In terms of baked goods though I like all kinds, although right now I'm thinking about brownies so I'll say that. |D

[kyuushi]

This post is long overdue but I figured better late than never!

There's a way to read Kyuushi in Japanese online and for free legally, something that was previously only possible during limited-time events. You can't immediately gain access to all 323 chapters so don't get too excited but it's still pretty cool. There's a (long) guide on how the site works below the cut!

A few months ago, Akita Shoten, the publisher of Weekly Shonen Champion, the magazine Kyuushi runs in, launched their Champion Cross site. This site allows users to read manga for FREE, legally!

To participate, you can make an account here. You're able to connect a Google or Twitter account, so it's quite easy. If you do use a Google account like I did, the site just asks for a username (it has to be unique, if someone is already using it, you'll have to pick something else) your gender (prefer not to say, male, female, or neither), and year of birth.

Then you just lie about reading the privacy policy by checking the box at the bottom and you're good to go!

If you don't want to connect an existing account, you'll need to supply your email and a password as you normally do when signing up for a new site.

Of course, as with most free things, there is a catch... or kind of several catches 😂 You must collect tickets (すぐ無料チケット) to unlock most chapters.

You get some for signing up, completing "missions," and using your daily free gacha attempt. The gacha can only give you 0, 1, or 2 tickets. If you want to retry the gacha, you can earn another chance by sharing your result to Twitter...

aka you just let it open the new tab but don't actually hit the tweet button lol. Just keep in mind that the second number you get overwrites the first.

You can then head on over to Kyuushi's page (remember to hit the star ⭐ to add it to your favorites!) and pick which chapters you'd like to unlock using your tickets, 1 ticket per chapter. You also unlock the ability to read 1 chapter every 23 hours (the 待つと無料/wait and it's free option). When I made a new account I was immediately able to use this free chapter read!

The first time I used a ticket to unlock ("rent") a chapter, I got a popup asking me to confirm my email address. Not sure if this will happen to everyone or just those who used a Google or Twitter account to sign up.

If this does happen, you'll just get an email with a link to click that verifies your account.

When you use a ticket to rent a chapter, the chapter becomes available to you for 15 days.

However, after reading a chapter with your daily free 待つと無料 option, you have only 3 days to go back and read before it gets locked again. The remaining time is shown to the right in gray. (Please admire Bikimi-chan's beauty in the chapter 317 preview.)

Remember to give the chapters a like!

It's important to note that tickets DO EXPIRE. You can check your ticket information by clicking the number as shown here.

Tickets from different sources have different expiration dates. Daily gacha tickets expire within the day (the expiry date & time is shown in red).

On the other hand, mission tickets last longer.

This section at the top of the page shows you the soonest upcoming expiry date:

At least per my testing, the site does seem to automatically use the tickets that expire earliest!

As of right now, there are 2 chapters that can only be read by using coins, which are a paid currency.

I'm afraid I won't be testing coins out... I've already bought Kyuushi volumes as ebooks, and I'm not a fan of how you seem to have to enter your card information directly into the site. Guess they don't accept PayPal or similar services? I'm not even sure if they'd accept foreign cards. If anyone has tried/tries this out, please let me know!

So basically, you can technically read all but 2 chapters of Kyuushi for free, but it does take time to gather tickets or simply wait to read a chapter per day, and you don't get permanent access to the chapters. It's not the most convenient or reliable resource but it's a legal way to support the series. During this extended hiatus, I think it's important to continue showing that Kyuushi has an active fanbase eager for more vampire fun! 🦇

Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions about the site. I did my best to test out the features and explain how they work but this was a whole lot of information to just dump on people so I'll understand if there's still some confusion. I also could have gotten something wrong so do let me know if you notice any issues.

[samssims]

hey, how did you make different sections for your blog? Can't figure it out, I'd like to divide up my posts so my main page isn't messy. Thanks!

Hi Nonny! I am not entirely sure what you mean by this so I will give a bunch of general tips below. If this doesn't cover it or you want something expanded on, feel free to let me know!

Tips to keeping your blog neat & tidy!

Let me start off by saying it is your blog. Make it as messy as you want. However there are a few things you can do to make posts easier to see and read for yourself and your followers.

Tagging

Tag your posts. All of them. Have a different tag per save, story, gameplay, have one for asks, have one for reblogs. Have multiple tags! Tags galore!!! All of this will let you filter your posts to just the ones you want to see. If you tag every post with just "ts4" then you will not be able to find anything.

Example: Two of my saves have the individual tags "NSB" (for Not So Berry) and "Princess Legacy" but then I break them down even further by doing "NSB Gen 1" & "NSB Gen 2" so viewers can choose to view the project as a whole or just to search through one Gen.

Banners

This is ABSOLUTELY OPTIONAL but it makes your posts stand out from each other if you give each story/gameplay/save their own banner. It doesn't have to be extravagant. It can just be a color. Or even a pattern.

Example:

NSB

Princess Legacy:

You can absolutely steal the dimensions of these banners (aka save them right from this post) to create your own.

Use Your Queue

One of the easiest ways to organize your blog is to organize your queue! If you have a lot of stories or posts, try to limit when/what days you are posting them so it looks more consistent on your blog.

Example: In a perfect world where I have consistent content this is also referenced in my timezone which is PST: NSB posts go up at 6 AM every WEEKDAY - I manually schedule these Gameplay posts (whatever gameplay I am currently into as this changes) 3 times a day on the hour every weekday 11 AM-1PM - this is my normal queue set up Reblogs of others post - Weekends, 3 times a day as my normal queue is set up for

When I was doing really well with content, I would queue up 15 posts of gameplay (3 posts a day for 5 days) then go into the sims tag and throw 6 reblogged posts into my queue. Then start over again so I could queue up months in advance.

Using this method for myself makes my blog feels more structured to me. It's just for my own peace of mind and keeps me more organized.

Blog Themes

One of the best creative flex this site offers you imo. You can customize your blog theme to make it fit what you want.

There are a TON of blog themes over theme-hunter. This must be done from desktop and is only for desktop. It cannot be changed via mobile. If you check out theme-hunter, go to the top right "MORE" button. If you are looking for a main page theme, search through the "All-In-One" tag. If you are looking for a story page like i have to showcase all your stories together, I usually look through the "Family/Favorites/Characters" tag.

Now this does require a very BASE knowledge of coding, which I cannot get into in this post. It's a bit of work. Start with a simple theme until you get it down.

PRO TIP: Make a private side blog for just yourself where you can test out the themes. That way if you break the code it doesn't break your main blog. Once the code is ready on your private blog, then you can just copy/paste it onto your main!

HERE is a quick guide on how to add a tumblr theme. If you have never done it before, it's a bit of a learning curve, but honestly it's sooo satisfying once it's done.

Example: The codes for the current pages I am using can be found below: Main Theme: [X] Story Page [X]

Customizing Your Blog

Putting this all together!

Your new story pages and blog pages can include links to the specific tags you are using on your posts! It's how others can find you content so it's organized!

So let's look at this tab on my blog:

This is part of my blog theme. I change it out to update whatever my blog is currently showcasing! It's part of the custom page and me going into the code to manually change it.

If you were to click any of the "Start" tabs (for the ones that have them) they would take you to the URL for the tag itself:

samssims.tumblr.com/tagged/nsb+gen+1/chrono [tumblr url] / [the word TAGGED to show you are searching the tag] / [the tag itself with + signs for spaces] / [the word CHRONO just means it will start at the beginning of the tag, useful for stories]

NOTE: These URLs only work on desktop/mobile browser. They do not work on the tumblr app.

Conclusion

And that's just a little bit about organizing your blog. But honestly it's your space. Just like your room IRL, you keep it the way you like it! This system works for me! If it helps you find your flow then I am happy to help!

[wollfling]

🎀 lolita sales post 🎀

A little mix of styles, I'll post below the cut. I'm open to offers and whatever doesn't sell I'll probably list to lacemarket? Prices in usd, I will provide photos to anyone interested! I just didn't want to go through the hassle of photographing everything. I'll state the condition and notes I have on each piece~ everything has been purchased secondhand.

I've linked lolibrary entries for sizing and release info. Feel free to make offers!!! I based my prices from quick searches on other sites, but I'm flexible. Depending on the item and country I would estimate 20-40$ shipping (im in canada)

I dont really have formal feedback for selling clothes anymore since I haven't in forever, but I do have an online shop where I sell art prints, so I have experience selling things online and whatnot.

Metamorphose Sailor Short Sleeve OP in ivory (2011) - $100

Missing bow (left photo), but still has the tie (like right photo) this dress is so lightweight and perfect for summer, I just don't like how the sleeves fit on my arms. No noticeable damage. I washed it but i havent worn it out!

Btssb Tartan Check Jacket in green (2005) - $180

No damage, only tried on by me. Another wonderful piece but too tight in the arms for me. It's soft, but polyester. I'm honestly so sad about letting this piece go I adore it, but I need to stop holding onto things I won't wear!

Btssb Ribbon Sherbet Skirt in pink (2010) - $40

Really adorable skirt, it's shorter and perfect for casual wear. You can't tell in the stock photos, but the fabric is woven with glitter! Again, washed but I haven't worn it besides trying on.

Aatp Sylvester vest (2011 or 2013) - $80

I think its the women's size, as there is so spider tag. I had forgotten and then realized upon inspecting while writing this that one of the back panel buttons had come off and I must have stored it somewhere to keep safe. I'll look for it (I know I have it somewhere lol) on the offchance I can't find it though I will discount accordingly. Worn by me and washed, there is no other noticeable damage.

Aatp Justin pants in red (2018) - $100

Only tried on by me- I'm going to keep it real with you I'm just too bottom heavy. The waist is full of room but the leg measurement (in average clothing sizing proportion) is really small. I don't understand why they would add so much extra room in the waist and not make the thighs adjustable at all. The sizing doesn't match up with the lolibrary entry, the waist can stretch up to 90cm, and is about 76cm not stretched... the inside measurement of the leg cuff is maybe 46 cm (the fabric is thick so measures 50 on the outside if that makes sense) when wearing this, the top of the waistband was floating around but made a sharp ^ down the back, these shorts will not be flattering if you have wider hips. All of that said they are really beautiful, I adore the fabric, but the lolibrary entry is very misleading!

---

I've run out room for photos in this post and need to locate the second blouse, but I have 2 white bodyline blouses and the strawberry gingham skirt I might bundle all together for idk 50$? I'll have to find them all first, but in case anyone is interested.

---

Other pieces I've been going back and forth on selling are:

victorian maiden velveteen frill bustier in wine (2002)

Metamorphose velveteen high waist ribbon jsk in red (2004) (missing detachable bust panel)

But tbh I can't come up with a reasonable price I'd be willing to sell them at. On the off chance they are someone's #1 dream items and you'd like to make an offer I am open for it but I might turn it down. I would be open to trades for similar items too though! Such as another vm bustier or old meta velveteen op/jsk of the era.

[liselicanis]

Good Things Fall Apart

[AO3 Link]

Chapter 2: Ratatouille

Three days later

It had taken her this long to finally find out what kind of omnic she had saved. A thorough search through all the holovids since before the first Omnic Crisis had finally revealed some answers.

Rubbing her eyes, Hana looked up from her computer screen to the omnic laying on her workshop table. An R-7000 model. She had heard a little bit about them in one of her history classes when she was in school. Seeing one was actually a rarity these days.

Even so, she also found out that no one sold any parts for R-7000's. She had checked thrice already, looking through every possible omnic repair site she could.

"Can't believe that not even Amazon has them," she muttered as she clicked away from the website. "'We sell everything from books to boats', what lies-"

On the table, Ramattra laid there, processing what the girl had said. Of course she wouldn't be able to find anything. When he had suffered a damaged forearm from a mishap in Nepal, it had taken nearly a year to find the necessary parts to repair it.

He cursed the humans who got the better of him, but most of all he cursed himself for allowing them to do so. He replayed that scene over and over, trying to figure out how he could have avoided ending up in such a pitiful state.

But perhaps he should be at the very least grateful that he's still alive. Even if he is unable to move or speak for the time being. He can even look past the fact that he's being helped by the humans he has come to hate.

Not the girl though. He can't quite find it in himself to completely hate her. For now he tolerates the fact that she's been touching him, inspecting his gears and wires, a frown on her face as she tried to picture what he must have looked like before she found him.

He knows he doesn't like the feeling of being so vulnerable whenever her good hand brushes against his faceplate. He can't feel the warmth, but even so, touching that area feels like a violation to him.

Sometimes he'll give her a warning, the remnants of his voicebox making terrible garbled sounds and hisses, sometimes he pretends to not be conscious, curious about what she's up to.

It is during those moments that he learns she talks a lot. To herself, sometimes to him, and a few times that other human is there, telling her to rest, or striking a conversation about mundane things. And something called a 'Tokki'.

(Did they have an omnic serving them under that name? If they ever managed to fully repair him, Ramattra would be sure to ask this 'Tokki' to join him.)

It comes to no surprise that she's talking again, but the girl is not too close so he can barely make out the words she's saying. Something about a rat?

"-from a long time ago. Can't compare to today's holovids but it has this charm to it. It's a slow movie, very different from the stuff that's produced today. Shame that company kinda fell off-" she keeps prattling on as she studies one of the fiber cables that once connected his shoulder to his right arm. "Hmm, you seem pretty big. Bet I could have ridden on your shoulders no problem."

As if he'd allow that.

There's a knock on the door and she's quick to cover him with a sheet before going to check who it is. Part of him detests her for doing this, even though he understands why she's doing it. To keep him a 'secret'. Perhaps her other companions held the same distrust towards omnics as he did towards humans but it's not like he'll know beneath a world of dimmed white light.

-

It's Dae-Hyun at the the door, holding a box of metal parts. Hana drags him inside the room before peeking her head out into the corridor to make sure no one else is around. All clear, good. Her mechanic goes over to the desk and gently places the box down, lifting an eyebrow at her when he spots the white sheet and the hulking mass he knows lies beneath.

"I'm surprised no one has seen that yet," he comments while Hana starts going through the box, picking up random pieces and inspecting them.

She picks up another piece to scrutinize before answering him. "Why would they? No one has gotten this far inside aside from you, and you're a special case." The piece gets set down in one of two piles. "These are from where I told you I found him?"

He nods and sits in her chair, elbows on his knees and fingers steepled together. "Yeah, there was just a lot of junk to go through. Whoever did this to your friend, they really went to town. I don't think it's every part but I did my best."

A nod is all he gets while she continues to sift through the piles, arranging and rearranging everything. "...no, this is too damaged, maybe we can try to see if we can replicate it and do an upgrade?"

"...aaaaand she's gone." Yet he smiled because that's just the kind of person he knew Hana was. When she was not defending their country she'd always be right beside him, both of them elbow deep in Tokki's inner mechanisms, repairing and upgrading everything they could. Covered in oil grease and muck. He watches her for a minute longer before turning to look at the covered omnic.

Getting up, he moved closer and removed the sheet to study the 'patient'. There was something about this omnic that didn't sit right with him, but he trusted Hana so for now he'd let it be.

"Any luck on finding parts on the net?" he asked curiously, his eyes trained on their guest's external chassis. It almost reminded him of a ribcage, and he shuddered. Spooky scary skeleton.

Hana glanced back for a moment and shook her head. "Nope! Nothing. Zip. Nada. The closest thing I could find was something from like, 30 years ago? Or something like that. R-7000. We weren't even a thought in our parents' heads yet, el oh el."

"R-7000? Huh. That sounds familiar," he removed the sheet and carefully folded it to set aside. He could have sworn he had heard about that type of omnic somewhere, but if this guy was from the times of the Crisis, then...

"...maybe we should leave him as is."

SMACK

A small Pachimari stress toy hits him square in the chest and landed on the floor with a defeated squeak. Hana is glaring daggers at him, her hand still extended from that throw.

"No. We've already brought him in, it would be cruel to stop now."

"But-"

Hana walked towards him, stopping short a few centimeters and jabbed a finger at him. "If you're not gonna help, then get out. I have work to do. Maybe Jae-eun will let you polish Princess or something."

He made a face. Sure he got along with Casino just fine but the guy was so very particular about his mech. "Hana-" but he's quickly pushed out of the room and the door is slammed in his face.

He hesitated on knocking again, but decided against it. If she wanted to be alone, that's fine. Maybe he shouldn't have voiced his thoughts out loud. The thing was, he was concerned about her health. Since she was told not to touch Tokki was she looking at that omnic as a replacement until she could?

Well, he can always apologize later when she's less upset.

-

Hmph. That boy was smarter than he looked. That human had every reason to be suspicious of him. Ramattra would make sure to remember that. The sounds of the girl moving metal was annoying, but what could he do about it?

Nothing but lay there and contemplate his situation. So far the humans had removed a bit more of his hardware joints, which he wasn't pleased about. At one point he did manage to get a glimpse of what they were doing, studying the pieces, the girl trying to fit things together as if he were some complex puzzle.

It both irritated and amused him, if he wanted to be honest. Humans were the ones who 'created' them but they still knew so little about omnics. She was young, so he knew that she hadn't been around during the times were his people were far more numerous than today.

During the past three days, he did also learn that she was part of a team that was responsible from holding the Gwishin at bay. Admirable, but in the end, how long would just 5 children hold out against an omnic army? How would they fare against his Null Sector?

Now there was a thought. Perhaps somewhere down the line he would bring his troops here and-

A soft sniffle interrupts his train of thought. She's standing over him again, looking quite pitiful as she presses a few buttons to move the table into a more upright position. There are unshed tears in her eyes as she does her best to ignore whatever is wrong with her.

"Don't worry, I'll fix you. You deserve that at least."

What was he, a project? She seemed to know her way around tools but the fact that she seemed so fixated on him was rather odd. If she know who he really was, would she still be doing this? Wasn't she a protector of humanity?

She's still touching him, petting the cables he had attached to his head. It was a choice he definitely had made to give himself a little more individuality at the monastery. He was secretly proud of them, but that was something no one would ever pry out of his hard drives. Yet here she is, acting like he was some household pet while she muses to herself. She knows he can hear her, right?

"You know, in the movie I was talking about, the little guy controls the human by tugging on his hair." He does the omnic equivalent of an eyeroll by flashing his lights, causing her to laugh and step back. "Wow okay, I know. Stupid idea, but hey, maybe you should let me try it once?"

No. He's allowing her to touch him without consequence at this moment, she should be proud of the fact that she's still breathing.

"..."

Sighing dramatically she moved back towards her desk to look through the parts Dae-Hyun had gotten her. There was really so much. Some of it did look like it belonged to him at one point, but they were mangled and twisted in a way that even with welding tools it would be nearly impossible to have it be the way it once was.

"I should thank him but sometimes...hey can I tell you something?"

Wasn't like he could stop her, so she kept going.

Plopping down on her chair, she moved it closer to him, her feet making mismatched sounds from tapping on the floor. "I know he's looking out for me, but to be honest, I'm not even mad at him. I know there are places where some radical omnics are rising up again, but even so, why does that mean I have to be hostile to every one I come across. What happened to you was terrible, and even though it's not my place, I'm sorry for what they did."

Stupid, stupid child. He doesn't need or want an apology from her. This happened because he made a mistake and underestimated the humans who he had come across. But he doesn't want an apology from them either. What he wants is their complete surrender. If he had to kill them to have it, he would do so. No mercy until justice was served. One way or another he would have it.

Her though? Now that was a question Ramattra couldn't answer at the moment. And it was one he hoped he wouldn't have to anytime soon.

[moonwqves]

𝐅𝐀𝐐 + 𝐆𝐔𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒.

↩ BACK TO NAVI. | MASTERLIST.

⊹ ˙ . 𖥻 ABOUT THE AUTHOR.

˗ˏˋ luna — she/her — 21+ — uni student — queer wlw ˎˊ- fic recs blog ➤ @snowfallrecs

★ — i've been posting fanfic on tumblr for almost 3 years, but i've recently wanted to expand my writing and branch out to other fandoms (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶) ★ — i write whatever i'm hyperfixating on atm! this will probably change often and depends on what i've watched/read recently. see the character list below for who i'm currently writing, and check my navi post for my current top character!

ᯓ ✦ 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐫 :

all the content on my blog will be very loosely based in canon. i have bad short-term memory so when i read/watch things i usually don't retain many plot details, just the vibes and personalities of characters. there will probably be small things in my works that are inconsistent with the original media, because accuracy to the original plot is not my priority. if something is slightly incorrect or doesn't line up with canon storylines, don't comment on it, because i probably don't care. my works are fiction, based on my personal views of the character/actor/etc. there are plenty of other authors who will write plot that is canon-compliant, so please don't ask me to. i'm treating this blog like a journal of writing exercises so don't take it too seriously ♡

⊹ ˙ . 𖥻 REQUESTS/INTERACTIONS.

★ — read everything from this post before sending a request. anything that breaks my guidelines will be deleted. ★ — minors will be blocked, no exceptions. this blog includes adult nsfw content and i am not comfortable interacting with anyone under 18. i can't stop you from reading, but do not interact with me. ★ — do not copy, translate, reupload, or repost my works on any site. ★ — between school, work, and writing on my main blog, i may not be active here often. i will try to answer as many requests as i can, but i reserve the right to decline any request regardless of whether or not it breaks my guidelines. i just get busy, please don't take it personally! ★ — if you're unsure whether something is ok to request or not, just ask first and i'll be happy to clarify! ★ — send an ask if you'd like to claim an anon emoji! asks are always welcome so feel free to send links, photos, etc. :) ★ — please be kind when requesting! it doesn't cost any extra effort to ask politely instead of demanding that i write something without so much as a 'please' or 'thank you'. remember that i am a stranger to you, and i do this for fun in my free time because i enjoy it. if you want to keep reading my fics and want me to keep writing, a little kindness goes a long way!

⊹ ˙ . 𖥻 WRITING.

i only write short-form content on this blog: drabbles, headcanons, reactions, mtl, texts, hard/soft thots. these are small scenarios with very little plot or setup. you can request continuations of other fics, but you must give me specific details of the scenario you want; don't just say "write part 2". examples of how to request these:

✓ mtl with the maze runner boys, who would be the best at taking care of you when ur sick? ✓ how would bale!batman react to someone flirting with you? ✓ can't stop thinking about drunk texting best friend peter parker and accidentally confessing your crush on him... ✓ i loved your dating john wick headcanons!! can you do more for when you get married? ✗ do part 2 of sexting tom blyth why? this doesn't include any specific details for me to work with (when, where, why, how, which kinks to include, etc.) ✗ write about arranged marriage with coryo why? this is a request for a longer fic. also, this doesn't include any specific details about the scenario (when, where, why, how) or the type of content you want (bullet points, drabble, sfw or nsfw, etc.)

🟢 ᯓ ✦ 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐨𝐤

★ — fluff — smut — hurt/comfort — established relationship — breeding/creampie — size kink —subspace — weed/alcohol use — dacryphilia — choking, marking, spanking — degredation/humiliation — college au

🟡 ᯓ ✦ 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐤

★ — pregnancy — period sex — butt stuff (anal, pegging, etc.) — pet play — a/b/o or hybrid au — cheating/infidelity — canon levels of violence (kidnapping, gore, murder, etc. depending on the fandom)

🔴 ᯓ ✦ 𝐝𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭

★ — major character death (canon or non-canon) — underage reader or character (sfw or nsfw) — noncon/dubcon — incest — piss, vomit, anything of that nature — foot fetish — lactation — age play/ddlg — high school au — self harm, eating disorders, mental illnesses — abuse, manipulation, yandere, etc.

⊹ ˙ . 𖥻 CHARACTERS/READERS.

★ — i only write fem/afab!reader or gn!reader x character. i do not write character x character (except in threesomes with a reader). mostly dom!character and sub!reader. because of my own identity, i don't feel comfortable writing about these because i don't want to misrepresent experiences or identities that i don't personally share: ★ — male/amab reader — trans reader — aro or ace reader — specific races or cultural/ethnic backgrounds — specific nationality (country) — chubby/fat reader

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭.

crossed out characters are ones i am not currently writing for, but may decide to write in the future (usually just because i haven't watched/read them in a while and want to revisit before i start writing for them again!)

ᯓ ✦ 「 dc universe 」

‣ batman/bruce wayne ↪ as played by bale, pattinson, affleck ‣ superman/clark kent ‣ the flash/barry allen ↪ as played by grant gustin

ᯓ ✦ 「 marvel universe 」

‣ loki laufeyson ‣ spiderman/peter parker ↪ as played by maguire, garfield, holland ‣ stephen strange ‣ wanda maximoff ‣ tony stark ‣ bucky barnes

ᯓ ✦ 「 the hunger games 」

‣ peeta mellark ‣ finnick odair ‣ coriolanus snow ‣ sejanus plinth

ᯓ ✦ 「 the maze runner 」

‣ newt ‣ minho ‣ thomas

ᯓ ✦ 「 harry potter 」

‣ draco malfoy ‣ neville longbottom

ᯓ ✦ 「 actors/celebrities 」

‣ tom blyth ‣ tom holland ‣ robert pattinson

ᯓ ✦ 「 miscellaneous 」

‣ john wick ‣ billy the kid ‣ tommy shelby (peaky blinders) ‣ four/tobias eaton (divergent) ‣ james bond ↪ as played by daniel craig ‣ sherlock holmes ↪ as played by benedict cumberbatch

© moonwqves 2024. last updated 16 july 2024.

[princesscolumbia]

Pride Month 2024 - Day 6

I got so caught up in getting a chapter of Code of Ethics posted I almost forgot today's Pride Month entry!

So I'm delaying the Tumblr post for the new chapter until tomorrow so I can do this tonight.

And for today's Gender™️-fueled entry...welcome to the Omegaverse! 😈

Sunset Shimmer has the misfortune to stumble onto a human world that mirrors her home to an uncanny degree, save for one thing; it exists in The Omegaverse. These humans developed traits commonly associated with wolves. Alphas become the leaders and find mates with Omegas, Betas are the majority of the population. When Sunset Shimmer transited to this world, she did so via a magical portal that "rewrote" her base form, but there's a catch: Where any human to transit into this universe by a similar method, their own mythologies and histories usually include werewolves and the magic could pattern the visitor after the visitor's native Archana-canid Sapiens. Equestria has no such being in its history or legends. But there is one intelligent species in Equestria that is quite common and has the traits in its biology, social structure, and power dynamic to match the human world. Sunset must navigate an unfamiliar world in a strange body that seems to be betraying her at every turn, and Celestia must deal with challenges never before faced by an Alpha to keep her pack members and the secret to Sunset's unique nature hidden from the world. Because Sunset Shimmer is not an ordinary Alpha, she's a…Deviation

I cannot say my first exposure to the Omegaverse was in 2022 when I found my first Ranma 1/2 Omegaverse fic. I didn't, in fact, even know that it was an Omegaverse fic. I just saw a Ranma 1/2 fic whose premise was unknown enough to me that I might have actually found a Ranmafic I couldn't guess the plot and dialog for (long story). And upon being captivated by this creation I checked the tags to see if I could find other stuff that fell into the same category...and saw #omegaverse in the tags.

And now, a re-enactment of my reaction: "Wait, THAT'S what 'Omegaverse' means?!?!"

See, I'd been seeing the tags floating around various spaces online but didn't know what it meant, what it indicated, and legit thought it was just another franchise I hadn't heard of and didn't have the bandwidth or spoons to look up. Knock me over with a feather when I found out it was an entire meta-fandom all its own (like furries) and it was all about the Gender and was fertile soil for ALL SORTS OF COOL WORLD BUILDING!

Plus it means I giggle like a teenager hearing the number '69' when I hear the word 'knot.'

It's also the first fic I started experimenting with the custom CSS (called "work skins" by AO3) that let me do some cool stuff like this:

The same fic on FiMFiction (which had, once upon a time, been my preferred publication destination for my fics...but it's MLP-only, so I can't really post my Ranma or She-ra stuff there) doesn't look nearly as good:

That said, if you prefer the FiMFiction site for reasons that have nothing to do with fic formatting, by all means check the work out there using this link:

[thatforgottenbasilisk]

just some straight up quirk bullshit

(Ao3 link)

Fandom: My Hero Academia

Prompts: Obscure Dads Week 1 Day 5 (Yoichi), Bad Things Happen Bingo (Hate Plague)

@badthingshappenbingo @daddecember

Words: 2603

Rating: T

Summary:

Izuku likes to think that he's a perfectly normal, perfectly decent person. Maybe not quite normal anymore, all things considered, but decent.

He doesn't know what he must have done, then, to be subject to this kind of nonsense so often- of course he's the one to get hit with a villain's quirk!

"Do you feel irritable or disagreeable at all? Moreso than expected or normal for you, I mean."

The paramedic asks this almost conversationally while shining a small flashlight in Izuku's eyes. He's sitting in the back of an ambulance, like he has been for the past twenty minutes, at the site of a jewelry store robbery that just happened to be near the konbini by UA. He sees Uraraka and Jirou talking to police further away, but since he was hit by the robber's quirk, he's the one who gets to be in the ambulance.

("Why is it always you?" Uraraka had asked before the ambulance got there, and he'd just shrugged. He doesn't know any better than she does.)

"No, I don't think so. Why?"

The paramedic clicks the flashlight off and replies, "They identified the quirk that you were hit with. Supposedly, it's called 'Social Tension,' and what it does is aggravate social tension in those it affects. Usually, that comes out by making the victim more argumentative than usual, but sometimes it interacts with quirks strangely, gives it a bit of a delay. You might be feeling it in a few hours, but it only lasts for a day or so. Make sure to let your friends know, or at least avoid them tomorrow, okay? We don't want you ending any friendships over this."

Izuku nods, a little nervous over the description of the quirk. "Are you sure you can't, um, hold me in the hospital or something? I'd be under a quirk effect."

The paramedic shakes her head sadly, in an understanding sort of way, while bent over a bandage she's applying to Izuku's arm. "Sorry, I wish I could say we could, but your only other injuries are a scratch or two. We can't hold you for being angry."

Izuku sighs, and says, "It was worth a shot. Is there any way of slowing it down?"

The paramedic smooths out the bandage, and straightens back up. "I'm sorry, but I don't know anything else about that quirk. I would suggest either relaxing or going to the gym, but that's my own personal advice. Not medical-professional-grade. Alright, you're all set- I believe that you still need to give a statement to the officers?"

Izuku nods, and hops down from where he was sitting. The paramedic beckons over one of the policemen, someone he hasn't met before, and he starts his account of how it all went down.

---

They had just unexpectedly run out of milk, and since it was a weekend, UA didn't have to send a teacher or someone to get more, because students could be sent on the errand instead.

He and Uraraka had volunteered, and Aizawa had sent Jirou along with them, because she "is actually responsible" and "will keep you two chaos gremlins in check."

So the three of them had gone to the konbini for some milk, and they were supposed to hurry back; however, an argument had started about whether or not they should get some of the bright Hero-themed gummies on display. Surprisingly, Uraraka had not been on his side, saying that they shouldn't waste their money when they could come back another time with a bigger budget for snacks; meanwhile, he'd spotted some All Might ones, so he was fighting tooth and nail for them. Jirou was doing the same for some Present Mic gummies.

It was when Uraraka had been very close to convincing him to put them back when Jirou had heard the burglar alarm from the jewelry store across the way.

Obviously, as Hero Course students, they had to intervene. They'd run out of the store, leaving their basket behind, and towards the jewelry store, which seemed to have been closed for the day. The robber was masked, and was rifling through drawers and had broken into a display case already.

Izuku and Uraraka had gone inside first, in order to try and get the robber to surrender peacefully, while Jirou plugged her earphone jacks into the wall to see if she could hijack the speaker system and called the police.

Then, the fight had gone down, with Uraraka flinging pieces of already-broken jewelry at high speeds while Izuku tried to physically box the robber into a corner. At one point, Jirou must have managed to get into the store's speakers, because she blasted a sudden noise that threw all three of them off-kilter; however, this was a move that she'd practiced before, so Izuku and Uraraka recovered much faster than the robber did.

The robber, when taken by surprise like that, blasted off his quirk, an unknown beam of light that managed to get Izuku right in the chest. However, after a moment, he decided he felt fine and went back to trying to finish the fight.

Then the police arrived, and quickly arrested the robber. An ambulance was called when Izuku had mentioned the quirk, and that was pretty much the end of the story.

---

The officer lets Izuku go after a few clarifying questions, and he, Uraraka, and Jirou go back to the konbini for their milk. The cashier, who'd heard and seen some of the commotion outside, allows all three of them a free pack of gummies; Izuku and Jirou smugly grab their preferred packs, and Uraraka manages to find a Thirteen-themed pack for herself.

On the walk back, the three of them bemoan how Aizawa was going to kill the three of them, considering that he'd been called when the police arrived, and Izuku remembers what the paramedic had told him about the quirk. He sullenly kicks at the sidewalk, and then relays the explanation to Uraraka and Jirou.

Jirou's response is a simple, "I forgive you preemptively," and that seems to be the end of that.

Uraraka, however, laughs and says, "Deku, the only person who's going to antagonize you is Bakugou, and he needs to be taken down a few notches."

Oh no. "B-But if Kacchan tries to start something, I don't want to yell at him or fight him or anything! We're just barely friends again, I don't want that to stop!"

Uraraka sighs, rolls her eyes, and responds, "Do you honestly think he, of all people, is the kind of guy to hold violence against you? The guy who routinely screams 'Die! Die! Die!' in training? The one we joke about having to give rabies shots to? That guy?"

"... Maybe."

"Just warn him about the quirk, and if he starts something after that, he'll know it's his own fault if he gets beat to a pulp."

Izuku shoves his face into his hands, closes his eyes, and very quietly screams. He ignores the mocking laughter from both sides.

"Midoriya, if you're really all that bothered about it, just shut yourself in your room for tonight and tomorrow. It's not like there's class tomorrow, so you can get your homework done or something."

"But I'm already two weeks ahead!" Izuku's voice still feels muffled, and he finally takes his hands off his face to look at where he's going. Uraraka's still quietly snickering to herself, while Jirou seems to be attempting to offer some actual advice.

"Then troll some hero forums or something, get all your anger out that way. As much as I would love to see you go apeshit, clearly you don't want to do that, so make a throwaway account on Reddit and get mad at all the nerds who are three centimeters off about the latest All Might action figure instead of at your friends."

"... I got banned from the All Might forum when I was eleven."

"I just said to make a throwaway."

"They banned my IP address."

"Wait- Deku, what did you do?"

Uraraka and Jirou have stopped walking and are both staring at him incredulously, while he stares up at the sky in shame. "We don't talk about the Toxic Chainsaw incident."

They glance at each other before blinking over at him. There's silence, for a minute, before Jirou tentatively offers, "UA's IP is different from the one at your house?"

Izuku exhales forcefully, thinks it over, and eventually says, "If I get UA banned from the All Might forum then I will never live it down. Also Nedzu might kill me."

"They'll think you're stealing UA's Wi-Fi if they actually ban your IP," Uraraka chimes in.

"Then Nedzu will still find out. And kill me. Or expel me."

Jirou raises an eyebrow, and notes, "Odd emphasis on that last one."

"Expulsion might be worse than death in this particular circumstance."

Jirou bursts out in cackles, while Uraraka giggles out a "Don't ever change, Deku!"

The three of them ping ideas for blowing off steam, but they all get shot down by one of the others; by time they get to UA, Izuku's too busy giggling at Uraraka's latest suggestion to be all that worried about the quirk taking effect in the next few hours, or even tomorrow.

---

Izuku's been holed up in his room for a few hours, now, and he doesn't feel any different. He'd tried getting into Internet arguments, but everyone was being so purposefully bad-faith about everything that he'd had to stop. He got another week ahead on his homework, and then ran out of homework to do. He ate the snacks he keeps in his desk, but he was already running low and the stale bag of prepackaged popcorn has only made him hungrier.

He knows that right about now is the prime time for dinner, and that other people will be downstairs if he goes; however, he's also pretty sure that Uraraka and Jirou spread the news about the quirk, even if Aizawa didn't. So if someone tries something and the quirk decides to suddenly rear its head, that won't really be too much of his fault, and he can always apologize on Monday.

With this decided, he goes downstairs for dinner.

It's actually not bad, when he goes. Kacchan's on cooking duty tonight, so he's too busy yelling at the others with kitchen duty like a drill sergeant on steroids to really care about what Izuku does; there's two portions of Kacchan's extra spicy curry on the side, and since they're smaller than the bigger batch, they're already done and being kept on the backburner of the stove to keep warm. Izuku dodges around Kirishima and Ojiro as they frantically chop more vegetables, and grabs a bowl from the cabinet for his share of the extra spicy curry.

Kacchan always makes two portions of it, even though he only ever eats one, because he knows that Izuku is just as much of a spice hound as he is, though of course he'd never admit it. Even so, he doesn't rag on Izuku like he usually would for "stealing his food," so he must be feeling considerate.

Nobody avoids him while he eats, but no one talks to him, either. He has to remind himself that the quirk might rear its head at any minute, so this is the best outcome for everyone, but it still hurts. Just a bit.

So he's quick about his meal, and hurries upstairs when he's done. It's just getting dark, but he figures he may as well go to bed now- in all likelihood, it'll all be worse tomorrow.

---

"Fuck the entire way off, Daigoro!"

"Absolutely not, you son of a bitch! You knew I didn't want the damn- !"

"Will both of you shut it? Nobody wants to hear your decades-old argument rehashed again! It's done! It's over! Hikage apologized a thousand times while he was alive, if his memories are right, so there's no need for you to be pulling this shit up in front of Ninth!"

"Oh, like you wanted the quirk, either, Nana! En foisted it on you- "

"Do not bring me into this- "

Izuku watches the vestiges fight over the past with a viciousness he hasn't seen before. The First, Yoichi, watches silently with vague concern, and not-quite-All Might is silent as always. Second and Third are silent as well, though they flank Yoichi and show nothing on their faces. Is this because of the quirk he was hit by, he wonders? Instead of affecting him, it went for the vestiges? That would make sense, considering how he was told it has weird interactions with quirks sometimes, and One for All is as weird a quirk as they come.

"And about Ninth! What kind of successor is he, breaks himself over and over trying to use the quirk? None of us had near the amount of issues he does!"

... Of course, more confirmation that he's not the Ninth that they wanted. It always circles back to that, the inevitable truth that he's too weak for it, not good enough, doesn't even have a quirk to offer it. No hope of killing All for One. No hope of beating Shigaraki. No hope of doing anything useful with it.

"None of us had near the stockpiled strength he has, either! Eighth poured power into this quirk for decades, and you expect a teenager to use it without issue? The poor boy's never even had a quirk before! As far as I'm concerned, he's doing perfectly fine!"

Yoichi finally steps into the argument, physically moving over towards Izuku, as though to protect him from the others. His voice, though naturally very quiet, is raised enough that it cuts through the others' arguments.

He sighs, though Izuku doesn't think he needs to in this place, and turns towards Izuku. In his more normal tone, he says, "Don't mind them, Ninth. They've been up in arms all day, of course they were bound to drag you into it."

Izuku tries to say something about the quirk he was hit with, because of course that must be why the vestiges have been like this- especially considering the timing of it, it must have exacerbated the 'social tension' between all the vestiges. Unfortunately, he still doesn't have any way of communicating in here, and it seems that the vestiges aren't aware of what happened earlier.

Yoichi must see something on his face, because he continues, "Don't worry about it. They get like this sometimes, it never actually leads to anything. They're all bitter in their own ways. It'll pass, it always does."

Izuku would huff in frustration if he could, but as it stands, he still can't do anything like that in this plane of One for All. At least he knows that the quirk won't have any permanent effects- if they've gotten like this before, like Yoichi says, then nobody's going to be holding any grudges when it wears off.

The argument seems to have started up again while Yoichi stopped paying attention to it, but instead of intervening again, Yoichi only sighs. He seems exhausted, for a moment, before returning to his usual appearance and saying, "May as well go ahead and wake up, Ninth. It's not like you'll be getting much rest if you stay here."

---

Izuku wakes up slowly, and nearly falls right back to sleep before he figures he may as well check the time. He rolls over, and sees that his alarm reads a little after 1 in the morning, so there's enough time to sleep and get a half-decent amount of rest if he doesn't end up in One for All again.

He doesn't think he will. He's barely half-awake at best, though, so maybe his predictions aren't the best, but he feels warm and comfortable enough that he doesn't really care one way or the other.

[dylawas-reblogs]

Aight, I'm pissed enough at Y*utube's aggressive ad bullshit (this reddit comment summarizes it pretty well) and it's one of the few G**gle services that we're stuck stuck with, that I'm gonna make my own post on current workarounds as of 10/12/2023, with info on methods that I know of for both desktop and mobile. They may not be the best workarounds, but they are what I'm currently using or trust from what I've heard (and I haven't had any other posts like this come across my dash, so maybe this is needed). We fight to the bitter end, comrades.

This post is specifically for if you must be logged in to use Youtube. Your greatest defense would be to use Youtube while logged out. From what I can tell, they basically can't do anything to you if you are.

Please note that I am absolutely no web or code expert, I don't understand the inner workings of the G**gle all seeing eye and how they catch you on this shit, I don't know if it's account based or IP based, I just barely figured out how to buy and use my own domain like three weeks ago, so there are likely things in this post I will suggest that people will correct me on. If for some reason this post gets big and starts circulating (unlikely), please check reblogs and replies for additional information (and make sure it's ACCURATE if you can). Knowledge is your friend.

With that plea to the void out of the way:

Desktop:

Some folks are using browsers with built in ad blockers such as Brave (with varying results; the comments are worth a read by everyone regardless if you use Brave) to circumvent the ad block policy, but that's Chromium shit! We don't do that in this house! I guess you can if you really want to (PrivacyGuides apparently gives it the seal of approval) but if you like your online privacy, I personally really do suggest sticking with Firefox.

"But Dyl, they're catching us on Firefox even with Ublock Origin."

Yes, but the Ublock team is working their asses off to keep up with every. single. ID. change. Y*utube makes to try to break their workarounds. If it's not currently working for you, click on that link right there and follow that guide. This war of the ads will probably continue for a while, so my advice for the foreseeable future is this:

Always perform the four steps listed in the above link any time you've been away from Y*utube for a while (even just a couple hours),

and double check the Y*utube ID VS Ublock's current ID as stated in the linked comment at the start of this post.

After verifying there's an ID update and Ublock is caught up, reset your filters every single time you get on after a several hour break (after backing up your personal filters and trusted sites, if you have any of those customized). Why so often? Because that's just about how often Y*utube's updating their popup ID to catch you with your ad blocker. The Ublock team is staying on top of it fairly well considering the insane frequency, but they may not always get to it for a few hours (hence checking the ID).

After rebooting your Ublock, check a few videos without being logged in first so as not to put your account at risk. Do so in incognito if it's easiest for you. EDIT: If you aren't logged in, YT won't give a shit if you have an ad blocker-- or so I've heard.

"That sounds like a hassle. Don't the filters in this post work?"

They may have at one point! But that post was made all the way back at the end of June 2023, and most recent replies in the post are stating it's not working for them anymore. Thus, I'd just constantly reset your Ublock for the time being until a better solution is implemented. Besides, once you know what you're doing, resetting Ublock takes a grand total of, oh I dunno, a minute? On that note, with YT's constant updates, I have no idea how Brave is faring/keeping up in comparison. And besides from using either Brave or Firefox+Ublock, I don't know of any other desktop solutions.

Furthermore-- and this applies to both desktop and mobile, but I'm bringing it up now-- if you really value your Y*utube channel and don't want it to lose access to watching videos-- or worse-- it may work to make a Y*utube account that's dispensable as your new default. I just used my spam email, honestly. It's literally no skin off my nose if that account suddenly can't watch Y*utube anymore. Then, save the browsing on your main account for when you can afford to have your adblock off (or just don't watch videos from that account anymore). It seems if you've already got the warning once, you're basically on G**gle's watchlist with that account now-- so if you've gotten it on your main, better safe than sorry.

Mobile:

There are a couple things I know of that you can do here. My first suggestion, and the one I just set up, is Revanced (aka the Revanced Manager, and it works in tangent with a MicroG fork (I absolutely do not have the vocabulary to explain what MicroG is/does, just know you can't log in to YT Revanced without it)). This Reddit post is the one I think will make the most sense to everyone for installation, but I would use it in conjunction with the official guide for dummies, not as a replacement for it.

TL;DR, Revanced is an open source APK patcher (or in gamer speak, a mod) that provides patches for numerous applications (T*mblr included, hint hint). Note the term "patches." Yes, you do need to download an APK of your app of choice (on non-rooted devices), but technically what Revanced does is create its own "build" of the app by combining the APK and the patches, and since they're not the ones distributing the APK, I believe that technically keeps them out of G**gle's death laser. PLEASE note that Revanced does NOT distribute its own APKs: if you're trying to save yourself hassle and find something claiming to be an already patched Revanced APK, be it for Y*utube, Reddit, etc, assume it's a virus even if it's not. Always get your APK from apkmirror with your own fingers and manually patch it in with Revanced.

I know the guide looks scary, but believe me: Revanced used to be WAY harder to install, as in, you had to go through a virtual machine on your phone harder. At the current moment, Revanced is Android only. Sorry Apple users :/

If logging in to an account is of no consequence to you and you could not care less, Newpipe is another good third party YT choice from what I've heard; I don't know if it has all of the same features as Revanced YT, but at the very least, yes, it should block ads. It seems to also be compatible with Soundcloud and Bandcamp of all things at a glance, so if those are common applications for you, Newpipe might even be a better option for you over Revanced. Alas, yet again, this app is not compatible with Apple-- and as this is the last third party YT app I have to offer, I don't know if there are any third party YT apps that are Apple compatible. However...

If installing a scary new non-playstore app isn't up your alley, Brave seems to have a mobile app as well; you'd be watching Y*utube in your browser instead of the Y*utube app, but hey, I was watching Y*utube in Firefox mobile with Ublock until I put on my big kid pants with Revanced, so it's absolutely doable. Again, I must reiterate, I don't know how Brave is faring with these changes.

That's all I've got, but just to reiterate: I'm not an expert. I only know bare bones web/code stuff, my understanding on some of these things may be slightly off or wrong, these are just the methods I know of that work to circumvent YT ads. Your mileage may vary on a number of factors, including but not limited to, your understanding of/ability to learn how to download and use non-playstore apps, any breaking updates YT makes to further enforce their tyranny, how G**gle keeps track of ad blockers in browsers, and how long ago this post was made vs when you're seeing it.

It's war out there, soldier; good luck.

[bravelysanta]

Bravely Santa sign-ups are here for 2024!

Link to the form

The boring stuff/Deadlines: 1)  You have until (Sunday) October 20 at 1 AM EST to sign up. I’ll also be posting regular updates so follow bravelysanta at Twitter/Tumblr/Bluesky.

This is a hard deadline. If you miss it, you miss it! Try again next year!

REMEMBER THAT YOU MUST JOIN THE GROUP ON SNEAKY SANTA - the link will show up after you fill out the form.  Email me at fairyglowcharm @ gmail if you forgot to join it.

2) On the afternoon of October 20th, you will receive an email with the name of the person that you’ll be gifting via Sneaky Santa.

I will check-in a couple of times between mid-Nov and early-Dec. Please use these check-ins as opportunities to tell me if you need help!

3) Gifts are due anytime between December 22nd - 29th. If you will not be able to post it during that time, submit/msg me beforehand and I’ll post it for you.

4) If you think you may not meet the deadline, please contact me immediately and no later than December 21st. But please don’t sign up if you know your availability will be iffy in the first place.

5) If signing up as a pinch-hitter, those will be due by Jan 1st.

Guidelines:

1) If you must cancel your application, please notify me immediately either via email (fairyglowcharm @ gmail) or the bravelysanta accounts, preferably before assignments are chosen on Oct 20. If you find you cannot meet the gifting deadline and need an extension, please also notify me before Dec 21st. 

2) When filling out your name on the Sneaky Santa website, please include your social media handle (either Tumblr or Twitter/Bluesky), so your Santa knows how to @ you. Example - Koma (komatsujo).  (Everyone's names/prounouns/social media handles will be posted on a spreadsheet linked on the site, but this makes it easier to find folks.)

3) Remember that you are gifting a present to someone, and be prepared to spend at least some time on it. No one likes a last-minute gift!

4) Both fanart and fanfic are accepted as submissions. Santees, do not specifically request one or the other.

5) No AI generated art or fanfiction is allowed. The point of this is to create something for someone. Everyone of all talent levels is invited to join, to share the love of Bravely.

6) If you know there is a game, character, or ship that you don't wish to create content about, please indicate that in the last question of the form. I will do my best to exclude pairing you up with someone who is requesting a gift regarding those items, but please understand that I can't make promises if wishlists are not filled out.

7) Please try to complete your wishlists before Oct 20th for these reasons.

8) When creating your wishlists, please do not specifically request fanart or fanfic (example: do not request specifically fanart of the Crystal Crew as kids, instead of requesting something like “I would love to see the Crystal Crew as kids, doing something cute”). However, you should have more than 1 item on your wishlist. Please try to have 3-5 different items so your Santa has some freedom! 

9) Specifically requesting shippy gifts is allowed, but no NSFW material, either in wishlists or presents. This is mostly about smut, but also be mindful with gore and violence.  

10) Your wishlist and present MUST include Bravely themes or characters, such as Bravely Default 1 or 2, Bravely Second, Fairy’s Effect, Brilliant Lights, Praying Brage, etc. With the presence of Bravely characters in Octopath: COTC, Octopath characters + Bravely characters is allowed, though please be mindful of spoilers for the Octopath games. Same applies to other Team Asano games. 

11) Please try to keep your assignments private! Talk about them with friends in DM all you want, but if someone can find out that you’re their Santa on social media, that ruins the surprise!

12) Please tag submissions as #bravelysanta2024 !

13) If there is anything else you would like to specifically avoid during Secret Santa, up to and including a specific person, please indicate as such in the last question. These answers will be private and will never be shared with anyone outside of myself. This includes if you don't want to be matched with me, I'm a people manager, I can take it.

Link to the form is here!

[iniziare]

fingers crossed re. the apartment, keep us updated! i just wanted to ask -- do you still have resources on here, or a separate resource blog somewhere?

My apologies for not having gotten to this until now, 'non. All of the good vibes must have paid off, because the lease has been signed and the move-in date is as of the 17th of this month! All that is left are payments (closer to the move-in date), and some formalities in terms of paperwork, but unless (somehow) the very worst of the worst happens that is borderline impossible, the apartment is and remains mine for at least the upcoming two years! Freedom and peace is within reach, finally. It feels very good after so long. Thank you for the check-in, and thank you for keeping your fingers crossed. I believe it helped!

As for your question, some of my 'newer' (they still date back to at least two years ago) resources in terms of Photoshop, and other Adobe downloads can still be found on an old resources blog of mine that had been my intended 'go-to' for everything, but never succeeded in completing in its set-up due to life. So if you can't find anything there, I suggest that you have a look through my resource tag on one of my more 'recent' archives of iniziare. And if you're looking for my grey dashboard theme that is also supported by all the recent Tumblr dashboard updates, I direct you to this post that is directly linked to the version of it that I'm using, which means that when I update it in my Stylus (which I do every time I fix something or address a new issue), the site you download it from will automatically contain the update, which is easy to (re)install. I hope that these help you!

Fret not though, when I'm properly settled, I intend to entirely fix my presence around here. Which isn't just my writing, but also my resources. Tumblr's been left to run amuck for too long, I want (and need) to get my butt back in gear to do my part in helping people out again.

[hagoftheholler]

How to Research for Your Craft

In the past I made a post talking about why research is important. Half of witchcraft is research, like it or not. Now I'm here to provide a sort of guide on how to research information for your practice. Anybody can follow this, beginner or advanced.

💭 Initial Thoughts

Think about what you want to research. What are you looking for exactly? If you want to research multiple topics, write them down or keep a note on your phone. Don't stress yourself trying to research multiple topics at once. Research them one at a time, and don't move on to the next topic until you feel comfortable with how much you've learned about the current one. Normally, I recommend for beginners to start with cleansing, protection, warding and banishing. Those are necessities, in my opinion.

📚 Finding Resources

Google is free, so that is where y'all will start. Try looking up the topic you're looking for (you may want to add "witchcraft" somewhere in your search, depending on the topic). You can find information on Tumblr, Instagram and other blog sites. You can also find information on Tiktok and Discord servers. This is the easiest way to find resources.

Books are the next thing to consider. I know some of you don't like reading, aren't in a living situation where you'd be safe buying occult related books or don't have the money to buy books in abundance. I'll be addressing multiple things regarding this.

I think a few reasons some people don't want to buy books is because they don't know what books give good information, they feel pressured to buy dozens of books or they aren't confident in their ability to read. Here is the thing: research takes time. So does developing your craft. Don't rush your studies for any reason. There is much for you to learn and practice, and that will always require time and patience. If you can buy a physical copy of the book, buy them one at a time. Wait for them to be on sale if you must. Just don't overdo it by buying multiple books at once. Also, don't buy a book without looking at the reviews and researching the author (will be talking about this more).

If you can't afford physical copies of books, try finding pdf copies of books. There are websites that have pdf copies of books, and some Discord servers have libraries of pdf books. This is a more accessible way of finding and reading books. (I still strongly suggest trying to buy physical copies, though. Good authors deserve financial profits for the time and energy they put into writing books to share their knowledge.)

The final resource is people. There are many people online who practice witchcraft and magick. If the person is comfortable with answering questions, ask them (always check to see if they are comfortable with teaching on their social media first). Some practitioners have Discord servers or Patreons where they teach. Being able to talk to other practitioners about their craft and beliefs can be beneficial. That being said, don't be a disrespectful bitch and demand to receive information from people on witchcraft. You aren't entitled to know everything about a person's craft, and not everybody wants to be a teacher on social media. Teaching can get exhausting. As I mentioned earlier, check and see if they are comfortable teaching on their social media accounts.

🚩 Checking for Red Flags

When researching for your craft, you will always want to check for red flags. There is a lot of bad information out there and you need to know how to spot it. Here is a link to my post about red flags in witchcraft and magic.

📖 Cross Referencing

Cross referencing your sources is essential for a variety of reasons. Some sources will have good information that others don't. One source may give a different perspective than another, and that doesn't make one more reliable than another by default. If you looked at my post explaining red flags, you know why.

No matter who the person is or how highly they are spoken about, always look for more resources regarding the topic you are researching. See what other people have to say, even if their opinions are considered "unpopular". Sometimes the people who have unpopular opinions can offer a valid perspective.

🔍 Consider the Mundane

Sometimes you don't need to strictly think about something in a "witchy" manner. For a few topics, I would consider looking at things from a mundane or cultural perspective. For color correspondences, I like to look at how colors are viewed from a psychology standpoint. You may also want to consider a cultural perspective, too, because different cultures may view colors differently. For plant correspondences, I like to think about the medicinal uses for plants.

🖋️ Taking Notes

Whether it be physically writing all your notes or just typing them in a document, I would try to keep some sort of documentation on what you are learning. The initial notes would only be a rough draft of sorts, so don't focus on making it look pretty. Focus on documenting the things you are learning, what seems to be most accurate, what seems to be questionable... Cross out information that you have found to be inaccurate. Circle something that inspired you or you want to look into deeper. Take note of where you are finding the information.

💡 Coming to Your Own Conclusions

There are some things that are a little more set-in stone than others, but some things also require you to decide what you believe. Take all of the information you have learned and documented into consideration. Experiment with it. See what works for you and what doesn't.

[copperbadge]

Hi Sam! I saw a post mentioning that Russia might disconnect from the global web and we'll lose LJ. I was wondering if you know of any backups of the old Dungeons journals/community? It's been one of my comfort fics for a while and I'm sad about the possibility of losing it.

Man, I can't imagine what it must be like to be in Russia or Ukraine right now. Just the surreality of the clash between normal life and this terrifying totalitarianism descending. Incredibly scary and my heart goes out to the people of both countries. I feel like in the sudden scare of "we might lose LJ" it's important to remember that there are people who are losing a lot more, before I step into this discussion.

I've seen a lot of posts about methodologies for getting stuff off LJ. Not to be an asshole about it, but the best way to do this would be to have been doing it for the last five years. I know that's not helpful, I just want to remind folks that if you love something online, or if you use it as a resource, save it now. Do not wait for emergencies. If you own it, export it to a more stable platform; if you don't, archive it. If you start saving what you love now, while it's not in danger, you can do it in small chunks. It's a lot, I know, but it's a lot that is absolutely a lot MORE when you have a deadline.

(Related to this, would anyone be interested in me running a National Clean Your Home month style event but for digital? National Save Your Shit month, or "Nasa Yoshi", could be done, but it'd have to wait until at least April because I am on my last spoon just now.)

I just googled and it looks like we archived a LOT of the RP on Insanejournal, so there is a backup of Dungeons (which may or may not be complete, I honestly don't recall) here. (Dungeons, for reference, is a Harry Potter RP I was in ages ago. I think much of it might be archived at Dreamwidth too, you might check our usernames there as well).

One last caveat -- if you are archiving something that doesn't belong to you, lock that up. You don't know what the author's wishes are, and you don't want to get accused of plagiarism, so if you've got a fic or a site or a page that you want to save, save it privately.

Ok here we go.

1. Import from LJ to Dreamwidth. Apparently the queue for that is very long right now because it's a popular choice. It's what I did when I migrated to DW as my primary platform and it works very well, but also you have to be the owner of the LJ -- you have to give DW the username and password so it can access the LJ account. Not useful for you since you want to save off Dungeons content, which presumably you don't have passwords for. Also if you are going to be using Dreamwidth, throw them some money if you at all can, they were not prepared for this level of traffic.

ETA per @fraterrisus, thank you: “I love Dreamwidth, but before people go running there to save their LJs, keep in mind that not only is DW under really heavy load right now, they've been having a bunch of problems with LJ blocking their importer code, so there's no guarantee it will even work. Check out @dreamwidth on Twitter or read the staff's posts about this on DW for more info.”

2. There are probably programs, or will be soon, that can crawl through a livejournal and save everything off to your hard drive. These used to exist but because I moved off LJ so long ago I don't have any references for where they are, and they tend to be somewhat complicated to use if you're not familiar with programming languages, plus it's hard to know who to trust when half of Github is very earnestly trying to help and the other half is malware. If you'd like to try and find a program that will download an LJ that you don't own, I'd keep an eye on the Livejournal tag on tumblr. Readers, feel free to drop links into comments or reblogs; readers, also be very wary of what links you follow.

ETA thank you @hinerdsitscat for the reminder, this is possibly shady as fuck, but https://www.blogbooker.com/ is what we used to use years ago after strikethrough and similar. I can’t promise it is safe or effective but it used to work great.

3. Save off what you love manually. You can go to any LJ page, expand all the comments you want to save, right click and save-as. Your browser should save the entire page as an html file and a folder on your hard drive; the HTML stores the text, the folder stores the images. I don't believe it saves collapsed comments, so make sure any comments you want to save are expanded.

4. I'm sure there are other options I'm missing but I can't think of any so readers, feel free to drop other options in comments. In the meantime let's go to my option of choice: Evernote, or a similar program. Evernote is a cloud-based notebook, like OneNote if you use Microsoft suite, or like Googledocs if Googledocs allowed you to save web content without copy-paste.

Evernote has a webclipper widget that installs on your browser. Go to any page you want to save, click the elephant head webclipper button, and it will save a copy, like a googledoc, to your Evernote account. Only want to save part of the page? Highlight the part, click the elephant head, and choose "save selection". You can add tags and summaries when you clip, or you can do it later. Evernote can even be trained to intuitively tag stuff (like if you've saved off 30 fics tagged Steve/Tony, and you save a 31st, it will suggest "steve/tony" as a tag since you tagged similar documents that in the past).

Evernote has an app which is limited to two devices per username, but you don't have to use the app; you can just use the website to access the documents you have saved. The upside of the app is that it will save a backup of your cloud archive to your computer (the app is also mandatory for accessing evernote on your phone, but if you can avoid doing all this on your phone you absolutely should, what a nightmare). I did a tutorial about evernote years ago; I'm not sure it would be helpful at this point, since it's undergone a lot of changes since then, but it's relatively intuitive to use.

Evernote is not the most efficient way to save off an entire archive, but if there's stuff you especially love and worry about losing, it's probably one of the easier options. Get in, get that stuff, and concern yourself with the rest later. It can save art as well as text, and it's fully searchable. I have basically built myself a second, private AO3 of just the stories I enjoy using Evernote, and I also keep informative tumblr posts and fanart there.

Also, if stuff has gone missing, try entering the url into archive.org's wayback machine and accessing it that way. In addition, if you know the title, username, or a unique phrase from the fic or page, try googling it in quotes; a lot of people have migrated stuff all over.

Good luck, guys.

[analyzen]

Italian Fandom Meta | Most Popular Types of Pairings on EFP vs. AO3

EFP (2001–, Fanlore) is the most popular writing archive in Italy, and it hosts both fanfic and original fiction. Under the cut you’ll find a breakdown of the most popular types of pairings on EFP in comparison to the most popular types of pairings in the Italian section of AO3.

The Italian version of this analysis can be found here.

TL;DR:

53% of all the chapters ever posted on EFP have been deleted

49% of the registered users on EFP have deleted their accounts

M/F works amount to 60% of the whole website

EFP’s three most popular fandoms (Harry Potter, One Direction, Original Fiction – Romantic) all have a majority of M/F works

On AO3, most Italian works are M/M (56%)

F/F doesn’t have much content on either site (4-5%)

Methodology

I’ve followed @olderthannetfic’s methodology from this earlier Fanfiction.net analysis. Basically, I picked a sample size of 666 chapters and organized them in four categories (M/M, M/F, F/F, Not tagged; more on this later).

Why I chose chapters instead of stories

On EFP you don’t have specific links for every single story. Instead, every chapter you post gets a unique id, which can be seen in the link itself. For example, at the time of writing this the last updated chapter on EFP was this one:

viewstory.php?sid=3974099

Which means that this was the 3'974'009th chapter ever posted on EFP.

Ids follow the usual numerical order, so if a link reads id=3, then there have to be id=1 and id=2, and the next link will have id=4.

So I’ve used a randomizer to select ~1200 unique ids to analyse.

Weren’t 666 chapters enough?

I started out with 700 chapters, but half of them weren’t working. That’s because 53% of all the chapters ever posted on EFP have been deleted from the website.

Thanks to the link of the last updated chapter, we know that almost 4 millions chapters have been posted on the EFP. But EFP's homepage shows different stats:

Registered users: 602395, 205974 of which are authors Last registered user: [blacked out] Total of stories: 517083 Total of chapters: 1869573 chapters Total of reviews: 6222695 Online users: 17 logged in and 53 visitors

While we should have almost 4 million chapters, the stats show ~2 million chapters. Why? Because the stats only show the stories, chapters and users that are still on the website, and they don’t show the stories, chapters and users that have been deleted.

(Sorry, I forgot to translate this one. It reads: Total of chapters posted on EFP between 2001 and today. Orange: deleted chapters. Blue: chapters that are still online.)

Thanks to the stats on the homepage we also have a link to the last registered user. User ids follow the same numerical order as chapter ids, so once again we know that 49% of the users ever registered on EFP have deleted their accounts. That's a lot of deleted accounts.

Categorization

After selecting 666 (accessible) chapters, I organized them into 4 categories:

M/M: contains all stories tagged as “yaoi”, shounen ai” and “slash”

M/F: contains all stories tagged as “het”

F/F: contains all stories tagged as “yuri”, “shoujo ai” and “femslash”

Not tagged: which contains a) poetry, b) stories tagged as “no pairing”, and c) untagged het stories.

As for the untagged het stories, there are two issues:

Many M/F fics simply aren’t tagged

Many gen fics include untagged M/F ships

If the description made it clear that the story included a heterosexual relationship, I added the story under the M/F tag. Otherwise I left it under not tagged.

Also, on EFP “yaoi”, “shounen ai” and “slash”, and “yuri”, “shoujo ai” and “femslash” actually mean different things.

This screenshot here is from the posting page on EFP. It reads:

Pairings * You must select at least one tag from the list, and you can choose up to three tags. Het: for heterosexual relationships Shonen-ai: for male/male relationships with anime/game characters; stories with no sex scenes Shojo-ai: for female/female relationships with anime/game characters; stories with no sex scenes Yaoi: for male/male relationships with anime/game characters; stories containing sex scenes Yuri: for female/female relationships with anime/game characters; stories containing sex scenes Slash: for male/male relationships from TV shows/movies/books FemSlash: for female/female relationships from TV shows/movies/books

The thing is. People either respect the rules and use different tags for different kinds of stories, or they use these tags interchangeably to maximise the chance to appear in other users' searches. Which means that you’ll find RPF tagged with “shoujo ai”, and Attack on Titan fics tagged as “slash”. (More info on this later.)

Findings

On EFP, the majority of the stories are M/F.

To confirm this, I checked some specific fandoms:

Some notes:

Because EFP doesn't have metatags like AO3, what I did was: 1) go to a specific fandom, 2) filter through every single tag, and 3) jot down the number of pages per search. Every page contains up to 15 stories, so for example searching for het in Original Fiction – Romantic gives you 846 pages, which amounts to around ~12690 stories.

The tag in red, “Nessuna”, means “no pairing”. It is used for gen fics but also for untagged M/F fics. This is especially true in some fandoms, ie. Original Fiction – Romantic, and Harry Potter.

EFP’s filtering system sucks. You can only filter through stories with specific relationship tags, but you can’t filter out relationships tag. So what you see in the graph is how often a tag is used... which brings us to some issues. For example, Harry Potter is the biggest fandom on EFP, so much that Harry Potter stories amount to 11% (!) of the whole website. But in the graph it looks like the One Direction fandom has more stories—wrong. Actually, One Direction has many stories tagged as both slash and het, while Harry Potter stories tend to be either one or the other.

EFP’s filtering system sucks, part 2. Because “shounen ai”, “yaoi” and “slash” are often used at the same time, you can't really smash together all three of the tags to get a total amount of stories. I'd say that around 50% of the stories tagged as shounen ai and yaoi probably overlap, but there is no easy way to find out because, again, EFP’s filtering system sucks. The same goes for “shoujo ai”, “yuri” and “femslash”.

Fandoms with a majority of M/M stories

While there are some fandoms with more M/M stories (ie. Death Note, Hetalia, Glee, Sherlock, Supernatural, Teen Wolf), these fandoms are simply extremely small in comparison to other bigger fandoms full of M/F fics. Which obviously skews the numbers in favor of M/F fics.

What about femslash?

EFP suffers from the same lack of femslash as AO3 as a whole. In the fandoms I've analysed, only two have a big enough number of F/F. The fandoms are Glee (which has more F/F stories than M/F stories) and Grey's Anatomy (which has as much F/F as M/F stories, with little M/M).

Original Fiction

I thought it might be interesting to explore the original sections too, especially because Original Fiction – Romantic is the third biggest fandom on EFP after Harry Potter and One Direction. These Big 3 all have a disproportionate amount of M/F stories.

By logic, this would mean the the majority of the userbase on EFP prefers M/F stories. But then, aren't fans always complaining about “too much slash”? If “Any Two Guys” were enough to find slash appealing, wouldn't it be easier to simply write original M/M?

I think that looking at original stories might help us understand why people might prefer slash over het in some fandoms. For example, the amount of M/F stories in Original Fiction – Romantic implies that, when authors have to chance to choose what types of stories to create from scratch, they might prefer M/F stories.

This would support the theory that many people might prefer slash because of the lack of (well written/primary) canonical female characters + how well M/M relationships, both platonic and romantic, are written in canon texts in comparison to M/F or F/F relationships.

Obviously, we have to keep in mind that not all fanfic writers write original fiction and viceversa, so I'm not trying to find a universal explanation here. Also because not every website has a majority of M/F stories.

Which brings us to...

AO3 vs. EFP

As per today 20/04/21, the Italian section of AO3 contains “only” 24777 stories, divided between many different fandoms. To make a comparison, the Italian stories on AO3 amount to 5% of all the stories available on EFP. To make another comparison, the whole Naruto fandom on EFP has 20129 stories in total.

EFP has also been active for 20 years, while the boom of Italian fics on AO3 only started around 2018. We can't really make a 1:1 comparison between the two archives, but we can still try to understand the preferences of their users.

M/M and M/F stories on EFP vs. AO3

EFP: 60% M/F, 25% M/M

AO3: 56% M/M, 23% M/F

The percentages are almost swapped.

This might be because of the archives themselves. EFP has always been the general website for any Italian fandom (and actually at first it mostly hosted M/F content), while AO3 has always had a big M/M userbase. I'm basing this statement on this AO3 analysis from 2013, in comparison to this FFN analysis from 2018 which showed a majority of M/F fanworks, and finally this AO3 vs. FFN vs. Wattpad analysis from 2019, which showed that AO3 has always been the outlier for its majority of M/M content.

Then again, M/M stories on EFP have always been subject to the “usual” type of borderline-to-direct harassment that M/M fans are used to, which is something that still happens to this day especially in certain writing groups on Facebook, where the Italian writing community is pretty active. It wouldn't be weird for slashers to move to AO3, where they know they'll find more like-minded people and less headaches. (Also, the Italian section of AO3 has a lot of M/M RPF that's banned on EFP.)

The “Multi” tag on EFP

The only thing that barely resembles a multi tag on EFP is threesome, which for some reason is often used as a synonym for love triangle. So from the tags it isn't easy to understand if a fic includes an actual threesome (as in, a sex scene), a polyamorous relationship, or a simple love triangle.

This doesn't mean that there aren't poly stories on EFP—it simply means that they're impossible to find using the search system.

And that's all, I think!

[writerforfun]

Best Study Tips To Get Better Grades (According to me)

Need study tips? Are you struggling to keep up in class? When you study you don't feel you learn much or anything at all? Getting better grades? Being more prepared than others?

Well. Me too.

So I did these things.

1- SING OUT LOUND! No, Wait! My brother does that. It's Read Out Loud

Be YOUR OWN TEACHER. Why? Good question, perhaps one of the reason can be MY TEACHER LEAVES THINGS OUT.

- Speaking the content out loud helps you to understand it better. Reciting out the words in YOUR OWN WORDS helps a lot. You learn aspects and even learn it far better than when you read a book. - When you speak the lesson or chapter out loud you are processing it as you speak. Think of it like you are giving a speech. Don't you want your speech to be as effective as possible? And how do you make it so effective? By getting authentic information of course!

2-Flash notes.

Make flash notes. The best time to make them is as soon as a new chapter starts. If you are an Edexcel or Cambridge student, I'm sure you will understand just how important the specification is. Even the books has topics at the start of every chapter.

Use each point to make relevant notes on the specifications, this way you can easily know which main points of the topic if stated. Making these flash notes also help you revise and learn as you make them.

Let me know if you wish to know how to best make Flash Notes.

I will make sure to use an example and help you make them as well as link sites to help you better.

3-Practice Makes Perfect Or So They Say.

Hold it! Stop! Don't hit that back button just yet. This is annoying. So annoying but so desperately needed. You can't get good at Math with doing only one question a day. You need to practice, practice and practice. Study the concept, the method, relevant keywords. Know it so well you can dream of them and write them in your sleep. YOU NEED IT.

Math - those one-page questions need to be practiced at least 3-4 times until you learn it well enough. It seems like a lot of effort, and at times too much to handle and Math is like that but from a person with experience, doing just one question a day can take you up the ladder of improvement. Physics - questions need a to be revised and checked, especially those that voice out the same question. The question maybe same but they may have a different method of getting the answer. Chemistry - REVISE THE EQUATIONS. Think of the equations as the key aspect to breathing. One single thing wrong you lose a mark. AND EVERY MARK COUNTS. Biology - KEY TERMS. Key terms are so important, you have no idea. You cannot go in a Biology exam without those terms. At times the teachers won't even tell you those terms, So, those terms are so important you have no idea.

If you want to understand this better, do let me know. I will do my best to help you understand it better.

4-Past Papers.

Once while doing a paper I was quite confident I would pass, until I got my paper back. Not only was my score low, but it was low due to certain answers not accepted by the paper. How come? They were the same points my teacher had told me about. Everything she taught, then why the low grade? Simple, because she never mentioned the answers that will be accepted in the paper. Some of the answers were never taught in class. Often times teachers do not mention certain points that are relevant to the papers and so students lose marks.

By attempting the papers, you understand what the examiner is looking for and how to best attempt the questions.

Tip: Pay attention to the reject part of the marking scheme. They help you understand the paper pattern and how best to assess the paper.

5-Make Note of The Hard Questions.

When you see that one question with at least 6-7 or 10-12 marks. NOTE THEM DOWN. Why? Simple they aid you when you need them most. Best example I have for you if the most recent one I did.

When studying for Chemistry Unit 5, those questions with even 5 marks that seem really important and you have not done in class before, have them in a note book. This lets you know what can and will come in the paper and how you must asset them.

Say that question where you must find the sides of the shape in Math. Trigonometry questions, find base from plane, those find the “X” question and many more. If you cannot solve them or have trouble solving them and are taking a long time. NOTE THEM DOWN.

Have it in a notebook, with question and answer. Make it so when you come to revise later you can understand and figure out a way to gain those marks more easily.

I hope all this helps.