#can't wait for spring break

[thesnowflake18]

Quick doodles bc I miss these kiddos

[ian-thebean]

new chapter!!

am i procrastinating writing my several essays by writing a very detailed look into alec's family life? yes. yes i am.

[rebelpuff]

what if starter call

[loudlooks]

Day 15 - Freshly baked bread

30 day challenge notes: quantity over quality, limited editing, stand-alone/unrelated stories unless specifically stated otherwise, not always tiva, chronologically randomly set in whatever pre-s11 season seems to fit

A/N: Ziva shows up at Tony's thinking he's sick, friendship, set in the earlier seasons

actual representation of my brain while writing this:

Tag for blocking/following: 30 days of spring

Prompt: Freshly baked bread

Word count: 615

-

The knock on the door woke him at an ungodly hour. Blindly he grasped for his phone to check the time: 10 AM. He rolled onto his back and rubbed his eyes. Technically not ungodly, but it was a Saturday, there should be laws against this.

Another knock, followed by the unlocking of his front door a few seconds later. He sat up and listened closely, only one person he knew had this modus operandi. At the sound of Ziva’s barely perceptible footsteps, he threw on a shirt and padded out of his bedroom. He found her placing an overflowing wicker basket on his kitchen table.

Ziva didn’t bother to look up at him, as she removed a few jars from the basket. “You weren’t feeling well yesterday, I thought I would bring you something to eat.”

“I’m fine.” He yawned, and stretched his arms above his head.

Ziva frowned, and looked at him closely. “I overheard you cancel your date at work.”

“I didn’t feel like going on a date.”

“You showed us her photo in the morning, bragging about how gorgeous she was.” She raised her eyebrows, and handed him a cup of tea. “Should I call Ducky?”

“There’s nothing wrong with me.” He swatted her hand away before she could touch his forehead. “Why are you here, it’s 10 AM?”

“I’m Jewish, we show people we care about them with food.”

“Oh, Italians do that too.”

“Really, you must not like any of us, then,” Ziva deadpanned, shuffling the small jars around.

“What? I buy you guys takeout all the time.”

“Buying takeout is not the same as a home cooked meal.”

“If I cooked for you, you’d arrest me for attempted murder.”

“If you’re going to be like this, I can take my freshly baked bread to someone who appreciates it.”

“Hey, you just woke me up, I’m still processing the fact that it’s a new day, I need a few more minutes.”

“You just woke up? It’s 10 AM.”

“I was trying to sleep in, like a normal person.”

“I slept in,” Ziva said defensively.

“Ziva, postponing your 5 AM run to 6 AM is hardly sleeping in.”

She turned to leave. “I have better things to do.”

“Wait,” Tony said and grabbed her arm, turning her around. “Can’t you stay and have breakfast with me?” He put on his most charming smile. “You did go to all the trouble of baking this bread, it wouldn’t be right if you didn’t get to enjoy it.”

She contemplated his offer, and gave in when he waved the loaf of bread under her nose with a goofy look on his face. With a reluctant smile, she sat down as he went to get plates and cutlery.

“So what did you have planned that’s better than sharing breakfast with a friend?” Tony asked as he set the table.

Ziva opened and closed her mouth, then shrugged and took a piece of bread. “Things.”

Tony sat down, and looked at her expectantly, knowing she had nothing important planned.

Her gaze flicked upwards, and with a forced smile, she admitted, “Chores.”

“Good, seeing as I’m now up at the crack of dawn, we have the whole day ahead of us for better things than chores.”

“The crack of dawn was five hours ago, Tony.”

“It’s dawn somewhere on the planet, now eat your breakfast while I plan our day.”

Ziva frowned. “Wouldn’t you rather make plans with the blonde you cancelled on yesterday?”

“No,” he bit into a piece of buttered bread, and briefly closed his eyes as the flavors and textures hit just right. “She would’ve never woken me up with freshly baked bread.”

[kitorin]

OUR SPRING - ANNOUNCEMENT.

Unfortunately, I'll be putting it on hiatus for now (indefinite). I don't want to drop it entirely but I've gotten burnout and tired of making smaus and constantly editing them. I'm not exactly sure what'll happen (might redo it as a regular series, or recycle the plot; I have no clue yet), however thank you so much to everyone who took the time to read it ❤

[stellahikaru]

State of The Starry Path Hotel #3 (February 23rd, 2024)

Welcome back to the third post of the state of The Starry Path Hotel! I’m the starry eyed vtuber hotelier, Stella Hikaru! I am proud of myself that I have managed to stay consistent with these blog posts. Anyway enough chitter chatter! On with the updates!

Mini Life Update

I am still chugging along with school. The big assignment for my capstone class was due this week so I was basically stressed over that and I did not think of much else until it got turned in. At least I got the Valentine’s Day emote in FFXIV! But yeah content creation activities were put on the backburner this week orz. 

Content Creation Progress Update

I didn’t really do much of anything this week regarding content creation this week. But the one thing I did was make a Carrd for all of my links to use for other platforms! I mean it was this morning before I went to write this post but hey, I did something! 

I also did some thinking about what I really want to do content creation wise. Most vtubers do livestreams as their primary method of content creation. The English speaking vtuber community is primarily centered on Twitch so it makes sense to stream on Twitch like what everyone else is doing. Right? Well if I’m going to be honest, I realized that I don’t want to make Twitch my main platform. First of all, discoverability on Twitch is terrible. You can only really be found when you are live (and even then that’s not a guarantee that you won’t be buried under other people) and that leads me to my next problem. I can only really go live once a week with my current schedule right now and live streaming is pretty time consuming. I would honestly rather put most of my limited time and energy into making videos. So while I will be continuing to stream once a week, I no longer plan to do any guerilla streams and will be focusing most of my efforts on edited Youtube content. 

This Week’s Goals

Make a video ideas list and write down a minimum of 5 ideas: Since I want to start making videos in March, I will need ideas. I already have a few ideas of videos I want to make but I still need to write them down. This week I will take some time to make a formal ideas list and write down at least 5 ideas.

Research editing software: In order to make videos, I will need some kind of editing software that is ideally free so I can save some money. This week I will research the different options I have for editing software that are free or low cost. 

This Month’s Goals

Prepare to start making videos next month: I mean it’s clear that I won’t be able to make a video before the end of February. However, I can use the remaining amount of time left in the month to prepare to go into video production next month.

Look into ways to take donations: I am still considering Ko-Fi as my main way to take donations. However, based on my research, I will still need to set up a Paypal Business account unless I want to dox myself. I want to spend the remaining time in the month looking into Paypal Business, Ko-Fi, and alternative services to take donations like Buy Me a Coffee. 

Continue streaming once per week: Even though I am not making streaming as big of a priority, I will still be keeping my regular streaming schedule for tomorrow. 

This Year’s Goals

Get monetized on YouTube: I want to eventually make money off of my content so I’m hoping to get monetized on YouTube this year. This is going to be a tall order, but I hope I can keep working towards this with my weekly and monthly goals!

Become an Affiliate on Twitch: Despite making Twitch less of a priority, I still want to be able to become an affiliate on Twitch. While I do need to find a way to meet the seven days streaming requirement, I want to be able to draw in viewers first. 

Gain 100 followers on any social media besides YouTube or Twitch: I actually am over halfway to 100 followers on Twitter as of writing this, but I still don’t get a ton of engagement on my post. In addition, most of the followers I have gotten are those annoying GFX bots and it’s a little bit disheartening. I also want to build up a following on Tumblr and Bluesky as well! 

Make a community Discord server: Once I build up a community, I want to create a Discord server for people to hang out in. However, I want to wait until there is a demand for a Discord server. This goal is lower priority compared to the other goals but I hope that this does end up happening this year!

Final Thoughts

The weekly goals are a little light this week but I’m a lot more confident that I can get both of the tasks done. School is still a priority for me but I think focusing on making videos rather than streaming will help me with my goals in the long run and help me balance my time better. I will be live tomorrow at 2 PM EST as usual. Now I’m gonna finish an assignment I have due tonight then rest up since I didn’t get a lot of sleep this week. This time I hope your stay was bright and your journey is filled with light! 

[justworthlessreblogs]

i think i forgot to say it in the end notes of bib fic or didn't have room or something but since it's been a month since it was published i guess i should say that waffleverse updates will be slower regardless since i'm in school. luckily my winter break is coming up soon so i'll have lots of time to work on it then. the draft of part 7 is currently sitting at around 3.3k words, i'm projecting 5k-6k for the finished product but don't quote me on that because i'm notoriously bad at estimating wordcount. a plot bunny for a non-waffleverse fic also burrowed into my brain and i've started working on that so we'll see which one comes out first

[vulpixelates]

uuugggghhhhhh the Horrors are preventing me from sleeping

[sunast0es]

not excited to study math for hours tonight.

[waffle-bubbles]

People seem to think that I'm trans because I don't like being a woman. Sure, periods aren't fun and I don't like having this chest, but I can deal with it. I could live as a woman if I needed to, but being nonbinary just makes me happier and comfortable with myself.

People also seem to think a woman's only role is to care for children because men are, apparently, physically incapable of doing that. That's just plain sexism for both women and men.

I'm sick of misinformation being spread. They think they're helping people, but they're just making life hell.

[millicent-dagworth]

Impromptu Hiatus

If you guys are wondering where I've been, I've been super busy with work and school. (I not only have 17 credit hours I'm currently taking, I'm also working on 2 separate experiments/projects) Luckily, this should be my final semester so expect me fully back around May.

I do have some work done for the newest chapter of Stranded with Monsters and Seeing in Shades of Heat. I do also have some animation projects I want to work on that I'm hoping to get out later in the year.

In conclusion, I'll see you all around May!

[empyreanwritings]

February Book Review

Beach Read - Emily Henry: Remember when I said Book Lovers was my favorite Emily Henry book? I was a fool. A buffoon who had no idea what was around the corner. This book felt right - like an absolute amazing book to start February off with. I laughed out so so many times and felt my stomach clench just as much. If you are a writer with a complicated relationship with love, this book is absolutely for you. I already wish I could reread it for the first time again. Overall rating: 100/10

In the Name of Salomé - Julia Alvarez: This was an amazing story about a mother and daughter. Each chapter alternated between their points of view and while the mother's story progressed, the daughter's story was told backwards. There was a lot of commentary on bisexuality/homosexuality, feeling misplaced, and familial bonds through issues. Highly recommend it for someone who wants something a little more than just fluff. Overall rating: 10/10

Mansfield Park - Jane Austen: Apparently there was controversy amongst the people who loved Jane Austen bc Fanny Price was a "boring heroine." To be fair, she was a little righteous but she grew up in less than ideal conditions when it came to verbal and mental abuse. The controversy should have been over the fact that the book itself was just boring. I know this is a classic but I literally could not care less about any of the characters or their motivations and the story dragged on way too long, which disappointed me bc I loved the last few books I had to read for this class. Overall rating: 4/10

The History of Mary Prince - A West Indian Slave Narrative: Obviously this is someone's life, so I'm not going to give a rating, but I do highly recommend this read. Some parts were hard to read, but the point of this story isn't to make you comfortable - it's to make you see things clearly. The only thing that truly sucks is knowing that this was heavily edited by a white man who wanted to make it more "digestable."

Jane Austen - Carol Shields: This biography was a really interesting one bc it almost felt like a story. The author clearly loved Jane Austen and wanted to share the story of her life in a way that might not have been done before. I respect it a lot bc she wasn't afraid to point out that some of her beliefs were just assumptions based on what others knew. If you're into Jane Austen, you'll like this book about her past.

[the-halfling-prince]

Me: ah shit I forgot the password to this thing. Let me just look at my security question.

Security question: gf's name

Me: what

[mossy-thing]

So yesterday I felt a slight scratching in my throat and now I can't fucking talk.

I can't talk.

Do you know how painful this is? (Besides the obvious pain in my throat) I literally never shut up! I am always rambling on about one thing or another! HOW AM I MEANT TO RAMBLE LIKE THIS!!!

[evergardenwall]

now that i can read english fluently i tend to prefer picking up the original versions of books written in this language when i am able to... but tlt's going to be an exception because the official french translation looks absolutely delightful (from the excerpt i've checked out, at least) and i want to know how the meme references have been adapted. also i have actually been to the offices of the publishing house that got this series' rights (actes sud) during two internships and know some people who work(ed) there as well as at another publishing house that's part of the same group and located in the same building and... it's a bit weird -- especially given that i haven't contacted them again in a while -- but i still kinda feel like supporting them by choosing to read the french edition, yknow?

[cloudwhisper23]

I kept thinking today was Tuesday. Hm.