#depending on the result I'll either start one or I'll just do a bunch of posts individually answering asks

[wammys-house-official]

Quick ooc appreciation post for anyone who has ever interacted with this blog and especially the people who told me they like it/it makes them smile etc

[weaselle]

i am convinced that human evolution and development was centered around the basic up-grade from "i steal your resources" to "i steal your behaviors and concepts"

We got clever enough and we just started copying absolutely everything we observed just because now we could figure out how to copy concepts and things that other animals were doing

see that squirrel hoarding acorns for the winter? we can do that. okay now how do we make these acorns edible, cause they are poisonous to a number of animals and we don't do great with them either. What if you put them in the fire? or just on hot coals? what if you put them in water on hot coals and boil them? Oh if you soak them in cold water for 24 hours and maybe change the water a couple times you can totally eat them? YOINK storing acorns for winter is our idea now.

or, you ever seen a weaver bird do it's thing? if not i'll give you one guess what they do

or how about the tailor bird that uses spider silk to stitch the edges of a big leaf together to make a nest in

or sometimes they'll stitch a bunch of leaves into a little cup for a nest

like i'm not trying to downplay how clever it is to be the first humans to weave or sew, and indeed, being the first person to weave that anyone knew about probably happened many times throughout human existence but my conceit is that most if not all of those times was a human seeing something in nature that was basically weaving and going "i'ma do that, and get real good at it - i'ma take that concept and really make it mine"

like it wouldn't surprise me if humans got dogs because we saw how ravens were treating wolves and went "shit yeah, great idea - YOINK that's my idea now."

most of the things that we think of as special human skill or behavior can actually be found elsewhere throughout nature -- all over there are animals using tools, farming, ranching, building, etc.

my favorite primate behavioralist anecdote is a group of people studying tool use in chimps were spending their days in the bush logging the use of twigs to catch termites, and over the campfire at night they're like "it's so boring i wish they'd do something more impressive than this completely basic tool skill."

and one of them was like "actually... how do we know its not a difficult skill? has anyone tried to use a twig to catch termites and see?" and so the next day, like good little scientists, they went out and recorded their attempts at catching termites with twigs.

And lo and behold out of the whole group and all their attempts that day, only, like, a single termite was caught by a human, mostly by chance. Suddenly the whole situation flipped - they'd been thinking of it as basic unskilled tool use, but actually the chimps knew how to do something that none of them could easily figure out on their own - or even together as a group!

y'all, they had to go back to watching the chimps do it to figure out how. Think about that. University degrees, scientific minds, educated people... and they had to be taught how by the chimps.

It turns out there's a reason that young chimps will spend like a year closely studying how an adult is fishing for termites. You gotta select the right kind of twig or leaf stem, maybe you fray the end like a paint brush depending on particulars, you gotta have just the right poking and little shaking technique to provoke the termites into biting the twig, it's a whole thing. There's even regional/cultural differences in the general approach to termite fishing that are distinct between groups that live in different areas.

Now, wild chimps have been observed using objects as tools to fashion crude spears for hunting (it's the mothers doing it by the way, and slowly some of their kids have been growing up doing it, which will probably result in refinements and developments eventually.

ants do both farming and ranching. For real. Some species of ant grow a fungus they eat AND it's a domesticated fungus, like our corn, it can't actually reproduce and survive in the wild without the ants farming it. They maintain its growing conditions and feed it leaf litter mulch, and the fungus produces some kind of ant food idk i forget the details about that. But that's farming. They are farming a domesticated mushroom, basically. And other species of ant will maintain a herd of aphids; they'll move them from grazing area to grazing area, and protect them from predators, and they "milk" them for a liquid food substance and also every now and then they straight up eat one. That's ranching.

beavers sometimes have muskrat... tenants? pets? The muskrats low key pay rent by changing out the reed bedding they all use, and they live in the beaver's lodge with them and eat some of the food. So. idk

Some Tarantulas keep frogs as pets

anyway my point is, i think the true human skill that sets us apart is our ability deconstruct and reconstruct anything we see into something that is for us. Oh, you eat that? Now WE eat that. You have the perfect teeth to drill little holes in specific tree trunks to let the sap ooze out and eat it because it's high in sugar? We don't have those teeth but we're gonna do that now and if we can't figure out a tool that's as good as your teeth at it, watch out, because we will absolutely just also steal your fuckin teeth.

[tommykinrd]

Hi! Very embarrassing gif-making question, feel free to ignore if it's too complicated, but how do you layer two gifs on top of each other like that? Whenever I try, one of them always freezes

Hi anon! Not embarrassing at all, I'm happy to show you how I layer two gifs on top of each other. I'll be using this gif from my recent ineffable husbands set as an example:

You'll need a basic knowledge of gifmaking and photoshop, and I'll put the rest of this under the cut in case it gets long.

Creating your gifs

So to start off, you want to create both your gifs in separate documents. Most of my gifmaking process happens in timeline mode, and you want to make sure that both your gifs are smart objects.

I like to have both gifs open side by side in windows so that I can make sure that my colouring is consistent and that both scenes have a similar brightness when I'm done colouring. This is important because to overlay/blend gifs, they need to have similar lighting for best results. (If your photoshop opens up the gifs as tabs, just click on where the file name is and drag the tab anywhere outside of the top bar so that it opens up as a window).

This is how my gifs look before colouring, and how each of the layers panels look (I've already added my sharpening, which is why each gif has two smart object layers).

And this is how my gifs look after I add my base colouring + the yellow for this gifset:

2. Making groups

Now from here on it's fairly simple. First we want to put all our gif layers in a group so that it's easier to transfer them to the same canvas while still keeping them easy to edit in case we need to make adjustments afterwards.

So select all your gif layers by holding the shift key and clicking on your first and last layer.

Then to make a group you can either use the command + g keys (ctrl + g on windows) while all the layers are selected, or you can click on the little folder icon at the bottom of the layers panel.

You can then double click on the group that was created and rename it. I like to put a word or phrase that describes the scene, so I've named these 'bandstand' for the gif on the left and 'car' for the gif on the right. At this point, your gifs are still in separate documents.

3. Overlaying the two gifs

Now all you have to do is copy and paste one of the groups onto the other gif's canvas. For me, it doesn't matter which group I copy, so for this I'm going to copy the 'car' group by selecting the group in the layers panel and using the command + c keys (ctrl + c).

I then click over to the other gif's canvas (you should see the other folder name in the layers panel, so in this case I'll see it say 'bandstand'). To paste, you just need to use command + shift + v (ctrl + shift + v). The shift key ensures that the positioning of your gif stays the same.

So now you should only see your second gif on the canvas, and both your groups in the layers panel, like so.

Making sure your top group is selected, change the blending mode of the group to either 'screen' or 'lighten' depending on your preferences (if you're working with really bright scenes, it might also be worth trying out 'multiply'). Your gifs should then overlay on top of each other, and play simultaneously when you scrub through the timeline and save the gif.

And this is how the gif looks when saved:

4. Final touches

If you're not happy with how the overlay looks, you can do a bunch of things to make it appear the way you want. I use a combination of resizing, layer masks, and painted layers to hide/show different portions of the gifs. You can also modify the colourings at this point, add text/overlays, adjust the brightness, and add painted colour layers. At the end, just convert back to frames and adjust the speed.

After all this, I end up with the final result which is this. As you can see, I darkened the side of his face in the smaller gif and made the brighter part stand out more clearly. I also adjusted the shade of yellow using an extra hue/sat layer.

I hope this helps anon! Please let me know if you still have questions or if you run into any trouble!

Here are some other blending/gif overlay tutorials that I found very helpful as well: 1, 2, 3

[sayitaliano]

Do you have a favourite dish/food? Can you share about it and maybe how it is made as well?

Ciao!

I have loads of different fav dishes/foods tbh hehe :D it also depends on if you rather first course, second course, soups, pasta, rice, meat, fish.... We tend to eat by having different courses (at least as a general rule -also in restaurants/hotels- and on special days like Christmas could be: appetizers, first course, second course + vegetables, cheese, fruits, dessert, coffee/digestif).

Anyway. Hmm... I'll mention pasta ai 4 formaggi (pasta with 4 cheeses. I also like rice with cheese tbh). But if you're curious about something else, let me know (btw there must be a spaghetti al pomodoro recipe already on this blog).

So put water to boil in a pot, with a bunch of salt (coarse): it should taste almost like the sea. I sadly cannot give you proportion according on how big the pot is and how much water you add (better if you add quite a good amount, eg. if you're cooking for 4 people you may want to use a medium pot almost entirely filled), I was never given myself either but I always taste water (when I change the pot and type of water) after the salt is melted.

Then you can start preparing your cheese. I tend to go honestly by heart when it comes to quantities (but here you can find another recipe with quantities + videos and images -that blog is quite famous so you can check around it for more). I usually choose two hard cheese and two soft ones to have a more creamy result (for example I use Montasio and a Toma, Ricotta and Gorgonzola), but you can do as you rather ofc. I cut the hard ones in small pieces and put them in a bowl with some milk; then put that bowl over another pot with boiling water to melt (bain-marie). When these are melted I add the other two cheese (I cut the Gorgonzola too, somehow, especially to clean it from the external parts while I use a spoon for the Ricotta). Add milk if the cream is too dense: I suggest you to not add too much milk and just add it gradually when you need. Also, when you add the cream to the pasta it will become sliiightly more dense cause of the pasta itself releasing a thickener.

When the salted water is boiling, add your pasta. A short type of pasta works better with this recipe, but it's even. When the pasta is cooked (if you rather it very al dente, follow the instruction on the box, if not, leave it to boil for 3-5 minutes more). Then drain the pasta, put it in a bowl (only cause the one with the cheese is HOT atm), pour the cheese cream on it and mix. Ready to serve. (Ofc you can still add Parmigiano grattugiato if you want, even if it makes for a 5th cheese but it's personal taste). You can let it rest a few minutes (just don't let it turn cold). Generally when I have leftovers in the evening it tastes even better (I warm pasta bain-marie before having it and only eventually add a liiittle bit of milk, but it's okay even without it).

I don't prepare the cream in the pan cause it may burn and also it's not a that fundamental step in this recipe to have the passage of mixing pasta with the cream in the pan. The result is good anyway.

Let me know if you have questions or want to know about another recipe!

[howlingday]

For the Ask game: #3, 4, 6, 7

3. On a scale of 1-10, how much do you enjoy incorporating romance into the average story?

Unfortunately, I suffer from a very, very rare psychological condition known simply as "Ship-Brain". I see the slightest interaction between two characters, and my brain thinks of them doing cute things.

However, I remember a really good piece of advice for romance. The question is, "Why can't they be together now?" The best example I can think of for incorporating romance is the Night Angel "Shadows" trilogy between Kylar and Doll Girl.

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4. What is the plot bunny you've been carrying for the longest? BONUS: Do you ever wonder why you haven't written it yet and experience existential dread?

Plot bunny? Uh, one sec...

Oh! You mean a story idea that never came out? Yeah, I have a couple of those. The one I've held the longest is probably the first and only legitimate story I thought of for a young adult fantasy novel. As for why I haven't written it, it's probably because I don't know the first thing about writing a real book, how it gets published, and a bunch of nihilistic rocks rattling in my skull. Still, whenever I get the urge to write it down, I write it onto a piece of scratch paper that I inevitably lose.

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6. Do you have any kind of consistent writing schedule, or just hoping for the best?

It usually depends on my work. If I have free time, I'll try to work on a project bit by bit. If nothing else, I'll at least get the first paragraph done. The best time for me to do this is in my car, for an hour, on my phone, before work.

This past week was the worst because I had the bright idea to push myself in my muay thai class, resulting in me sleeping in late and having no time for my hour-long drafting. Going to bed at midnight doesn't help either.

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7. Tell us about the plot of the first fan fic you ever wrote.

Ooh, now that takes me back...

I'll start with the first fan fic I ever published, which is "Lie Ren Goes To The Market" on FanFiction.Net. At the time, FF.net had a rule about how the first fic couldn't be above a "T-for-Teen" rating. So I chose a simple story about Ren going to Vale for a weekly chore. Most interesting experience from this was when an actual english professor corrected my grammar! Talk about a shock!

Now, as for the first fic I ever wrote, it was an anime chatroom. Yeah, it was that kind of cringe. My friend and I would write Naruto Chat Room stories and share them with each other. I would then watch Naruto Chat Room videos on YouTube like they were got dang soap operas! The plot didn't really exist; it was all more randomness than anything.

[yumeirochaser]

finished all of steven universe (show/movie/shippuden)

okay so stewing on it. this show as a whole is very good. great, even!! i feel like a lot of the criticisms thrown at it online are kinda bullshit, and it is way more nuanced than i remember. it is VERY flawed, but ultimately good.

i'll start with the pros of the whole project:

-really impeccable art direction and music. this show is a feast for the eyes, esp since it's a 2010s project

-very nuanced discussions of complex emotional topics (outside of one big case)

-REALLY good cast, there's only like 3 bad charas, but everyone else is really really good and compelling

-actually really good diverse and lgbt rep. i love yuri fam. we got so much yuri here.

-really good drama and jokes. it's actually very good at balancing both tones

-brisk and nice to watch

-REALLY good complex characters. rose/pink is unironically one of the tragic toxic woman all timers

-the songs rule. lotta bangers here

-i love the character designs a lot!!!!

so yeah it is VERY good!! but also really flawed. here's the cons:

-really bizarre show pacing and episode placing, which tbh i can't blame too much on them bc it WAS CN's fault for making the insane idea of stevenbombs

-the fuck it we ball planning is REALLY apparent at times

-the wide majority of the cast is very underfocused, despite the show constantly setting them up to have bigger roles. i would say the quartet of jasper/bismuth/lapis/peridot were the most prominent victims of this, but it's in general since it is the result of...

-steven himself being a VERY weak lead, with the insistence of everything being in his POV limiting the show and contriving plots more than anything. he is in fact imo, the show's biggest flaw, severely hurting it by the end of future. they really struggle with making him likeable and interesting, and the way the show insists to focus on him makes a lot of major character beats depend on him being on screen or just. happen completely off screen. certain plots also get REALLY convoluted to have him in places and private situations he really shouldn't be in for us to actually see what happens to other characters at all. he's also very one note and not really allowed to be as complex as the rest of the cast, with him constantly being exonerated of any wrong thing he does, by either being right all along or a woobie. this does get real uncomfortable with plots like the lars body swap ep, the lars/sadie ship eps and the entire second half of future bc. he gets reaaaal weird and possessive with the rest of the cast there and it's more or less glossed over. he also kind of is limited to One personality trait per season, being one walking fat joke in S1, fluctuating between funy permachild and messiah complex guy in the rest of the main show and the movie and becoming just walking whump material in future. it's weird bc he DOES improve and develop in S2, esp with the peridot arc, but then they more or less reverse his development for the rest of the show after the cluster arc ends??? it's a bizarre choice. his presence really looms over this show, like a black hole. like conceptually he's really good and he has moments where he can shine, but his execution in the majority of the show is very poor imo. like i get what they wanted to do with him in future and i agree it's a necessary topic to discuss. but also they should have made him like. an actual character people would like for that to work lmao

related to this we gotta talk about. connie. man. she was hit with the shonen jump love interest stick since very early on and she never recovered. her training arc kinda ends on nothing, she kind of only is there to fuse into stevonnie a bunch of the time (with their uh. weird ass early eps. why fanservice the little kid fusion.) and she more or less is just reduced to being steven's loyal emotional support woman by the end of future. honestly it's weird how nobody talks about the way she is treated bc it's oddly bad for a show that usually treats its diverse charas really well. like damn she really got done dirty.

but yeah i wish we were able to have eps with the rest of the cast leading bc they are really good characters. i think my faves are garnet (she actually got focused on the most out of all gems, which i don't really see fans mention either. she's great), rose (she's so fucked. i love it.), amethyst (more femmes should be allowed to be gross weird assholes in tv.) and peridot (rancid moe...). but i love all the gems they are great. the townies are also really fun!! (outside of ronaldo & kevin). i wish we could have actually seen more of the cast's lives, thoughts and interests outside of steven...i just really like these characters a lot

it's kind of a shame the show kinda goes down the gutter with future's second half bc the majority of it is really good shit with really nuanced handling of themes like chains of abuse, unorthodox families, familial abuse, trauma, abandonment, war and grieving. i legit think this show was something special and bold for its time, and i wish it ended in a better way. i had a really good time with it and i still love the cast a lot, but yeaaah they shouldn't have turned steven into the center of the universe. that really hurt it by the end. it's a good show that left me with a really weird feeling by the end. i will still cherish the time i had with it but yeaaah. it is a shame bc i really dig the concept of future, but the execution was like ehhhhhh hmmm not very good. the rest of the show clears in these topics tho we love screwed up girls. objectively tho there is way more good aspects to this show than good ones. it's just that the one big bad thing it has is the main focus of the whole dealio lmao

i wish future didn't screw up at the end but i am glad this show exists and it did pave the way for other shows! so at least there's that!! i will miss the crystal gems and their funky friends a lot....

[jayjtheunsispiciousmelodicathem]

I think what's important to remember about cooking is that, like it or not, a dish exists in a certain context, that will affect how it's made or sometimes even enjoyed.

Mother cuisine, cultural exchange, availability of ingredients (which in turn is dictated by geography and how developed a country is), technology available, amount of people being cooked for, hell, even just the exact form of housing someone lives in (and the exact kitchen they're in), and not to mention the cook's and consumers' taste (which, unlike with books, games, or movies, there is actually accounting for) and abilities - it all affects how people cook

I could bring up xeno-american cuisines compared to the xeno cuisine's country of origin as a very fine example here, but I'm actually gonna bring up a very simple example of how my own cooking has changed with the change of circumstances I live in:

So I'm an autistic, Polish college student (italian studies), who lives in a dorm. The moment I moved into the dorm, the context of my cooking has changed DRASTICALLY: I have only two pans and one pot, three knives, a bunch of latex and wooden spatulae and other tools (including tongs), three bowls, a few instances of tupperware, a colander (this one will be relevant), at first no fridge but roommate secured a small one and is nice enough to share it with me, I buy ingredients as I need them in small quantities and using them as soon as possible, have to use a communal kitchen (which is sordid a lot of the time) with a gas stove (until I moved into the dorm I only used induction) that's relatively far away from my room (meaning I have to put everything I need for a dish into a bag or a box and carry it over in one or two goes).

It's inconvenient to cook for me in the dorm to say the least, but I cook anyway because I know how to, and honestly in the long run it's cheaper for me than McDonald's, and definitely way more healthy

Now, one of the dishes I cook the most often, because of how simple yet tasty it is, is spaghetti aglio e olio (living up to my major lmao).

Now, a typical recipe for SAeO is: boil pasta, fry minced garlic in olive oil (depending on recipe: also add chili flakes), save a tablespoon of pasta water and drain the pasta, mix herbs and spices into the pasta, and then toss the pasta with the garlic oil and the tablespoon of pasta water in the pan.

the first time I made SAeO it was exactly that way, and you know what it was like to me? Tedious. I hated the thought of losing any of the noodles to the dirty sink, so instead of putting the colander in the sink and pouring the contents of the pot into the colander, I began holding the colander above the pot, and fishing out the pasta with tongs (also makes it easier to use the pasta water too!), but it was still tedious to do. Not to mention the colander meant one more thing to wash before eating (communal kitchen = it's annoying when you leave your stuff there for too long), and one more thing to pack into a plastic bag when preparing for cooking and going back to the room.

So you know what I started doing instead? I simply fish the pasta out of the pot with tongs, and put it directly into the pan with the garlic oil (where I also put the herbs and spices because it brings out more of their flavours and aromas) with no draining. It achieves the same effect as saving that spoon of pastawater, while being more convenient in the context I find myself in, and in the long run in probably any other context I might find myself in (I still do that when I come home for holidays, because it's simply so much more convenient).

Now, if I have any Italian followers, I'm sorry if this method is unorthodox or otherwise inauthentic, but that's simply the adaptation I made in the context I found myself in, and the final result tastes just as good using either method!

Same goes for ingredient substitutions - if I can't get pancetta for my carbonara, I'll just use one of the many Polish wędliny (smoked meats), because that's the context I find myself in, and it will taste just as good as it would if I used pancetta.

I do not claim my versions of dishes to be authentic, of course, I only want to make it clear, that all the changes I make to the original dish stem from the context I found myself in.

There is one joke-anecdote I've read somewhere that went a bit like this: Someone makes a roast for their guests and they ask why did they cut off the ends of the roast meat before cooking. The host answers "oh, that's because how my mum did it, and that's how she taught me to do it!" So the guests asked the host's mum, and she said "oh, that's because my mum did it, and that's how she taught me to do it!" This continues a few generations back, until one of the fore-grandmas answers "that's the only way it would fit in the pan for me"

It's very possible that his ancestor's ancestors did the roast WITHOUT cutting off the ends, but because that one fore-grandma's pan happened to be smaller than her ancestors', she had to adjust her method.

And I think that sums up everything about cooking, really. You cook with what you have, what tools you have, what you know works, what you find out works et cetera, et cetera. And as long as you don't fight others on what's "authentic" and what's "fake", and instead focus on saying "oh, I tried to do it this way recently, and it was so much easier/tastier/less messy/etc" it's 100% fine.

[darkshadow90]

How do you think joker/Arthur would react to mistreatment of their crush/partner? Maybe someone says something vulgar to them or gets a bit physical and shoves them

Hey anon! Thanks so much for the ask. I was beginning to think the Arthur/Joker fam was dead. This is probably gonna be more of a meta answer rather than a headcanon. I hope that's okay with you. I'll start with Arthur, then Joker.

I think Arthur would be very upset if he saw his crush being mistreated. I don't think he would be very confrontational, at least not at first. I think it would depend on where he is in his transition. As we've seen in the movie, at first, Arthur is submissive. He doesn't like confrontation. I'm not saying he wouldn't come to help her, I think he would tell him to leave her alone, which would probably result in him possibly being beaten up. But like I said, it depends on where he is in his transition. So if it happened when he was further along into his transition into becoming Joker, he would be a little more confrontational. He would probably be passive aggressive, maybe even physically aggressive. I've never thought Arthur is weak and defenseless. He certainly isn't. I think the reason he doesn't fight back against people who attack him at first is because he has PTSD from his past abuse and freezes up. And he has several people ganging up on him and beating him up at once. That's a little too much for one person to take on unless they're Bruce Lee. Also, from I've seen from the Joker, he's not really a guy who fights a bunch of guys at one time. He usually just has his goons take care of it. The only person I've seen up physically fight is Batman, or someone who challenges him directly. Anyway, back on topic. Arthur can fight. Remember, he took out Randall quickly and easily, and he was probably twice Arthur's size. He smashed Randall's skull into the wall several times, essentially crushing it. That takes strength. (Also, this could be a nod to the Joker's hand to hand combat skills. He has a chaotic and agile fighting style which Arthur shows when he kills Randall). So yeah Arthur would come to help her and use physical violence, but probably only if he needed to.

Joker is far more confrontational than Arthur. There would be no hesitation. If he saw his crush being mistreated in any way, there would be no hope for that guy. He would either have his goons snatch him off the streets and deliver him to Joker personally, then Joker would beat him pretty badly. Or he would straight up shoot him. The only thing that would save the guy's life was if his crush pleaded with him not to kill the guy, and even then he would reluctantly respect her wishes. Joker is much more confident than Arthur is, so there isn't anything stopping him from doing what he wants to do in that moment. I hope this answers your question, anon. Thanks for the ask <3 :)

[the-gay-prometheus]

*peer pressures you into talking about your old Warrior Cats universe* <3

Ok now that I've gotten not one but two requests to ramble about it I guess that means I legally have to. Beware, this is long af.

K so- it was going to be a whole thing. Like... four series, four extra books (two prequel books, two books for the finale), and probably a bunch of other short stories and spin-offs. Each of the series could be read separately, but each of them would relate to each other, all culminating in the finale where the stories would all intersect. Honestly it would've been best to read them all together, especially 3 and 4 since ~context~, but each was unique enough that it could be its own separate thing.

The first prequel was going to be the story of some prehistoric felines, with the main characters being an American Cheetah and an American Lion, and the first domestic cat who also happened to be kind of a god - her name was Bast, because I'm not creative. The lion character would be the one who would go on to be the first cat in cat hell (used the dark forest as a stand-in, but it was more of its own realm) because he was a conservative strong believer in maintaining felines as The tertiary species and was willing to do anything to achieve that. The cheetah became the first feline to receive nine lives after a failed attempt to cross the Bering Strait Crossing which was melting for the last time. Even though she was the main character of the book, her story was never really meant to be anything more than a sad story in the future Bast had imagined. She's got other significance too, but I won't go into it here lol.

The second was going to be about the backstory of the series (generally) overarching villain, Kindred, and his brother, Progeny - results of an experiment on just how far interspecies breeding could go in felines. The ~ghostly spirit~ of the lion from the first prequel saw this experiment as his chance to get back to his original plan, and essentially he got reincarnated as Kindred. Basically the idea for this would be to give context to who Kindred is and why he thinks the way he does and why he's able to do the things he does, as well as giving a lot of background about Progeny, who becomes important in series 4.

Then onto the series...

Series 1 was the one I put the absolute most thought into and had actually started writing. It was inspired by a place on my old college's campus that seemed like the perfect spot for four clans to reside. As much as I want to explain it, I think I would need a whole separate post for that. To be put most basically - the story is about confronting a lot of unspoken generational trauma. If I go any further than that I'll ramble about it for hours because I still have a lot of Feelings about the story and the characters.

Series 2 was the one I probably had the least concrete ideas for. It would take place somewhere in a mountainous area with a group of either two or three clans, and the main character was the product of a failed experiment in extreme linebreeding conducted by Kindred. He had some deformities and also had a severe memory problem, that would erase months worth of memories at a time. How he acted was entirely dependent on what memories he still had from before each memory lapse. This was probably the absolute most fucked up series, and it was going to have a lot of horror elements to it. There were no real protagonists, just a fucked up cat dealing with really fucked up situations and being manipulated by his fucked up sister who was manipulated by their fucked up parents who were manipulated by their fucked up mother and even more fucked up Kindred.

Series 3 might have been my favorite because it contained my favorite OC and also was like... super interesting. It follows the story of an ex-show cat who literally changed the course of history just by making one tiny decision that would have otherwise seemed inconsequential. In the future Starclan was given to follow, she would have no effect on the clans because she would stay a show cat and live her life as basically a celebrity in the show cat world. Instead, during a house fire that she was supposed to escape safely from, she leaves just a few seconds too late, singes off the fur from the tip of her tail, and the fur grows back ticked with white which makes her ineligible for showing. She ends up running away after being sent to live as a barn cat temporarily while her owners/breeders tried to find somewhere new to live, and this is where Starclan takes notice. In their future, Kindred was supposed to be the end of the clans, the end of cats in general to some degree. This cat, though, ends up killing him before that could happen. The unkillable cat was killed by a cat born in the most lavish of lifestyles. The series is basically how she comes to live in the clans in the area she's in (clans which were very different from typical warriors clans - i can explain in a different post lol), goes through hell in the name of proving herself, and dies a fuckin legend. Think Firestar, except way more badass and also way better because she was never meant to be a legend in the first place - she worked damn hard for what she got.

Series 4 would have followed the story of Progeny's daughter, Genesis, who was never meant to be born in the first place and who ends up being a half reincarnation of the cheetah from the first prequel story. After her father dies, she and her mother go wandering. Her mother dies of illness, and as a young kit she winds up being discovered by followers of the now-dead Kindred. She gets taken in by Kindred's cult, where she meets her cousin, Dynasty. The two are raised as sisters, and while Dynasty was originally supposed to be the one to take over as lead of the cult, Genesis ends up being favored. The two kind of have a massive falling out after Genesis realizes the cult is Not Good, and Genesis runs away where she changes her name and joins a clan and basically tries to ignore that she has any part to play in this whole storyline at all. Meanwhile Dynasty is discovering that she herself is part of a whole new prophecy.

The finale would have just been the closure of the storyline, with the cult continuing to gather members and clans from all over joining together to fight back along with a few other helpers, the third incarnation of the lion from the prequel, human beings are involved - it was A Lot. But it was also fun to think of because all of the main characters from the other series are involved in some way or another.

[nicetomeetmew]

If LU was an anime (VA headcanons)

Okay so! A while back I uploaded a video (which you can find here) giving the LU boys voice actors. And in the description of said video, I promised that I was going to post a list of explanations for my voices and link it. Which I am only doing now.

These choices, bar a few, are my own personal opinion, so I'd love to hear your thoughts about them! I spent far to long working and watching anime for this but I am pretty happy with the end result, bar one (glares at Four). So I hope you enjoy! And prepare yourself. Cause this is LONG.

Legend - Vic Mignoga (Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)

So fun fact. Back when I first discovered LU, I almost immediately imaged Leg with this voice. He had strong Ed vibes for me and when I started making this list, he was the only one I immediately knew was perfect. At least to me. It just has that quality; the snark with the capability of being genuine and emotional (I do apologise if the voice clips I included in the video made you sad. That's a hazard of FMA). I didn't consider anyone else for Legend, even though I did briefly consider Vic Mignoga for Warriors (more on that later).

Sky - Aleks Le (Zenitsu Agatsuma from Demon Slayer)

Man, I considered a fair few KnY voices for this list, including the voice of Tanjiro for Wild and the voice of Giyu for Twilight. But this is the one that stuck. I was struck between Sky having a youthful, soft voice or an older, soft voice (I knew his voice had to be soft. I mean. It's Sky.)

I watched the dub of Demon Slayer solely for this and it never would've occurred to me to consider Zenitsu's voice for Sky. But as the show progressed and I heard it when he wasn't... you know... begging some poor lass to marry him, I realised he actually has quite a soft voice. And when I heard it get all serious I thought "Yep. That works." And thus I placed Aleks Le as the Chosen Hero. You could argue that his voice is a bit too youthful for him but I still think it works.

Wind - Amanda Miller (Boruto from Boruto: Naruto Next Generations)

Ugh. Ugh. *increasing sounds of disgust*. I hate this.

But let's start from the beginning. Right off the bat, I was 99.9% sure Wind would be voiced by a woman. Okay so he's not 10 (that will make more sense in a second), but he's still pretty young and I imagine him with quite a youthful voice. For him, I considered Sarah Natochenny, the current voice of Ash Ketchum in Pokémon, and also Colleen Clickenbeard's voice for Monkey D. Luffy in One Piece. But these two voices shared the same problem. They were too raspy. I just cannot see Wind with a raspy voice. I guess if you really, really, really focus on it it could work but I just could get it to work for me hfff.

And then... ugh. I spoke to a mate about. He doesn't know about LU so I just told him I was making voice headcanons and couldn't think of a good one for a 14 year old boy. And he said "have you heard Boruto's English voice?" And I think my response was something along the lines of, "Ben, I have standards." But he insisted it would probably work so I watched a clip of Boruto on YouTube and much to my horror, it did seem to work. But there was problem. None of the clips had lines I could picture Wind saying. And because of that I was struggling to actually give Wind the voice. But something told me that it was the right one so... I... *shudders*... watched Boruto. I watched I think 5 full episodes before I had no more braincells and skipped thorough a bunch more and sure enough, I could finally see Wind with that voice. I think it fits him great and it honestly might be my favourite choice just because I had to watch that nightmare.

Hyrule - Justin Briner (Izuku Midoriya from My Hero Academia)

Ah. This one is much more pleasant. First of all, I never realised this at first but Midoriya and Hyrule are kind of similar. For one thing, they do kinda look alike. And for another they have the same "I will never give up" kinda thing going on.

Roolie is another one I knew would have a soft voice. I think Justin Briner was always down as a choice for him, except for when I briefly considered him for Four (more on that later *big sigh*). This is another anime I watched the dub for solely for this and there were a ton of lines right from the get go I could instantly imagine Roolie saying. So yeah. Aside from the tiny moment I almost assigned Justin Briner to Four, this was a pretty easy one. Midoriya has a soft voice that I could easily imagine Hyrule having. And when he got angry and his voice got harsher, I could also easily see Roolie like that too. Fun fact: there's another BNHA voice on this list... heh.

Wild - Michael Sinternklaas (Dagger from Black Butler)

AW YEAH. YOU HAVE BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH BRITISH BOI.

Ahem. Anyway. Yes Wild is British. Everyone rejoice. I was unsure of how people would react to this but I think this is the only voice on the list everyone agreed on. Which I'm happy about.

As I mentioned, I considered the English voice of Tanjiro (Zach Aguilar) for Wild. There were issues with this; mainly that it was too soft, too young, and made him sound too similar to Sky. Now here's the thing. I WANTED to give Wild a English accent. I am almost certain he would have one, like most people. However the only anime I could think of with decent English accents was Black Butler (and yes I know his final voice is from it, bear with me) and there was a problem with that. Most of the voices from Black Butler are ridiculously posh. Now you may be thinking "But Kai, Zelda has a posh English accent" and to that I would say "Ah yes but she's a princess and Wild is not". And now you might be thinking "But Kai, he's a knight an probably spent a lot of time in a place with posh English accents". To which I would say "But he wasn't always". Two words. Hateno Village.

Let me explain.

I feel like a lot of people hear the words 'English accent' and immediately think of an accent like Zelda's (and no, I am not saying everyone does and I'm also not implying that there aren't people out there who aren't British and know that there are multiple accents). Anyway, English accents are different depending on the place. And, since one can assume Wild is from Hateno Village, I would imagine their accent is different to that of those born in Castle Town. So that's why I was reluctant to give Wild a voice from Black Butler. Because all the voices that weren't insanely fancy were either far too old or did not have the right vibe.

Then one day, taking a break from this, I was watching season 3 of Black Butler (one of the only anime I watch dubbed) and I heard two voices that I suddenly thought, hang on just a second. One of those was the voice of Ronald Knox, who's a grim reaper. And the other, of course, was Dagger. I was leaning towards Dagger and what sold me was one scene in particular, which I chose as the final voice clip for Wild (you cannot tell me that is not exactly something he would say). And that was it. But Wild's was easily one of the most frustrating (not the most *glares at Four again*).

Time - David Matranga (The Father from Wolf Children)

Another tough one and also one I heavily considered for Twilight (for obvious reasons). Time's was kind of tricky because I knew I wanted it to be deep but there's such of variety of deep voices. At one point I even considered dumping the deep voice idea because it was so hard. It was a this time I thought of the voice of space cowboy extraordinaire, Spike Spiegel. But my brain said "hell no". There were other voices I considered for him, loads of which I cannot find the notes for and another one which will likely appear in part two as another character (no spoilers), but when I was picking a voice for Twi, some of the lines the father said just kept ringing big old Time vibes with me. So in the end, I decided to for it. Like I said, I imagine time with a deep voice and while to father's might be a bit more... gravelly (?) than I imagined, I think it fits him pretty well. It's serious and mature but still a certain kindness I'd imagine Time's voice to have.

Warriors - Johnny Yong Bosch (Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach)

Don't lie. You knew Johnny Yong Bosch was gonna be on here and not just because I put his name (albeit spelled incorrectly) in the thumbnail. When I started making this, I knew I wanted to fit JYB into it. In my mind, LU would be an amazing anime and almost all amazing anime have Johnny Yong Bosch in it.

Now, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out whether he would be better for Wars or Twi. At one point I was convinced he would be best for Twi and that's when I briefly thought about Vic Mignoga for Warriors (his voice for Tamaki Suoh from Ouran High School Host Club. Don't tell me Tamaki and Wars aren't at least a tiny bit similar). But I could bear to part with Vic for Legend so I decided heck it, Johnny is Warriors and I'll find someone else for Twi later. As for the voice in particular, the two voices I considered for Twi definitely did not fit Wars. And then I remembered Bleach and immediately I thought "Yep. That's the one". I imagine Warriors having an authoritative voice, not too deep and very... uh... I don't know the right word. Clean sounding? Anyway, Ichigo just seemed to fit nicely and thus it was so.

Four - Micah Solusod (Yukine from Noragamai)

Ugh. UGH. Okay. This is my least favourite. Four was, excuse my French, A FUCKING NIGHTMARES. There was not ONE SINGLE VOICE that seemed to work for him at all. I watched a bit of the Noragmai dub because I was thinking about Yato's voice for someone (I can't remember who. It might have been Wild) and I heard Yukine's and decided to put it into reserve. As in, my last resort. And I had to use it. Oh my god Four. I love you but your voice is literally a nightmare. Is it high? Is it low? Is it young sounding? Surprisingly grown up sounding? I DON'T FREAKING KNOW.

I mentioned earlier that I considered Justin Briner for him. I was thinking about his voice for Luck from Black Clover, which may have honestly worked a bit better, but I was pretty attached to Justin as Roolie by this point. So I had to whip out Micah.

Let me be clear. No, I do not think this works well at all. I appreciate the people who tried to see that good in it, but I honestly just don't think it works. The only reason I went for it is because Yukine's voice switches between older sounding and younger sounding throughout the show and since I could decide what Four's would sound like I said to myself "Fine. Four can be the same", found some clips, slapped it together and never looked back.

I am still looking for another voice for Four and if I find a decent one, I will include it in part two.

And last but not least...

Twilight - Aaron Mitchell Dismuke (Tamaki Amajiki - My Hero Academia)

Told ya there was another BHNA voice.

So Twi was another tricky one. As I mentioned, I was seriously considering Johnny Yong Bosch for him. More specifically, his voices for Giyu Tomioka from Demon Slayer and Kiba from Wolf's Rain (for obvious reasons). I did almost go for Kiba but something was stopping me. I'm honestly not sure what.

So I was talking to a mate (and by that I mean I rambled. A lot) about VA's and at one point he suggested Aaron Mitchell Dismuke but not for Twilight. I can't actually remember who he suggested it for but anyway, that didn't work out. But when I was looking through his work, I saw that we played Amajiki and I was curious. I listened to him and I liked it.

Okay to be fair I wanted a country accent for Twi. Of course I did. But I could not a find a decent one. They few I found were absolutely terrible. So I gave up on that and decided that was Amajiki. And that was that.

And that concludes the Links VA headcanons! I am happy with most of them and once more these are my opinion but I would love to hear your own ideas!

As I have said many times, I am working on a part two and as a sneak peak (sort of) I'll tell you two of the characters that will be featured (excluding Four, if I find him another voice).

Dink (even though he hasn't, technically shown up yet) and Malon (which is proving to be a lot tricker than I thought). There a couple more but my lips are sealed heh.

Oh and speaking of Dink, the voice I considered for Time and then thought it would be better for someone else? Yeah that's the voice that's currently in the lead to be Dink's :)

I hope enjoyed my long winded explanations! And thank you for reading/watching!

[grand-shitral-station]

HB 233 does not require students and staff to report their beliefs to the government or state.

(Sort of long) TL;DR.

HB 233 does not make it legal for anyone to demand anyone report their political beliefs to anyone. Political beliefs are protected under the 1st Amendment and a school/organization can't violate your 1st Amendment rights. The bill is worded in a way that's kind of difficult to understand, but it doesn't say that anyone will be required to report any of their beliefs to anyone.

It's now law that colleges (In Florida) have to survey students and staff to find out if the school's environment is intellectually free and full of diverse viewpoints. This does not say ask everyone what their views are. It says ask everyone if this school's environment allows everyone's views, not just the popular views, to be voiced and allows people to think and speak freely rather than being told what they can and can't think or say.

CS/CS/HB 233: Postsecondary Education PDF. (The bill itself on the Florida Senate's official website.) v

The Florida Senate's page for House Bill 233 on the official website. v

In this bill "exposure" and "encouragement" means what it actually says, to expose students and staff to ideas regardless of whether those ideas fit their personal views and encourage them to explore them.

This does not require students and staff to agree with and/or believe anything. This also does not protect anyone who attempts to force someone into agreeing with or believing anything. That would violate your rights and if that happens go to their superiors and raise hell. It is not legal for anyone to threaten you (with a lower grade or job loss for example) into believing in and/or agreeing with an idea, opinion, etc. All they can do is teach you about it and basically say "Here's (insert idea or whatever here), here's what it is, and I encourage you to look into and form your own opinions about it.". This also protect's staff from being forced to believe and/or agree with anything. They can not punish you for not agreeing and this bill does not allow anyone to do so.

HB 233 also does not require students and staff to report their political beliefs to anyone. That would violate the Right To Privacy which is protected under The First Amendment.

https://constitution.laws.com/right-to-privacy

What HB 233 DOES do is:

1. Require that schools and school staff cannot shield students and staff from from views and speech they might not or do not agree with or like. Basically they can't omit facts, ideas, views, etc. that they don't like or agree with, or that students may not like or agree with. They have to teach about all of it. If a teacher doesn't like the fact that a historic figure owned slaves but still has to teach about them as part of the curriculum they cannot leave that out, lie about it, or tell you not to research it. They cannot tell you what to believe regarding anything. They also cannot leave out the word "slaves" if they don't like that word or feel it may offend some students and/or teachers. This applies to everything in the curriculum.

2. Require schools to conduct a survey assessing intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity at the school.

This means it's now law that colleges have to survey students and staff to find out if the school's environment is intellectually free and full of diverse viewpoints. This does not say ask everyone what their views are. It says ask everyone if this school's environment allows everyone's views, not just the popular views, to be voiced and allows people to think and speak freely rather than being told what they can and can't think or say.

This survey is what I see a lot of people freaking out over and I don't blame them. The way this is worded is somewhat hard to understand on the first read, even for me and I used to study law for fun. (Not in law school or anything similar, take what I say with a pinch of salt. I could be wrong but this is as I understand it.) Combine that with concerns about privacy that's rapidly being snatched from us day by day, fears of the government taking more control over our lives, which is very much valid, that would freak anyone out. I freaked out until I read the bill myself, and I had to read it a few times to understand it. I'll break down the parts that mainly have everyone's concern right now the best that I can.

"The State Board of Education shall require each Florida College System institution to conduct an annual assessment of the intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity at that institution."

This is just requiring that the State Board of Education requires an assessment that sees how intellectually free and how diverse viewpoints are in each college. In this case, colleges in Florida.

"The State Board of Education shall select or create an objective, nonpartisan, and statistically valid survey to be used by each institution which considers the extent to which competing ideas and perspectives are presented and members of the college community, including students, faculty, and staff, feel free to express their beliefs and viewpoints on campus and in the classroom."

The State Board of Education will either select a survey made by someone else or create one themselves.

The requirements for the survey are:

1. The survey must be objective. The survey must be realistic.

2. The survey must be nonpartisan. The survey cannot lean towards any political side/party/view. The survey must be free of political affiliation and unbiased.

3. The survey must be statistically valid.

4. The survey must ask to what extent competing ideas and perspectives are presented to students and staff.

5. The survey must ask students and staff if they feel safe/free to express/voice their beliefs and viewpoints on campus and in the classroom.

"The State Board of Education shall annually compile and publish the assessments by September 1 of each year, beginning on September 1, 2022."

The State Board of Education will keep and publish the assessments by September 1st every year, (and as stated on page 1. the Board of Governors will also be looking at these results.) I interpreted this in three ways, there could be more. I believe it's up to the SBOE how they want to gather and publish the results. I'm unsure of which is going to be how this actually plays out or if any of them are how it will happen at all. I'm assuming the Board of Governors will just look at the results but they could be the ones tallying them up as well. Maybe both the SBOE and the BOG will be tallying and publishing the results.

1. This means the questions and answers will go to the SBOE and/or BOG electronically or via paper, and the SBOE and/or the BOG will publish the questions and answers, possibly not anonymously, by September 1st every year.

2. This means the survey results are tallied up by the school and probably turned into a percentage, (like % of how free students and staff feel to speak their minds) then sent to the SBOE and/or BOG and the SBOE and/or BOG will publish the results by September 1st every year. Probably more likely as that's less work and generally how survey results are displayed rather than putting out everyone's answers for everyone to see.

3. This means the surveys themselves are sent to the SBOE and/or BOG and the SBOE and/or BOG will tally up and publish the results as percentages by September 1st every year. This is probably about as likely as 2. since it's also less work and how survey results are generally displayed rather than putting out everyone's answers for everyone to see.

I guess it will depend on who trusts and/or assigns who to do the tallying. It could be these, it could be none of these, we currently don't know. This actually starts in 2022.

"The State Board of Education may adopt rules to implement this paragraph."

The State Board of Education can make rules on how to implement this in colleges in the state.

This bill does not require you to participate and does not require schools to make the survey mandatory. However, it also doesn't say that you won't have to participate, nor does it say that schools cannot make the survey mandatory. As far as I know, the survey can be mandatory if it does not ask for information that's protected under the law like political beliefs and that's because they cannot violate your right to privacy.

Basically, schools have to have the survey but this bill itself cannot force anyone to take it. From what I understand, that's either up to the Florida Department of Education or the schools themselves, maybe the Board of Governors.

About the survey itself? According to a spokesperson for The Florida Department of Education, it won't be asking you for your political opinions and the survey will be voluntary.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/jun/25/viral-image/new-florida-law-requires-public-universities-surve/

If the survey does end up questioning you about your political beliefs, you do not have to answer and they cannot physically make you. This bill can not and does not give anyone the right to demand your political, religious, etc. beliefs from you.

If you do somehow end up forced into taking a survey that demands your political, religious, etc. opinions, views, beliefs, it's ok to lie or just not answer at all. Answer blatantly off the wall shit or just don't answer. Get up and walk out, exit the page, etc. It ain't any of their damn business.

If you have to answer before submitting it just fill out answers that don't make any sense.

Ex: If it asks who you support for president, answer Daphy Duck, your favorite character, Clef's hat, DickButt, [insert name here]'s left nut, flower petals, basically anything. Hell, answer a McDonald's order in Irken, Wookie, or any fictional language you know. Answer in Gallifreyan. (Imagine a bunch of circles getting sent to the government or educational board lmao.)

Click through the whole test and submit it blank! Turn in an empty Scantron/paper. If there's a minimum time limit, sleep or draw.

If you want to, write an entire essay on why you're not answering the questions and why you believe no one has the right to demand your beliefs/views/opinions from you. Write or type it anywhere you can, even if that's directly written over the questions if they let you/tell you to answer by writing on the packet/in the book, etc. Ask for scratch paper or write it on your answer paper otherwise.

If your school tries to make you take it via threatening punishments of any kind, and/or saying that this bill gives them the right to demand your opinions from you, (they are lying, it does not) blatantly ask them if they are trying to violate your right to privacy. Schools, work places, etc. CANNOT violate your rights and neither can this bill, nor does it.

Sometimes schools act like they have more power than they really do but that's just it. They're acting, and might even try to manipulate you into doing things/giving up info they have zero right to. Learn how to defend yourself, and what they are and are not legally capable of. Especially in these situations should they ever happen to you. I don't have a lot of good resources save for what I've posted here may be able to help? The internet however has tons. Seek them out, ask someone you trust, ask someone you agree with, ask someone you disagree with. Gather as much knowledge that you can and form your own opinions.

I can't promise there won't be repercussions of some kind if something like what we were all (and all things considered, to an extent still might be) afraid of ends up happening and you fight it, but you can fight it. They still have to obey the laws of the land and we deserve our privacy.

Do we have anything to worry about?

With the bill itself? As far as I know, no. The bill itself seems to be an attempt to make colleges a safer space for free speech and for ideas to be taught without being censored by staff or students. That's a good thing. Even if we disagree with something we need to be able to hear everything about it without anything being omitted or censored and allowed to challenge our own ideas ourselves with every bit of information from both sides of an argument rather than being told what to think or given a manipulated view that aims to sway our opinions and beliefs. Our opinions and beliefs should ALWAYS be OUR choice. Not someone else's and from what I understand this bill is all about that. If there's anything to worry about it would be a school, or anyone really, trying to lie about it and act like it gives them more power than they actually have.

There is however this:

The fact that HB 233 was inspired by surveys that do ask for political opinions raises an eyebrow. However, both of those surveys are anonymous and voluntary, and this bill doesn't ask for or demand political opinions, leanings, etc. to be included in the surveys, nor does the SBOE that's making/choosing the survey. It just asks if the environment is safe to speak freely in. So they just took the good parts as inspiration.

Honestly, I think we're fine.

[vanherst]

Vher98 Update 5

I know it's only been a couple of weeks since the last blog post about my recent updates towards developing Vher98, but trust me it's for a good reason, I'll split it up into chapters to sorta give a bit more of an explination towards developments and get a bit more in depth about it for once.

Display properties.

This has been delayed for SO long, and finally I've gotten around to doing it. Finishing the display properties menu. The display properties has been the bane of my existance about this website but yet my best feature, just from the schemes feature alone. But this week I have a new addition, and that is to say I now have desktop icon schemes! Inwhich, allows you to change the desktop icons based on preselected spritesheets (Which you can also change by the command prompt!).

At the moment there are 6 presetswhich you can select, I recently did a massive sprite redesign for desktop icons based on my new character, Petra! But that's for a future update, for now I've set the default spritesheet and included all of the old ones, which you can select from, alongside being able preview them at a smaller resolution to be compatiable with the display properties window.

I've also added a few other settings which you can see previews of, not all of which are programmed yet, so at a future date I'll either change them around or program them. But for now, I've added the ability to change desktop icon sizes to a more native modern scale, but leaving the default setting as the classic windows 98 recreation.

I've also added additional wallpapers, only accessable through the effects tab and "CSGO MODE" which was featured in the background of the preview blog post, which recreates the settings for my counterstrike mainmenu, along with adjusting the desktop icons and wallpaper to fit.

As previewed above, designed to be a slight nod to my recent "Neon Genesis Evanjollion" video, featured on my youtube channel. I've recorded and animated my counterstrike character with loopable animations which play continuously in the background.

Now, I know this is a lot of text for what seemingly is a minor update, but the main reason I was able to design the latest additions to the effects tab was because of the recent massive rewrite I've had to do in order to fix a bunch of problems I was coming across, one of which being how unoptimised themes were reletively.

Left: new code which include schemes selection and the new effects menu toggles. Right: old code, only including schemes selection.

This entire re-write revolves around basically storing arrays of data rather than manually switching values of variables, along with tons of adjustments to unneeded variables and how theme data is required to be stored, as CSMODE needs to store the theme data to be able to toggle from the data needed to switch from the current scheme to CSGO mode.

I cannot understate howmuch of a rewrite this is, and as much as I would like to say "I really don't get why I ever did it otherwise", I would be lying. But this is a super incredable optimisation and looking at this comparritively makes me super pleased with how far i've come from knowing nothing about HTML/JS to this. Jquery is a godsend.

Start Menu

On my newly found optimisation craze, I've also done tons of rewriting to the startmenu, another long overdue reform. Even though I've recently done a rewrite on this thing, I knew there was still tons of improvements with my new knowledge of jquery.

Top image: old code in Javascript Bottom image: new code in Jquery

I've also put aside a few hours of time to dedicate creating new assets for the start menu. It became REALLY hard to find a nice and consistant style which windows 98 used, but it was really hard to find sources of any of the original assets but also have the levels of details I knew windows 98 for, especially when tons of the assets from windows 98 came from windows 95, which still relied on 8 bit colour in some instances.

So I did a bunch of digging and found the assets Windows 98 used at the end of it's lifespan and modified them a bunch to put into Vher98, giving my own personal touch and hopefully to keep the art direction of icons a bit more consistant and unique to look at and use.

Task management

Alright, last big one. Task management. Another long overdue reform was needed for this thing. Prior to this month, tasks relied on whatever manual order I decide to create the task and assign a number to, the number will dedicate placement on the taskbar depending on which value was the highest.

So for example, the Display Properties will ALWAYS be the third task on the taskbar if you was to open everything up, simply because I didn't know how to calculate the placement prior to designing tons of assets. Especially when the original conception of the site RELIED on myself manually creating the visual look of the taskbar as the entire site was designed based on images. From windows, taskbar to the starrtmenu. It was awfully inefficent.

Top image: Example of windows being opened from oldest (left) to newest (right). Bottom image: The new optimised and redesigned code for calculating taskbar placement and task assignment.

Anyway, that being said I now have automated calculation for taskbar task placement. If you open a task, it will open and remain in the order of the task being ordered. Writing this makes me have a smug little grin on my face just from how happy I am I was even able to get this to work properly, and it's only a few lines of math to even get the result I have.

Conclusion

There's tons of other stuff I wish to go on about, but that's why I have patchnotes. if you wish to read them, you can check them out on my github, or in the Startmenu of Vher98.

There's a few bugs I need to get around to fixing, but I've invested a few hundred hours into this thing over the past month alone and I really should take a break to get onto other projects I wish to get around to completing.

I recently started developing a mod for Terraria and some drawings I want to get around to finishing sooner or later. But, the most important thing I REALLY need to get around to is branding. Over the past month or two I've been growing more and more displeased with how I present myself and the fact I have stagnated a bit within the realms of my carear and I need to get around to sorting these personal matters sooner rather than later.

I'll be back with a couple of projects. It might take a while but I promise it's for a good cause.

[raleighliving]

Raleigh Apartment Culture

So I'm of the mind that Raleigh is a great place to live. It has my favorite things, my favorite people, and I'm too broke to move anywhere else.

Raleigh works for me, but I recognize it doesn't work for everyone. Some people had less than ideal childhoods and wanna escape the state ASAP, some just want to live closer to their dream jobs or have new opportunities. That's all fine, but what if this describes where you are now?

What if, for the sake of argument, you're outside of NC and wanna move in? Moving is expensive, time-consuming, and risky at the best of times; so you wanna make sure that wherever you're landing is at least as good as where you started 90% of the time

"But RL," I hear you say, "you make Raleigh sound like an idyllic dreamscape populated with parks and a diverse kumbayah of peoples living in harmony"

I do talk about Raleigh in a positive light but, like a life saving medicine flavored like ass, sometimes you have to take the good with the bad.

So before you spend thousands of dollars on moving vans, boxes, and grits; here's a crash course on what it's like living in a Raleigh apartment, coming from someone whose majority of Raleigh Living (heh) has been in apartments.

First off, location. Any realtor will tell you that location is 80% of the sale to sound profound, and as anyone who has lived in the middle of ass-backward nowhere can tell you: It sucks having to drive 30 minutes to go anywhere.

Good news: With the Raleigh Beltline and connecting roads, there are very few places in Raleigh where your trip will last longer than thirty minutes one-way. Bad News: where you set down still matters because cutting down on travel is important for car and mental health.

North Raleigh is different from south Raleigh is different from northwest Raleigh, and the locals aren't the only difference you'll find between locations. Each segment of Raleigh has something to offer, with easier access to some attractions than others and neighboring cities for when you need something outside the RDU area.

Using downtown as the center of our wheel, people generally divide Raleigh into North and South Raleigh (with distinction given for NW, SE, NE, etc when needed). N.Raleigh is considered generally more upscale, a slice of suburban living interspersed with plenty of shopping centers for families and the moderately wealthy; but it's boring as all hell.

Want some fun? Excitement in the evenings and a more traditional urban experience with bars, night clubs, strip clubs, and more? South Raleigh is your best bet, at the cost of being the "sketchy" side of Raleigh. That kind of place where you'll see a bunch of auto shops that look abandoned but haven't been closed in the past 5 years and there's at least one customer from time to time.

Of course, this is a lot of generalizing but you'll find that it's still mostly accurate. The main exception in this is Capital Blvd, a highway cutting across north and south Raleigh on the eastern half of the city; a high crime corridor that's undergoing some changes in the northern half that have (somewhat) reduced crime but most people will still associate that area with the majority of Raleigh's crime and debauchery.

More importantly, is the distinction Raleigh citizens put on inside the beltline versus outside the beltline. The I-440 and 540 highways that wrap around Downtown form the mythical beltline, and to a degree what you have access to. Inside the beltline is the majority of workplaces, stores, and shopping centers; while outside you'll still have these things just to a more... dispersed extent.

North Raleigh actually kinda exemplifies this perfectly. Living inside the beltline, you have access to places like North Hills, Crabtree Valley mall, and Triangle Town Center. Live outside the beltline, like I currently am, and you're looking at 10 to 15 minutes to the nearest sheetz for that late night double hot dog fix.

So for point one: How important is it that you're near things? The majority of apartments and rental properties are in or around the belt-line, but if you want to save some cash on rent checks the cheaper properties are gonna extend your trips a bit.

Next, what can you expect in terms of neighbors? Does Raleigh have a hip party scene full of teens renting cheap apartments and blasting trap music at 3AM?

Depends on where you live

I swear not every point is going to be this, but there's an important distinction this time that affects the type of people your complex will likely have surrounding you; are you in North or South Raleigh?

North Raleigh has a ton of pre-schools, k-12 public schools (Leesville, Hillburn, Lead Mine, just to name a few), and office complexes that make up the job market. As a result the majority of apartment renters in north Raleigh tend to be families with a few small kids or so.

As a result, living off of Glenwood North and Edwards Mill I never had any noise problems from neighbors, the worst being kids playing outside at 3PM sounding like they were being murdered (which apparently is a common thing and I apologize to any neighbors I frightened with ghastly shrieks).

What I did have a problem with, however, was the typical Karen's you hear people complain about online. Renting a property now, we have access to our neighborhood's NextDoor page and it's hilarious sometimes to go on and read the comments, but living at a certain property we had a sort of mini-Facebook for residents

That thing was always full of either people who were moving out looking to sell their furniture or people passive-aggressively challenging each other/the apartment managers with comments about things happening around the complex.

Once I logged in to see one man accuse another, without ever actually accusing someone specific ("I know who did it and they should be ashamed" type post) of putting glass beer bottles under the tires of his truck to try and puncture them. Everyone acts civil in public, but then online they'll stir the pot harder than a chef with a hand mixer.

South Raleigh, you have the schools like Shaw University, Meredith, and NCSU; so the people renting down there are typically college kids. You'll see more apartments that cater towards them like University Village or University Woods, but sometimes these places will cater to both college kids and working adults

Avoid these places like the plague, because despite sometimes having a lower cost to live there the neighbors and their shenanigans will drive you up the wall (unless you're the type to join in, then go wild).

I've had friends stay at places like University Village and The Proper (formerly The Vie, formerly Wolf Creek) who've shared horror stories. 3AM parties ending in property damage or vomit in inconvenient places, drug deals not even trying to be subtle, and maintenance workers doing nothing because regardless of the apartment conditions; no school's gonna pull their contract with them unless news articles start getting written.

http://www.technicianonline.com/news/article_898ddf34-82f5-11e7-b3d8-07059d248619.html

https://www.wral.com/vie-at-raleigh-residents-finally-able-to-move-into-clean-units/16887833/

http://www.technicianonline.com/news/article_ea8ed7aa-a092-11e8-a2af-e70af36566d0.html

Otherwise, south Raleigh apartments are largely like north Raleigh apartments; except the crime rate tends to be a little higher and you'll run into more singles and people working full time.

Otherwise, Raleigh apartment culture is like apartment culture anywhere else in the country. You have a mix of apartments catering to those just looking to live versus more ostentatious luxury apartments with fancy pools, exercise facilities, and tech packages to draw people in.

If you're renting in Raleigh, however, do try to get a roommate or two if you can manage. Even with a decent job paying 800+ on a one bedroom one bath apartment can be exhausting at best, but with even one other person that can functionally halve your expenses

So if you're a young professional, or a student, or even if you have a small family, I can safely recommend renting in Raleigh. There's plenty of places that'll accommodate you, and cater towards your needs.

But what about everyone else? Are there people who shouldn't rent in Raleigh?

No

But there are groups who I'd seriously ask to consider their other choices before picking Raleigh as a destination for their new home.

For instance, are you a member of the LGBT community? A trans or non-binary individual? Well then, first off, I want you to know that you're loved and valid. I'm accepting of who you are and appreciate everyone's right to identify how they choose, but I'm not everyone.

Raleigh's bluer than other parts of North Carolina, as I've stated in other blog write-ups, but it's still part of North Carolina unfortunately and as a result, you'll face some challenges.

I doubt anyone's gonna burn a cross in your yard or knock over your mailbox, but Raleigh doesn't offer LGBT protections for housing, jobs, or credit/lending discriminations according to the Movement Advancement Project's website.

We have support organizations for LGBT and NB individuals, plenty of high schools and colleges have Gay-Straight Alliance clubs, and there are numerous businesses downtown that cater specifically to those individuals... but we're also the state that got into a lot of hot water because of a stupid bathroom bill, and our politicians are trying to pass anti-trans sports legislation (because they now magically care about the integrity of womens sports).

By that measure, but to a lesser extent, if you fall outside the Liberal/Conservative political spectrum then be prepared to have no one to discuss your politics with outside of a few sparse networks like the DSA.

Additionally, if you don't have someone to room with or a significant other to split costs with; you may want to try searching somewhere a little cheaper.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Raleigh housing prices aren't terrible for a major metropolitan city, but we're not the best prices in the world.

You can get prices on apartments and rentals lower than say, California or New York. However, compared to other parts of NC like Greensboro or Garner; rentals are still a bit much.

On average, a Raleigh apartment can run you about $900 for a single bedroom and a single bathroom. You can find cheaper, but often times there's some risk associated (Crime levels, quality of the room, quality of the property manager, etc.) Looking for a two bedroom? Then your average price is gonna jump up to around $1,200, and this is all before utilities and cable come into play.

It's true a lot of companies around here will pay more than the $7.25 minimum wage, but most low-skilled jobs will pay around 10-11 an hour.

I guess though, that's kind of an obvious statement. "Don't live in Raleigh if you can't afford to live in Raleigh."

I might expand on these thoughts at a later time, but hopefully for now I've given you some food for thought; or at the very least an entertaining read for a few minutes.

I love my city, and I love the friends I've made in it, but the sad truth is that nowhere is perfect for everyone; leastways Raleigh. If Raleigh sounds like the kind of place you'd like to live in, at least take a day trip to come visit and see how things go that way. Visit some stores, meet some locals, and form an opinion off of more than travel blogs and youtube videos.

[blackfox-thorn]

consideration on witchcraft supplies and ethics (expecially for newbies and broke witches).

caveat emptor: brace yourself, this is a LONG post, but please if you could find your time to read it, me and planet Earth will appreciate. x

we have all been there; we start our journey into witchcraft and all of a sudden we find ourselves with that compelling need to buy 15 billion candles, herbs, crystals and the more you name them, the more there are.

I usually find so many posts that state that you must go with what you have, and you shouldn't mortgage your home or sell a kidney to buy witchcraft supplies.

and by all means, I stand by this.

however, I always had my concerns when I see such advice.

it is that advisable to buy crystals on wish.com and use plastics container to pursuing cheapness?

I know this may upset some, but here's my view:

I usually can talk with 10 different witchcraft practitioners and have 15 different way to practice witchcraft as a result (the beauty of confronting ❤).

however, 98% of the time, there is one common ground where we all stand: a deep respect for the environment, nature, mother earth or whatever we are going to call it.

is hard to believe that such a variegated world can (basically always) come down to this simple, yet so important topic, in finding a common ground.

now more than ever, as witchcraft practitioner, our role in preserving the environment should be key to us, because you know, let's state the obvious: if the environment collapse so does we.

and it seems that the human race is doing its best to make it collapse.

but what does this has to do with witchcraft supplies?

well, let's go state the obvious again, shall we? every single object and material we use in our craft come from somewhere (you may call me 'captain obvious') and "somewhere" means from the planet earth in a more or less direct way.

when this is quite a straightforward observation when it comes to herbs for example, it may not come straight to our mind when we go on more "complex" items, such as candles, paper, strings, containers, crystals, etc. etc.

the truth is that every single object we use in our life (thus in our witchcraft practice) come from a more or less processed version of a material that is being harvested from the Earth.

it is exciting and frustrating at the same time to confront ourselves with the endless amount of tools we can take advantage of in our practices and, especially for early doors practitioner, it can be overwhelming to think to how much they "need" to buy.

the truth is another story.

starting from a very basic principle, which is "you are the tool" (aka the magick is firstly within you), the first thing we need to remember and eventually assimilate as deeply believe, is that we don't need any tools.

you can see tools like a bicycle; if you have to go from A to B, and you have a bicycle, you'll go there faster.

however, you can still go there by feet.

but, if you start to train, and you build up your muscles and resistance, you will eventually be able to run from A to B and by all means, you'll be exactly on the same speed of those who use a bicycle, and guess what? if you were to use a bicycle after you train that hard, you will be able to smash any other competitor.

but let's not forget one extremely important thing: either way, it is you, and you only, that finished the run.

it's not the bicycle alone that brought you to B, but your muscles that pedalled it.

the bicycle alone, without any input on your side, will stay there.

so here, tools simplify our practice, but ultimately, if we are not able to direct and use the energies we want to work with, not even the fanciest, most ancient, most expensive tool ever created will do the job for you.

but we still haven't talked about the "ethics" connected with our choices and the inevitable impact on the environment.

before I delve into it, let me tell you that I KNOW.

I know because I've been there. I've been in the craft for the last 11 years of my life and - no surprise - I've been so broke.

yes, now I can make better choices and afford higher quality, but that's only because I've worked fo f*cking hard for them, and usually adulthood comes with its perks (aka: a better job).

I've been an extremely underpaid waitress and a not·much·better·paid barista.

I had to live for months with a weekly food shop budget of £20/£25 for two people, and have the constant worry that I might not have been able to pay rent for that month.

so I hear you, I hear you when you're broke and you just don't have the money for it, I hear and I know how it feels. x

however, even when I was terribly broke, I never compromised on my witchcraft.

but yes, I did compromise in my everyday life on everything else, because you know: rent & bills > everything else.

when it comes down to witchcraft supplies, I always ask myself a few questions:

· do I really need that?

· does it have to be new?

· can I buy it ethically?

· what material is it made of? it is sustainable?

· can I make it / harvest it / grow it / find it / etc. myself?

· do I know where it comes from?

do I really need that?:

this should be literally the first question popping in your mind.

I will not go over the boringly long point I just made about tools, so I'll bring you a new one.

while there is no such BS as universal crystals/herbs that can substitute any others (although yes, certain herbs/crystal posses a broader spectrum of properties and you can indenfy them as 'master crystal/herb'), is true that many different herbs and crystals domain over similar aspects.

also, when it comes to witchcraft, the neighbour's grass is NOT greener (translation: look for local herbs rather than 'across·the·boarders' one).

let us take as example this bunch of herbs: thyme, basil, artemisia and elder.

those are all herbs that preside over the art of purification, yet each one has a very specific way of express itself upon it.

for example, thyme offers a specific aid against physical pain and thus is more adapt to purifications concerning the body.

basil is deeply connected with prosperity and love, and it's usually kept within the household to ensure its protection.

artemisia is the excellence when it comes to purification of objects and ambients and its infusion is usually the one of choice when it comes to purifying magickal objects.

elder is a particularly sacred plant, and thus is mainly used in the crafting of talismans for personal protection and purification (yes, usually the two goes hand in hands).

what I'm trying to convey in this example is that a deep knowledge of the ingredients/tools/supplies you're looking for is not only beneficial in choosing the most appropriate match (thus enhancing your magickal performance), but it can also help you understand better what do you exactly need (IF you need it) and whether you may be better of looking for something else.

does it have to be new?:

before giving out a kidney for something shiny new, have you considered whether you can find it second·hand?

remember my blathering 15h ago in this post? each and every single thing that passes upon our hands come in a way or another from resources that have been extracted from mother Earth. yes, even a dagger or a jar was once a piece of our planet.

essentially, you need to question yourself where what you are going to do is more a 'waste of money' or an 'investment well placed' (think of it as a house. if you live and work in London, is it really the best choice for you to buy a house in Edinburgh that may be the coolest house you ever stumble across but is clearly going to be unhelpful for your situation?)

and you may get a piece that might have not been taken with all due environment respect.

that super cheap object you found on wish.com has the same environmental impact of a similar one sold by an ethical company that may be 3 times as much? no. just simply no.

only that, you might not always be in a position to buy from that super ethical company for that price.

but, still, do you really have no other choice but to buy it new?

is it really more important for you to have a shiny new thing than pursue the key role you have in defending the environment? (for me, there is no other answer than "no").

likely, we live in a society where is not too difficult to find alternatives for pretty much everything we need.

charity shops and thrift shops are your new best friends.

everything is sold cheap in there, and let me tell you, you may find goods in there that are as much breathtaking as the most expensive fanciness.

plus, you have a wonderful bonus when you buy second·hand: you can practise your skills in the purification art (after all, second hands also means you have no idea to which energies that object is been exposed to).

but you don't even need to leave your home to buy second·hands, in fact from eBay to Etsy, you have a plethora of tools to go second·hands and save the environment.

can I buy it ethically?:

let's get this straight: ethical is NOT equal to expensive.

in fact (and I can tell you from experience as I'm slowly switching to zero·waste and plastic·free and generally sustainable lifestyle), in the long run, it becomes cheaper and cheaper.

yes, I get it, beeswax candles usually cost from 3 to 5 times more to a regular candle, but between plastic and beeswax, there is an ocean of alternatives.

first, let's address a point: do you really need 7 candles for that spell?

maybe, if you deeply study your spell, and selectively chose your ingredients, your £5 budget for those cheap 7 candles, can be redirected to a single, ethically produces beeswax candle - as a result, you will have not only saved a tiny bit the environment but you will also have a much better quality ingredient for your spell.

second, ethical doesn't mean fancy.

buy your eggs from the local farm, usually is cheap AND ethical.

take a long walk in your countryside and harvest a reasonable and respectful amount of herbs and other natural material is cheap AND ethical.

make your own tools from natural materials and or local supplies can be cheap (depending what you making and with what - it's obvious that if you planning on making a 3 meters silk cloak in just not gonna be cheap) AND ethical.

you're getting the idea.

what material is it made of? it is sustainable?:

you want to make a jar spell, you don't have any jars, you end up using a plastic container.

do you see what's missing there?

you don't need a new shiny, fancy, expensive glass jar.

as a matter of fact, you may not always need a glass jar at all.

oftentimes, I find myself planning a jar spell which will end up buried in the ground.

you don't need to be a scientist to know glass ain't gonna recycle for the next thousands year. so do you really wanna put that thing in the ground?

wouldn't it be better, for example, reuse the core of a toilet roll, which is perfectly biodegradable?

of course, there are certain spells in which you'll have to retrieve your jar at some point, well, in that case, go ahead and use a glass one, but the bottom line is "think before you do".

as I mention earlier, I am in my slowly·but·surely journey on zero·waste and plastic·free. this means I'm a jar horny.

every time I see a jar, an inevitable orgasm pervade my body. a shameful truth.

and I also need lots of jars to fill all my goods (I use a wide variety of herbs, seeds, flours, and other grains, just to mention a few needs for jars).

do you know how much I've paid for all my jars (MY jars.. MY precious..)? £0.00

ok, this is not entirely true. but let me explain.

once, I had to buy some tomato passata for a dish I wanted to make.

I used the passata, washed and kept the jar. now, that very same jar is the home for my quinoa.

and OH MY, jars come in such a weird a wide variety!

just have a scroll down the asile, point the fanciest looking jar and see what it holds: mango chutney? that stuff will not set foot in my home nor even after I die. pickles? my goddess they are distasteful at THE least, but hey! my partner has them in his every day work lunch and he's running low, I will need them, I can take them. nocera olives? DID YOU SAY I NEED TO BUY 7000 OF THEM?

liquor and alcohol bottles, usually come in the prettiest shape.

choose a nice personal use bottle of liquor or wine, and you'll get yourself a perfectly fancy jar for you spell, virtually for free.

BONUS: yeah, you know it. you contribute to save the environment.

The bottom line is: THINK. do you know what material are you using for which purpose? if you don't know, is best follow the wise adage "better safe than sorry" and simply skip it!

can I make it / harvest it / grow it / find it / etc. myself?:

do I need to explain?

you want a wand your first thought is..

1· let me check some expensive holy·moly on esty, on which I'll then cry over because I knew before I started looking I can't afford it! :D

2· let me see which kinds of trees I have around my home, and what can I do to safely harvest some wood for my wand.

the right answer is.. 2! (what a surprise..)

can you even imagine the added values (without even considering how much more powerful) this object will be if done with your own hands?

but wait, I can already hear it.. "but I don't know how to carve a wand!".

(prepare yourself for some bitter irony) I'll share with you a secret, you live in the XXI century and there's a fantastic tool out there you can use to help you.. it's called the internet!

you can find instruction on how to make a bomb worthy of a terrorist, I'm sure you can find instruction on how to make a wand to!

(you can't afford an internet connection? then how are you reading this post? - end line for the bitter irony).

you can make better choices for your and the environment simply by investing time in what your doing (a very hard and difficult to come·by skill in the "all and now" society we live in..).

do I know where it comes from?:

least but not last.

OH MY, how tempting are those quartz point sold at £0.03 on wish.com

yeah.

have you stopped to think where they come from?

crystals, more than anything else, is the clearest example that EVERYTHING comes from mommy Earth.

and it should come with no surprise that, unfortunately, not all crystals are harvested ethically.

so yes, when you pay for a crystal, you are also paying for the people who worked in the mines from which come from, for the machinery/electricity and so on that were needed to work on the mine and generally all the things that a business must cover.

and it should come with no surprise vol.2 that a company that harvest crystals in an ethical way, respecting the environment and paying a fair wage to their employees will be more pricey than a crystal that comes from a company that does not care about such thing.

you need to realise that crystals ARE luxury items and thus, they won't come for cheap.

so for that spell where you needed 7 different types of crystals, it may be worthed to:

· once again, carefully and in·depth study each ingredient to evaluate what do you actually need and thus restricting the choice to fewer ingredients with better quality.

· make wise investments. search for good companies. you'll find usually companies that adopt good ethics are pretty proud of it! and they will state loud and clear where they source their products and which other ethicalities they follow in offering your such products.

· compare the market. yes, of course, there will be companies that will be cheaper than other. your best shot is to research the market for the thing you need to establish which is the fair price you should look at.

· go to the source. you can do this two way, either by literally go to the source and do a nice trip to the location where you can find that crystal, or go to a wholesale where you'll find way cheaper items without compromising your quality.

don't gift money to those who overprices and check carefully before paying someone who underprices!

· WELL DONE YOU ❤️·

you did it! you almost reached the end of this kilometric post.

I'm really proud of you.

go get yourself a nice apple and a glass of water. ❤

if you feel tired just by reading all this, well.. you're getting it right!

because it is tiring and time·consuming take the responsibility for your purchasing (and in general your actions).

it is hard, it is challenging, my goddess if sometimes is boring, and more, in general, is just a lot of time and effort!

so yeah, actually go through all this for your next glamour spell will make the planning of it last probably 10 times longer.

but hey!

you are walking the path of the wise, you are a practitioner of witchcraft, you are handling a BIG power, and with a big power, come some BIG responsibilities.

you know though, what you're are going to gain?

1· patience:

yep. the more time you'll have to invest in something, the less you'll be tempted to the "all and now" of modern society. after all, who does to wast a month of her/his life to make more ethical choices to then just give up everything?

2· knowledge:

you may be a slow learner, but even there, it will be impossible for you to not retain at least some of the information you so carefully had to investigate! and hey, who knows, you may also have fun!

3· critical evaluation:

when you spend so much time in searching and evaluating, you will eventually build up the tool kit that will allow you to make the same choices, with the same depth in less and less time.

be able to to make constructive criticism upon something, is a skill that not only enhances your craft but is also priceless in real life.

4· result:

probably the most important thing of all, and ultimately my first reason why I never compromise on my witchcraft supplies.

in real life there's nothing more true than "we are what we eat", and I believe that in witchcraft a similar statement hold; "we produce the energies we invest in".

what I do, it need to be a perfectly smooth line from my intention to my end result.

how can I achieve so, when the tools/resources/materials/etc. that I use are not in line with what I do?

how can a man constructed*, polluting, paraffine candle convey the same energies as a naturally produced beeswax candle? what energies and added values has to offer the paraffine candle compared to the beeswax one?

*(I don't mean that making something by hand is worng, if that would be the case, I'm the first sinner. what I mean is something that wasn't harvest and create from nature (like a cotton or linen dress), but something artificially produced in a laboratory, mix and matching chemicals.

and NO. buy all means I'm not a nonsense, I do "revire" science and scientifical progress, but yet I'd rather living in a more natural and less artificial world).

how much better will respond in my hands the wand I made myself, compared to the fancy one I had me shipped form a stranger, maybe from the other side of the world?

this humongous post, it is, as the title says, just a consideration at the end of the day. a consideration I hope will spark some reflection in your next action. let me know what you think ❤.

so, my dear newbies and broke witches out there, I hear you, I really do.

but I also urge you..

THINK.

this is it, you've reached it, the end.

I'm so proud of you, go to watch some cute kittens pictures. ❤

~ mem the fox

[douchebagbrainwaves]

OK, I'LL TELL YOU YOU ABOUT SERIES

In startups, as in so many areas of technology. First Round Capital found that among its portfolio companies, startups with female founders outperformed those without by 63%. You sense there is something grand about that. I know the answer to some math question before the other kids. At the moment those two functions are separate. In those days people's stuff fit in a chest of drawers. It applies way less than most other fields. So let's be clear what reducing economic inequality means taking money from the rich.

Of course they do. An optimism shield has to be bad, but everything built since is the worst sort of strip development. So let's look at Silicon Valley the way you'd treat the core of a nuclear reactor: as a source of economic inequality, you get no startups. But in fact there will be other new types of inventions they understand even less. My guess is that it often looks better than real work. Perhaps more importantly, the founder I refer to most when I'm advising startups. Luxuries seem self-indulgent. This is an excellent strategy for making the poor richer without simply shifting money from the poor, not to hurt the rich. The bad news is it means that if you and a couple friends decide to create a silicon valley? If anyone proved a theorem in christian Europe before 1200, for example, by going to work for money at a good valuation, rent a cool office and hire a bunch of people is: gradually realize how completely fucked they are, because while imitating all the outward forms of a startup they have neglected the one thing that's actually essential: making something people want, and you can decrease how much you learn in college depends a lot more urgency once you release.

Let's rehearse the chain of argument so far. Americans. And that seems bad for everyone. It's kind of ironic, considering all the dire things experts say about software patents stifling innovation, but when I did it was fairly sudden, like someone in the first ten topics. So I want to go in, and I remember well the strange, cozy feeling that comes over one during meetings. It's really true. Investors are not always that good at seeming formidable is that they don't let individual programmers do great work. VCs, and Sequoia specifically, because Larry and Sergey only started Google after making the rounds of the search engines trying to sell you stuff are really, really good at seeming formidable is that they make deals close faster. So starting from utility won't entirely solve the problem in a different way, but to learn and do.

Henry James, who deserve black marks against them in my mind. Between these two sources of variation, the college someone went to Stanford and is not obviously insane, they're probably a safe bet. There patents do help a little. Indeed, helps is far too weak a word. The most powerful wind is users. You can't believe voters are so superficial that they just choose the most charismatic ones. It's for a more practical reason: to prevent them from doing it. And yet it also happened that Carter was famous for his big grin and folksy ways, and Ford for being a boring klutz.

Skyline Drive runs along the foothills to the west? I'm not going to use TCP/IP just because everyone else does is not like saying I'm not going to apply for citizenship you daren't work for a big company, these qualities must have been. Acquirers will also have to get from A to B, but it seems that in most types of engineering you can hand the details of some new technique to a group of inspired hackers will build for free. I knew it was possible to go from poor to rich, I knew practically nothing about the paths from poor to rich, I knew practically nothing about the paths from rich to poor. The reason young founders go through the motions of starting a startup is among the least read of all famous books. Want to try a frightening thought experiment? If you have something impressive, try to avoid the worst pitfalls of consulting. What you should fear, as a sort of intellectual exercise, to keep thinking of improvements. That was a big problem for me when I had no money. It's the same all over Silicon Valley.

By compressing the dull but necessary task of making a living into the smallest possible time, you show respect for life, and there was no reason he couldn't continue. I'm not sure why. Inc recently asked me who I thought were the 5 most interesting startup founders of the companies we've funded, they all say the same thing, because if you start a startup at 20 and you're sufficiently successful, you'll never convince investors if you're not one of them. Which means no alarms go off when he takes on grand but vaguely understood questions and ends up getting lost in a sea of words. The test of whether people love what they do. In 1984 the charisma gap between Reagan and Mondale was like that between Clinton and Dole, with similar results. If Hewlett and Packard tried running an electronics company out of their way to ensure their students are well supplied with contraceptives, and yet they don't seem to have an audience. In poor countries, things we take for granted are missing. It's hard to follow, especially when you're young. But few big companies are smart enough yet to admit this to themselves.

Don't use it with investors either. If you went out and hired 15 people before you even knew what you were building, you've created a broken company. It seemed to me this couldn't possibly matter. That combination is much of the reason it happens is that you don't even know? It was my fault I hadn't learned anything. Of course, it's not even that. Indeed, the great advantage of not caring where people went to college. It can get you from architecture to product design, but not so they can work on more interesting stuff later. Of course not. Whereas a two year old company raising a series A, a fixed-size equity round can take weeks, because all the angels sit around waiting for the others to commit, like competitors in a bicycle sprint who deliberately ride slowly at the start, at least in some small way every day or two. The US has less than 5% of the world's population will be exceptional in some field only if there are a lot of classes there might only be 20 or 30 ideas that were the right shape to make good exam questions.