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mostlysignssomeportents · 1 year

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Kickstarting the audiobook of The Lost Cause, my novel of environmental hope

Tonight (October 2), I'm in Boise to host an event with VE Schwab. On October 7–8, I'm in Milan to keynote Wired Nextfest.

The Lost Cause is my next novel. It's about the climate emergency. It's hopeful. Library Journal called it "a message hope in a near-future that looks increasingly bleak." As with every other one of my books Amazon refuses to sell the audiobook, so I made my own, and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/the-lost-cause-a-novel-of-climate-and-hope

That's a lot to unpack, I know. So many questions! Including this one: "How is it that I have another book out in 2023?" Because this is my third book this year. Short answer: I write when I'm anxious, so I came out of lockdown with nine books. Nine!

Hope and writing are closely related activities. Hope (the belief that you can make things better) is nothing so cheap and fatalistic as optimism (the belief that things will improve no matter what you do). The Lost Cause is full of people who are full of hope.

The action begins a full generation after the Hail Mary passage of the Green New Deal, and the people who grew up fighting the climate emergency (rather than sitting hopelessly by while the powers that be insisted that nothing could or should be done) have a name for themselves: they call themselves "the first generation in a century that doesn't fear the future."

I fear the future. Unchecked corporate power has us barreling over a cliff's edge and all the one-percent has to say is, "Well, it's too late to swerve now, what if the bus rolls and someone breaks a leg? Don't worry, we'll just keep speeding up and leap the gorge":

https://locusmag.com/2022/07/cory-doctorow-the-swerve/

That unchecked corporate power has no better avatar than Amazon, one of the tech monopolies that has converted the old, good internet into "five giant websites, each filled with screenshots of the other four":

https://twitter.com/tveastman/status/1069674780826071040

Amazon maintains a near-total grip over print and ebooks, but when it comes to audiobooks, that control is total. The company's Audible division has captured more than 90% of the market, and it abuses that dominance to cram Digital Rights Management onto every book it sells, even if the author doesn't want it:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/25/can-you-hear-me-now/#acx-ripoff

I wrote a whole-ass book about this and it came out less than a month ago; it's called The Internet Con and it lays out an audacious plan to halt the internet's enshittification and throw it into reverse:

http://www.seizethemeansofcomputation.org/

The tldr is this: when an audiobook is wrapped in Amazon's DRM, only Amazon can legally remove it. That means that every book I sell you on Audible is a book you have to throw away if you ever break up with Amazon, and Amazon can use the fact that it's hold you hostage to screw me – and every other author – over.

As I said last time this came up:

Fuck that sideways.

With a brick.

My books are sold without DRM, so you can play them in any app and do anything copyright permits, and that means Amazon won't carry them, and that means my publishers don't want to pay to produce them, and that means I produce them myself, and then I make the (significant) costs back by selling them on Kickstarter.

And you know what? It works. Readers don't want DRM. I mean, duh. No one woke up this morning and said, "Dammit, why won't someone sell me a product that lets me do less with my books?" I sell boatloads" of books through these crowdfunding campaigns. I sold so many copies of my last book, *The Internet Con, that they sold out the initial print run in two weeks (don't worry, they held back stock for my upcoming events).

But beyond that, I think there's another reason my readers keep coming back, even though I wrote a genuinely stupid number of books while working through lockdown anxiety while the wildfires raged and ashes sifted down out of the sky and settled on my laptop as I lay in my backyard hammock, pounding my keyboard.

(I went through two keyboards during lockdown. Thankfully, I bought a user-serviceable laptop from Framework and fixed it myself both times, in a matter of minutes. No, no one pays me to mention this, but hot damn is it cool.)

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/13/graceful-failure/#frame

The reason readers come back to my books is that they're full of hope. In the same way that writing lets me feel like I'm not a passenger in life, but rather, someone with a say in my destination, the books that I write are full of practical ways and dramatic scenes in which other people seize the means of computation, the reins of power or their own destinies.

The protagonist of The Lost Cause is Brooks Palazzo, a high-school senior in Burbank whose parents were part of the original cohort of volunteers who kicked off the global transformation, and left him an orphan when they succumbed to one of the zoonotic plagues that arise every time another habitat is destroyed.

Brooks grew up knowing what his life would be: the work of repair and care, which millions of young people are doing. Relocating entire cities off endangered coastlines and floodplains, or out of fire-zones. Fighting floods and fires. Caring for tens of millions of refugees for whom the change came too late.

But with every revolution comes a counter-revolution. The losers of a just war don't dig holes, climb inside and pull the dirt down on top of themselves. Two groups of reactionaries – seagoing anarcho-capitalist billionaire wreckers and seething white nationalist militias – have formed an alliance.

They've already gotten their champion into the White House. Next up: dismantling every cause for hope Brooks and his friends have, and bringing back the fear.

That's the setup for a novel about solidarity, care, library socialism, and snatching victory from defeat's jaws. Writing it help keep me sane during the lockdown, and when it came time to record the audiobook, I spent a lot of time thinking about who could read it. I've had some great narrators: Wil Wheaton, @neil-gaiman, Amber Benson, Bronson Pinchot, and more.

I record my audiobooks with Skyboat Media, a brilliant studio near my place in LA. Back in August, I spent a week in their recording booth – "The Tardis" – doing something I'd never tried before: I recorded a whole audiobook, with directorial supervision: The Internet Con:

https://transactions.sendowl.com/products/78992826/DEA0CE12/purchase

When it was done, the director – audiobook legend Gabrielle de Cuir – sat me down and said, "Look, I've never said this to an author before, but I think you should read The Lost Cause. I don't direct anyone anymore except for Wil Wheaton and LeVar Burton, but I would direct you on this one."

I was immensely flattered – and very nervous. Reading The Internet Con was one thing – the book is built around the speeches I've been giving for 20 years and I knew I could sell those lines – but The Lost Cause is a novel, with a whole cast of characters. Could I do it?

Reader, I did it. I just listened to the proofs last week and:

It.

Came.

Out.

Great.

The Lost Cause goes on sale on November 14th, and I'll be selling this audiobook I made everywhere audiobooks are sold – except for the stores that require DRM, nonconsensually shackling readers and writers to their platforms. So you'll be able to get it on Libro.fm, downpour.com, even Google Play – but not Audible, Apple Books, or Audiobooks.com.

But in addition to those worthy retailers, I will be sending out thousands – and thousands! – of audiobook to my Kickstarter backers on the on-sale date, either as a folder of DRM-free MP3s, or as a download code for Libro.fm, to make things easy for people who don't want to have to figure out how to sideload an audiobook into a standalone app.

And, of course, the mobile duopoly have made this kind of sideloading exponentially harder over the past decade, though far be it from me to connect this with their policy of charging 30% commissions on everything sold through an app, a commission they don't receive if you get your files on the web and load 'em yourself:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/red-team-blues-another-audiobook-that-amazon-wont-sell/posts/3788112

As with my previous Kickstarters, I'm also selling ebooks and hardcovers – signed or unsigned, and this time I've found a great partner to fulfill EU orders from within the EU, so backers won't have to pay VAT and customs charges. The wonderful Otherland – who have hosted me on my last two trips to Berlin – are going to manage that shipping for me:

https://www.otherland-berlin.de/en/home.html

Kim Stanley Robinson read the book and said, "Along with the rush of adrenaline I felt a solid surge of hope. May it go like this." That's just about the perfect quote, because the book is a ride. It's not just a kumbaya tale of a better world that is possible: it's a post-cyberpunk novel of high-tech guerrilla and meme warfare, climate tech and bad climate tech, wildcat prefab urban infill, and far-right militamen who adapt to a ban on assault-rifles by switching to super-soakers full of hydrochloric acid.

It's a book about struggle, hope in the darkness, and a way through this rotten moment. It's a book that dares to imagine that things might get worse but also better. This is a curious emotional melange, but it's one that I'm increasingly feeling these days.

Like, Amazon, that giant bully, whose blockade on DRM-free audiobooks cost me enough money to pay off my mortgage and put my kid through university (according to my agent)? The incredible Lina Khan brought a long-overdue antitrust case against Amazon while her rockstar DoJ counterpart, Jonathan Kanter, is dragging Google through the courts.

The EU is taking on Apple, and French cops are kicking down Nvidia's doors and grabbing their files, looking to build another antitrust case for monopolizing GPUs. The writers won their strike and Joe Biden walked the picket-line with the UAW, the first president in history to join striking workers:

https://doctorow.medium.com/joe-biden-is-headed-to-a-uaw-picket-line-in-detroit-f80bd0b372ab?sk=f3abdfd3f26d2f615ad9d2f1839bcc07

Solar is now our cheapest energy source, which is wild, because if we could only capture 0.4% of the solar energy that makes it through the atmosphere, we could give everyone alive the same energy budget as Canadians (who have American lifestyles but higher heating bills). As Deb Chachra writes in her forthcoming How Infrastructure Works (my review pending): we get a fresh supply of energy every time the sun rises and we only get new materials when a comet survives atmospheric entry, but we treat energy as scarce and throw away our materials after a single use:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/612711/how-infrastructure-works-by-deb-chachra/

Anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop. We have shot past many of our planetary boundaries and there are waves of climate crises in our future, but they don't have to be climate disasters. That's up to us – it'll depend on whether we come together to save ourselves and each other, or tear ourselves apart.

The Lost Cause dares to imagine what it might be like if we do the former. We don't live in a post-enshittification world yet, but we could. With these indie audiobooks, I've found a way to treat the terminal enshittification of the Amazon monopoly as damage and route around it. I hope you'll back the Kickstarter, fight enshittification, inject some hope into your reading, and enjoy a kickass adventure novel in the process:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/the-lost-cause-a-novel-of-climate-and-hope

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/02/the-lost-cause/#the-first-generation-that-doesnt-fear-the-future

#pluralistic #audiobooks #the lost cause #crowdfunding #kickstarter #spoken word #climate #climate emergency #monopoly #drm #amazon #audible #skyboat #science fiction #hope not optimism

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white-label-blog · 2 years

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The site speed certainly affects the ranking of your website as well as the user experience and audience retention rate. As a result, if page load times change from two seconds to three, visitor bounce rates will nearly double, while faster page speeds will result in better conversion rates. Therefore, website performance has a large and measurable impact on conversion rates.

If you want understand how to improve page speed of your site, here are some things to consider –

Place a greater emphasis on image optimization

Enable browser caching on your site

Avoid redirects whenever possible

Host large files on external servers

Use lazy loading for busy website pages

Minify your Javascript

As any of your website pages that take more than five seconds, it exponentially increases your bounce rate. While considering the above improvements of page speed, you also have to take care of the images, as the file size of each image is as big as it needs to be.

#how to improve page speed #Website Speed #Site speed #Page load speed

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ms-demeanor · 7 months

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Going off that post about nutrition and science, I'd love to hear what you think of the 5:2 diet/The Fast 800 and its creator, Dr. Michael Mosley. For context: in order to get an NHS-funded breast reduction (it's a gender thing, but also just a general quality-of-life thing), I need to be a certain BMI, so I've been referred to a weight management clinic. The lady I've been seeing initially just put me on a low-carb diet (130g or less of carbs per day, with an aside from her about how bullshit Keto and BMI limits for treatment are), but now she's said that, if I wanted to speed up the weight loss, I should include the 5:2 diet: 5 days in a week where I eat "normally", and 2 fast days in which I restrict myself to 800kcals. I did a little looking into it myself, and found that 5:2 - which I HAD heard about before - is now being sold as part of "The Fast 800", with Dr. Mosley being the creator of it. I was shocked by that, because I was already a fan of Dr. Mosley's work (he has a podcast called "Just One Thing" that I really liked, and thought contained reasonable-sounding advice), and yet having a diet plan that he's clearly making money off of does immediately make me feel suspicious. I've borrowed his "The Fast 800" book from the library, both to find out more about the diet I've been put on and to see if it's at all backed by evidence, and he does cite a bunch of scientific studies which seem to back up his ideas, but I don't know how valid they are, and I don't just want to accept them at face-value (especially since he's a "we got fat completely wrong in the 80s, therefore we should eat a Mediterranean diet!" types). Obviously I'll go with what my weight management lady suggests, since she's obviously more qualified to talk about it than I am, but I am curious to know what you think, and whether I'm right to be distrustful of all of this.

I am, generally speaking, against any diet for rapid weight loss. They're not sustainable so people gain the weight back (often with more weight getting added on).

There have also recently been findings that suggest that BMI cutoffs for top surgery are detrimental to patients as patients in higher BMI categories are more likely to have minor complications like UTIs or to be readmitted, but are not likely to have major complications or be at risk of significant harm from having top surgery. I don't know if anybody will listen if you bring up that study, and I know that GCS is fraught in many places for many reasons.

I'm also just.

I'm so mad. I'm so fucking mad! I'm so mad about this!

One of my best friends is a guy who was pressured into a pattern of disordered eating and unhealthy exercise in order to qualify for top surgery; since then he has not been able to eat in a healthy way and has struggled with alternating between exercising to the point of harm and other destructive behaviors that make him unhappy and unsafe. And he didn't need that. He didn't need any of that! He needed a very safe surgery that had perhaps a slightly higher risk of minor complications at his size and instead he got top surgery and an eating disorder! I hate it! I'm so fucking mad about it!

Also as near as I can tell Michael Mosley qualified as a psychiatrist in the 90s, spent very little time working as a psychiatrist, and then became a media personality. From what is visible on his website and every biography I've found for him he apparently doesn't have any background in nutrition beyond whatever is standard for someone in medical school (which is NOT MUCH).

Hey I just looked at his website and this is straight-up fucked up.

Anybody recommending an 800 calorie a day diet for 2-12 weeks in a context that is not heavily medically supervised can fucking choke. That is *ridiculously* dangerous and the website says that this can improve insulin resistance but there are a shitload of studies about people on crash diets like this *developing* insulin resistance (oh hey like my friend who became prediabetic after his rapid significant weight loss).

Also in regard to the studies he cites on the website, the "two years later patients are still going strong in their diabetes improvements" it's really important to put shit like that in context

at 5 years 13% of the original intervention group were in remission from their type two diabetes; the average weight loss experienced by the intervention group as a whole was 6.1kg compared to 4.6kg in the control group. That's 1.5kg lower for the people who went through a twelve week medically supervised very low calorie diet compared. That's an average difference of 3.3 pounds between "starvation diet" and "no diet" for the Americans in the audience.

Yours is the second comment I've seen that has been leery of the Mediterranean diet, btw, and the Mediterranean diet is fine. It's very achievable and not super gimmicky and is based on very reasonable reassessments of fat, not the hardcore "you are fine to eat 100g of fat a day" kind of attitude that you get from the keto crew. There isn't really one Mediterranean diet and it certainly isn't low carb (which the bits from Mosely's website seem to indicate it is).

So, no, honestly I don't think much of Mosely and I'm very sorry you're in this situation, that sucks and I hate that they're refusing you treatment until you undergo an exceptionally difficult and potentially harmful weight loss excursion.

I know you're probably stuck with that and it's bullshit and I think it fucking sucks and unfortunately the medical advice you're likely to get is "eat in a significantly disordered manner at least until it is time for surgery" and it blows. That just fucking sucks.

If you're looking for rapid weight loss that you don't plan to sustain (and you shouldn't plan to sustain it, it won't stay off) you may want to look into body building forums for how they discuss cuts. It's still disordered eating and it's still not healthy, but at least they're effective and can tell you what supplements will keep you from becoming malnourished while you prepare for surgery. This is a terrible idea. I don't actually want to give this advice to anyone but bodybuilders are the exact kind of people who know how far and how fast they can push weight loss while having an awareness that it isn't really good for them and it won't stay off.

I cannot overstate enough how much I hate the thought that people are being encouraged to rapidly starve themselves in order to prepare to recover from surgery. I am so sorry and I'm so mad and

#tw weight loss #tw diet talk #tw disordered eating #tw calorie restriction

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emotional-engine · 1 year

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In case you missed - GREAT Neopets News!

I didn't see anybody talking about the news here, so I thought that I could share a summary.

The Neopets Team announced today that they're under new management. They're no longer affiliated with Jumpstart (which announced their closure back in June) or their parent company NetDragon.

In their blog post in the official Neopets Medium page, they confirm that they are now an independent company:

(Dominc Law, worked for NetDragon and was an old school Neopets player. He put together a team to work on saving the brand.)

Also in that blog post the team talks about how they are well aware of the problems the site has been through in the last decade, they acknowledge the lack of resources which resulted in the Neopets website being left broken.

Going ahead, they are going to focus on community requests, such as speeding up the process of Flash Games conversion, clearing up the page conversion backlog, bug fixes, mobile compatibility issues and improving customer support.

Most importantly, in my opinion, they clear up that they WILL NOT go forward with any Metaverse bullshit, and will instead work on creating a game that feels like Neopets:

At this point, they have secured $4M in funding from various (unnamed) investors with additional funding from the management buyout. For the first time in forever, it looks like TNT has the resources they need to move the brand forward. In the blog post, they mention they have already hired developers and artists to work on the fixes the site needs.

From what it looks like, the game will be a mobile social life-simulation, parallel to the current website. We don’t have to worry that neopets.com will be replaced by a mobile app.

As of now, they have announced:

A brand new plot, scheduled for early 2024

A 2 million(!) NeoCash giveaway

More transparency with monthly updates from the team, scheduled AMAs

Neopets will be under the control of a new, unified entity: World of Neopia, Inc - the website will remain the same (neopets.com)

A Brand Ambassador Program

No longer going forward with NFT/Metaverse stuff

At the end, they published a FAQ with some answers that I found to be good and very interesting:

You can read the entire blog post here.

Or watch the YouTube announcement (which is way shorter):

youtube

#neopets #putting my journo degree to a good use i think #i am in no way affiliated with TNT or jumpstart or netdragon etc #i'm just really really happy #things look bright for once and i'd like to share the news #i know some people might be skeptical but i'd like to be optimistic for once and trust the team #most of them nowadays are old players if i'm not mistaken #i don't think they like to see the website in shambles as it was #also really goddamn glad they're moving away from crypto shit #i appreciate the transparency #also be nice to me i'm shy #Youtube #i admit i got a little lazy by the end #nostalgia #y2k nostalgia #kidcore #will these tags even show up

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pixelglam · 2 months

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hey amelie! i just wanted to ask, how long did it take for you to learn how to build? did you watch youtube tutorials or anything like that? idk, i’ve always wanted to build a house for my own sims but it’s so hard for me to like what i’ve made. did you feel this way too? do you have any tips? sorry i’m such a yapper 😭 have a great day! <3

Hello! Watching simmers like bojanasims, lilsimsie and simlicy on youtube helped me a lot especially when I started building lots myself about one and a half years ago! I listed a few tips for you below!

I also received a similar message from another anon so I'll be answering both here. 🤍

'hiii i recently discovered your yt channel and i love your builds. how did you improve your building skills and how do you make your builds so realistic? 🩵'

Study Real Architecture: Look at real-life houses, apartments, and buildings to understand architectural styles, layouts, and details. This can give you inspiration and ideas for your own builds. My favorites are pinterest and real estate/architect websites.

Plan Your Build: Before starting, come up with a plan and layout for the build. Decide on the overall style (modern, traditional, etc.), number of rooms, color scheme and any special features you want to include.

Get Acquainted with The Basics: Understand the basic tools and controls in Build Mode. Practice using the wall tool, room tool, roof and terrain tools to create a solid foundation for all your builds. There are a lot of really informative tutorials on youtube! (important for beginners)

Pay Attention to Scale and Proportions: Ensure that rooms, windows, doors, and furniture are proportionate to each other. This helps in creating a realistic and cohesive look.

Use Realistic Colors and Textures: Choose colors and textures that are realistic and complement each other well. Consider the overall color scheme of the house and how different materials blend together.

Add Detailing: Pay attention to small details like trim around windows and doors, roof overhangs, and landscaping. These details can make a big difference in the overall appearance of your build.

Experiment with Roofing and Terrain: Roofs and landscaping can significantly impact the realism of your build. Experiment with different roof shapes, angles, and materials. Use terrain tools to create realistic slopes and landscaping features.

Furnish Thoughtfully: When furnishing your builds, think about how real people would use the space. Arrange furniture in a way that makes sense functionally and aesthetically.

Utilize Custom Content (CC): Explore custom content to expand your options for building, furniture and decorative items. This can often help to create a more realistic look as well.

Seek Feedback and Learn from Others: Share your builds in sims discord groups or on Simblr to ask for feedback and look for inspiration. Look at tutorials and speed builds by other players/creators to learn new techniques and tricks. (please don't copy or steal other people's builds to post online though)

Practice Regularly: Like any skill, building in The Sims 4 improves with practice. Experiment with different styles and challenge yourself with more complex builds over time.

Have Fun and Be Creative: Building in The Sims 4 is a creative outlet, so enjoy the process and don't be afraid to try new things in your designs.

#answered #tips

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beforeiread-studies · 1 month

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studyblr masterpost jam Day 3: free resources

Korean is a pretty popular language so there are MANY free resources. You could in theory not spend a penny while learning.

The King Sejong Institute

It's an Institute sponsored by the Korean government that gives students free material and online lessons. I repeat, FREE. You can download textbook from the website or enroll in their FREE courses.

I'm currently taking one of their 1 live lesson a week (on Zoom) course (it's FREE!!!) but there are also pre-recorded video courses. I completed 2 of them and they are still really valid. And free!

If you would like I structured approach (for free), I recommend you check them out. You can start a pre-recorded course whenever you like and you can enroll in the Zoom ones about one month before the course is set to start. There are four enrollment periods a year and each course lasts 10 weeks.

Your local Korean Culture Institute

Korea also sponsors physical Culture Institutes around the world. They offer lessons at laughable prices (one semester for 30€ here in Italy) and sometimes also organize free workshops (I learned how to read Hangul at one of those). Sometimes they also offer online group lessons so check that out as well!

Grammar: websites

Whenever I have to look up a grammar rule really quickly, I end up either stumbling on previously answered Hello Talk questions or the website How To Study Korean. Both amazing resources.

Listening: podcasts

Here is a list of the podcasts I like for beginners:

akapinn

koreant

study korean with sol

korean tutor k

anything that says "comprehensible input" is gold

They are all easy enough not to get discouraged but tough enough to make you improve with every video. I recommend not looking at the English translation until you've listened to the podcast at least a couple of times.

And here are some podcasts I've heard are good for intermediate learners:

choi susu (a classic) (if you find the podcast too difficult start with the vlogs)

didi's korean podcast

Listening: kdramas & TV variaties

You won't understand them as a beginner. That's ok. Watch them anyway.

Being exposed to the language will eventually bring you to pick up vocabulary and get a sense of some grammar rules. I watched kdramas with eng sub for 7 years before I started learning actively and it has helped SO MUCH both with my listening skills and with going like "oh so that's why they keep repeating that expression in that particular way" while I'm studying grammar, which helps me remember everything better.

For kdramas: just go on Viki.com and look for a drama with an interesting plot. Beware! Do not fall into temptation and start watching Chinese dramas instead. Remember that you are there to practice Korean, not start a whole new hobby. For a beginner, I recommend picking kdramas set in modern times, because the vocabulary in historical dramas is more difficult.

Some tv varieties I like:

The return of Superman. About celebrity dads raising their children.

I live alone. About celebrities and their daily life in their apartments where they live by themselves

Inspector / 감별사. On YouTube. Hosted by Jeongyeon from TWICE, she visits other celebrities' houses to ask them to donate their precious possessions. The objects will get auctioned and the money donated to charity. Jy is really funny.

Listening, reading and pronunciation: song lyrics

I've heard that some people shadow every podcast episode they listen to in order to improve their pronunciation, which sounds incredibly boring. But you know what's not boring? Singing.

Once you get to a decent Hangul reading speed (and to get there the only way is to read a lot), pick a ballad you love and try to sing along to the lyrics.

This exercise will help you improve your reading and listening skills, practice your pronunciation and memorize new words and sentence patterns. Also singing is a joyful activity that will take the stress out of language learning. Kudos point if you decide to try and translate the song.

If you are a kpop fan, you know a ballad for sure. If you are a kdrama fan, every kdrama soundtrack features at least a ballad. There are no excuses. But if you need a suggestion, Spring Day by BTS or 두 사람 are my current faves.

Writing

Writing is actually not that hard, guys. You can practice writing online (on Tumblr, on Hellotalk, on writing streak Korean on Reddit, with penpals) or in secret (in your journal no one will ever read). It's not that hard, find a list of prompts and get going! I know Choi Susu has some videos about writing a diary in Korean but I haven't watched them yet.

Speaking

If you have no one to speak to in real life you can either 1. go back to the "writing" section and do that or 2. try to think in Korean.

It will be a real chore at first, but if you simply try chronicling your day, little by little you will look up new vocabulary and practice using new grammar rules.

Warning: this will only help you with formulating sentences. To speak properly you will have to practice your pronunciation and get your face muscles used to some weird movements. Singing along (see above) is a good way of accomplishing that.

#studyblrmasterpostjam #studyblr #korean learning #language learning #langblr

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marketingtools-blog · 8 months

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Web Host Performance and Website Speed

Your website’s speed can make or break the experience for your visitors. Fast loading times, easy site flow, quick server replies, and well-set content delivery are key. These parts ensure users enjoy their visit from start to finish across all gadgets. A slow site often means people leave fast which isn’t good for how they see your brand. Everyone likes a snappy website; it helps them get what…

View On WordPress

#how to increase website speed #how to make website load faster #how to speed up my website loading #how to speed up wordpress website #how to speed up your website #how to speed up your wordpress website #improve website speed #increase website speed #speed up website #speed up wordpress #speed up wordpress website #speed up your wordpress website #website speed #website speed optimization #website speed test #wordpress speed optimization #wordpress website speed

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vasyandii · 4 months

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how'd your art get to where it is now? as in, how did you learn? do you have any tips?

Howdy Anon! Thank you for the ask :) I've been drawing since I was 9-10, so I've learned a few things and done a few things! I'll try to condense it down as much as I can!

How I learned to draw (In no particular order)

1.) Speedpaints

I watched a lot of speed paints, a lot. Any style that I found appealing I would just watch for hours on end to see how those artists applied their techniques in practice. ((I also watched a lot of sketchbook tours and animation short films))

2.) Imitation

I would try my best to imitate the art styles I liked at the time, I wouldn't post the art, obviously but it was good practice that I sought out.

3.) Consistency

Drawing is one of the easiest things to get into, you can draw on any surface as long as your medium can leave marks, and if you mess up? You just throw away the paper and start again. I drew whenever I felt like it and it really helped :)

4.) Art Books/Tutorials

It ultimately depends on what style you wish to have, I usually strive between the line of Cartoon/semi-realism so I recommend Books like Morpho and Websites like Lineofaction.com :)

Art (Not really art) Tips!

1.) Supplies ≠ Skill

Understand that your art supplies/program does not equate to your abilities as an artist. You can spend a million dollars on the best supplies and equipment, but it won't be worth shit if you don't have the technical skills to use them. Upgrade gradually as you go.

2.) DON'T FORCE YOURSELF TO DRAW!!

A lot of artists struggle with Executive dysfunction and Art block. Just like exercise, your mind needs rest and recovery! If you don't let it, you'll further strain that muscle! Watch your favourite shows, eat good food (this also applies to foods that make you FEEL GOOD!)

3.) Don't complain

This is just a personal tip xD You don't draw because it's easy, you draw because it's hard. Don't complain about having Art Block.

I'm not saying you shouldn't ever be capable of having a creative block, I'm aware there's going to be periods of time where you can't seem to get your art right. But you shouldn't complain about your body signaling you to take a break or how your art "sucks".

Creating art to me is like a workout (for your brain and hands), so when I hear someone complaining about having Art block I hear the artist equivalent of "UGHHH I hate the gym, I wanna work out but I caaaan't I could neeever exercise."

4.) "Just Practice lol" is bullshit.

I hate this response, really. It's an "easy way out" half-assed answer that doesn't help artists that start out. While consistency is key, You can draw and "practice" your fundamentals as much as you want, but you wont improve as much as you would when you draw the things that YOU enjoy. Once you do that, the improvement comes naturally.

You like drawing faces? You start learning how to make your faces look better. You like drawing clothes? You leave to improve in drawing clothes. And so on.

You need to ACTIVELY SEEK it out yk

5.) Growth is never Exponential.

Never EVER be afraid that your art "doesn't look as good as it did" the last time you drew, you just got back from your break, ease into it! You need to roll with the punches, and try your best to fight back!

Hope this helps! I'm not sure how helpful this advice is, since I'm not a professional artist, but these are what work for me :D

#art #digital art #artwork #art tips #vasya rambles

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redflagshipwriter · 3 months

Text

Reassembly 8

masterpost

“Are we done for the night?” Something cracked when Kon stretched with his fingers interlocked over his head. Peter glanced over and deliberately decided not to comment on the flexible arch of the other guy’s back.

“Uh…” Peter wiped gunk out of his eye and checked the study plan he’d written out. “Yeah, I think we got through enough. I need to finish this book tonight, though.” He brandished the classic novel about a giant squid that was a metaphor for the inevitability of death.

“Blegh.” Kon stuck his tongue out. Like, weirdly out. People here sure were flexible and strong and big and handsome, Peter thought, happy for Kon but kinda bemused about it. Maybe he didn’t need to feel any kind of guilt about not being Spiderman here. Home needed him. Clearly, people in this world were like, built better.

‘...Does it bother me that I might not be special here?’ Peter wondered a little uneasily. ‘Kon can fly. I can’t fly. I don’t think everyone here is as fit as he is, but still.’

Oof. No. He didn’t think that was part of what made him want to leave, but the thought made him feel kinda guilty anyway. He started cleaning up his notebooks and ground the rest of the crystals out of his eyelashes with the side of his fist.

“You staying for dinner?” Kon asked, too casual. He rolled his neck and stood up.

Peter hesitated. Did Kon want him to stay but was too shy to ask, or had he overstayed his welcome?

“I got the stuff for chili and cornbread. Do you know how to make that?” Kon’s already formidable blue eyes threatened a full transformation into a puppy pout.

Ah. That was the face of a man who wanted chili.

“Yeah, we can follow that recipe,” Peter assured him. He shoved all his stuff into his bag, taking care to keep the angle so that Kon shouldn’t be able to see inside and notice that he carried all the clothes he owned with him. “Are we talking like, Tex-Mex?”

Kon kinda bobbed up into the air for a moment. “...Sure,” he obviously lied.

Peter nodded serenely. Aight. Kon didn’t know what Tex-Mex was. “Show me the recipe you want?” he said instead. “Did you find one for cornbread too?”

“Nah, I got a box.” Kon zipped to the kitchen at inhuman speed and tossed a little blue box back and forth between his hands.

Peter managed a smile. “Hell yeah.” He shoved his bag under the table, out of the way. Then he followed his friend into the kitchen and took a moment to be grateful at how much things had improved.

He had a friend. He had a plan. He now had oatmeal and like, wasn’t fully subsisting off of stolen hotel breakfasts and whatever meals Kon hosted him for. He had spent another ten dollars on portable food and it was like night and day for how hard things felt. Peter felt smarter again. His mood was more manageable and stable. He’d found another small website job too, so he was in the process of making a little more money. Things just seemed better even though his material circumstances weren’t really improved yet. He was still homeless and had made no progress towards getting home but it uh, felt more like his problems were solvable, if that made sense?

‘Almost like starvation is bad for you, buddy. Shouldn’t need Dr. Stark’s degrees to figure that out.’

He choked down inappropriate laughter and washed his hands before investigating the vegetables that Kon had sourced for this meal.

They were about halfway through the chance to study for the university placement test. Things were going alright. Honestly, Peter thought that he and Kon were going to smash past the benchmarks they needed to get free rides to Gotham University. He would stop putting hours towards studies if it wasn't the most normal he ever felt in this place. It was a lot better than sneaking into hotel buffets or gym showers or walking the streets for hours until he could go to sleep unnoticed.

‘Besides, it’s being a good friend to Kon. He wants to do well on this test so badly and he doesn’t trust himself.’

Peter tossed an onion overhand at Kon and started washing peppers. A split second later the pungent smell burst through the room. Peter’s lip curled up but he didn’t let it slow him down as he cut open and deseeded peppers.

It was great that he was going to have a substantial dinner tonight, actually. It was a big night for him. Peter drifted off mentally as he cut vegetables, lost in his plans.

It was the big heist night. Well. If this counted as a heist? He was going to go do some paperwork and then print copies.

Hmm. No, okay, that was the wrong category of crime. Peter felt his lips twist into a frown. It was a B and E, but that wasn’t as fun to say as heist.

Whatever. The important part was that he was going to break into the social security office and make himself a social security number. He felt pretty nervous about it. He had the vague sense that there were probably better ways to get a social security number. Like, he knew that identity theft was a genre of crime that existed, and also that sometimes people used dead people’s social security numbers.

But he had no idea how to do it. When your toolkit is climbing up walls and doing data entry, then… that’s how you should solve your problems, right? Right?

Probably.

That’s what he was going with!

They finished their meal prep and left the soup to bubble while the bread baked. They killed time with an episode of a bizarrely terrible teen drama that Kon felt undying loyalty for. Peter kept his mouth shut and said only polite things about the production quality of Wendy the Werewolf slayer or whatever it was.

“I liked the bisexual lighting,” Peter offered.

Kon stopped and blinked at him. “The what?”

“The pink, blue, purple lighting?” He furrowed his brow. “When they were running through the woods at twilight.”

“...I mostly noticed the guitar then.” Kon made a pffft sound and resettled further into the sofa cushions somehow. “I want popcorn,” he said thoughtfully.

Peter snorted and got up. “I think dinner is probably ready. I’ll check on it.”

It was, so he served it up. They both had monster appetites so Peter didn’t even feel self-conscious about going back for seconds and thirds. They cleared the pan of cornbread and scraped the pot clean while a second episode ran. Peter honestly put more attention on his food than the plot of a group fight prompted by Wendy seeing her boyfriend at the wrong moment when he got a surprise kiss from her rival on the cheerleading team. Personally, Peter thought Wendy should be more concerned about her narrative foil Wanda, who was obviously a fake friend.

The screen paused. Peter paused in his quest to get the last dregs of chili and watched with curiosity as Kon dug out ice cream and offered Peter a chocolate bar.

“Oh heck yes,” Peter said reverentially. He tore the package open with his teeth. “Thanks, man.” He abandoned the last droplets of real food and sank his teeth into the dessert.

“Thank Lex,” Kon said, in that weirdly slightly tense voice he got whenever he said things like that.

Peter waited a moment, internally debating. It wasn’t his business. Except it was, because Kon was his friend. He ventured, “You don’t have to credit Lex if it makes you feel bad, you know?”

“Huh?” Kon blinked at him, eyes suddenly so intense that it felt like Peter was being X-rayed.

Peter shrugged and broke eye contact. “Lex is your parent, right?” he checked, not totally certain he had a handle on Kon’s personal life. The guy dodged questions left and right. “And has conditions on it?” He remembered that bit. Indignation made his voice get a little louder and strident. “You don’t actually owe your parents anything. It’s their responsibility to take care of you. If they don’t treat you right, you can just get out as soon as possible and you don’t have to feel bad that they fed you. You’re not an adult.”

Kon ran his tongue along his teeth and then took a big suck on his ice cream to avoid answering.

Ah, shit. He didn’t want things to be awkward. He needed a joke to break the tension fast. Peter remembered Kon’s earlier joke and threw out, “You’re like two years old, Kon, no one should expect you to be independent.”

Kon snorted ice cream out his nose and then keened in unhappy surprise. Chocolate splattered onto Peter’s face.

Peter snorted too, too surprised to be disgusted. “Ew!” He choked out.

Kon shot him a look that said ‘don’t you dare’ but Peter started laughing anyway. “Choco nose,” he managed between cackles.

“I’m divorcing you,” Kon said sulkily, and floated off the sofa. He resettled down on the lone chair and pouted at maximum power. “You can’t laugh at me when I hurt myself with ice cream.”

Peter had been winding down but that set him off again. “Div-divorce,” he gasped. He bent over to put his face on his hands and tried to cover his mouth with his hands to maybe muffle the laughter. “Did we have a pre-nup?”

“No, because I used to trust you!” Kon wailed, and then he was laughing too.

Peter felt pretty good about his life when he slung his bag over his shoulder and waved goodnight to Kon. He jogged down the 18 flights of stairs instead of taking the elevator out of Kon’s building, humming to himself. He immediately turned to his one-time location instead of towards the library.

Weirdly, he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up like he was being watched. He tensed. He extended his senses out to pinpoint the feeling. Someone on the streets? Someone watching from a window?

‘I don't hear anyone. I just feel paranoid because I'm on my way to commit a paperwork crime.’

Peter hunched his shoulders up towards his ears and tried to ignore it. There was no one here.

It seemed risky to bring all his personal belongings along to the scene of a crime. So the first thing that Peter did after arriving was scope out a nearby building where he could ditch his bag. Once he had stashed it out of sight he set out figuring out how to get inside without setting off their security system.

This building was clearly a little better-funded than the office of vital statistics had been. Peter spidered around identifying the cameras and what they covered. There was just no way to approach any of the doors without getting caught on film. Good for them. He climbed up the adjoining building and leapt across to cling to the right building. Then he hunted down a good window and forced it open with a guilty grimace. He hurt his fingers a little, grinding them into the crevice to get enough grip to force the frame to bust right through the mechanism of the poor lock. The sad thing fell off and landed inside with a quiet thump.

Peter waited a bit to see if anyone had heard that or if any super high-tech alarm would start to wail.

Nothing. Zilch. Nada.

“It is a government building,” Peter muttered to himself, and sheepishly slunk inside to start his errand. He waited to let his eyes adjust to the near total darkness inside. It was a good thing that he was spidery, honestly, because turning on a light would have been a really bad idea.

He had to boot up a computer and then search around for whatever program they used. It took forever to find it by running everything he didn't recognize and then clicking around inside. The dull light of the computer screen sent a faint flutter of anxiety through his body but come on, it wasn't that bright. He hunched over it to block the light with his body.

Luckily it wasn't actually that hard to figure out the form when he found it. It was just, uh.

“Forgery,” Peter said under his breath, aghast when he realized that there was a name for someone doing this. Yikes. He was doing another crime that he'd forgotten about. Doing his paperwork was a separate crime from the B&E, huh.

Well. Gotta do what ya gotta do. He was a person and he deserved the benefits of personhood to navigate society.

‘Still feels like I'm being watched. No way do they have cameras good enough for that, though. I need to just do this and get out of here.’

He rolled his shoulders, trying to shake off the lingering unease. Jeeze. He really wasn't cut out for crime.

He wrote his actual parents’ names on the form, his real birthday on the adjusted year, and went with the hospital he'd picked out earlier for his place of birth. “I hope this is all I need to do to actually register…” Peter fidgeted and hit print. He got himself two copies and carefully tucked them away in two different pockets, struck by a weird paranoia.

He double-checked his work. He looked up himself in their database and confirmed that the record for Peter Parker was there, with the newly issued number. He swallowed down nerves and shut down the computer. He left out the same window as before. He skittered over to where he'd left his bag and he made direct eye contact with a friggin ninja.

‘Heck.’

#red reassembly #peter parker #dc marvel crossover

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waksworldrebooted · 7 months

Text

MTV Era Motorcity Masterpost (+ NEVER BEFORE SEEN INFORMATION)

In 2000, Chris Prynoski pitched a cartoon called Motorcity.

He made a card and a website promoting the show, which wouldn't see the light of day until the Walt Disney Company got their hands on it.

THE SETUP

"MotorCity is The Dukes of Hazzard meets Akira. It's American Graffiti and Big Daddy Roth rumbling with 8 cylinders into the world of Sci-Fi. It's the heart of American car culture driven to the next level."

"Sex, cars, Rock & Roll, and the freedom to wrap your ride around a tree trunk goin' 160."

"In the near future, concerns over global warming, pollution, and the ever-worsening problem of gridlock in America’s major cities brings about the Anti-Combustion Acts of 2009." "These laws banned the use of any vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine. At first there was a lot of vocal opposition. But the so-called "Digital Revolution" as well as the advent of amazing new transportation technologies neatly filled the void, and the benefits of an improved environment along with a safer, faster and more efficient means of getting from point A to B managed to win even the staunchest opponents over. The oil companies and car manufacturers were forced to shut down under the political and economic pressures." "And a new era was born. Cleaner, faster and safer. America’s cities became modern utopias where its citizens could travel without fear or hazard in comfortable flying boxes affectionately known as "living rooms", and Detroit (The Renaissance City), became the finest example of this new policy. But with all of this wondrous innovation, something was lost. Something inherent in the soul of old America, something called freedom. The freedom to go anywhere. Anyhow. As fast, or as slow as you want. The freedom to speed. And the freedom to die." "This is where our characters come in. A few radicals realized that although you might never die in the "living rooms" , you’ll never really live in them either. So in the "Live fast and die young" mind-set, they fight the law. Scavenging parts and gas from Detroit’s massive underground, Mike Chilton and his gang, as well as a few others are trying to recapture some of what it meant to risk all for the freedom of speed."

THE CHARACTERS

Mike Chilton: A young talent on the illegal race circuit. Mike's right leg is always twitching and itching to jam a gas pedal to the floorboards, and his foot is as lead as they come. He's got gasoline surging through his veins and a 450 horsepower soul. His heart burns to drive and it's all he can do to keep moving faster and faster so that the flames don't consume him. He might be a gangly 19-year-old kid, but his ride has as much muscle as he'll ever need and he knows how to use it.

Vehicle of choice: Retrofitted '77 Trans Am

Julie Capulsky: An Anthropology student with a quick mind and a quicker pulse. She's a city girl with a passion for adventure who's secretly writing a paper on the underground "Burner" culture. As she gets to know Mike and his crew, she feels the freedom of the road and learns the power of a rumbling big block at her command. She is torn between the high performance life of a Gearhead and the love of her father who has sworn to take them down.

Vehicle of Choice: Any Hot Rod that'll give her a ride.

Lt. Capulsky: Julie's Dad and head of Detroit's Anti-Combustion Enforcement Division. He's old enough to remember when the highways were the arteries of America and the drivers were its blood. He rode with Fast Eddy in his youth and understands the joy of inhaling the fumes of burning rubber as the hot road turns his tires to black jelly. He's forced to deal with enforcing a law he's not sure he believes in. But that doesn't stop him from holding the record for the most illegal auto busts in the state of Michigan.

Vehicle of choice: Police "Living Room"

Ed Pirelli: (Fast Eddy) The old-timer who serves as Mike and the crew's link to the past, as well as their guide for the future. A wrecked hulk of a man, Eddy lived in a time when America was the land of wide-open spaces, and you had the liberty to go where, when and how you wanted to travel. You had the freedom to live, and the freedom to die. None of those damn boxes.

Vehicle of choice: Retrofitted '58 Chevy Roadster

Greg Raden: This young cop looks up to Lt. Capulsky as his ultimate hero. Born after the Anti-Combustion Act, He doesn't understand the rush of a vibrating steering wheel responding to every reflex of your sweaty palms. He wants nothing more than to grind the gears of the "Burners" to a halt.

Vehicle of choice: Police "Living Room"

Dave Earnhardt: Mike's worthy rival on the race circuit. He's a speed demon who stops at nothing to win. He might be Mike's worst enemy on the tar, but he'd take a speeding bullet for him off the track.

Vehicle of choice: Retrofitted '69 Camaro RS

Holly Biscayne: A fellow "Burner" who has a thing for Mike. She's jealous and suspicious of Julie's big city motives. She wants to make sure that when the checkered flag waves, she'll be on top.

Vehicle of choice: Retrofitted '05 Jaguar convertible

Brute Conklin: The bastard child of internal combustion and computer technology. This crafty gearhead beats "The Man" at his own game with a never-ending digital assault on the computers that control the Global Satellite System.

Vehicle of choice: Chopped 98' Harley Pan-head

Claire Constance: This ice queen might look like a hot number, but she's really a wet blanket who tries to smother her best friend Julie's fire. She can't understand what's with risking your life in the "sewers" when you can be shopping in style in the safety and comfort of your own clean home.

Vehicle of choice: None if she can help it

Promo card released in 2000

Concept art made shortly after the trailer (ones that closely resemble the final show)

From left to right: Luv (Dutch), Holly Biscayne, Chuck, Mike Chilton, Julie Kapulsky, Claire Constance, Texas, Greg Raden (Tooley), Lt Kapulsky (Abraham Kane), and The Mayor of Detroit

youtube

Pitch Trailer

#motorcity #mike chilton #waksworldrebooted #chuck motorcity #dutch gordy #texas motorcity #julie kane #waksworldart #holly motorcity #Youtube

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real-fire-emblem-takes · 6 months

Note

fire emblem community definitely has a problem with regards to centralisation of helpful information, on the gameplay side of things.

a large portion of the community is effectively excluded, often through little fault of their own, from useful techniques, calculations, explanations, guides, and methods to improve at the games. large discussions centring on efficiency, what that is, how it is applied, and even its origins and ties to what's known as the LTC style are all by and large hidden away in insular fashion.

by and large, these developments happen on isolated discord servers, where they eventually make their way into random youtube videos, with luck, the comment sections make enough buzz to where these discussions, and ideally explanations, end up on serenesforest, or the fe subreddits. from there, it's a complete crapshoot on if this information catches on, is written down helpfully for the curious, and ends up on other sites (like twitter, tumblr, etc) for people to read.

this leads to an annoying divide, where players may end up feeling berated, clueless, or uncertain as to what others are talking about, and may even be held back from improving on their own gameplay, experiencing innovations, and gaining a greater understanding of the map design, unit design, system interactions, and greater strategising available to them. there's a lot to like about fe gameplay, but not everyone has the tools to pick up on it right away.

there's only so much the scattershot approach we currently have can accomplish, and a more centralised hub site where all of this info can coalesce, be written out in simple, easy to understand terms, with sections for people to participate in discussions and become more included in the wider fanbase, where the divides between sections of the community, often caused by website locations, and limited reach of information and discussion, which would really do wonders for helping the playerbase feel more united, brought up to speed skill-wise, and more welcoming on the whole.

!!!

#fe #fire emblem #fandom takes

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art-by-reed · 3 months

Text

Completely unsolicited art advice :3

Draw what you see, not what you think is there

This means when you're drawing from life, be aware that your brain is telling you different information to your eyes. And what you wanna draw is what your *eyes* see.

You see this table? Can you see all four of it's legs? No. Make sure your brain doesn't trick you into drawing the fourth leg - you know it's there, but you *can't see it* right now. If you draw the fourth leg, you'll be distorting the perspective of your image, and it won't look as natural as the camera does.

You see this still life? When you draw or paint your still lifes, make sure you only draw what you see. If you get the curve of the underside of that pear wrong, you might end up giving the viewer a glimpse of the wall, the gap between pear and jug. That's not what you see. Don't draw it. Rub it out and re-draw the curve of the pear til you've *drawn what you see*.

Draw what makes you happy

For me that meant fanart. You won't practise enough if you only have a passing interest in drawing. Drawing for the sake of improving your skills can be a weak motivator, and depressing cause it's really hard to see your own progress and you'll be drawing inspiration from more experienced artists. You should draw your otp, draw your crush, draw anything that makes you feel something.

You don't need to make finished pieces

Doodle in the margains of your schoolbooks. Draw eyes. Draw anime boys. Get yourself a sketchbook that you don't show people, where you can just draw freely without worrying about it being good. Just draw. Don't apply pressure to be perfect.

Does Usain Bolt get out of bed, step onto his private running track, and sprint at full speed immediately? No, he needs a warmup. He won't even be able to *reach* full speed every day. Your art might sometimes feel like it's worse than before. Individual pieces might be worse than previous pieces, but you yourself will not be a worse artist than before. You just need a warmup.

I've gone months without drawing and then drawn absolute crap lmao. Don't let it get you down

Don't fiddle with a finished piece

Every single piece I've posted to social media, I've found a flaw with, even if it took me months to notice. Remember you're always getting better, so when you look back at a piece you will be looking with a sharper artistic eye than when you finished it. Resist the temptation to take down your art and edit it; you'll be doing that every 6 months for the rest of your life. Let it stand as part of your journey, and make a note to do better in your next piece.

No-one sees your art like you do

No-one sees the mistakes until they spend as much time staring at it as you have. What they see is the initial impact of the piece, whatever that is. The striking colour, the movement, the emotion, whatever the focus is. You often become blind to the most striking element of your work after working on it so long.

Bonus tips:

Practise gesture drawing. Just lightning quick sketches of the human body. Draw and move on. Do it today, do it now. Get off tumblr and find a pencil. Here's a website that'll help you:

https://quickposes.com/en

Adjust your screen settings so what you're seeing is what a normal screen would see; often digital tablets have brighter colours than a laptop or phone.

Get outside your comfort zone. It sucks, but just do it. You'll find you have transferable skills; it won't be as bad as you think.

Don't underprice your commissions. Figure out how long you spend on each kind of drawing, and give yourself at *least* minimum wage for the time spent. You're not only doing yourself a disservice; you're undercutting prices for the rest of the community. You're an artist now. Act like one.

And finally, if you love art, don't worry if you'll make it. There is no "talent" to art. The reason some people make it and some don't is because those people love what they do. No baby is born able to draw. Each and every one of your favourite artists used to be so goddamn bad at drawing. They're good now cause they loved it enough to persevere.

Love you. Keep going. I can't wait to see what you'll make!

Go do gesture drawing

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