#i gotta google some things so i can have resources and stuff for this as they require them and yeah

[the-kipsabian]

i need to do my application stuff for one of the schools i applied to

i have until tomorrow 3pm to submit it and i havent even started - tbf i had to prioritize other stuff last week and then lost the entire yesterday and most of today to other stuff, so i only now have time to sit down and do it. thankfully its not a lot that i need to do, its only two questions that are more about personality and motivation to show i understand what im applying for than anything too difficult, but lol wow what is motivation

send help

[anne-the-witch-ish]

Where to find witchcraft materials in Brazil

(without being SCAMED)

When i started learning about witchcraft, one of the first problems i run into was acess to materials. I knew their names, what they should look like, but had no clue where to go to buy. The first time i entered a Esoteric store i was blown away for two reasons:one, everything was beautifull; two, everything was expansive.

Online, most the resources i find are in english and for EUA and Europe. So I've decided to make this post listing some palces in brazil, where we brazilian witches can find tools and materials for our craft.

*All images are from google as an exemple of how these places might look like, but their apparece can change from state-to-state.

Casas de religião (Religious houses)

These places sell iteams used in Quimbanda and Ubanda practices, but not only that. You see: candles, incense and herbs can also be found there. As well as incense holders, statues and more. Of course we aren't going to pick up things from closed practices, we know that much! But we there is a lot in the casas de religião that we can use.

Mercadão

The mercadão usually exists in big cities (like são paulo e porto alegre), and i love it. Is where i bought most of my stuff, like candles, herbs, and the pilão(an wood tool used to smash and grind herbs). The nice thing in the Mercadão is that there are multiple stores within it, like a mall but cheaper. So inside we can find a couple casas de religião, general nature stores, etc. If you are also looking for fruits, vegetables and fresh fish, this is your spot!

Feira (fair)

The feira usually happens once a week, in a set spot, and they sell local grown fruits and vegetables. Besides selling the best pastel you will ever eat, you might just be lucky enough to find some herbs that you can use in your craft.

But there are also the "fairas para turistas", which are a bit more tricky. In there you can find a bunch of different things: antique items, old books, and crystals. The thing is that because these places are more for tourists, they tend to be more expensive.

Loja de tudo 10 ("Everything is 10 bucks" store, would be our dolla tree or equivalent)

Once called loja de 1,99, these stores ware the og shain and amazon for brazilians. We know the stuff there is bad quality, but it is soo cheap too! In there you gotta focus on finding tools (scissors, knifes, plates), offering bowls, and incense! All my incense are from these stores, they have some very unique smells, but i like it.

O Supermercado (The supermarket)

If it all fails, go to your local supermarket in brazil. It will sell some white candels and comun herbs too. We have the small local markets, and also the big supermarket chains. Usually, the local small supermarkets sell the same thing from the big chains, but cheaper.

EXTRAS:

Sebos

Do you want to find some witchcraft books, but don't want to give money to bezos? Then try the Sebos, second hand bookstores that might have what you want. The thing is that they are much like gambling, so it depends a lot on luck. However, even if you don't find what you are lookign for, i bet you will find some other cool book to take home with you

Floriculturas

The flower shops sell, well flowers (and valantine's day gifts,too), but not only. Its there where you will find some herbs to plant in your garden, if you want to keep one! You can also find the alive herb to buy in the casas de religião e nos mercadões.

[excali8ur]

How did you get so good at drawing? And do you have any tips??? (Pls I'm a beginner help)

Honestly dude you never get good at art. It's sweet that people like my stuff but I still feel like most of it sucks and I think that's sort of an inherent part of drawing lmao. You've just gotta decide to keep doing it anyway because it matters to you

I do have a few tips for improving your technical drawing though:

Do figure sketching. If you can go to in-person life drawing classes that's great, and there'll usually be at least a few running if you live in a city/big town, but you can do it online too. Here are some websites I use: Line of Action / SketchDaily / Quick Poses. Try drawing with different lengths of time (so start with poses appearing for 30 seconds, then move up to 1 minute, then 2, then 5, then 10). Also don't feel too bad if the first few times you try it and the sketches don't turn out quite right or the proportions get messed up or you run out of time. It's part of the process & you'll improve the longer you keep at it. Just try to use longer & messier lines and don't focus on the details until you have basic shapes blocked out. (This is literally what I tell anyone who asks me for art advice because it's about the only drawing exercise I ever deliberately do lmao)

Draw real life subjects and not just from photos- it's more challenging but helps you develop your observation & sketching skills. This includes still life and landscapes/architecture as well as living things btw

Use references as much as you can. I suck at this but it'll genuinely make you improve faster if you do lmao. You can find loads of references on Google or DeviantArt but I also have some specific places I get them from: JookpubStock / Fat Photo Ref (requires registering but I can verify they're legit) / AdorkaStock / Teamwarchicken (actually my blog that I use for collecting images)

When you're learning to shade remember that you're shading a 3 dimensional object, and try to avoid just doing shading around the very edges of things. Same goes for highlights.

Try drawing in different styles and subjects you don't usually draw. If you can afford it try out different physical art materials too. It helps keep the art block at bay if nothing else lmao

Don't be a perfectionist. Learn to just say "good enough" and not obsess over mistakes. It's better to draw lots of slightly wonky things than one thing that you freaked out about getting perfect.

If anyone else has any other advice/resources then please add them! I do not know as much about art as people think I do hjfgjkhdf

[desceros]

I gotta know, gotta ask- HOW do you write the way that you do?? How does one get to that point? I've been wanting to write fanfics for awhile now, but I don't know where to start, and just... do you have any advice at all for beginners? Because you're like... really good at what you do!!

thank you so much!! that's really kind of you to say :') as for beginner tips hmmmm let's see... i'll give some specific fandom tips, then some general writing tips to kind of mix it up for you!

read/watch/etc the media carefully: specifically i mean to watch it not as a viewer, but as someone with an eye on character. pay attention to the way characters talk. what words do they use? what do they say when they're surprised? angry? sad? tired? do they change their words based on who they're talking to or where they are?

read fanworks that exist already: whenever i plan on writing for a new fandom, i'll go over to ao3 and read a few fan works. then, i take note. what are some common tropes i see? what did this author do that i liked? what did this author do that made their version of this character feel off to me? is this a fandom that likes one-shots or chaptered fics? (though you certainly don't have to see these as a rule; for example, i write long one-shots regardless of what everyone else does, just bc that's what i enjoy writing the most!) this'll help you get your writing voice in your head.

write!!!!: don't worry about writing something you're going to publish just yet. in fact, explicitly tell yourself that you're Not going to publish anything yet. but start writing. to get a prompt, you can 1) go to random word generator, get a verb, and write your character doing that verb; 2) go to one of the myriad of prompt tumblrs, a few of my favorites i have linked here; 3) pick a line of dialogue from the show that sticks out in your mind and have it be the first line of dialogue for something completely different; 4) go over to tvtropes and hit random trope until you find something that inspires a fic. then, write it! focus on getting it finished. remember, you're not publishing it, so it doesn't matter how "good" it is. just that it's finished. then, once you feel confident that you have their voice down in your head, you can start writing stuff to be published. that takes ALL the pressure off your first few attempts!

study up on basic grammar: so the thing that's really going to set you apart from other authors at first glance is your grammar. do you know to vs too vs two? their vs they're vs there? effect vs affect? breath vs breathe? lose vs loose? do you put your punctuation in the correct place? do you have proper spacing for your paragraphs? do you change paragraphs for each speaker, or do you have multiple people speaking in the same paragraph? these are things that will grind at a reader's opinion of your skill, such that even if you have an amazing story, they will hit their tolerated limit and back out. the grammarly blog is a really good resource, and if you have a specific question (e.g. "how do i punctuate dialogue?" "what is the correct spacing for an em-dash?" "), you can just google it and get the answer. this will increase your skills—and thus your confidence—immensely.

learn some cool words: so, disclaimer, i used to read the dictionary when i was a kid. i don't recommend that. but what you should do is get dictionary.com word of the day in your email, and also just. go to a thesaurus and look up words. see what other words orbit the ones you know. the more words you know, the greater your toolbox in painting a picture for your readers. you can also achieve this by reading a lot, both inside and outside of the genre that you're looking to write, which i also recommend.

***give it time!***: i just turned 33, and i started writing when i was in kindergarten when i finished everything on the bookshelf and wanted something new to read. so it's been almost exactly thirty years that i've been writing. i have an english minor with an emphasis in creative writing. with a few exceptions when my wrist is unhappy with me, i write at least 500-ish words every day. i've participated in national novel writing month almost every year since 2008. i write a lot, and i've been writing for a very long time. everything that you see me post is the culmination of all of that. being creative is like a muscle; the more you do it, the more consistently you do it, the easier it gets and the more cool shit you can do. but it's really hard in the beginning. you don't start deadlifting 400 lbs, and you don't look at someone who is deadlifting 400 lbs and think wow why can't i do that?! i must just not be very good i should give up because i'm never going to be able to do that :( no!!! that person has spent years getting to that point. and, if you start now and work consistently, little by little, someday you'll deadlift 400 lbs and you'll be like. wow!! look at me!! i did that!! writing is the same thing. start now, allow yourself to be a beginner, enjoy being a beginner (because wow, how fun is it learning something new?!), and just work a little bit every day until you look up and see what you're capable of!!

[sporesgalaxy]

Tumblr keeps crashing each time I send this so I gotta be quick: do have any tips on how to study biology (college is not an option atm)

Oh boy! I will do my best!

I've listed the basic irl resources for biological information first, followed by some online resources.

I've got a strong Animalia bias, so apologies that I don't have any botany-specific sites for you. 😔

I'm sure there's some stuff I'm forgetting. I'll add on to this if I think of anything!

If there's anything specific you need help finding a reliable biological resource for, let me know and I will try my best to help find you something!

•••

Finding primary sources (stuff written by the scientists who did the research [i.e. a journal article]) is always very good, but reliable secondary resources (someone else summarizing other people's research [i.e. Wikipedia page, book]) can be very valuable as well.

•••

Meatspace Resources

-

I would highly recommend checking to see if there is a Nature Park in your area! Nature parks often have volunteer programs and/or free educational opportunities. In my experience, naturalists are always very excited to meet new people interested in learning about local ecology!

-

There's also Zoos and Aquariums of course, although I know they cost money and are typically geared more towards kids. I'm lucky to live near some nice ones. Maybe check if there are any special programs happening at Zoos/Aquariums in your area (by checking their website[s]), where you might learn more than you would on a normal day trip.

-

Plus natural history museums, which usually have rotating exhibits so that you can keep learning new things when you come back! They also have more of an all-ages vibe than Zoos in my experience. Once again dependant on if there's one near you, and not free.

-

Last but not least: the local library, although obviously not every published book is a flawless resource. Still, might be interesting to poke around! There's usually some sort of digital search catalogue to make finding things easier. Libraries are fun :)

•••

Online Resources

-

Jstor is GREAT. Not all jstor articles are open access/free, but some are! And you can set a search filter to show you only things you can access.

One good way to find out what experts have written for other experts about biology: search a species name or biological concept or type of experimental study, etc. etc., in jstor's journal articles. I've linked a search for journal articles "I can access" containing the word "biology" as an example.

The website layout can feel a little obtuse at first but I think if you fiddle around with it a bit, it's not too bad to figure out? Feel free to kick my ass if I'm wrong djgjkeg

-

Wikipedia is actually a very good place to introduce yourself to a lot of biological concepts. I would recommend checking out some of the sources yourself if you can-- usually at least some of them are free, and that can introduce you to new free resources for learning more (today I discovered bugguide.net!). Often they will link you to jstor.

But biology-focused wiki pages have a pretty good track record for Correct Information in my experience. The only issue I've run into is there being too little information sometimes.

-

Pubmed is a really good resource to read biomedical scientific papers for free if that interests you at all! Reading scientific papers is a really important skill and I think you can pick up a lot just by diving in and googling words you don't know.

A well-designed experiment is replicable (that is, you can understand from the paper how they set things up to the point that you could do it yourself, given the resources). It's also important to pay attention to sample size. The more times you replicate any process in an experiment, the more likely you will be able to identify what the most common result really is, and why.

-

Fishbase is a website I was introduced to in my icthyology class to find info about different fish species :) It kind of just dumps all the info on you in a big text wall, but many pages include great details about life cycle and diet that might go unmentioned on wiki pages.

-

I've never used bugguide.net before today, but so far it seems solid and like it has a lot of good info. I assume it is similar to fishbase but for bugs

-

EDIT: FREE ONLINE TEXTBOOKS I FORGOT ABOUT!!!

I used both of these for university classes at some point. I didn't use them much, so there may be issues I don't know about.

In my experience though they were solid resources, if a little confusingly worded at times. Bouncing between the textbooks and wikipedia tended to help me.

[gothicwill]

Okay. Love you. Gotta say that before I forget.

You’re in med school? That’s so very cool and I am impressed and jealous. The point, though, (other than telling you how much I love you) is I was wondering if it might be okay for fic authors to ask you questions about med school. Google isn’t really a reliable resource for this kind of research, and certain writers (me) have always wanted an inside look into things like that. These writers (me) would be fascinated to learn about med school, as a way to more accurately write about it in fics. And possibly some medical questions as well, but those are slightly easier to research without a mole, if you know what I mean.

No pressure. Just thought I’d ask.

Love you.

🕸️💜

Woah this like actually made my day THANK YOU.

y’all can ask anything and I’d be happy to answer! I’ll try my best but I don’t know how much help I’d be with answering medical questions since I’m only a third year (out of six) and only just starting to get taught the important stuff lol.

But I’d be happy to give y’all any insight you need :) thanks again!

[traumasurvivorshelpingsurvivors]

Tw: S/h, I guess? Mentions of sui ideation

Looking for: Resources, and a bit of a vent

So, uh, I have no clue what's going on, honestly. A friend got sent to deployment and our family is a wreck but my mother is kinda the only one allowed to be a wreck. I searched for resources for children deployment stuff. Found next to nothing, and what I did find was for toddlers and the direct child. My friend is important to me but. Well. Not my father. And I can't Google "friend" because I don't get resources for children.

And I scratch a lot, just kinda idly, when I'm upset, but more recently it became a more conscious thing? It was never anything bad though, and if the spot got red (very rare) or starting getting sore I'd stop. And it was easy. And there were only like, fleeting thoughts of doing anything more, but it was pretty easily 'haha yeah but no' brushed off because it was just my brain being overdramatic or whatever.

But then I don't know what happened, and I don't even know if this counts as anything, but I like, dug really hard on my ankle and it left marks? And I don't think anyone noticed, but it still stung the rest of the night, and I can see where I dug up the dead skin (I have bad hygiene), so it's still kinda. Weird. Idk. But that was still at least half-accidental, because I was upset and trying really hard not to lash out and make stuff worse, but then later on stuff happened and I just ended up scratching my arm really badly? Like it actually took off some skin and it didn't start bleeding or anything but got close, and it still hurt, and kinda after that I scratched again at other spots and nothing bled, but the same arm got another extra stingy thing and it hurt for a while? And now my arm is aching more than it was before, and I don't really know if it counts as anything because I can look at my arm and you couldn't tell I did anything, and it's literally just my blunt nails because I pick at them a lot, but I also did scratch with the intention to hurt earlier?

But I told myself when I was young I would never ever do anything like that, ever, so I feel like if it does count I'm failing little me (even though they were more of a child, and they didn't know, and they couldn't have possibly been prepared for the reality of what would happen or the fact that sometimes it just feels like there's no way out because you've gotta hold it together somehow), and I feel guilty because I feel like an attention-seeker, and I promised my brother if I ever did it I'd tell him but he's got so much going on right now, but I still keep wanting to do more and literally the only thing that's stopped me are other people nearby (because hell no am I telling anyone) and a specific song on loop, but it's also 50-50 on if the song makes me feel better and convinces me not to or if it makes me feel guilty for doing it anyway and therefore ending up doing something.

And my brain keeps wanting to do something worse but I don't know how to make it stop thinking that but there's like, I don't know how. There's also an aspect of cowardice attached, because I've always been too scared to do stuff like that, but then it makes me feel more guilty because I feel like I stuck myself with anxiety by not just sucking it up and having some courage like the rest of us, y'know? And I'm realizing writing this maybe I dislike myself a bit more than I thought, but like, I like the world, and I've been doing better, I was in bed for so long but I was doing better, how is it getting worse now?

And I know healing's not linear and everything but - I've gotten so far but I've never slid down to actually honestly considering hurting myself with something, or intentionally scratching myself, so it just?? I don't know. I feel like I'm failing my friend, and failing my brother for not telling him, and failing myself, but I don't want to tell anyone because how do you say that?

I mentioned my suicidal thoughts to my mother to only have her yell at me in my low and tell three other adults, who were close but still, she promised she wouldn't tell them, so if I tell anyone else nothing's gonna come of it! Nothing good! I know my brother has history with mental shit so maybe it'd be different but I'm so scared if I tried to tell him he'd think I was seeking attention, or he'd be under too much pressure to handle it anyway, or he'd snap at me or tell someone or something, and logically I know the worse he'd probably do would maybe give me a hug and like, a little pep talk or something, I dunno, I doubt he'd actually breach my trust like that unless he genuinely thought I was going to put myself in real danger (not the plan), but I'm still scared.

And that's knowing too that who even knows if it's actual s/h! I know I have pointy things! Do I know how to use them without accidentally dying? No! And I definitely don't know how to use any medical shit to help me out if I did something on accident, and I don't know! I don't know! Do I actually wanna do it or am I just being a stupid attention-seeker who can't handle that nobody cares? Except people do care if I'd just talk to them, so it's my fault anyway? I have no fucking clue! Haha! Just being an over-emo kid or something, probably! I have no idea! I actually have a family now, literally what do I have to be upset about? I'm allowed to be myself! I'm not getting yelled at constantly! Why can't I just be happy with it all like I've been and why am I still so fucking fine chilling and being okay with everyone else but the second I'm left alone my mental health caves in?? Udjfhdbd

I don't know, it feels like it's stupid, but I put too many promises on this not to be sure, and I just. I don't know. Sorry, this got longer than I wanted it to, um, every time I try searching for resources, I end up with...well, not resources, but I don't really know what I'm doing wrong, so if you've got anything I'd uh, very much appreciate it. Thank you. Sorry, just, again, I can't tell anyone irl I don't think, but if it is a real problem I don't want to risk going through it without at least something in the back of my brain from someone else going 'hey. Not stupid. Real problem' or if it's not, it'd be nice to have the concrete answer that I'm being dramatic instead of constantly going back and forth on it. Thank you.

Hi anon,

I'm sorry to hear about everything you've been going through. It's possible that your family's dysregulation may be exacerbating your self-harm and making you feel as if you can't or shouldn't open up. Your mom's lack of respect and privacy must also be having a huge impact on you, on top of being made to feel like an inconvenience. Please know that it's not inherently wrong to engage in behavior that may be perceived as attention-seeking, especially if you've been in a neglectful environment.

If you can access or afford it, a mental health professional such as a therapist or psychiatrist could help you navigate and process this situation, work with you to find healthier and more constructive coping mechanisms, and guide you along your healing journey. If anyone has any comments or suggestions, feel free to add on. Otherwise, I hope I could help and please let us know if you need anything.

-Bun

[rainyfroggy]

Hi Rainy!

I really like the way you’ve set up your commission sheet- it looks like you’ve had a bit of experience with making them, and I was wondering if I could ask if you had any tips for artists just starting out on selling comms?

I’m an artist thinking of selling commissions because I’m broke and need to make some $$ for food and living expenses lol. (this is my reblog acct so I don’t have much moved here rn unfortunately.)

I have no idea where to look for advice and Google hasn’t really been the best help as a lot of resources I’ve seen are mostly pros/people in the later stages of making an entire career out of it (which, for my situation right now isn’t exactly what I’m looking for)…

I also don’t really know much about payment methods like Patreon or anything like that so I don’t really know which is best or which to start with.

Any info you could provide would be very appreciated, even if it’s only a little!

Hello! I will try my best to help from my experience and what I heard it works. 1. It all depends on your needs, but you need to be organized. It doesn't matter if you use a notebook, your phone, an excel sheet or whatever: It's important to keep on track who requested a commission, who had paid you and the order you need to follow. Even if this list is only to yourself.

2. This is a universal thing: Make a work email and use it as a contact for customers, paypal and other things in case you don't want to get mixed with personal stuff.

3. I highly recommend using a Google Form or simmilar to receive request of commissions (you can use mine as reference or look on other artists who use it). It will also helps you to put on order the order of commissions and you will spend less time asking the customer a bunch of questions or explaining innecesary stuff. (Ko-Fi also have the tool for commission!).

4. I only use Ko-Fi (for now). I had used it on commissions. It's useful if your method is simple. Allow you to put add ons with its respective price too!

5. It's hard to make a portfolio, but at least make one example of each type of commission you are doing. People gotta see what they are buying.

6. You make the rules. You can see in my cardd I have the Terms of Service where you explain what you do and don't, how long you take to finish a comm, etc.

7. Be as clear and direct as possible. Don't accept commissions you are uncomfortable with. Don't allow people guilt-trip you or start asking to lower your prices.

8. About pricing: Look up people with simmilar skill level and art style as you to make an idea of pricing. You can start with one price and rise it as your skills improve! Set a price you can be satisfied with, or you will feel downhearted.

9. I highly recommed being paid first before start drawing. Be careful of scams too! Never trust a paypal email that isn't official (I say this cus someone tried to scam me last week).

10. I would recommed choosing a few niches of your interest and work on your public from there. It can be an specific fandom, a genre, an animal, a topic... Stuff people can know your work and be sure you are good at it. Example: I draw g/t stuff, so people into it know how I do it and what to expect from me. You will not ask the furry artist to draw you '90 mecha robots right? (THIS MAY OR NOT WORK! draw whatever you want and make you happy. Follow your heart and people will slowy get at your work).

That's it! Uh I'm not an expert, I'm still not big enough to live full from commissions but don't give up! Can be rough at first but keep working!

[vore-scientist]

Hi! I stumbled upon your tumblr thanks to Google. Can you give me good resources for hard vore ideas? I want to get inspiration for my work. Thanks in advance!!!

content warning for talk of hard vore obviously but the first stuff will be more general and not specific to hard vore. Also most of what I say will actually be in reference to the consumption of animals in one of my favorite book series.

EDIT: i realize you didnt ask specifically for writing advice but other stories are where i get my main inspiration. Both other vore stories from a select list of writers who write what i like to read and published works.

It sounds so basic to say this but you gotta read read read. But the question then becomes what do you read? Reading other vore stories can be a crap shoot. Not in terms of quality (im not judging) but in terms of what you personally like/are comfortable with reading. I myself like vore that is very non-sexual, fairly plot driven, and in well built fantasy or science fiction worlds, that must also be GT and oral only. thats a tall order aint it, and the best source for finding stuff to fit your tastes used to be devianart but that site is not really navigable right now. It used to be pretty easy to look through deviantart groups art galleries for stuff you like.

when i first started writing vore I took a lot of inspiration from other vore stories i loved. For vore specifically I paid attention to how vore scenes/scenarios were described. The sensations of the participating characters, the narrative descriptions. I picked up on the ways I liked things done and would take those and re-worked them. Not directly copying (however there really are only so many ways to describe the same thing over and over again...), but basically went "oh i really like how that was phrased/described but if i was writing it with MY characters i would want it done slightly differently" and wrote it differently. Writing vore is writing for what you specifically want from it. No one else is going to put out content that is perfect for you but it may be close enough to give you inspiration/an example.

HOWEVER!!! for hard vore SPECIFICALLY i take a LOT of inspiration from the T*m*rair* series (replace the * with the letter e). with over half the characters being enormous dragons which eat a lot of raw meat (not humans. they dont eat humans), there are a LOT of descriptions (both from the perspective of the main human and main dragon characters, though you dont get the dragon perspective until book 5 out of NINE TOTAL BOOKS) of the hunting/consuming of large animals (mostly cattle). Sometimes pre-killed but often not. Descriptions involving the crunching of bones, the particular favorite organs ("slupring up intestines" comes to mind, especially seeing which art i saw you liked which involved some spaghetti guts, and sucking out "the excellent brains"), the blood, all of that. Plus there are some instances of draconic monsters eating humans and those scenes get GRAPHIC. (a draconic monster is not a dragon. Dragons are a sapient race of people that evolved alongside humans in this alternate version of earth. But like other great apes such as gorillas and chimpanzes exist, this world has a few dragon-like animals, that are not people like humans and dragons are people).

It's ESPECIALLY good for multiple characters interacting with this kind of thing. With characters having to clean up after dragons eating things, even cleaning their teeth of the gore. The series is a gift i swear.

I will say the series is not a vore series. It just happens to have main characters who are giant predators.

[37q]

hello! how/where can i learn more about (the) tara(s) and the ways through i can work with her?

hi hi!

first id recommend talking to ur preferred tibetan buddhist instructor / teacher / mentor because they can personalize whatever info you seek to your unique situation

second my go-to resource for uninitiated practice is as always the FPMT. just google fpmt its the first thing that comes up its website features lectures resources lessons etc all sourced from a well respected gelug lineage and its venerable masters lama rinpoche and lama yeshe. just an absolute treasure trove of Q&A's, advice, what have you.

third honestly on that note just collect stories and dharma resources abt tara, to use a prev example FPMT offers free digital copies of stuff like Praises of the Twenty One Taras along with a Green Tara practice handbook and maybe a White one iirc? even meditating on brief descriptions of one of her forms can bring the insight necessary to converse with her, so to speak.

fourth u gotta understand like invoking taras assistance is soooo much more mundane than we think like i personally dont practice regimented stuff but i do throw tara rituals at frankly anything and that my dear friend requires an understanding of all the symbols associated w each of her forms. for example taras forms all vary in correspondence w elements, body parts, sense organs, earthly domain, gender, direction, color, and shape, to name a few.

fifth yknow what lemme just list some sources for you:

Sangye Khadro's "Notes on Green Tara Practice For the Sravasti Abbey Green Tara Retreat, July 3-10, 2020”

Lama Rinpoche's "Meditations on White Tara"

and his collab with Lama Yeshe on "A Short Practice of Green Tara"

HH1 wrote some great commentary called Precious Garland i think and its commentaries are even better frankly like the venerable Geshe Dawö's

basic tara dharma is like, The Sutra of Arya Tara Who Saves from the Eight Fears or The 108 Names of the Venerable Arya Tara btw

on the topic of stories honestly just watch random buddhist teachers talk abt her on youtube. like theyre probably all slightly different but thats what gives you the whole picture and from there just mix n match what feels most effective for your life.

if u needa sounding board shoot me another ask or feel free to dm but otherwise have fun :) the first citation hits tbh and once uve done the short green tara practice a few times especially like rly focusing on the Purification step youll start seein buddhas in every star

[presumenothing]

Hello, so I have photoshop cc now and I was wondering if you had any advice, tips, anything on how to make gifs? There's a lot of options and I'm kinda lost? If you don't, it's ok, trials and errors and all that ( but I tried looking at tutorials on google and it was not really helpful I won't lie lol).

this post was the one thing i found most helpful when starting out! at least for figuring out the basics and stuff, and it's still what i do general process-wise. and yeah i gotta agree, googling can be very hit and miss (with a lot of miss, because even helpful-looking resources tend to look like they're for some other versions of ps??)

i mostly did trial and error too (the few posts i did refer to and found useful are in this very short tag) but possibly resource tumblrs like this one (looks pretty exhaustive, probably filter to basic on the top bar) may be worth trying?

[lokis-army-77]

I’m not trying to be rude and I understand the context of your last post is to be honest and maybe informative but it’s really discouraging to see if someone is a new writer in fandom that if their work is not up to the highest standard, it’s not worth reading.

If you’re trying to be helpful, there are nicer ways to say “hey writers this is what makes fics hard to read” than to say “do better, this is so annoying, stop this madness I wish I could read your stories but I can’t when you don’t use a thesaurus.”

People do look up to you and your writing. You could offer different resources instead of just putting out that kind of post and then complaining more about pet peeves in the comments.

I totally get where you're coming from, and I'm sorry if it's discouraged anyone, but it's literally just me complaining and not really trying to be helpful.

Don't take it to heart. Plenty of ppl are gonna read your stuff. You have to start somewhere, and that's understandable, but personally, (emphasis on personally) I'm not reading it if it's not to my personal standard.

My standards for writing are different from others, and I am certainly not the end all be all of tumblr/fan fic writing. I know I probably do it things that are pet peeves for others, and I know I certainly did when I first started, but seeing someone's complaint about those things was never discouraging. If anything, it made me strive to be better, but I know most ppl aren't me.

But if anyone does need some resources, here's what I do bc that's what I can speak on.

Grammerly is a good Google extension

Proof read

Have a friend proof read

If you find yourself reusing a word over and over, just Google synonyms for that word

And that's about it. You just gotta learn on your own. If me complaining about it has upset anyone, I'm sorry. You can definitely talk to me if it has, I won't bite your head off lol.

[bitchesgetriches]

Hi bitches!! I've been working at a job I got recently (with help from listening to your pod!) for a few months now. It's a good job that pays well, but i don't believe ive set up anything for my 401k or retirement or whatever it is. I think my company said I'm allowed to put up to 50% of my salary into the 401k, and rhey match up to 3%. I figure I should probably work on setting that stuff up, but I don't know what's the smart thing to do when it comes down to all the little choices I gotta make

Hey kiddo! This is a great question. And congrats on the job! We're very proud of you. <3

You should talk to your supervisor or human resources representative about setting up your 401(k). They'll likely give you some paperwork, and from there you can either ask them specific questions, or google your little heart out. But here's what we recommend:

1. Definitely sign up for your 401(k) or 403(b) (which is the nonprofit version)!

2. In 2022, the 401(k) annual contribution limit is $20,500. That means that's the maximum amount you can put in all year long. You can definitely put that much into your 401(k) the first year you have it, so long as you can afford it! But honestly, we recommend starting out a little slower. If you find you can save more, you can put it in a Roth IRA or savings account instead.

3. AT MINIMUM, you should put in enough to get the full employer match. So in your case, you should put AT LEAST 3% of your salary into your 401(k). You can do more, but you shouldn't do any less.

And here's WAAAAY more detailed information from the blog:

Dafuq Is a Retirement Plan and Why Do You Need One?

Procrastinating on Opening a Retirement Account? Here's 3 Ways That'll Fuck You Over.

Do NOT Make This Disastrous Beginner Mistake With Your Retirement Funds

[meruz]

once again i am answering asks in a big compilation post. included is... gotham, patrick stump, tips about drawing backgrounds, tips about drawing in general, links to my faq, and infinity train

like.... the tv series? No... I’ve drawn dc comics fanart before, though. But it’s been years since I’ve been really into it. I like jumped ship like 10 years ago when the New 52 happened LOL.

AFJHDSLKGH I’m sorry I (probably) won’t do it again??

Actually full disclosure I have a truly cringe amount of p stump drawings/photo studies in my sketchbook right now LOL. He’s just fun to draw... hats, glasses, guitar, a good shape... but I don’t think I’ll rly post those until I can hide them in another big sketchbook pdf.. probably Jan 2022. Stay tuned........ (ominous) 

(ominous preview)

These are all sort of related to backgrounds/painting so I grouped them together even though they’re pretty much entirely separate questions.... ANYWAYS

a) How is it working as a BG artist? Is it hard? What show are you drawing for?

I think you’re the first person to ever ask me about my job! Being a background artist is great. It’s definitely labor intensive but I think that could describe pretty much any art job (If something were rote or easy to automate, you wouldn’t hire an artist to do it) and I hesitate to say whether its harder or easier than any other role in the animation pipeline. Plus, so much of what truly makes a job difficult varies from one production to the next, schedule, working environment, co-workers etc. But I will say that I think while BGs are generally a lot of work on the upfront, I think they’re subject to less scrutiny/revisions than something like character/props/effects design and you don’t have to pitch them to a room like boards. So I guess it’s good if you don’t like to talk to people? LOL

A lot of my previous projects + the show I’ve worked on the longest aren’t public yet so I can’t talk about em (but I assure you if/when the news does break I won’t shut up about it). But I’m currently working on Archer Season 12 LOL. I’m like 90% sure I’m allowed to say that.

b) ~~~THANK YOU!! ~~~

c) What exactly do you like to draw most [in a background]?

@kaitomiury​ Lots of stuff! I really like to draw clutter! Because it’s a great opportunity for environmental storytelling and also you can be kind of messy with it because the sheer mass will supersede any details LOL. 

I like to draw clouds... I like to draw grass but not trees lol,,, I like to draw anything that sells perspective really easily like tiled floors and ceilings, shelves, lamp posts on a street etc.

d) Do you have any tips on how to paint (observational)?

god there’s so much to say. painting is really a whole ass discipline like someone can paint their whole life and still discover new things about it. I guess if you’re really just starting out my best advice is that habit is more important than product. especially with traditional plein air painting, I find that the procedure of going outside and setting up your paints is almost harder than the actual painting. There’s a lot of artists who say “I want to do plein air sometime!!” and then never actually get around to doing it. A lot of people just end up working from google streetview or photos on their computer.

But going outside to paint is a really good challenge because it forces you to make and commit to lighting and composition decisions really quickly. And to work through your mistakes instead of against them via undo button.

My last tip is to check out James Gurney’s youtube channel because hes probably the best and most consistent resource on observational painting out there rn. There’s lots other artists doing the same thing (off the top of my head I know a lot of the Warrior Painters group has people regularly posting plein air stuff and lightbox expo had a Jesse Schmidt lecture abt it last year) but Gurney’s probably the most prolific poster and one of the best at explaining the more technical stuff - his books are great too.

e) Do you have tips for drawing cleanly on heavypaint?

@marigoldfool​ UMM LOL I LIKE ONLY USE THE FILL TOOL so maybe use the fill tool? Fill and rectangle are good for edge control as opposed to the rest of the heavy paint tools which can get sort of muddles. And also I use a stylus so maybe if you’re using your finger, find a stylus that works with your device instead. That’s all I’ve got, frankly I don’t think my drawings are particularly clean lol.

f) Tips on improving backgrounds/scenes making them more dynamic practicing etc?

Ive given some tips about backgrounds/scenes before so I’m not gonna re-tread those but here’s another thing that might be helpful...

I think a good way to approach backgrounds is to think of the specific story or even mood you want to convey with the background first. Thinking “I just need to put something behind this character” is going to lead you to drawing like... a green screen tourist photo backdrop. But if you think “I need this bg to make the characters feel small” or “I need this bg to make the world feel colorful” then it gives you requirements and cues to work off of.

If I know a character needs to feel overwhelmed and small, then I know I need to create environment elements that will cage them in and corner them. If a character needs to feel triumphant/on top of the world then I know I need to let the environment open up around them. etc. If I know my focal point/ where I want to draw attention, I can build the background around that.

Also, backgrounds like figure compositions will have focal points of their own and you can draw attention to it/ the relationship the characters have with the bg element via scale or directionality or color, any number of cues. I think of it almost as a second/third character in a scene.

Not every composition is gonna have something so obvious like this but it helps me to think about these because then the characters feel connected and integrated with the environment.

Some more general art questions

a) Do you have any process/tips to start drawing character/bodies/heads?

I tried to kind of draw something to answer this but honestly this is difficult for me to answer because I don’t think I’m that great at drawing characters LOL. Ok, I think I have two tips.

1) flip your canvas often. A lot about what makes human bodies look correct and believable is symmetry and balance. Even if someone has asymmetrical features, the body will often pull and push in a way to counterbalance it. we often have inherent biases to one side or another like dominant hands dominant eyes etc. you know how right-handed artists will often favor drawing characters facing 45 degrees facing (the artist’s) left? that’s part of it. so viewing your drawing flipped even just to evaluate it helps compensate for that bias and makes you more aware of balance.

2) draw the whole figure often. I feel like a lot of beginner artists (myself included for a long time) defer to just drawing headshots or busts because it’s easier, you dont have to think about posing limbs etc. But drawing a full body allows you to better gauge proportion, perspective, body language, everything that makes a character look believable and grounded.

Like if you (me) have that issue where you draw the head too big and then have to resize it to fit the proportions of the rest of the body, it’s probably because you (I) drew the head first and are treating the body as an afterthought/attachment. Sketching out the whole figure first or even just quick drawing guides for it will help you think of it more holistically. I learned this figure drawing in charcoal at art school LOL.

oh. third mini tip - try to draw people from life often! its the best study. if you can get into a figure drawing/nude drawing class EVEN BETTER and if you have a local college/art space/museum that hosts those for free TREASURE IT AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT, that’s a huge boon that a lot of artists (me again) wish they had. though if youre not so lucky and youre sitting in a park trying to creeper draw people and they keep moving.. don’t let that stop you! that’s good practice because it’s forcing you to work fast to get the important stuff down LOL. its a challenge!

b) I’ve been pretty out of energy and have had no inspiration to draw but I have the desire to. Any advice?

Dude, take a walk or something.... Or a nap? Low energy is going to effect everything else so you gotta hit that problem at its source.

If you’re looking for inspiration though, I’d recommend stuff like watching a movie, reading a book, playing video games etc. Fill up your idea bank with content and then give yourself time/space to gestate it into new concepts. Sometimes looking at other art works but sometimes it can work against you because it’s too close. 

Also something that helps me is remembering that art doesn’t always have to be groundbreaking... like it’s okay to make something shitty and stupid that you don’t post online and only show to your friend. That’s all part of the process imo. If you want to hit a home run you gotta warm up first, right? Sports.

I should probably compile everytime i give tips on stuff like this but that’s getting dangerously close to being a social media artist who makes stupid boiled down art tutorials for clout which is the last thing i want to be... the thing I want to stress is that art is a whole visual language and there are widely agreed upon rules and customs but they exist in large part to be broken. Like there's an infinite number of ways to reach an infinite number of solutions and that’s actually what makes it really cool and personal for both the artist and the viewer. So when you make work you like or you find someone else’s work you like, take a step back and ask yourself what about it speaks for you, what about it works for you, what makes it effective, how to recreate that effect and how to break that effect completely, etc. And have a good time with it or else what’s the point.

for the first 2, I direct you to my FAQ

For the last one, I don’t actually believe I’ve ever addressed artwork as insp for stories/rp but I’ll say here and now yeah go ahead! As long as you’re not making profit or taking credit for my work then I’m normally ok with it. Especially anything thats private and purely recreational, that’s generally 100% green light go. I only ask that if you post it anywhere public that you please credit me.

(and I reserve the right to ask you to take it down if I see it and don’t approve of it’s use but I think that case is pretty rare.)

a) @lemuelzero101 Thank you!!! I haven’t played Life is Strange but actually  that series’ vis dev artist Edouard Caplain is one of my bigger art inspirations lately so that’s a really high compliment lol. And yeah I hope we get 5-8 too...!

b) Thank you for sticking around! I’ve been thinking about Digimon and Infinity Train in tandem lately, actually. They’re a little similar? Enter a dangerous alternate world and have wacky adventures with monsters/inanimate objects that have weird powers... there’s like weird engineers and mechanisms behind the scenes... also frontier literally starts with them getting on a train. Anyways if anyone else followed me for digimon... maybe you’d like Infinity Train? LOL

c) @king-wens-king I’M GLAD MY ART JUST HAS PINOY VIBES LOL I hope you are having a good day too :^)

a, b, c, d) yessss my Watch Infinity Train agenda is working....

e) aw thank you!! i think you should watch infinity train :)

[silima]

Do you have any tips for small artists?

i have no idea what level of technical skill u have so these are some pretty general tips but here u go! these are also mostly focused on fanart lol cuz that's what i like to make.

number 1 rule of art is that people like art that is interesting!!! it's gotta make them feel something or they will ignore it!! i used to draw so much art that was just like, a character standing there doing nothing. and i would try very hard to have nice lineart and pretty shading and all that good stuff but in the end a character standing there doing nothing is boring. if you have really good technical skills, then some people will still be like "wow pretty art!!" or "so photorealistic! how cool!" but generally speaking it's gonna take soooooo long to actually reach that level of technical skill if every drawing u make looks like this 🧍. if you wanna improve fast, you're much better off experimenting with all sorts of types of art.

so, what do people find interesting? lots of things!

ship art is an easy way to make an "interesting" drawing, b/c people like ships and b/c you've got a character interaction happening there. even if they're just leaning on each other or holding hands or something, there's personality in that. even when i was really shitty at art i always noticed that my ship art got more notes than art of just 1 character.

in general, character interactions always make things more interesting. u certainly don't have to only draw romantic ships--draw some characters who are friends hanging out and having fun, or draw characters who are family hugging each other, or something. or draw people fighting!!! if you're not yet used to drawing characters interacting, it can be a bit of a pain at first, but it opens up so many fun possibilities (and reference photos can always help you!! google images is honestly the best of all resources for that lmao although more specific stuff like adorkastock is great too).

even without character interactions, u can make drawings that try to evoke an emotion of some sort. dark and angsty? lonely? happy and cute? this is one of my favorite drawings ever and i think it's super, super visually interesting and tells a story without the need for more than one character or any sort of words/dialogue, just from the pose and the background and the whole vibe of it. it feels so peaceful and lovely. of course, it makes a difference that this artist clearly has a lot of technical skill, but if this same artist drew a picture of aang looking like 🧍 on a boring white background i would definitely not love this art nearly as much lol.

screenshot redraws are also pretty popular!! personally i would strongly advise that if ur gonna redraw a screenshot, you should be adding something interesting to your version. if you colorpick the exact same colors from the drawing and try to copy the style as closely as possible, it's a little boring, right? why would i want to see the exact same picture twice? one artist who does screenshot redraws really well is viorie (who i think has removed/deactivated a lot of her stuff, thus the repost, sorry):

like this is very clearly an artist that had something of her own to bring to the screenshot she was redrawing!! that's what makes it cool, appealing art, even though it's "just" a redraw.

and of course my absolute favorite thing to make drawings "interesting" is to make comics. comics are the best!! u get to draw a whole story!!! lots of types of comics that you can make, too. a lot of the comics that i've made lately are my own writing and tend to be more serious, but if you're looking for something easy, fun, and simple, try drawing incorrect quotes or make art/comics that are based off of other people's posts, fics, or ideas that you thought were really cool (w/ appropriate credit obviously).

on that note, drawing fanart for other people is especially effective for putting yourself out there because it's often hard to get your foot in the door on social media when you literally have 0 followers and no one is seeing your stuff. you draw something for a popular fic writer or a humor blog, they're happy because they've gotten fanart and they reblog your art, you're happy because now all their followers are seeing ur stuff. lol this sounds so transactional but it's really a lot more fun than it sounds. make art for other ppl! make some friends! join discord servers, join group chats, comment nice things on other peoples' work, & check out fandom events, like big bangs or ship weeks or whatever. it's good stuff.

also, use different social media. it might seem like what tends to be popular in one corner of the internet is gonna be pretty well-received everywhere else but that's not always the case lol. tumblr, for example, usually puts a lot of emphasis on consuming content "from a fandom" rather than consuming content "from an artist"--it's hard to build an individual brand, people just want More Insert Popular Fandom Content and don't really care who it comes from so long as it fits a certain type of art; in my case, atla is a way more popular show than lok, so my atla art gets significantly more attention than my lok art does, despite the fact that i don't make that much of it. on the other hand, on instagram, people really like my lok/red lotus art because that's sort of my "brand" and my atla art tends to get less attention. (this works out for me because i like lok way better and i also have way more followers on instagram than i do here.)

& ofc when you talk about becoming a "popular" artist... i mean, i'm not gonna be the person who tells u "oh you should ONLY be doing this for yourself!! if you're doing it for attention you're doing it all wrong!" because obviously i love attention and i love making art that people like. i would not draw nearly as much if i didn't have fun sharing it! but if you let yourself get too sucked into the idea of making "popular" art, you're gonna feel super drained and fucked up and you eventually will burn out hard (ahaha.............). there's a balance to strike between "i'm making this art because it's fun" and "i'm making this art because i know people will like it." on tumblr, my atla art is way more popular than my lok art, but i don't care abt atla nearly as much as i care abt lok, so i'm never gonna like, make an in-depth comic about the atla main cast the way i have for the red lotus, the lok main cast, and kyoshi. what a waste of time! even when you're looking for advice about how to become a "big" artist, ultimately, you've gotta make the art that's fun for you, and with luck you'll eventually find an audience that also enjoys that type of art.

[sunnyrinusstudies]

Going FOSS: An Intro to Open-Source software for studyblr (and also some privacy related bits)

Source for Header Image

Intro & attempt at TLDR

Hey everyone! Today I’d like to tell y’all something about Open Source Software, and also Why this should matter to you! This’ll probably be the first post of a series I intend to do, because I believe the Studyblr community, even the non-nerd folks, could really benefit from switching some things out in their digital environment. Since this is a long post, I attempted to summarise it below, please do read on if you have the spoons tho!

TLDR?

FOSS stands for “Free and Open Source Software” the “free” part doesn’t necessarily mean it’s free as in free pizza, but mostly means free as in freedom.

There’s a humongous amount of variants on this concept, but the core of FOSS specifically is the four freedoms:

1. To run the program however you want and for whatever you want

2. To study how the program works and to change it in whatever way you want

3. To be able to share it with whomever you feel like

4. To be able to share your modified version with whomever you want

There’s a whole host of software licenses built around these concepts, you can check those out at the Open Source Initiative website, or at Choose A License. Both have a good summary of what they all stand for.

Open Source software is used for a lot of products, nearly every single webserver is an Apache Linux server, Google chrome is built on top of their open source chromium (google is still the devil, but y’know, it’s an example), and even deep deep down, Apple computers run on top of a Linux Kernel. Many more can be listed, but I won’t do that otherwise this isn’t a TLDR anymore.

Now, Why is this important for you? The Open Source Initiative summed it up real nicely already, but heres a short paraphrase:

Control & Security. If software is open source then you can check if it really works the way it does, and to make sure it’s not spying on you. Even if you don’t have the skills for it, someone else who does will be able to check. Also if you don’t like how something works in a program, then you’ll be able to change it or find someone else’s changed version that you like more.

Training. People who want to learn programming can use the code to see what makes programs tick, as well as use it as a guide for their own projects.

Stability. Because everything’s out in the open, that means someone else can take up maintaining a project or make a successor of it, in case the original developers suddenly quit working on it. This is especially important when it’s software that’s absolutely critical for certain tasks.

Community. It’s not just one program. It’s a lot of people working together to make, test, use, and promote a project they really love. Lots of projects end up with a dedicated fanbase that helps support the developers in continuing to work on the software.

I’d like to add one more tho: Privacy, which ties in a lot with the security part. Nowadays with protests going on and everything being online due to the pandemic, folks have been and will be confronted much more with the impact of privacy, and lack thereof. Open Source software means that if any company or group tries to spy on you, then you and anyone who feels like checking, will be able to know and take action on it. Here’s the EFF page on privacy and why it should matter to you

If that got your attention then read on past the readmore button! Or, if nothing else maybe check out the Free and Open Source Software portal on Wikipedia? Or maybe the resources page of the Open Source Initiative?

Terminology: Let’s get that out of the way first

Open Source: The source code that a program is made up of is freely accessible, anyone can look at it and check whether it works well enough or to make sure it doesn’t spy on you.

FOSS: Free and Open Source Software. This doesn’t mean that you don’t need to pay for it, it’s free as in freedom and free speech, not free pizza.

There are four freedoms associated with FOSS:

The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).

The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others (freedom 2).

The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3).

By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

FLOSS: Free and Libre Open Source Software. This time it is “free” as in free pizza. The “libre” is french for “free” as in freedom.

GRATIS: Sometimes people use this word to mean “free” as in free pizza. Usually alongside “FOSS”

Licenses : A license is something that tells others what they can or cannot do with your code. Licenses also apply to art and literature, those are copyright licenses. There are many different software licenses and I’m not going to be able to list them all.

The biggest players however are:

Apache License 2.0

The 3-Clause BSD License

GNU General Public License (also known as GPL)

MIT License

Mozilla Public License 2.0

There’s even more and you can find a list of them Here on the Open Source Initiative site There’s so many licenses that there’s even a Choose A License site, where you can pick a license depending on what you want it to achieve

Who and/or what even uses open source software?

You don’t need to be some nerd to benefit from Open Source software, in fact, you’re using open source software right now! The biggest example is the whole entire internet. Websites are stored on servers, and nearly every single webserver is a Linux server. The second biggest browser Firefox is open source, and even google chrome is built on top of “chromium” an open source base. If you dont use an iPhone, then you’re probably on an Android phone. Guess what? Android is part of the Android Open Source Project, which is then built upon a GNU/Linux base. All Open Source. Chromebooks? Built on top of a Linux kernel (like a non-patented engine you could put into any motor vehicle you’d like). Heck, even Apple computers are, at their core, built on top of a Linux kernel.

Neat apps you may wanna check out!

I’ve made a little list of apps that might be especially useful for studyblr folks, but depending on how well this post does I’ll probably make some more posts for specific apps.

TiddlyWiki, has a bajillion different ways to organise your thoughts, and also a lot of variant builds out there. Check out their table of contents if you feel lost! There’s versions available for most big browsers, as well as windows, linux, mac, android, and iOS.

AnyType, is an app that looks and almost exactly like notion, but is much more decentralised. They’re currently still in development but if you want to support them, sign up for early access and give them some feedback so they know what works and doesn’t! They’re still in closed alpha, but are intending to give beta access to about 100 folks at a time throughout 2021, so please sign up if this looks interesting to you!

Trilium Notes, is slightly more like a “notebook”, however you can arrange your notes in nearly infinitely deep folders. You can use things like Relation Maps & Link Maps to visualise your notes and how they go together. There’s even more they do and I just cant list it all, so go check out their stuff for a more comprehensive overview! Works on windows, linux, and (unsupported) mac

LibreOffice and ONLYOFFICE are two office suites that function just as well as micro$oft office, often Even Better in my experience. I’ve used LibreOffice for years now and honestly? never going back. OnlyOffice is technically free (as in pizza), but it’s a slight hassle to get everything set up, cause you need to set it up on a server. They have a paid and hosted version available with educational discounts, but honestly i’d go with LibreOffice.

OnePile, is an app I haven’t used myself since it only runs on Apple stuff. But I’ve heard a lot of good things about it so that’s why it’s in here. It looks like it works similar to most general “note taking notebook” apps. Looks really pretty too honestly.

EtherPad, is similar to ONLYOFFICE, however this one’s a lot more focused on specifically text documents. Works with real-time collaboration which is really neat.

Anything that FramaSoft has going on. They’re a non-profit organisation, dedicated to promoting digital freedom. A lot of open source cloud related things are not really useful to people who don’t have the time and/or money to set up a whole-ass server. That’s where FramaSoft comes in, they do it for you. Just about everything they offer (here’s a full overview) are free (as in free pizza). They also have a separate site to help you get started!

It’s not free to run it all on their side, so if you find yourself interested in using their services please try to support them any way you monetarily can! (they even have a “minetest” server (not minecraft, deeeefinitely not minecraft))

Joplin!! Which is also what I used to write this post so I wouldn’t have to use The Tumble’s post writing thing. It’s good for taking notes, has a bunch of neat plug-ins, and can also sync with a variety of cloud services!

Nextcloud For if you want to go just that little bit further on the open source and the privacy. Nextcloud has honestly way too many features for me to list, but the important parts are that it’s a nigh perfect replacement for office365, and probably even GSuite. The one caveat is that you either gotta host it yourself, or get someone else to host it for you. Framasoft (mentioned above), has a nextcloud instance. It works on just about every single platform, and can integrate with an absurd amount of services. Here’s a list of providers that work with nextcloud, and what different apps they have installed on their server.

I personally use Disroot, because they’re a local (as in, my country) non-profit that offer about 2gb of free storage, and then for about 15 cents per GB per month you can get more storage if you want. They also have an email service which is hella neat. Their one main rule is Do Not Use For Business Purposes, because they’re here to help the individual folks, not companies.

Neat Links you may also want to look at!

Here are some sources, and also resources that I used for this post. There’s also some stuff here that I think folks may be interested in in general.

General Wikipedia Article on Open Source Software

The Free and Open Source Software portal on Wikipedia

Resources page of the Open Source Initiative

Free Software Foundation definition of “free software”

itsfoss page on what FOSS means

itsfoss page on the history of FOSS

Open Source Software Foundation list of projects and apps they really like

Open Source Initiative on “the open source way”, and how it goes beyond software

Check out literally anything the Electronic Frontier Foundation has going on maybe?

TED talk on privacy and why it’s important

The Surveillance Self Defense project by the EFF

This EFF page on privacy for students

ExpressVPN article on privacy (not necessarily endorsing this company, just a good article)

What’s next?

I’ll probably make some more posts on specific kinds of software that I think folks may like. Or maybe a general overview on the more privacy forcused reasons and solutions for doing all of this.

Future post ideas, none of these are set in stone:

Open source Note taking apps

Replacements for just about Every Single google service I can think of

My personal setup

Open source / privacy conscious social media that studyblr folks may be into

Chatting, Calling, Videocalling: Discord and whatsapp alternatives etc

??? More studyblr apps that could do with a FOSS alternative??

How to support open source when you’re not a big fudgin nerd

How to be better at digital privacy and security, while still maintaining that studyblr aesthetic

Apps, software, other stuff, for specific areas of study maybe?

Feel free to suggest other ideas! Or leave feedback! This is my first big resource post so I wanna know if/how I can do better when I make another one!