#i have a video of me scrolling my for you timeline and its just that picture posted over and over and over

[lesbianspeedy]

this is like incredibly niche but was anyone here on reneetwt like what. a month ago? when #That pic dropped and the subsequent hour before it was revealed it was kinda a leak?

bc i think about it at least once a week. not even the picture itself, just the EVENT it was on twitter. i have NEVER, NEVER. seen a fandom assemble so quickly to erase all traces of conversation. i saw the pic get posted while on the tube and by the time i arrived home it was nowhere to be found. i genuinely think if i wasnt there during that (and if the occasional bad faith tiktok didnt get posted) i would have no fucking clue it exists, i havent seen it posted or even MENTIONED a single time on twitter since. its like insane.

[christronomy]

Hi!! Its the anon who sent in the chan car ride hard thought with the insta reel, if u remember me. But i have came to give u a new hard thought. First off, HAVE YOU SEEN THE VID OF CHAN DOING THAT LIL FINGER MOVE IN HALL OF FAME?!? i feel dizzy. 😵‍💫 anyways, onto my hard thought, picture this, y/n is scrolling on twt and that tweet that says imagine chan fingering you till you cry (or sum like that i hope you know what tweet im talking abt) and it has the chan vid attached to it, THEN BANGCHAN COMES INTO THE ROOM AND CATCHES Y/N AND FINGERS HEER OMGGGG (also i jus noticed that i used twt and tweet instead of X, sorry lol)

of course i remember you! hi, love! and YES, of course i saw that tweet, and i feel totally not normal about it! i would link them but i can't remember which accounts they're from sigh. also i hate calling it "x" bc cause wtf is that. LMAO

but onto this gem of a thought. honestly, he'd tease you so much if he caught you gushing over those tweets, he'd be so sweet about it though. if you don't mind i wanna add some more to this under the cut cause it just came to mind hehe (it's so long and i didn't proof read. help).

he caught you trying to finger yourself in his dorm room after spending almost hours scrolling through your timeline. you weren't really expecting to see anything interesting, but the only thing that popped up was the clips of him and that finger movement that caught your attention and immediately drove you insane. you couldn't help but keep watching the same clip over and over again in awe. it was just so attractive, especially when he made that certain expression and looked right straight at the camera, almost as if he were looking right at you.

so here you were now, desperately bucking your hips up against your hand, sticking your fingers as far inside your cunt as you could, palming your clit to gain some extra friction. you whined exasperatedly as you failed miserably yet again, not being able to get that stimulation you so desperately wanted.

chan got home a few minutes ago, so he's already been watching you, chuckling to himself softly cause you just look so cute like that—legs spread, face flushed a bright red, fucking your fingers in and out of your sopping hole. you keep going for a few more minutes, until you finally toss your head back to groan in frustration because it's just not enough.

his cock is already twitching, straining in his pants at the sight of you, so he can't help but open the door, and he finds it cute how you immediately close your legs and draw your hand back, the surprise of having been caught in the act showing on your face. he laughs softly and sits next to you on the bed. "what's wrong, love? you upset?" he asks, his tone teasing, yet sweet, and you can tell it's because he knows exactly what you were doing.

you nod and sigh, trying your best to come up with a reasonable explanation as to why you were naked on your boyfriend's bed, alone, when you knew he'd always expected you to wait for him whenever you needed to get off. "i was scrolling through twitter, and i saw these tweets about you... i got curious so i spent a while looking at them, and then..." you trail off with a gasp as he suddenly grabs your phone from where you'd put it next to you on the bed. you try to snatch it back, but he's a lot quicker than you. he scrolls a little bit, his expression serious, and then a smug smile plays at the corner of his lips as he looks at you again.

"aw baby, is this why you were so hot and bothered?" he asks, as he shows you one of the clips he was looking at, the same one from earlier, and your face turns an even darker shade of red as you nod. "that why you were using your cute little fingers, even though you know they're not good enough? you've got me right here. you could've asked me instead of just watching videos of me. i'll do whatever you want as long as i can make you feel good."

you feel like you're melting at the way condescension practically drips off his tongue, and you let him spread your legs for you again, this time using his own fingers to tease your swollen bud. he's such a dream come true. "'m sorry i couldn't wait for you," you start, but he shushes you softly. "that's okay, baby. i'm here now. i can help you," he says, and you want to thank him, but your words are cut short by the almost embarrassingly loud squeal that escapes your throat when he suddenly sticks his pointer and middle fingers in without warning, curling them just right, just like in that clip, finally giving you that pleasure you'd been chasing for hours now.

he watches you intently, from the way your back arches, to the way you clench around his fingers, but his expression stays blank. it doesn't take you that long to cum, and when you do, he doesn't stop. you look at him with furrowed brows, whining from the overstimulation, and he simply chuckles at your expression, not saying anything as he keeps torturing your walls with his fingers mercilessly. he's pushing you close to the edge all over again surprisingly quickly, and once you reach your second orgasm, you're already asking him to slow down, stop for a minute, so you can catch your breath. still, he doesn't. by the time you reach your fourth orgasm, you're already a sobbing stuttering mess as he makes you even more dumb on his fingers, begging him to stop, but that only makes him go much faster, his palm smacking your clit as he does so.

"this how needy you are for me? wanting to get yourself off without me cause of some video? you poor thing, thinking your fingers alone would satisfy you. you know you can't do it without me. guess i just have to remind you, hmm?"

[hansolz-moved]

can you make a tutorial on how you made your header please (of course you don’t have to if you don’t want to)

hi anon! unfortunately as i was doing so my computer died so i've lost the original one </3 but we'll just make a new one using the same steps hehe! see under the cut.

i'm using photoshop 2024. open ps, and create a new canvas that is 640 x 360 px. add the image of your choice. the original picture i used was already rotated, but if you still want that effect and yours isn't, rotate it by 90 degrees. size it to your liking then click the check mark! after that, click your pen tool (or press p). create a rough outline of the areas you want outlined.

after that, click make selection at the top. the settings that pop up are fine. press ok. then, go to your marquee tool and right click on your outline. select stroke. choose the settings and color you want, im using 2px and making it white.

with that done, we can get to work on your text. the original font i used is called payback. here, i am using the font 'grandma house sans'. i am using gradient overlay, stroke and outer glow. after you have your main text, create a rectangle shape underneath. you will use this as the path for your subtext. with the rectangle selected, grab the font tool and place your text within the rectangle. i'm using the font asenine wide. once you have selected your text, look on the right side of your ps at the text properties. scroll down to paragraph and click 'justify all'

i'm adding a drop shadow and outer glow to the text to accentuate it but that's all i'll do. when that's done, you'll want to use the line tool to draw a line between the first space. duplicate the line and drag it over to the other empty space. i'm using a 1px purple line. i'll also add a drop shadow and outer glow to it bc the colors are light.

now, we are going to go back to our rectangle tool. create a rectangle the same length as the rest of the text. its color is up to you, i'm using a gradient overlay the same colors as the main text so it's cohesive! grab your text tool and again, with the rectangle selected, place your text within it. this text will be your tumblr url (unless you don't want it to be haha). i'm using the same font, asenine wide regular. i've added a drop shadow to the text. this is how it should look.

now, we're going to grab the rectangle tool one more time and place a rectangle at the top that is the same width as the canvas. the height is up to you, mine is 14 px.

now, change your shape to the ellipse and create a circle within the rectangle that's about 8px wide + long. duplicate it twice and place them about 4px from eachother. you can change the colors, i'm going to leave one white and then use two shades of light purple.

now, head on over to the other side of your canvas and use your type tool to add your date (and time if you wish, i didn't). mine is seventeen's debut date :) i used the same font, asenine wide regular. this is what i have so far.

last but not least, we're going to add the particle effect. i screenrecorded effect #5 from this video. to make your life easier and save me from explaining the process, i've uploaded it as a psd here.

before you open the psd, open the timeline on your current canvas. this can be done by going to window -> timeline. mine is already open as you can see, once it is open click create video timeline.

then, you're going to go over to sparkles.psd and copy the 'group one' layer. paste it underneath your text! now, you're going to have the wonky problem of a gif that's significantly shorter than your other layers and cuts off, see here:

so to fix this, use this little thingy and drag it until it no longer goes over the edge of 'group one' in your timeline. it should look like this.

now, why is our overlay still blocking the rest of our image out? this is an easy fix, go over to layers, and with group one still selected, change the blend mode to 'screen'. bam!

finally, to achieve the background effect i have, create a new layer underneath all your other layers, then, go to the layer with your outline on it and use the magic wand tool to select everything outside of the line. go to your image layer with the selection still intact and go to image -> cut to remove the bg. i had to do this in 2 pieces.

then go to that new layer you created and make it whatever color you want. you can use a gradient map, solid color, whatever you want. i'm using a gradient fill similar to background colors, then over it i'm putting a crumpled paper texture (i just googled black paper texture haha) on screen mode. feel free to get creative. this is how it looks!

and that's all, your header is ready to use. go over to file -> export -> save for web (legacy) and save it to your computer. this is our end result! i did add a bit of noise to hoshi bc the image was low quality but otherwise, i did nothing that wasnt't outlined here!

i hope this was semi easy to understand! ♡

[rinnysega]

Any advice on how to make progress on a writing project while dealing with emotional/mental fatigue? I’ve wanted to work on my book for MONTHS now but between irl stress and overall fatigue making me feel like all I have the energy for is just watching YouTube and scrolling social media, which just makes me feel worse for not writing. I just miss being in that headspace where I can write for hours at a time.

I understand your sentiment. I went through this recently too and only just got out of it around the end of last year.

Without knowing any details of your irl stress, considering this has lasted a few months for you, I'd first ask if its something in your power to change. I've found it's hard to be creative in an unhealthy environment too, but even harder to make changes to that unhealthy environment if it's something familiar or comfortable or might be too upsetting to change. We're creatures of habit that tend to get stuck in loops and patterns, and if any of those sound like something you're going through that causes mental or emotional stress and fatigue, I highly recommend taking steps to break those patterns or remove certain stressors. Any small changes or accommodations to your overall mental health is something I highly encourage first and foremost.

If they're stressors out of your control, and scrolling YouTube or social media is your coping patterns for the stress while in fatigue, that's something that can be hard to break too. I'm guilty of it myself, like even today I scheduled my day to write, but I got hit with a massive bout of burnout and ended up taking a five hour nap while some YT played in the background. I felt bad too when I woke up that I didn't get to my schedule today, but lately I've been reminding myself that I've been doing well, and my body speaks to me when it's time for a recharge. There's no shame in resting, so I recommend allowing yourself that time to recharge without feeling guilty for not writing. Your body needs it and you can't be your most creative self without taking the time to rest, hydrate, and whatever else your body needs.

If you find it's hard to break away from something like YT while in burnout, I'd ask yourself what kinds of videos are you watching? Something you've seen before like old comfort channels or something new? I'd recommend trying to find content that relates to your work and have it on for "research purposes" to help keep your project in mind while you relax.

Back in late 2023, I was still kind of stumbling through some recent changes to how I navigate in the world post-autism/cptsd dx, but I wanted to write and not have that feeling of guilt too. In my book, one of the timelines takes place in 1995, so I'd put on old 90s commercials, video essays of the decade, etc, and basically be a couch potato when the fatigue hit while it got absorbed. If I came across something interesting, I'd make little notes to myself and tell myself "you're technically writing!" to keep that guilty feeling at bay. The best part is it's technically true! Once I got to a better place where I could sit down and write something, I already had a bullet list of interesting things to include in the novel related to the culture and history of the time period, and the scenes felt very natural to type out since I already did some of the legwork in my couch potato era.

Writing for yourself is very therapeutic and healing in its own way, so if you'd like to tackle subjects that connect to your stressors that could be a way to keep writing if you absolutely feel the need to write. Even if it's not part of a main story or project you're working on, sometimes the habit of sitting down to write small micro fictions of your day as a journal entry with characters or familiar settings can be helpful in getting back into the swing of it.

The most important thing I'd like for you or anyone to take away is that it's okay to take time off and there's no need to feel ashamed of that. I took off all summer of 2023 from writing because at the time, everything felt so big and overwhelming and scary, and I'm very glad I did. I focused on the areas of my life that needed improvement so I could be healthy and live a better life as a recognized autistic adult. I knew it wouldn't last forever, and maybe the temporary aspect is what made it easier. Maybe set a goal post so you feel more in control of your schedule, even if it's something small for now. Point is, the time I needed made me feel more relaxed and energized when I came back to the blank page last fall, and now I finished my book! I'm doing revision work and I wrote short poems and works, some of which are getting published next year! If 2022/2023 Erin knew that? She'd think you were lying lol

Sometimes we just need those few months off while we go through changes or transitional eras of our lives, and there's no shame in it at all! Just remember your stories and projects are worth telling, but shame doesn't help at the end of the day. Just do your best each day, and before you know it, those days will add up to the next moment of your life when inspiration strikes and you write your next big thing

I hope this helped. Just remember, everything is temporary, and life happens in ebbs and flows like water. You'll be back to that headspace, but just remember to take care of yourself first and give yourself the love you need until you get there.

[lover-also-fighter-also]

BIRTHDAY SURPRISES

Fandom: High School Story (Original Trilogy) Pairings: Maria Flores x Ria Monero (My female HSS MC) Characters: Maria Flores, Ria Monero Rating: G Tags: Fluff, kissing, future timeline, post series events Summary: Its Ria's first birthday after she moved to college, and did not expect anything big to happen, but she was wrong. A/N: I had wanted to write a fic for Ria's birthday (which is today), and I was really short on ideas for how to implement it. Also, this is the first time I'm writing a fully fledged fanfiction, so please bear with me if there are any spelling or grammatical mistakes. Hope you enjoy reading it!

Tagging @choicesficwriterscreations for this work!

7th September, 2019

It was Ria's first month at NYU, and so far everything has been a huge change for her. Sure she had great roommate, enjoyed her classes, and was happy overall, but she couldn't help but miss Berry High, her friends, and most importantly, Maria. She lay on her bed, wearing a Terman U hoodie that she "borrowed" from Maria before she left for college and a pair of trackpants, just scrolling through her old photos, when she received a text message from her roommate, Maddie. She reminded Ria of Myra sometimes, with how infectious her energy was.

Maddie: RIA COME DOWN!!

Ria: whyy??

Maddie: JUST PLEASE COME DOWN. SOMETHING HAS HAPPENED!

Ria: Okay, okay. I'm on my way.

Reluctantly, she rolled out of bed, and rushed down the stairs where she saw Maddie bouncing with excitement. 'Okay Maddie, what was so urgent that you had to kick me out of bed when I was too comfortable?' said Ria folding her arms.

'Look behind you, slowly.' said Maddie, trying to contain her smile. Ria slowly turned around, and she couldn't believe who she saw.

It was Maria! She was standing a few feet away, grinning at Ria and gave a small wave. Ria could only stare at her, dumbfounded, not able to move for a few moments, till Maria said, 'What? Don't I get a hi?' Ria's knees buckled and she ran up to Maria, wrapping her arms around her and nuzzling her neck. Maria laughs, returning the hug, and lifts Ria a little off the ground.

'If I knew I was going to receive such an enthusiastic welcome, I would have come a lot sooner,' said Maris still holding Ria. Ria could not hold back on her tears and let them freely fall before saying 'I cannot believe you flew all the way across the country, just for me.'

'Of course babe. You deserve the best. I just figured that a simple video call was not going to suffice, so I thought that - ', Maria was cut off from whatever she was going to say next by a sweet kiss which lasted for a few moments till they pulled back.

'This is seriously the best birthday surprise ever!' said Ria, unable to control her happiness. 'Then go ahead and get ready, because we are going out right now.' said Maria, her eyes shining with excitement.

An hour later, they were at the Times Square, exploring the place, when Paper Rings started playing from some of the performers on the street.

I like shiny things, but I marry you in paper rings, uh huh, that's right

They looked at each other in the eyes, their hands reaching out for each other

Darling, you're the one I want

Maria pulled Ria towards her, slowly dancing to the beat

I hate accidents except when we went from friends to this, uh huh, that's right

Ria spun Maria around and dipped her with renewed enthusiasm.

Darling, you're the one I want

They held each other, and time seemed to slow down around them.

'I love you, Pumpkin.' whispered Ria, 'just coming all the way here, that's the best gift anyone's ever given me.'

'I love you too baby, you will always get the best from me.' Maria whispered back, giving a peck on her forehead.

[darkniters]

i wrote this in 2022, please enjoy

-

sitting by your pc, you're not really paying much attention to the monitors, but more blindly scrolling on your phone. seeing your creator friends making tweets come up on the timeline, and even getting some interactions yourself.

you've got one ear under your headphones, the other laying limp behind your ears, when suddenly a familiar notification chimes from your pc, the same on your phone.

you've received a discord message! but sitting in a ball on a chair seems much more appealing right now, maybe the notification can sit for a bit?

the thought wasn't properly considered, as you were already leaning forward to move your mouse, clicking on the messaging application.

it's a dm from ted!

the single way conversation read as such:

YOU.

you better answer you stupid son of a bitch or i will rain hellfire upon you

HURRY UP

they were all sent within the same minute.

pls be nice to me ted nippleson

what do you want, i have no more corpses in supply, you're gonna need to wait another week for that.

are you INSANE

i do not CARE for your pitiful corpses, fool

however i have made you something (oooh ted i wonder what it is)

you couldn't deny you were weary of what ted prepared for you, but curiosity consumed you as you continued to type on your keyboard with satisfying clicks.

i am very frightened ted

have i ever told you that you are a very scary man

nope, but its good to know that i have that sort of power against you.

anyways, i hope you like this, took me a bit to put together

[ link ]

looking over the link, it sent you to spotify, and you clicked into it. a gasp escaped your throat.

ted made you a playlist! and it had some of your favorite songs and some of his own. this was the first time anyone ever made you a playlist, and you were deeply touched by it. another discord message was sent.

it was very difficult to put together, please oh please im begging on my knees make more playlists public i can't keep guessing the songs you like from twitch con 2 years ago.

ted you actually got it super on point, very impressive top man!

yea cause im never wrong (y/n)

you switch the playlist on, it didnt seem to be in a liminal order. scanning through the songs, he was REALLY on point. you read the description of the playlist.

whats up pussy supreme (you are scared of me, admit it)

you've been on the ted nivison brain waves recently, and yea we talk and game a lot but i feel like a thank you is in order, so check it out! a playlist of the shit you listen to (and some of what i listen to too)

thank you for taking quality time out of your life to talk with my stupid ass

reading this, a smile never left your face. the fact that he even did this in the first place was just so nice!

DUDE you killed that shit

i gotta like make something in return

you silly goose

the reason i made the playlist to arch over both of our music tastes is so you dont need to do anything!

YOURE DEBT FREE

DUDE ILL FEEL BAD

ILL HAVE SOMETHING READY IN A FEW DAYS

NO LEAVE IT ITS FINE

I JUST MADE IT CAUSE WE TALK ALL THE TIME AND WE GAME TOGETHER

I DONT NEED SOMETHING BACK YOU USING YOUR TIME TO TALK IS ENOUGH

PLEASE

ITS OKAY

naaaah i'll make you something for sure dude

spending my time is bare minimum, you do the same with me!

new songs keep playing during the conversation, but when 4:00 comes around, teds gotta head out

alright wise guy

you're lucky i have a video to record right now

or else this would continue

enjoy recording dude, im gonna keep listening to this playlist that you've created for my fine ass

FINE???

YOU ARE THE GOOFIEST MOTHER FUCKER IVE EVER MET

DO NOT CALL YOURSELF FINE

BITCH

D:

i hope your video corrupts

and you

shit yourself during recording

and you lose power

YOU DONT MEAN THAT

I DO????

conversation then fizzled out.

you took one more glance over the playlist and noticed something.

some of these songs were made for confession.

you didnt question it, maybe it was done because he likes them, but also some of them were completely out of the ordinary im the playlist, and stuck out like a sore thumb.

little did you know, ted put those in deliberately, seeing if you'd notice and ask about it. maybe not now, but at some point. and maybe, just maybe, he'd have the balls in telling you how he actually feels.

[oikiri]

So what happened exactly? (and a little timeline from what I have observed)

It started around March. AJ/Dilan was talking to Inquisitor3 (Vincent) on discord since she did some edits for him and I think he just wanted to be nice to her. Later on she already tried to expose him after trying to get him to flirt back to her which was I think her first attempt at exposing him (cue several screenshots of her talking to Tito mentioning they tried to expose/cancel him before and it didn't work & screenshots of him calling out AJ/Dilan in DMs because he saw her attempt at doing so.

Now, I don't know how long she's been scheming this whole thing along with Tito (her boyfriend) but from screenshots between them it's clear it's been months.

Tito encourages her to try harder because they don't have enough "proof"/enough entrapment material to set him up.

During this conversation Tito not only supports her and further pushes her to do so, AJ/Dilan isn't stupid, she is also quite obsessed with the idea of cancelling him.

She mentions hes live and mentions she needs someone called "Pippy" to answer back to her [for further planning I suppose but this person may be involved in this too].

Tito mentions he wants to speak to his other parent about AJ/Dilan so they know about her --> Dilan barely acknowledges that and then jumps straight back to talking about Inquisitor3. Then asks her own boyfriend if its okay if she "flirts" with Inquisitor3.

Very strange dynamic they have but even further proof that she is obsessed with him.

They message Keegan's Mask on tiktok, she tries to "help" apparently (I take it as being purposefully happy about someone in the community getting cancelled as her previous videos have been bordering on roasting/bullying other content creators in the hopes of being funny) and she makes a video of him. Now she has almost 300k followers and her fanbase picks it up rather quickly.

It blows up and Inquisitor3 deactivates all of his accounts.

What happens next?

I personally went onto tiktok to find some videos addressing the whole issue. Most of the videos I find aren't really viral so I check the comments.

I see someone commenting in all caps "IM THE GIRL HE WAS TALKING TO" (don't quote me on that I don't know if she wrote minor or girl but this was about it).

Her replies were full of support but I found her comment incredibly weird and off-putting.

There were many comments so I scrolled further down and saw Turkish Terminator's comment (same one who made the video explaining the situation so kudos to him for knowing all of this before and trying to tell people) that he was talking about AJ and her using slurs and what not.

So this brings me back to my original thought as to how this AJ person is this involved and proud about being the person in question and then also being someone who is problematic on whole other levels.

Meanwhile Tito is bragging in comments about how it's his girlfriend that was targeted.

Three days ago Inquisitor3's tiktok account is back up. He's on live for several hours but I couldn't join.

I commented on one of his recent videos asking for clarification and update about the accusations just to a few hours later receive a reply in which someone stated that he's dead.

Inquisitor3 had been on live for around 2 hours with nothing but silence, the room was mostly dark and the camera was facing his glass door. The comments were off. Keegans Mask meanwhile was making fun of this same live.

After 2 hours or so, someone breaks the glass in, pushes inside and you can hear the panic in his voice as he tries helping Vincent (Inquisitor3). This goes on for a while as more neighbours come around to help I suppose? They call paramedics and it's all caught on live until they turn it off.

So lets circle back. AJ came forward to say that the accusations were false.

Tito pretended he wasn't involved at all.

And Keegans Mask made a tiktok wistfully looking out the window as if a man hasn't just ended his life on tiktok live.

AJ immediately went into hiding right after, changed her discord username and responded to a comment on one of her tiktok accounts that she's been crying and praying all night for him and didn't want any of that to happen.

Meanwhile Vincent's real life friends/mutuals came forward to confirm that he has passed and Turkish Terminator made the video about him explaining the situation further for everyone's understanding and naming all three involved in these accusations and set up: AJ, Tito and Keegans Mask (which I think was the right thing to do.) Yes, Keegans Mask may not have been part of the set up but she is just as wrong.

So why did this happen?

In my opinion AJ is/was obsessed with Vincent. I think that is why Tito also played into it because it bothered him without him openly mentioning or confirming this fact. From their exchanges it's very clear of how she ignored Tito to obsess over Vincent. Ultimately she did all this because she wahted his attention.

Later that day Vincent's father also came forward to confirm his sons passing with a video.

Turkish Terminator made another video confirming this also and has been in contact with Vincent's father to make sure his source is right unlike some other people.

Now the community is obviously shaken up and upset and due to AJ's hiding she's lucky she's not getting tagged in most videos addressing these things. Minor or not she was the main culprit and needs to face consequences for pushing a man to end his life.

I cannot even begin to mention how it bothers me that in most videos now people only mention Tito and Keegans Mask or simply call Dilan Titos girlfriend. She needs to be named too.

All three have posted "apology videos" yet I find they lack responsibility and empathy.

Dilan deleted her apology account quickly again and Keegans Mask is currently deactivated. Tito still pretends to be mostly innocent and pretends to have broken up with Dilan and say that her accounts have been removed (which are lies).

She's also back on discord and chats with people claiming she wants to end it and Tito claims she attempted, yet the conversations that I have seen from her make it visible that she lacks any empathy in this situation still and sees herself as the victim.

I'm not here for a witch hunt I am simpy here to explain what I've observed and want these people included to face serious consequences.

Screenshots incoming soon as I am still collecting the ones I've seen floating around + extra ones and I'm currently at the beach with the worst internet connection.

[sapphyreopal5]

New York City

March 24, 2024 I want to take a moment here to talk about a dream I had a couplish weeks ago the night before the Baltimore Bridge collapse happened (god may those souls rest in peace), along with my movie choice the night before being "Escape from New York" (1981). A synposis of this amazing film from John Carpenter's official website says:

"It is 1997 and a nearly destroyed New York City has become a walled prison for over 3 million convicted criminals who have lost, but survived, a brutal war against the United States Police Force. In this maximum security prison-city, escape has been made impossible – every bridge is mined and walled, the surrounding waters are filled with deadly electricity and the Statue of Liberty has become just another guard tower from which officers in infra-red goggles blast, on sight, any prisoners desperate enough to try to get out. Radar scanners revolve and helicopters circle the island of Manhattan endlessly. Other than the monthly food drops made by air into Central Park these outcasts are left completely on their own to prey on each other.

Into this living hell one master criminal, Snake Plissken, is sent alone on a mission as dangerous as the criminals within its walls; he must rescue the President of the United States whose plane crashes in New York City on its way to a world summit conference; the President is carrying papers that are crucial to the survival of the United States. As a deadly incentive, to prevent Snake from abandoning his rescue mission, two devices are implanted in Snake’s head, which could blow the famous crook to pieces."

I attached some screenshots with names crossed out of an Instagram chat with a friend of mine to show some timelines and whatnot of things.

This clip below is the ending scene from that movie, where the President is seen being filmed in front of the wall by the 59th Street Bridge in the movie. In the dream I had right after I went to bed this night as described in the texts above to my friend, I was in what looked like the Oval office and was about to congratulate Joe Biden on winning the election and reached out my right hand to shake hands with him. He stared blankly and didn't even acknowledge my presence. I noticed a window behind him and what looked like a bridge going over some water before I woke up in the middle of the night for some reason. By the way, I am not into politics and am not sure why I was congratulating him on winning the election, let alone why he didn't even acknowledge my presence. Hmmm.... Is this dream also some kind of strange hint about who is not going to win the US Presidential election this upcoming November?

I am aware a Ryan Garcia was said to have predicted this catastrophe a few weeks prior to this tragedy in Baltimore. In response to the allegations he made this prediction, he made this Tweet on March 27, 2024 at 10:47am: "As people know during that time when I was tweeting and writing a bunch of stuff. My tweets were constantly getting deleted and I was showing proof. I will say that it is not me who knows but God, the Holy Spirit speaking thru me. There is times I forget what I say, like I said I pray for the people effected in this tragedy in Baltimore. Half my tweets were deleted and not by my doing To God receive the Glory not me".

In this same Tweet however I read in a box saying "Readers added context" a note that says "Ryan Garcia did not predict the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, MD. The video contains a digitally altered tweet. You can tell by the blur near the blue checkmark and Ryan’s username. The tweet also does not contain a timestamp. tiktok.com/t/ZTLMQbjo5/ ". Not sure if this is his way of saying he did delete this Tweet or if he never made this Tweet to begin with. I did notice a screenshot scrolling down this link of a screenshot of a Tweet dated 3/6/24 From Earth at 8:25am saying "June 6 Earthquake BAD". Interestingly enough, there was an Earthquake on April 5 (yesterday) in NYC during the UNSC Meeting that took place. But I suppose we'll wait and see what happens in June ha ha. My guides always say to me "dates and times are no good" because of how divine blueprints work. What is true today may not be tomorrow when it comes to dates, times, etc.

April 3, 2024 I also came across a post earlier today from someone's Instagram story as well as seeing the same post on my own feed via another account of the Statue of Liberty being struck by lightning on April 3, 2024. The photo looks as though the lightning bolt is striking the torch and lighting it on fire.

Gaza and the UNSC Meeting Interrupted in NYC

Now, let's talk about the 4.8 magnitude Earthquake that happened in NYC on April 5, 2024 that interrupted a United Nations Security Council meeting with regards to Gaza. I'm not going to get into the politics about Gaza as this is not the focus of this post here. I however feel the need to mention this in terms of how some people believe this was predicted in the Bible, although others say it was in fact other attacks. I have a feeling that if the Bible is correct about things at all that with everything going on now it is this particular attack that took place on October 31, 2023. The earthquake during a meeting that happens to interrupt a UNSC meeting about Gaza is a very noteworthy event in my opinion. Timing is everything...

I want to also take this chance to talk about a dream I had about 3 weeks prior to that residential building in central Gaza being struck by Israel via air that killed 106 people. I'm not here to talk about the politics of what's going on over in Gaza, although I do hope things deescalate soon and that those souls lost do rest in peace. The focus of this post is the dreams I had and the timing of which things have been occurring.

In this dream I had, I saw what looked like a "factory" somewhere in the desert near a cliffside. I saw some mist coming from this factory with conveyor belts and such and then approached this place closer. I saw what looked like a few "terror dogs" from Ghostbusters appearing out of the mist and eventually off the conveyor belt after it stopped moving. As strange as this may sound, I approached one of them and touched its head particularly forehead and around the muzzle and discovered it was very calm. I walked away after touching this "terror dog" or as the demons put it Hellhounds.

I then started following a couple bipedal demons with wings, darkened skin (one almost reminded me of the Jeepers Creeper monster but had more horns on its head, the other had snakes for hair a lot like Medusa) along with 2 of these "terror dogs" or Hellhounds that were walking besides these 2 demons. They were looking at me and pointing at different things telling me what different areas of the factory are and whatnot. I strangely enough didn't feel threatened by these demons but more like a welcomed guest or visitor to their factory so to speak. I heard one of them mention us being in Israel at one point. I woke up after standing by the cliff with a rock bridge going across it, and seeing what looked like a city in the distance.

It seems to me every time I have dreams pertaining to hellhounds, am made aware of hellhound activity going on somewhere, etc. something bad is going to happen near that place if not at it or what will happen involves the place somehow. I think I want to start documenting my dreams better via dream journal and perhaps start sharing my notes on here...

[foibles-fables]

What's that? Random asks? Don't mind if I do!

How did you hear about Horizon that made you want to play it, and how was that first time?

Howdy hello and HECK YES! I love this question.

So--summer 2020. I'd just come back from a decade-long hiatus from fandom in general, and was starting to learn the new ropes and spaces (this former livejournal clown breaking into discord and twitter, etc.). One night, I was scrolling through my twitter timeline and happened to stumble upon the freshly-posted E3 announcement trailer for HFW. And even though I hadn't really played a narrative video game since the PS2 era, I decided to watch it. And, huh! I remember saying, "Badass freckly redheaded archer...seems relevant to my interests." The graphics were absolutely gorgeous and what little hints of the story were present in that trailer (especially for someone who knew nothing of the narrative background presented so far) were compelling.

So I looked up some info and found out that it was a sequel to a 2017 game. Cool. Filed that away for later, deciding to get a PS5 when they released later that year.

Jump-cut to late December. I managed to get my hands on a PS5, and it was delivered a couple days before Christmas. Which was awesome, because life was not going super well and I needed a heavy-duty distraction. At this point I had kind of pushed Horizon to the backburner and was instead excited to play AC Valhalla as my first game! But when I booted up, I learned that my mother had bought me the disc version as a Christmas gift. I was left with a couple of days to try other stuff out before I could dive in to ACV.

So, I shrugged and downloaded HZD instead. And the rest is kind of history.

Went into it kind of ambivalent and really hoping I would like it. I had tried to play BotW and was completely overwhelmed by the open-world aspects, and not in a pleasant way, and I hoped that wouldn't be the case here. I'd also never really been into a ton of action games before, as most of my old faves were turn-based. The gameplay itself wouldn't be the clincher for me--that would be the story.

WELL, good news is, I was hooked from the prologue. I would equate playing HZD to not just watching a narrative masterwork unfold, but being in the driver's seat of one. Each discovery Aloy and I made was enthralling and exhilarating, and I legitimately could not stop playing. Could not stop exploring. Every side quest, every collectible, every corner of the map (besides the hunting grounds after earning my Suns at the Nora one, SORRY TALANAH). The entirety of "Deep Secrets of the Earth" had me staring into the darkness of my gaming room in a mix of existential horror and pure amazement. I wept at the ending. The HZD cast left an indelible mark on my heart, and it really reminded me of just how powerful game stories can be. Still trapped in hyperfixation hell (affectionate) over it.

The fun didn't stop there, though. By the time I finished the game (I took my time!), it was early February 2021. I feel very lucky to have sauntered in when I did, because it really seems like it was the perfect time to join the fandom. Folks were coming out of hibernation from both 2017 and the 2020 PC release, hyped with excitement and theories for HFW. Within those first months I met some of the most fabulous and now-lifelong friends (and more <3) I've ever had.

Bottom line: after playing HZD, Horizon and the fandom pulled me through a very very very difficult time in my life. I'm eternally grateful to this series and the meaning I derive from it. Especially from the first game--its vibrant narrative, and its absolutely fantastic characters. Lightning in a bottle, man.

And no, I still haven't finished AC Valhalla. lmao.

[slowestlap]

i have to shoot my shot and ask - HOW on earth do you make your gifs so crisp. they're so clean its literally out of this world!!!!!! when your gifs are on my dash i almost always know its you just by the QUALITY of the gif. help a girl out!!!

Hii! Thank you!! <3 I'm happy with the way my giffing process now goes but it's taken years and a few different fandoms and stumbling upon good tutorials which is why i decided to make one of my own too.

I still love figuring out new things to try and hopefully you can get some new tips to your process from me too. Under the cut is a long af post about gif making, focusing on some basic stuff and sharpening/coloring tips.

________________________

WAY TOO LONG INTRO

Before i get to the photoshop part, the base stuff is super important: You can't turn a very bad video into great gifs since there's only so much photoshop can do BUT you can turn a good video into great gifs. So, obviously the original video quality matters a lot.

I religiously stand by the correct tumblr size dimensions (see example, the numbers mean the width. Height doesn't really matter). However in 3 column sets i’ll sacrifice that one pixel and would make them all 177px. The empty space between gifs in 2 column sets is 4px, in 3 column sets it's 4px + 4px.

Since tumblr can only properly handle 540 gif pixels in the same row, sets with two wide gifs side by side can be laggy to scroll by. So for example, 268px gif will not be as sharp as 540px gif (if you click on it to see it bigger), since it legit has only half of the pixels, but if you plan to post 2 gifs in the same row, the 268px will look better on the dash in the gif set since it’s correctly sized for the best dash result.

I download videos when i can (dl is always better than screen recording), so that's youtube, instagram/twitter etc. Streaming sites/broadcasts i have to screen record and i use OBS to do it. It's the best i've tried for hq recording. I record with 60fps and use display capture. OBS is a heavy program, as is photoshop, so a good enough computer is also super important imo. I used to make gifs with a laptop of 4gb ram/128gb emmc and lost my mind after all the crashing and spent 1k€ on a new one. Basically, have as much performance as you can afford, and editing experience will be much much more pleasant. Of course gifs can be done with an average computer too, it'll just likely be slower and clumsier and you need more patience 😫

Also, i've gotten rid of the urge to be the first to post a gif set when new content drops. I'm not the fastest, i always do every coloring from the scratch. I save to drafts to see how it looks like on mobile, i go back to ps to correct the things that don't look right (too dark/bright, too green/yellow/red, too slow/fast), i make the changes, then save to drafts again and then post. I'd rather post a set i'm happy with than to post quickly knowing i could've made it look better with just a bit more time. (It'd bother me and i'd go back and re-color for my own peace of mind 😅) And i just wanna say it's totally fine when people make gifs of the same stuff!! The more the merrier, no need to think only the first to gif something somehow now has the rights to that moment. I just never get the best result if i try to hurry, so i’ve stopped trying to get my sets out asap. I’ll post when i’ll post.

________________________

SHARPENING

All these words and i haven't even gotten to the point yet 🫣 But fine tuning the details won't work if they don't have a proper base at first. Which!!! Finally brings us to your question:

I'm not sure if the order really matters but the main steps i do in this order: once the layers have been converted to video timeline and video timeline is converted into a smart object -> smart sharpen -> crop -> resize -> coloring

I like to sharpen things first, to me it makes sense to do it before resizing because after resizing you've already lost some pixels, so feels better to sharpen when you still have all the original pixels.

All the above steps (sharpening, cropping, resizing) will affect how the gif looks, so i do the coloring as the very last thing so i can better see how the end result will look.

To me sharpening and coloring go hand in hand, and you use both of them to get the best result. Sharpening obviously does what it says but good coloring will help to make the gif look cleaner and smoother too.

Finally, examples!! The key to a sharp result in my process is 2 sharpening layers. The main layer and the second layer.

Enjoy looking at judgy max f i giffed last year and chose to use as an example here. The source video quality was 1080px and i screen recorded with OBS.

I use photoshop CC2019 so cannot guarantee that these will work the same way in other ps versions. As always, it's about fuckin around and findin out 🙏🏻

__________________

1. Example with resizing done, but no sharpening or coloring (blurry and ungood)

2. Example with resizing and main sharpening layer (already much better)

3. Example with second sharpening layer included (more depth, dark spots are darker, almost too strong of an effect but coloring will fix that)

4. Example with all of the above + coloring (the final result)

5. The final result as a gif

And how did we get that result?

Main sharpening layer settings (yes, it’s in finnish but i think the options are in the same place in every language):

Because the sharpening is quite heavy, I double click on this thingy (red circle) in the layers panel to lower the opacity to 50-70%

The middle layer is gaussian blur, which i’ve set to 0,2.

So basically i intentionally oversharpen the gif and use the opacity function and blur to soften the effect. Dumb or smart, who knows not me, but it’s working for me so i’m rolling with it.

The top layer is the second sharpening layer. A godsend trick i’ve learned along the way: (the difference between the example photos 2 and 3 above)

(I've created an action, so i just gotta push one button and it'll run thru these sharpening settings, ie. i don't have to manually click thru these every time, saves crazy amount of time)

Wasn't sure at which point i'll mention this so i'm just putting it here: when saving the gif for web, i almost always use adaptive and diffusion.

________________________

COLORING

I’m not gonna go thru every coloring thing in my process since this is already so long hsdkfjdkjgkd but i’ll give some info on what i usually do and some tips i've found helpful.

My style is quite natural and i prefer colder tones. I hateeeee overly green/yellow/red skintones that are caused by bad lighting so I always try to correct that. The below stuff is more or less what i did to color that example gif too. (Everything is down to preference, these are just the way i like to color)

My most commonly used coloring layers:

Curves. Utilize the eye dropper tools, pick white eye dropper and click on a white spot on the gif (not pure white tho since it won’t do anything) and it will turn that spot to 100% white and correct the other colors at the same time. Black eye dropper will turn a dark spot you picked to 100% black. It can be super effective, just try a spot, undo, try another spot, undo, until you find what looks good. If you like the result but it’s too strong, lower the layer opacity. And of course you can just simply drag the curve up and get brightness that way. There are times when the eye droppers won't work nicely but it's always worth a try.

Levels. Works similarly to curves, they are basically the more efficient brightness/contrast combo.

Color balance. No gif of mine has been made in the last 3 years without dragging the blue in the midtones to the right. I also often drag the green to magnetas side. 

B&W gradient map. I set the blending mode to soft light and lower the layer opacity. Gives the gif a bit more depth and pop to the dark/light parts.

If the dark parts in your gif are too dark, for example details around eyes look messy but you don't want to lower the contrast, then try adding light colored gradient map (light yellow-white or light blue-white etc) and set it to soft light and play with opacity. It will give light and brightness to the gif without making things blinding and not losing much contrast.

Photo filter. I’m almost always going for cold blue and 10-20 setting. (Orange filters can give a nice effect too, if you want to bring some warmness to the gif.)

Vibrance. Always adding at least a little bit, helps colors to pop and makes skintones look nicer.

Selective coloring. Just drag them sliders to left and right to see what works, that’s really the best advice i can give. If you want reds to pop, go to red and play around. If you think the white spots are a bit blinding, go to white and then slide the bottom one (black) to the right. If you want some more contrast, go to neutral and slide the bottom one (black) to the right. Same with black (black).

Also, i don't like to do too much with one layer. I tend to do different colors with different selective coloring layers, so if needed i can lower the opacity and it will only affect that one color. Also it's handy to duplicate layers if you really want a certain color to pop, one layer often isn't enough in that case so duplicate it and if it's too strong then play around with opacity.

(Left image below). If you want to correct overly yellow/green skintones, go to yellow and you can try these settings. Then lower the layer opacity to see what looks good. 

(Right image). If you struggle getting rid of very red tones, you can use hue/saturation layer, go to red and just drag the middle slider to the left. (This is also a good tip with POC, when you think their skintone is overly orange/red but you are afraid of white washing. This setting will usually correct the orange and red tone without taking the dark/black color away.)

______________________

THE END

Wheew this is what happens when you give me an opprtunity to talk about giffing 😅 I hope it was easy to follow, feel free to ask if i was unclear about something!! And hopefully you got to learn something new. 

Also these are obviously just my way of doing things, not the Only Correct way, do whatever you like and enjoy and don’t worry too much if other people do things differently. Most important thing is to have fun creating 🫡

[100ducksizedfolignos]

9 people you'd like to know better

tagged by @double-t-mattboldy12 @giveemgreef and @in-the-mists (i'm so famous...! thanks guys :) )

last song: this sounds very pretentious i promise i'm not into classical music in a pretentious way. cello concerto in b minor, op. 104 by antonin dvořák, performed by the prague philharmonic. i listen to classical radio a lot on the way to work. if this takes the sting off my shower music before that was a video game summer themed music mix

currently watching: inspired by a close friend of mine who is also doing this, i'm half-watching my way through the entirety of supernatural, not because it's like. good. (although some episodes do rip.) but because the experience of it is so singular. because it's part of tumblr's foundational texts. multiple people have described the experience as being gaslit by a show. currently about halfway into season 2. for things i'm not doing almost as an anthropological study, i'm also about halfway through gravity falls, 2/3rds through welcome to wrexham, and am watching the new project runway all-stars season with my mom

currently reading: by a given measure of "currently" given that i've stalled out on it a little bit (through no fault of its own i'm just bad at finishing things), the spear cuts through water by simon jimenez. in terms of fic, i'm currently making my way through the anders/fenris dragon age tag again

current obsession: obv this is Peak Offseason and tbh the offseason might be my favorite time of the year bc the drama is So Good, so i am obsessed with that, but also story of seasons: a wonderful life just dropped (was surprised to get it in my mail yesterday bc it was preordered for me as a birthday present and i basically forgot about it) and i started my second dragon age: origins run (been like. 6 years since my first one?) (this is also why i'm back into dragon age fic again, it comes in waves) so i'm gonna be hacking away at those two games now that i've finished omori (very good, recommend)

tagging uhhhh @zukirillo @amandaleveille @emmowned @tblueger @suterbuyout2021 @altschmerzes @wilderhockey @zuccarella @missanniewhimsy (it is not letting me hyperlink you. crying.) (my apologies if any of you have done this already i am not caught up with my timeline and i am just scrolling through my notifications at work to get my braincells to come up with enough people to fill this out)

[aashvi-dhingra]

4 Bookstagram books that I've read and are worth the hype.

i am a typical Gen-z Instagram user, the one who consumes the most viral videos when they emerge on my Instagram feed. besides the entertaining Instagram feed there's one thing that keeps me scrolling on my phone for hours and that's a sub community called Bookstagram. in a nutshell, Booktagaram or BookTok is a popular hashtag used where users post quick videos, reviewing and recommending novels that generally fall within the genre of young adult and romance. Its a collection of young, impassioned readers inspiring countless others to join the club. a TikTok or Instagram book is quite simply a book that has organically gained popularity on the app, you'll find recommendations based on popular tropes like "forced proximity", "who did this to you" and yes of course "enemies to lovers."

the real challenge is not to find a book to read because there's countless readers recommending countless books on Instagram, but which book is actually worth reading or worth the hype? I have made the task easier...here are my top four BookTok books that I have read and are actually worth the hype.

#1 TWISTED LOVE by ANA HUANG

this right here! this is the book that took the entire internet by storm, the morally grey male lead and the sunshine female lead will keep you hooked up to this book for days.

Ana Huang, after the success of twisted love emerged a series called 'The Twisted Series' comprising four books but when talking about the entire series i have mixed feelings about it. all the four books have different tropes and different endings that's bonus points for the series. coming back to the Twisted Love, an explosive dark romance mixed with witty humor is definitely a page turner.

#2 SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO by TAYLOR JENKINS

Have you really been on BookTok if you haven't encountered a book by Taylor Jenkins Reid? this cult classic historical fiction released in 2017 follows Monique Grant, a journalist who has been selected by the glamourous yet reclusive Hollywood starlet and movie icon, Evelyn Hugo. Evelyn wants Monique to write an exclusive story about her life. the book unfolds, Monique soon discovers how her life intersects with Evelyn's in tragic and irreversible ways.

it immediately transported me to the glory days of old Hollywood and sucked me into the world of the rich and famous that isn't as fabulous as it's chalked up to be. Evelyn Hugo is a character who everybody will feel and root for, envy and pity.

fun fact: popular streaming platform Netflix has announced the adaption of this book into a film.

#3 PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION by EMILY HENRY

this was actually the first book that i read off Bookstagarm, the internet has embraced the wonderfully rich characters that Emily Henry creates in her beach reads. thanks to the witty dialogue and banter between Alex and Poppy, two close friends who met in college this book will engulf you into warm feels of summer love.

every summer no matter what's going on in their lives, they take a vacation together. it's told through both past and present timelines, and in the present, we learn that the friends have experienced fallen out. in order to fix it, poppy invites Alex on a trip to Palm Springs in hopes that they can reconnect. will feelings get in the way?

if you enjoy friends to lover's trope this is definitely a recommendation for you. for me the slow burn and the chemistry between the characters was everything! all the events and banter and love was just so natural that it can't be helped but be hooked to this book

i might have finished reading this in a week or maybe less, this book is definitely worth messing up your sleep schedule for.

#4 THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS by Ali Hazelwood

the ultimate rom-com that tackles my favorite trope Grumpy meets sunshine is a shelf keeper. pure slow burning gold with lots of chemistry and a beautifully written romantic comedy with a heroine you will instantly fall in love with.

for all the "women in stem" the book did serve a justice. there were times when i had to pick up my phone and search the meaning od particular word because i am obviously not fluent in stem. .

I have to say this couple wins the best grumpy meets sunshine couple. smart, witty dialogue and diverse cast of likeable secondary characters is a delight for romance lovers. without any doubt you will absolutely fall in love with Adam's and Olive's relationship.

this book has everything to offer, a fake dating trope and steamy relationship with age gap romance! how can i not include this in the list.

and that's a wrap up for my list of favorite books recommended by Instagram.

[aidtale-of]

Aidtale: Origins-Chapter 1

“So, you came back. This makes it Route #569. Your perseverance is..admirable, I’ll admit. Though, I gotta ask,...why? Why do you like to return here so often, only to destroy the world again and again? Is this the curse of determination? Or do you really hate them that much? I’ve already tried       But you still continue   “

. . . 

“Skipping through my dialogue, hm? I guess I can’t blame you. After all,” a red soul is revealed, partly covered in black,” You’re here for this. It’s a little corrupted, but you’re used to it, aren’t you? Y’know, I tried fixing the world for you. So many times. It used to be so beautiful. Until you ruined it. Your DETERMINATION     It’s become so”

. . . 

“So impatient. Do you really expect something new to happen?”

 . . . 

“It doesn’t matter to me anymore. You’re the one in control. You are the future of humans and monsters. You are Determined.”

. . .

“Player. . .

It’s time to wake up.”

The same morning begins down in the Underground. Papyrus knocks on Sans’s door, calling to him.

“Sans? Sans, are you awake?”

No answer. Papyrus knocks until he’s sure Sans has woken.

“Sans!”

“What?” Sans grumbles, rolling over in bed, glancing at his clock and noting that it’s only 6 am.

“Sans, you have to get ready right now.”

“Why? It’s barely morning.”

“Because we have to be the first ones there. I heard from tv that some humans are nocturnal, so one probably fell at night. Plus, I’ve got some new puzzles I want to try out!”

Sans sits up in bed. “Alright, I’ll be out in a few.”

“Great!”

Footsteps recede from Sans’s door, followed by a door closing. Sans grabs his jacket, slips on his shoes then goes to head downstairs. He holds his foot out over the first stair, then teleports into the kitchen. He opens the fridge and pulls out a bottle of ketchup from his side, ignoring the sense of deja vu. Sans puts it in his pocket and goes to sit on his couch, taking a moment to feed his pet rock. Still tired, Sans settles further into the couch. Papyrus comes out of his room to see Sans already napping on the couch. He stands over him in a huff.

“Sans! You lazybones! Are you sleeping again?”

“Nah, just resting my eyes.”

Papyrus picks up Sans and places him on his feet. “Nice try, but I’m not falling for that one again. Have you eaten?”

“Yep.”

“Great! Let’s go!”

They leave their home. As Sans goes to lock the door, Papyrus pats his non-existent pockets.

“Oops! I forgot something!” Papyrus runs back into the house, leaving Sans outside to wait. He comes back out with a box of bones. “Ok, now we can go.”

They walk through Snowdin, saying hi to everyone as they go. They walk all the way through Snowdin forest to Sans’s station.

“Alrighty Sans, don’t forget to recalibrate your puzzles. We don’t need anything failing if the human arrives.”

“I’ll get right to it.”

Papyrus, satisfied, walks away with his box of bones. Once he’s far enough away, Sans sits at his post, pulling a hot dog from underneath. As he eats, he gets a notification on his phone. He looks, and sees that it’s a text from Alphys.

“Hey Sans, I need you to look at this.”

She then sends a photo accompanied by some text.

“I was checking on some things regarding our research, and all of this just appeared out of nowhere.”

The picture is one of her computer screen. There are diverting lines going all over the place.

“u already sent me this” Sans texts back.

“W-what? What are you talking about? This is the first time I’ve seen this. There’s no way that i’ve sent this before. Though, now that you mention it, it does seem familiar.”

“ah, its probably nothing. why do they stop like that though?”

“Uh, well, my theory is that there’s something powerful enough to simply stop time and restart everything.”

“kinda like flowey was doing?”

“. . . .Yes? But this looks wayyy different.” She sends a video accompanied by text. “Watch.”

The video shows Alphys scrolling through the timelines. Sans watches as the timelines start to lose variation, turning from varying lengths to the same, consistent, cut-off line, then disappearing entirely, leaving a number where a timeline should’ve gone. The count stops at 569, with the 569th one showing as in progress. 

Huh, that’s weird. Sans rewatches the video in curiosity.

“where are the other ones?”

“Idk. Like I said, i’ve never seen this before.”

“hmm. maybe you accidentally deleted it”

“Maybe… I’ll check. What are you up to rn?”

“working”

“:( ok good luck.”

Sans puts his phone away and leans back in his chair. He yawns, and the next thing he knows, he’s waking up to the sound of manic laughter from afar. Curious, Sans approaches the door and listens. He doesn’t hear anything, so he goes to knock, but the door starts to open. Sans looks around for a place to hide and teleports into the treeline. He peeks from behind a tree and sees a human. Smiling wider, Sans fixes a whoopee cushion onto this hand and follows them. The human stops at the gate. Sans walks right up to them, holding his hand out.

“Human.” The human plants their hand right into the cushion, sounding off a loud fart sound. 

“Heheh… the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick. It’s…” Sans trails off as the human just walks away.

Gee, lady, you really know how to pick ‘em, huh?

He follows the human, then notices Papyrus coming down the path.

“Hey kid, if ya don’t wanna get caught, you can hide behind that lamp over there.”

The human just stares at him.

“Uh, ok, I guess you don’t have to.”

Papyrus approaches the two of them.

“Sans, have you found a human yet?”

“Yeah.”

“Really? Wowie! Guess that’s settled.” He walks away.

“That worked out, huh.”

The human continues to stare.

“Well, I’ll be straight-forward with you. My brother’d really like to see a human. So, y’know, it’d really help me out…if you kept pretending to be one.” 

Sans teleports away, somewhere further up the path. Pulling out his phone, he sends a text to Alphys.

“theres a human in snowdin”

A yell in the distance grabs Sans’s attention, but Alphys’s text draws it back.

“I know. I have cameras there. I took a look through my trashed files. There’s nothing there that’s recent. At least, nothing timeline related.”

“well, timelines don’t just disappear without reason, do they? So where could they’ve gone?”

“¯\_(ツ)_/¯”

Papyrus comes up to Sans.

“Are your puzzles recalculated and ready?”

Sans puts away his phone. “You mean ‘recalibrated’?”

“That’s what I said! We can’t have the human breezing through every puzzle. How will they find the time to appreciate them?”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about that.”

“You don’t worry much about anything anyways.”

“Yeah. It’s easier that way. But, in all seriousness, I think the human would definitely be stumped.”

Sans notices the human approaching, dust covering their hands. Papyrus doesn’t seem to notice the human at all.

“So Sans, when’s the human showing up? I want to look my sunday best. Or at least my tuesday pretty-good.”

“Don’t you only have one outfit?”

“Yeah, but I could style my hair!”

“Oh. Right. Good idea.” Sans points to the human. “Say, why don’t you look over there?”

They look back and forth between each other and the human, going so fast that they spin in circles. They stop, and Papyrus turns them around one more time, backs facing the human.

“Sans! Oh my god! I’m dizzy. What am I looking at?”

“Behold.”

They turn back. The human stares at the two of them, looking quite bored.

“Oh my god!” Papyrus turns to Sans. “Why are you telling me to look at a rock?”

“Hey, what’s that in front of  the   rock…?” Sans trails off as the human walks up to them as if they’re trying to get past. Papyrus looks again and is startled by how close the human has gotten. He stumbles backwards.

“Oh my god!!! A moving rock!”

“Uh, well, no. It’s not a rock.”

“Not a rock..?” Papyrus thinks for a moment. “Oh no!!! By process of elimination, that means it’s a human!!!” He readjusts his stance and clears his throat. “Human! Prepare yourself! For high jinks! For low jinks! DANGERS! PUZZLES! CAPERS! JAPERS! BEING CAPTURED!! AND OTHER SORTS OF FUN ACTIVITIES. Refreshments will be provided…IF YOU DARE!!! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!!!”Sans and the human watch as Papyrus walks away laughing. Sans turns to the human.

“..And you don’t even bat an eye, huh?”

He walks off in the same direction as Papyrus, stopping at the electricity maze his brother designed. As he walks around it, he takes out his phone and sends a quick text to Alphys.

“i think the human has something to do with this. keep an eye on those charts”

Alphys texts back, but before Sans could read it..

“Sans! What are you doing?” Startled by Papyrus’s loud voice, Sans fumbles his phone, almost dropping it in the snow. “Why are you on your phone?”

Sans’s phone dings a few more times. “Uh…inspiration?”

“Oh. Wow! What for? It’d better be for your puzzles.”

Sans puts his phone in his pocket. “Actually, it’s for my other job.”

“What, your hot dogs?”

“Exactly. Gotta learn different styles of ‘dog, y’know.”

“If only you put as much effort towards your actual job. Especially now, since there’s an actual human here! Instead, you waste time on your phone looking at god knows what and napping at your station!” 

“Is it wasteful if it’s still productive?”

“What’s productive about lazing around?”

“Hey, it’s not lazy. Just working effortlessly.”

“You’re so lazy!! You were napping all night!!”

“I think that’s called..sleeping.” Sans looks to the side, noticing the human standing there.

“Excuses, excuses.”

Papyrus follows Sans’s gaze and also sees the human. 

“Oh-ho! The human arrives!” He poses dramatically. “In order to stop you, my brother and I have created some puzzles! I think you will find this one…quite shocking!” The human approaches as Papyrus speaks.” For you see, this is…the..invisible…Uhhhhhhh…?”

The human stands in the middle of the maze, staring the skeletons down. Papyrus’s pose wavers.

“Hmmm…you must be having culture shock.” He rebuilds his stance. “You see, where I come from, it’s a loving tradition to suffer through horrible puzzles for no reason.”

 Papyrus wavers as the human approaches again. “So, uh, just walk back there, and…”

The human stands face to face with Papyrus. They’re close enough for Sans to notice their expression. Are they waiting for something to happen? He thinks. Papyrus sighs.

“Why couldn’t we get a human that likes puzzles?” He walks away, dejected. Sans turns to the human.

“It would make my brother happy if you played along.”

The human walks away, seemingly disappointed. Once they’re far enough away, Sans teleports to Papyrus who is sulking.

“Hey, you good?”

“..This is not how I thought this would go. I hoped that the human would at least try!”

Sans shrugs.”I dunno, maybe it’s like you said, culture shock. Maybe they’ve never seen a monster before.”

Papyrus’s face lights up. ”Of course! The human is so surprised to see someone so cool for the first time that they can’t even focus!”

“Exactly.” Sans points up the path. “Look, one of my puzzles is up ahead. We could try that on the human.”

“Yes! Great!” Papyrus runs off up the path, a newfound spring in his step. Sans watches him go as his phone dings again. His smile wavers as he reads the messages. 

“Omg. Omg. OMG! The human is..They’re killing everyone!”

There is also another video. It shows Alphys’s camera feed following the human as they dust monster after monster. The last bit of the video, Sans notices, has him and Papyrus in the background. Sans looks up and sees the human moving down the path up ahead. He puts his phone away with a sigh, then teleports ahead of them, behind Papyrus.

“Where did you come from,” Papyrus asks,  hearing the crunch of the snow behind him.

“Took a shortcut.”

Papyrus hears the human approaching and turns to them. “Human! I hope you’re ready for…” He stops, finally taking a good look at the “puzzle” before him. “Sans! Where’s the puzzle?!”

Sans points to the paper in the snow. “It’s right there. On the ground. Trust me. There’s no way they’ll skip this one…”

The human walks right past both the puzzle and the brothers.

“Sans!!! That did nothing!” Papyrus complains, pointing to the paper.

“Whoops, knew I should have put down junior jumble instead.”

“What? Junior Jumble?” Papyrus is surprised, but relieved. “Finally, something we can both agree on.” Papyrus walks down the path, waving to the human as he passes them. Sans stares at the human, watching their actions.

There’s no way they have that much determination.

The human reaches for something Sans can’t see, but he hears the sound of whatever they did. They appear satisfied with something. Sans teleports ahead on the path as the human walks away, but lands in the treeline. He thinks he’s close enough to Papyrus’s next puzzle, so he just walks. His phone dings again.

“Sans, what should we do??? The guards haven’t been able to stop them yet!”

Sans stops to think for a moment.

“best bet is to get the word out to everyone about the human”

“We should probably evacuate them.”

“oh yeah. good call. u do that”

“Ok. What are you going to do?”

Sans turns to the unsolved puzzle behind him. It’s one of Papyrus’s favorites.

“well, i know papyrus really wants to try to capture this kid, so im going to make sure everything goes well”

Sans hears the puzzle behind him get set off. Thinking the human is solving them, he takes a look. But nobody’s there. Approaching the puzzle, Sans can see that all of the buttons are depressed with vines. Oh, of course. Snow crunches nearby and Sans barely gets a glimpse of the human approaching before teleporting away to where Papyrus is. Though, Papyrus doesn’t seem to notice as he is fiddling with the machine meant to operate his next puzzle. 

“Whatcha doin’ bro?”

“Recalibrating, like you should’ve done.”

“Ok.”

“I’m just making sure that the puzzle operates as dastardly as possible. We can’t have the human skipping this one!”

“Uh..you sure you wanna keep trying with this whole “human” thing? They don’t seem to be interested.”

“Nonsense! We just haven’t found the right one for them! Though, they could just be tired, what with their weird shambling. However, this puzzle should wake them up! They may even find it quite shocking!” He boasts, before taking a second to think. “Wait, I already used that joke…” Papyrus looks up and sees the human standing before the puzzle. He stands.

“Hey! It’s the human!” The human doesn’t care and walks onto the puzzle as Papyrus continues. “You’re gonna love this puzzle. It was made by the great…” Papyrus’s posture collapses, “Are you serious?” He turns to Sans. “Sans! Help!!” He gestures towards the human. “They keep walking through my puzzles! They’re supposed to let me explain them. Then threaten and baffle them with dangerous japes!”

Sans shrugs, “Well, maybe they don’t like japes.”

“Everyone likes japes!”

“What about Undyne? Doesn’t she hate puzzles?”

“She hates puzzles, but she loves japes!”

“That makes sense.”

Papyrus turns to the human, “Human-” The human pushes past him, moving on down the path. Papyrus and Sans look at each other. Papyrus runs after the human, but Sans stays put. He watches as Papyrus catches up to the human, talks with them briefly about something, then hands them the instructions to the puzzle, walking off when the human takes them. Sans takes a moment to send a message to Alphys.

“hey, i think everyone’s favorite flower is helping the human”

There’s no response. Sans considers sending his next thought as a text.

“Nah, I don’t feel like typing all of that.” He hits the voice record button. “So, I’m working on a theory.” He walks as he talks.

“We know that humans have the capacity to possess determination, and that we have observed this power to have some control over time itself. That, and all of these timeline issues just started popping up today along with instances of deja vu. Call me crazy, but I think this human is the cause of all of these anomalies, or even is the anomaly themselves.” Sans reaches the bridge and sees Papyrus on the other side, reaching at something under the bridge. He stops for a moment. “Not entirely sure how they’ve got more determination than Flowey, but whatever they plan on doing, I’ll keep an eye socket out for.” With that, Sans sends the message and puts his phone away and crosses the bridge. As he does, he notices all of the traps and dangers. Papyrus noticed him noticing them.

“Do you think this is too little?”

“No, this should work. Though, why is there a dog? I don’t think they’re allergic.”

Papyrus grumbles. “It’s not part of the trap. I needed it out of the way because it won’t leave me alone!” The dog barks at him and Papyrus stands, stomping his foot and pointing a stern finger at the animal. “YOU CAN’T COME DOWN UNLESS YOU PROMISE TO STOP MESSING WITH MY ATTACKS!!!” The dog barks again. Sans walks up to his brother.

“I don’t think he understands you.”

“He understands enough to know what he’s doing!” Papyrus sees the human approaching and readies the trap. The human stops in the middle of the bridge. The perfect spot.

“Human! This is your final and most dangerous challenge! BEHOLD! THE GAUNTLET OF DEADLY TERROR!” The trap lowers before the human. Papyrus holds the start button. “When I say the word, it will fully activate!!! Cannons will fire! Spikes will swing! Blades will slice! Each part will swing violently up and down! Only the tiniest chance of victory will remain!!! Are you ready!? Because! I! Am! About! To do it!” Papyrus’s finger hovers over the button. 

The human stares deadpan at him. Sans turns to Papyrus.

“Well? what’s the holdup?”

“Holdup? What holdup? I’m…I’m about to activate it now!”

The human continues to stare. Papyrus’s stance breaks down. Sans stares at the trap.

“That, uh, doesn’t look very activated.”

“Well…they’re probably going to walk through it. And it won’t be any fun at all.”

“Hmmm…so this human thing was a bust, huh?”

“Well, I mean, I’m excited to capture them so I’ll become a famous royal guardsman! But all the time I put into these puzzles, it’s kind of like throwing a birthday party…”

“Without traps and fire?”

“Exactly!! It’s pointless!!!” Papyrus sighs, “Maybe you were right to be lazy about puzzles.”

Sans looks at his brother, surprised. “Me? Right about something? Really?”

Papyrus thinks for a moment. “Yeah!! What am I saying! You’re still completely wrong!” His face is lit up. “I just have the wrong audience! Think about how much fun Undyne would have here! Flames, violence. It’s right up her alley!” He turns back to the human. “So I won’t waste this puzzle on you. I just have to appreciate the friend I already have!!!” The trap disappears. “Phew.” Papyrus strikes a pose. “A valuable life lesson!!!” He walks away laughing, the refound spring in his step. Sans watches him go as the human crosses the rest of the bridge. They stop and stare at Sans for a moment. Sans stares back.

“Hmmm…guess we didn’t need your help to have a good time after all.” He pauses for a moment, noting the increase in dust and their empty expression. “Say, I’ve been thinking. Seems like you’re gonna fight my brother pretty soon. Here’s some friendly advice. If you keep going the way you are now…” He pauses again, closing his eyes, then reopening them, his eyes turned to empty blackness. 

“You’re gonna have a bad time.”

Sans teleports away, leaving the human by the bridge alone. He goes into town and goes from house to house, making sure that everyone who is still evacuating can do so safely and out of view of the human. Once everyone is, Sans goes to his own home and throws some things into a bag, mostly Papyrus’s things as he doesn’t need much. Once ready, he slings the bag over his shoulder and walks to the end of Snowdin, hoping he got there before the human. But no one was there. Sans looked around, thinking that Papyrus was hiding somewhere nearby. Surprise attack, maybe? His foot sinks into something soft. Something unlike snow. Sans looks down at his foot and sees the powdery gray against the snow.

Dust. Papyrus’s dust.

Next---https://www.tumblr.com/ask-aidtale/723937991398162432/aidtale-origins-chapter-2?source=share

[aimeecarreros]

hey! what app/website do you use to make your gifs? I have been wanting to make my own.

hi anon! pleased you asked! sorry it took longer for me to answer, creating gifs involves several steps to explain and i couldn't get into the right headspace to reply until now. i make my gifs on desktop and i use photoshop cs5 for its specific sharpening results (read more here). here's my step by step process in making gifs :

(btw this tutorial is under the assumption that you're making your gifs on desktop)

Step 1: frames - you need to have a video player to get your frames. i use potplayer (but honestly you can use other applications that can capture frames). next you click CTRL+G on your keyboard and this window will show up:

these are my usual settings. i set the file type to PNG for high resolution. always set the image size to original, you can customize the size later when you edit on photoshop.

so you can capture every frame and the movement doesn't seem choppy, set it to "every # ms (millisecond)."

to capture frames make sure you have a folder ready for your frames, then click the "start" button when the scene you want to gif is now playing on potplayer.

Step 2: loading the frames on photoshop you can load your frames in 2 ways but to make this easier i'll explain the DICOM process.

open photoshop, on the top bar click File -> Scripts -> Load Multiple DICOM Files. select the folder that has your frames, then click OK. this is how it will look:

at first there'll be only 1 frame on the animation (frames) window, click the button on the top right end of that window bar, and click Make Frames From Layers.

it will look like this afterwards

click the play button below and watch how the scene plays out first to check if it's moving normally or it's playing in reverse. if it plays in reverse, click the top right button again on your animation window -> Reverse Frames.

once the frames are loaded and the scene is playing naturally, click the Convert To Timeline Animation button on the lower right of the animation window

it will look like this afterwards

next, go to the layers window, click the first layer -> Shift key -> scroll down -> select the last layer -> right click -> Convert to Smart Object. this compresses all the layers in that window to one layer, so it sharpens all layers all at once

Step 3: cropping and resizing your gif - select the crop tool, and set your cropping settings to pixels. always set them to pixels so the cropping and image size is set automatically for your gif.

this is what your gif will look like when it's cropped and set to pixels:

this is what the gif looks like if it's cropped to centimeters

i crop my gifs according to tumblr's dimensions; 268px width if it's a 2 gifs side by side, and 540px if the gifs are in landscape. i highly suggest following these width measurements so your gif looks precise and in good quality especially if your gif set layout is 2 by 2. PLUS the way you crop your gifs also add up to the size of the file.

additionally, when adjusting the starting time, you just need to drag the arrow (in the timeline window down below) to the part you want the gif to start with.

Step 4: sharpening your gif on the top bar of photoshop click Filter -> Sharpen -> Smart Sharpen. here's my sharpen settings for example

for sharpen settings i usually stick with the basic setting. rarely do i edit the sharpness with the advanced setting.

now it terms of how you sharpen your gifs depends on the quality of the footage you're working with. if the footage looks a little blurry or the outlines look soft, increase the the amount level.

like this one, unsharpened gif (left) vs sharpened 500 amount and 0.04 radius (right)

now this one is if you check Most Accurate while still using the same amount and radius levels

compared to when you don't set it to Most Accurate, the gif's outline isn't that rough. instead it looks smoother and the sharpness is just the right amount.

but like i said earlier your sharpen settings depend on the video's quality. take this clip for example, this one is 2160p 4k

there's a difference between footage that is 1080p from one that is 2160p in quality even before you sharpen them.

even in sharpening settings. i'm using the same settings for the previous example but now it just looks too sharp:

now here, i adjusted the amount levels to 159, radius is 0.04, set it to most accurate setting. this is how it looks now. again my tip is to use just the right amount of sharpness.

Step 5: COLORING TIME in the adjustments window, you can start tweaking with the lighting and color settings you want for your gif

Step 6: saving your gif - click Alt + Shift + CTRL+S on your keyboard and this window will pop up

make sure to set the looping options to Forever.

always set your colors to 265

in terms of the settings, it depends on your preference, my settings are always set to adaptive and pattern because that's what works for me, personally. but again you're free to play around with what works for you (read more for additional tips on the settings for saving your gif).

check the size description on the left corner when you start saving your gif:

if you're posting your gif on tumblr, you have to follow the size limit. so far the size limit that is allowed is up to 9mb. if you save your gif and the size reaches 10mb and above that's already too big.

when that happens it's because there are too many frames in the gif, you have plenty of coloring layers, and like i mentioned the dimensions you set for cropping your gif applies to the file size.

Step 7: gif time delay - with the DICOM method, you save the gifs first before opening them again on photoshop in order to edit the time delay.

open the GIF file -> select all frames -> right click on your frames in the animation bar -> other -> set it to 0.05 secs -> always set the time delay to Forever

always set your gif's time frame before you post your gif!

usually when you open your gif to edit the time delay it's automatically set to 0.03 seconds.

don't leave it like that ❌❌❌

i seriously suggest setting it to 0.05 so the movement plays out naturally, like this:

if your gif still moves slow/fast at 0.05 you can just play around with the time settings until you see that the gif plays out nicely. just never too fast or too slow

once you've set up the time delay of your gif click Alt + Shift + CTRL+S again to save, and you're done!

if you have any more questions or this tutorial was complicated, feel free to ask!

[krokaxe]

do you have any advise on stopping copying? its happened to me too but i dont want to lock my accounts or delete my work

Assuming you mean other people copying your work? Don't delete anything. Leave a distinct timeline of your work around.

If you want to stop material from being immediately accessible, you can make posts private (at least on Tumblr). It's what I do to keep my work around— so I can access it Immediately if plagiarism continues after its been hidden— across the board. That way I can make posts public and reblog for visibility if the need arises; it keeps the original dates there for reference.

This is going to be long so I'll put the rest under the cut.

I have a lot of posts set to private and fics archived to prevent my material from being ripped off that way. However, if you have DMs/conversations with people where you discuss the work that they're copying, make a record of it. Screenshot and do a video screen grab. You might have to do a long scroll if it's on the likes of Tumblr or Discord, but it's better to have a cohesive reel of the conversation for the sake of transparency.

Now, unfortunately people who copy other people's work don't often take kindly to being called out. It depends on the severity. The only reason I haven't named people directly is because I'd rather simply present the compiled Evidence to those who point it out to me.

However, if it continues— or travels further into the audacity zone— I will simply make an accessible list with compiled evidence. I strongly suggest you make 'case files' for yourself in much the same way.

In the era of call out posts being made to wage attacks over arguments, stick to the facts. As much as it is a personal matter, I'd suggest keeping any personal commentary out of it. It's easier to digest as X + Y = Z.

The thing about plagiarism is to remember a lot of people are desperate for internet clout. Like, deranged levels of equating numbers/attention to success. We all want attention for our work— hence we post anywhere at all— but the apparent need to be First and The Person Who Does The Thing is pretty blatant amidst those who would rather rip off others than put in the work.

Being good at anything requires effort— a willingness to put time and energy into learning. People who copy don't do that. They want rewards and validation; they're not doing what they do for creative integrity.

Block evasion is something you will likely be facing, given these sorts don't be like to be told no. Unfortunately there's not much we can do about that— it's not like people who steal directly from others will give a fuck about set boundaries.

So, in short:

Compile evidence: your work vs the copied work. Links, screenshots, video grabs etc. A timeline is your best bet for relaying plagiarism. If you need help compiling easy to understand comparisons, you'll have to DM me off anon. I won't be doing that publicly because it would only be used for avoidance purposes lmao.

Block the offending parties across the board. Including from any sideblogs and the like.

Don't delete your work! You can hide posts/archive most things now. You may need it to reference back to.

Don't stop creating. People will Always do this one way or another; don't drop what you love to do just because there's people who are so entitled as to try and take advantage, yk?

As I've said before, people who plagiarise aren't doing what they do because they want to join in. It's an entitlement issue— they want what they perceive to be a Reward without bothering to work for it. There's no joy in that.

I truly have no time for people who plagiarise lmao. Just remember that it says a lot about them as people.

@krokaxe self tag for rb purposes

[writtenbygicel]

why social media detoxing matters

Whether we post pictures, videos, or simple messages social media is the main source of platform we use in order to do so. It’s especially beneficial when we communicate with friends or loved ones who live overseas; and is even more beneficial today as we live through the covid-19 pandemic where everyone is obligated to stay at home and maintain a distance from others when needed to go out.

I actually recall the first time I’ve created a social media account. As I remember it, it was for a now closed social media network called Friendster. I was in 4th grade and it was the very first time I was exposed to the various functions of a social media website. In fact, I remember being so fascinated at how we could change the appearance of the profile backgrounds and the ability for friends to comment on your profiles.

I also recall January 2010 when I first created my Twitter account. At a young age, I liked the idea of writing (short stories, poems, journaling, fanfiction, or just simply writing out my thoughts) and when I found that the main thing you’d be doing on Twitter is to write out thoughts or status updates or anything similar to that, I was excited to use it; and to this day I still find myself using the social media site often.

All that being said, however, social media also has its downsides. It’s become second nature to use the platform as an inherent outlet to express toxicity and criticism.

Years ago, it was all just a lot of wholesome content wherein people can share their thoughts and bits of their lives to others. Now it’s become a place full of hatred and self-entitlement, where people are always cancelling out anyone who has a different perspective on a certain topic instead of educating them; and because we are constantly exposed to those kind of things, we tend to feel drained immediately even if the hate or judgment isn’t directly being thrown at us. Dissapointing as it may seem, it doesn’t have to always be that way.

There’s a term called “social media detox” wherein you spend at least one day (or some days) completely not using any social media. I’ve been doing social media detoxing for a while now and it’s been so refreshing for me as it allows me to take my time to relax and shift my focus back to the present moment and just stop overthinking. I find that when I spend too much time scrolling on my timeline, I tend to overthink as I get a glimpse of other people’s posts or thoughts. As someone who’s struggling with mental health, it’s really important for me to take the time to do a social media detox at least once a week. Nevertheless, I personally believe that social media can still become a better place for people to communicate and express themselves without being cancelled out. I just wish people would learn to understand and love others more, only criticizing when it’s proper to do so (and not on every single post or person). I also highly encourage anyone who’s reading this to do social media detoxing as well. It’s going to be a bit difficult to not look at social media and scroll through your timeline but I hope that you’ll take on this challenge and see the positive difference in how you feel emotionally and mentally. Plus, you’d be able to do other much more relaxing and productive things when you do this.