#i'll probably watch some videos to distract myself

[radellama]

Picky but.. when watching a docco/docco style video, while it can be interesting to hear about how you ended up in contact with certain relevant people, or how there were plans to contact people that fell through, or that you couldn't get in contact with them... I hate when the filmmaker harps on and on about their 'investigative' process and try to dramatise it.

Sorry but. I don't really want a 15-20+ min detour of you lamenting over trying to get in contact with certain people when all that's happened is you sent an email and didn't get a reply.

[snapscube]

hey penny!! i hope you're doing good :] not sure if you're looking for any feedback right now for midnight snap so if this message is unwarranted then no hard feelings at all <3 maybe it's just me and tbh it's hard for me to tell bc it's probably subjective, but as someone who's particularly sensitive to sound it sometimes feels like your voice gets lost in certain game music in your videos. i've listened both on mobile and on desktop and i think it's worse on desktop, more comfortable on mobile (for some reason). like, i find myself straining to hear you and pretty often i need to pause to take breaks because i get easily overstimulated. it's definitely not sfx that get me, just background music you know??? i especially noticed it in your freddi fish video around the start of the second game, but it's in other videos too like when you played animal crossing. it isn't too bad though tbh, still overall a super cozy series and i'm grateful you're still doing it!! if everything stays the same, i'll still watch it. i'd really love to know what you think and if you can confirm if anyone else has said something like this, i wonder if there's any merit to what i'm saying cause i just wanna help ^^;

i appreciate the feedback! i'll admit i'm still definitely trying to nail down the sound mixing of Midnight Snap. there's a LOT that goes into it between recording environment, VST setups for my live microphone effects, post-processing effects when it makes it to the actual edit timeline, etc. also admittedly this is a genre of content i'm still relatively new to making (never dabbled in asmr or anything) and though it's easy to put out a super long video normally and have people say its good for sleeping as a fun side effect, actually trying to make something FROM THE GROUND UP for relaxation comes with a lot of consideration i'm still not quite specialized in yet haha, especially with how long the breaks have been up to now. none of this is meant to handwave ur issues btw im taking everything into account here, just wanted to explain why its somewhat in flux right now!

my approach for the last few episodes of the show has been to heavily compress the dynamics of the audio, which might contribute to what ur dealing with here. although at the end of the day there's not much i can do to anticipate literally every individual user's listening conditions cause there's gonna be sooo much variance there. i can definitely try to put more focus on maybe separating the heaviest frequences of the voice track vs the game track though. as it stands i tend to cut back on the high frequencies a lot in both cases cause i personally just find higher frequencies a lot more distracting and harsh and to me what ends up sounding soothing is a very smooth and rumbly kind of profile. but of course audio mixing is all about balance so i'll see how i can maybe dial that in a little more distinctly! hopefully as i continue to standardize what editing software i use for the show as well as how it's recorded i can do more to brush out any remaining issues in the sound design :) thanks again!

[feyspeaker]

Hiii! Gosh, I love your work SO MUCH. You recently mentioned in an answer to someone that you have ADHD and because of that, you have lots of rituals for your work in order to stay focused. May I ask what your routine is? I have struggled for years and years as a working artist to control or harness my adhd, and I would love to hear what works for you!! Thank you so much for even reading this :)))

Hi there!! Thank you so much. ♥

I'm probably a terrible person to give advice, because I absolutely do NOT have a handle on my ADHD. I often feel like I'm drowning in it, as I'm sure a lot of other people in the same situation can commiserate with. A lot of my issues are exacerbated by my agoraphobia and anxiety, but I won't go too into that stuff because I am not really in a place to talk about that aspect of my life so much. I do think I've become more aware of it as I have gotten older and am definitely better at managing it than I was when I was younger. Also to start off, I'm not medicated for it.

First and foremost, I tend to need to overstimulate myself in order to get down to painting, though this is only so effective. I play really loud, very noisy music when I work. Angelspit, Combichrist, The Gazette, etc. Heavy electronic, industrial, nu metal kind of stuff. It helps drown out my thoughts so I can focus on painting. I need to Not Think to be able to paint. I have to already know I'm in flow state on something and really into it if I'm going to be playing mellower stuff.

I also like to play youtube videos or shows on things I'm currently fixated on. Like I'll watch nothing but videos on Welsh folklore or horse training or whatever the hell. I really struggle with listening to audiobooks or podcasts because they aren't engaging enough.

I have parental controls on my computer set up so that I can block out any distracting websites, however this is really not super helpful because I have to keep social media open at all times as it's part of my job to manage those things. It does help some though. It might work for you! They make browser extensions for it.

I try to keep momentum on pieces. I can't let a piece sit for more than a few days, or I know it's time to bin it and give up. I either hyperfixate on a painting until it's done, or it's not good enough and it's going to be like an anchor dragging my momentum down. The second I feel momentum waning I know I need to make a change. I've made huge changes to how I take commissions in order to help me with this, as this is my biggest struggle. I hate sending updates on things, waiting for emails, painting things I'm not super invested in, etc. I recognize that I am incredibly blessed/lucky to be in a position to be a little pickier about the work I take on and how I take it. But I do firmly believe in general that a commission based artist should try to make sure they are doing work they enjoy and not just slogging away on something that they don't vibe with at all. That's good advice for anyone, but I do think that us folk with ADHD tend to feel burnout and artblock harder. I know when I have artblock literally NOTHING can get me to paint, so that's why momentum is so important.

I also try to recognize things that I know are going to trigger me into avoiding what I need to do for the day, or causing me to spiral. For example, if I know I need to make a phone call I try to do that first if at all possible, otherwise I am going to end up not getting anything done for the next 6 hours. If I know I'm going to have to have to leave the house for an appointment or something scheduled, I typically just let that day be a wash and don't plan any work for it. I end up physically ill when I have something I have to go out and do (like going to some appointment or even something small like going to pick something up off of FB marketplace) so I try to just Avoid That, but if I can't I will just clear my schedule for the day.

I try to maximize my Good Days by minimizing things that trigger my procrastination/lack of motivation/distractions. But when I have bad days I just try not to beat myself up about it. (Still do, but I'm trying to get better.)

The worst thing is letting a whole day be wasted sitting there, knowing the time is passing. Knowing that there is something you should be doing, but you're not doing it. Knowing that you don't want to be doing that thing, and that you'd rather be playing a game or painting something else. But not doing that either. And before you know it, the sun is setting and you've done no work AND had no fun and it's time for bed. Ugh, I've had so many days like that.

It's important to recognize when that is happening, and to just say "fuck it" and go do the fun thing you want to do instead of toiling for hours in indecision. That's probably bad advice for people who have poor responsibility skills (like actually making sure to get work done on the good days) but I am saying this in good faith. Sometimes when that happens I'll let myself go bake a bunch of bread or obsessively clean a cabinet out so I still feel like I did something that day. Next day, I try to do better.

I don't know if this is helpful at all- I know people with ADHD have a lot of different experiences/tendencies, but this is what helps me. I slipped a lot after my dad's cancer diagnosis several years ago and felt myself really just completely letting go into the ADHD time void because my thoughts and worries were so loud I couldn't drown them out with all the screamo in the world. I started fixating on BG3 really hard near the end, and it's absolutely responsible for me being Okay artistically and emotionally speaking after his passing last month. I think difficult situations can make our symptoms worse, and to an extent we have to ride the wave and be kind to ourselves.

That's perhaps my closing thought- be patient and kind to yourself. Our brains don't really work right but it can be a blessing in that I think the flow state we are capable of is really something otherwordly. So try to identify what helps trigger that in you and foster it.

[box-off]

ok do it talk about tf2 and postal

You asked for it.

Okay, let's start with tf2. Tf2 is one of the best games EVER in my opinion, and it's not a really trustworthy one, but it's an opinion. I love everything from character design to the community to the game itself. The comics which make me want to explode from how well the character design goes both for 3d and 2d, and the silly world that the characters live in. It's like some kind of wonderland, but it's made for a fps gamer. The first thing that made me interested in tf2 was my friend talking about it, he sent me the "Meet the spy" video and a fan made animation. I remember seeing it and thinking "Wow, those guys look cool", and when I started learning more I REALLY wanted to play as scout (who I still main to this day). I obviously knew about tf2 before but never got too interested in it. But when I started playing oh wow it sucked me in. Tf2 made me have a big standard for character design, thanks to tf2 I never watched Hazbin Hotel or Helluva Boss (no matter how hard my friends tried to make me watch it), because oh how distracting those designs were for me. Whenever I think about good character design it's the tf2 mercs, they made me realize that the characters don't have to have 300 cool guns on them to point at the character and say "THIS GUY IS COOL!", you can make simple characters that are still catchy and easy to remember and recognize, and even get to understand their main purpose from just a glance. It's even better to make them simple in some cases! (In general valve games have good designs, but tf2 stands out a lot, at least for me). The game itself always makes me feel good, surprisingly it can be relaxing if you don't get too into the competitive mood and have the luck to get normal teammates. Yes, I might be a casual player, but I'm free. Don't get me started on the amount of playing styles tho. I'm not really good at them, I always go with scout, hop around and do my shit. I do play medic in MvM tho, I just really like to have a huge shield and be like "I'll protect you", idk, it's probably the furry alpha wolf speaking in me. But in normal game, oh what a blessing it is sometimes to have a really skilled demoknight, or a good rocket jumper in your team. Or a good spy who saves the day when the engineers build their nest right over the corner, or a medic that manages to heal everyone and not die 100 times in the process. I barely talk in chat in the game (because it's distracting), but know that if you play good and I'm in your team I'm thanking you constantly in my mind. Let me add that I joined the fandom when the bots where still there so I played with them a lot. Now that this is getting fixed it's even more fun! But I managed to fall in love with this half broken game and I'm sorry, that's a big fucking gold medal for a game, if it can still pull fans while being abandoned (hopefully that changes, but it's still impressive).

Now about Postal. I am edgy. Let me be real, if you saw my art you can probably tell that I do like myself some guts and blood from time to time. And I like humor, I like to laugh, to chuckle, to snicker if you will. So me liking Postal was just a matter of time. First game I played was Brain Damaged, and oh boy, the humor was good (even tho some things I missed because I didn't play the other games). As I got deeper into other games I was so IN. Those games are just so much FUN. I like fps games if you couldn't tell, and this? This is the fps game ever, it has some fun stuff to do, you of course can shoot, you can just walk around and explore in postal 2 and 4, and it's worth it! I love exploring those games, they always have some silly stuff here and there. And what they did well in Postal 4 is that they made you explore, they hid dolls, gnomes and all that stuff all over the map, and you can explore it, not just because, but you can actually get something for it. And let me be honest, Postal Dude? Hot. He's hot, and as a dirty stinky gay man myself I appreciate the representation. But jokes aside, HE'S A GOOD CHARACTER. I love him, it's interesting to watch what he does, to hear what he says, in all the games btw, yes, even postal 3. The character design again? Really well done. Postal Dude is simple, Postal Dude is cool, he's not your stereotypical "Cool guy who kills people with huge armor on" or "The buff guy who fights everyone with bare hands" (except Shtopor, that guy is fucking RIPPED.) When I look at Doomguy? I think "Damn, you're cool." when I look at Postal Dude?? I think "Damn man, you're probably stink", and you know what? THAT'S THE CHARM OF THIS CHARACTER. He sucks! You know where he sucks even more than in the game? The movie, and you have NO IDEA how much I love it. The movie is bad, like, not just because "it doesn't represent the characters as they are in the game" but because it's a bad movie. Just as a movie it's not really well done. But! I still love it. It's a movie that is fun to watch with your friends, you laugh at how bad it is, you just have a blast, at least me and my friends did. And I have the bluray disk, so I have the behind the scenes and all that cool stuff, and you know what? It made me like this shit even more. I really wish I could play more Postal with people, and not just that, I'm also waiting for Postal 4 co-op, and some of my friends getting the game as well. Because in my opinion Postal is that type of game that has to be shown to your friends in a "Hey guys, look at this stupid game I found, isn't it so random??" way. I talked a lot about Postals funny part, yes, but I do have to also mention that Postal 1 is rally good. And yes, postal redux is just Postal 1 with a bit better graphics, but I do like it in a way (mainly because of the better quality of the loading screens, because those are just so good. I really like the artistic part of this game). Funny postal? It's good, I love funny postal. But without creepy postal there wouldn't be some stuff in the funny postal that we like so much. Other Dude? The head wound making everything look strange? I don't really think we would have that in newer postal games without postal 1!

[jovenshires]

You’ve probably been asked this before but what’s like your fanfic writing process?? Like how do you end up writing your fanfictions?

i actually haven't but i'd be happy to talk about it!! i'm actually writing fic right now, so here's what i've done in the past like. hour. im gonna put it under the cut bc its EXTREMELY long but if you ever wanted 'katie's guide to fic writing,' here it is!

i'm pretty easily distracted, so i've gotta make sure i'm in like. The Right Conditions. that means phone face down or away if i can (rn i've got to be on call in case my boss needs smth but you get the gist) bc i WILL just open tiktok or play a mobile game. even just now writing this answer i have picked up my phone and opened pinterest. i cannot be stopped so i try to stay off it and put it down when i catch myself!!

more and more often i cant even listen to music while i write - partly bc i tend to read my work aloud to myself to make sure it sounds right and partly bc my brain will be like "you know this song omg the words are in your brain" or "you should go look at what song this is bc you kinda like it". cannot trust myself even with sound. if i AM listening to music while i write, it's either the specific playlist for that fic, playlists with the right vibes (ex: rivals-to-lovers for iwks), OR anime openings bc. less likely to get distracted when it's not in english tbh.

(huge on all of the senses so i also usually have a candle lit. im super sensitive to smells so if there's an unpleasant smell somewhere around me i will be unable to focus <3)

all that being said about distractions, i think it's important to take breaks - dont just FORCE yourself to write. that's why i'm huge on setting goals for myself - deadlines, word count goals, timed breaks. like "okay im gonna sprint write for 10 minutes and then after that ill watch some of this danny gonzalez video" or "i'll write until 3:30 and then i should go take a break and read a book." im not always faithful to my goals but i try my best!!

as for the actual writing itself, i typically just go for it. i can usually see an image in my mind and i try my best to write that out/describe it as best i can. and then if it sounds wrong i just reword it again and again until i've got it. this is kind of where my reading aloud bit comes in - if it sounds right when you say it out loud, that generally means it sounds right in the text.

sometimes i'll just have a certain scene or just scraps of dialogue and i'll write that out and be like "okay how did they get here." i never embraced writing out of order until recently, but now that i have. no going back tbh i highly recommend it. rwylm and iwks especially had scenes WAY later down the line that i wrote first. just write what comes naturally and go from there.

occasionally i do outlines, but not super often, and when i do they're vague as hell. i think a lot of my iwks outline was just "game" and then "another game but tommy is there this time." i think outlines that go too in-depth kind of take away from the freedom of writing so. if it's for you then slay but its usually not for me

i try not to worry too hard about. the style/grammar/little things as i go. of course im guilty of this and i'll stop and edit my own works along the way sometimes but i've found it's best if you keep writing and then go back later!!

sometimes when i'm writing a new smosh cast member i'll go back and watch videos/compilations of them just to reorient my brain. i've done this a lot with chanse recently!! but i also think. it really isn't that deep too NSDKFNKNK like these are fictionalized versions of fictionalized selves and so on and so forth so don't worry about 'voice' too much im trying to kick that habit myself

EDIT: oh i've talked about this before but. as for ideas/where my fic ideas come from?? i truly try to grab from my every day life. oh i went to the grocery store today? what if smosh member a and smosh member b went to the grocery store. i watched a horror movie and you know who else could do that. otherwise i pull from music/movies/tv shows/other media and be like 'this but for smosh.' i really just be pulling from my life and repackaging it thats all. start small (haircut fic) and work your way up (homoerotic soccer epic)!

and i think that's it?? i'd like to think im pretty chill about the whole thing. (read: i am not chill in any way at all but im trying my best.) anyway, it's something i'm always happy to talk about - thank you for asking!!

[matrixxsystem]

Terrapin Soup Part 9 (6/7)

"Easy love, I'll help. Just tell me what to do." Leo smiled a little more, finally able to take a breath and calm down a bit with Usagi's reassurance. April and Donnie didn't know what they were talking about, they had nothing to worry about. And so what he ate people, that was nothing dangerous compared to some of the fucked up things villains have done, even Draxum who was like their weird step-dad did some pretty fucked up things, including attempted genocide! So who cares if his boyfriend ate some bad guys.. Isn't that what recycling is? He's not a killer he's an environmentalist! Leo got all the tools he needed and set them on a roller table, sitting himself on the bed not too far from Hyo so Usagi wouldn't be too far incase he woke up. He'd most likely sleep through the night but he still didn't want to make his boyfriend any more anxious about it then he was already. "Here, I marked where it should be, all you gotta do is cut it out, I'll give myself a lil adrenaline shot to stop the bleeding, then you stitch it up and well be good to go. Should only take.. Maybe five minutes?" Usagi nodded and grabbed the small knife on the tray after unwrapping his arms, "Y'know, I've never done this on someone who's alive, so make sure to let me know if I hurt you." Leo nodded, "I just.. Can't believe he'd spy on me, what if he heard something I didn't want him to or something private! I just- What else has he been doing without me knowing?" Usagi nodded and gently grabbed Leo's arm, pressing his fingers against his muscles trying to pinpoint where it was exactly to make sure he didn't hurt anything else. Once he felt the small bump under his skin he tugged his arm out further and glanced to Leo a last time, "Ready then? You may continue to vent, it may help keep your mind distracted." Leo nodded glancing to the knife then back up to him, "Yeah, I'll be fine, I mean you know the kinda stuff I used to do to myself so I can handle this. Besides, maybe if you kissed it better I'd be more inclined to sit still for you~" Usagi rolled his eyes and pressed the knife against Leos inner arm, "Well if you want fewer stiches try not to move anyway." He stopped talking as he started to concentrate, glancing between the incision and Leo's expression to make sure he was actually alright and not just trying to be brave. Leo however wasn't paying much attention, he was looking back at Usagi's expression. "I can feel it in there, what now?" Leo at first didn't respond, too busy fawning over his boyfriends features but soon snapped out of it and looked back, "Right- Uh you can use those uh.. Tongs? And grab it. If it feels stuck you can probably cut it out but I don't think it'll be too hard to get." Usagi nodded doing as told, the faint smell of blood rising making his nose twitch. Leo held back a chuckle as he watched him work, there was of course a small amount of pain but it was well over shadowed by everything else distracting him. Like his cute boyfriend doing his little nose twitch as he sorted through the small line of tools. Once Usagi got a hold of the device and carefully pulled it out he set it on the tray, studying it for a moment, it was about the same size as a grain or rice. "That's.. Under other circumstances this would be quite intriguing.. The man who invented this technology was in his forties when he first began materializing it. Yet your brother is only near sixteen and fabricating his own… But anyway- The stitches, right, walk me through it." Leo pulled up a video on his phone for a better visual and explained things around the images to help, thanks to the internet it was over and relatively painless. Usagi held Leos arm after the final stitch was in place and as promised, gently pressed his lips above the wound kissing it better. "I'm a little surprised you didn't ask for a bite~"

Part 9.7 Part 1

TS Master Post

[mediocrelanguagelearner]

hello fellow bored at work human <3

can you talk about your language learning journey? why did you start learning each of your target languages?

Thank you so much for distracting me from my boredom!

But uff, what a difficult question :D This could get really long... I'll try to shorten it as much as I can :D I'm listing the languages in a chronological order.

English: (I used to not count English as my target language because it felt like a second nature, but after 3 years of almost not using it, I'm starting to feel like I should dedicate some time to improving it) I had to learn English at school, of course, but it wasn't until I was 12/13 that I started loving it. I discovered a youtuber I loved, watched all of his videos in one summer and on top of this I found a blog of a (Czech) girl I idolised. This girl was very stylish, was interested in japanese fashion, learned Japanese and loved English. She said she constantly thinks in English and so I started trying to do that too. After this one summer I basically became fluent and in love with English. Since that I've been the best and always bored in my English classes, up until uni. But I've barely spoken English in the past 3 years and I feel the command of the language slipping away. I still listen to some videos and podcasts in English, but I don't use the language activelly and I've been trying to give a lot of time to my other languages, so my skills just deteriorate.

German: My relationship with German was complicated. I was forced to learn it since I was 13 and I hated it. I didn't want to learn it, I didn't like the sound of it and I had these weird perjudices about German. It changed only when I found Timothy Doner's video where he speaks a ton of languages. I fell in love with the idea of speaking multiple languages (by that point I'd tried to learn Spanish and maybe Dutch? unsuccessfully). And I thought "well if I have to learn German for another 2,5 years, I could try to like it". I started listening to German music and fell in love with Cro and AnnenMayKantereit (still love them to death!) and I decided to sign up for extra German class (where everyone was way better than me) and to do my high school state exam in German. At uni had a bit of a break with German but eventually took some classes to try to maintain the language. I've learned German for so many years and I still feel very inadequate about my skills (I am especially very embarrassed to speak), but I'm glad I never gave up. German is the language of my country's neighbours and it's such a big part of my country's history, I feel like it's important to know.

Spanish: I've always liked Spanish, the way it sounds. I tried to learn it as a kid for a while but I wasn't really motivated or disciplined enough. Then in 2016 I had the chance to go on help exchange to Spain for a couple of weeks (I picked the country myself, probably because I wanted to learn Spanish anyway) and I started learning Spanish about 3 weeks before going. It was a really nice experience and I loved Spain. I think Spanish is such a pretty and useful language, I really want to know it well, but the grammar is killing me sometimes. I continued learning on my own and then later took 2 or 3 classes in Spanish at uni, mostly to get a better foundation in the grammar and to have someone to talk to, at least for a couple of minutes every week. In my Spanish learning journey I spent a lot of time talking to random hispanohablantes on tandem, which probably wasn't the smartest move because it made me not like the language that much anymore – or at least not be motivated to learn it. When you talk to a lot of people who don't interest you and with whom you have nothing in common, you don't feel like wanting to learn that language anymore. But my relationship with Spanish is better now? I'm trying to work with a textbook and just generally do things that seem fun.

Swedish: When I was young I liked the series "Vikings". They spoke Old Norse there and it sounded like the coolest thing ever so I wanted to learn it. Then I thought it would be smarter to learn a language that is spoken today – so Icelandic, the closest thing to it. But I heard Icelandic has pretty difficult grammar so I thought maybe it would be best to first learn a scandinavian language. I couldn't decide between Norwegian and Swedish, but eventually nice people on tumblr/discord, Jonna Jinton and the fact there was a Swedish teacher at my uni convinced me to try Swedish. That's what I thought going to the first class in 2017 – I'm just going to see if I like it. Well, I fell in love. My teacher was so funny and just a generally good teacher, I had to continue taking the class. I did 3 semesters of Swedish (now, don't think it's a lot – it's still 90 minutes a week with bunch of other people) and did a lot of work at home. I loved the melody, the feeling of the language in my mouth, the teacher, the different but similar culture, the nature... I was so sad I couldn't take another class (too few students signed up and we weren't allowed to continue). Since then I've been learning on my own. I fell so hard for this language and right now I just want to be good at it.

That's the end of my very long post! I bet you didn't expect this when you asked :D Other than these languages I tried to learn (unsuccessfully) Dutch, Croatian and Arabic, but for various reasons had to pause learning them. I still want to learn them.

What is your language learning journey?

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

I decided to ask around on all the fish/ocean blogs I follow: how do you learn more about the ocean?? I love the ocean and I really wanna learn more about my favorite sea creatures and beyond but I have no idea how to get started. Are there documentaries or shows your recommend? How do you go about doing research for fun (the American school system has failed me, go figure)? How do you even remember it all? I crave to learn but where I could possibly start is as vast as the ocean itself.

What a fun question! It is admittedly a bit difficult to go back to the beginning of my ocean-learning days, since I can't remember a time when I wasn't super into water and aquatic things, but I'll try! I think I started learning about oceans through books, I'd read and borrow a lot of fish and marine biology books at the library. I think they're the very best place to look to at first if you struggle with the paralysis of having too many things to do or too many places to look from! Libraries are really good sources of information, but unlike the internet, the resources are finite in some way, they're on physical paper, and tied to the place itself (until you take them home of course!), which at least to me makes it easier to start looking for what I want to know more about. Libraries make it easier for me to read things too, I get very distracted at home. Only when I am in the peace and quiet in between the bookshelves can I focus!

Another place that was no doubt a source of learning for me was natural history museums and aquariums. I was (..am) obsessed with the Finnish Museum of Natural History specifically, it was a must-visit every time we went to the capital city area up until the pandemic. Aquariums we went to less so, but the education they provide there is a gem! Sometimes you can even talk to an employee if you're lucky enough and learn extra bits of information about things. Not always free like libraries, but worth a shot if you get the opportunities to visit.

I've also watched and still watch marine/freshwater life documentaries and other educational shows! Usually I'd opportunistically go and watch them whenever one popped up on the TV, instead of going out to find them myself. This, and the fact that it's been many years since I saw some, I can't recall many of the names of the documentaries I've seen! There were some about dolphins and their fascinating behaviour and hunting habits, and this cool documentary series that divided its episodes into two parts with pure opposite climates and cultures with opposite lifestyles, but I can't seem to find the ones I'm thinking of!!! ...Ah, well. I can recommend you Planet Earth (2006), The Blue Planet (2001) and Blue Planet II (2017) from BBC, and Life on Our Planet (2023) which I'm currently watching on Netflix! Secrets of the Whales (2021) from National Geographic I didn't quite finish but it was still quite interesting, focuses on four species of whales.

As for doing my research... well, once I was old enough to get on the internet and I was super duper fixated on a specific species of animal or a group of animals, I'd do this thing where I look up the animal's name and slowly start going through every website that popped up, in order, bookmarking the websites with the most or most interesting information. I still do it. I don't know if it's the "correct" way, could there even be a correct way..? I doubt it, and it does give you many sources to reference with each other! I also like to look through videos of these animals, but, that's probably a given. If you're looking for fish info specifically, I like to fall back on FishBase, SeriouslyFish and A-Z Animals when I'm unsure about something (besides checking multiple sources), as far as I know they're trustworthy.

When it comes to remembering, I unfortunately cannot offer you any tips! I am fortunate in that I have naturally good memory and absorb information with relative ease, so I don't really have any tips for remembering things... though I do like to sort large batches of information into charts, like how I did when I was learning to take care of my shrimp! I looked through several websites and collected the suggested parameters from each, and compared them with each other. I did the same thing when I was making my informational comic about bigfin squids, I collected the depths and places in which squids were spotted in into charts. Perhaps that is helpful in some way!

So! TL;DR, libraries, documentaries, museums, aquariums, just plain old internet research. I hope this helps you in some way!!! <33 Well wishes from the fishes!

[real-life-senshi]

hellow, i hope so far you´re doing ok since i saw you were struggling a bit with your health. though i'm quite new to your content i finally got the time to check some of your writings, i'd say i ended pretty hooked on them ahsfgsdjhs, tbh i'm not much of a fic reader of anything at all, specially since i don't think i have seen anything sailor moon related since my teens lmao. But i still wanted to let you know that i'm glad i have found it, as i tried to recall some about the pgsm plot (there's a chance i must have ended rewatching it ahsjhdsj and my gosh there were so many subtle things i missed 'cause i watched it when i was quite young haha) there were some other things that came to my mind that i wish were explored on the series, curiously most of it i found it on your fics 🤣 (i really like the way you expanded the pgsm characters through your stories) there were even some parts when i could 100% visualize them, may i have randomly doodle some stuff, who knows(?, oh! and your drawings as well, i saw this one about the Final Act *chef kiss*👌

There are other things i'd like to comment but i don't want to spoil anything as in Ao3 there are only 6 of the rest unlike the other fic site; i'm a big fan of the V manga (it's probably the one i sometimes read to remind myself why Minako is one of my fave characters ever! though my 11 year old self would disagree cause was obssesed with Manga/tokusatsu Mars😂 ) and also the continuity of the past life lore, whether if at some point in a near future as long as you're doing ok, please take care, for real. I'm looking forward to stay tuned if there's anything new from you 🙌

omg omg omg omg!!!!

You are the sweetest! 🥹Thank you for dropping by and leaving this lovely message in my inbox. Your keyboard smashing makes me go askdfhdsafdk as well! It's the highest praise one can give me. LOL😂

And jfc your amazing EoT based art? And there's potentially more doodles???? I can't believe that's happening to one of my stories. It's just not something I thought would ever be possible I don't even know what else to say except for repeating 'thank you' x10000 time.

Your message definitely encouraged me to finish chapter 7 instead of stalling some more. Made my week knowing one more person enjoys my attempt at writing a sequel. <3 My plan for the story is so ambitious sometimes I wonder if I'll be able to finish it. I even have plans to write a past life prequel and hope to do a bridging Black Moon story before introducing a Mugan arc sequel to EoT... That's 3 more stories total... and right now writing at a snail's pace, I don't know if that's ever possible... :'(

I'm finally on the road to recovery so it's getting easier for me to sit in front of my laptop for hours on end again. I've been mostly using video games to distract myself from the discomfort coz I can easily change positions while holding the console with no problem. With a laptop... there's a limitation with the keyboard for writing and the mouse for drawing. (LMAO I still use a mouse to draw. Never learnt to properly use a drawing tablet, even though I bought one long ago it just gathering dust now...)

Yeah... I think I peaked with the final act illustration when it comes to fanart. lol Knowing I did manage to make something with a quality that even surprised me, I've been overthinking and overcomplicating all the new ideas I want to do and then my brain and hand freeze and things are left as wip. 🙈

I'm really glad you enjoy my blog content. I practically owe my life to PGSM, I Iove the series with my whole being, cheesiness and faults and all. So it makes me really happy when my blog can help introduce or reignite interest in the series for other people! <3

I hope you don't mind me posting this reply instead of responding privately. I want to keep your message archived on my blog coz I love it so much. <3

[zuzsenpai]

This is another personal post with TW mental illness. I'm sorry there have been so many recently. I really have nowhere else to put these things. Feel free to ignore.

I don't think my depression has ever been this bad before, in the almost 13 years I've had it. For maybe the past two months it's been steadily growing to a point of intensity that I can't ignore. The absolutely awful feelings won't go away. I can't stop thinking about how miserable I feel.

I can barely take care of myself. I eat takeout every day. There's garbage everywhere at my house. I can't get shit done at work and at some point people are going to notice. I have multiple really REALLY urgent doctor's appointments/calls I HAVE to make (one of which is to my psychiatrist who apparently I'm blocked from messaging on the healthcare app), yet I can't seem to pick up the phone. I am mentally incapable somehow. There's a wall there.

I have been told to exercise and meditate and I physically and mentally cannot. Again, there is a wall.

I have a video game I wanted to play, I try to play it, and I feel completely unattached to it (even though I have loved it in the past). I joined a really exclusive roleplay community for that game and proceeded to be too overwhelmed to make the character application and now the mods are asking me what I want to do. I haven't written fanfiction in two months because of severe burnout, and I miss it so desperately that it's making me realize I might have been using it as a bandaid/distraction. But my brain is so fried that I feel too overwhelmed to write again. People are leaving me nice comments on my fics and I can't even bring myself to read them let alone respond to them. My memory is so bad that I can't remember a lot of what happens in any of my fave series' and I feel like creating good fan content for those things is impossible at this point.

I'm ignoring online friends in my favorite server. I promised multiple IRL friends I would watch animes they like and I am feeling guilty that I mentally cannot do that. I'm dreading the two anime cons I have coming up in March because I don't think I'm going to feel comfortable in my cosplay this year. I have a close friend (who is also my coworker) who keeps trying to get me to do things with her and her husband and I keep turning them down because I'm worried I'll get overwhelmed by social anxiety and general awkwardness. Just the thought of having awkward social interactions is terrifying me and pushing me down harder than it ever has.

I had a boyfriend between October 2022 and December 2023, but I felt like it was a huge chore every time I had to see him and I developed zero feelings for him. I felt repulsed by the thought of us being romantic. We ghosted each other in December and now I feel like shit about it because he may have been the only chance I'll ever have at a relationship... but I also am in such a bad state that it's probably good things are over. Why don't I feel relieved?

I'm having physical tics in my abdomen and jaw that are getting worse and worse to the point of pain and people noticing. I can't talk to literally anyone without sounding upset, negative, angry. I had my best friends from out of state over a few weekends ago and I was so sick the whole time, I felt like I was letting them down. I've been repeating awkward interactions with friends and coworkers over and over in my head to the point where I think about it at night.

I haven't put my Christmas decorations away because I fucking CAN'T.

This week has been particularly bad. Yesterday I was working from home because of snow. When the snow stopped I rushed to my parents' house because I needed to be somewhere with people I know. But I was so negative in how I spoke with them, and it's making me feel even worse. I used to be really talkative and intelligent when having conversations with my family, but depression has taken that away from me pretty badly over the years, to the point where I can barely talk without thinking about how absolutely dreadful I am at conversation.

But today might be the worst of it (unrelated to Valentine's Day, though it certainly isn't helping). It pained me emotionally and physically to get out of bed, and I wanted to take a mental health day. Literally fell back asleep for an hour before I had to get up and DREAMT about taking a mental health day. But being alone at home is actually so much worse than being at work where there are at least people I am comfortable with. So I went in. I have been absolutely bombarded with depressed feelings all day though. I get up to walk down the hall to the bathroom and somehow that feels worse than sitting and staring at my computer without accomplishing anything. I'm sitting here crying at work, completely destroying the four months of tally marks I had for 'days without crying at work'. I didn't break my record, sadly.

I have a therapist. I have an appointment with her today actually. Maybe I'll just read all of this to her. I don't know where it's going to lead or what she's going to tell me to do, but all I want is to walk down the hall to the bathroom and have at least average, neutral emotions instead of carrying a chest full of raging depression. I want to be able to say something happy to someone so that they don't dump me as a friend for being toxically negative. I want to live, and I have things to live for. But damn if this depression isn't making it extremely difficult to enjoy those things.

[tacticalfiend]

okay so I have one more ep left to watch of the Fallout tv series and while my opinion of the show has improved somewhat, I still think it's pretty mediocre.

I see a lot of people reeeaaally love Cooper, seen many people say he "steals the show," but he is easily my least favorite part of this series. Usually his character archetype is one I really like, but in Cooper's case he's missing a certain something. Not quite sure what it is yet. I also am really bothered by the new ghoul serum thing. The concept on it's own is fine I guess, but I can't help but wonder how this serum is being manufactured. What is it made out of? Who's manufacturing it? It seems like some ghouls need quite a lot of it to prevent themselves from going feral, but considering how persecuted and feared ghouls are I struggle to see WHO would be willing to do this besides a good samaritan or another ghoul. However, ep 4 seemed to suggest this whole serum business is a business. Like these two random humans just run this supposedly profitable business selling serum to ghouls, which is weird to me. I just don't buy that this would actually make them bank or be sustainable (literally see NO OTHER GHOULS until ep 4!?!?!). I will acknowledge this is something that won't bother someone who isn't a world building/lore obsessed pervert like myself. My questions may also be answered in the next season or whatever too, I'm simply not sure they will be able to provide an explanation I'll find satisfactory.

I also do not have much to say about Lucy or Maximus. Both of them had similar issues to Cooper for me. I see the foundation for good, fun characters, but they fall short of really sticking the landing. I like Lucy the most out of the three of them, I think. Part of what holds Maximus back for me does have to do with the BoS though. I am... not a fan of the direction they took in this show. They seem so interchangeable with every other like overly militaristic, power hungry faction in any other story that has one. They kinda remind me of ceasar's legion, but lacking the way they neatly fit into FONV's overarching themes (desire to return/inability to move on from an idyllic past). The BoS were interesting in Fallout 1 and New Vegas because they weren't just the obvious "bad guys" or whatever. They were kind of mysterious in Fallout 1 initially. They were a little weird, isolationist, and ultimately rather selfish and distrustful of humanity. While they were very effective fighters, they weren't really militaristic... atleast not from what I remember. They weren't "the good guys," but they weren't villains either. Regardless of what you, the player, felt about them they were at least interesting and memorable. The version we get from the TV series is so fucking passe imo. So forgettable, so unimaginative, and it naturally rubs off on Maximus. It makes him less interesting by extension. It would have been cool to see a version of Maximus that did grow up in a BoS more akin to what we see in Fallout 1 and New Vegas. It would give a point of commonality between Lucy and him as well. Both being out of touch with the wasteland due to their isolated upbringings, but in different ways/varying degrees.

Speaking of the wasteland, it feels so empty. Maybe "compartmentalized" is the better word, though, none of the locations we visit feel interconnected. Funnily enough, it feels very "video gamey," like we're going from one hub/level to the next rather than exploring a vast wasteland. I think this problem stands out for me so much because I am not particularly invested in any of the characters, and by extension the narrative, so everything surrounding them just becomes even more distracting. idk, this post is getting way too long. I have a lot of other thoughts I'll probably share later. Need to watch the last ep too.

[theuglybujo]

My (ADHD) focus/organization strats

Here's some stuff that I've found works, and is working for me this semester! I want to go back and make cute graphics for this but. We'll see.

Doing a reading: Going for less visual clutter (tip: throw everything in a box, a pile behind you, or tucked behind your computer so you can't see it). Just need:

Computer to keep pomodoro timers and use with...

...Overear headphones to (1) block out distractions and (2) give me enough stimulus to stay present. My fav is white noise + the lofi study stream (nothing else fits my brain's requirements of no voices, round not sharp sounds, minor or no fading/switching side-to-side)

Critically, mini notepad for distracting thoughts. Anything that's not the reading (cool websites, chores, people to text, games to try...), write it down, deal with it when you're done. By which point it will probably not feel as important lol

A notebook if the reading is digital, or the reading + stickynotes if it's physical (bc I take notes like this but without the rewriting part usually)

Taking notes: Going for faster & easier writing, reviewing, & remembering

Color code classes and use that color in my headings, boxes (if we watch a video, i'll box my bullets on the video so I can differentiate from the lecture content), and...

...Pictures/diagrams, esp during lecture for Speed. Easier to look at and easier to remember than words.

Color code annotations (underlines/highlights in my notes, or the sticky note colors). I use big point, subpoint, new term / names / etc stuff I'll probably be tested on, and my thoughts/stuff i like

Annotate everything. Add your emotions, reactions, connections, examples, questions, ideas. I give these their own color. They go good in margins. Easier review, better remembering.

Surviving lecture: Thankfully my professors are very engaging this semester but I still use some strats

Fidgets omg. I got over myself and started bringing a fidget spinner and popit to class and it saves my life

Chop up video lectures, this is Prof. Mary Latta's idea she gives us 2-3 shorter video lectures instead of 1 long one. Pomodoro it.

Get involved with people. This is hard and took me years but it's awesome. Complement people and ask questions (stickers they have? their outfit, hair, nails, tattoos? work? major? interest in the class?), because you can (1) get friends/study buddies/people to sit next to, and (2) break the ice to asking for help and getting different perspectives. Hang out a little after/before class, ask for their reactions, examples, ideas. Gush your excitement or confess your confusion to the prof, or overhear someone doing that and jump in if you relate. None of us know 100% what's going on and it feels great to fill the gaps (or validate asking the prof for clarification!)

And important addition, when you get the pomodoro breaks (and before you start), ACTUALLY TAKE A BREAK. Do you need a shower/snack/water. You probably need to stretch. You might even need to move locations or get a different chair or move the light just to shake things up.

[socialbunny]

15 questions for 15 mutuals :3

i was tagged by @annieshowell, @obsoletepixels, @goatskickin, @shitysimp, @sicksadsim and @jsasimmer <3333333333 thanks guys ily >:3

are you named after anyone? no, my mom had two names she wanted to pick for me and she and my dad settled on the one i have. but she was alsoo watching this movie in the hospital and one of the characters has my exact birth name so i think that cemented the name lol. and my name dirk, i named myself after dirk dreamer bc he's so me fr

when was the last time you cried? can't remember exactly

do you have kids? No I don't need that that in my life rn

do you use sarcasm a lot? I dooo, never in a mean way tho bc i feel like using sarcasm to mask how u feel abt some1 is pussy fr. i love joking around and poking fun and just being silly and weird and chillin like? irl personality is hit or miss with people. ive been told i talk back too much or always have something to say like? 😭

what sports do you play/have you played? when i was in elementary school i was in a dance group (terrible at it i have no rhythm at all it's honestly embarrassing) and when i was in high school i was in a tennis class (which was a PE alternative where we honestly never did shit tbh, towards the end of the school year we'd just be in the computer lab most of the time) and i considered joining the actual team but i also sucked at it 😭 and i really don't like doing team shit esp sports bc people start acting weird and i start getting real agitated.

what's the first thing you notice about other people? like physical i guess their outfit and hair and other shit i wear my glasses forr but shittttt, like just talking to someone i can catch their vibe really quick. just the way someone talks can tell you a lot abt them

eye color? Brown

scary movies or happy endings? it really depends on what the movie is

any special talents? nothing in particular i can think of. i think anything i do i'm really good at but not especially good at you know. i used to be told i'm really good at drawing but i was told this by the type of ppl who say they cant draw a stick figure so. take that as u will

where were you born? Texas 🤠

what are your hobbies? I love drawing and writing and reading and all the shit in that sphere of hobbies in theory 😭 been in a slump lately and doing shit seems harder than it needs to be. I love watching animation analysis and critiques, and listening to those 3hr vids of ppl talking abt shit i will never watch or care about while i do other bullshit. i really like making renders right now it gives me something to do without getting distracted too much. i also love playing really old shitty video games that have pages of cut content on tcrf

do you have any pets? No :( never had any pets when i was a kid either bc my mom had a whole bunch of dogs as a child and she didnt fw the idea of having any more animals in her house

how tall are you? 5'4 :)

fave subject in school? I love English (predictably I guess 😭)

dream job? i'd love to work in the animation industry in any way possible <3 or work in tv in general. probably have my own cartoon some day but thats such a stretchhhhhhhh i cant even work on my sims fanfiction or any oc shit LMAO. if not then i'd accept nothing less than a job where i don't have to talk to a lot of people and get payed billions of dollars to do bullshit

i dont have 15 ppl to tag since i do ask games so slowlyyyyy but i'll tag @despairoftheendless, @junkskoer, @faghotline and @hyperthinks !!! <3

[hero-deserves-to-be-happy]

Thank you so much for the ask, 🩶 Anon!! It's always so wonderful to hear from you!

We'd be thrilled to answer all of these questions for you, but to keep the posts from being too long we've decided to divide them between canon characters and OCs into two separate posts (the other is linked here). The canon character answers are below, and in keeping with the interview part of the game, we tried our best to answer in the respective character's POV (and included some game sprites just for added fun!).

We hope you'll like what we come up with! Take care! 💙

HERO Answers:

3. What is your favorite childhood memory?

I have so many wonderful childhood memories that it's hard to choose just one, especially if I had to choose between memories of my family or my friends. They're both very important to me.

In terms of childhood memories of my family, I loved learning how to cook from my grandma, Mamá Alma, and cooking big family dinners with her. My parents taught me a lot too. Kel and I used to build bird feeders with our dad, and our mom tried to teach us how to knit once but Kel ended up tangled in all the yarn (which he insisted was way more fun than knitting anyway).

Kel and I had a lot of fun together when we were young! We'd stay up late building blanket forts or telling stories, and we loved playing adventure games especially pretending we were pirates looking for buried treasure in our backyard. Sometimes our friends would play too.

I have a lot of fond memories of them as well. I loved spending time at the park or visiting the beach, watching cartoons on Saturday mornings, playing cards or board games, and especially having picnics together. I think some of my fondest memories are of when we would all cook or bake things together to pack in our picnic baskets. Mari and I always tried to make everyone's favorite foods, so we'd spend a lot of time preparing, and honestly, I think I sometimes enjoyed that more than the actual picnics themselves.

Looking back on it all now, it's hard to choose just one favorite moment. It's all those little things that are most meaningful to me: helping Basil plant seeds in his flower garden or building blanket forts with Kel or how we'd all stay up all night playing video games, reading comics, or watching funny movies. The way Aubrey laughed when her face was covered with watermelon seeds or the way Sunny was always way more excited about the box and wrapping paper than any present you ever got him. How Mari's face would always light up when she pulled her cookies out of the oven or how she smiled whenever she played piano for us and we'd all stand around singing along.

So I think it’s not just one favorite moment. It's so many, and they're all precious to me.

16. Describe your perfect day.

I don't think I need anything too big or exciting for the perfect day. If I got to do anything I wanted, I guess I'd cook a big meal for all my friends and family and invite them over for dinner. Everyone's so busy these days, it would be great to have a quiet evening where we could all get together and catch up, eat good food, and spend time together.

KEL Answers:

18. What's the best way to cheer you up?

With my favorite stuff probably! If someone brought me an Orange Joe, I'm sure I'd be happy again!

(Hero: Kel...I think they're hoping for something a little more specific...)

Oh, uh...okay! Mmmmm... When I'm having a bad day, I like to distract myself and try to take my mind off it by doing something else I like. I'll play basketball or ride my bike, listen to my boombox, or play video games, or yeah, have an Orange Joe!

Watching funny movies or tv shows are always good too because when you're laughing you can't feel as sad anymore!

SUNNY Answers:

13. You're given an unlimited budget to build anything you want!  What do you build and where do you build it?

A perfect, comfortable bed as big as my room. Then my room would be a bed.

It would be at a 12/10. Maybe more if it had a high-density viscoelastic polyurethane mattress, but I don't know if they can make one as big as a room.

[dandylovesturtles]

This may sound a little bit annoying, but what do you ideally do while you write? I always feel a little bad to spend 2-3 hours just writing without doing anything else.

I'm sorry, anon, but I don't really understand this question. Writing isn't really something I feel like you can multitask through, since it requires so much of your brain space and typically whatever hands you have. Sure, I'll pretty commonly stop writing to watch a short youtube video or play sudoku or scroll my social feeds but that isn't really "doing something while writing," it's "stopping writing to do something else." I used to listen to music while I was writing, but at some point I stopped being able to do that at the same time; even instrumental music is too distracting. So yeah, when I'm actually heads down writing, that's all I'm doing, other than maybe petting my cats now and then.

I guess you need to ask yourself why you feel bad spending time writing. If it's because you're doing it to avoid something else, then that's the same as any other activity you could be engaging in to procrastinate, and as a serial procrastinator myself I'm probably not the person to ask advice for on that one lol. But if it's just because you feel like you could be doing something more productive with your time, I'll push back against that one! I love writing, and I love it for its own sake - for the joy and sense of accomplishment it brings me, and because I'm usually writing things I myself want to read. Even if it will never make me a million dollars or accomplish any practical task in my life, it gives me emotional fulfillment the way few other things do, and so I'm happy to spend time doing it.

The 2-3 hours you spend writing will pass no matter what you do with them, so no need to feel bad writing during them. You don't need to justify it!

[words-of-wolf]

main blog of knifedog-machina here - I have a question! do you have any memories involving scent, and territory markings or prey tracking through that? I've been a bit enthralled with WolfQuest recently, and I wanna know how their visualized scent system holds up for a wolf!

Hello!! I love this question, things like this are some of my absolute favourite things to discuss!!

Gonna put a cut here because I rambled wayy more than I planned. :P

I do have memories of this, yes! It's not a simple answer though, because one problem I run into with some of my memories from other lives is that I don't always have the.. capacity to comprehend them exactly, as a human? It's a weird feeling! I can remember it but some aspects of it are just so hard to grasp.

I think to describe properly how I experience those memories will take some thinking, so I'll stick it on my blog post to-do list and aim to write something more meaningful later on!!

In short, though: I absolutely cannot overstate how central my sense of smell was in my memories of being a wolf. It was like... hm. How humans centre a lot of their understandings of the world and their place in it through our eyes? Like seeing eyes as windows to the soul and all that? Like that, but it was smell instead.

Smell wasn't just a tool, it was a really vital part of how I conceptualised the world and my place in it. I'd say even how I thought about things, and processed things internally, was very focused on smell!

As for your specific question... I've never actually got around to playing WolfQuest yet myself (it's been on my to play list since I was like 16 ahaha) but I watched a couple of videos to see what the scent mechanics in it are like!

Overall, I think they look pretty good! Ideas like scent are always gonna be hard to capture in a game, especially when you've also got to keep in mind limitations of performance and stuff, plus obviously making the game feel actually fun to play.

For the tracking scent mechanic, I really like that they added scent nodes in the air that are influenced by wind! When it comes to tracking something by scent, wind has a really big impact - the way the WolfQuest devs found to make wind relevant without being really taxing on performance is really clever, and interesting!

Territorial markings would be a really difficult thing to represent properly in a game, I think. WolfQuest seems to have a solid solution for that. It's not what I'd call "realistic" exactly, though also they base their game on Yellowstone's ecosystem, which is a very competitive location for wolves. The amount of elk there makes it prime habitat, and that means there's higher wolf density, so territorial behaviours are way more defined and intense than in other places. So some of the things that feel "off" to me, I think also come as a result of that!

It's hard to really articulate my thoughts on territory and marking, I might have to come back to the topic later when I've had some time to mull it over!

Thinking about this got me thinking about how I'd go about making a scent tracking mechanic in a video game... in a fantasy world where I can ignore hardware limitations and how difficult it all would be to code. :P

I think I would format it as a different visual mode taking inspiration from infrared videos. In this camera mode, a lot of visual objects are unclear or ambiguous, particularly anything distant.

And I would use different colours to differentiate three different scent types: yellow would be "uninteresting background scent" - grass, trees, that kind of thing. The stuff you just don't pay attention to. Green would be "distracting non-prey scent" - things that might obscure what you're looking for, or maybe just catch your attention enough to distract you from what you're focused on. Then I'd probably use red as "prey scent".

Things that have a very strong "prey scent" would be bright red and show up from furthest away compared to other scents - for example, fresh deer scat.

Less strong "prey scents" would be harder to discern from further away. These would be things that either are fresh but don't smell as strongly (like the area a deer was resting recently), or older scent sources. These would probably fade to a more orange tone when you're further from them.

I also quite like the idea of older and weaker scents being harder to identify, and maybe something based on the idea of focus - an older, weaker scent would be harder to concentrate on than a fresh, strong one.

And wind would influence how strong the scents are, especially over distance! So scents you're downwind from are clearer and more visually distinct, whereas scents upwind are less so.

If I were gonna make a game based on this, I'd say the mechanics would encourage piecing together clues from scent, sound and sight. There would probably be a separate camera mode for hearing focus, and then the default mode would let you see visual cues if there are any - flattened grass, game trails, marks on trees, etc.

Hm! It's a bit of a tangent but fun to think about, hehe. ^u^

I hope this satisfies your curiosity a bit! :D