#it was a really fun exercise actually. love trying to replicate styles

[anewp0tat0]

sup yalllll hope you're all cool. things are crazy rn but. great too. finally got some free time and what do I do.....

I'm sorry to everyone that won't find this interesting, I did this like 100% for myself. this week I saw a presentation on the show Arcane, and I immediately rewatched it afterwards because after 2 years I remembered how much I love it. especially the art style... I'm sorry but I've always wanted to try it, and with my favorite characters even better. so good thing I had a Sebastian head sculpt lying around which I use for reference. 11 hours later.....

the head sculpt was bald and naked so I had to imagine the rest, but I think that kinda lends itself to the style. I was too impatient to wait for the 3d animation course I will be taking next year if not sooner, so I just painted over the model. and thankfully, I'm happy to say that I'm actually pleased. it's not perfect, but I got what I wanted •v• I can imagine more clearly.

but the most important thing to know is Happy October!!! have a lovely day

[bulletballet-arch]

REALLY LONG  CHARACTER  SURVEY. RULES. repost ,   don’t  reblog !    tag 10 ! good  luck ! TAGGED. I took this from Minnie’s archived Bioshock blog. I’ve been looking for this meme all this month. TAGGING. @hammurabicomplex. @bluuxriising. @ Me - for Sal on @bulletsoverbensonhurst​. @immaterialed (charlie) @soypeor (bella) @svmmercmance​. @mrflayed. and you!

BASICS. FULL  NAME :  Eve Delores Littlejohn NICKNAME : Evie, Little Evie (by her maternal side of the family), Delores, Didi NAME  MEANING / S  Eve is from the ancient Hebrew name  חַוָּה (Chawwah), which was derived from the Hebrew word חָוָה (chawah) meaning "to breathe" or the related word חָיָה (chayah) meaning "to live". Delores is a variant of Dolores, meaning "sorrows", taken from the Spanish title of the Virgin Mary María de los Dolores, meaning "Mary of Sorrows." Littlejohn is a surname that has historically been found in England and Scotland. With potential origins being either ‘to distinguish a beloved child that was not the eldest.’ Or, ‘a contradictory nickname for a large man.’ HISTORICAL  CONNECTION? : She’s named after her grandmother, Evelyn Hollins.

AGE : 42 BIRTHDAY :  June 2 ETHNIC  GROUP : Black-American. Meaning she’s mixed with a lot (Some of her relatives are respectively Creole and Italian) but uses Black as a catch-all term. NATIONALITY :  American LANGUAGE / S : English, Italian, Spanish, Latin, some French SEXUAL  ORIENTATION :   Bisexual ROMANTIC  ORIENTATION :  Biromantic RELATIONSHIP  STATUS : Verse dependent, usually married -or connected- to Salvatore Scozzari in some way. CLASS : Upper-Class HOME  TOWN / AREA :   Brooklyn. Spent time between Bedford-Stuyvesant - with her paternal grandfather and Park Slope - with her maternal grandparents.  CURRENT  HOME : In her childhood home in Bedford-Stuyvesant. PROFESSION : Ballet Instructor. Former Professional Ballerina. ( Other verses see her as a professional thief. )

PHYSICAL. HAIR : Black. In terms of her natural hair, Eve has springy, 3C hair she seldom shows off because she was raised in a family where straightened hair was deemed presentable and professional.  EYES : Thin almond eyes. Dark brown. NOSE : Straight and small. FACE :  She has a prominent, high forehead, that’s accented with high cheekbones and a pointy chin. LIPS :  Full. COMPLEXION : She has a light brown (tawny) complexion.  SCARS : None major. TATTOOS : None. HEIGHT : 5′4″ BUILD : Eve has a slender build. One of those people who have been small and petite since childhood. Despite this, she also stays skinny because she is obsessively conscious of the food she consumes. The older she gets the more she weighs, however. USUAL HAIR STYLE :  Her hair is cut short. Reaching her shoulders in a neat, even bob. She either curls it in a retro fashion or curls the tips. For work she wears it in a traditional, pinned bun. USUAL FACE LOOK : In public, she appears stoic for the most part. Any emotion shown (such as the length of a smile) is carefully calculated. She has to seem perfect.  USUAL  CLOTHING : Form fitting dresses. Incredibly chic and fashionable for the time. Shoes include heels - never open-toed, unless she has on stockings. Extravagant earrings. Jewelry that can include either necklaces, crosses, pearls, or dainty rings. Prone to wearing black sunglasses in public.

PSYCHOLOGY. FEAR / S : Thunderstorms, airplanes, creatures like weasels, snakes and ferrets, break-ins, men she doesn’t know, harm coming to her children ASPIRATION / S :  Formerly wanted to become a major [black] ballerina in the elite world of ballet, now she just wants to expose more [inner city children] to dance through her job. Personally, she wants her children to change the world in some form or fashion, too. Eve also has good ideas on improving the community, but at the moment has no idea how to go about these ideas. POSITIVE  TRAITS :  Generous, compassionate, patient, protective NEGATIVE  TRAITS : Strict, sullen, hard to read, represses her emotions, secretive MBTI :  Advocate - INFJ-T ZODIAC :  Cancer TEMPERAMENT :  Melancholic ANIMALS :  Lioness VICE / S :  Pride & Lust FAITH : Christian. Grew up Baptist, but Catholic influences have been around her since childhood. Attended a Catholic High School in Park Slope, her grandmother Evelyn was also a practicing Catholic.  GHOSTS ? : Yes and no. She feels that objects formerly owned by the deceased posses the essence of their previous owners and that they essentially live on through these pieces of property. AFTERLIFE ? : Yes. REINCARNATION ? :  No, but it’s a romantic concept. ALIENS ? : No. POLITICAL  ALIGNMENT :  Democratic ECONOMIC  PREFERENCE :  She likes being where she’s at now. But honestly, being upper class is all she’s ever known. SOCIOPOLITICAL  POSITION : Bourgeoisie, basically. The Littlejohn’s represent The Historical Black Elite.  EDUCATION  LEVEL : College level. FAMILY.

FATHER :  William ‘Bill’ Littlejohn MOTHER : Linda Littlejohn ( nee Hollins ) SIBLINGS : None EXTENDED  FAMILY : Amos Littlejohn (paternal grandfather) Liza Littlejohn (paternal grandmother) Evelyn Hollins (maternal grandmother) Giuseppe D’Aietti (maternal grandfather) and a wide host of cousins, aunts and uncles.

FAVOURITES. BOOK :  Night Song by Beverly Jenkins. The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Some sort of old, French erotic novel that was published before she was born. MOVIE : Eve watches films along the lines of...Waiting to Exhale, Beaches, The First Wives Club and Fatal Attraction. She loves Made-For-TV movies from the time period. In regards to plays, her favorite one is Sunday In The Park With George. 5  SONGS :  Meet Me On The Moon / Essence of Sapphire / No One In The World / People / The First Time I Saw Your Face  DEITY :  Persephone  HOLIDAY : New Years Eve, Christmas, Thanksgiving. Major holidays during the colder season. MONTH :  October SEASON :  Autumn PLACE :  The dance studio she works at. WEATHER : Sunny, but cool. SOUND : The voices of Anita Baker and Sarah Vaughn. A skilled hand running over piano keys. Soft trumpets. Running water. Cats making chipper little meows. SCENT / S :  Perfume, floral scented lotions, her partner’s cologne TASTE / S :  Caramel, the tang of dark chocolate, strawberries coated with either chocolate, or sprinkles of white sugar. Light Vinegar.  FEEL / S : Performing in front of an audience. Hot water engulfing your skin after a long day. Satin - whether it be the fabric of her clothes or sheets, your fingers tightly intertwined with another’s, feeling your significant other’s chest raise and lower against your skin with each breath they take. ANIMAL / S : Cocker Spaniels, Afghan Hounds, Cats, Birds - she loves all ( well, a majority ) of animals. NUMBER :  Doesn’t have one. COLOR :  White, Pink, Gold.

EXTRA. TALENTS :  Dance, Eve is trained in ballet when it comes to her main verse. She has attended ballet classes since the age of eight and ever since then she placed all of her focus into it. Similarly, Eve has always had the makings of a good artist - as a child she enjoyed drawing and had informal art lessons with a man who lived in the basement of her grandfather’s brownstone, but she never invested into that half of her. BAD AT : Singing, Being interviewed, Public Speaking (as in Speech Giving), Decision Making TURN  ONS :  Charisma, Leadership Skills, Temperature Play, Phone Sex, Heavy Kissing, Light Roleplay TURN  OFFS :  Public Sex, Tearing [ Her ] Clothes, Threesomes, Cruelty, Senseless Violence HOBBIES :  viewing plays & some musicals, reading romance novels, shopping, working out (she was into the whole celebrity VHS tape exercise trend), playing tennis, decorating AESTHETIC :  Vintage Black Glamour, Black Ballerinas, Champagne and Wine Glasses, Paintings by Melinda Byers and Edward 'Clay' Wright QUOTES :  "I'm bad with words, I hope you're good in reading eyes." / "There are truths I haven't even told God. And not even myself. I am a secret under the lock of seven keys."

FC INFO. MAIN  FC / S : Lynn Whitfield ( A Thin Line Between Love & Hate ) ALT  FC / S : Kylie Bunbury ( Twisted ) OLDER  FC / S :  Lynn Whitfield ( Greenleaf ) YOUNGER  FC / S : N/A VOICE  CLAIM / S : Lynn Whitfield

MUN QUESTIONS.

Q1 :   if  you  could  write  your  character  your  way  in  their  own  movie ,   what  would  it  be  called ,  what  style  would  it  be  filmed  in ,  and  what  would  it  be  about ?       A1 : Recently I decided that if/when I try to write anything serious about Eve again, it’ll center on her being a jewel thief because it presents me more fun, and emotionally diverse, opportunities. That and I have a very specific cover image in my mind. Ideally, her adventures would be a series of books. I have no title in mind, no idea about how ‘it would be filmed’ ( although a style replicating 90s films would be excellent, film grain and all. ) but, I do have a bunch of plots in mind that I really don’t feel like typing out here.  

Q2 :   what  would  their  soundtrack / score  sound  like ?         A2 :  Her score would have a vintage sound (or a jazzy Spike Lee sound, if you will) with instrumentals by Dorothy Ashby (a Jazz Harpist) the Ahmad Jamal Trio, Pharaoh Sanders, Yusef Lateef and Tarika Blue. For music with lyrics, the soundtrack would include the likes of Julie London, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dionne Warwick.

Q3 :   why  did  you  start  writing  this  character ?   + Q4 :   what  first  attracted  you  to  this  character ? A3 :  Whenever I make NPCs for my character’s lives I actually can’t just let them just be NPCs. I start thinking about them too much. Developing them too much. And then I’m like, ‘wow! I really like this character!’ Eve was a different character when I began writing her, and likely wouldn’t be considered the same character as she was previously, if I told someone in real life who knows about my writing (like my grandma) about all the changes she has undergone. Originally Delores was a university professor, because I thought it could lead to interesting interactions with college-age muses. And her previous history with the mafia was also something interesting to tap in. But then I started thinking about what was realistic, what wasn’t realistic, what did I feel comfortable/interested writing? What didn’t I feel comfortable/interested in writing?  So as time went on, things would alter about this character. And the new things I came up with attracted me more. 

Q5 :   describe  the  biggest  thing  you  dislike  about  your  muse.         A5 :  I have a love/hate relationship with Eve’s quiet demeanor. On one hand, I think quieter characters need love and the ability to be fully dimensional but on the other hand, writing louder characters has always been more fun for me. But really, Eve’s guarded behavior makes writing her stressful in some cases with others because sometimes...if I’m going to be honest...people don’t know how to carry a thread and interact with someone of her demeanor effectively. 

Q6 :   what  do  you  have  in  common  with  your  muse ?       A6 : We’re both black, we’re both into art (although our exact interests and aesthetics with art differ)

Q7 :   how  does  your  muse  feel  about  you ?         A7 : Realistically she would think I need to take better care of myself.

Q8 :   what  characters  does  your  muse  have  interesting  interactions with ?   A8 :  We skippin’ this question.

Q9 :   what  gives  you  inspiration  to  write  your  muse ?       A9 : Films such as, “Waiting to Exhale,” “The Kitchen” and “Widows.” Books by Alice Walker, like “The Third Life of Grange Copeland” as well as her short story, “Roselily.” The historical mob figure Stephanie St. Clair.

Q10 :   how  long  did  this  take  you  to  complete ?       A10 : A few hours.

[a-dragons-journal]

My Experiences of Nonhumanity

I get asked about “what makes you/people in general feel you’re/they’re otherkin” a lot, and while the answer is far from simple and my experiences are anything but universal, I figure it deserves a write-up once in a while. A friend asked about it a couple nights ago, so I wrote up a huge long message on Discord, and decided to rewrite it into a Tumblr post for posterity. This’ll be a long one, folks; hit J on desktop to skip.

It’s worth noting ahead of time: none of these things are required to be otherkin, and none of them automatically mean you’re otherkin. In fact, most of them are little more than mildly “weird” quirks when they occur in isolation, and only start to push outside the range of “normal human experiences” when many of them occur together. You can’t look at someone (including yourself) and say “they like collecting things, they must be dragonkin!” It’s not that simple. You have to take the individual as a whole even as you examine each specific experience in more detail - don’t lose the forest while you’re studying the trees. This is just a description of my personal experiences.

Shifts

- Phantom shifts/supernumerary phantom limbs: Probably the most obvious thing and the hardest to brush off, although I still managed to do so for years. Phantom shifts, aka supernumerary phantom limbs, are the experience of feeling limbs or body parts that do not and never have physically existed. In my case, the most common phantom limbs to show up are my wings and tail; other body parts, such as digitigrade legs, horns, snout, and paws/talons, also make appearances less frequently. While my phantom limbs almost never attempt to replicate tactile sensations/interactions with the physical world, they’re often defined by very vivid proprioception (ability to tell where your body is in space, mainly via muscle stretch receptors), and I can tell where each part of the limb is at any given time - it’s not just a shapeless sense of “weight,” or it wouldn’t be phantom limbs. I can also move them at will, typically. My phantom shifts are typically spontaneous and involuntary, but they’ve been induced artificially a couple different ways as well, though I can’t typically do it at will.

- Sensory shifts: Still not something I’m totally sure I experience, but there are definitely times my sense of smell becomes insanely strong compared to usual even for me, which fits the definition of a sensory shift.

- Astral shifts: While I’m far from an adept astral traveler, when visualizing “traveling” within my own mindscape, I shift form fluidly between human and dragon - although I almost always have wings at the very least.

- Cameo shifts: Mentioned only because it’s relevant to my phantom shifts. I realized at some point that the reason I get cameo shifts of canine/feline ears sometimes is because they usually show up when they’re pricking/flattening to express emotion, and the muscles that move to do that action are basically the same as the ones that do those actions with the crest that runs down my neck, and because of my obsession with cats/dogs/horses as a young child and because that’s not a particularly strong phantom shift for me usually, I connected the dots a little wrong and created a false association.

- Self-image: This isn’t technically a shift, but it’s going here anyway because it doesn’t really fit in any other section either. My body image/self-image is weird. I know, consciously, what I physically look like. However, my instinctive self-image is... hmm. What I “expect” to see doesn’t always match up with what’s actually there when I look in the mirror. Teeth are a huge point of fixation for me for some reason; I always expect them to be larger, sharper, stronger. I expect my neck to be longer, my face to be... different. I expect scales in places. I expect claws. Even knowing consciously that of course it won’t be there, it’s still strange sometimes that it’s not. There’s sometimes some mild disconnect when I see myself. (Sometimes not. But sometimes.)

Homesickness

(Or, the sense of missing something you’ve never had - not of “I want/want to be [x], and it makes me sad/upset that I don’t have/am not that,” but of “I should have/be [x], and it is fundamentally wrong that I do/am not.”)

- Flight: I have always wanted to fly, and for a long time I thought everyone ached for the sky the same way I did. Most people don’t, as it turns out. Yes, everyone’s fantasized about flying, but most people don’t feel bones-deep, crushing, physical pain in their chest thinking about it. Most people don’t lift up onto their toes instinctively straining for the sky. I’ve felt that aching longing for it for as long as I can remember.

- Connection to dragons: For as long as I can remember knowing about dragons, I loved the idea of them and even when I was very young, when I’d only really been exposed to media where they were the great evil for the hero to defeat and received no more character development than “evil, destructive, fire-breathing beast,” I was always on the dragon’s side and wanted to learn more about them. That hasn’t faded. I’ll watch an absolutely terrible movie or TV show that I otherwise loathe if it has good enough animation and sound design on the dragons. (Looking at you, Game of Thrones.*) I would commit arson to see one of those Isle-style dragon survival games actually go through and finish production. (Holding out hope for the Dragon Game Project on YouTube; go check them out if you haven’t already.) I’ve also used dragons to represent myself for pretty much as long as I’ve had an online presence - years before I ever heard of otherkin, I was calling myself Dragonheart.

- Dragon-like creatures: Snakes, crocodilians, and dinosaurs all fall into this category - all of them give me a similar heart-and-breathing-pick-up, aching familiarity to dragons. They’re not perfect, but in a snake’s scales and a crocodile’s bellows and a dinosaur’s spectacular reptilian size I see echoes of us and I have always loved them with a passion, even before I quite knew why.

- Dragon/”monster” noises: Sound generators, creature sound design, real animal noises, etc. that are meant to be monstrous and that most people find unsettling or even frightening, I find comforting and relaxing. Alligator bellows, “monster noise” soundscapes, etc. all apply here.

* No shade on anyone who likes Game of Thrones, I’m just not a fan. :P

Behaviors/Instincts/Urges

- Hoarding: I’m still not sure how much of the crystal thing is "monkey brain say Shiney Colorful," how much is a witch thing, and how much is a dragon thing, but some of it is a dragon thing.

- Territorial/possessive nature: I can get... extremely territorial over my stuff and my home. This can extend right into being ridiculously protective of my people too, although I do try to rein that in to a reasonable amount. This also extends into games like Capture the Flag, because put me on defending the border during middle and high school and I got frighteningly territorial. (Fun fact, this extends to spiritual protection stuff and it has almost gotten me in trouble a few times on that front.) The other main side effect is my brain trying to claim completely inappropriate things as “mine,” like every piano I have ever touched or, that one time, the entire city of Portland.

- Prey drive: Going on a walk in the woods with me will always be an exercise in stopping every twenty seconds because I heard a small animal move in the brush and froze instinctively to track it. Prey drive ranges from "okay I can indulge this enough to track-stalk-chase without actually intending to catch-kill-eat" to "this is entirely inappropriate and needs to Stop Right Now" depending on the day and the situation - sometimes it’s fairly low-key and innocent, but sometimes it's also being confronted with the sudden and completely serious/genuine thought of grabbing someone or something by the neck/around the body with your jaws and hunt-prey-kill-devour when it's completely inappropriate and kind of disturbing or even sickening. It’s one of the more annoying things, although it’s not like it’s severe enough that I’m an actual danger to anyone - it’s just a gut thought that gets filtered out at the conscious level without significant problems. This also bleeds into games (I get... maybe a little overenthusiastic during tag) and even watching TV shows or gaming videos - most of the time at least part of me is rooting for the hunter because I relate to them as a fellow predator, even if the audience is supposed to be rooting for the prey - I mean, protagonists.

- Basking/heat-seeking: Probably only partially a dragon thing, but despite the fact that I hate heat in general, radiant/sun heat and heat from a heated surface are both fantastic feelings provided the ambient air temperature isn't too high. I'm guessing this is at least partially a reptile brain thing.

- Height-seeking: Give me a chance to climb up on top of something - a rock, a cliff, a chair, a table, a bunk bed - and look out over everything else, and I'll take it in an instant. Getting to climb up on the roof is the best thing that's happened to me this entire quarantine.

- Flight instinct: Being mildly leery of cliffs not because I am afraid of falling, because I'm really not, but because there's always some part of my brain that goes "jump, fly, this is a perfect takeoff spot" and I have to squash that before I do something particularly stupid. This manifests in other ways, but that's the most dramatic (and annoying) one. This is also one of the things I noticed as definitively not normal long before my awakening. (The Grand Canyon was fun.)  Similarly to the prey drive thing, it's not like I'm actually in danger of throwing myself off cliffs, it’s just - there's a not-insignificant part of my brain that thinks "hey we should go run and jump off and take a quick flight," in the same way I might also casually think "hey I should stroll across to the corner store for a bag of chips" before I consciously decide whether or not to do that. It’s the exact same type of thought process, despite the fact that one of those things is something I might do on any given school day, and the other is, you know, physically impossible.

- Combat instincts: I get in a fight and my pure instinct is to bite or claw, not kick or punch or whatever it is humans do instinctively. I have those reflexes now courtesy of Krav, but I had to train them in - if you’d thrown me into a fight before, I absolutely would have resorted to claws/nails and teeth immediately (and I still will, when pressed into a corner). Sometimes, unfortunately, this goes off completely unwarranted, either in an anger situation that does not deserve a physical response, or for no apparent reason whatsoever. It's one of the more problematic things, but once again - it’s not like it’s a compulsion, just a gut-emotion thought that gets filtered out at the conscious level.

- Scent focus: Who knows how much of this is environmental influence and how much is instinctive, but I always have and still do focus on scent more than most humans seem to. I can identify people by scent, I seem to pay more attention to it than most people do. I also seem less bothered by natural body smells than most people do, but considering the responses when I asked around in the otherkin community once about that, unclear whether or not that's connected.

- Nonhuman noises: I make just a bunch of weird nonhuman noises, and always have. Growls, hisses, croons, hurrs, throat-clicks, chirps, etc. I've never met any human who does them instinctively like I do except my half-sister (whom I didn’t meet until a couple years ago), and she was just as surprised to hear me do it as I was surprised to hear her do it.

- Affection: Face-rubbing, light head-bonking against someone’s shoulder/body/head, and love nips/bites are all perfectly acceptable ways to show platonic affection, to dragon brain. Human society disagrees. The instinct to do these things is so strong that I definitely do give into the first two with people I’m close with, and I have physically had to catch and restrain myself when I was about to unthinkingly bite/nip someone’s skin because I wasn’t paying enough attention.

- Movement: Moving on all fours just feels better than moving on two legs, even though it’s objectively physically uncomfortable because humans aren’t built for that. I also have the instinctive want to be a lot more flexible than I’m capable of being, in ways I’m not capable of being - curling all the way around something or someone to squeeze them tight in the coil of my body, turning my head a hundred eighty degrees because my neck Should Be Longer.

- Expression: Baring one’s teeth when frustrated, irritated, or angry is not a particularly human instinct. I realize it’s something a lot of primates do do, but. *gestures at society* Humans ain’t one of them, at least not anymore. Even in Krav Maga, which is a self-defense style that focuses on being vicious and “dirty fighting” to survive a real street fight, every single time I have a new partner (and most times I have a partner I’ve worked with before) and I get tired enough to get snarly, they respond with some variation of “god that’s scary”. See also: gesturing at things with my nose because it should be long enough to make that a much more dramatic gesture than it ends up being.

- Den/lair/small spaces: I never feel safer than when curled up in a tiny alcove just big enough to comfortably fit my body curled up into it. The only position I’ll prioritize over it is getting up onto a high space.

Past Life Work

Unlike every other bullet point on this list, most of these didn’t apply until I started actively seeking them out, because, you know. Past life memories are like that.

- Past life regressions: I’ve got a tag for these, but tl;dr I take anything I learn from a past life regression or similar meditation/visualization with a whole spoonful of salt, forget “a grain,” because I know for a fact my brain is very good at making stuff up with these types of exercises. Unfortunately, they’re the only way to get information on certain things, like appearance.

- Tarot: Got a tag for that too. I use tarot to ask questions and confirm or reject suspicions.

- Spontaneous memories: I don’t have many, but they’re clear as day when they do appear. I don’t count something as a “true” memory unless it includes senses I can’t reproduce through imagination - smell and touch, mainly. Mostly these are quick flashbulbs, nothing cinematic or anything like that.

- Noemata: Again, I don’t have much in the way of noemata, but what I do have is persistent and consistent. I know things about my wing shape and flight style despite not having really experienced that in detail during past life regressions. That particular set of noemata has been confirmed to fit with real-world physics and bat wing shapes (the closest wing type to mine that exists or has existed on Earth).

[bookcoversalt]

A+ youtube video! I feel like this is a dumb question, but what other sources, exercises, etc would you suggest for a writer wanting to get better at, like, everything you do in that video? I feel like I'm just not intelligent when it comes to writing and reading. I slap down whatever seems fun and I'm sure it makes for a bland story full of stupid plot holes and everything you talked about, so how does one get better at dissecting this stuff and...writing/reading intelligently?

Thank you so much!! There’s a tendency to consider analytical people just “smart”, as if the observations they make come naturally to them. But that super isn’t true: being thoughtful and critical about media, like drawing or writing or playing a sport or learning an instrument, is a skill that you pick up by absorbing reference, learning the language of the art form, and then practicing replicating it through your own perspective.

ABSORBING REFERENCE

My two biggest critical inspirations are Lindsay Ellis, a video essayist who covers film and culture, and Film Crit Hulk, a screenwriter and movie critic, and I’ve been consuming their work since I was 15. (I’m 25 now! that’s a wholeass decade.) I've picked up many, may other sources along the way: other video essayists, pop culture commentators, TV critics, spirited roasts of 50 shades of gray, actual “writing craft” books and blog articles, long goodreads reviews of books I thought I had a pretty good grasp of the flaws on, funny booktube reviews, even “anti” posts. I read “how the last season of game of thrones went the fuck off the rails” articles til my eyes bled, not because I cared about game of thrones, but because there was so much good, insightful reporting being done on How And Why A Story Fell Apart.

LEARNING THE LANGUAGE

Not all of this is good or useful. There’s a lot of bad faith or shallow criticism out there. The cinemasins clickbaity style of nitpicking “plot holes” or penalizing a work for the mere presence of tropes without regard for broader artistic intent and cultural context is particularly insidious and should die. The people who think twilight is stupid because it has sparkly vampires are missing the point. A LOT of people critique YA in particular from a place of bitterness or bias or misplaced expectations (and so did I, to some degree, for a long time. I’ve worked really hard to grow out of that, I hope). But the point is to seek out content in this vein-- not what I consumed necessarily (I would not wish that many GOT thinkpieces on anyone), but stuff that interests you. The more of this you mindfully consume and the more perspectives you collect and compare, the more context you’ll have for what’s being discussed and the more you'll naturally start to form your own opinions on it. You will learn, slowly, by osmosis, to pull what strikes a chord with you from the noise.

REPLICATING IT THROUGH YOUR OWN PERSPECTIVE

The cool and fun part is that to some extent, your brain will start doing this on its own. You’ll read a book and you'll just notice more. You’ll call plot twists faster, or be more cognizant of the pacing, or connect dots you might not have otherwise connected. You’ll see the logistic scaffolding in your own work more clearly and you’ll be more aware of choices you’re making subconsciously. You’ll recognize thematic hypocrisy or worldbuilding inconsistencies and have the language to name them.

And you’ll also have the tools to explore your less clear-cut, more emotional reactions to art. And this is the most important but “hardest” part of this: sitting with vague feelings and unformed thoughts trying to suss out what’s at the heart of them and why, using your hard-won critical “training” and your contextual knowledge.

I like to frame them as questions:

Why did the end of [book] feel disjointed? Why didn’t I connect with the main character in [book]? What really resonated with me about the plot of [book]? Why does [character] appeal to me more than [other character]? Why does [book]’s use of [theme] make me uncomfortable?

Sometimes it comes down to just preference or subjective taste, and that’s fine and good to know. But more often than not, you’re reacting to something concrete that can be identified: 

The ending of HOUSE OF SALT AND SORROWS feels disjointed because it comes out of nowhere and has nothing to do with our heroine’s efforts in the larger story. I didn’t connect with the main character in HEARTLESS because within the context of the worldbuilding, her choices didn’t make sense. What really resonated with me about the plot of UPROOTED is its thematic coherency. The Darkling appeals to me more than Mal because the villain romance power fantasy aspect of the series is better fleshed out and ultimately more rewarding to read than the love story of two flawed teenagers. ACOWAR’s use of trauma and recovery makes me uncomfortable because it ceases to be a sincere element of anyone’s arc or characterization and becomes yet another tool to make Rhys look like the best and coolest and wokest fae boyfriend.

Pulled from an old Captain Awkward article, this is something I have in a sticky note on my desktop as sort of a criticism guide: 

One of the things we try to do is to push past “I liked it”/”I didn’t like it” as reactions to work. What is it? What is it trying to be? Is it good at being that thing? Was that a good thing to try to be in the first place? Did the artist have a specific agenda? How did it play with audiences at the time? Does it play the same way now? What stereotypes does it reinforce/undermine?

Even if it’s only for your own personal growth rather than intended for an audience, I recommend putting burgeoning critical thoughts or questions you’re trying to “work through” down in writing somewhere: goodreads reviews! tweets! blog posts! spamming your group chat! Even just a private word document. The synthesis of thoughts into written content forces you to identify and choose a specific articulation of your idea(s). If it’s in a pubic or semipublic forum, you’ll also be able to see which of your ideas resonate with other people, and that can (isn’t always, but CAN) be useful information as far as having an external barometer for when you’re onto something.

And then..... you do that a bunch of times in different ways for many years, with a lot of different books and movies and games and whatever else. Like any other skill, you will get better the more you do it. (Again: I have been doing this for ten years now, and it still took me three months to write that video script. Forming nuanced, informed opinions and then articulating them coherently is hard.)

As kind of a footnote tip, seek out peers who have the same goals and feelings, and try to connect with them! Lots of my current internet friends found me back when I was posting on my personal blog about problems i had with THE SELECTION or RED QUEEN and we bonded over having similar opinions and being in similar places in our writing/ reading/ careers. These people now beta read my scripts and posts and help me brainstorm or refine ideas. I strongly believe that creatives (and critics) do their best work and grow the most within a network of support and feedback.

But also, in regards to creative writing in particular, i want to be clear that having fun is the most important thing. I absolutely think creators need analytical skills to improve their craft, but without the enjoyment of doing the thing at the core of it, there is no craft at all. If you have to choose between the "smart” thing and the fun thing, choose the fun thing. Tbh, if you’re worried your work is bland, analysis probably isn’t the solution--  figuring out how to have more fun is the solution. And letting yourself lean into the stuff that’s wild and awesome and so incredibly you that it sets you on fire to write is a skill of its own :)

[deltaengineering]

Winter Anime 2020 Reviews: brought to you by quarantine

aw shit look who’s got the time to do some of these again yeah that’s right it’s me

22/7

For 11/12 of its runtime this was an astonishingly forced exercise in hacky tragic backstory that thoroughly answers the question of what happens when assembly line jobbers jump on the already rickety KyoAni bandwagon. So I was ready to give it a well deserved meme score of 3.14/10. Then it remembered it actually had a gimmick and managed to completely fail at that as well, with one of the most thematically misguided endings I can think of. Oh well, if nothing else I laughed. 2/10

Asteroid in Love

Well, it’s competent and inoffensive. What else can I say? I guess it’s pretty amusing how blatant the gay marriage implications get by the end, but that’s not really, you know, quality all by its own (and Harukana Receive does it better). It’s also weird how its first season clearly ends at episode 9 and it just quickly does a second one in the time it has left. Apart from that it’s a slightly above-average Kiraralike with good character moments but a real drought of content (note: dropping exposition on your topic isn’t content) in the middle. Fun enough, but really doesn’t leave me wanting more. 6/10

Dorohedoro

This had much potential to suck but then it didn’t. The biggest surprise was that Dorohedoro is a comedy; a splatter comedy with a core story worth taking seriously, yes, but this is not horror, or mystery, or even action, even if it has all those elements at points. And it manages to be consistently funny. The other big surprise is that the nonsense really does start to come together and is meaningful where it counts, so it has much better worldbuilding than most. Looks really good too - you might take exception to the CG, but it allowed MAPPA to make the rest look great so it’s overall still a plus. Definitely needs a sequel though, because the plot seems to just get started and then it ends like there’s an episode next week. 8/10

ID: INVADED

Ei Aoki’s Inception fanfic turned out very nice, with neat visuals, cool characters and a story that comes together in the end. I mean, come on, it’s an anime where Kenjiro Tsuda literally talks people to death, how can I not like it. It’s not perfect; it’s stuck with some pacing problems, strangely superfluous side characters and ultimately less ambition than it could (maybe even should) have. But it’s also weird in a good way and moderately thoughtful without being pretentious about it. 8/10

If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die

Romantic comedy? Eh, maybe not quite. Funny riffing on wota dumbassery without being mean-spirited about it? Yep. Oshibudo gets the tone (the critical aspect in a show like this) right and it actually ranks fairly high simply as an idol show when that’s not even the point, which is really surprising. It’s just very charming, even if a little simple. 8/10

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

So everyone’s losing their shit over how great Eizouken is and I’m just like nah, man. Not that it’s truly bad, it certainly has its fun moments and undeniably cool animation at times. But it really says a lot when in a show supposedly all about how amazing creativity is, the no-fun-allowed producer is the only character I like - Kanamori is indeed great, shame about Nerdlinger and Plot Device though. And it’s full of the kind of standard boomer animation bromides that just make me think “well, if Ghibli is supposed to be so great, why am I watching this instead of the real thing?” It also has notably poor and uncreative use of background music, which wouldn’t irk me as much if it wasn’t lecturing on the topic. At this point I’m fairly certain that I simply don’t like Yuasa’s style much, no matter what he does. 6/10

Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story

So I’m watching the “final” episode of this and I realize that I care about this random, poorly explained fanservice fight between Mami and Sayaka much more than I care about any of the characters this show is ostensibly about. And that’s pretty much Magireco in a nutshell: It has very little of its own, what it does have is split among way too many video game characters, and it’s at its best when it’s just being dumb and bombastic or lazily replicating the style of Madoka. It’s definitely not good (and the things it does to the Madoka lore are double ungood), but as long as you keep in mind that it’s just meaningless Madoka-ish things, it’s barely entertaining enough. 5/10

Natsunagu!

Natsunagu turned out to be a pleasant (if very cheap) short film that’s severely compromised by broken up into weekly 3-minute chunks. Episodes that short can work, but not for material that depends on atmosphere and character engagement. I can only assume I’d like it more if I watched it all in one go. 5/10

Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It

This one started out as a one-note romantic comedy with the rare novel note, which then got more and more tired as it went on, and the introduction of decidedly less novel characters didn’t help. But by the end it recovered somewhat from not being much good at comedy anymore by being actually pretty good at paying off a romance, which is maybe even rarer. Remove bear though, what the hell. 6/10

Somali and the Forest Spirit

Somali just kept doing its thing (which is dadfeels/protect the blob). Still can’t think of another show so intensely laser-focused on that one thing, to the point they’re constructing an entire fantasy universe around it. I liked the fluffy/introspective parts a lot more so than the grimdark/”let’s get Somali into some danger so dad can rescue her” ones, but at least the former ones are more common overall, and I understand that both are important for the other one to work. So yeah, good show, even if I wish it used the big guns less often. 7/10

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun

I wasn’t too hot on this one at first (apart from the looks, which were always really cool), but I have to say it has won me over by the end. It has likeable and occasionally funny characters, some meat to its setting and a mildly interesting streak of intrigue running though it. Of course it also doesn’t really answer anything, but I’m satisfied. 7/10

Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki S2

Peer pressure presents: the other tourism short of the season, ft. material that fits the format. While it’s still not really good, it’s an improvement over S1. Mainly because it stops trying to extract humor from the characters themselves and gets back to dropping the hot #nagoyatruths, which are the thing I’m here for. 6/10

[diteach]

2020 in review

I was tagged by @apeironaxiomaton to look back at 2020 and pretty much to try and not hate it so much! Thank you!!

Also I’m stealing the idea of putting everything under a cut, which I have never done in my life (and probably should start doing) bc it makes things neat as heck. Almost none of these are in a particular order.

Top 5 movies I saw this year:

Volevo Nascondermi by Giorgio Diritti - this movie is REALLY good AND I have good memories tied to the protagonist for Reasons I’m gonna cry bye (a shame that I’ve only watched this other excellent movie starring Elio Germano tonight bc it should be on this list)

Emma (2020)

The King’s Speech

Spirited Away or Porco Rosso - I had watched the first before and never the second so I think the fairer choice would be Porco Rosso but I’m not entirely convinced of it

The Wolf of Wall Street - look, I simply have a weak spot for stories that are so absurd they can be nothing but real (see “the other Elio Germano movie”)

Top 5 TV shows I watched this year:

Murdoch Mysteries - it will stay engraved in the first place of EVERY chart in saecula saeculorum and NO nothing can take its place I don’t care

Peaky Blinders

Alias Grace - which I was sure was a movie? I was so shocked to discover it isn’t like was it really six hours long what the

The Queen’s Gambit

Suburra: Blood on Rome - “The series was developed by Daniele Cesarano and Barbara Petronio for Netflix, making it its first Italian-language original television series.” I’ll be honest, some bits were a little bit hmm-inducing. Not the best tv series I’ve ever seen, but it managed to be fun and easy to watch. Suspenseful even!

Top 5 Songs:

So there’s a reason why Spotify said I’m an octogenarian this year and for as much as I complain about it... it’s right... Spotify’s right. And it will only get worse, I’m afraid. All the songs are from the same playlist which was my most listened to (and is the most interesting to share imo). I swear I have listened to other, newer things as well.

Shake That Thing by The Abe Lyman’s California Orchestra

Night Hawk Blues by The Coon-Sander’s Nighthawk Original Orchestra

Where the Sweet Forget-Me-Nots Remember by Merle Johnston and His Ceco Couriers (I’ve loved these flowers since I was a kid it was so nice to find a song with them in the title!!)

Dew Dew Dewey Day by Nat Shilkret

The Panic is On by Mezz Mezzrow And His Swing Band

Top 5 Books I Read This Year:

so this is embarrassing,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I “bought” an insane amount of books and read a grand total of...like...t w o. It was actually like four and some short stories (which I hated and are therefore banished from the good boy list) so I’m gonna list my silly little titles and make my silly little comments about them all. From “””””best””””” to “worst” we have:

The Adventures of a Modest Man by Robert W. Chambers - I literally cannot shut up about this book and, yes, it is the one tied to this illustration, about which I equally cannot shut up about. It’s so horrible that it makes a 360 and comes back as good, but not before hitting you with a cardboard tube for a laugh and subsequently stabbing you in the kidneys just because it can. I think we can confidently state that we are in the “I didn’t say it was good, I said I liked it” realm. I have so many questions about this book. Why was it written? Was it taking itself seriously? Was it commissioned by someone? Why is it so gay but only if you know that the author is a man? Maybe it’s a parody? Was it an experiment made by the author to test his own skill? I know jack about literature, unfortunately, so grain of salt here but it made me feel strong feels. Not that I could identify any of them if you asked, but they’re definitely there.

Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot - I’m counting this in bc what is a book if not a patchwork of silly little paragraphs anyway so yes, we have a collection of poems. Not only do I know jack about literature; as a matter of fact, I know jack about poetry as well! All I’m gonna say is: I like cute things, I like cats, the poems were cute AND about cats. I really liked it! I often find myself going back and reading again specific parts just for the delight it is to read them out loud! I also may or may not have named the cats you can adopt in Stardew Valley after some of Eliot’s cats. The movie Cats (2019) did one good thing: making me read this.

How You Can Keep Fit by Rudolph Valentino - Yes, that is correct. A book on fitness written (in English!) by silent movie superstar Rodolfo Valentino. It is less than 100 pages on real, actual exercises that the reader can replicate in the comfort of their own house with little to no equipment. With a sprinkle of old timey manly manner of speaking, a few anecdotes from the author’s childhood in ye merry Italian countryside, a dusting of precious advice against ice-cream, and a dash of genuine intrigue for these newly discovered “vitamins” everyone is talking about. Overall a fascinating read that I treasure dearly! Valentino also wrote a book of poems, which I am absolutely thrilled to read this year.

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway - Hmm.. I have mixed feelings about this one. Whenever the original language of a book is English, I instinctively want to read it in that language. Because I can! And because that way I get to read exactly what the author wrote. If it was another language, I’d get a translation, make peace with the fact that selling my soul to acquire perfect knowledge of all things is morally questionable, and call it a day. Problem: I’m a sucker for old books. And old books I did find indeed. There were three books by Hemingway for sale, very pretty, and for an almost symbolic price too so I bought them. They are Italian translations from the late 50s and my plan was to go through one in Italian, one in English, and after that, decide in which language to read the last one. I believe it was a mistake for me to start with Italian in Hemingway’s case. He’s known for having a very, VERY peculiar style that is integral to how the novels are perceived and I feel like I've robbed myself of literal peace of mind. For as much as I found the story interesting, I could not ignore the voice in the back of my head that kept wondering “was it necessary to render it like this?”. It did make me feel feels and think thoughts, but honestly? It was partially for the wrong reasons imo. It’s one of those books you should read at least once in your life, I guess, so I’m definitely glad I did it! Surprisingly, it captured me more than I expected and trapped me into its little world. I could clearly imagine the scenes in my head, which hadn’t happened in years! I’m really excited to move on to the next two books and finally be able to say if I appreciate his style or not.

Top 5 positive things that happened to me in 2020:

Visited Rome and took a stroll around on my own (sort of) for the first time in my life. I had never seen it at night :) Right after that I celebrated my birthday and got some cute gifts, including sweets that were sent all the way from Australia!!

Managed to buy my mom a gift, which is possibly the only real Accomplishment of 2020.

Took a bizarre trip this summer (I know, guilty) and fell in love with Slovenia

Discovering I like textile arts kinda gave me hope for myself and for the future. I say kinda for I dare not think concretely of anything too positive lest it should be prematurely taken from me. I shan’t elaborate. It is what it is.

Therapy!!!

The last few months of 2020 really hit me hard whereas in the beginning nothing was too bad so it was nice to see the list growing and growing! So many tiny good things happened and it’s worth to cling onto them. I’m tagging @sonicysuchillydog, @nurmilintunen, @alfonzone and anyone else who’d like to participate!! “Tell them I sent you” lol. Guys.............if you don’t feel like going thru your 2020 feel free to ignore bc......I get it............................

[livlepretre]

for the writing ask! 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 30, 31, 32, 44, 48, 51, 53, 54 (any other advice?) - sorry for all the questions. im just really curious, lol

oh geez haha I will endeavor to answer!

8. Favorite trope to write.

obviously enemies to lovers 😈

9. Least favorite trope to write. can I list fluff as a trope 

12. How do you deal with self-doubts?

I hit publish the same way other people do impulsive things like jump off a bridge (I did that too once. woke up with nightmares about it for weeks). When you’re doubting yourself-- and I doubt myself all! the! time!-- the best thing to do is to steel yourself for like 5 seconds, take the leap, and then wait. Most of the time people are incredibly kind and receptive, and whatever plot point was causing the anxiety will either go unnoticed or will be appreciated by someone out there. I feel like so long as the writing comes from a place of honesty and isn’t about sensationalizing or taking advantage of anyone, then it will work out.

13. How do you deal with writers block? I let myself put the work down and don’t stress about it. I have a rule where I only write if I feel like writing. It’s a hobby for me, so if I decide I would rather watch The Office or go for a walk with my husband, I just do what I want instead. A lot of times that’s because I have writer’s block, but writer’s block can’t be pushed. 

If I am determined to write here are some strategies I employ: 

Chances are I’m stuck because I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, or I’m not certain of what a character would do. So I reread the story up until that point, make notes on anything I laid down earlier that is relevant to the part I’m on, and map out character motivations. Hopefully this helps me create a working outline that will push me forward. 

If I’m stuck because of trouble writing the story in a more profound sense, I put the story down and start something new and low stress. In other words, I intentionally start a project where the bar for publication is super low.  For example, both Love Bites and (The Stars Were Brightly Shining) are pretty much first draft stories. I would write the chapter and hit publish same day (most of the time). This gave me something fun to do that was still exercising the writing muscle but also gave me the opportunity for positive feedback and made writing fun again. 

If I can’t write at all, then I turn to reading. I read things that I really like, and I take notes on what I like about the story both from a narrative structure/plot perspective and in terms of the writer’s style and word choice. In theory we’re supposed to read a lot as writers, and writer’s block is a great chance to do so. 

And, eventually, I’ll be cooking or typing up something for work or in the shower and the missing puzzle piece will fall into place. It’s okay if that takes months. I’ve had 4 hiatuses on FE that have lasted 4-6 months each. So long as you want to finish the story, you will. 

14. What’s the most research you ever put into a book? ehhh probably watching seasons 1-2 of The Originals so I could figure out certain plot elements for FE. I do get sucked into research holes every now and then, but as they’re largely useless I try to scramble out of them as quickly as possible. (I say this with fear in my heart for the research I would have to do to write the 1492 time travel story I have in mind) 

15. Where does your inspiration come from?

Poetry, books I read and love, folklore, songs, my unhappy adolescence 

16. Where do you take your motivation from?

Honestly I get A LOT of motivation from everyone who reads and sends me a message. FE is a much bigger and much more arduous project than I anticipated, and the support has been a HUGE help. Also, for my other projects like SWBS, it’s such an inspiration to keep thinking about it and to get back to it whenever someone mentions it to me. I really do thrive on the community aspect of writing. 

Also, it’s turned out that the older I’ve gotten the more disciplined I’ve grown as a writer. I’m 30 now, and there’s a huge difference between my writing habits the last few years and what passed for them when I was 21 and writing After the Fire, But Before the Flood. 

19. First line of a WIP you’re working on.

Three broken ribs, a punctured lung, a broken collarbone, and a concussion, with bruising along her face, from where it connected with the side pillar, and along her throat and chest from the seatbelt. Two dead parents. A low buzz throughout the town: her name on everyone’s lips. - Nights at the Museum

20. Post a snippet of a WIP you’re working on.

Damon looks at her and cants his head to the side and he tells her, voice flip and unreachable as only his can be, “I see you’ve cheated death again.” He makes it sound like it’s him she’s cheated by not finishing the turn. 

She opens her mouth to respond, but what can she say? Death still sits heavy in her lungs. Smoke burns her eyes and blood clogs her nose. She could choke on the smothering weight of it all. On the weight of his expectation in her. His disappointment. 

“I never wanted to be a vampire,” she tells him, finally.

The look Damon gives her strips her bare. Somehow over the past six months she has let him in, and now that he is here, she cannot hide from him. “You never wanted to make a choice with your eyes open.” 

-Innocence 

21. Post the last sentence you wrote in one of your WIP’s.

well this is pretty spoilery for FE, so, reader beware: 

Rebekah has her pinned by an arm around her waist, her back flush to Rebekah’s front, both of them kneeling on the bed, while Rebekah reaches around and slowly fucks her with her hand. - Fairytale Ending

30. Favorite line you’ve ever written.

Right now I am very fond of this: 

Looking up into his face, into his eyes, gone dark and blue as the river back home when the moon was low in the sky, she finally admits the truth she's been hiding from herself for months. The thing she has been most afraid to ever, ever say, even to herself. Her gravest sin, which in this moment, feels like her redemption. "I love you." Saying it out loud is like the moment she drove the knife into her own side. - Fairytale Ending 

31. Hardest character to write.

Damon -- he has a very particular kind of humor and cynicism which I find really difficult to replicate (although I think I’m getting more confident) 

32. Easiest character to write.

Klaus-- literally there is nothing too extreme, it’s so much fun 

44. Best piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten. This will make like no sense but it’s from a creative writing class I took in high school, and the feedback was actually given to one of my friend, and I’ve remembered it ever since: “You have to use your avocado knives.” The context was basically he mentioned a pair of avocado knives sitting on a table and they never come up again. It’s the chekhov’s gun idea: when you put something down in the story, you have to actually use it. Everything in the narrative should have meaning if it’s mentioned, and work either functionally, metaphorically, or emotionally. 

48. Favorite genre to write in. Horror. 

51. Describe the aesthetic of your story _______ in 5 sentences or words. I’ll assume this is for FE: 

Gothic horror, where the blood is both in the grass and on the heroine’s hands. 

53. What does writing mean to you? It’s just something that I really, really like. 

54. Any writing advice you want to share?

I shared the bulk of it yesterday so here’s the rest: do what you want and have fun. 

[comicteaparty]

April 4th-April 10th, 2020 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble  chat that occurred from April 4th, 2020 to April 10th, 2020.  The chat focused on the following question:

What is something you’ve improved with in regards to writing or comic creation thanks to working on your story?

carcarchu

Oh this one i can answer definitively. it's 100% lineart. forcing myself to have to do lineart for hours everyday is definitely a way to force yourself to get better at it while i still don't like it it's something that i can do now without being scared about it

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Colouring. I had to get really creative in expressing emotion and hinting plot devices with colour. Also got much better with drawing gesture drawings due to looking at a lot of references!

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Either writing dialogue or drawing/painting backgrounds... I used to be particularly awful at writing dialogue. It was too stiff and formal, and sounded a lot like old prose. Now, because of writing a comic and going through several scripts, the dialogue is a lot more natural, and the pacing is more realistic to actual conversations. And the other: backgrounds. I really used to not even draw them at all, and doing a comic forced me to have to think about environments in scenes. So I went from drawing floating characters to having to consider where they are and how it affects the story/mood.(edited)

Feather J. Fern

Paneling! That was my main focus to figure out how to do good paneling to have clearer pages

Deo101 [Millennium]

Honestly? Everything. It's all gotten better and I've learned so much. I would say my biggest improvement is probably in my time management, and art wise is probably composition and layouts. But it's hard to pick because I've grown so much in every aspect!

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Biggest thing I learned was to keep the story small and focused - and that the smaller, more human struggles are much better in creating tension than the whole default "the world's gonna end!" thing. Mind you, I still love a good "world's ending" story, but you gotta make people CARE about the people in that world first!

Holmeaa - working on WAYFINDERS

ohohohoooo I have done more drawing in photoshop in this short time I have worked on Wayfinders, than the rest of my life! That has given me some skills for sure! Coloring is another one, and generally just efficiency and flow in a comic

Nutty (Court of Roses)

For me it's been my use of color, and getting more confident in experimenting with it to really drive home a scene's mood!

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

The clearest improvement I always notice is my layouts - I’ve gotten more adventurous with panel shapes and placement as time has gone on, experimenting with more interesting designs for the whole page. Some of those experiments haven’t been totally successful but it always feels like a worthwhile try. I’ve gotten some really, REALLY cool layouts out of these experiments, and I love seeing how dynamic the panels have become compared to my first chapter. Also speed. I’m so much faster now. Thank gooooooodness (edited)

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

@LadyLazuli (Phantomarine) I've definitely noticed the experimental panel layouts! They're really cool.

AntiBunny

Planning. Book 2 is when I started using sketchbook thumbnails to plan ahead. The luxury of that first draft meant I could rethink panel layouts and how to best express the events happening if I first had an idea of what was happening laid out.

Also digital art by necessity since I switched to digital during the current arc. I was decent at lineart already, but other aspects have really challenged me to grow as an artist. I had to totally rethink the way I create backgrounds for instance. During this time the background quality actually declined a little while I got used to a new method, but experience has improved my skills greatly as I force myself into new methods.

DanitheCarutor

Hmmm maybe paneling, speechbubbles and backgrounds? My current project is my second real attempt at doing a comic, but I have learned a lot of stuff from the community and general art and story tutorials. Backgrounds and bubbles were the worst for me when first starting out, I only read manga before starting so the speechbubble shapes did not fit with how English is written. Plus I've only drawn wooded fantasy settings before making my comic, so using a ruler, figuring out perspective points and drawing buildings was very new to me. I still hate drawing cities and such, but I've gotten a lot better at it and it is easier to do now. Since I mostly stuck with B&W before my current project, coloring also kind of improved? Depending on who's looking at it. Lmao If I were to think about story/characters/dialogue, I have no idea if I've improved. Honestly, I don't pay much attention to the quality. Also my brain kinda says it's all bad regardless of what I make.(edited)

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

For my Improvements: I'm getting better at my comic panels, as I adjust to the vertical style. Before I've always drawn the standard format. It's more than just boxes, I try to keep a variety of sizes. I'm picking up roughly how much 'gutter space' I need per 2-3 panels.etc I'm also improving on choosing colors that fits my love of detailed linework.(edited)

OH! I'm also learning about Clip studio shortcuts, how to use the assets they provide which makes the process, abit easier on me. Things I need to change, is I want to get a good speedy coloring style, without referring to my usual coloring.(edited)

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

the more I worked on the comic, the more I feel ambitious in making different angles and perspective. So it's really hitting me out of my comfort zone which is good! lol Though I'm trying to keep in mind of my speed, what I feel like I've improved a bit is trying to keep in mind of paneling and dialogue.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

Process! Space and i have definitely figured out the most productive way to produce content at the rate and quality that also provides us with time for our own projects. Comics are a useful tool that helps you discover ways to better organize your creative workflow for sure!

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I think probably scenery. I used to dread drawing inanimate objects but now I feel more confident in filling in a scene & even look forward to it sometimes. Maybe also page composition and paneling but I still have a lot to learn there

eli [a winged tale]

One of the reasons I embarked on the webcomic journey is to push myself to improve not only storytelling but also utilizing art to create a reader experience that would be difficult to replicate with just words. I’d like to think that 9 months into making A Winged Tale, I’ve improved on deciding when is a good opportunity to invest more into backgrounds vs character dynamics and when should be focused more on sequences of panels and composition. While the comic is written in a four panel format, more and more I’m finding areas where the story could be told by breaking those rules (attached pic). It’s a balance and I hope going forward I will improve more in pushing the limits of panels and find ways to express the story in fun and interesting ways.(edited)

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

Wow that's a very good description @eli [a winged tale] I look forward to reading more of your story journey

eli [a winged tale]

Thanks so much Joichi! I’m eager to keep learning~

Capitania do Azar

I'm gonna go with planning and actually getting it done. I'm so much faster because now the process is much more streamlined to me

kayotics

My whole comic was started s an exercise to just get better at comics generally so I’d probably say every part I’ve improved at? The biggest things are probably colors and the upfront planning process

Phin (Heirs of the Veil)

Ooof hard question. I think my main improvement lies with page and speechballoon layouts and writing natural feeling dialouge. I'd say maybe also character acting?

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I'm slowly learning how to create more engaging comic narrative. I read and research in the polished prem webcomics to see what makes them engaging? Like I'm going to challenge myself by creating a series of short stories with a reoccurring set of characters. Every new comic series I create is an experience, trial and error. Sometimes I skip the writeup and just go in blind, trust my own instincts. I'm glad to reach out and talk about it than in my own head. I hope by this year, I'll have at least 2 chapters of Hybrid Dolls out.(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I've definitely gotten better at planning/ outlining multiple chapters ahead of time. I did not even do this when I was doing the first 10 something chapters. (I did attempt an outline before I began the comic, but the story changed significantly from the outline by the time I started the comic, and I did not try to do it again for a long while.) I can't remember when I started, but I do recall having a lot of trouble the first time I tried to do it. It's gotten a little easier each time, though. In fact, I just spent the past few days outlining the next few very important chapters, de-tangling some big tangles. I'm really glad my outlining (and overall writing) skills had leveled up, because HOO boy, I don't think my 2014-2015 self could have done this!

I also became friends with enviros. I had already become somewhat comfortable drawing perspective when HoK started, but I had a sort of mechanical approach to it, like "oh I need some enviro for these establishing shots, guess I'll draw them." But now I LOVE drawing enviros! (some types anyway...) It's my comfort activity, something I treat myself to after a long day! In the thumbnails for my next few pages, there's a few enviro-heavy panels that I have to remove, because I drew too many of them (and the pacing got too slow as a result). I have to stop myself from drawing too many of these.

My biggest improvement is probably I've come to understand my characters and my themes much better, but that's more of a "I got better at making HoK" than a "I got better at making comics." There's definitely a difference between the two.

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

@keii’ii (Heart of Keol) ah I totally understand I tried the outline method before I start but my story changed alot after I drew it. So it start to feel like a waste of time for me, but I'll still write an outline to make sure to plan where my story heads(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah! I needed to draw those first few chapters to understand the direction of my own story.

The drawing part is an essential part of self-reflection, to try to understand what it is that I want out of the story. The answer has always been there in my heart, but I'm not able to see it clearly from the get-go.

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I end up breaking scenes and put them in for future episodes, since I want to get a certain flow in the story.

It could be tricky to see what it is you want out of the story until you are in at least 3 chapters in?

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I needed way more than 3 chapters -- though granted, my chapters are short, so that could be a part of it

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I see the early first script as testing the water. like a test to figure out the characters personalities. Unless you are bringing in old characters which you knew before?(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Even if the characters have been with you for a while, unless I have made a comic with them, there is a big chance that the characters will completely change, too.

DanitheCarutor

You know, I was thinking about about this, mostly about how I wouldn't have been happy if I was able to finish my comic the day I started. Then I realized I'm happy that I didn't. The first chapter wasn't the best, I was just learning how to coloring a comic, still fleshing out my characters and was still brainstorming small kinks in the story. I also still didn't have as much of an understanding of perspective, or panel and bubble layout. Even though I still have a lot I need to work on, I've gotten a lot better in all those aspects. Even though my use of color is weird, I've definitely gotten much more confident in it, enough so that I experiment and take a lot more risks with style. Even though my panelling can be boring, I have a much better understanding of how I want a page to look. I've improved a lot with my planning as well, like even though my thumbnailing/storyboarding only takes maybe 30, I've learned to step away for a bit if I don't like a layout, or analyzing why I don't like it and brainstorming ways to make it better. If I had magically finished the comic all at once, it would look really bad and may have been less readable.

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

That is inspiring to hear about your improvement @DanitheCarutor

Natsu-no-Hikari

Chiming in! Just this week, Miko (my co-creator) and I were discussing how far we've come from when we started our first comic (https://liarsgotoparadise.com/) vs. where we are now. I think there have been a lot of learn experiences, such as art, dialogue, general editing - but especially with pacing and character interaction. We regret that we didn't stop to focus more on that interaction, as we wanted to move ahead in the story...and now we can't change that, except to start now and not allow ourselves to grow impatient. Take our time and enjoy the journey - that's our new motto. There's a time to rush ahead in perilous moments, but there's also definitely a time to catch our breaths and let the characters mingle and speak. It's an improvement that will become more noticeable going forward in Liars and our second comic as well.

[acepoindexter]

can you give some nurseydex fic recs

I’m just gonna apologize right now anon I’m actually the worst at these but I will try for you.

First and foremost, I have to recommend the fic that both I and at least half of the fandom is obsessing over right now, All Hail the Underdogs by xiaq. If you’re not reading it yet, you definitely should be. It’s a nurseydex high school au, and it is fantastic. It’s still in progress and updates weekly, and the noise I make when I get the update email is frankly rather embarrassing. Nursey and Dex’s friendship, and it’s slow transition to something more romantic, is one of the healthiest I’ve seen in a nurseydex fic and I’m so razzed about it. If you’re one of the three people left who has yet to read this, I’m begging you to do so.

On with the list:

love made visible by i_kinda_like_writing

Bitty hummed, turning off the mixer, and said, “Actually, sugar, my advice is much more subtle.” He grabbed a spatula, scraping down the sides of the bowl, and then pointed it at Dex. “Stop being an ass.”Dex squawked. “What? I am not-”“You really are.” Or, Dex learns love through baking, and a few other things happen along the way.

This fic holds a special place in my heart, as I’ve read it quite a few times now. It’s a lovely Dex character study in which Dex and Bitty bond over baking and the therapy they were never able to get, interspersed with Dex coming out to his family, unlearning toxic behaviors, and falling in love with Nursey. The author’s use of symbolism is phenomenal, so if you’re into that, you’re in for a treat!

Overly Honest Methods: Hockey Science Editionby sapphee

Birkholtz, A. H., & Oluransi, J. R. (2016). It’s a date: Effects of designated attachment training exercises on hockey performance. Hockey Shit, 5, 5-16.ABSTRACT: This study replicated Nicholas and Jean-Claude’s (1983) date method study, to see whether participation in Designated Attachment Training Exercises (dates) could improve team partnerships, which are instrumental for on-ice success. Two defensemen, N. and D., went on 12 dates for the 2015-2016 academic year, completed the Ideal Partner Qualities Scale to evaluate their off-ice friendship, and performed partnered on-ice assessments to evaluate their team partnership. […][Or: Nursey and Dex go on dates, in the name of hockey.]

This is actually a series of fics, and they’re all just plain fun. These fics have some of the coolest formats I’ve ever seen, with the first being written in the form of a psychology journal. We get to see the progression of Nursey and Dex’s relationship through multiple different lenses, the first of which being Ransom and Holster, who are conducting an experiment to see if “friend dates” can increase two d-men’s compatibility. This is just a very silly series and I love it dearly.

a little like writing or loving by shellybelle

Nursey struggles with a homework assignment, and Dex just wants to go to bed.  

This one is short and sweet; it’s a lovely one-shot about Nursey struggling with a poetry assignment, and finding home in unexpected places, and unexpected people.

above, beneath, betwixt, between by shellybelle

It doesn’t start on a dark and stormy night.Later, Dex will think: that’s what lured them into the false sense of security. It’s hard to imagine your new room being haunted when you move in on such a nice day.

Another fic by the fantastic shellybelle. If you’re looking an author to binge, she’s an excellent choice. All of her work is incredible. This specific fic is about Nursey and Dex dealing with the aftermath of the Dibs Flip, where the problems and resentment between them are represented by a literal, actual demon haunting their shared bedroom. I’m a sucker for supernatural elements, so I enjoyed the heck out of this.

Fresh by WhatWouldLilyDo

Chris Chow is ready to leave San Francisco and get a fresh start. He hopes that Samwell University is the place where he can do that.Bitty’s sophomore year, from Chowder’s point of view.

I want to preface this one by saying that this is, technically, a Charmer fic with background nurseydex. However, the amount of nurseydex is substantial, and the sequel and most of the companion ficlets are nurseydex centric, and the series in it’s entirety is top notch. In my opinion, this is the most underrated omgcp series that I’ve seen, probably due to it being listed primarily under Charmer instead of nurseydex. It features trans!Chowder, ace! and bipolar!Nursey, OCD!Dex, and Deaf!Farmer, and includes my personal favorite thing in a nurseydex fic, which is Dex slowly but surely unlearning all the toxic mentalities that he came to Samwell with. This is just an all around good fic.

organza and honey by Acai

Will never meant to love Nursey.And yet, here he was.

This is a very soothing fic, which is surprising due to it’s subject matter. Dex dreams of his dead mother, and sometimes he tells her about his life and about Nursey. The author writes beautifully, and all the trauma that Dex is working through in this fic- the grief of losing his mother, and implied ptsd from this and from child abuse- feels very organic. For me, this is a very cathartic read, if for no other reason than the author’s writing style feels like putting on a sweater fresh out of the dryer. It’s not exactly a happy fic, but it leaves you with a sense that, perhaps not now, but soon, things will get better.

[offworldcolony]

Zack Snyder's Justice League, 2021 - ★★★

Daddy Issues: The Movie.

I'm conflicted about the existence of this film; as an exercise in studio interference it's fascinating, as a parable of what can happen when fans rise up, it's a cautionary tale, and as the shape of things to come, it's questionable. I don't think fans should get to decide anything; hiring the correct filmmakers and giving them creative freedom would be the ideal option because you give the people what they need and never what they want. What they want, as evidenced by everything, almost always sucks and they're left unhappy anyway. And this film might be the exception that proves the rule.

And although Zack Snyder's Justice League was a film worth creating from the butchered remains of the original incarnation, it shouldn't have come at the behest of how much vitriol was cast out there in the process, and it shouldn't be a signal that a rabid and butthurt community of internet trolls that believe they deserve whatever they want, exactly as they want it, should ever influence the film industry ever again.

This should instead be a reminder to Studios that they know about as much as Marketing departments or gamblers or stock market traders: they're just pissing in the wind and when it lands in the toilet they claim it's by some kind of design of their own making and brilliance. Hire somebody good and get the fuck out of their way. At least if it's shit (like this film basically is) it is the fault of one person's vision and I'd rather have a noble and coherent failure than a luke-warm, mediocre carcass of a Frankenstein's monster made up of opinionated Suits, en-vogue and focus group-driven decisions acting only as a commercial for toys like 2017's Justice League was.

So the film itself? It's incredibly enjoyable, I had an absolute blast with my family round watching it like an old-school movie night. Is it a better movie? Yes, 100% in practically every way. Is it a good movie? Nope! But it's one person's coherent vision, I just hate that vision and I don't think he pulls it off.

Snyder constantly undercuts his own good ideas by his own execution, stumbling into his own sandcastles; some sequences have some really fantastic starts and then they're shot and edited in a way that makes me crawl inside out with cringe; singing a Nordic-style Aquaman song: great, having someone really close up sniff his jumper and sing right at us: horrific. And there's legion of these terrible choices by Snyder, usually things that don't make logical sense but mean he can do something because it's simply cool. (Martha Manhunter anyone?) But we already know by now that cool on its own isn't enough. Snyder doesn't. Having Batman say "fuck" isn't cool, it's dumb. Having Superman say a cocky (rubbish) one-liner when he saves someone from Steppenwolf is out of character, it's dumb. More than once I was able to predict what a character was going to say before they even said it. Come on, this isn't Trey Parker and Matt Stone's Team Justice League.

On the undeniable positives are the colour grading, score, the reels of added and altered material and more. Most of the added scenes are way, way better, more coherent and the film looks great actually. It does look Olympian and classic as I imagine he wanted it to, like the cave murals Diana sees. The extra character and coherence allow the jokes and interactions to breathe; Wayne is a little funnier, Diana, sadder, Cyborg, actually here for a change with something to do, and seemingly powerful, and Flash (thank god) not annoying. Even Irons' Alfred gets basically the best material and comes out of it my favourite character. Truly the Alfred of the group.

What doesn't work with this is that there's so much slow-mo that it becomes laugh-out-loud funny and goofy rather than impressive and dynamic, and in a 4-hour long film, you'd better be damn sure that amount of slow-mo is necessary, even in the slow-mo shots you can palpably feel they drag on for a few seconds too long each time.

And my god let's talk about the soundtrack. So Snyder has now consistently proven himself to be awkwardly tone-deaf to good music in all of his films. He can't pick an appropriate track, he can't pick an ironic track. Every time he does one of his patented slow-mo, nothing sequences over a full track of music (it feels like) it's so awkward I almost got up and left my own fucking house. There's like five of these.

But the action here (apart from being blasted in the eyeballs by insane amounts of bright lights) was all really genuinely good here, he's got it down, the dynamism didn't feel stodgy and CGI-ified, wasn't just a big invulnerable guy bashing someone aside for ten minutes, they fought as a team, it looked and felt fun, and at times, really tense and involving. It's a huge step up from whatever they did for the theatrical. The Amazonian stuff was motivated, gripping and grand. Anything with Steppenwolf felt imposing and had heft and tactics to it. Bravo.

Speaking of Steppenwolf, his Middle Managers and Head Office in the form of marble liquid Henchman, Darkseid and CGI Anette Benning(??!!) felt like strange meaningless additions, as did the anti-life equation shit (this is what Marvel doesn't do, they're expert-level at exposition for newcomers and easter eggs for fans combined). Darkseid looked like a troll, neither imposing nor unique or cool, and I'm not talking an ordinary troll, I mean one of those shit ones that gets turned to stone in the sun, not even a proper fighting troll. He looked like the first mini-boss encounter in a Lord of the Rings videogame. But...

But Steppenwolf looked awesome and I actually liked him here and his Simp for Daddy schtick. I laughed at him a lot, but like Synder I had a lot of endearment for him and his cute, sad, hopeful eyes. Daddy please love me! I promise I'll do better! I can't explain why he worked this time but he did. Maybe it's because the story felt interesting (dumb but at least it all made sense internally) and it felt grand in scale and scope and had stakes and whole added motivations for everybody.

Speaking of what else worked, yes I enjoyed the 4:3 aspect ratio, I thought it would just be Zack Snyder wanking himself off again (see: Justice League: Dark or whatever they'll call his upcoming Black and White version) but I kind of loved it, it was almost euphoric and actually did replicate some of what going to the IMAX felt like. I liked feeling like these colossi of comic books were towering above like statues.

What didn't work was that the chapter headings had nothing to do with the chapters at all or anything that happened in them which felt strange. Also, characters over-egg their lines as if we're dumb and keep stating the obvious in such a first draft way that I felt myself getting stupider.

One of my main gripes is if you keep trying to one-up yourself, these character do not feel understandably epic and powerful. They're all kind of idiotic and silly and po-faced and posture so much and say snappy one-liners and prance around like Chads. Snyder thinking he’s some kind of subversive genius and all that is sweet, but most of time I'm laughing at his cloying fan-service. He's the kid that keeps telling you how great he is and you don't mind because you can see he's got no friends and he's been bullied. Snyder isn't as aggressively dumb and bullish like Michael Bay is, for example, and Snyder's movies are largely coherent. But he's trying too hard and I just don't like his vision. As little elseworld graphic novels this kind of shit between Batman and Joker works, or in films like Joker you can do some out-there things, rather than in this, a mainline, flagship series.

Zack Synder is a little like a first-time Dungeons and Dragons DM trying to impress his table with all his edgelord grittiness and "vision"; He is a child that has two figurines and is smashing them together and yelling "Look! Look what I'm doing! Superman is beating everyone up! LOOK!" Zack Snyder's Justice League is simply, more than anything, endearing. That's the best way I can describe it.

Endearing.

And this film being endearing means I can't hate it, even though I think it's rubbish; because if a child builds a fortress of Lego, it's not exactly the Taj Mahal, but it is impressive. But when he knocks it all down I'm right there yelling for him to pick up all the destroyed pieces now because it can't always be playtime. A film can't just be spectacle and chaos and whatever-the-fuck-you-want. It has to be about something.

Justice League is about nothing. The Dark Knight was about Chaos in a system used to Order even if there was chaos inherent in the order. And it asked you to look at that chaos vs unbridled chaos. With both Dent and Joker as two sides of the same coin; chaos and order, and it put that paradox or that choice to the people of Gotham. It was about surveillance states, money, and sacrifice. And so much more. The Dark Knight subsequently became timely and timeless.

Justice League is about nothing and it will fade into nothing because of it. The euphoria will pass. It's OK it exists. It OK that we move past it now.

source https://letterboxd.com/offworldcolony/film/zack-snyders-justice-league/

[alexanderwrites]

Hack Job: Why Were Hacker Movies Ever A Thing?

Lately i’ve been thinking about that weird and almost completely failed subgenre of movie that attempted to light up the LCD screens of our hearts, but instead faded like a broken computer screen: the hacker film. Now, I could ask what good the sub-genre has ever done for us, but the answer to that is clear and just a few inches above this block of text. The genre birthed this iconic Matthew Lillard role from the movie Hackers, in which he plays a (wait for it!) hacker named...erm...Cereal Killer. Because....he likes Cereal? Sure, lets go with that! He’s a character described by June Diane Raphael on an episode of the podcast How Did This Get Made? as “Disgusting”, and she is not completely wrong. He is disgusting, bizarre and the strangest character Lillard has played, and i’m including Shaggy in the live action Scooby Doo films. He’s a character that must be experienced, and once experienced, never forgotten. I mean - you’ve seen what he fucking looks like. 

But my point remains: outside of Cereal Killer (I am bolding his name because he is an Important Man), the genre has offered up very little to the world. I admittedly know nothing at all about hacking, and I don’t care at all about Hacking, like, i’d presume, 90% of people currently residing here on earth. But I cannot imagine that people who love Hacking (or Hacker Fuckers, if you will) queuing up to see Hackers, a film that thinks this is what the internet looks like:

Now, i’m no city-slickin’ mouse-clickin’ hacker, but I don’t think that’s what the internet looks like. I could be wrong, and character actor Fisher Stevens (I was about to write “beloved” character actor, but then I remembered Short Circuit) could be skating through a flashing pillar of internet right now. It’s a cool thought! Hackers came along in 1995, when future optimism was higher than it had been in years, as everyone believed the tech-bubble would never burst (spoiler alert: it did!) and that the new millennium would bring a world of positive changes and possibilities. The poor, innocent souls of 1995 could never have possibly imagined the true horrors waiting for them on the other side of the millennium...

But before Fred Durst became a thing in a hat that you had to look at, technology was booming, affordable and exciting. You got transparent Macs that allowed you to see through into the mechanical nonsense inside it. The new fangled e-mail gave us (I don’t know why i’m saying “us”. I was 3 years old in 1995. Babies don’t get emails) all the opportunity to open your email and then close it again as many times as you liked! So this is what producers saw when they started making movies like Hackers. They put their strongest marketing minds together and came up with “People got computers now. Make comPUTER FILM!”. Those wild bastards actually went and did it! And weirdly, Hackers was kinda ahead of its time. It might’ve been wildly inaccurate in almost every possible way, but it paved the way for a wave of (well, like 3) films. The Matrix wouldn’t be released for another 4 years, and Swordfish a further 2. If it did incite a trend, it was the only trend started by Director Iain Softley, his later film K-Pax tragically failing to kick start a new genre of films in which Kevin Spacey eats bananas with their skins still on.

Good stuff! Hackers does feel like a film that is unsure of whether it’s trying to replicate fads or start them off. I mean, characters rollerblade everywhere for no apparent reason in the film. That might be something Hackers do? I’ve never seen Mr Robot, so I cannot categorically say that Rami Malek doesn’t rollerblade his way around town like a Starlight Express extra who really hates computers. But I doubt it. So with the rollerblading, and the way....ugh...Cereal Killer dresses, it seems like the film is offering you up its own funky ideas that you could follow on from if you want to get murdered on the streets. Did its aesthetic style have influence? Was the game Jet Set Radio from 2000 and its rollerblading theme influenced at all by Hackers? Did Eminem see Johnny Lee Miller’s bleached blonde hair in the film (quick deeply important side note: his character is named Dade. DADE.) and think “huh. that would really compliment my insufferable personality!”? We’ll never know. The film is a weird exercise in style and trends, and the soundtrack, crammed with The Prodidgy and Underworld, is proof that at least the soundtrack department had its finger on the pulse. And, it could be argued that the film’s costume department at least came up with some creative cyber-punk clothing, and were bold enough to make Penn Jillette look like this:

The thing is, I liked the weirdness of it all, I like this misfires in capturing modern life, and inaccuracy doesn’t bother me really if a film is fun enough. I’m not a stickler for realism. I didn’t sit down to Face/Off and complain that it’s totally unbelievable that John Travolta is a human person. That’s not the issue. The issue, really is that with all the giant screen Playstations, pounding trance tracks and references to Coca Cola (weird, I thought Mountain Dew would be the Hacker’s choice), the film is in troubled water because of the fact that Hacking is unbelievably, deeply fucking boring. It is not interesting in seeing someone go clickety clack on a keyboard and make occasional faces to indicate that “oh no! the mainframe is busting my chops!” or “Huzzah! I clicked the mouse really fast just now!”.

Thankfully, the film has some fairly decent editing which intersperses the clickety-clacking with some long exposure, sped up shots of New York City just in case you forgot it was the 90′s. The fact that they need to cut away to exciting, zooming shots that have nothing to do with anything highlights the fact that the Director and Editor knew exactly what i’m talking about: HACKING IS FUCKING BORING (if you’re a hacker reading this, please don’t hack me). And they’ve built an entire film around it! A whole nonsensical plot which involves (as far as i can remember) big ships and evil corporations that want to sink the big ships is built on Hacking. Thank god this film is so wildly ridiculous, which keeps it from being entirely boring. It’s smart in that it knows to not make the film actually about hacking, but then you kind of ask yourself the question: why is this film about Hacking at all? Why is it called Hackers? Maybe a better name would’ve been ‘Bladin’ Teenz’, as an ode to their endless rollerblading. It’s a fun film, but a dumb film and proof that films entirely about hacking cannot really work.

The Matrix was a wise film. Exploiting that hip, late-90s techno excitement that everyone was buzzing over, it featured a hacker at its centre who really doesn’t do much hacking at all. In fact, Morpheus might as well have said “You Hack? Dude fucking grow up. Come on, i’ll make you a treat”. Sure, you’ve got the iconic green gibberish that turns up on the computers and would inspire a million shitty screensavers, but again the hacking is intercut with other action going on in the film. You have characters typing away and yelling shit like “I’m nearly in!” or “i’m not nearly in!” or “I am unsure of whether I am, in fact, in, nearly in, or not nearly in!”. But that is manageable and minimal, and in the end there’s so much more to remember about The Matrix that I don’t think anyone, when asked what it’s about, would say “Oh it’s about Keanu Reeves hacking on his dell”. It understood this caveat, and created its own style which would influence every single music video ever produced over the next 5 years.

These are screenshots from the video for Don’t Wanna Let You Go by 5ive, a very bad UK Boy-band that had 4 singers and 1 rapper, all of whom it’s safe to assume have passed away. 

The Matrix had the style, and the smarts to sidestep bland hacking scenes. You know what film doesn’t understand that hacking is boring? Fucking Swordfish.

Fucking Swordfish. A film so aesthetically ugly and repulsive in every way that it does the unthinkable and makes you hate Hugh Jackman. But it commits the biggest sin of all by giving John Travolta a teeny tiny beard - a decision which we still feel the fallout from today, whenever a new red carpet photo arrises of John’s new chin abomination. 

Looking like a cup of concentrated Michael Bay piss, the film leans heavily into stylishness - or lack thereof. Hugh Jackman is basically...sigh...DADE in the movie, and Travolta is regularly outfitted with funny sunglasses. It borrows a lot from Hackers, but while that had a naive, 1995 goofy charm, Swordfish is an aggressively stupid and oblivious movie, that gives us a LOT of Hacking. Like...so much Hacking. The Most Hacking. Oh, The Fucking Hacking. Its a reminder of just how boring Hackers or The Matrix could’ve been if they’d fallen into the wrong hands, and a big, horribly colour-corrected reminder that films about hacking really aren’t the best. Instead of cutaways of cityscapes, Swordfish tries to build the tension during one hacking scene in the grossest way possible: by having Hugh Jackman’s character receive forced fellatio while he works, and while John Travolta smiles. It doesn’t make a boring scene exciting, it makes a boring scene fucking disgusting (the movie’s grossness doesn’t stop there. Halle Berry was heavily pushed into taking her top off in the movie, and promised extra money if she did it.). The Hackers method of randomised cutaways feels a million miles away during these scenes, and you will be willing to pay any earthly sum to make the scene unfolding in front of you stop. Maybe that’s how hackers should make their money from here on in: stop hacking, and just start blackmailing people by forcing them to watch Swordfish. Fucking Swordfish.

The movie was also a bit of a death knell for a subgenre that never really took off. People realised “Oh, this is dull and crap to watch!” when it came to hacking, and technology moved on rapidly that there was a lot more to do with it than watch some guy slapping the keys of his iMac. I find it a really interesting subgenre to look back at, because i’m a huge fan of outdated technologies, fashion styles, turn of the millennium culture, and really quite poor films (besides The Matrix which holds up nicely). Hollywood has tried to make a manner of subjects interesting. Stock markets. Fishing. White people who buy zoos. Some work, some don’t, and it’s all about the way the subject is handled. Because of their reliance on technology, these hacking films feel so dated that maybe Hollywood doesn’t want to risk dipping its toes back into the cyberwaters again. I kind of hope they don’t, because I would literally rather never see a film again than have to even know that a film about Anonymous is being made. I don’t want an ‘edgy’ modern movie that’s made for Banksy to watch while he plunges his hands down his pants and goes to town. I want silly old Cereal Killer and towers of nonsense computer language dammit! I want rollerblading, coke-drinking cyberpunks! Oh well. Whatever happens to the genre, at the very least, we’ll always have Dade and The Gang....

[howtogetsteamgamesforfree06-blog]

How to get free games on steam with console

Improve Your Computer Game Exposure To These Sound Advice

Video gaming have altered a whole lot with time, and also the long term is sure to take numerous more adjustments. They may be fun and exciting to perform, and there are numerous varieties of video games for all ages. Keep reading for several helpful suggestions concerning video games as well as your entertainment.

Check your child's game enjoying time. Video gaming are really exciting and also addictive. A young child could possibly get pulled right into a activity for many hours on stop if there is no parental direction. Take note of the child's time and pressure pauses and greatest actively playing times to make certain your youngster continue to enjoys the globe around him.

Prior to investing in a activity, always check a number of different shops. Ensure you appear both on the web and in genuine mortar and brick retailers in your town. In case a video game isn't new, the price of a relevant video online game can vary commonly, specifically. By doing a little bit more lower body work, you may get a video game for the grab.

Don't eat unhealthy foods throughout video game enjoying time. It is a awful behavior to get into. Game enjoying is definitely not like physical exercise, and each of that unhealthy food will only result in excess fat. When you need to snack food, pick something healthier for activity enjoying occasions. Your system will be grateful for it.

How to trick steam to get free games 2017

Shut off all noise, be it the in-activity sounds or songs which you have put on, in the event you can't get past a particular stage. This will help to essentially concentrate on exactly what is happening facing you together with you may have a much better potential for proceeding inside the activity.

Persistence can be your good friend in terms of getting video gaming. Although most major-label games get launched with superior price tags, their charges will drop speedily with time. Hanging around several months can credit score you big financial savings. As an extra, you can often pick up far better versions (which includes enlargement package information) should you carry off of a little bit when.

This is a frequently known simple fact that most kids love playing video gaming. Being a parent, there are numerous facts you must keep track of in terms of your child's video gaming experiences. Very first, of most, ensure the your child's online games are age group-proper. After that, you have to set up daily limits on how much time you youngster can spend taking part in video gaming. Also, it is essential to be very clear in regards to the category of video games your son or daughter is permitted to enjoy.

If you are a parent or gaurdian, will not exclude games entirely from the child's daily life. Actually, some online games contain information which is educational for your personal youngster. Instead of showing your son or daughter, they could not perform games, encourage them to play educative and exciting game titles by buying the online games on their behalf.

Understand the content and security adjustments associated with a gaming consoles within your residence. There is usually a setting to hold young children from obtaining most likely unsuitable content. You can occasionally even change the suitable levels for each and every person's personal user profile so that you can get pleasure from titles not ideal for young children.

Soon after establishing a process about how long and just how often your young ones may play game titles, place that in creating. Article the guidelines inside a apparent area and make certain you evaluation them usually. Simply send to the rules that have been previously set up when a situation arises where your youngster disagrees with you.

Start seeing the recent styles in gaming to make use of the technical innovations that happen to be out currently available. The latest Wii controller has a movements detector, which happens to be a thing that you may want to experience with your video game play. Usually keep an eye out for brand new developments to maximize your video gaming experience.

Think of enjoying computer game trial offers before buying the comprehensive models. Trials enable you to try out online games to find out if you want to buy it. You can now truly feel confident adequate inside to acquire the total model if you enjoy the video game through the free trial.

Should you don't get the proper gaming system, replicate! There are numerous computer emulators which let you perform games beyond doubt consoles you wouldn't have the capacity to otherwise. Search the world wide web for your favorite titles and you should be able to develop a good duplicate at an affordable price.

Aren't as easily accessible right now, however secrets had been a significant component of gaming in past times. As an alternative, most online games incorporate "Easter time ovum," or hidden points, which can be exciting to view as well as enjoy. This ranges the actively playing industry in order that anyone has the capacity to engage in based on expertise rather than cheat rules.

There are numerous kinds of games to try out. They are a hobby for several generations now. From the old activity techniques to the more modern day kinds, video games have finally become a sport that keeps drawing folks. The popularity is only going to continue and increase since they acquire more complicated.

[cplankblog-blog]

First week!

Just wrapped up the first week of my program, and I’m EXHAUSTED. But I’m also still really excited, even though it’s a lot of work being thrown at me and it’s not going to slow down anytime soon. For the first week we covered: 

Full-Stack Development (what is it, what does it all mean, what is our particular stack?)

Intro to the terminal/ Git Bash

HTML Syntax

Git concepts and commands

CSS syntax + styles

Floating, positioning, box model

Chrome developer tools (SO GREAT!)

Keep in mind, this was a short week due to President’s Day, so we covered all of that in just four days AND had our first homework assignment due Friday at midnight. 

Lucky for me, a lot of these topics I was able to cover myself in the time between leaving my job and class starting. That being said, I’m really glad I’m taking the class instead of trying to go it alone. Having structure, context, and pre-made exercises really helps a lot. For example, I had been using GitHub for my first couple projects before class and I didn’t really understand how to use it or why things were (or weren’t) working. Going through the git process of add, commit, and push, gave me a much clearer understanding of how deploying a project in GitHub works. I wouldn’t say I’m an expert, but after just four days of structured projects using GitHub I feel much more comfortable with it. I’m looking forward to our first group project where I’ll actually be collaborating on code with other people! 

Our first assignment was to make a portfolio website, which I had already done. Of course I thought “Oh, I’ve already done this! It’ll be a breeze!”. And while I don’t think I struggled as much as some folks in the class for who this was literally their first introduction to HTML/CSS, it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. First of all, the assignment had very specific design specifications, so I couldn’t just jump in and make whatever I wanted. I found working within that restraint to be difficult - somehow it was harder for me to make a website that replicated something that already existed than it was for me to create something from scratch. Secondly, the code for my first website is not very clear or well organized. There’s no readme, I didn’t use comments ANYWHERE, so trying to use it as a frame of reference became very time consuming and, ultimately, not worth it. I’m glad I went through the process of making another website because I learned a lot and I’m already refactoring my first website using what I’ve learned. 

Overall, I’ve felt really great about the first week. I had a minor freak out because I felt like I was struggling “too much” with the website assignment. After all, I’d already made a website, one that was much more complicated than the assignment was asking for, so I thought it should just be a slam dunk. But it wasn’t, and that’s okay. Actually, that’s great! I learned a lot and that’s what matters. 

I’ve spent the weekend looking ahead to week two. Bootstrap is a big focus of the first part of the week, so I’ve spent the weekend reading up on Bootstrap and making some very basic sites. Honestly, right now I don’t love it. In fact, it makes me pretty uncomfortable. I don’t like that I can’t see the code that makes the “magic” happen, and because I’m so new I don’t full understand how to take advantage of that “magic”. Conceptually I know these shortcuts will really come in handy in the future, but right now I’m a bit frustrated because I feel like I could finish the assignment faster NOT using Bootstrap. 

BUT! That’s not what the assignment asked for. So I’m going to spend the rest of the weekend learning Bootstrap and hopefully making something cool. 

I also started the Wes Bos 30 Days of Javascript! I finished the first project, which was to assign a sound to the keys A S D F G H J K L and when one of those keys was pushed the corresponding sound would happen and the letter would be highlighted on the screen. You can see this project on his GitHub here. It took me about 20 minutes, and was really fun in the process. I learned:

How to use anonymous functions. In the end, Wes has us change the anonymous function to playSound(), but the way he approached the project was different than I had before

Removing transitions after the desired effect has been applied

querySelectorAll and querySelector

It was also the first time I’d had JavaScript interact with HTML/CSS in such a structured way. I did a little bit of that work with my Kitty Bitty Thunderdome site (rock, paper, scissors but with different types of Felines) but that was all on my own and I stumbled through most of it. Codecademy has been great, but so far it’s just been pure JavaScript and not as much of using Javascript with class and id selectors. 

Which reminds me! I officially finished Codecademy’s Javascript course! It took me WAY LONGER than I thought it would, but that’s okay. Once things started getting more complicated with classes and methods, I slowed down a lot because I wanted to be sure I understood it all. I think it’s the perfect time to transition to Wes’ 30 Days of Javascript and keep learning, and keep creating. My goal is to start applying this to Kitty Bitty Thunderdome so I can make an actually publishable project (spoiler: it’s not published yet ;) 

All in all, I’m celebrating my first week and looking forward to what’s ahead!

**I also got the meta data on my blog page to work properly, so now when I share on LinkedIn it doesn’t just say “weblink” and look really sad! Victories!**

[vernoncgillespie-blog]

2019 New Year Goals and Resolutions

Hey Everyone! The first week of 2019 is already over, did you make some New Year Resolutions? I love the New Year because we can start off with a clean slate and forget about last year. Actually, I did pretty well in 2018 and accomplished most of my goals. I only missed a few and I'm okay with that.

This year, I'm going to keep it simple and have fewer goals. I'll keep them under 10. Read on to see what an early retiree's New Year goals look like.

Setting goals

In previous years, I had moderate expectations and set goals accordingly. This worked well because I was able to accomplish most of the things on my list. I find that setting high expectations doesn't work for me because I can't achieve them and then I become discouraged. My style is to go at a slow and steady pace. Shooting for the moon is probably better for younger folks, though.

Here is my approach to setting New Year Goals.

Set achievable goals – Don't shoot for the moon unless you have a sterling record of high achievement. Most of us will just become discouraged and give up.

Make the goals specific and measurable – New Year goals need to be very specific. Don't make vague goals like losing weight or saving more. You can't keep track of it and you'll forget about them by March. A better goal would be to lose 10 pounds or maxing out your 401(k)this year. You also need to figure out a way to get there. How will you lose 10 lbs? Will you increase your 401(k) contribution right away? You need a plan.

Write them down and track your progress– Write down your goals and put them where you will see them. The refrigerator door is a good spot for many people. Personally, I put my goals here on Retire by 40 and update the status every month. This has been working very well over the last 8 years. I have a public audience and you give me the motivation to improve. I made tremendous progress with our finances and personal life since I started blogging. It's been terrific. I recommend starting a blog if you don't already have one. It really helped me and it might help you, too.

Academic scale – On some goals, I'm grading myself on the academic scale. For example, I plan to save and invest $100,000 in 2019. Even if we fall short and saved $90,000, I'll get an A-. That's not bad.

Ok, let's get on to the goal sheet.

2019 Goals

Check out my goal sheet below. It's simple and helpful. I can see my progress at a glance and it's easy to update every month.

I try to schedule most goals in the first half of the year because I usually don't get much done in the 2nd half. Summer is always tough because RB40Jr will be out of school. I'll try to get 3-4 things done by June. I plan to visit Chiang Mai in July and it'll be tough to accomplish much then.

Financial Goals

Increase our Passive Income > $60,000

We spent about $60,000 in 2018. That's a bit higher than I'd like, but it's still a pretty good level. In 2019, I'll try to increase our Passive Income above $60,000. This is going to be somewhat tricky because there are a lot of changes in 2019.

We'll sell our rental properties so our rental income will disappear in early 2019. I'll use the money to invest in dividend stock and real estate crowdfunding. I'm not sure if the income from these two will be able to replace the rental income. We'll have to wait and see.

Here is our Passive Income spreadsheet.

I'll grade this on an academic scale because there are too many changes in 2019. I think everything will settle down in 2020 and it'll be easier to predict what our passive income will look like. It might take a couple of years to push our passive income above $60,000.

FI Ratio > 100%

Unfortunately, we took a step back in 2019. Our expense was higher than normal and our FI Ratio* dropped to 95%. That's not bad, but I need to get this to 100% before Mrs. RB40 retires. There are many changes in 2019 so I'm not sure if we'll achieve this goal. I think our expense will drop after we move, but I'm not sure. Hopefully, we can increase our Passive Income to $60,000 and reduce our annual expense at the same time. That's a tall order, though. You can see how I'm doing with passive income so far here.

*FI Ratio = passive income / expense

Save and Invest > $100,000

In 2019, we saved and invested $102,817! That was fantastic! However, the primary reason why we could save that much was due to a banner year with my blog income. I saved a ton in my solo 401k account last year, over $40,000. I seriously doubt I we could replicate it this year.

The starting points for saving and investing have always been our tax-advantaged accounts. The contribution limits have all increased for 2019. Here is what we plan to save.

$38,000 in our 401k accounts. That's $19,000 each.

$12,000 in our Roth IRAs. That's $6,000 each.

$4,000 in RB40Jr's 529 college savings account.

$11,000 as employer contributions in my solo 401k. This one depends on how much money the blog makes in 2019.

Add these up and it's already $65,000. That's a good starting point. We'll have to figure out how to save more as we go. Oh, I almost forgot. We should receive some money from selling our rentals. We could invest that and it will help push us over $100,000. Is that cheating?

Blog Goal

Update Retire by 40

Retire by 40 still needs a facelift. In 2018, I changed to https, got a new logo, and made a few minor updates. This year, I'll hire someone to install a new theme. Hopefully, it will work out. I'm always scared of hiring people because I rarely get the result I want.

Personal Goals

Travel Hack 100,000 points

This is the same goal I had last year. I paid less than $700 for 3 tickets to Thailand in December. The credit card points helped a lot. Accumulating credit card points is not too difficult for me because I have to pay estimated tax. Those tax payments were enough to push me over most credit card signup requirements. We'll travel to Thailand again in 2019 so the credit card points will come in handy again.

***I just signed up for the Capital One Savor and got $500 cash bonus. Sign up before the bonus expires if you want the same deal. Click through the banner below to find the right card for you.

Consolidate down to 1 property

We're planning to sell our 2 condos then move into our rental home. This will simplify our lives a lot. Our tenants are moving out in February so everything is lining up. I hope we can sell our condos quickly and then move. We lived at our condo for 11 years and we really enjoyed it. However, the HOA fee and property tax had increased considerably. It's time to move on. I'm pretty sure our housing cost will be lower after we move into a house. Mrs. RB40 also doesn't want to be a landlord. She was very disgruntled when I left her to handle the tenants on this 5 weeks trip to Thailand.

Drop weight to 125 pounds

I rarely make this kind of goal because it never worked before. However, I think I can do it this year. Last year, I got my weight down to 128 pounds. That's really good! The key was intermittent fasting* and regular exercise. However, I'm probably up to 13x pounds now. I'm eating a ton of food in Thailand. My relatives keep pressuring us to eat more. It's a way to show affection here. Also, Thai food is so cheap and delicious. Who can resist? We don't get this kind of Thai food in the US. I'll weigh myself when I get home and then work on getting down to 125 pounds before summer.

*Here is how I do intermittent fasting. I eat only from noon until 8 pm on the weekdays. This cut down on the calories and I don't miss breakfast much. I'm busy getting RB40Jr off to school on the weekdays anyway. Try intermittent fasting if you want to lose weight. It really works. If you can't do it by yourself, I recommend Martin's Fasting Course. He calls it – What's for dinner? How you can get jacked by fasting. He's pretty helpful for a wrestler/blogger.

Fun Goals

Keep my happiness level at 8 or above

This one is a tricky one. The 2nd half of 2018 was tough for our family because my mom was diagnosed with dementia. She had hallucinations and she was having a really hard time in Portland. The situation was stressful and it dropped my happiness level from 9 to 8. We decided to move my mom back to Thailand and it's been very successful so far. She is much happier here and her symptoms are greatly reduced. She rarely gets hallucinations anymore and that makes a huge difference.  Life in Portland should be less stressful once we get back. Hopefully, I can raise my happiness level back to 9 this year. It should be okay as long as there are no new problems. (Why are there so many problems in our 40s? Lots of my friends are having all sort of issues. It's a tough decade.)

Visit Chiang Mai for 6-10 weeks

I'm typing this post in a nice little coffee shop in Chiang Mai. It's pretty nice here for digital nomads. Chiang Mai changed a lot over the last 10 years. Now, there are nice gyms, coffee shops, restaurants, movie theaters, and all sort of nice places for everyone to enjoy. I wouldn't mind living here for a few years. However, Mrs. RB40 and Junior aren't ready to move yet so I'll have to put it off until later.

I'll come back in the summer to check on my mom and see how she's doing. Hopefully, she will be stable for a few years so we don't need to move her again. On the next trip, I plan to have a more structured routine. I'll get a gym membership so I can continue my exercise program. We'll also rent a place instead of staying with my dad. I can't get anything done with my parent around. It'll be a good opportunity to enroll RB40Jr in a Thai language program. He can only say “sawad dee krub” and “kob khun krub” right now. (Hello and thank you.) We'll also try to take a week off to visit Vietnam. It should be a fun trip.

So those are my goals in 2019. I'll give a status update every month so keep checking back to see my progress.

What about you? Do you have any New Year resolutions for 2019? Remember, the key is to track your progress. If you don't, then you'll forget about your goals and won't accomplish them. Also, get them done early if you can. Let's do it!

The post 2019 New Year Goals and Resolutions appeared first on Retire by 40.

[rolfpetronaz-blog]

2019 New Year Goals and Resolutions

Hey Everyone! The first week of 2019 is already over, did you make some New Year Resolutions? I love the New Year because we can start off with a clean slate and forget about last year. Actually, I did pretty well in 2018 and accomplished most of my goals. I only missed a few and I'm okay with that.

This year, I'm going to keep it simple and have fewer goals. I'll keep them under 10. Read on to see what an early retiree's New Year goals look like.

Setting goals

In previous years, I had moderate expectations and set goals accordingly. This worked well because I was able to accomplish most of the things on my list. I find that setting high expectations doesn't work for me because I can't achieve them and then I become discouraged. My style is to go at a slow and steady pace. Shooting for the moon is probably better for younger folks, though.

Here is my approach to setting New Year Goals.

Set achievable goals – Don't shoot for the moon unless you have a sterling record of high achievement. Most of us will just become discouraged and give up.

Make the goals specific and measurable – New Year goals need to be very specific. Don't make vague goals like losing weight or saving more. You can't keep track of it and you'll forget about them by March. A better goal would be to lose 10 pounds or maxing out your 401(k)this year. You also need to figure out a way to get there. How will you lose 10 lbs? Will you increase your 401(k) contribution right away? You need a plan.

Write them down and track your progress– Write down your goals and put them where you will see them. The refrigerator door is a good spot for many people. Personally, I put my goals here on Retire by 40 and update the status every month. This has been working very well over the last 8 years. I have a public audience and you give me the motivation to improve. I made tremendous progress with our finances and personal life since I started blogging. It's been terrific. I recommend starting a blog if you don't already have one. It really helped me and it might help you, too.

Academic scale – On some goals, I'm grading myself on the academic scale. For example, I plan to save and invest $100,000 in 2019. Even if we fall short and saved $90,000, I'll get an A-. That's not bad.

Ok, let's get on to the goal sheet.

2019 Goals

Check out my goal sheet below. It's simple and helpful. I can see my progress at a glance and it's easy to update every month.

I try to schedule most goals in the first half of the year because I usually don't get much done in the 2nd half. Summer is always tough because RB40Jr will be out of school. I'll try to get 3-4 things done by June. I plan to visit Chiang Mai in July and it'll be tough to accomplish much then.

Financial Goals

Increase our Passive Income > $60,000

We spent about $60,000 in 2018. That's a bit higher than I'd like, but it's still a pretty good level. In 2019, I'll try to increase our Passive Income above $60,000. This is going to be somewhat tricky because there are a lot of changes in 2019.

We'll sell our rental properties so our rental income will disappear in early 2019. I'll use the money to invest in dividend stock and real estate crowdfunding. I'm not sure if the income from these two will be able to replace the rental income. We'll have to wait and see.

Here is our Passive Income spreadsheet.

I'll grade this on an academic scale because there are too many changes in 2019. I think everything will settle down in 2020 and it'll be easier to predict what our passive income will look like. It might take a couple of years to push our passive income above $60,000.

FI Ratio > 100%

Unfortunately, we took a step back in 2019. Our expense was higher than normal and our FI Ratio* dropped to 95%. That's not bad, but I need to get this to 100% before Mrs. RB40 retires. There are many changes in 2019 so I'm not sure if we'll achieve this goal. I think our expense will drop after we move, but I'm not sure. Hopefully, we can increase our Passive Income to $60,000 and reduce our annual expense at the same time. That's a tall order, though. You can see how I'm doing with passive income so far here.

*FI Ratio = passive income / expense

Save and Invest > $100,000

In 2019, we saved and invested $102,817! That was fantastic! However, the primary reason why we could save that much was due to a banner year with my blog income. I saved a ton in my solo 401k account last year, over $40,000. I seriously doubt I we could replicate it this year.

The starting points for saving and investing have always been our tax-advantaged accounts. The contribution limits have all increased for 2019. Here is what we plan to save.

$38,000 in our 401k accounts. That's $19,000 each.

$12,000 in our Roth IRAs. That's $6,000 each.

$4,000 in RB40Jr's 529 college savings account.

$11,000 as employer contributions in my solo 401k. This one depends on how much money the blog makes in 2019.

Add these up and it's already $65,000. That's a good starting point. We'll have to figure out how to save more as we go. Oh, I almost forgot. We should receive some money from selling our rentals. We could invest that and it will help push us over $100,000. Is that cheating?

Blog Goal

Update Retire by 40

Retire by 40 still needs a facelift. In 2018, I changed to https, got a new logo, and made a few minor updates. This year, I'll hire someone to install a new theme. Hopefully, it will work out. I'm always scared of hiring people because I rarely get the result I want.

Personal Goals

Travel Hack 100,000 points

This is the same goal I had last year. I paid less than $700 for 3 tickets to Thailand in December. The credit card points helped a lot. Accumulating credit card points is not too difficult for me because I have to pay estimated tax. Those tax payments were enough to push me over most credit card signup requirements. We'll travel to Thailand again in 2019 so the credit card points will come in handy again.

***I just signed up for the Capital One Savor and got $500 cash bonus. Sign up before the bonus expires if you want the same deal. Click through the banner below to find the right card for you.

Consolidate down to 1 property

We're planning to sell our 2 condos then move into our rental home. This will simplify our lives a lot. Our tenants are moving out in February so everything is lining up. I hope we can sell our condos quickly and then move. We lived at our condo for 11 years and we really enjoyed it. However, the HOA fee and property tax had increased considerably. It's time to move on. I'm pretty sure our housing cost will be lower after we move into a house. Mrs. RB40 also doesn't want to be a landlord. She was very disgruntled when I left her to handle the tenants on this 5 weeks trip to Thailand.

Drop weight to 125 pounds

I rarely make this kind of goal because it never worked before. However, I think I can do it this year. Last year, I got my weight down to 128 pounds. That's really good! The key was intermittent fasting* and regular exercise. However, I'm probably up to 13x pounds now. I'm eating a ton of food in Thailand. My relatives keep pressuring us to eat more. It's a way to show affection here. Also, Thai food is so cheap and delicious. Who can resist? We don't get this kind of Thai food in the US. I'll weigh myself when I get home and then work on getting down to 125 pounds before summer.

*Here is how I do intermittent fasting. I eat only from noon until 8 pm on the weekdays. This cut down on the calories and I don't miss breakfast much. I'm busy getting RB40Jr off to school on the weekdays anyway. Try intermittent fasting if you want to lose weight. It really works. If you can't do it by yourself, I recommend Martin's Fasting Course. He calls it – What's for dinner? How you can get jacked by fasting. He's pretty helpful for a wrestler/blogger.

Fun Goals

Keep my happiness level at 8 or above

This one is a tricky one. The 2nd half of 2018 was tough for our family because my mom was diagnosed with dementia. She had hallucinations and she was having a really hard time in Portland. The situation was stressful and it dropped my happiness level from 9 to 8. We decided to move my mom back to Thailand and it's been very successful so far. She is much happier here and her symptoms are greatly reduced. She rarely gets hallucinations anymore and that makes a huge difference.  Life in Portland should be less stressful once we get back. Hopefully, I can raise my happiness level back to 9 this year. It should be okay as long as there are no new problems. (Why are there so many problems in our 40s? Lots of my friends are having all sort of issues. It's a tough decade.)

Visit Chiang Mai for 6-10 weeks

I'm typing this post in a nice little coffee shop in Chiang Mai. It's pretty nice here for digital nomads. Chiang Mai changed a lot over the last 10 years. Now, there are nice gyms, coffee shops, restaurants, movie theaters, and all sort of nice places for everyone to enjoy. I wouldn't mind living here for a few years. However, Mrs. RB40 and Junior aren't ready to move yet so I'll have to put it off until later.

I'll come back in the summer to check on my mom and see how she's doing. Hopefully, she will be stable for a few years so we don't need to move her again. On the next trip, I plan to have a more structured routine. I'll get a gym membership so I can continue my exercise program. We'll also rent a place instead of staying with my dad. I can't get anything done with my parent around. It'll be a good opportunity to enroll RB40Jr in a Thai language program. He can only say “sawad dee krub” and “kob khun krub” right now. (Hello and thank you.) We'll also try to take a week off to visit Vietnam. It should be a fun trip.

So those are my goals in 2019. I'll give a status update every month so keep checking back to see my progress.

What about you? Do you have any New Year resolutions for 2019? Remember, the key is to track your progress. If you don't, then you'll forget about your goals and won't accomplish them. Also, get them done early if you can. Let's do it!

The post 2019 New Year Goals and Resolutions appeared first on Retire by 40.

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2019 New Year Goals and Resolutions

Hey Everyone! The first week of 2019 is already over, did you make some New Year Resolutions? I love the New Year because we can start off with a clean slate and forget about last year. Actually, I did pretty well in 2018 and accomplished most of my goals. I only missed a few and I'm okay with that.

This year, I'm going to keep it simple and have fewer goals. I'll keep them under 10. Read on to see what an early retiree's New Year goals look like.

Setting goals

In previous years, I had moderate expectations and set goals accordingly. This worked well because I was able to accomplish most of the things on my list. I find that setting high expectations doesn't work for me because I can't achieve them and then I become discouraged. My style is to go at a slow and steady pace. Shooting for the moon is probably better for younger folks, though.

Here is my approach to setting New Year Goals.

Set achievable goals – Don't shoot for the moon unless you have a sterling record of high achievement. Most of us will just become discouraged and give up.

Make the goals specific and measurable – New Year goals need to be very specific. Don't make vague goals like losing weight or saving more. You can't keep track of it and you'll forget about them by March. A better goal would be to lose 10 pounds or maxing out your 401(k)this year. You also need to figure out a way to get there. How will you lose 10 lbs? Will you increase your 401(k) contribution right away? You need a plan.

Write them down and track your progress– Write down your goals and put them where you will see them. The refrigerator door is a good spot for many people. Personally, I put my goals here on Retire by 40 and update the status every month. This has been working very well over the last 8 years. I have a public audience and you give me the motivation to improve. I made tremendous progress with our finances and personal life since I started blogging. It's been terrific. I recommend starting a blog if you don't already have one. It really helped me and it might help you, too.

Academic scale – On some goals, I'm grading myself on the academic scale. For example, I plan to save and invest $100,000 in 2019. Even if we fall short and saved $90,000, I'll get an A-. That's not bad.

Ok, let's get on to the goal sheet.

2019 Goals

Check out my goal sheet below. It's simple and helpful. I can see my progress at a glance and it's easy to update every month.

I try to schedule most goals in the first half of the year because I usually don't get much done in the 2nd half. Summer is always tough because RB40Jr will be out of school. I'll try to get 3-4 things done by June. I plan to visit Chiang Mai in July and it'll be tough to accomplish much then.

Financial Goals

Increase our Passive Income > $60,000

We spent about $60,000 in 2018. That's a bit higher than I'd like, but it's still a pretty good level. In 2019, I'll try to increase our Passive Income above $60,000. This is going to be somewhat tricky because there are a lot of changes in 2019.

We'll sell our rental properties so our rental income will disappear in early 2019. I'll use the money to invest in dividend stock and real estate crowdfunding. I'm not sure if the income from these two will be able to replace the rental income. We'll have to wait and see.

Here is our Passive Income spreadsheet.

I'll grade this on an academic scale because there are too many changes in 2019. I think everything will settle down in 2020 and it'll be easier to predict what our passive income will look like. It might take a couple of years to push our passive income above $60,000.

FI Ratio > 100%

Unfortunately, we took a step back in 2019. Our expense was higher than normal and our FI Ratio* dropped to 95%. That's not bad, but I need to get this to 100% before Mrs. RB40 retires. There are many changes in 2019 so I'm not sure if we'll achieve this goal. I think our expense will drop after we move, but I'm not sure. Hopefully, we can increase our Passive Income to $60,000 and reduce our annual expense at the same time. That's a tall order, though. You can see how I'm doing with passive income so far here.

*FI Ratio = passive income / expense

Save and Invest > $100,000

In 2019, we saved and invested $102,817! That was fantastic! However, the primary reason why we could save that much was due to a banner year with my blog income. I saved a ton in my solo 401k account last year, over $40,000. I seriously doubt I we could replicate it this year.

The starting points for saving and investing have always been our tax-advantaged accounts. The contribution limits have all increased for 2019. Here is what we plan to save.

$38,000 in our 401k accounts. That's $19,000 each.

$12,000 in our Roth IRAs. That's $6,000 each.

$4,000 in RB40Jr's 529 college savings account.

$11,000 as employer contributions in my solo 401k. This one depends on how much money the blog makes in 2019.

Add these up and it's already $65,000. That's a good starting point. We'll have to figure out how to save more as we go. Oh, I almost forgot. We should receive some money from selling our rentals. We could invest that and it will help push us over $100,000. Is that cheating?

Blog Goal

Update Retire by 40

Retire by 40 still needs a facelift. In 2018, I changed to https, got a new logo, and made a few minor updates. This year, I'll hire someone to install a new theme. Hopefully, it will work out. I'm always scared of hiring people because I rarely get the result I want.

Personal Goals

Travel Hack 100,000 points

This is the same goal I had last year. I paid less than $700 for 3 tickets to Thailand in December. The credit card points helped a lot. Accumulating credit card points is not too difficult for me because I have to pay estimated tax. Those tax payments were enough to push me over most credit card signup requirements. We'll travel to Thailand again in 2019 so the credit card points will come in handy again.

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Consolidate down to 1 property

We're planning to sell our 2 condos then move into our rental home. This will simplify our lives a lot. Our tenants are moving out in February so everything is lining up. I hope we can sell our condos quickly and then move. We lived at our condo for 11 years and we really enjoyed it. However, the HOA fee and property tax had increased considerably. It's time to move on. I'm pretty sure our housing cost will be lower after we move into a house. Mrs. RB40 also doesn't want to be a landlord. She was very disgruntled when I left her to handle the tenants on this 5 weeks trip to Thailand.

Drop weight to 125 pounds

I rarely make this kind of goal because it never worked before. However, I think I can do it this year. Last year, I got my weight down to 128 pounds. That's really good! The key was intermittent fasting* and regular exercise. However, I'm probably up to 13x pounds now. I'm eating a ton of food in Thailand. My relatives keep pressuring us to eat more. It's a way to show affection here. Also, Thai food is so cheap and delicious. Who can resist? We don't get this kind of Thai food in the US. I'll weigh myself when I get home and then work on getting down to 125 pounds before summer.

*Here is how I do intermittent fasting. I eat only from noon until 8 pm on the weekdays. This cut down on the calories and I don't miss breakfast much. I'm busy getting RB40Jr off to school on the weekdays anyway. Try intermittent fasting if you want to lose weight. It really works. If you can't do it by yourself, I recommend Martin's Fasting Course. He calls it – What's for dinner? How you can get jacked by fasting. He's pretty helpful for a wrestler/blogger.

Fun Goals

Keep my happiness level at 8 or above

This one is a tricky one. The 2nd half of 2018 was tough for our family because my mom was diagnosed with dementia. She had hallucinations and she was having a really hard time in Portland. The situation was stressful and it dropped my happiness level from 9 to 8. We decided to move my mom back to Thailand and it's been very successful so far. She is much happier here and her symptoms are greatly reduced. She rarely gets hallucinations anymore and that makes a huge difference.  Life in Portland should be less stressful once we get back. Hopefully, I can raise my happiness level back to 9 this year. It should be okay as long as there are no new problems. (Why are there so many problems in our 40s? Lots of my friends are having all sort of issues. It's a tough decade.)

Visit Chiang Mai for 6-10 weeks

I'm typing this post in a nice little coffee shop in Chiang Mai. It's pretty nice here for digital nomads. Chiang Mai changed a lot over the last 10 years. Now, there are nice gyms, coffee shops, restaurants, movie theaters, and all sort of nice places for everyone to enjoy. I wouldn't mind living here for a few years. However, Mrs. RB40 and Junior aren't ready to move yet so I'll have to put it off until later.

I'll come back in the summer to check on my mom and see how she's doing. Hopefully, she will be stable for a few years so we don't need to move her again. On the next trip, I plan to have a more structured routine. I'll get a gym membership so I can continue my exercise program. We'll also rent a place instead of staying with my dad. I can't get anything done with my parent around. It'll be a good opportunity to enroll RB40Jr in a Thai language program. He can only say “sawad dee krub” and “kob khun krub” right now. (Hello and thank you.) We'll also try to take a week off to visit Vietnam. It should be a fun trip.

So those are my goals in 2019. I'll give a status update every month so keep checking back to see my progress.

What about you? Do you have any New Year resolutions for 2019? Remember, the key is to track your progress. If you don't, then you'll forget about your goals and won't accomplish them. Also, get them done early if you can. Let's do it!

The post 2019 New Year Goals and Resolutions appeared first on Retire by 40.