#like for example this is the only place where i consistently hear good things about fat people

[nerves-nebula]

I fucking adore your comic panelling, any advice on how to do it? Like specific ratios or ways to divide the page?

god there's so much advice i COULD give but i really dont wanna end up writing a book here. so I guess I'll say this: however you divide the page you should be CONSISTENT with it, i literally just learned/internalized this but it's made comic paneling soo much easier. when you break that consistency it will be more impactful. hold up lemme grab some pages.

so i recently started making loose stitches a 4 tier comic. it's not the exact same for each page cuz i'm lazy but i think it's made legibility way better. before i think it was kinda uhhhhh a little all over the place. not BAD but a little difficult to tell where your eyes supposed to go sometimes. which isnt great for a commic.

the page on the left in particular has always bothered me cuz i always read the top panels incorrectly and it's like. fuck man what is the paneling here why is it in two columns ????? that's so hard to understand. but the page on the right can be more or less easily understood (by someone who knows how to read comics) even without panel borders because it's just a simple 4 panel square.

one thing my comic professor really stressed was that he didn't like weird paneling or weird borders. for the most part, a square is fine. AND HE'S RIGHT. weird paneling is fun and cool but should be used sparingly or with intention, cuz if you do it too much then like. how tf are ppl gonna read your comic.

that being said there are a lot of cool ways to cut up panels even if they're just squares hold on lemme grab some examples

so the panels here are all square but the image in the one at the bottom is almost like a mural. one thing i really like to using is a lot of heavy BLACK, what can i say silhouette's have my entire heart.

in my fable comic, I used a 3 tier system. it wasn't the same exact size across all pages but all pages had 3 tiers of paneling. that way i can be a little more flexible with the SIZE of the panels to emphasize the more important things, without it feeling like it's all over the place

meanwhile in my comic final i used a 4 tier system where each tier was nearly the same across every page, but you can collapse tiers together for establishing shots and big reveals so that they're more impactful. it's still fully within the grid system I set up so it doesn't feel like it's messing with shit either.

ok i just spent a lot of time rambling about this one particular concept and it's probably not even what you wanted to hear about :') i didnt even go into ratios or anythinggg guhhhh sowwy

other than all that i'd just say you gotta keep looking at what comic artists have written and take note of how they use space and cut things up. there's this book called How To Read Nancy and it has all these exercises for understanding the building blocks of nancy. for real the author is OBSESSIVE and goes through everything of a 3 panel nancy strip from body language to spot blacks to the minutia of the background. we used this book in my class and did some of the exercises in the back and i think it's really good at getting you to THINK about what you're drawing. and you can easily pirate it if you're broke.

also try to make sure things dont get stagnant on a page. zoom out if you're only doing close ups (i try to make sure every page of loose stitches has at least one full body shot even tho I'm lazy and wanna just do talking heads- talking heads arent interesting!!)

also, take advantage of the fact you're drawing a COMIC. you can do shit in comics that you can't do in other mediums, try to implement them when u can! ALSO PRACTICE. you're not gonna get better just by reading and watching. you gotta do it lol. ok ok that's enough and you didn't even ask for that stuff you asked about PANELING sfdasfsd byeee

[faggotry-enjoyer]

earlier today i was like "yknow i love tumblr but it is too much of a time sink" and uninstalled it again. and here i am, crawling back, seeking those little dopamine hits in my endless scroll.

[paper-mario-wiki]

hi, i'm not the person who asked you about the life update, but could you elaborate on how being a creator means to live in a world of ideas instead of the real world? i'm just really curious about your reasons for quitting, specially because i want to create things in the future (not necessarily streaming, but anyways), hope you have a good day!

i'll be talking mostly about streaming for the sake of this answer, but this is similarly applicable across a wide range of platforms:

the job of the streamer is, effectively, to be the life of the party every single day. your goal is to be the person that has something interesting to talk about, and is quick with a joke, and has nuanced understandings of certain things, without actually obtaining any sort of "expertise" in anything lest you alienate viewers. short of having a stated goal for a stream, the only goal of the streamer is to let people relax with a voice they enjoy, saying things they like hearing. you can become very strong in different aspects of streaming, like in the production, or as someone who focuses more on a skill they've honed like art or speedrunning, but the demographic of streamers which pulls, by far, the most significant viewership, is personality based streamers.

this becomes more complicated when, for example, you are very interactive with chat, or you stream with multiple people at once. now, to maintain this charismatic sway you have (the one that got you the job in the first place), you must be able to adapt to and bounce off of other people, as you are now no longer performing alone. naturally, there's a need to not only manage your own flow of consciousness, but also to be at least partially in sync with someone else's.

beyond these complications, you must also consider drawing in new viewership. when i was a streamer, i was quite successful, relatively speaking. pulling 300 viewers consistently is something a very slim amount of streamers can actually do, and even then i was still making under 50k a year, which is not bad, but also not good. in paying for my apartment, my insurance, my travel fare, and all the other stuff that living independently draws money out of you with, i was more often in the red than i was in the green. hence, the need to draw in new viewers, which cannot be done without something eye-catching.

think about this: there are, at any given time, TENS OF THOUSANDS of streamers live in your native language on twitch, and they are all FREE TO WATCH. the attention market is sparse because the streamer market is oversaturated. and considering all of THEM want new viewers too, everyone is constantly refining and improving their craft, which requires everyone to move creatively in tandem with each other lest they get left behind.

if you are a streamer making ass-dollars and ass-cents, it becomes easy to begin resenting people like jerma, solely because everything he touches seems to turn to gold. i personally found it easy to feel very disappointed in myself when peoples projects that seemed so simple would take off. it was a constant "why didn't i think of that!" situation, at least for me. and when you don't have the energy to keep that up, or the social stamina necessary to figure that all out while also being upbeat and happy in front of people near daily, it can become very draining.

what i mean specifically when i say the "world of ideas", is like. there would be times where i could schedule out my failures weeks in advance. i'd be so in my own head about the process, i could see the exact path i could see myself taking that would lead me directly to ruin. how playing games i actually enjoyed would steadily drop viewership, or how focusing on my studies would make people forget about me. and of course this is augmented by my anxiety, i know this is absolutely not the case for every streamer, but that overwhelming feeling of needing to find a new game to play, or a new gimmick to use, or a new ploy to get money that doesn't make you feel guilty even though your source of income is mostly queer and mostly poor young adults and your rent is coming up and you're $200 short but you also just had a fundraiser last month about a DIFFERENT emergency but you cant make it a bummer or else people wont want to tune in so you have to make it something fun like "you laugh you lose!" or "$1 art request streams!" while feeling nothing but anxiety while youre trying to sound like youre enjoying yourself even when youre asking 250 people to donate every 30 minutes or so and nobody seems to want to and chat is moving slowly and. and and.

well, it starts to eat away at you.

[blubberquark]

Your Code Is Hard To Read!

This is one of those posts I make not because I think my followers need to hear them, but because I want to link to them from Discord from time to time. If you are a Moderator, Contributor or "Helpfulie" on the PyGame Community Discord, I would welcome your feedback on this one!

"You posted your code and asked a question. We can't answer your question. Your code is hard to read."

Often when we tell people this, they complain that coding guidelines are just aesthetic preferences, and they didn't ask if their code followed coding guidelines. They asked us to fix the bug. That may be so, but the problem remains: If you ask us to fix your code, we can only help you if we can read it.

Furthermore, if there are many unrelated bugs, architectural problems, and hard to understand control flow, the concept of fixing an isolated bug becomes more and more unclear.

In order to fix unreadable code, you could:

eliminate global variables

replace magic numbers with constants

replace magic strings with enumerations

name classes, functions, constants, variables according to consistent coding standards

have functions that do one thing and one thing only like "collision detection" or "collision handling". If your function does two things at the same time, like rendering AND collision detection, then it must be refactored

rewrite deeply nested and indented code to be shallower

rewrite code that keeps a lot of state in local variables into special-case functions

use data structures that make sense

write comments that explain the program, not comments that explain the programming language

delete unneccessary/unreachable code from the question to make it easier to read or from your program to see if the problem persists

My own programs often violate one or more of those rules, especially when they are one-off throwaway scripts, or written during a game jam, or prototypes. I would never try to ask other people for help on my unreadable code. But I am an experienced programmer. I rarely ask for help in an unhelpful way. Almost never ask for help in a way that makes other experienced programmers ask for more code, or less code, or additional context. I post a minimal example, and I usually know what I am doing. If I don't know what I am doing, or if I need suggestions about solving my problem completely differently, I say so.

Beginner programmers are at a disadvantage here. They don't know what good code looks like, they don't know what good software architecture looks like, they don't know how to pare down a thousand lines of code to a minimal example, and if they try to guess which section of code contains the error, they usually guess wrong.

None of this matters. It may be terribly unfair that I know how to ask smart questions, and beginner programmers ask ill-posed questions or post code that is so bad it would be easier and quicker for an experienced programmer to re-write the whole thing. It is often not feasible to imagine what the author might have intended the code to work like and to fix the bugs one by one while keeping the structure intact. This is not a technical skill, this is a communicative and social skill that software engineers must pick up sooner or later: Writing code for other people to read.

If your code is too hard to read, people can't practically help you.

It gets worse. Unreadable code is sometimes unreadable because it is un-salvageable. It is hard to understand because there is nothing to understand, it would not work, and you need to go back to the drawing board.

Defensive Responses

This is not where the problem ends. Often, after a couple of rounds of back and forth, after questions like "Well, you say there is a bug, but can you tell me what you would want the code to do in the first place?", or "Is this a class or an instance? If it's supposed to be an instance variable, could you give it a lowercase name?" or "Could you give that variable _obj a more descriptive name? It looks like you are assigning different things to this variable in different parts of your loop. Perhaps you could use two variables with different, more descriptive names", you see a defensive response. The original question asker is not interested in making code easy to read, just in making it work. As I explained above, this is a confused way of thinking, because ill-posed questions and unreadable code make it difficult to impossible to make the code work, or to even understand what making it work would look like.

"Style is irrelevant." – This is by far the most common one. Since coding style, comments, variable names, and even re-factoring code into smaller functions do not affect the output, and thus not the correctness of the program.

"I asked for help with bugs, not style." – This is a variation on the first one. As long as there is no concrete and discrete bug, style feedback and questions for clarification can be discarded.

"This is too much work." – The original poster explains that making the code more readable is too much work for them, and fixing the bugs would be easier for others.

"Nobody will see the code anyway" – Nobody will see the code of the finished product, so it's irrelevant. Sometimes there are variations like "We aren't graded on code quality, only correctness" or "This is for a class project, nobody will depend on the code, so we don't need robustness."

"This is just throwaway code, it doesn't have to be good." – Like the previous one, this is frustrating to read because somebody posted the code on a forum for other people to read and asked them to understand it, and then said he doesn't care if it's readable or debuggable.

"I asked you for help." / "I am asking the questions here." – The original poster refuses to answer questions, because he asked, he expects answers, not questions in return.

"Don't blame me, I didn't write it" – We have completely left the realm of correctness and style now. The poster knows the code is unreadable, or doesn't make sense. He tried to protect his reputation. But he doesn't like the tone of the responses. Its not his fault the code doesn't make sense. It's not his fault if it doesn't work. Common variations are "This must be correct, it was the accepted answer on StackOverflow", or "I copied this from a tutorial", or "Don't blame me, this was written by GitHub Copilot". Often part of the problem is that the code has different parts written in different styles, or uses different data structures in different places, and both parts could benefit from a re-write to make them more consistent with each other. At other times the problem is that the code from the book is "correct" for certain purposes from the book, but not really suited for the problem at hand.

"I apologised already" – The poster is frustrated because he said "I am sorry I am a n00b" or "I am sorry for my bad English" already. Then somebody said his code is unreadable or his prose makes no sense. The poster sees readable code, or at least code that is readable enough to understand what the idea was, as a courtesy, as a social custom, not as something necessary to make the whole question and answer thing work. The same goes for a firm grasp of English. The poster apologised already that his English is bad, and you should just see past it. Dealing with this is especially difficult, because Q&A is framed as some kind of status game, and the poster is trying hard to save face already. Push-back will make him feel like he is losing face, and he will only get more defensive.

Causes

So where does the problem begin? Why do people write unreadable code, post it online, and get defensive? I think the answer is a combination of programming skill, social skill, and simplistic mental models.

Software Engineering is Difficult: Obviously, one root cause is that beginner programmers can't already write readable code from the start. Writing readable, well-factored code that is easy to debug, re-use, and adapt is something that comes with experience. Writing code for other people to read can only be learned after one has learned to write code.

Magical Thinking/Limited Cognitive Empathy: The most common and most direct cause of this phenomenon – the refusal to help others read your unreadable code – is not the unreadable code itself. It is the belief that it should be easy for experienced programmers to understand the structure of and intent behind a piece of code, even if the person who wrote it didn't. If you see software as basically magic, and don't see computers as soulless automatons that do what they do because they are built that way, then this is an easy trap to fall into. A variant of this works for language. If somebody is bad at English, or bad at the technical jargon needed to ask his question, he will often think that the question he thought up in his native Klingon was perfectly well-formed, and that other people should have no trouble reading his words, because they also think in Klingon, so they would translate it into a question that makes sense anyway.

Status-Consciousness: Many beginner programmers feel the desperate need to distinguish themselves from other beginners, and if they have been learning JavaScript for two moths now, they want to be seen as real programmers, not as children who play with Scratch and build Redstone contraptions in MineCraft. They want to be taken seriously. This reminds me of a five year old boy who stretches out his arm and tells me he is THIS BIG, and he is already FIVE, going on SIX, and he will go to SCHOOL soon.

Naive Mental Model of De-Bugging: Every program has a certain number of discrete features bugs, and when you remove all bugs, you end up with a program that works. This is of course nonsense. You can write a program that has an indeterminate number of bugs, or a program that implements an algorithm that doesn't quite work, or a useless program, or a program that does random nonsense.

With any luck, sooner or later, programmers will learn the technical side, and the social and collaborative side of software development.

[stone-stars]

Illuminate me on music!, I'm not good at it but I like hearing people talking things I don't know. So idk, start anywhere I wanna learn. Gimme music faces from emily's work

lol there's SO many places i could start. first, let me say that i get so in the weeds with this. you don't need to be me. however, murph and emily are really deliberate with their music placement so even if you don't go super deep, you can start to notice patterns, especially with the super frequently used songs.

when it comes to frequent songs, alli operationslipperypuppet also did a very helpful "hey how concerned should you be" breakdown of some common songs, which i'll link here. i would say if you want to start paying attention, some easy ones to check out and start listening for are the purge, unknown tome, kingshammer, valiant ol' cobb, mee maw's burden, a fate refused, the campaign themes, twinkling lights of galaderon, and a friend for life. all of these are available on spotify, with the exception of kingshammer, and have very consistent uses. (the bahumia theme isn't by emily, but is on spotify). if you want to hear kingshammer, a good use of it is around 50 minutes into c1e80, during hardwon's flashback (ad free, so you might have to go later for ads)

another thing to note is certain songs get very specific meanings when applied to given characters. mee maw's burden and unknown tome are used incredibly consistently throughout bev sr's hell arc. twinkling lights of galaderon and a bastard no more/hardwon takes the wheel (both names have been used) are used throughout hardwon's.

emily also tends to write a lot of location-based music. a lot of cities have their own themes and their own instrumentation. a great example of this is the tsunaire interlude from c3, which has a very unique sound. also for example, the crick tends to have a lot of similar instrumentation. if you listen through the crick album on spotify, you can start to hear it. there's a lot of strings/piano, drums, and a lot of notes are drawn out in a very specific way.

it's very consistent. there are also like 200+ songs written for this podcast at this point, and so knowing every one of them is insane. but if you start to be like "i've heard this song before, where did i hear it" chances are it's in a moment that connects thematically. i can go into a lot more detail about any of this, this kinda became a "hey here's how to start tracking naddpod music" post more than anything and not really about the themes/uses of songs, but! yeah!

some fun little bonus notes of songs that are only used a few times but that i am insane about the repetition of:

a song called "torn apart" is used when moonshine opens the rift to the feywild during the tarrasque fight, and also when the world is breaking apart after the thiala fight and the boobs heal it

"i just want to know you're taken care of" is the song that is played when moonshine tells paw paw to write up her will. it's also played when lydia tells her that she deserves to be heard by her friends and she should tell them about her plans in hell. it's also used in c3 when callie tells foster that she's sorry for not giving him love.

"a memory" is introduced in episode 100 as thiala shows everyone the failed past adventurers and the "wheel of sorrow". it has recently been used in c3 for both references to the boobs and to melora's adventuring party (melora/telaine/aryox)

there is a specific royalty free (i think) choral song that plays when gemma appears at the party, when gemma dies, when jaina almost kills hardwon, and then later when hardwon dies at scarlet montgomery's hands. do with this what you will.

this isn't about a reuse but the song that plays in ep 70 when moonshine and lucanus are talking is called "a miracle child" and i need more people to know that.

i am insane about "a glittering reunion" (from melora and telaine's in 97) on so many levels. telaine is the piano. melora is the strings. i need to lay down.

[maybemoonout]

if you were to put together a milex starter pack, what would be the top moments you’d include?? love your blog btw! 💗

Hi there anon! I'm so sorry it took me so long to answer this, there's just a lot going on right now for me so I only really found the time to answer this now! I hope you don't mind and still see this T_T

A starter pack sounds like such a fun idea! I want this to be sort of a bite sized post that allows new people from the fandom to find a little bit of everything they need to know. I think that's a good idea, so I decided with that!

///

To get started, I wanted to link this post by @i-m-a-leaf-on-the-wind who made an AMAZING full blown post proving milex and it's wonderfully detailed and full of interview moments that start from the true beginning. A GREAT read if you need something to get you started!!

Some of my favorite moments that I got from that post are:

— Alex Turner on ‘Hot Press’ (x)

— Miles Kane, Les Inrocks Magazine 2016 (x)

And many many more from that post, it's also a great place to collect gifs since it has a lot, just remember to credit @i-m-a-leaf-on-the-wind !!

///

Another GREAT post to read about their relationship is this post by @paperlovesadness that discusses Miles and Alex's relationship as the definition of Twin Flames. It's INCREDIBLY detailed and has sources for all the interviews mentioned. It's honestly such an interesting study, the definition of twin flames, even outside Milex, so please do give it a read!!

///

More great reads for this fandom are song analyses! You can find tons just by searching, but personally I have read all the song analyses of @yellowloid and @paperlovesadness, and I love them A LOT. I also have a few of my own, just check out my #ask !!

///

@puppetsspace started a Milex Timeline of events but it only ever made it to 2007, I don't know if anyone else made a bigger timeline but this is still a great blog to check out for the early timelines! My favorite one there has to be this post where Miles sees Alex for the first time and he looks in awe. Very sweet!

///

@yummilexhub created a full blown collection of the entire EYTCTE Tour!! A great place to get sources and clips!! please check it out here!

///

Now for some more fun stuff, if I had to choose my favorite moments it would be really... difficult. I have A LOT in mind and I honestly can't pick just a few so I'll try limiting it as much as I can.

---

1. The Iconic Øyafestivalen 2016 hug

Need I say more? Miles HIMSELF posted this moment, so it's not surprising everyone loves it, including meself.

2. The Iconic Coachella Kiss

This is honestly my favorite for 2 reasons:

[edited] I was unfortunately a slave to the internet but I originally said here that they were really banned but really its just a rumour!! I hears the guy handling coachella really wasn't happy with the whole thing thoigh, still funny lmfao

It was the one of the few moments that were the closest to a kiss, there are a few others but this one is the most popular and most iconic because again of said reason in #1.

3. Sharing Clothes

This ones not really a moment but a collection of moments. I find it EXTREMELY FUNNY that whenever people do those "boyfriend style" things on Alex, you see the regular array of ex girlfriends or current girlfriend, and out of nowhere, it's just Miles HAHAHAHHA. LIKE IT'S FUNNY AS HELL. I find it kinda sweet that Miles is somehow the... consistent out of all of the styles, like no matter the era of Alex there's gonna be a moment where he shares clothes with Miles, compared to the others who obviously only ever share with him in one period. I guess that's the perks of being the best friend?

Some examples:

Striped Shirt

Leather Jacket

Fred Perry Cardigan

4. The Albums being called "their baby"

This one is a little more of a stretch because I've only ever seen it one time. In this interview Alex says "for the past 8 years we've considered...trying for another baby" then they both start laughing hysterically. It's funny and cute :)) If anyone ever sees a different moment where Alex and Miles call the albums their babies, please do let me know!

5. I Want You (She's So Heavy)

These gifs explain themselves I think

///

I honestly can't think of more on top of my head right now, if anyone wants to add more please do! I'll definitely add more later but for now, this is my starter pack!

I hope this is a good little collection of stuff for you guys to see a little bit of everything!

[thrashkink-coven]

Let’s talk about Angels!

Hello all,

I am an eclectic witch and I have been working (seriously) with a few angels, mostly Jophiel, Haniel, and Raziel, and a couple others, for about 4 or so years.

Many folks on seem very interested in summoning and contacting angels. I wanted to share some of my insight with you guys as someone who works primarily with angels. I’d love to hear your guys’ perspectives on them as well.

Something to keep in mind: My experiences and perspectives on these infinitely complex and impossible to understand entities are not the one true most valid ones. My experiences will be different from yours and that is okay and to be expected. While we can always converse and theorize together we must always respect and understand that we really truly don’t know shit 🖤🖤

So you wanna contact an angel. What does that mean?

One of the most important things we humans have to consider when working with angels is that our matter of perspective is super important to how we classify entities.

What are considered angels to some, are gods and demons to others. We consider angels to be angelic because of their nature and attitudes, but it is incredibly important to remember that just because one entity may be called “angel” and the other “demon” does not mean that the angel is this happy go lucky chummy fellow, and the demon is some evil bringer of chaos. Both of these entities are capable of being kind, loving and helpful, and both will quickly put you in your place if pushed to. Both will be willing to work with you regardless of your faith and what gods you follow. The difference between these two entities is more political than physiological.

I have consistently observed with many angels that you do not necessarily have to be religious to work with them. They are very subordinate to the idea of God, whichever God that may be for you, but it is not mandatory. They may ask you to consult “God”, but I have come to realize that they mean something totally different than we do when they use the word “God.” (That is super super important imo)

When I first started working with Jophiel, I only “worshipped” the mother goddess. With him we dabbled with YHVH and some others before becoming comfortable where we are now. With every God I’ve worked with, my angels have adjusted accordingly. Some may speak occasionally about “The one true God”, but again, I don’t think that’s something that we have the best understanding of as a species yet.

Invoking angels “in the name of ______” increases their strength and likelihood of manifesting in my experience as, angels naturally serve and aid God. God means many things. For example, an angel I work with who is very close to Father Lucifer will manifest far better when invoked in the name of Lucifer. My saint Haniel manifests with greater ease when invoked in the name of The Mother Moon or Lady Venus. I’ve played around with this a lot and it seems that angels just like to be aided in their energy when we call on them by a “greater” power. Some food for thought!

Believing in the angel themselves definitely is required as this is a demonstration of faith, but angels are not as concerned with religion as you may think. Some may insist that you are some kind of believer, some are very closed to YHVH, others are less so. Some will want you to be some kind of monotheist, others won’t have an opinion on that whatsoever.

Different angels have different natures, classes, and orders. It’s a good idea to have a very great understanding of angelic hierarchy before doing any kind of work with them. A seraphim for example may present themselves far differently than a Cherub, an archangel, or a lesser angel. Fallen angels may act differently as well. Each angel will have their own energy, opinions on things, and correspondences. Some angels are very fond of humanity and are very willing to be of assistance in magical operations. Some angels are very indifferent towards humanity and might not want anything to do with you. If you’re repeatedly being told no, do yourself a favour and leave them alone.

Don’t make this mistake of underestimating them because they are classified as a “lesser” angel or are not considered a “Great Saint” like Micheal or Raphael. The order of the hierarchy does not necessarily speak to importance or power, just their distance away from us on Earth.

Some angels are more accustomed to modern humans, crack jokes, and are in the know about pop culture , others may speak in very broken english and lots of things may seem to go over their heads. Some angels are very physical and will want to touch or caress you, some will keep their distance. Some angels enjoy sex and others don’t have any ability to experience it. All angels have a completely different set of morals than we do. They may seem aloof or ornery at times. Don’t assume they’re evil just because they don’t come off as enthusiastic.

No two angels are the same. Don’t contact Raphael and expect the experience to be anything like contacting Raziel. Make sure you know exactly who you’re contacting and that you have a good reason. Know what they are all about and what they represent. Don’t assume that what worked for one guy is gonna work for someone else. Likewise I suggest not talking badly on any other entities while in an angels presence, even demons or beings you think are “bad”. Many of these angels are related in ways we might not know. Don’t make the assumption that Micheal “hates all demons”. Talking bad on Asmodeus isn’t gonna gain you points with Raphael.

Avoid testing them by asking them questions like what happens after you die. Some may humour you but it’s generally considered rude and they are not here to spill the beans on all of the great secrets of life. Some might, but always ask these questions with reverence and accept “none of your business kid” as a valid answer.

Angels are quite proud of their names and will usually announce them upon arrival. Likewise they will likely correct you if you have them confused for someone else. Always be willing and ready to interrogate your angel in a safe and respectful way. It is important that you are knowledgeable on tricksters.

When you’re working with angels, be sure not to underestimate them. They are not your pets and they do not exist to make you feel good about yourself. They do not exist to simply tell you good things. They are brutally honest.

Higher angels, like Archangels, are *intense* and burn *very bright*. I’ve seen many people share the idea that unlike working with a demon, there are no prices to be paid when working with an angel. This is only half true. Angels usually don’t accept offerings, they don’t make traditional deals like other spirits may. But, they are an incredibly holy and intense thing to witness. Their presence can be mind altering. You really really need to mentally and physically prepare yourself for such an encounter. They will never make any attempts to harm you on purpose (unless you’re extremely out of line), but it can happen on accident if you aren’t being careful. It is in many ways like looking directly into the sun. This will likely exhaust you. Take breaks and don’t go too hard too fast. Some angels are more considerate than others.

Many higher angels don’t fuck around. These guys are not really beginner friendly. An angel like Michael is a holy warrior and is going to expect that you are committed and disciplined. He is a gargantuan energy and the ultimate protector. Do not flagrantly call upon his energy. Not to say that Michael is not incredibly kind and considerate, but that his energy is so INTENSE that his presence should only be invoked with intention.

The angel I work most often with sometimes appears in a form that is so huge I cannot see the top of him, like a mountain. He can appear truly terrible like an Erdrich horror. Other times they can appear so bright that it feels like my eyes might fry out of my skull. Sometimes they can be extremely loud, like cracking thunder. Other times they can seem extremely quiet, like they’ve muted the whole world. They can appear in human or animal form. Male, female, or something in between. Sometimes they just appear as rays of light or waves of energy. We must be not afraid even when they are being weird as fuck lol.

There are many methods. I like to use sigils and scrying mirrors as well as their names as a mantra for meditation. Whatever works for you is valid. 🖤🖤

[candeathbereal]

Disclaimer: I am basing this off of my own experience and honestly if you disagree with me. I would love to hear your opinion. Message me idk it’s up to you

My intense love for scorpio and capricorn placements together

Okay so I have had to come to terms wtih my emotions that get provoked by people with both scorpio and capricorn placements. I believe I can trace this back to my childhood since my mother has a Scorpio mercury and a Capricorn Venus. I would naturally try my best to stay on my mother’s good side so I think it’s funny how now every person I have met that has these placements can affect me in different ways, but together there is something so fucking intense that happens to me (emotionally and physically).

Scorpio placements are an interesting comfort for me. The “energy” that scorpio placements give off tend to make me feel very comfortable. I feel so energized when I meet scorpio placements. It’s a moment because my fourth house is in scorpio so it makes sense why I feel such a comfort right? For instance, my grandma has a scorpio mars and me and her will argue about the most random shit. The thing is that I don’t think the rest of my family understands it entirely. Afterwards my grandma and me will be joking with each other and I feel very close with my grandma. I think people see us disagreeing with each other and think we are mad at each other or something like that. When really it’s just a leo mercury and aries mercury communicating, so there is a lot of passion behind our words. I bring this up as an example because I have always admired my grandma’s passion and comforted by her ability to take charge and speak up when it is needed.

I do feel like her planets and how they are placed in my houses does help me and her bond very well. Her sun is either in my second or third house, and her moon is in my ninth house. If anyone knows more about the sun house synastry I would love to know more about it. But emotionally I have felt like I do expand due to her influence on me. I say that cause the ninth house is usually ruled by sag and sag rules jupiter. Jupiter is all about expansion and learning I think so yeah. Anyways her mercury is in my first house, her venus is in my third house, and her mars is in my fourth house.

Now let me compare that to my reaction to Capricorn placements

Capricorn is in my sixth house so I have had many experiences bonding with capricorn placements. Now the bond isn’t always the most positive or healthy but it is a bond nonetheless. I also want to preface this by saying that my south node is in my sixth house and in capricorn so even though I am pulling my info from my own experiences. I am still not sure how much will resonate since I think the nodes do contribute to my reactions to capricorn placements and such.

Moving on capricorn placements as a whole affect me. For instance, my boyfriend has a mars in capricorn. His way of doing things is definetly a bit different than me with my mars in sag. When he wants to do something he is very consistent and focused. He wants to become better at that thing and usually he doesn’t change or move onto working on something else for a while. Now comparing that to me who is fasincated in learning so much that sometimes I am working on one thing while learning a completly different thing. I tend to move onto things back and forth multiple times but that doesn’t always mean I am completly dropping that thing I was doing earlier. Idk if that makes any sense but yeah.

I do admire his will to be consistent. The only issue that comes up is when we are doing something together that don't really I want to do. Right now I am learning how to drive and he is helping me out with it. There are a couple of times where I will get so stressed out by driving that I will want to stop it. Now he won’t force me or anything like that to continue if I am not comfortable it. Instead he will talk to me through it all very logically and not exactly with the level of expression of passion I am used to. Like he has said to me that the reason he learned how to drive was because “he didn’t want to rely on anyone”. Now that is a perfectivily great reason but that was it. Idk it just felt very earth mars behavior imo.

Let me do another example. Now this one is about someone who didn’t have a scorpio placement but had a capricorn sun. We would work fine in a group but even though they had a taurus moon (I love taurus moons bruh) we didn’t act like buddy buddy. I became a bit more toned down and it was interesting because I met them through a theatre class. Actually I don’t think we really interacted much unless it was class related, but I do believe meeting and interacting with them affected me and my work ethic. I became more focused and overall like a leader rather than a “follower”. I am more or less just a person who helps where it is needed but sometimes I just do my own thing because I hate the idea of following orders from someone I don’t respect on a professional level. Anyways I’ll try to make another post to elaborate on this topic. Time to check for typos or any errors oof bruh

Talk to you guys soon :)

[loquaciousquark]

this is a jade love post

Y'all, I have to take a second here and extol the praises of @jadesabre301 as an editor. Not only is she flawless at the straightforward grammar checks and spelling and the base level objective editing, she has a true gift for high level structural analysis. That's some of the hardest stuff in editing, I can say from experience, but she's consistently excellent at it all the same. She can sit down and look at the raw bones of a scene and how it's built and identify the places where it's weak, and then she can step back and look at that scene as it fits into the overall narrative and do exactly the same thing on the entire work's macro scale.

That would be plenty. Like, in a free hobby that we do out of nothing but love of the characters and love of sharing, that would be more than enough. But one of the things she can do even on top of that is to... I don't know quite how to say it. She can hear the music of a text. She can pick out words that technically are correct but don't carry quite the needed nuance for an image or a feeling or a thought. She can look at a clumsy idea, see what you meant to say, and reword it in a line more cogently and precisely than the entire paragraph you used trying to get there. I know she'll read this and say, as she has for years, that she has no visual imagery ability, and that may be true, but the shape and form she gives to my clumsy clay drafts is the difference between a kid's first ashtray for their non-smoking parents and one of those elegant turned vases in a home and garden magazine.

It's not just rewriting, it's guidance and direction when I'm lost. Even if the direction is just, "this isn't right," she can always pick out what is not right about it, whether it's a word choice or a particular image or the base conceit of an idea, which is enough to lead me the right way when I'm waist-high in mud and completely blind.

I'm saying all this because I got her notes back on the revisions for the princess AU fic last night, and as always, she has taken something nice and made it right instead. She figured out the themes before I did and made them strong; she found the weakest places and showed me how to shore them up; and in one of the most rewarding things to me every time we do something like this, she just gets so darn excited in her notes. There's cheerleading and screams and gasps and "how are there tears in my eyes at this??" There's capslock and frank rejections of dumb phrasing and that crying ASCII face where the mouth is an underscore, except there are 25 underscores in a row. She feels so strongly when things go right and things go wrong for the characters and she shares that excitement every single time and in my opinion, it's truly one of the kindest things an editor can do.

Man. I'm just so stinking lucky, you know? She's so good at what she does and everyone should know it. Lord knows she makes me a better writer, both by example and by force, and it's one of the greatest gifts this hobby ever gave me. I hope everyone has someone on their side to do the same. ❤️

[izicodes]

do you have any advice for someone who kinda "failed" to break into tech and is still in the medium-level for learning. i feel like i've spent so much time (years) on this but haven't made much progress. how do i really get into it and stay in it? love your blog btw. i'm tempted to start one of my own but my projects are a mess and ugly 😭

I'm sorry to hear that you feel like you haven't made much progress in breaking into tech. It's important to remember that everyone's journey is different, and it's never too late to start or improve. But then again, you have spent years learning and you want to into the tech industry.

The obvious advice would be don't give up. My dad has been studying to get into Cybersecurity since the early 90s and he just got into the industry this year. He never gave up - family to look after and he could study like the other students in his university course because the large majority of them were single 18-22-year-olds who their only responsibility is themselves. Don't give up and don't compare yourself to other people.

You've got to look at what has been holding you back. Health issues, work issues, money? Can't study full-time or even part-time if you need to pay the bills.

Even if you can, are you consistent with your studying? We all know consistency is key. Studying for one week but don't study for 2-3 weeks won't work. I know the type of learner I am - if I don't code or study every day, even just for 30 minutes, then my tendency to procrastinate will increase a lot and it'll all go downhill from there.

Know your strength - build on the skills you are good at. Believe it or not, I know a developer I met in a discord server who only uses HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build websites and webpage themes for clients as a freelancer and he's doing really well. It's because he realised that he's really good at those three basic languages and he worked really hard to excel at them. Expand on what you know best.

On the flip side, you could look at job postings around where you live or nationally in your country and see what skills/languages/technologies they ask for the most for hiring developers. Example: I live in the UK and a couple of months ago when I was actively looking for a new Frontend Dev job, I saw that Vue.js, React.js, and PHP (besides the usual HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) were asked for the most. If I wanted those jobs, I would learn those technologies, create a few projects to showcase my knowledge in them, and start applying. That could be one way to break into the industry.

Another way would be certificated. Bootcamps, online courses, or in-person courses like university or community colleges. Yes, they say that you don't always need a university degree to get into tech but some kind of education you've gone through that is tech-related e.g. Google courses or the Frontend Dev course that Meta is providing (paid). My colleague completed a computer science degree but he then did a bootcamp and he completed and that's how he landed the job where I work. So even graduates are getting further education. If you can't afford the massive fees, Udemy is a great place to get courses. And don't be shy with the Havard CS50 course videos they have on YouTube - free and you get a certificate free as well!

The advice I give might not work if you haven't identified why after all these years you haven't gotten your foot into the tech industry. This is no way intended to be rude, but if another person who had the same amount of time you studied, and they have gotten a tech job in that time, what makes you different? Goes back to what I said about the things that are holding you back. Some of the reasons are inevitable like health but you need to keep making that effort!

If you need help, you need to ask. Find a mentor or support group. Having someone to guide and encourage you can be incredibly helpful. Look for a mentor or join a support group where you can connect with others who are also learning and growing in tech. You can search for them online, some people offer advice for CV/Resume help or real "getting into tech" advice on places like Fiverr or Upwork or just google for some consultants online. They would cost obviously but if you're really struggling, this might help. After completing bootcamps, they tend to help you get your first job etc so they might be worth considering!

The last bit of advice is do you have a portfolio? No no, like a proper one where you feel confident enough to give to family members, friends, and potential employers? No? Either learn to build one (free of charge) or hire someone to build it for you (costs money) A portfolio is a great way to showcase your skills and projects to potential employers. Even if your projects feel messy or ugly, focus on highlighting what you learned and what you accomplished.

Obviously, I gave hints of advice more towards Frontend Dev because that's what I know more of but you can alter the advice to whatever niche in programming you're into. Remember, breaking into any field takes time and effort. Stay motivated and focused on your goals, and don't be afraid to reach out for help or support when you need it. Good luck!

** I'm not the best at giving advice but I hope this helps 💗

[sophieinwonderland]

didnt you support transrace and transabled people (dont know if that was you or if it was a other account that looked verry simulair to yours)

Okay, this has been sitting in my drafts for a while. This seems as good of a time as any to finish this.

More than anything, my opinion is that my morality has to be logically consistent. For most transabled people, this seems fairly simple. BIID is a recognized disorder by many psychiatrists and trying to prevent a group of disabled people from identifying by a label that they feel describes their experiences seems ableist.

Transabled people who identify with a mental disorder are different from those with BIID, but I don't feel like they're causing any harm.

Transrace is... so much much more complicated. The very idea of race is a minefield because no one can even agree on what race is. Is it skin color? Is it history? Culture? Definitions can vary from person to person and from culture to culture, as well as what is considered offensive. There are things that everyone can agree are objectively harmful and racist. Hiring discrimination, areas with high numbers of POCs being denied education and infrastructure funding, racial profiling by police, etc. These are things that have clear, direct negative impact.

But other areas aren't as clear cut.

Not only do different cultures have their own ideas about what is and isn't offensive, but it varies so much within those subcultures. Something offensive to Japanese Americans may not be considered offensive to Japanese nationals and vice versa. For example, there are places across Japan that will fit tourists with Kimonos to wear, and it's even seen as polite (from what I understand) to adopt the fashion of the culture while visiting. But there are many people of Japanese descent abroad who are more likely to say that this is appropriation.

And where do we draw the line for what a headmate can identify as? A headmate can identify as other humanoid species such as elves and dwarves. What about fictional human races and ethnicities?

Is it only real races and ethnicities that are off limits? Are you allowed to identify as Azish?

I hear that people don't mind headmates having different skin colors as long as they don't identify as that race. So can a singlet also identify as having darker skin color than their bodies? And in what situations is it deemed appropriate to appear as your chosen race?

Headmates can draw themselves as any skin tone and use those as profile pics on Simply Plural. This doesn't seem controversial from what I've seen. But what about VTubing or VR?

When looking up statistics about her situation, one thing I found concerning is how it seemed that her identity was opposed more by white people than it was by black people.

And if race isn't skin tone but culture and lived experience, then what about people who are adopted by one race and raised in that culture? Can a white European child adopted and raised by a Korean family identify as Korean? And if they can, does it matter the age they're adopted by? Is there a difference between a baby and a 14-year-old who is adopted by a family of another ethnicity?

Another concern is whose opinions are being represented the most here, and making sure that the voices being represented are actually representative of who they purport to speak for. I prefer listening to statistics over individuals in cases like this. And that brings me to Rachel Dolezol who was the most high profile case of transracialism on the public stage.

When looking up statistics about her situation, one thing I found concerning is how it seemed that her identity was opposed more by white people than it was by black people.

However, while most white (65%) and other minority voters (68%) believe Dozelal was being deceitful, just 46% of black voters agree.

In fact, 52% of black voters think Dolezal should have stayed in her position as President of a Washington chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a view shared by just 20% of whites and 32% of other minority voters. Majorities of the latter two groups think she should have resigned from her post.

And while in another poll, most people of every race viewed her actions as unacceptable, black people were far more likely to view it as acceptable than white people.

I'm not entirely sure what to make of the statistics, because it does show that a majority of black people do find her behavior unacceptable... but the fact that they're more than twice as likely as white people to deem it as acceptable gives me pause.

I think part of the reason this is so complicated is because race itself isn't real. It's a social construct. It's something people invented to categorize and other different people. The very concept of race was invented to hurt and discriminate against people based on the color of their skin and places of origin

There is a mountain of complexity and nuance to these topics and I can't begin to wade through it all. Especially when you throw plurality into the mix, which current societal standards are not made to deal with.

Ultimately, I'll respect anyone's identity as long as it doesn't harm anyone. And I do mean "harm." Not just "offend." Because there are always going to be people who find atypical identities offensive. There will always be people who will see unusual things as strange or cringey.

TERFs are offended by transgender people. Transmeds are offended by non-dysphoric trans people. Endogenic systems offend anti-endos by our existence. You can never please everyone, and shouldn't have to change your identity to do so.

And that's my moral standard, at the most basic level.

My identity as a cis woman who occupies an AMAB body is going to offend TERFs and Transmeds alike, and my existence as a tulpa in an endogenic system will offend anti-endos. But their reaction to my identity isn't my responsibility and I won't hide who I am to make others feel better.

Ultimately, I've analyzed the moral arguments I've seen presented against people identifying as other races and ethnicities, and don't feel like I could justly say based on those that it's immoral while maintaining consistency in my own moral philosophy.

I guess that's kind of support, but I would probably consider myself leaning towards neutral just due the sheer complexity of racial identity that I prefer to not get wrapped up in. 🤷‍♀️

(There's also an issue over the term since "transrace" also refers to certain types of adoptions, but I don't think the term is the main point of contention here.)

[semperintrepida]

If Kassandra didn't have access to any of her superpowers, how do you think she would fare against Lara Croft in a one-on-one fight? What about Nadine from Uncharted or Abby from the Last of Us? My opinion changes depending on if normal weapons like guns or bows are allowed. If no weapons are allowed, I honestly think Abby would win, but no one else would. If normal weapons are allowed, it gets more complicated. I would be interested to hear what you think.

ooh, great question! And one that's difficult to answer—as you pointed out, it really depends on the situation.

My glib answer is that as a writer, I could show any of these characters defeating any other in a realistic way that you'd believe. That's my superpower.

So without going back to you and asking for more specifics, the best I can do is walk you through my thought process for writing a believable action scene between two characters.

(Lots of talk about writing action scenes after the jump!)

The first thing I think about is the situation and setting: Where are they fighting? When are they fighting? What universe are they in? Are they in our reality as we know it, or the mostly-realistic-with-a-dash-of-fantasy worlds of AC: Odyssey or the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy, or somewhere else entirely?

The situation and setting are crucial. Kassandra and Lara fighting in a traditional dojo would be much different than having them fight in a pine forest, or the war-torn Athens of AC:O, or a mining base on Mars. As Kassandra says to Kyra in The Breaking: "I'm surrounded by weapons." The setting determines what unconventional weapons might be at hand, if any, what cover is available, what bystanders or dangers might need to be accounted for.

Once I've established the setting of the scene, I start thinking about weapons in more detail. Do the combatants have formal training? What kinds of weapons and how much actual combat usage? How does the universe they're in treat weapons? As much as I love AC:O, that game puts all types of melee weapons on equal footing regardless of reach (length). It works within that universe because the game is consistent about its combat, but in the real world a dagger is no match for a polearm and that's fact.

Weapons tilt the table. Think of the moment in the Tomb Raider reboot where Lara gets that first gun. Her opponents could have 20 years of martial arts training and outweigh her by 50kg, but that doesn't matter a whit against a ranged firearm. The gun is the equalizer.

Setting matters. Weapons matter. Only when those parameters are sorted do I consider the physical abilities and hand-to-hand combat experience of the respective fighters. There are so many what-ifs to consider, and making everything fit together makes for a good logic puzzle. (And I haven't even gotten into the characterization aspects of writing action: not everyone has a killer instinct, and that matters!)

But let's go back to your original question and simplify things by thinking of the most basic scenario for unarmed combat: a bout taking place in the real world, in a neutral location like a dojo.

Even without superpowers, Kassandra is an impressive physical specimen. She has the strength to overpower opponents and the advantage of reach. She'd have a disadvantage in endurance, however, since all that muscle mass she's carrying is going to need energy to move it. (A good example of "strength vs endurance" affecting muscle mass can be seen in sprinters vs marathon runners.)

We'd also have to establish which Kassandra is fighting: young Kassandra (as we meet her in Kephallonia) or Kassandra at the top of her game, winner of the Olympic pankration and honed by at least five years of fighting damn near every mercenary and soldier of renown in ancient Greece.

To defeat her in unarmed combat in the real world, an opponent would have to:

outmatch her in physical ability and have just enough hand-to-hand combat experience to use it to their advantage, or

equal her in physical ability and hand-to-hand combat experience, or

have so much more experience that they could overcome all of her other advantages

That's a tough ask, and I don't really see Lara, Nadine, or Abby having enough hand-to-hand combat experience to pull it off, even against a young, less experienced Kassandra. I think Abby would come the closest, and if she went off and studied a bunch of hand-to-hand styles intensively for several years she'd make it an even fight.

So, to recap: it's definitely possible to contrive situations where one of them could defeat a non-superpowered Kassandra. I'd choose a setting and weapons that would support the challenger's strengths, and adjust Kassandra's experience accordingly.

Setting matters. Weapons matter. Experience matters.

[b00knerd1o1]

Gwen was brainwashed by the spider society

The BITE method of brainwashing lays out the four Major methods of brainwashing that cults use.

Behavior control

Information control

Thought control

Emotional control

The way that Gwen depends upon and interacts with the spider society, and Miguel especially, meets all four of these.

*Spoilers Ahead*

Behavior control mainly consists of controlling what a person does, where they go, and who they interact with. In my opinion, this is the one we see most strongly in the movie. Gwen relies on the spider society to provide her with food and shelter. It's unclear if she has an official place to stay, but we do know that she often crashes with Hobie. Even though he isn't the biggest fan of Spider Society, he is still a part of it, and Gwen would not have met him and have been able to stay with him without them. They explicitly told Gwen she wasn't allowed to visit Miles, and she was only allowed to go to his dimension when she was given a mission there, so they are clearly controlling who she interacts with and where she goes.

Information control is just what it sounds like control of what information a person receives. Miguel is the person who explains why cannon events must take place. He's the one who controls the narrative. Despite Peter B. also being there when Miguel's universe collapsed, we never hear him say anything about his experience or what he witnessed. Miguel also monitors all the spiders very closely. While we never directly see it in the movie, it can be assumed that if any of the spiders begin to question his theory, he will likely intervene.

Thought control is more challenging to point out because we can't see into Gwen's brain and see what she's thinking, but we can make some assumptions. Before Gwen joined the Spider Society, she never would have hesitated to help someone, but she stopped Miles from helping Inspector Singh because she has been made to believe it's the right thing to do. Gwen would still never let an innocent person get hurt, and so there has to be a huge amount of cognitive dissonance there. Miguel also reprimands Gwen for questioning the cannon and his 'teachings.' This is an example of people not being allowed to have negative thoughts.

Even though we are not explicitly told Gwen's emotions, emotional control is still easy to point out. One thing that often draws people away from isolationist cults is a feeling of homesickness. Because of the way Spider Woman is treated in Gwen's home dimension and her last encounter with her father, Gwen likely feels little to no homesickness, and what little she does feel appears completely unattainable. This stops her from wanting to leave. Miguel also creates huge amounts of fear in his followers. It makes it seem like any one of their actions could cause the entire universe to collapse. Additionally, Gwen has the fear of being sent back home.

BITE brainwashing are not the only control tactic used on Gwen. There were a couple of other things I saw that didn't quite fit into any of the sections about, so I'm going to talk about them here.

Miguel creates a major "us VS them" narrative both between the spiders and villains, but also between the society and Miles. Creating a group of people that people can focus their anger and frustration on stops them from turning it on you. Miles is used as a scapegoat throughout the movie. He is blamed for the initial incident Miguel claims caused all the anomalies, despite it clearly not being his flat. If anyone is to blame, it would be Spot and Fisk, but that doesn't hold the same weight. By shunning one of their own, Miguel makes it clear that being a spider being does not automatically put you in his good graces.

Another thing I want to bring up is the lens of "Look at all the good We/I do" Miguel casts on the spider society. I've never heard this brought up in major discussions of cults, but growing up Mormon, I saw this implemented a lot. Because the spiders are going around and helping people and returning anomalies to their correct dimensions, it appears on the surface as if they are doing good. I wouldn't be surprised if there is some huge board somewhere in the HQ that says something along the lines of "____ anomalies contained, ____ people saved, ____ universes saved." Even if they don't have that, any time anyone questions what the society is doing, he can reference those numbers and say, "How could you oppose us. How could you oppose all the good we have done."

I mentioned Gwen's reliance on the spider society a bit in the paragraph about mind control, but I want to expand on it. After she leaves her universe, her entire support network consists of the Spider Society. She has a mother figure. In Jesica, friends in Hobie and Pav, her 'job' is provided by them, her main form of transportation. Everything! She knows that these could easily be taken away. She knows Miguel didn't want her in the society in the first place. She knows that with a single slip up it will all be taken away.

Gwen pushing past all of this and speaking up at the movie's end is so impactful. She doesn't start out by questioning the canon theory; all she does is say Miguel needs to push Miles harder. That little step of admitting this man, who has taken up the mantle of a god, could have made a wrong decision is enormous. While she did still hurt Miles with her actions, it is still essential to understand why. She will still need to make up for her mistakes in the next film and win Miles's trust back, but labeling her a bad person ignores everything she went through.

References:

[thepodcasthoard]

The Ultimate Guide to Starting A Podcast [Checklist]

Part 1 l Part 2 l Part 3 l Part 4 l Part 5 l Part 6 l Part 7 l Part 8 l Part 9 l Part 10

The eleventh article Sydney gave me is an actionable list. The writer- Lestraundra Alfred- said she started a podcast in ten days by following it.

Determine your niche.

I know. Some of you who have been reading all the posts in this series are probably groaning right now at the repetition. I admit, as I was reading through them I was starting to almost be able to say the words in my head before I read them, like how I can quote movies I've seen a bunch of times.

But this is important- I mentioned before that it's better to be in the top ten of a smaller niche than top twenty of a broader one. But it's more than that- sites like spotify and apple podcasts use the niches you provide to categorize your show, and that categorization brings your podcast to those who are actually looking for similar things.

The article lists popular categories- comedy, news, TV shows and movies, and sports among them- so you can find inspiration in them and narrow your focus.

2. Identify your ideal listener

The article talks about going super specific with your listener avatar- age, job, education, income, other interests, hobbies, and where they live. This will let you think about what your perfect listener will think about your ideas and help you refine them.

3. Name your podcast and make a launch date

For the name, make sure you look it up a few times with variations so you don't accidentally use the same name as some other brand.

For the launch date, make sure to give yourself some time to do your preparations and recording, but not too much time that it's just procrastinating.

4. Format and schedule

There's a variety of formats, each with their own pros and cons. Interviews, co-hosts, and solo shows are just three.

The most common frequencies of publishing according to this article are weekly, bi-weekly (which I assume in this case means once every two weeks, not twice a week), and monthly. But the article also says consistency is key- don't do weekly for three weeks, and then not upload for two months.

5. Podcast host

Again, this is necessary because of internet jargon. An RSS feed is needed to upload to the actual directories where people can listen. The article lists a few via links which- as you all can probably guess by now- I won't add because I want to preserve their commissions. Plus, you'll probably want to read the article in its entirety to get all the details because I'm glossing over them to keep the big picture in sight.

6. Artwork

This article is linked, and it has a more in-depth guide on how to make artwork with examples. But this article recommends just browsing through your podcast listening site of choice and just looking at artwork, thinking about how yours will fit in.

7. Equipment

This article goes into the topic more in-depth, with specifics about what they personally recommend, but really a microphone, a computer, headphones, and recording and editing software are all you really need.

8. Create a trailer

Ah, finally, I can hear some of you think. A new step.

A trailer gives a new listener a chance to find out what your podcast is all about. So be sure to make it engaging and interesting.

9. Submit to directories

You'll be able to do this through your hosting site.

10. Start with three episodes

Another new step, yay! Not only does this give more content for listeners to really see if your podcast is a good fit for them, but it'll let your podcast get listens and other statistics more quickly. That means that the directory will read that and go 'oh! People really like this show. Let me move it to the front so more people can like it.' Your trailer shouldn't count in those three episodes.

11. Show notes

Yet another new step! Hooray! Show notes are basically really short blog posts that are under each episode and tailored to that specific episode. They're a good place for SEO (search engine optimization), and a way for avid listeners to follow the podcast on different sites, like your social media.

12. Get social media handles

Speaking of social media, you'll want these before you launch. This way you have them and can actually use them to promote yourself and the podcast. Domain names are included in this step.

13. Upload and schedule your three episodes

Once everything is edited and done, it's time to stick to your launch date you chose in step three and schedule through your hosting site to launch.

14. Market and celebrate

Now it's time to get the word out. You've worked so hard on this project, congratulations! An aside from me is to actually take time to celebrate. Don't rush right into more work, take the time to soak in your accomplishment, because it is an accomplishment.

[sasster]

aelium ofc... 🍩☕️🙈🙉✏️☁️🌠💗

🍩 DONUT - favourite sweet treat?’

I think Aelium might just have a sweet tooth in general! If you catch him around the office he’s probably grazing on a handful of Starbursts here or some ginger snaps there.

I think since because the emoji that is used for this question is a donut I feel the need to tell you his favorite thing to get from a donut place and I am absolutely certain that it is a maple bar. He likes to have a maple bar.

☕️ HOT BEVERAGE - do they prefer hot or cold drinks? what is their favourite drink?

Again… I think as long as it’s sweet he really doesn’t care that much. With the caveat of… If he is having a maple bar I promise you that he is having it with black coffee.

He would insist to you that the black coffee brings out the sweetness of the maple bar and makes it even better!!

His favorite drink… Hmm… He likes creme based things perhaps. A cute little strawberry something.

Actually now that I’m thinking about it this man probably goes nuts for a good strawberry milkshake.

🙈 SEE-NO-EVIL - whats a side of your oc that they don't want to show other people?

Hm. I think Aelium has an anger that is so well hidden that even Treader and Thuein haven’t seen it. His anger is really ugly, and as I’m typing this I’m imagining an Aelium angry enough to like punch a mirror but he’s only punching it because he hates how much his anger makes him look like

Well, you know who he looks like in that state. Or who he would be comparing himself to.

I think his anger has only ever boiled over like maybe three times in his life. There are drabbles in my head cooking about this. Oh dear.

🙉 HEAR-NO-EVIL - what is the worse thing your oc could hear from someone?

“You’re just like him, aren’t you?”

But SPECIFICALLY it has to be from someone that was directly effected by the him in question.

It won’t work from just anyone.

✏️ PENCIL - is there a particular quote / lyric that you associate with them?

Yeah. Too many actually.

“I wrote a poem in the palm of my hand, To eliminate the chance of me forgetting where I’m at If you cant read this, you’re awake We can get through another day”

[Made It Out Alive - Seb Adams]

☁️ CLOUD - a soft headcanon

Aelium… Half asleep. DEFINITELY goes MRRRPPP if you like tap on him or startle him. Little ear twitch. Looks at you all squinty…

Mrrrp?

🌠 SHOOTING STAR - if they could make any wish with no repercussions, what wish would they make?

I think he would wish for a greater capacity to help people. He just doesn’t want to see people suffer, which I imagine is an awful thing when you’re on Alternia.

💗 GROWING HEART - if they have a crush, is it noticable? what changes when they're in love?

Uhm. I mean I guess it depends on the quadrant but it also doesn’t really matter at all? At least as far as how he treats the person goes, because he likes to treat people with the same compassion and love pretty much consistently.

I imagine like

Matesprit - Uh… I’m gonna be honest with you. I don’t have an answer for this one. I think he just stumbles into this quad the same way I feel about ashen lmao

Moirail - He becomes a little bit more touchy. Touch his fingers to the tops of your hands, pats your shoulder as he passes by, any excuse to just.. Feel you.

Kismesis - This one is kind of funny because I’m pretty sure he would like… Start to pinpoint the things that annoy you a bit and then like.. Make it his business to bring them up in casual conversation but not in a way to piss you off like explicitly.. But like… Just to watch your reaction. I don’t mean like things that would like MAJORLY piss you off but like

Okay for example I used to know someone who HATED when people typed “yea” instead of “yeah”. It used to make him soooo mad. FOR NO REASON?

Aelium flirting with someone in pitch that feels so strongly about something like that would just add it into their text based conversations just to see…

Because he likes to see… People come alive? You know??

He would find the frustration cute… FUCK

(I am not leaving ashen out because I don’t recognize it as a quadrant, I just feel like it’s one you stumble into as opposed to actively look to fill so it’s pretty seamless)

Emoji Asks

[uboat53]

Over the last few days I've had a good deal of back-and-forths with some people opposed to gun control regarding the recent mass shooting in Texas and I've run into an interesting consistency in those conversations that triggered a thought. LONG RANT (TM) time.

INTRODUCTION

So the basic outline of the conversation is this, I'd mention gun control laws that may have prevented the situation such as Universal Background Checks or Safe Storage laws and the response would pretty much always be some variation of "those laws wouldn't have worked because he already had the gun in his hands."

I would then explain how, yes, he already had a gun in his hands, but the goal of these laws would be to change the situation so that a person like him would not have a gun in his hands in this situation and the response, consistently would be "but he would have gotten a gun and had it in his hands anyways." No matter how many times we went back and forth, this would remain the same.

This was pretty consistent, over several conversations with several people. There was a sort of mental block that prevented them from imagining a sequence of events that did not end with a dangerous man having a gun in his hands at the moment he became enraged.

FIRST THOUGHTS

My first thought was that they genuinely didn't understand the point I was making, but after I made the point in several different ways to several different people with the same result, I started thinking about other possibilities. After a while, my mind went to something else I had been reading lately, the concept of how Calvinism has affected modern conservative thought.

Specifically, Calvinism includes the concept of predestination, that certain people are predestined to be good and certain people are predestined to be bad. It is very much an "us vs them" mentality, similar to what you see spreading today in modern conservatism. Given that the strident opposition to gun control that we see today is fairly recent, starting only in the 1970s along with the entry of the religious right into politics, it's certainly seems possible to me that this could be related.

So let's outline the causal mechanism here. If you believe that certain people, let's call them "criminals", are predestined to be bad and to do bad things, then the situation is irrelevant. In this worldview, the only thing that can be done is to react once the bad person starts doing the bad thing, you cannot actually prevent them from doing it.

CONNECTIONS TO OTHER THINGS

There are two other things I've noticed in discussions with conservatives that seem related to this. The first is that I've often heard conservatives describe gun-control laws as "punishing lawful gun owners" and the second is that you often hear about how "welfare spending doesn't really help people".

What connects those two things is that, when you dig into them, they reveal a fundamental way of thinking about people and the law. The welfare spending one connects pretty clearly to the Calvinist idea; poor people are poor and giving them money will not change that, but the other one is a bit more indirect.

You see, if criminals can't be stopped from being criminals, then the law can't prevent crimes. Fundamentally, the only thing the law can do under this view of the world is punish wrongdoing after the fact. This means that, under this view, gun-control laws, like all laws, are purely punitive and, since they can't stop criminals from committing crimes, the only thing they can do is punish people who are not criminal.

A FUNDAMENTAL VIEW OF SOCIETY AND THE LAW

And that's where you hit a fundamental difference between how liberals and this type of conservative view the law. You see, in the liberal view of the world, crimes happen because of a combination of means, motive, and opportunity. If the law can alter that combination in some way, it can prevent crimes from even happening in the first place. In the case of the Texas shooting, for example, if this man could have been prevented from owning a gun in the first place or if he could have been prevented from having it easily accessible, then the crime might never have occurred.

In this particular conservative view of the world, however, crimes don't happen because of those three factors, crimes happen because some people are simply criminals and are effectively predestined to commit crimes. Laws cannot be made that change destiny or fundamental human nature, they can only punish crimes after they occur. In the case of the Texas shooting, the man was fundamentally a criminal and so he would have found a way to get a gun and commit the crime no matter what laws were passed.

This fundmental difference in how liberals and conservatives see the law seems to percolate into every debate of politics if you look closely enough. Liberals generally view the law as preventative, that the right changes in law can prevent many of the ills of society, while conservatives generally view the law as punitive, that the law exists primarily to punish people. This is why you see the common conservative argument that liberal laws and policies that attempt to change situations that exist are actually "punishments", they cannot conceive of the law any other way.

To a liberal there is no point in punishing someone for something unless that punishment serves a deterrent effect against future wrongdoing while, to a conservative, there is no point in trying to prevent what is predestined to occur anyways.

AN ASIDE ABOUT EVIDENCE

I should note that the evidence is not equal for these two worldviews, in fact it's overwhelmingly on one side. There is an extraordinary amount of evidence showing that welfare substantially reduces poverty and that gun control laws substantially reduce homicide and violent crime in general, for example.

On a great number of issues as well, the concept that the law can prevent bad situations from occurring in the first place is supported by mountains of evidence, though the evidence backing any individual policy may vary. Meanwhile, the evidence that punishment is effective is a bit more mixed, but leans toward the conclusion that punishment alone may not reduce crime.

Of course, conservatives don't support punitive policies for their deterrent effects, they support them because they believe that bad people deserve to be punished. The evidence in this regard is more of an external justification than an internal one.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN

That's the real question, isn't it? Well, I think I have an idea as it regards my specific conversations but there's also the broader implications.

For the conversations I've been having I think the implication is simple, you cannot discuss gun control (or other hot-button issues) without directly addressing the elephant in the room. Unless you address the fundamental idea of whether or not the law can impact behavior, there is no possible way to argue that gun control will make any difference on crime rates.

More specifically, there's no way to do that without addressing this predestination idea. As long as the idea is lodged into their head that criminals are gonna crime no matter what you do, there is no way forward. I'm still working on how to approach that.

As far as the broader implications, yeah, it means that conservatives are going to continue to oppose things like gun-control and welfare no matter how much evidence piles up showing that they work. I'm not sure there's any way to change that either at this point.

THE PERSISTENCE OF THE BELIEF

Now the most confusing part of this to understand from a liberal point of view is the persistence of a belief that is contradicted by just about all available evidence. Now, I could tell you about how there are conservative scholars producing evidence that contradicts the other studies and that this buttresses their beliefs, but it really doesn't. Those studies are basically like the elections that the USSR used to hold, they're just show to give "reasons" for public debate. If you knock them down, and many of them have already been refuted by further research, they'll come up with other "reasons". The reasons themselves are not fundamental to the belief, they're just there as shields for it.

No, the reason for the belief, as far as I can tell, is that it satisfies a psychological need. After all, if there are people predestined to be bad then there are also people predestined to be good, and you might be one of those good people! How do you know if you're one of the good people? Well, simple, good people do good things. As long as you keep doing good things, you must be one of the good people.

How do you know you're doing good things? Well, your community will tell you what things are good and who is doing them. As long as you do the things judged to be good by your community and the community recognizes you as a good person, then you are a good person.

I realize this is a simplification, but it's also fairly accurate to what's going on. Talk to someone who holds these kinds of beliefs enough, dig enough to get down to the foundation of the belief and that's really the core of it. It's a psychological structure built up to convince them that they are one of the good people and, if you were to collapse that structure, they would be bereft. How do I know this? I used to do it.

You see, I went to school in far northern California, in an area I generally referred to as "a slice of the Bible Belt transplanted into California". Nowadays it's known as the place where the Bethel megachurch holds sway and a local militia group has seized control of the county government, so fairly in line with the type of conservatism I described above. As an atheist (I knew fairly early on what I believed religiously) in this environment, it wasn't uncommon for Christian classmates to try to convert me, sometimes forcefully (verbally, not physically). Because of this I got very good at debating and, more than once, I shook the foundation of someone's faith.

So that's why this belief can persevere even in the absence of or against all evidence. It is a structure that meets a psychological need, the need to be, no, to know that you are "good". The evidence and reasons they give are not fundamentally the reasons that they believe it and, if you knock them down, they will just come up with more or find a reason why you must have been wrong.

THE EFFECTS OF THE BELIEF

Honestly, where this gets really interesting is when you start to look into other effects of this belief. I've already covered how this affects law and policy, basically a blanket aversion to any policy that isn't punitive in nature or that doesn't punish the "right" people, but there's even bigger effects that show up when you look for them.

As a particular example, it makes them incredibly vulnerable to racist ideas. Racist ideas also traffic in the concept of inherently "good" and "bad" people and, if you take out the specific descriptions of who, exactly, is "good" and who is "bad", they sound very similar to this kind of predestination thinking.

Pundits like Tucker Carlson and the late Rush Limbaugh have been particularly effective in using this similarity to effectively launder racist ideas like the Great Replacement among others into mainstream conservative thought by presenting them as political rather than racial in nature. Today, for example, two-thirds of Republicans agree with the idea that demographic (racial) changes are not naturally occurring, but are being actively forced in order to replace "conservative white voters" and the theory is voiced by a significant number of Republican elected officials.

CONCLUSION

So yeah, not sure what to make of this or how, exactly to address it, but there's a lot of conservatives out there who form their politics around the idea of predestination. This leads to them being fundamentally unable to understand the concept of using law and policy to change things for the better. It also makes them vulnerable to racist ideas because the fundamental idea of dividing the population into good and bad people isn't actually all that different.

As I said, I'm still in the early phases of figuring this out, so any thoughts anyone has would be appreciated.