#not like an easy solution/fix to it

[clonehub]

part of the tragedy of the clones is the accelerated aging. its inseparable from their creation and their duty. it doesnt just artificially shorten their lives, it concentrates the feelings they have about themselves and their ability to leave/stay and to fight or not fight, because they have half as much time to do anything. if their bodies break down at an alarming speed, theyd probably hate to have to do it outside of what's familiar to them, even if what's familiar is an active violation of their rights. its an artificial life constraint as well as an artificial choice constraint. if you had all the time in the world, you'd probably worry less about why you were put into the galaxy, what your "purpose" was. existentialism is less daunting when you can exist perpetually. not so for clones.

[lord-squiggletits]

NGL I think one of my least favorite "gotchas" that I see/get while critiquing stories is "so how would you fix it? oh so you don't have an idea of how to rewrite the story to make it better? oh so basically you're just complaining that you don't like it and don't have actual critique."

Buddy.

Sometimes the reason I don't have a "solution" to how the author should've rewritten their story to be better, is because I'm not privy to the author's thought process, what their alternate story ideas were, what they talked about with their editor, what they might've been forced to do by deadlines, or even what they might've thought they were writing towards at first but then later changed the trajectory of their story to be about something else.

It's all well and good for me to say something like, idk, "I think Character A should've gotten more narrative focus because their story could have helped fix XYZ Plot Hole," but it could very well be that the author never intended for Character A to be a prominent character (just a secondary or tertiary character). Maybe using Character A to solve one Plot Hole would've gone against the writer's plans because then it would open up a different plot hole for something else they had planned later in the story. If it's an ongoing story, maybe something I see as a "plot hole" is actually a deliberate mystery that the creator left open to write about later-- or maybe the plot hole is because there was a deadline crunch and the author had to drop a certain character/plot point/etc because they couldn't fit it into the story any more. Maybe having Character A be a more prominent part of the story is just based on MY personal tastes and what I would want to write in MY version of the story, but completely clashes with the characters/conflicts the author wanted to focus on.

Because yes, there are some story critiques that are as simple as "part A doesn't make sense, you could just fix it by doing B", but there are also some story critiques where suggesting a viable "solution" would require BEING the author or someone involved in the production of the story to understand what limitations or plans were involved in the selection of that flawed plot point. There are also some story critiques where even if there is a "problem" and my critique offers a "solution," there could be another "solution" or even dozens that do just as good of a job fixing the issue, but involve vastly different characters, plot ideas, so on and so forth.

Being a good critic isn't (just) about going "the story would've been better if X happened" because the story is ultimately in control of the author and their vision, and without knowing what the author's vision was (something that you almost exclusively know if you're 1. the author or 2. their beta reader), it's impossible to definitively say "this plot point should've been cut/[completely different thing] should've happened instead" because THAT is the point at which you're complaining, not critiquing. I would argue that in some cases, trying to "fix" a story yourself actually makes your critique worse, not better, because it ends up being a case of you simply imposing your artistic vision over the author's to say "I think it would've been better this way."

At least if you just say "this part of the story was flawed because XYZ" without saying "it should have been ABC instead", then you're stating your grievances with the story without being presumptuous enough to assume that YOUR version of the story would fit the author's original vision, or the constraints they were working under, or the other versions of the story that they were debating over at the time before ultimately settling on one version (even if flawed).

There's a point at which "this plot is flawed, that should've happened instead" is just fix-it fan fiction and not actual critique that could help the writer write their story in a way that fits their vision.

[iraprince]

Hey, can I ask you a lightbox question? Idk how much use you've had of it, but it seems really useful! I'd love to trace my sketches, but im worried about blaring light right in my eyes because I'm super sensitive to light and get migraines even from doing digital art. How hard is it on your eyes?

so, i've only been using it for an afternoon, but i think i would immediately say my main concern on the lightbox is more about ergonomics than eye strain (and my concerns about eye strain are more about struggling to see through the paper than about the light itself). for reference the model i'm using is this one, it's about €20.

the light itself is not actually that blinding — instead of being direct it's like a sheet of LEDs covered in tiny holes, and the light from all those holes together combines to be bright enough to see through the paper. also, you're always going to have paper on top of it, so unless the paper you're working on is much smaller than the pad itself, you're not going to spend much time staring directly into the light anyway. i can definitely imagine that seeing the little strip of it on the sides out of the corner of your eye as you work could eventually cause a headache, though.

^ like that.

also, it has three different brightness settings; i've quickly found that all three of them are useful in different contexts, even within the same drawing! the brightest doesn't hurt my eyes so far (it'll depend on what kind of paper you're using; in these pics my sketch is on regular printer paper, and the final is on bristol, which blocks out more of the light than two sheets of printer paper would).

here's where my concern about eye strain comes in: on the brightest setting, it's easy to see the sketch (the paper underneath), but hard to see what you're doing on the final (the paper on top). on the lowest setting, i can see more detail in what i'm actually drawing, but it's harder to make out the sketch underneath. i can easily see these different types of strain taking a toll on your eyes over time, especially if you really get in the zone and stop remembering to adjust the brightness based on what your eyes need.

^ my solution so far has been like this! you can fuss with the positioning of a regular lamp until it bounces off the top paper enough that u can see what ur doing, but it's not so direct that it cancels out the light from below. if i need to see more detail from the undersketch, i can quickly cup my hand to throw some shadow on it or set up a barrier (like my pencil bag).

besides that the main issue im foreseeing is the ergonomics thing i mentioned, the pad is so flat and thin that i'm really folding over my desk to see what im doing — but that's a bad habit i have when working on paper anyway. the cord is long enough that u could pick it up to work in your lap etc, i just find that awkward so i'd rather work flat.

[castielcommunism]

a consistent thing with dean is that when he’s faced with a challenging piece of information he tends to react poorly in the moment but then gets a lot better when he has time to think about it. he’s just really bad at first impressions

[sunlightontheseaa]

Getting pretty close to the end of odyssey I feel, and jfc the shit i have to go through to keep my idiot asshole brothers alive.

The whole second encounter with Stentor I was like... It's rotten work. Especially to me, especially if it's you. I'll do it but christ alive

And Alexios. Jfc where do I even begin. Im like, you're gonna be my fuckin friend whether you like it or not idc. I love you bitch, die mad about it!

I am dragging everyone kicking and screaming into being a family and it's pretty funny

[melonisopod]

The problem with publishing my WIPs on AO3 is that most of them are tied to my Fate AU with my Mastersona OC and I don't really have anything together for that like an overview or a ref sheet or a profile because my life is a mess and also I've been kind of changing it a bit over the years.

[eachuisge-cc]

also let us rejoice because I finally got those goddamn lekku working, now all I have to do is make aesthetic mesh adjustments and make a real texture. and matching skintones. which will be a pain but very doable.

[damienthepious]

absolutely fucking disgusting, put it back. @staff a) this is quite literally the ugliest update yet and b) as i have said EVERY TIME i got prompted to explain why i was switching back to the OLD post editor, THE NEW POST EDITOR IS FUCKING GARBAGE FOR POSTING ANY LARGE AMOUNT OF TEXT REQUIRING FORMATTING, LIKE... OH.... SAY.... FANFIC AND OTHER WRITING. BRING IT THE FUCK BACK I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD.

[deadwapiti]

love when problems truly do have a simple solution. i was having problems with my mouse constantly double clicking. a solution was to literally just blow into it. and so far it worked

[ghoul--doodle]

If I’m not exhausted after uni again tomorrow I’m gonna replay bugsnax n see how long it takes me to finish it

[lllsaslll]

I hurt so so bad and the fear of the diagnosis I will get....

[hotgirlstiles]

in a very specific mood to read sterek but idk what to read .. 💔 like why doesn’t the perfect sterek fic exist already.. sigh

[yarnings]

It’s that time of year, where I have to remember that as much as I like the idea of wearing long underwear, they’re structurally identical to wearing leggings. And I am fat.

[bmpmp3]

now if you’ll excuse me im in the middle of doing some pen mods *jams a screwdriver into a platinum preppy*

[technicallyaminecraftsimp]

I’m so annoyed at my school rn apparently some seniors last year had inappropriate senior quotes so the new guy just decided to not do it at all -_-

[zooophagous]

I'm gonna be contrarian here for a minute and rant about "cats aren't even good pest control."

Which, one study that found cats don't do well against rats is not the be all end all of reality. A cat may not go after Norway rats, which are large and aggressive, no. An adult male wild Norway rat is large enough to give almost any cat a run for its money.

But Norway rats aren't the only thing that exist and get into houses and barns. It is very cold where I live, and while I see mice and packrats and voles, I have never once seen a wild RAT. Wild RATS don't get into my garage. Deer mice do. Bushy tailed pack rats do.

And you know what fixed it?

My cat. He's not even an outdoor cat. He's 100% indoors, or in the garage but only with the door closed so he can't leave.

He single handedly removed my packrat problem. I didn't need to resort to poisons and while I did set traps, none of them had even half of his success rate. Cats were domesticated primarily because of how good they are at catching small rodents. Their success knocked other animals such as trained ferrets off the popular spot for the task. Claiming a cat is useless as pest control is just plain not true.

Cats are decent pest control WITHIN CERTAIN PARAMETERS. They're good for certain types of small pest, and cats need ro be CONTAINED. Much like poisons, you can't just throw cats around willy nilly because they'll kill a shitload of non target animals.

A barn or shop cat is a good option for long term mouse control *if* it is actually confined to that barn or shop and not free to just leave. A semi feral cat that lives in a large warehouse and is vaccinated and desexed and vetted and kills whatever tiny pests get in to chew on stuff is the best case scenario for an adopted feral.

What I do NOT get however, is the insistence that terriers are better and you should just get one of those.

A dog is not an easy animal to keep and nor is it one you should go purchase because you want long term pest control in your barn. If you want a pest control solution call an externinator. If you want a dog that's intelligent and driven and needs dedicated training and care and you're happy to put in the energy to actually focus its chaotic energy into something useful then go get a ratting terrier.

These little dogs do not fill the same niche as a barn cat and their care is quite a bit more intense in general especially if the dog is going to be a house pet as well as a worker. They're intense and destructive and can and will pick fights, often fatal fights, with other animals. Stop telling people to go get one when all they need is to get some squirrels out of a shed. Buying a dog and buying pest control are not the same thing.

You could *hire* a ratter to do a sweep, but unless you're also removing the conditions that made your property popular with rats to begin with you're going to have to keep bringing them back.

The kind of people who leave feral cats outside to roam and breed freely are the last fucking people who have any business keeping a working line terrier.