#note for future me: font size is 12

[incorrectaberfield]

every alice+claire scene 3/?

[leighsartworks216]

Hello! I know you prolly have been asked about this a lot of time but can you give me a small guide/tips about how can one start writing, pretty please. Like hear me out okie

I have this idea alright, I know the characters, the basic storyline, maybe a pinch of plot but I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO START- it's like whenever I am daydreaming everything is flowing so smoothly but when I sit down to actually write it down, boom! what was my name again? How can I not remember anything? How can I even start the story, it's always so confusing :( because whenever I try it just doesn't seem enough, so what's your process of writing, like how to put down/draft the idea? Also Idk how to post on Tumblr as someone who want's to start, like who/what should I tag and stuff. Ig I am a lost cause ಥ⁠‿⁠ಥ

Also I am sorry if I came out rude 😭I am genuinely so interested in writing but I just don't know where to start.

This only took me too fucking long to answer 💀

My writing process is a little chaotic and weird because it's what works for me. I've had to work with and against my ADHD and chronic pain in order to come up with ways that make writing possible, so some of this stuff may not work for you

My process goes roughly like this: daydream/get hit with inspiration from somewhere/something; write it down in my notes app on my phone, usually until I have a complete fic; transfer it over to a Google Doc (either by copy-pasting or re-typing it all word for word (depending on how much editing I think it needs)); format (I change it to font size 12 and set it to add a space after paragraphs); post

Writing in my notes app removes the "blank canvas" wall that I get when I sit down to write in a doc. And because it's on my phone and I can be laying down to do it, it also removes a lot of the strain on my hands and back. The majority of my fics lately have been entirely written in my notes and then just put into a doc for formatting purposes before posting, because I feel more motivated to work on them this way. I'll go over posting in a minute

But first, my first tip based on what you've said: Do NOT wait until you're sitting down to write, to write. If you get an idea, if you can, write it down right away. Whether that be on paper, a napkin, your phone's notes app - write it down. If you have the time for it, write down as much as you can (ie. descriptions, full sentences, an entire scene). Don't worry about the context for what you write, just write the thing as-is and add context later

Another tip along with this: Writing is much, much harder than daydreaming. Daydreaming gives you a full sensory experience built in; you can see everything that's happening, you can be there in the moment. But when writing, you have to build everything you see with words that never quite capture it perfectly. Daydreaming definitely helps, though! Most of my fics wouldn't exist if I hadn't imagined being in them beforehand lol But it's never going to really flow smooth from daydream to writing because of the nature of them both

As for crafting the plot of a story and like having an outline for it, I'm also awful about it. What helps for me, though, is laying out what I want to happen chapter by chapter. For my ongoing Dragon Sylus fic, for example, I wrote out what I wanted to happen in bullets, explaining as much as I needed to for future-me to understand what I have in mind or any random ideas I may be able to include. These aren't hard and fast guidelines, but they let me visualize better what needs to happen and if the story can get from A to B to C. For something like my Witcher fic (that I really need to finish one day 😭), I have entire docs with character notes, chapter layouts, potential plotlines, scrapped stuff from past chapters that I may be able to use in the future, etc. This can help keep more complicated or bigger project under some control

Which reminds me of my next tip: Do NOT delete anything! In the sense of like, writing paragraphs or even entire chapters that you decide you no longer want, don't delete them! Make a new doc or note or what-have-you and copy-paste them into it. A lot of the time, it can be repurposed later on, or even just give you ideas for other things to write

Now, posting! Since you asked specifically about posting on tumblr, I'll only provide advice on that, but I can give advice for AO3, too

Tumblr posting can be confusing and honestly threw me so far off when I first joined. To preface all of this, I highly recommend only posting fics when you're on desktop. I also recommend NOT writing your fics directly into tumblr and saving it as a draft. That's a disaster waiting to happen

For tagging, I follow a sort of pattern that I follow on most if not all of my fics. I tag them "fanfic" "fanfiction", followed by the character name(s), [character name] x reader, the fandom/show it's from, and because my fics label the gender of the reader, my last tags have that gender specified (ie. "gender neutral reader", "fem reader", "masc reader", etc). This is what works for me, and if you look at my tags on fics, you can sort of see my process and order of tagging things

Don't tag characters or ships that don't appear in the fic. Putting a story in a tag it doesn't belong will most likely get it marked for spam

It's a good idea to tag potential triggers if they come up. "cw spiders" or "tw spiders" for example. This way people who have triggers or phobias can filter out these things and be more aware. I also put warnings up top with all the contents of the fic (this used to just be only things I thought may be triggering and then I just started writing out my ao3 tags and that works better for me to know I'm being thorough)

Okay that was a lot and this took me so long to answer, but I hope it was a little helpful! If you have more questions, I'd be happy to answer them! (Hopefully within a more reasonable timeframe 💀)

[theidiotwhowritesthings]

The Right Moment

Hello this is more Marvel (not that anyone asked for more marvel oops). Like I said before I’m always a slut for Tony Stark so I had to write this out. Especially since I’ve always wanted to play with the ‘Soulmates AU’ thing.

Tony Stark x female!Reader

Warnings: cursing, age gap

Takes place during IM2

6,650 words

The words were a messy scrawl against your skin. It was only a few shades darker than your skin tone, like every other soul mark in the world, making it look more like a birthmark than a tattoo. Not that anyone would see the mark and confuse it for a tattoo.

Nobody was born with his or her soul mark. It usually appeared in the early teens, around puberty, but the soul marks were more than just words on skin, marks on flesh. It was a part of who someone was. It was a quick glimpse into their future. A soul mark was the first sentence your soulmate would one day say to you. It was a moment in time etched on your body.

You slowly let your finger trace the four cluttered words on the right side of your ribcage. The handwriting was rushed and messy. Chaotic. It looked like the handwriting of someone who was always busy and scribbled notes wherever they could find space. That’s what you always imagined at least. The style of it somehow made the phrase look that much better though.

Looking for me, sunshine?

The words had appeared on your skin one random Saturday morning a few weeks after you turned twelve. Not everyone in the world got soul marks. There was no hard science behind it that said who would and wouldn’t get one. Scientists who studied the phenomenon said that genetics had nothing to do with it. Despite that, you had always assumed you wouldn’t get one. No one in your family had one, except maybe a great great great grandma on your mom’s side, but no one that anyone remembered.

Your mother had been so proud when she saw the words, as if you had done something special to deserve them. Your older sister gushed about how lucky you were. At only 12 years old you hadn’t fully grasped the concept of soulmates, but it excited you all the same. You thought you were lucky too.

Getting a soul mark at all had been nothing short of a miracle, but the fact that it was a simple, succinct mark was just pure luck. There had been a girl in high school whose soul mark took up all of her back. Apparently, her soul mate was quite the talker. Still, you always thought having a soul mark taking up all of your back would be better than having some obscene sentence out where others could see. A guy you met during your first year in college had the words, ‘I’d let you fuck me any day of the week’ written on his forearm in a loopy, fancy font. He seemed rather proud of it though, so you assumed he didn’t share your opinion. Then of course there were the overly plain soul marks. There were probably millions of people out there with the words, ‘Hey there’, ‘Hi’, and ‘How are you?’ written on their bodies. They were probably just as protective of their marks as you were with yours, but it had to be a pain having God knows how many people say those words to them all the time.

“Girl, are you ready, yet??”

You jumped at the voice behind the door, “Oh, yeah, almost. Be right out, Amber.”

The sound of heels walking away from the locked bathroom door made you turn back toward the mirror you had been looking in. Your eyes drifted over the words one last time before you turned to look at the dress hanging on the towel rack behind you. It was something you had bought proudly, but the moment you brought it home you questioned it. It flashy and bold with dark gold sequins decorating the entire thing. The dress loosely came down to right above your knees. It was a deep v-neck dress with two thin straps that went over your shoulder, one connecting higher up to the dress that covered your sides and the other further down to connect at the dress that sat on your lower back. You scrunched up your nose before just grabbing the dress and turning back around.

Admittedly, you had always hoped you wouldn’t have to wait long for your soulmate. Your mother would always hush you when you complained about the wait, ‘Everything comes at the right moment. Be patient.’

Knowing what you knew now, it was probably a good thing your soulmate wasn’t at the high school you attended. Most of those guys were still living in that same, small town content with not seeing the world. Now, you love your hometown, but it didn’t have what you wanted. What you needed. You craved exploration and adventure. You had dreams and goals that involved venturing out of comfort zones.

Still, you wondered what it was like for the people who met their soulmates so early on. There was a couple you met in your junior year of college that had met each other two days after they got their soul marks. They had to wait a total of two days, and here you were pushing on seventeen years.

Quickly, you slipped your short dress on and left the bathroom to find your roommate. You had met Amber Reyes as a senior in college when you went to rent an apartment near the campus. The two of you got along swimmingly, and when it came time to spread out it just so happened that both of you had your sights set on the Big Apple. Amber had a job laid out in New York City, and you had just been accepted into NYU’s Grossman School of Medicine.

The first year or so had been rough. The two of you were living in a shoebox sized apartment in Hell’s Kitchen working your asses off. Med school was as difficult as you knew it would be and Amber’s first job hadn’t worked out leaving her looking for new work. Still, the two of you had each other and with a little elbow grease it all worked out. Now Amber was running her own garage doing various auto repairs and you were a Resident at New York Hospital working in the Emergency Department.

Life was good, though your apartment was still kind of shitty.

“-look we’ll just meet you there, Kyle.” Amber said into her cell phone. She was leaning against the living room couch wearing a tight white, one shoulder dress that ended above her knees. It made her dark, flawless skin glow. Her long, brown hair was pulled up into a tight, clean ponytail. As per usual, she looked like an absolute goddess. Amber’s brown eyes shot over to you, “M’hm, just don’t do anything stupid. Love you too.”

You lifted your hands and glanced down at yourself, “Are you sure this dress doesn't make me look like a hooker?”

“Oh, it absolutely does.” Amber smirked and walked toward you, “It’s perfect. Now what are you going to do with your hair?”

“I was just gonna leave it down.” You shrugged then squished your cheeks with your hands. “Can you help me with my make-up?”

“Duh.” She replied and headed back towards the bathroom. Amber was the most brilliant mechanic that you’ve ever met. Granted, you hadn’t met many, but still. She could take apart just about anything on earth and put it together in better shape than it had originally been in. Amber also was infinitely better than you were at applying make-up. She made it seem almost effortless. “So, Kyle is getting our tickets for the after party right now.”

“Sounds good.” You replied nonchalantly as you glanced at the words that were half showing on her bare shoulder blade. All you could see were the words, ‘Holy shit’, but you knew the entire thing read, ‘Holy shit, my soulmate is hot’. Amber was lucky in the sense that she was able to put together some of the mystery of how she’d meet her soulmate. She knew from the beginning that she’d probably be the first one to speak in the conversation considering her soulmate used the word soulmate in the sentence.

Kyle Davis was Amber’s soulmate and they had met a few months after the two of you had settled down in your broken down, shoebox of an apartment. He was a mechanical engineer that stopped by where Amber had worked at the time to pick up a few parts as a favor to his employer. All Amber had said after watching his failed attempts to flirt with other customers was, ‘That’ll be 143 dollars, Casanova’, and he had replied exactly how Amber expected someone would one day reply to her.

You had spent years of your life wondering about how you’d meet your soulmate, but you had no idea how it could play out. The words on your side could be the second part of the conversation or the first. It worked either way.

“What are you thinking so hard about?” Amber asked as she grabbed the desk chair and dragged it into the bathroom for you to sit on.

You dropped into the chair with a sigh, “Just nothing.” Amber rolled her eyes giving you a dead panned look. You shook your head, “Seriously, I just… I’ve been thinking about my mark for the last few days.”

“Why?” Amber questioned and moved some hair out of your face before grabbing your stash of make-up.

You rubbed your hand over the material of your dress that sat just above your words, “I don’t know. It’s been bothering me lately.”

“Bothering you?”

“Yeah. It itches.” You replied and tilted your head up so Amber could work her magic.

“You know”, Amber began, “Some people say that your mark itches when you get closer to meeting your soulmate.”

Your eyes widened and Amber scolded you about the exaggerated facial expression, “Really? Did yours?”

“Mine didn’t, no, but Kyle said his felt weird for a few days before.” Amber said. Her voice trailed off as she focused on the task at hand. You had read all the online stories and self-help books on soul marks and soulmates. A part of you had hoped maybe it would shed some light on the process, but it didn’t really help anything. All you really got from it was the fact that there was no typical case. Soul marks were weird things with minds of their own. “Who knows, maybe this means you’re getting close.”

“God, I hope so.” You mumbled under your breath. After waiting for this long, a part of you didn’t even know what you’d do once you met the person. You tended to be pretty independent in nearly everything you did. It was part of the reason why any past relationships you had never lasted long. Dating between two people who weren’t fated for each other was a struggle enough, but your desire to handle things on your own and not open up certainly didn’t help the matter. Despite all this though, you desperately wanted to know. Even if it ended up being a disappointment, you just wanted the answer now.

Amber smirked as she put on the finishing touches, “Maybe they’ll be at the party tonight.”

You couldn’t stop the small smile that bubbled onto your lips, “You really think so?”

“Take a good look in the mirror, [Surname].” Amber smirked, “Who the hell wouldn’t fall for you?”

“Hello, gorgeous.”

“Are you here alone?”

“Can I buy you a drink?”

“Damn, girl.”

Amber’s words had gotten into your head, and now at the start of every new conversation you were basically holding your breath. You weren’t purposely getting your hopes up. In fact, you had a running mantra in your head that sounded a lot like the motto your mother introduced to you a week after you got the damn mark.

‘Everything comes at the right moment. Be patient.’

“Be patient, [Name].” You whispered to yourself, but you could hardly stand still.

“Why do you look so nervous? I should be the one who looks nervous. Shit, Amber, do I look nervous?”

You tore your gaze away from the crowd to see Kyle was no longer talking to you but was now facing Amber. He was wearing a fancy suit with a dark colored, neat tie that was hilariously uncharacteristic of him. You were used to seeing Kyle in worn down T-shirts and jeans. His medium length, dirty blond hair was combed back neatly, but despite Amber’s arguments he hadn't shaved the facial hair above his upper lip and across his jawline.

“You look fine.” Amber replied and adjusted his tie. “Though maybe you’d look better if you had listened and shaved—”

Kyle rolled his blue eyes, “I told you, Amber. I had to keep it. What if I run into Tony Stark? It might impress him!”

“And I told you that was the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” Amber replied with an irritated sigh. “Besides, if you really want that job at Stark Industries, your best bet is to find Pepper Potts. She’s the CEO now. Talk to her about your designs.”

“Oh, but hon… Tony Stark.” Kyle replied, “If I could find him in this crowd somewhere and talk to him…”

“The mission tonight is to get a job, not stalk your idol.” Amber argued.

Kyle turned back to you, “Tell her, [Name].”

You grinned at him, “I also think your best bet is Pepper Potts. In fact, anyone other than Tony Stark is probably a good bet.”

Kyle frowned and mumbled something under his breath about his role model. Unlike Kyle, you didn’t have Stark’s biography memorized, but you got enough information off the news. He went from being a playboy, genius, billionaire with his hands in the weapons manufacturing business to some sort of self-declared superhero named Iron Man. From what you’ve seen in the news, he seemed like he was doing pretty good. He stopped Stark Industries from making weapons when he found out they were going to the wrong people, saved lives, and made a difference.

Of course, you weren’t too startled by the fact that it didn’t last long.

Sure, he was still Iron Man so he was still out helping people, which was great, but the hero obviously couldn’t keep his wild side down. Hell, the news had a field day when he randomly gave the position of CEO to his personal assistant. Now, based on what you’ve seen, you couldn’t figure out if he had done so to dedicate his life to helping the greater good or getting drunk off his ass and making poor life decisions. There were certainly more headlines about the poor life decisions than there was the heroic stuff.

“Now go. You’ll do great.” Amber smiled and pressed her lips at the corner of his mouth before pushing him off. You watched Kyle nervously make his way through the large crowd to where a red headed woman was talking to a group of people in business suits. Hopefully, the nerves would wear off and the friendly, easy-going Kyle would come back out. You tore your gaze away from him to see Amber grinning at you.

“What?”

She chuckled, “That smile hasn’t slipped from your lips since we walked through those fancy ass glass doors.”

You rolled your eyes at her, but the smile she spoke about didn’t falter. Despite the fact that nearly two hours had passed since you got here, you couldn’t shake this feeling of excitement. It was spilling out of you. Hell, it took everything in you not to just randomly start laughing. You felt downright giddy.

“I’m just in a really, really good mood.” You shrugged. Amber gave you a knowing look and you didn’t bother to mention the fact that your soul mark had been tingling since you walked in. That had to be a good sign, right?

“I think I’m gonna get a drink.” Amber replied simply.

You motioned for her to grab an empty table off to the side, “Wait here. I’ll get us both something. The usual for you?”

“Please and thank you.” She nodded.

You made your way through the crowd toward where the large bar sat in the corner. There were a few people leaning against the bar, but it was otherwise abandoned. You assumed this was due to the fact that servers were walking around everywhere taking orders themselves. That saved you a hassle. Nearly all of the barstools were open where you came to stand, but you didn’t bother grabbing a seat. You wouldn’t be long.

“Two dry martinis. One with olives and the other with a twist.” You ordered when the bartender caught your eye. He nodded and went to work while you waited patiently. The wall behind the bartender was an enormous mirror that you could see yourself in. The smile on your face was certainly large, but you hoped the excitement of it all didn’t make you look like a crazy person.

You chuckled and turned to look over the crowd. Was it really possible that your soulmate was in this very same room as you? The possibility existed that maybe they weren’t. Maybe all this excitement and soul mark tingling was just a false alarm, but the thought that the answer to the biggest question in your life was breathing the same shared airspace as you was exhilarating and terrifying and wonderful all at the same time. Quickly, you tried to push down your excitement. Nothing would be worse than to go home empty handed then wake up early for a long shift in—

“Looking for me, sunshine?”

The distinct, baritone of a male voice spoke from beside you and it shut down every single thought in your brain. It took every fiber of your being not to jump out of your shoes. Hearing the words made you feel like a fire was lit in your chest. Like something in your very soul moved at his voice. The tingling on your right side was replaced with a feeling of warmth. As if an invisible hand were tracing the words as they rolled in your mind. The fact that the voice was vaguely familiar didn’t even click with you until you turned to face him with a grin.

The smile you had managed to keep on your face all night slowly began to crack and slip away as you stared at the man beside you. His voice was vaguely familiar because you did know his voice. Hell, he had been on the news doing some interview not even a day ago. His face was one you knew because damn near everyone in the world knew who this guy was.

Tony fucking Stark.

There was no mixing him up with some other guy. He leaned against the bar beside you facing the huge mirror while you faced the crowd. His eyes were focused on you, but the clear, red glass of his sunglasses tinted the brown color. He had on an expensive dark burgundy suit over a black dress shirt with no tie. He even had on the same smirk that he wore in most of the pictures you had seen him in and not a soul in the United States of America, hell the world, wouldn’t recognize the unique goatee surrounding that stupid smirk.

Maybe he didn’t notice the absolute panic attack going on in your mind, but he pushed himself off the bar slightly, leaning closer to you. The bartender came back with your drinks then left to cater to another guest. Mr. Stark glanced at the two tall glasses.

“Oh, don’t tell me you’re not here alone.” Mr. Stark spoke again.

You had to say something. Words needed to come out of your mouth now, but what would you say? No matter what you said he would know. The next words to come out of your mouth would be marked on his skin somewhere in your handwriting. If you said nothing, then would he even know? It’s not like a soul mark could say, ‘Your soulmate says nothing because she’s an indecisive dumbass’.

“Miss?” He questioned as he leaned forward. His smirk had widened as if he were impressed by the fact that you were speechless. As if it were his mere presence alone that could stun women into stupor.

The words left your mouth before you even had time to consider them. In an exasperated, ‘I’m giving up on the world’ tone, you sighed, “Oh, fuck me.”

That made the smirk fall off his face as quickly as your original smile had disappeared. Mr. Stark pulled his glasses off making it easier to see his wide, shocked eyes. He blinked once, twice… three times, before shaking his head, “Who told you to say that? Did Pepper put you up to this?”

“Oh my God.” You put a hand to your face as if that would help steady the tilting world around you, “You’re Tony Stark. Tony fucking Stark. Are you kidding me?”

“Rhodey then? Did he tell you to say that?” Mr. Stark questioned further. He slipped his glasses into his jacket pocket and his hand lingered over his left side briefly. “Maybe…Happy? Was it Happy?”

You turned around quickly, grabbing your martini, and quickly began to down it. The alcohol burned your throat, but as soon as you had finished yours you picked up Amber’s. Mr. Stark grabbed your wrist before you could bring the glass to your lips and your eyes darted to his in panic. The two of you just stood like that for a moment. You with a martini glass halfway to your lips, panic in your eyes, and Tony Stark holding your wrist with disbelief in his own warm, brown eyes.

The party around you hadn't stopped. People still milled about laughing and talking as if nothing had changed. Yet here you stood feeling like the world had dropped out from under your feet.

“You’re really my soulmate, aren’t you?” Mr. Stark commented in incredulity with a slight shake of his head. The corners of his mouth quirked up as a chuckle rolled out. It wasn’t the typical smirk though; it almost seemed like a genuine smile.

“Is this really happening?” You said in a whispered tone.

“Oh, it’s really happening, sunshine.” He said and took his hand off your wrist to grab the glass. Mr. Stark set it against the bar countertop. He grinned, “You are gorgeous, by the way, I didn’t get to that part of my little spiel.”

You swallowed the lump in your throat, “You’re Tony Stark.”

“I think we’ve already established that. The question is, who are you?”

“I-I’m [Name].” You said.

“[Name]…?” He questioned, obviously fishing for your last name for some reason.

“[Surname].” You finished then shook your head, “Listen, Mr. Stark-”

He rolled his eyes, “Don’t start that. Just Tony.”

“Mr. Stark”, You ignored him, “This has to be a mistake. I’m not— and you— I don’t think we’d even get along, let alone work out.”

He shrugged, “Obviously, you’re wrong. My words are on your skin, and yours on mine. Where are my words, by the way?”

“I uh- um, here.” You lifted your hand and set it over your mark.

Tony’s eyebrows rose in surprise, “That’s interesting.”

“How so?”

His smirk returned as he grabbed your hand softly and pulled you a step closer to him. You froze in surprise as he moved your hand to rest inside his suit jacket on top of the left side of his ribcage, “My words are right here.”

“Really?” You blurted out. There were myths and rumors that the closer the soul marks were to being in the same place, the stronger the bond between the soulmates would be. You had never met anyone who had soul marks in the same place, and the closest you had seen yourself was a couple where one mark was on the woman’s ankle and the other on her partner’s hip.

“We could leave, and I could show you.” Tony said slyly. “I mean, to be honest, I always imagined the context of your words to be a little different.”

You snatched your hand away from his chest and crossed your arms, “You wish.”

“I most certainly do.” You could feel your face heat up as you unconsciously took a step back away from the bar and away from your supposed soulmate. His smile faltered slightly, but he didn’t hesitate to take a step toward you. “Listen, I was serious about that first part. Let’s get out of here. Go get something eat or find a place where we can get a real drink.”

“A place where we can just talk?” You pressed.

Tony stuck his hands into his pocket and nodded, “We do have a lot to talk about.”

You rolled the idea around in your head for a few seconds before nodding your head. He grinned in response and offered you his arm to lead you out and you took it after only a brief moment of hesitation. It was easy to conclude that you were torn on this matter. The curious part of you, the part looking for answers, was more than happy to go to some random bar and chat up a storm. When did his soul mark appear? Was it the same time as yours? Had his been feeling weird up to this point? You’d chat up a storm to find the information you wanted.

However, this was not some random guy in a room of people or the guy next door. This was Tony Stark. The billionaire, the playboy, the narcissistic superhero that people either adored or hated. Was this the kind of guy you wanted to know? Yeah, he was your soulmate according to the words on your chest, but sometimes these soulmate things didn’t work out. It was rare, but these things did exist. Even if you decided to not judge him on his very public mistakes or the women he flaunted, he was still a powerful man with a lot of enemies.

What exactly were you getting yourself into?

The place he had in mind was literally only a few blocks away from where the after-party event was being held. After only a five minute, rather uncomfortable walk, you found yourself sitting in a booth in the very back of an old diner across from Tony Stark. The two of you stood out among the other customers in your formal clothes, but after a couple minutes passed nobody seemed to be paying either of you any more attention.

“Well, look at you Tony, all dolled up.” An older waitress came by with a wide smile. He grinned and she continued, “The usual?”

“You know me well, Ethel.” He replied and glanced at you, “You hungry? I usually get a thing of fries here. It’s good, we can share?”

You nodded, “Sure.”

Tony glanced back at Ethel, “She’ll have a scotch too.”

“She looks like she could use one.” Ethel commented, “What’d you do to the poor girl?”

Tony held his hands up in mock surrender. Ethel gave you a warm smile before walking off. You readjusted the hem of you dress and pulled it down, so it covered a little bit more of your legs.

He leaned across the table slightly, “So, how do we start this heart to heart—”

“Do you even want a soulmate?” You asked bluntly.

Tony blinked in surprise, “Wow, ok, go straight for the jugular there.”

“Seriously, I mean it.” You said, “I never took you as the kind of guy who would even want to settle down with one person. You seem pretty pleased with how your life is now.”

“That’s a fair question.” He leaned back into the booth and didn’t immediately answer your question. Finally, he shrugged nonchalantly with a smile on his face, but his brown eyes looked worried, “I don’t know. I really don’t. What about you?”

You forced a chuckle and tucked a piece of hair behind your ear, “Every little girl dreams about her soulmate, right?”

“Knowing what you know now, knowing that it’s me, do you still want one?” He asked. Ethel came back with two glasses and a bottle of scotch. It looked a lot more expensive than this place could handle and you wondered if the guy in front of you had anything to do with that. She set them down on the table with a smile before leaving. Tony grabbed the bottle and poured some amber liquid into both glasses. He set the bottle down and pushed the glass toward you before grabbing his own, “Do you even want to consider the possibility of having Tony Stark as your soulmate?”

He took a large drink of his scotch but didn’t tear his eyes from yours. You tapped your fingers against the glass and tried to ignore the chill running down your back. The diner was much colder than the party and this dress was hardly made for cold temperatures. You twisted your lips in thought, “That’s a really good question. I’m supposed to, aren’t I? Judging a book by its cover is wrong.”

“True, but this book can’t really deny most of the things on its cover.” Tony said, “And there is a lot of things on my cover. Good and bad.”

“Like being Iron Man?”

He smirked and nodded, “Yeah, that’s one of them.”

“A good one or a bad one?”

“I was going to let you decide on that.” He said then added, “Though I will admit, I was hoping the whole superhero gig would add some points with you. I hear the whole ‘saving lives’ and ‘being a hero’ thing is quite the turn on for ladies.”

You bit back a chuckle, “Admittedly, the Iron Man thing did win you a decent number of points.” You took a quick drink of the scotch, ignoring the burning taste and the growing smile on Tony’s face, then said, “But then there’s the whole ‘archenemies’ and ‘worrying about you dying’ bit that loses you nearly as many points as you had earned.”

His smile faltered on that last statement, and even though you meant it mostly as a joke he seemed to tense at the words. You took another sip of your drink and rubbed your arm with your free hand to try and get rid of the goose bumps that had formed. Tony shrugged out of his suit jacket and offered it to you over the table. You opened your mouth to argue, but the look on his face put a halt to your words.

“Thanks.” You mumbled and shrugged into the dark burgundy coat. It was obviously too big for you, but it was warm and smelled nice.

Moments later, Ethel came back with a basket of fries that she set between the two of you. Tony thanked her sincerely, and you gave her a brief smile. She left again, as quickly as she had come, and it was silent between the two of you again.

“You know, it kind of sucks.” Tony said suddenly making your eyes widen. He snatched a fry from the basket and quickly ate it while you waited for him to finish his thought. “We find each other, and you know everything about me but I know absolutely nothing about you. Kinda seems unfair if you ask me.”

You grabbed a fry for yourself, “From my perspective, I know a lot about you, but now I have to sit here and wonder how much is true, how much is false, and whether or not any of it actually represents who you are.”

“So, I guess we can agree that it sucks from both sides of things?” He commented. You chuckled and nodded in agreement. Tony finished his drink and grabbed the bottle to pour himself some more, “I bet you never pictured meeting your soulmate would look like this.”

You let out a laugh, “Yeah, you can say that again.”

“Tell me about how you pictured it.”

For a moment you didn’t say anything. The only person you had ever shared your daydreams with was your older sister. It wasn’t so much that you were ashamed of the fantasies, everyone with a soul mark had their own, but saying it out loud just made it seem that much more real. You were always afraid that if you said your hopes and daydreams out loud too many times then eventually you would start believing it might actually happen that way and you didn’t want to be disappointed.

Tony noticed your hesitance and spoke up, “I never really thought about it when I was a kid, and as a young adult I didn’t really give a damn…” He chuckled, “Thinking back now though, the funniest thing would have to be the way my mom’s face looked when she saw the words ‘Oh, fuck me’ written on her 12 year old’s chest.”

You couldn’t help but let out a bark of laughter at his words and he smiled along with you. That did have to be pretty bad. His mom probably thought he’d end up with some crazy woman or something.

“I’m the only person in my family with a soul mark.” You admitted with a small smile, “My parents didn’t have them, but they were still so close and just perfect for each other.” You let your eyes linger on the glass in front of you, “I had a few daydreams on how meeting my soulmate would pan out, but I guess the similar theme in all of them was just excitement. If my parents, who weren’t marked for each other, were so perfect and close…how much better would my relationship one day be?”

Your eyes lifted back to the man in front of you only to find his gaze hadn't moved an inch from you. Nervously, you finished your drink and then pulled the coat around you tighter before reaching for another fry.

Tony cleared his throat, “How do you think your family would react if you called them and told them who your soulmate was?”

You chuckled, “My older sister would lose her mind. She kinda has a low-key crush on you. Even her husband knows it.” Tony laughed quietly as you continued, “My dad would be worried. He’d probably threaten your life a bit.”

“And your mom?” Tony questioned in amusement.

“She would be torn for sure.” You said confidently, “She’d probably rotate from being super worried to asking about when I was going to give her grandbabies.”

Tony choked on the scotch he was drinking and that made you chuckle to himself. He pulled the glass away and cleared his throat. He looked like he wanted to say something or maybe comment on what you said, but you didn’t give him the chance, “How come you called me sunshine?”

“I’m sorry?”

“My words.” You repeated, “I always thought my soulmate would be some sort of southern gentleman or…I don’t know. Sunshine just doesn't seem like the kind of pet name you would use.”

Tony licked his bottom lip in thought and he undid the top button of his shirt. A light blue glow peeked out from his shirt, but your eyes lingered on an odd looking set of angry, inflamed lines that briefly could be seen when he undid his shirt . Your attention was pulled away when he began to speak, “Honestly?”

“Yeah.”

“I noticed you earlier in the night.” Tony said and he tried to sound as nonchalant as he could, but his shoulders were on the tense side and his eyes looked worried again, “The dress and your legs are definitely what first caught my attention, but then I saw you smiling and… damn, you were smiling. I don’t know if I could even call it just a smile, you were grinning ear to ear.” His lips quirked up slightly, “I lost sight of you for a while, but then I saw you heading toward the bar and I thought I’d strike up a conversation. A few hours had passed so I figured maybe you had to be at least a little tired of being so happy, but there you were grinning again.” Tony shrugged, “I don’t know what you were so happy about, but you were just beaming at the bar and I swear you lit up the entire room with that smile.”

You ducked your head down slightly as a small smile grew on your lips. His answer wasn’t the kind of answer you expected from him. Hell, none of this conversation was exactly what you expected of him. A determined idea settled in your mind and you looked back up at him with a smirk, “Thanks, Mr. Star— uh, Tony.”

He raised his glass at you slightly, “My pleasure, [Name].”

The two of you talked for a few more hours. Eventually the fries and the alcohol ran out, but the conversation didn’t. It was mostly just light-hearted banter and the trading of information. You told him more about your family and background, and he answered nearly every question you rattled off to him. You avoided the heavier topics, like the fact that you knew his parents were dead or the whole kidnapped and held hostage thing, because you didn’t want something to make this night go wrong.

A buzzing in your purse made you stop mid-sentence and reach over for it. The moment you pulled it out and saw Amber’s name flashing across the screen your face paled, “Oh shit. Oh shit, oh shit.”

“Everything ok?” Tony questioned.

“I ditched my friend at that party. I went to get her a drink and…”

“And you ran into me.” Tony chuckled, “It’s fine. I should probably leave.”

The tone of his voice and the worry in his eyes made you pause skeptically. You thought this impromptu date of sorts was going very well, but occasionally you’d notice the look of worry grow. You stood up and let Amber’s call go to voicemail, “So now what?”

“Now, I get your number and you go home and dream about how hot and amazing your soulmate turned out to be.” Tony replied cheekily as a confident mask covered the look of worry he had worn only moments ago. He reached forward and pulled something out of the pocket of his jacket. You smiled and gave him your number without hesitation. He nodded, “I’ll have someone come pick you up and take you anywhere.”

“You don’t have to do that.” You argued as he sent out a message on his phone.

He shoved it into his pocket and shook his head, “I insist. Happy’s a great driver.”

“Happy?”

“He works for me. Good guy.” Tony replied. You tried to shrug out of his jacket, but he reached forward and held the lapels in place. “Keep it.”

You nodded once, “Ok. Well, it was… really good to meet you? I’m sorry, I don’t know what to say now.” You both chuckled, but you pushed on, “I’m really glad you came up to speak to me, Tony.”

“Yeah, me too.” He replied softly. You didn’t know what to expect, but Tony leaning forward to pull you into a hug as not it. After a moment you hugged him back and tried not to let your mind roll to the cliché thoughts of how right this felt. He pulled away with a smile, “I’ll call you.”

Then without another word Tony left and you sat down to wait for the car he had called for you. Your soulmate was completely out of view now and a part of you wondered if it had all been some sort of weird ass hallucination. The cologne on the expensive jacket around your shoulders told you otherwise though.

Your cellphone buzzed again, and you picked it up expecting another text or call from Amber. Instead, it was a single text from an unknown number.

‘Goodnight, sunshine.☀️’

[npmjs]

Next Phase Montage

tl;dr -- Good news!

npm, Inc., is being purchased by GitHub.

The public registry remains public, free, and as available as ever.

npm as you know it continues, and in fact, there is good reason to believe that it'll only get better.

I'm still going to be working on npm (but with the luxury of more resources and less stress).

I'm really excited about the stuff we're going to do.

It is customary for a founder, in the closing chapter of their startup, to ruminate in a blog post about their incredible journey1. When we founded npm, Inc., I knew that I was signing up for a post like this someday. I'm extremely thankful that this is the one I get to write2.

history and origin

Back in 2009, after too long without a vacation, I quit my job, in hopes of discovering what happens when I untether my creativity.

What happened is I wrote a package manager.

I created npm with the goal of sharing modules in a tiny group of nerdy weirdos who'd decided to write web servers in JavaScript. From that niche beginning, npm grew, slowly but surely, the background project I'd greedily steal away time for.

At the end of 2013, npm hit a rough spot and we had to make a decision. This was the first big bookmark in the npm story, when the project could no longer survive on donations. We made some slide decks and raised an amount of money that seemed enormous at the time, but inevitably got spent really fast.

the part where i talk about startups

Running a company is hard. It is grueling, unglamorous work.

I don't want to make it sound completely terrible. There are definitely a few awesome parts. But once is enough for me.

Throughout this journey, our north star has been the mission that we founded this company with: reduce friction in JavaScript software development.

I have a set of goals that I wrote down back then, and have shared openly with the team. They haven't changed much.

Keep the npm registry running forever (not only for the life of the company).

Be a company that we can all enjoy working at, and do the best work of our careers up until now.

Get a big enough exit that I can quit my job and see what comes out of me a second time.

Share the rewards equitably with the people who got npm to where it is.

There are few unmitigated successes or failures in the real world. But this is a win, and a good one, for me and the team and the entire JavaScript community.

We have made tremendous progress on (1), and that's the thing I'm happiest about in this. As far as (2), there's been ups and downs, to say the least, but the bright spots outshine the dark. I've lost some valued friendships in the process, but made a few as well. On (3), well, I'm still working a jobby job, but I always knew that was a long shot, and "make npm a better package manager" is a job I enjoy. And as for (4), I'm proud of the deals that we've been able to negotiate for the team.

It's not a kajillion billion dollar 10x startup cinderella story, and we've taken our hits, but in the end we've done right by our community, team, and careers, and I'm extremely proud of what we've achieved.

the part where i talk about the company buying us

One of the questions founders get asked a lot is "what might your exit look like?" I always mentioned the big tech companies as possibilities, and GitHub as a sort of "wishful thinking" option.

I've been following GitHub's trajectory closely since they came to Yahoo! to give a talk about git and social coding way back in 20093. It's been a huge part of my life ever since I dove head-first into open source as a lifestyle choice.

When I saw the GitHub Packages beta announcement and demo at GitHub HQ in San Francisco, I remember turning to Shanku Niyogi and clumsily blurting out, "Why aren't you trying to buy us?"

It seemed so maddeningly... obvious. Forget about whose logo is on which webpage, just... if you're going to do this thing, do it right, ffs. This clearly needs to be integrated with the actual registry in a very deep way. "I mean... You see that, right?" (I think he probably did. And if he didn't, then props to him for taking my reaction as flattery or a good idea, rather than condescension.)

What I didn't really expect at the beginning of the acquisition process was how much I'd genuinely like everyone I met at GitHub, starting with my initial conversations with Nat, as well as all the people on the team he's built. As we dug into the technical and strategic plans for how npm would fit into the vision of GitHub moving forward, it became clear that this isn't just a good option for the JavaScript community -- it's significantly better than what npm, Inc., can provide on its own.

There are not many companies that can claim to have the kind of fanatical commitment to open source that GitHub does. In the track record of Nat and the team he's assembled, there's really something special here that I'm thrilled to be a part of.

I've said countless times before that I wouldn't let the registry go someplace that won't take care of it. (See goal (1) above. I've sacrificed years of my life and put a strain on many personal and professional relationships in pursuit of that goal.)

As GitHub has branched out into other aspects of the end-to-end developer community experience, it's natural to see how the JavaScript package management process fits into that story. It's not a loss leader or an experimental add-on or a way to quickly hire a team. Rather, the npm registry is a significant and concrete strategic asset serving GitHub's mission of eliminating transaction costs in software development.

That's important.

the part about what comes next

Today, npm serves over 1.3 million packages to roughly 12 million developers, who download these things 75 billion times a month, and all of this is growing at a rate that ensures these massive numbers will seem small in a few years.

Our commitment to that community is to keep the npm registry free for open source development for the foreseeable future, and continue to improve the npm CLI. At GitHub, npm will have the added support and backing of one of the world's largest companies, behind the world's largest community of developers.

There are some awesome opportunities for improvement in the npm experience, to meaningfully improve life for JS devs in countless large and small ways. We'll be making things more reliable, convenient, and connected for everyone across our vast interdependent JavaScript ecosystem.

For six years, in the grind of a startup, we've had dreams too big to dare hope for. This next chapter is a chance to realize those dreams.

This is the end of "npm, Inc.", the Delaware C Corp. But it's an exciting upgrade for npm.

[1]: Reference joke Our Incredible Journey

[2]: It's also worth noting that GitHub allowed such a long, nuanced, and candid announcement as this one, and didn't push for a watered down corporate version. Cultural alignment is a good sign.

[3]: Check out the date on the post for that talk. Then note the date on this commit. It's like some kind of cryptic message from the past, and it's weirding me out, tbh.

[deliriousacademia]

School tips 🍒

1. Do all assigned reading - This is beneficial for many reasons but basically, it’s because it gives you a basic knowledge of what’s discussed in lecture. However, although reading alone is very helpful, I suggest taking notes or using whatever other methods you can that aid you in your learning. For example; taking notes, writing in margins, reading farther into what you don’t understand from other sources, writing down questions you have, and once you’re done summarize everything you read in your own words.

2. Prioritizing assignments based on the long-term effect it will have on your grade. For example, if you are assigned two papers to write, with one being crucial to your overall grade in the class VS one that wouldn’t have much of an effect, you need to decide which one is more important. Obviously, the first one is the best choice. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t even bother to do the second one, all it means is that it won’t be your best work. When the next essay is assigned in that class, just promise to do better. Ask yourself; Which one would have a larger effect on my grade if I were to fail it? Whichever one that is, that’s the one you should give the majority of your attention.

3. Record the lecture on your phone. Check with your professor before you do this. If they don’t want you to record, then just don’t do it. However, if they don’t mind, this can be a very useful tool. Anytime your professor says something that you believe could be helpful for you in the future, (while studying for your exam, doing homework, etc.) mark the time at which they said it on your notes. After class, go back through and take thorough notes on whatever it is they said. This is especially useful for when professors go off on tangents of important info and it’s hard for you to get it all down on your notes. 

*Also, if you have a commute to work like I do, then what I find very helpful is to listen to the lecture recording on the drive.*

3. Take sloppy notes in class, touch them up afterwards. While in class, scribble all important information down. Don’t worry about making it pretty. Afterwards, go through and organize them into clear, concise notes that give you an excellent summary of the lecture. By doing this, you’re focusing more on the professor rather than looking down at your notebook.

4. Do all practice problems. This may sound like a no-brainer, but a lot of the time there are practice problems deemed optional by your professor. Because of this, many people decide not to do them. Seriously, just do them. Practice, especially when done right after class, really helps the information soak in.

5. Proofread essays with different font and size. When you reread the same Times New Roman 12 point font paper over and over, your mind become used to it, therefore skipping over little mistakes and typos. If you change the font as well as the size, your brain will stop skipping what previously looked familiar (ie; a typo that you’ve been skipping over the whole time)

6. Think of school as your job. If you aren’t a good employee, you’ll get fired. If you aren’t a good student, you’ll fail. In order to avoid getting fired, you make a good impression on the boss, work harder, etc. Apply that same concept with school; make a good impression on your professor, turn everything in on time, etc.

- - -

I am very excited for this upcoming school year to start. I have set many goals for myself and I hope you all do the same. Expect much more studying/educational posts for me as I’ll be using them to motivate myself and hopefully others. Good luck to all of you in your studies this year! ✨

[trendingtattoo]

Simple Small Tattoo Designs Trend In 2019

Small tattoos are the most delicate and prudent, a nicest way to add to your ink collection. Whether it’s a small butterfly done on your shoulder, a pinwheel etched on your nape or a tiny heart hidden on your wrist, or a small Pisces fish on your ankle, whatever and wherever….. The best thing about small tattoos is they are the perfect alternatives for the ones who love simple tattoos, or for the ones who do not want to overdo their tattoo, or for the ones who want to have tattoos but do not want to flaunt it. Though, there are many advantages of getting small tattoos and the biggest advantage is, they are cost effective!! Besides, hiding a small tattoo is very easy, if you don’t love to flaunt your tattoos then small tattoos are for you. Also, they come with less pain and take less effort, and yes, removing them is relatively easy. In addition to it, later if you want, you can even get your small tattoo seamlessly convert into a whole new image or design. Most common small tattoo designs include abstract lines, symbols, pinwheels, flowers, miniature quotes, small Pisces and Dolphin fish, names, initials, heart, numbers, stars, flowers, leaves, rainbows, butterfly, bumblebee, and many more. Small tattoo designs are best suitable for those who do not want to go for a permanent ink on their bodies, still want to try their hands.

Here is a list of 55 best and hottest 2019’s small tattoo designs for you….. Do read, you may find your favorite….

Here we go……..

1. Small Pinwheel Tattoo

Pinwheel tattoos make for a small tattoo designs, which look great when done wither on your shoulder blade or on your wrist. Pinwheel tattoos look gorgeous and cute when done in black ink, if you want you can give it a try. Best part is it can be done on any part and suits almost all skin tones.

2. Small Red Heart Tattoo

An outline of heart done with red ink will look amazingly beautiful on your arm. Heart tattoos make for perfect small tattoo designs. Apt for those who do not want to overdo their tattoos. You can also have it on your pinky finger!! A little heart tattoo will look awesome on your pinky finger, also it will be unique to have it there, especially in the front. Your heart tattoo will be almost invisible to the world because its placement is such. Suitable for all skin tones!!

3. Small Pisces Fish Tattoo

Pisces fish looks very cute, and when you get them etched on your ankle they will make for a beautiful small ankle tattoo. This tattoo can be done in black or any other ink of your choice, as it looks good in black or in colors as well. Suitable for all skin tones.

4. Small Star Tattoo

Star tattoos seriously make for the prettiest small tattoos in the world. And the best thing about star tattoos is, they can be done anywhere on your body but wrist will be the best place for this small tattoo, believe you me. This tattoo design looks simple, yet beautiful. If you want to have a small tattoo, then this is the design! Suitable for all skin tones.

5. Small Flower Tattoo

A small flower, in fact very small flower in red ink etched near your elbow will make for a sexy small tattoo design. Trust me, this one looks amazing. Besides your elbow, you can get a small flower tattoo on your wrist, ankle, finger, ear, nape etc. This one looks cute and elegant. Apt for all skin tones.

6. Three Small Stars Tattoo

Get these cute small three stars on your ring finger, amazing piece of artwork. These stars will be in series from smallest to biggest. They will vary in size and will be in a line. They really look cute and wonderful on ring finger. Besides, you can get them on your wrist or near the ear. Suitable for all skin tones.

7. Small Name Initials Tattoo

Initials of your name or your loved one’s on your body will be apt to flaunt your love for the person. Initials make for a common tattoo design though, but trust they look really very, very cute. Whatever your name or your loved one’s name, just pick up the first letter of the name and get it inked on your thumb or wherever you want. You can get name initials in lower case or upper case. Suitable for all skin tones.

8. Small GIRL POWER Tattoo

Small GIRL POWER tattoo for all the girls! Girl Power tattoos look sexy, especially when you get them etched either on your thigh or on your rib. Small girl power tattoo is for all the girls who want to flaunt their way out to the world. Suitable for all skin tones. Get this one done in black on your thigh or wherever you want.

9. Small “I AM” Tattoo

This small tattoo design looks really gorgeous! Phrase I AM is Hebrew phrase which means “I am everything #positive #happy #healthy #inspired #driven #unique #blessed #alive and everything where I need to be.” This tattoo reflects positivity and positive attitude of a person towards life. If you also want to flaunt your positive attitude to the world then this one is for you! Suitable for all skin tones, get it done on your wrist in black for the best results.

10. Small Anklet Tattoo

Just three fine lines encircling your ankle, the tattoo will look like you are wearing and anklet or a black thread. Yeah, you must have seen some girls wearing anklets or black thread on ankles, this tattoo looks like that only. After having this one, you will never want to wear anything else on your ankle. Because this one will be enough…..!! Suitable for all skin tones.

11. Small Hand Poked Moon Phase Tattoo

Hand poked moon phase tattoo makes for a beautiful small tattoo design. If you are seriously looking for something unique and extraordinary, then go for this one. Get this tattoo either on your rib or on your feet, wherever it will look mesmerizing! Get this in black. Suitable for all skin tones.

12. Small Name Tattoo

You may be thinking what’s so special in it, but trust this one looks so beautiful in italics…. You can get your name etched on your arm, wrist, or finger in a different language. This one makes for an eye catching tattoo as nobody will understand what’s written. And everybody will be curious to know the meaning of the word in a different language.

13. Small Lips Tattoo

A small lips tattoo designs are a convenient way of expressing a sweet message of love, sensuality, romance, and even conceit. Best thing is – they can be placed anywhere on the body as they can fit into the tiniest of spaces making for a suitable small tattoo design. The placement of a lip tattoo is really important. An imprint lips tattoo on the finger/hand will denote the same image of love but it does so in a much toned down way. Whereas, an imprint lips tattoo on the neck and breast are far sensual in their message. So, just be mindful of exactly the kind of message you want your tattoo to convey. Get this one in red. It is suitable for all skin tones.

14. Small Band Tattoo

This tattoo design is very simple, but make for a unique tattoo, when done on your finger. This small band tattoo will appear as if you are wearing a permanent ring. This tattoo looks very cute and unique. The only matter of concern in getting this one is, finger is a bit sensitive place so you may find it a bit painful. But all in all it’s a wonderful small tattoo design. Suitable for all skin tones.

15. Small Double Heart Tattoo

Double heart tattoo when done in small size makes for a beautiful tattoo design. This tattoo looks cute, you can get this design on your wrist or on your nape. It will look perfect, wherever you get it etched on your body. A symbol of love! You can get this one in black or red ink. Suitable for fair skin tones.

16. Small Rose Tattoo

Small rose tattoo not only looks beautiful, but also make for a “PERFECT” small tattoo design. However, you can get it anywhere on your body, but it looks best when etched on ankle. It looks sexy, especially when you wear shoes without socks, it will just add to your style. Get it in red ink; however, black also looks beautiful. Suitable for fair skin tones.

17. Small Pine Tree

Pine trees are every popular as Christmas trees though, but they make for a perfect small tattoo design as well. Small pine tree tattoo etched on your wrist with green ink will make for an eye-catching tattoo. The tattoo will have beautiful shades of green, giving it an appearance of real tree on your arm. Suitable for fair skin tone. A perfect and unique small tattoo design.

18. Small Music Symbol Tattoo

This one is specifically for the music lovers! This small tattoo is a perfect design for music lovers to flaunt their love for music, especially for the ones sensitive about music, who knows how to express their love for music without showing it off on a large scale to the world. Small symbol of music note on your thumb, or on the knuckle will look super cool and stylish. Besides, it can be done on your wrist, ear, near the ear, chest, etc. Suitable for all skin tones.

19. Small Sunflower Tattoo

A beautiful sunflower tattoo etched on your nape will look mesmerizing. Get this beautiful tattoo in combination of yellow and green, so that it appears as if real flower kept on your nape. This small tattoo design is for those who love nature and want to stay connected to it. You can get this on your nape, ear, wrist, or thumb. Suitable for fair skin tones.

20. Small CARPE DIEM Tattoo

It’s a Latin phrase, which is simply used to urge someone to make the most of the present time and give little thought to the future. If you also think that you live in the present, then this beautiful phrase tattoo is for you, which makes for a perfect small tattoo design. You can get this one on your inner wrist, arm, side palm, etc. Suitable for all skin tones.

21. Small Quote/Phrase Tattoos

Though there are many quotes, but you choose the one which you think represent you the best. You can get a quote on your finger or on your wrist done in italics or in running font. It will look beautiful done anywhere. Also, you can choose quote in any language, the only thing you need to take care is to know the meaning of the quote particularly. Because when people see your tattoo, they will definitely ask for its meaning. So, it is crucial that you know its meaning.

[ See More: Quote Tattoo Designs ]

22. Small Heart Stretched With Heartbeats Tattoo

This small tattoo is for those who wants to have a little more than a heart. This small tattoo will have a heart with a heartbeat or a line stretching from the endpoint of heart and at a little distance the line will break and will have a small gap. This design looks really cool when done in black. Suitable for all skin tones.

23. Small Butterfly Tattoo

Butterflies really makes for a cute small tattoo designs. You may get them in color or in black only. Though, you can get your butterfly tattoo anywhere on your body, but trust this small butterfly sitting on your neck will be a hit! And the best part is on the neck you always have privilege, whenever you want you can flaunt, whenever you wish you can hide it with your hair. This one is suitable for all skin tones.

24. Small “FREEDOM” With Birds Tattoo

Simply for those who love to be free from any bond, attachment, negativity, etc. Who are absolutely themselves, who love to live life to the fullest even when life doesn’t present them with beautiful things… Freedom is for free people. If you think you are also amongst them, then go for this one on your wrist or arm or wherever you want. Have word freedom etched in running font with some birds flying from there in black ink. Suitable for all skin tones.

25. Small Wishbone Tattoo

A wishbone is V shaped bone located between the breast and neck of the bird. After the bird like turkey is cooked, there will be a fun competition to grab the biggest part of the wishbone. It is time honored American tradition. If you have some association with this tradition then this one is a good tattoo design for you. Get this on your arm, or near elbow in black. Suitable for all skin tones.

26. Small Feather Tattoo

If you love feathers, then trust they make for a wonderful small tattoo design as well. Feathers simply represent freedom that is incomparable. Feathers, however, look meaningful and enigmatic. If you wish you can make it look artistic or realistic, the tattoo looks great. This tattoo will look great on your shoulder blade. Besides, you can have it on your wrist, leg, or near the ear. It looks great in color or in black. Suitable for all skin tones.

27. Small Pizza Tattoo

It may sound bizarre, but there are pizza tattoo designs as well. If you love pizza like anything then small cute pizza tattoo design is for you. Get this one either on your thigh or on your wrist, it will look beautiful. Get this small tattoo in black. It is suitable for all skin tones.

28. Small Direction Tattoos

An amazing small tattoo design! If you are amongst those who have their own ways to live and lead their lives, then this one’s for you. You can get all the four directions defined by arrows inked on your neck just near your ear. Besides, you can get it on your wrist, shoulder, forearm, or palm. The design will look mesmerizing, make sure it is small in size. Suitable for all skin tones.

29. Small Paw Tattoo

It is for those who love their pets. You can get this one in the memory of your beloved dog also. Paw-fect Feet. It is very simple—let your dog “brand” you by pressing their paw onto your skin or on a piece of paper. Then, take it to your tattoo artist and have them translate it onto your skin. This tattoo design looks cute and elegant. Get this one in black on your arm, wrist, etc. Suitable for all skin tones.

30. Small Angel Tattoo

An angel etched on your body will look beautiful and stunning. It will be an eye-catching tattoo design, especially when etched on your shoulder blade. Angel tattoos are girls’ most favorite tattoo designs. They never lose their charm, come what may. If you also love angels and want one for yourself too, then get the one in black on your shoulder blade, chest, shoulder, or neck, it will look mesmerizing. Suitable for all skin tones. See more: 55-small-tattoo-designs-trend-in-2019

[suzanneshannon]

Considerations for Making a CSS Framework

Around eight months ago, I started building a framework which would eventually go on to become Halfmoon. I made a post on this very website announcing the launch of the very first version. Halfmoon has been billed as a Bootstrap alternative with a built-in dark mode feature, that is especially good when it comes to building dashboards and tools. All of this still applies to the framework.

However, today I would like to talk about an area of the framework that is a bit understated. I believe our industry as a whole seriously underestimates the value of customization and user personalization, i.e. users being able to set their own design preferences. Chris has written before about knowing who a design system is made for, pointing out a spectrum of flexibility depending on who a system is meant to help.

But it’s more than design systems. Let’s talk about how Halfmoon addresses these issues because they’re important considerations for knowing which framework works best for your specific needs.

Dashboard built using Halfmoon

Who is Halfmoon for?

Before diving in, let’s address an important question: Is Halfmoon the right framework for you? Here’s a list of questions to help you answer that:

Are you building a dashboard, tool, or even a documentation website? Halfmoon has many unique components and features that are specific to these use cases.

Are you familiar with Bootstrap’s class names, but wish that the design was a bit more premium-looking?

Does your users want or expect a dark mode on your website?

Do you dislike dependencies? Halfmoon does not use jQuery, and also has no build process involving CSS preprocessors. Everything is pure, vanilla CSS and JavaScript.

Are you tired of dealing with complex build systems and front-end tooling? This ties in to the previous point. Personally, I find it difficult to deal with front-end tooling and build processes. As mentioned above, Halfmoon has no build process, so you just pull in the files (local, CDN, or npm), and start building.

If you answered yes to any (or all) of these questions, you should probably give Halfmoon a try. It is important to note however, that Halfmoon is not a UI component library for React/Vue/Angular, so you shouldn’t go into it expecting that. Moreover, if you are more fond of purely utility driven development, then Tailwind CSS is a better option for you. When it comes to CSS utilities, Halfmoon takes a middle of the road approach – there are utilities plus semantic classes for common components.

Using CSS custom properties

First, let’s get the easy stuff out of the way. CSS custom properties are incredible, and I expect them to completely replace preprocessor variables in the future. Browser support is already at a solid ~96%, and with Internet Explorer being phased out by Microsoft, they are expected to become a standard feature.

Halfmoon is built entirely using CSS variables because they provide a huge degree of customization. Now, you might immediately think that all this means is that there are a few custom properties for colors sprinkled in there, but it’s more than that. In fact, there are over 1,500 global variables in Halfmoon. Almost everything can be customized by overriding a property. Here’s a nifty example from the docs:

Swapping out a few custom property values opens up a ton of possibilities in Halfmoon, whether it’s theming things for a brand, or tweaking the UI to get just the right look.

That’s what we’re talking about here when it comes to customization: does the system still stand up and work well if the person using it overrides anything. I have written extensively about this (and much more) in the official Halfmoon docs page.

Variables aren’t a new concept to frameworks. Many frameworks actually use Sass or Less variables and have done so for quite a while. That’s still a good and effective way to establish a customizable experience. But at the same time, those will lock into a preprocessor (which, again, doesn’t have to be a bad thing). By relying instead on CSS custom properties — and variable-izing all the things — we are relying on native CSS, and that doesn’t require any sort of build dependency. So, not only can custom properties make it easier to customize a framework, but they are much more flexible in terms of the tech stack being used.

There is a balance to be had. I know I suggested creating variables for everything, but it can be equally tough to manage and maintain scores and scores of variables (just like anything else in the codebase). So, lean heavily on variables to make a framework or design system more flexible, but also be mindful of how much flexibility you need to provide and whether adding another variable is part of that scope.

Deciding what components to include

When it comes to building a CSS framework, deciding what components to include is a big part of that ordeal. Of course, for a developer working on a passion project, you want to include everything. But that is simply not feasible, so a few decisions were made on my part.

As of right now, Halfmoon has most of the components you can find in similar frameworks such as Bootstrap or Bulma. These frameworks are great and widely used, so they are a good frame of reference. However, as I have mentioned already, a unique thing about Halfmoon is the focus on building tools and dashboards on the web. This niche, if you could call it that, has led me to build some unique components and features:

5 different types of sidebars, with built-in toggle and overlay handlers. Sidebars are very important for most dashboards and tools (and a pain to get right), so this was a no brainer.

2 different types of navbars. There is one that sticks to the bottom of the page, which can be used to great effect for action buttons. Think about the actions that pop up when you select items on data-table. You could place those action buttons here.

Omni-directional dropdowns (with 12 different placements, 3 for each direction).

Beautiful form components.

Built-in keyboard shortcut system, with an easy way to declare new ones for your tool.

Tons of utilities. Of course, this is not comparable to Tailwind CSS, but Halfmoon has enough responsive utility classes to handle a lot of use cases right out of the box.

Moreover, the built-in dark mode, huge customizability, and the standard look and feel to the components, should all work together to make Halfmoon a great tool for building web tools and dashboards. And I am hopefully nowhere close to being done! The next updates will bring in a form validator (demo video), more form components, multi-select component, date and time picker, data-table component, etc.

So what is exactly missing from Halfmoon? Well the most obvious ones are tabs, list group, and spinners. But all of these are planned to be added in v1.2.0, which is the next update. There are also other missing components such as carousels, tree navigation, avatars, etc, which are slightly out of scope.

Providing user preferences

Giving end users the ability to set their preferences is often overlooked by frameworks. Things like setting the font size of an article, or whether to use a dark or light theme. In some ways, it’s sort of funny, because the web is catching up to what operating systems have allowed users to do for decades.

Here are some examples of user personalization on the web:

Being able to select your preferred color mode. And, even better, the website automatically saves and respects your preference when the page is loaded. Or better yet, looking at your operating system preferences and automatically accommodating them.

Setting the default size of elements. Especially font size. A small font might look good in a design, but allowing users to set their ideal font size makes the content actually readable. Technically, every modern browser has an option to zoom into content, but that is often unwieldy, and does not actually save your settings.

Setting the compactness of elements. For example, some people prefer large padding with rounded corners, while others find it a waste of space, instead preferring a tighter UI. Sort of like how Gmail lets you decide whether you want a lot of breathing room in your inbox or make it as small and tight as possible to see more content.

Setting the primary color on the website. While this is entirely cosmetic, it is still charming to be able to set your favorite color on every button and link on a website.

Enabling a high contrast mode. Someone pointed this out to me on GitHub. Apparently, many (and I mean many) CSS frameworks often fail the minimum contrast recommended between foreground and background colors on common elements, such as buttons. That list includes Halfmoon. This is often a tradeoff, because overly contrastive elements often look worse (purely in terms of aesthetic). User personalization can allow you to turn on a high contrast mode, if you have difficulty with the default contrast.

Allowing for user personalizations can be really difficult to pull off — especially for a framework — because that would could mean swapping out huge parts of CSS to accommodate the different personalization settings and combinations. However, with a framework like Halfmoon (i.e. built entirely using CSS variables), this becomes trivial as CSS variables can be set and changed on run-time using JavaScript, like so:

// Get the <html> tag (for reading and setting variables in global scope) var myElement = document.documentElement; // Read CSS variable getComputedStyle(myElement).getPropertyValue("--variable-name"); // Set CSS variable myElement.style.setProperty("--variable-name", "value");

Therefore, user personalization can be implemented using Halfmoon in the following way:

The user sets a preference. That basically means a variable value gets changed. The variable is set with JavaScript (as shown above), and the new value is stored in a cookie or local storage.

When the user comes back to the website, their preferences are retrieved and set using JavaScript (again, as shown above) once the page is loaded.

Here are visual examples to really hammer the point home.

Setting and saving the default font size

In the example above, whenever the range slider is changed, the variable --base-font-size is updated to the slider’s value. This is great for people who prefer larger text. As explained in the previous section, this new value can be saved in a cookie or local storage, and the next time the user visits the website, the user preference can be set on page load.

Setting the compactness of content

Because there are CSS custom properties used as utilities, like spacing and borders, we can remove or override them easily to create a more compact or expanded component layout.

Only two variables are updated in this example to go from an expanded view to a compact one:

--content-and-card-spacing changed from 3rem (30px) to 2rem (20px).

--card-border-radius changed from 0.4rem (4px) to 0.2rem (2px).

For a real life scenario, you could have a dropdown that asks the user whether they prefer their content to be Default or Compact, and choosing one would obviously set the above CSS variables to theme the site. Once again, this could be saved and set on page load when the user visits the website on their next session.

Wait, but why?

Even with all the examples I have shown so far, you may still be asking why is this actually necessary. The answer is really simple: one size does not fit all. In my estimate, around half of the population prefers a dark UI, while the other half prefers light. Similarly, people have wild variations about the things they like when it comes to design. User personalization is a form of improving the UX, because it lets the user choose what they prefer. This may not be so important on a landing page, but when it comes to a tool or dashboard (that one has to use for a long time to get something done), having a UI that can be personalized is a boon to productivity. And knowing that is what Halfmoon is designed to do makes it ideal for these types of use cases.

Moreover, you know how people often complain that websites made with a certain framework (eg Bootstrap) all look the same? This is a step toward making sure that websites built with Halfmoon will always look distinct, so that the focus is on the website and content itself, and not on the framework that was used to build it.

Again, I am not saying that everything should be allowed to be personalized. But knowing who the framework is for and what it is designed to do helps make it clear what should be personalized.

Looking ahead

I strongly feel that flexibility for customization and accounting for user preferences are often overlooked on the web, especially in the framework landscape. That’s what I’m trying to address with Halfmoon.

In the future, I want to make it a lot easier for developers to implement user preferences, and also promote diversity of design with new templates and themes. That said, here are some things on the horizon for Halfmoon:

A form validator (demo video)

New components, including range sliders, tabs and spinners

High contrast mode user preference

Multi-select component (like Select2, only without jQuery)

A date and time picker

A data-table component

A GUI-based form builder

More themes and templates

You can, of course, learn more about Halfmoon in the documentation website, and if you want to follow the project, you can give it a star on GitHub.

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[thebestwaytostartan453]

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[reflectiveessaytopic669]

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[bnhaquirkzine]

Hi! So it's not necessarily a question about this zine, but I figured since you both have experience you seemed to be good people to ask... what advice/info would you give to someone interested in organizing a zine? For instance, how do you fund them, since printing can get rather pricy? How do you decide the number of writers/artists? Sorry if you'd rather not get into it, and thanks for your time anyways!

Hey Anon!

We welcome all zine-related questions and queries! :)

The answer is quite long and detailed. Okay. SUPER LONG AND DETAILED. I AM SORRY but I hope it helps you out!

I wish you all the best for the zine you wish to organize and hope it does super well and you have fun with it. :)

If you have more queries/questions you can contact me personally  and we can talk one-on-one too! Happy to help! ^^

Thank you!

- mod aish

1. Have fun with it. No matter how intimidating it looks/is, how stressful and nerve-wrecking it can get, the ups and downs, whatever, try to enjoy it to the fullest. ;)

2. Choose the topic of the zine. Fandoms, original, any-content, theme-related, rating, etc. RESEARCH. RESEARCH. RESEARCH.

3. Know about the target audience as it will help you estimate the avg. response and you can decide if you wish to go forward with it right away or hold it for a while longer.

4. If its your first project, I’d 100% recommend starting off slow and little. Invite your friends or artists you like to take part in the zine, keep the participant number in range to 10-15. This is because, irrespective of your sales, chances are high that you can compensate the participants by sending them their own copies. THAT’S IMPORTANT.

5. In general, an ideal size of the zine is A5 with 24-30 pages. It can be more or less, it entirely depends on the organizers.

6. If you decide to do a non-profit charity zine, its best you refer to organizers who’ve done it similarly to help you advise how and where to send the money, which charities are legit/scam, etc.

7. If its a for-profit zine, you can either split the money per page (artists get money/page they’ve illustrated) or divided it equally between the no. of artists (irrespective of how many pages an artist creates.)

8. Its up to you if you wish to take a little % for yourself as you’re organizing the zine, will get it printed and shipped. It depends on an individual but there are zines where the organizing team also takes a %.

9. PLEASE PRIORITIZE COMPENSATING YOUR ARTISTS-WRITERS WITH THEIR OWN COMPLEMENTARY COPIES OF THE ZINE. INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING INCLUDED. (physical or digital, depending on the zine type!)

10. Be as organized as possible! Make plenty notes, communicate a lot so that everyone is in the loop, be as open as you can about it. This will also help your fellow artists-writers know a little about the process it takes with organizing a zine.

11. Respect their wishes if they wish to remain out of the loop. Be kind. AND PATIENT. Don’t rush things.

12. Always keep an extension ready. Like, just take an est. of 7-10 days with deadlines and the whole schedule.

13. Things can and will go wrong. Try to compromise, adjust and overcome it.

14. If you are going to get the zines printed, its best you first try and find a local printer in your area. Ask, Printer-san if they get books/magazines printed or not. If yes, browse through the multiple page types/qualities and ask about the price too. Depending upon this, choose the paper quality suitable for your zine. If its 30-40 pages, you can have a more thicker paper, but if it exceeds 40+ its best you choose a lesser thick paper. Gloss/semi-gloss is idea. And looks pretty.

15. Usually, printers will print if you give them an ideal quantity/batch, be it 25, 50, 75 or 100 copies. Otherwise, its also possible they can get a single copy printed too. Try to bargain :’) and get it as low as logically possible but listen….this is how they earn too, so ask for the min. production costs per batch size (25/50/…)

16. If not a local printer, online is the way! You can easily go through various websites which explain paper quality/quantity/size/price, etc.

17. Once you can get an est. price of a SINGLE ZINE, try and find shipping est. for locals and international customers. This will help you determine an est. for the production and shipping costs of a SINGLE ZINE. And then you can multiply it with as many zines as you wish to/hope to sell.

18. Once you have an est. production and shipping value of a single zine, you can determine the RETAIL price of the zine. (How much to sell it for?) Be up-to-date with the current costings of other zines too and price it accordingly. It isn’t fair to a customer if you oversell it, unless that is an only option and it isn’t fair to the creators if you under-price it, especially if its a for-profits zine. THIS ENTIRELY DEPENDS ON THE PRODUCTION AND SHIPPING COSTS OF THE ZINE.

19. Ask yourself if you, YOURSELF, will be able to buy YOUR ZINE at $X or $Y and go with it. (Don’t overprice-underprice it!)

20. Keep a detailed list of all the budget being spent, printing the zines, shipping them, shipping materials (envelopes, tape), etc.

21. For an art-only zine, its important you pay attention to how many artists will contribute a single page submission or multiple page submission, etc. This will help you know how many pages the zine will be.

22. For a zine with writers, choose a word-limit and stick to it! When you have the layout of your zine ready, make a mock page with the fic in it to know which font style you wish to use, the size of it, spacing, etc.

23. Try to reach out to people who have organized a zine before and request for their help. It’s the best as they can guide you well and this way you can make newer mistakes, instead of making the old ones. LOL. I AM SORRY BUT REALLY THAT’S TRUE.

24. OH! YOUR STORE! Where do you wish to sell the zine?! Tictail, storenvy, etsy. That’s up to you!

25. Also, keep a margin est. of the online fee deduction which stores and PayPal do. So that your own budget estimations are as accurate as possible.

26. Chances are you won’t break even (cover the production-shipping costs) and don’t lose hope. I will get back to you ASAP in case it happens with me. HOPE NOT. But I believe you will break-even if you price it well, promote it better and produce an awesome product.

27. Chances are you will do great! If so, CONGRATULATIONS!

28. Try your best to choose applicants according to their skill levels and not friendships. Really. It will be tough as heck…but right then you are the MOD, don’t half-ass it. If you can’t, make a zine with invite-only policy and ask your friends to take part in it. ;)

29. Schedule it in a way that you yourself can give it as much time as possible as YOU ARE THE ONE DOING IT FIRST. The zine comes to life thanks to the artists and writers…but you are an important PILLAR. Don’t over-exert yourself, take breaks, time it well, ask for help whenever you need.

30. Promote the zine well, be kind, be open to changes, but stick to your deadlines and schedule. Have as many discussions as possible and keep in touch with your whole team.

31. PLEASE BE POLITE. DON’T BE A RUDE-ASS NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS. Really. Be calm, even in crises. Take a break and think things over before you say/do something unkind. A zine is supposed to be a fun and exciting creation to bring together people from all over the world, different artists/writers, new artists/writers, customers, friends, etc. MAKE IT FUN. BE KIND.

I think I have covered many things. I can share more about budgeting, pre-orders, etc. but its best you contact me personally as I am too exhausted to add more to the list. I am sorry. These are the things which came to my mind like WOOOSH! If I have skipped a topic, let me know! If I remember something in the future….or learn something myself, I will update the list. :D

If someone strongly disagrees with a point, please know that these are 100% my own opinions, from my experiences and research.

[workingmotivation]

you all may be wondering why people all over social media are talking about bullet journalling. What is bullet journaling and how to start bullet journalling would be your questions. But, more than that you would be asking your self why should I do bullet journalling. I have asked these questions to myself too. Below is a list of pros and cons of bullet journalling. 

The Pros of Bullet Journaling

Customisable Layout If you make a bullet journal, you can decide on how the pages are set out, from the size of each box to its position on the page. This gives you much more control and the ability to do what you actually want with it, opposed to being stuck to the guidelines set out by a regular planner. You can alter the design based on what works for you so that your planner is the most functional and suited to you that it can be. This is particularly useful if you want to customise your journal to suit being a student, as you're able to add a timetable, homework tracker, revision schedule and many other school-related pages that wouldn't otherwise be included in a regular journal or diary.

Creative Outlet With most traditional planners, you simply write in any important events and to-do lists, which helps to keep you organised but can become quite monotonous. There's barely any room to be adventurous and creative with how you enter information in your planner, but the bullet journal provides a solution to this. Whether you show creativity through quotes, drawings, fonts or colours, all of this can be included in your bullet journal as well as important details and events. You can also use washi tape, stickers and coloured pens to decorate, which can actually be therapeutic and provide much more of a creative outlet for you, transforming bullet journaling into a hobby. If you're feeling stressed by school or in need of a relax, this can also be a good option for winding down and exerting your creativity elsewhere.

You Can Mix Things Up Once you get a shop-bought journal, you have to commit to that layout and style of entering your tasks. With bullet journaling, it's a completely different story. If you opt for a vertical spread one week but decide you don't like it, you can easily change it for the future. Or if you draw out a monthly overview but find that you hardly use it, you simply don't need to draw it out next month. There's also the possibility to try out new things and explore different styles of journaling, knowing that you don't have to stick with it as you can easily revert back to normal whenever you want.

Everything Is In One Place It can be hectic and unorganised to have a separate diary, notebook and calendar, as well as random notes on your phone and scrap pieces of paper. With a bullet journal, you can condense this all into one place. This means that you'll know exactly where to look for something and so will never forget a task. I've also seen quite a few people who have combined their bullet journal with a revision book or for class notes, meaning even their school work is contained in this one organised place.

It's Unique For Everyone Everyone will have different uses for their journal and things to enter, so it's only right that each journal should also be unique. You are able to find a method that is suited entirely to you, making planning much more efficient. If you're a blogger and find that regular journals don't include any place for you to plan posts, you can easily add this in. Or if you want a section to track all of your school grades, you can implement this in no time. Whatever you find works best for you can be employed so that journaling is the most efficient and enjoyable it can possibly be.

The Cons of Bullet Journaling

It's Too Time Consuming One of my main criteria for planning is that it should be quick and easy to do. Whether it's entering important dates or creating new spreads, I should be able to spend a minimal amount of time on it. This is especially important as a student, as I need to quickly and efficiently jot down any homework tasks, notes and revision before it disappears from my brain. However, I found that bullet journaling took up a lot of my time, and I couldn't enter something into my journal without either having to draw out a completely new page or spending lots of time to make sure what I was entering looked nice.

I'm a Perfectionist When I was creating my spreads, I didn't want to settle for alright. I wanted perfection and that's pretty hard to achieve. I was measuring boxes to be accurate down to the hundredth of a centimetre (this is how extreme I was going!) and constantly erasing things that didn't look quite like how I'd envisioned them. Although I was pleased with the final spreads, it took too long to get to that point and I'd always notice something that could be tweaked or altered to make it perfect. With a homemade journal like this, I was never going to get it 100% right.

Some Spreads Were Unnecessary When deciding what spreads I wanted in my bullet journal, I went a bit crazy and overboard. Some of the pages I included were a bucket list, the tracker of all the books I read and a list of things that made me happy. Although all of these were nice additions, none of them were really necessary or could've been fine just on my phone. I spent way too much time making these additional pages look nice, even though I'd hardly use them in my day-to-day life.

It's Difficult to Plan Ahead It's understandable that you won't have time initially to draw out every page and spread for the next 12 months, and this can start to become an issue. Bullet journaling was great for planning in the moment, or for that particular month which was already drawn out, but as soon as I found out the dates for a holiday next summer or important exams in the future, all of this went out the window. There's nowhere to immediately write down these things without drawing out all of the spreads between now and that moment, which I didn't want to do as there may be changes or alterations that I wanted to make in the future. For this reason, I found bullet journaling a lot harder to maintain, especially when considering long-term tasks and goals.

I Don't Have Enough to Enter Although I do have plenty of college-related tasks to keep track of, I don't really have much else apart from that. Particularly in the holidays, I could have weeks with nothing going on and so a blank journal. This was hard to accept with my bullet journal, as I'd just spent lots of time drawing out each spread only to not even use it. Considering the amount of time and effort that was put into setting it up, it just wasn't worth it for only a couple of tasks or to-do lists.

[dbcreepr-blog]

Collaboration progress & Production analysis

Collaboration

Early on in the week, I Had a response from Imperial Mastering, who made an offer to master the entire 12 tracks of the project for £200. When compared to his based rate,  this would essentially mean that he would be mastering the 4 skits for free, which is the best quote I've had so far, and based some research undertaken, the current rate appears to be much higher. Below are screenshots of our correspondence.

As seen in the above photos it was stated that the pre-masters will be ready to be sent within a month. This was a purposeful way of setting out a goal that not only fits into the pre-planned schedule made for the proposal, but also serves as a way to motivate me to meet a self set deadline that will highly benefit the overall project. The search for an appropriate illustrator is still an ongoing process, I recently got in touch with Rolly Rocket who is an illustrator and a graphic designer who specialises in Retro-Futuristic artwork. Some examples of his work below.  

The typography in the first example is what caught my initial interest. The positioning and font of the text is reminiscent of an old 1950’s era movie poster, a time period where the typography in a movie poster became a vessel to not only relay the title of the project, but to also set the tone of the film itself through positioning, font size and colour use, a practice that can be in large be due to Saul Bass, who has been credited for making a films title in line with its identity. (Yu, 2008). As recreating the ‘feel’ of a vintage Sci-Fi movie poster is one of the main elements that is required for my projects artwork, this alongside other aesthetic choices and a noticeable versatility in his work has made Rolly Rocket my main choice to work with if possible. I drafted a brief message describing my project as seen below.

As of writing this, it has only been 24 hours since the message was sent, so a reply is still being waited on. If the rates fit into the budget, Rolly Rocket will be my first choice but in the meantime, other avenues will also be explored.

Production analysis, Part 1. This will be the first in a series of posts spanning across the next few of weeks detailing some of the sound design choices and techniques that have been applied in order to achieve the retro-futuristic, lofi sound that is the conceptual root of this project This week the introduction to a track from the second act of the album will be discussed.  

As this particular track represents the first contact and initial conflict with a hostile alien force, the main aim when beginning composition was to emphasise tension and uncertainty. A building suspense sound was composed by mixing a sample of tense strings, layering it with a couple of separate sounds from the Sub Phatty, which was then subsequently resampled into one recording.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bVYIk75vy6Des9cg89XMWK6h3bs1cNY0/view?usp=sharing

As heard in the above example the sample was a little quiet, and lacked presence. In order to overcome this, I processed and resampled the clip using the SP-404’s Compressor and Vinyl Sim effects, the comparative results can be seen and heard below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pzQXhyWxpNWqa5FHDx_h7CZdDsJtZoez/view?usp=sharing

As this track will most likely be the first one following the end of act 1, the aim was to present a little bit of vocal dialogue to illustrate where the second act was heading sonically, also setting the tense uncertain tone that this part of the album will be comprised of. In order to do this a selection of vocal clips from the movie ‘The Quatermass Xperiment’ (1955), and were chopped up and presented in a way that shows the crew encountering an alien signal, whilst tackling problems within the spaceship. These vocals were layered over the suspenseful build up which resulted in a segment that could be used as the introduction of the track. A draft of this can be heard below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pC9ddr6pRD8aiRPrRT7oZ9s4_hNmkTa4/view?usp=sharing Elements of lofi and retro-futurism can be distinctly heard in this segment. In reference to lofi there is an underlying vinyl crackle playing throughout, and the use of the Vinyl Sims ‘flutter’ parameter adds an unpredictable tone that moves softly alongside the various hisses that were present in the initial sample. These are all characteristics that are associated with lofi music (Supper, 2018). The sampling  of the strings, and vocal interactions from a 1950’s sci fi movie worked as a strong part of helping craft a retro-futuristic feel to this particular segment.

Some of these elements are reintroduced later in the track, a few of which will be further explored in next week's entry, which will delve into how various emotional tones will be established and presented throughout the album.

References

Supper, A. (2018). Listening for the hiss: lo-fi liner notes as curatorial practices. Popular Music, [online] 37(2), pp.253-270. Available at: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/popular-music/article/listening-for-the-hiss-lofi-liner-notes-as-curatorial-practices/6BD7476E537B63017D99B7167DFDFE7B [Accessed 1 Mar. 2019].

Yu, Li, "Typography in film title sequence design" (2008). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 11366. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/11366

[meekspaceng]

Examining the Scriptures Daily—2019

Sunday, December 22

Do not be anxious, for I am your God. I will fortify you, yes, I will help you.​—Isa. 41:10.

You young ones will probably agree that before starting a journey, it is wise to plan where you will go. Life is like a journey, and the time to plan where you want to go is when you are young. Of course, making plans can be challenging. But take courage. Note what Jehovah says in today’s text. Jehovah urges you to plan wisely for your future. (Eccl. 12:1; Matt. 6:20) He wants you to be happy. The delightful sights, sounds, and tastes of creation tell you that. Consider, too, how he cares for us and teaches us the best way of life. To those who reject his advice, Jehovah says: “You chose what displeased me. . . . Look! My servants will rejoice, but you will suffer shame. Look! My servants will shout joyfully because of the good condition of the heart.” (Isa. 65:12-14) Jehovah is glorified when his people make wise choices in life.​—Prov. 27:11. w17.07 22 ¶1-2

[i-globalone]

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[onlyangcll]

answer all of those questions

okay im gonna do it

1. coffee mugs, teacups, wine glasses, water bottles, or soda cans?

water bottle

2. chocolate bars or lollipops? 

chocolate bars

3. bubblegum or cotton candy?

cotton candy

4. how did your elementary school teachers describe you?

uh as smart and kind when in reality i never knew what the fuck was happening

5. do you prefer to drink soda from soda cans, soda bottles, plastic cups, or glass cups?

soda bottles

6. pastel, boho, tomboy, preppy, goth, grunge, formal or sportswear?

can i wear pajamas

7. earbuds or headphones?

earbuds

8. movies or tv shows?

tv shows 

9. favorite smell in the summer?

the smell after it rains

10. game you were best at in p.e.?

if you though that i ever participated in p.e. in any point of my life ur funny

11. what do you have for breakfast on an average day?

i dont eat breakfast on an average day oop

12. name of your favorite playlist?

u already know blue gang babeys even though it scares me a bit

13. lanyard or key ring?

lanyard

14. favorite non-chocolate candy?

sour worms 

15. favorite book you read as a school assignment?

either secret life of bees or fucking of mice and men FUCK 

16. most comfortable position to sit in?

i would prefer laying on the floor tbh

17. most frequently worn pair of shoes?

u already know my air force 1′s babey

18. ideal weather?

crisp fall day where its under 60 degrees 

19. sleeping position?

usually just laying on my side

20. preferred place to write (i.e., in a note book, on your laptop, sketchpad, post-it notes, etc.)?

i’ve been writing in my journal a lot to vent so i guess there bc i dont rlly write other than that

21. obsession from childhood?

hannah montana

22. role model?

my mommy she is amazing

23. strange habits?

idk i bite my nails i dont rlly have that many weird habits

24. favorite crystal?

bruh when i was younger i had this whole crystal obsession and i love amethyst and it is my birthstone

25. what is the first song you remember hearing?

chasing cars 

26. favorite activity to do in warm weather?

go to the beach which i have only done once this summer because i had a major fucking breakdown after going and it made me not want to go for a while

27. favorite activity to do in cold weather?

not going outside oop legit just staying inside and watching netflix im a loser

28. five songs to describe you?

i am too lazy to find 5 songs to describe me can i just put yeah! by usher

29. best way to bond with you?

show me pictures of literally any of your animals and i will cry

30. places that you find sacred?

what is this even supposed to mean im confused

31. what outfit do you wear to kick ass and take names?

another question im confused by i will wear sweatpants and a t shirt

32. top five favorite vines?

- lets go to the beach each... ninki minjaj

- godzilla seems like a nice man i, i just wanna take him to red robin

- road work ahead... uh yeah i sure hope it does

- you spilt lipstick in my valentino white bag????

- look at all those chickens!

33. most used phrase in your phone?

me going “oop”

34. advertisements you have stuck in your head?

idk i dont watch much tv or anything to get them stuck but i constantly have pewdiepie’s tuber simulator ad at the end of his videos in a loop in my head

35. average time you fall asleep?

it can be anywhere between 11-7 am

36. what is the first meme you remember ever seeing?

uhhh idk probably like a minecraft meme or something i have pea sized brain i dont recall

37. suitcase or duffel bag?

duffel bag

38. lemonade or tea?

lemonade babey

39. lemon cake or lemon meringue pie?

lemon cake

40. weirdest thing to ever happen at your school?

... pen stabbing

41. last person you texted?

audrey?? maybe idk

42. jackets pockets or pants pockets?

pants pockets are weak always jackets pockets

43. hoodie, leather jacket, cardigan, jean jacket, or bomber jacket?

i LIVE in my jean jacket during fall and winter so i would say that

44. favorite scent for soap?

i am a whore for anything vanilla scented

45. which genre: sci-fi, fantasy or superhero?

fantasy

46. most comfortable outfit to sleep in?

i’d say a hoodie and sweats

47. favorite type of cheese?

CHEDDAR

48. if you were a fruit, what kind would you be?

watermelon

49. what saying or quote do you live by?

i heard this on a tv show once and it b cheesy as fuck but i love it

“everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. be kind. always.”

50. what made you laugh the hardest you ever had?

if im being completely tbh i dont think i have ever laughed as hard as i did after anything cat said on the phone the other day

51. current stresses?

everyone in the groupchat has me stressing ab my future 

52. favorite font?

i dont fucking know????? times roman point size 12 double spaced - mrs. christina

53. what is the current state of your hands?

they are pretty freaking cold

54. what did you learn from your first job?

i learned how to fold t shirts properly and to always be scared of men

55. favorite fairy tale?

the little mermaid

56. favorite tradition?

uhh idk anything involving christmas

57. the three biggest struggles you’ve overcome?

- getting clean from self harm

- coming to the conclusion my dad won’t be there for me

- that i can’t control everything in my life which i still b working on

58. four talents your proud of having?

- i can paint pretty well

- makeup

- kind of can dance

- i cant think of a fourth oop

59. if you were a video game character, what would your catchphrase be?

skskkskskskskskks and i oop!

60. if you were a character in an anime, what kind of anime would you want it to be?

never have i watched anime

61. favorite line you heard from a book/movie/tv show/etc.?

shut up about the sun. SHUT UP ABOUT THE SUN

62. seven characters you relate to?

this takes too long all i can say is i relate to stiles stillinski on a different level

63. five songs that you would play in your club?

can this stop making me list things i dont have the fucking patience i would play hotel room service by pitt bull and thats it

64. favorite website from your childhood?

animal jam was my shit

65. any permanent scars?

well the thing is yes the thing is i would rather not speak of them

66. favorite flower(s)?

sunflowers

67. good luck charms?

i dont rlly have any

68. worst flavor of any food or drink you’ve ever tried?

i tried these dill pickle flavored chips and wanted to vomit

69. a fun fact that you don’t know how you learned?

i don’t know many fun facts i small brained

70. left or right handed?

right handed

71. least favorite pattern?

i dont rlly dislike any patterns

72. worst subject?

math

73. favorite weird flavor combo?

i will eat almost anything with hot sauce so i guess that

74. at what pain level out of ten (1 through 10) do you have to be at before you take an advil or ibuprofen? 

at least a 5 or a 6

75. when did you lose your first tooth?

when i was 6

76. what’s your favorite potato food (i.e. tater tots, baked potatoes, fries, chips, etc.)?

french fries

77. best plant to grow on a windowsill?

i had cacti for like 2 years but they died,, may they rest in peace

78. coffee from a gas station or sushi from a grocery store?

considering i don’t eat sushi or any kind of fish i would have to go with coffee

79. which looks better, your school id photo or your driver’s license photo?

i don’t have a license so i guess school ID

80. earth tones or jewel tones?

jewel tones

81. fireflies or lightning bugs?

fireflies

82. pc or console?

pc

83. writing or drawing?

drawing

84. podcasts or talk radio?

podcasts

85. fairy tales or mythology?

i am a whore for mythology

86. cookies or cupcakes?

cookies

87. your greatest fear?

bugs

88. your greatest wish?

to be a fucking cowboy

89. who would you put before everyone else?

i think u already know the answer to that

90. luckiest mistake?

my mistakes don’t end up lucky

91. boxes or bags?

boxes

92. lamps, overhead lights, sunlight or fairy lights?

christmas lights but all year long

93. nicknames?

jill, jilly bean, jillie, jilly pops (that one is cat), beans, dumb bitch

94. favorite season

FALL BABEY

95. favorite app on your phone?

instagram probably

96. desktop background?

considering this is not my computer,, it is just default

97. how many phone numbers do you have memorized?

i have one memorized and it is mine

98. favorite historical era?

i like the one with the dinosaurs

[suzanneshannon]

Considerations for Making a CSS Framework

Around eight months ago, I started building a framework which would eventually go on to become Halfmoon. I made a post on this very website announcing the launch of the very first version. Halfmoon has been billed as a Bootstrap alternative with a built-in dark mode feature, that is especially good when it comes to building dashboards and tools. All of this still applies to the framework.

However, today I would like to talk about an area of the framework that is a bit understated. I believe our industry as a whole seriously underestimates the value of customization and user personalization, i.e. users being able to set their own design preferences. Chris has written before about knowing who a design system is made for, pointing out a spectrum of flexibility depending on who a system is meant to help.

But it’s more than design systems. Let’s talk about how Halfmoon addresses these issues because they’re important considerations for knowing which framework works best for your specific needs.

Dashboard built using Halfmoon

Who is Halfmoon for?

Before diving in, let’s address an important question: Is Halfmoon the right framework for you? Here’s a list of questions to help you answer that:

Are you building a dashboard, tool, or even a documentation website? Halfmoon has many unique components and features that are specific to these use cases.

Are you familiar with Bootstrap’s class names, but wish that the design was a bit more premium-looking?

Does your users want or expect a dark mode on your website?

Do you dislike dependencies? Halfmoon does not use jQuery, and also has no build process involving CSS preprocessors. Everything is pure, vanilla CSS and JavaScript.

Are you tired of dealing with complex build systems and front-end tooling? This ties in to the previous point. Personally, I find it difficult to deal with front-end tooling and build processes. As mentioned above, Halfmoon has no build process, so you just pull in the files (local, CDN, or npm), and start building.

If you answered yes to any (or all) of these questions, you should probably give Halfmoon a try. It is important to note however, that Halfmoon is not a UI component library for React/Vue/Angular, so you shouldn’t go into it expecting that. Moreover, if you are more fond of purely utility driven development, then Tailwind CSS is a better option for you. When it comes to CSS utilities, Halfmoon takes a middle of the road approach – there are utilities plus semantic classes for common components.

Using CSS custom properties

First, let’s get the easy stuff out of the way. CSS custom properties are incredible, and I expect them to completely replace preprocessor variables in the future. Browser support is already at a solid ~96%, and with Internet Explorer being phased out by Microsoft, they are expected to become a standard feature.

Halfmoon is built entirely using CSS variables because they provide a huge degree of customization. Now, you might immediately think that all this means is that there are a few custom properties for colors sprinkled in there, but it’s more than that. In fact, there are over 1,500 global variables in Halfmoon. Almost everything can be customized by overriding a property. Here’s a nifty example from the docs:

Swapping out a few custom property values opens up a ton of possibilities in Halfmoon, whether it’s theming things for a brand, or tweaking the UI to get just the right look.

That’s what we’re talking about here when it comes to customization: does the system still stand up and work well if the person using it overrides anything. I have written extensively about this (and much more) in the official Halfmoon docs page.

Variables aren’t a new concept to frameworks. Many frameworks actually use Sass or Less variables and have done so for quite a while. That’s still a good and effective way to establish a customizable experience. But at the same time, those will lock into a preprocessor (which, again, doesn’t have to be a bad thing). By relying instead on CSS custom properties — and variable-izing all the things — we are relying on native CSS, and that doesn’t require any sort of build dependency. So, not only can custom properties make it easier to customize a framework, but they are much more flexible in terms of the tech stack being used.

There is a balance to be had. I know I suggested creating variables for everything, but it can be equally tough to manage and maintain scores and scores of variables (just like anything else in the codebase). So, lean heavily on variables to make a framework or design system more flexible, but also be mindful of how much flexibility you need to provide and whether adding another variable is part of that scope.

Deciding what components to include

When it comes to building a CSS framework, deciding what components to include is a big part of that ordeal. Of course, for a developer working on a passion project, you want to include everything. But that is simply not feasible, so a few decisions were made on my part.

As of right now, Halfmoon has most of the components you can find in similar frameworks such as Bootstrap or Bulma. These frameworks are great and widely used, so they are a good frame of reference. However, as I have mentioned already, a unique thing about Halfmoon is the focus on building tools and dashboards on the web. This niche, if you could call it that, has led me to build some unique components and features:

5 different types of sidebars, with built-in toggle and overlay handlers. Sidebars are very important for most dashboards and tools (and a pain to get right), so this was a no brainer.

2 different types of navbars. There is one that sticks to the bottom of the page, which can be used to great effect for action buttons. Think about the actions that pop up when you select items on data-table. You could place those action buttons here.

Omni-directional dropdowns (with 12 different placements, 3 for each direction).

Beautiful form components.

Built-in keyboard shortcut system, with an easy way to declare new ones for your tool.

Tons of utilities. Of course, this is not comparable to Tailwind CSS, but Halfmoon has enough responsive utility classes to handle a lot of use cases right out of the box.

Moreover, the built-in dark mode, huge customizability, and the standard look and feel to the components, should all work together to make Halfmoon a great tool for building web tools and dashboards. And I am hopefully nowhere close to being done! The next updates will bring in a form validator (demo video), more form components, multi-select component, date and time picker, data-table component, etc.

So what is exactly missing from Halfmoon? Well the most obvious ones are tabs, list group, and spinners. But all of these are planned to be added in v1.2.0, which is the next update. There are also other missing components such as carousels, tree navigation, avatars, etc, which are slightly out of scope.

Providing user preferences

Giving end users the ability to set their preferences is often overlooked by frameworks. Things like setting the font size of an article, or whether to use a dark or light theme. In some ways, it’s sort of funny, because the web is catching up to what operating systems have allowed users to do for decades.

Here are some examples of user personalization on the web:

Being able to select your preferred color mode. And, even better, the website automatically saves and respects your preference when the page is loaded. Or better yet, looking at your operating system preferences and automatically accommodating them.

Setting the default size of elements. Especially font size. A small font might look good in a design, but allowing users to set their ideal font size makes the content actually readable. Technically, every modern browser has an option to zoom into content, but that is often unwieldy, and does not actually save your settings.

Setting the compactness of elements. For example, some people prefer large padding with rounded corners, while others find it a waste of space, instead preferring a tighter UI. Sort of like how Gmail lets you decide whether you want a lot of breathing room in your inbox or make it as small and tight as possible to see more content.

Setting the primary color on the website. While this is entirely cosmetic, it is still charming to be able to set your favorite color on every button and link on a website.

Enabling a high contrast mode. Someone pointed this out to me on GitHub. Apparently, many (and I mean many) CSS frameworks often fail the minimum contrast recommended between foreground and background colors on common elements, such as buttons. That list includes Halfmoon. This is often a tradeoff, because overly contrastive elements often look worse (purely in terms of aesthetic). User personalization can allow you to turn on a high contrast mode, if you have difficulty with the default contrast.

Allowing for user personalizations can be really difficult to pull off — especially for a framework — because that would could mean swapping out huge parts of CSS to accommodate the different personalization settings and combinations. However, with a framework like Halfmoon (i.e. built entirely using CSS variables), this becomes trivial as CSS variables can be set and changed on run-time using JavaScript, like so:

// Get the <html> tag (for reading and setting variables in global scope) var myElement = document.documentElement; // Read CSS variable getComputedStyle(myElement).getPropertyValue("--variable-name"); // Set CSS variable myElement.style.setProperty("--variable-name", "value");

Therefore, user personalization can be implemented using Halfmoon in the following way:

The user sets a preference. That basically means a variable value gets changed. The variable is set with JavaScript (as shown above), and the new value is stored in a cookie or local storage.

When the user comes back to the website, their preferences are retrieved and set using JavaScript (again, as shown above) once the page is loaded.

Here are visual examples to really hammer the point home.

Setting and saving the default font size

In the example above, whenever the range slider is changed, the variable --base-font-size is updated to the slider’s value. This is great for people who prefer larger text. As explained in the previous section, this new value can be saved in a cookie or local storage, and the next time the user visits the website, the user preference can be set on page load.

Setting the compactness of content

Because there are CSS custom properties used as utilities, like spacing and borders, we can remove or override them easily to create a more compact or expanded component layout.

Only two variables are updated in this example to go from an expanded view to a compact one:

--content-and-card-spacing changed from 3rem (30px) to 2rem (20px).

--card-border-radius changed from 0.4rem (4px) to 0.2rem (2px).

For a real life scenario, you could have a dropdown that asks the user whether they prefer their content to be Default or Compact, and choosing one would obviously set the above CSS variables to theme the site. Once again, this could be saved and set on page load when the user visits the website on their next session.

Wait, but why?

Even with all the examples I have shown so far, you may still be asking why is this actually necessary. The answer is really simple: one size does not fit all. In my estimate, around half of the population prefers a dark UI, while the other half prefers light. Similarly, people have wild variations about the things they like when it comes to design. User personalization is a form of improving the UX, because it lets the user choose what they prefer. This may not be so important on a landing page, but when it comes to a tool or dashboard (that one has to use for a long time to get something done), having a UI that can be personalized is a boon to productivity. And knowing that is what Halfmoon is designed to do makes it ideal for these types of use cases.

Moreover, you know how people often complain that websites made with a certain framework (eg Bootstrap) all look the same? This is a step toward making sure that websites built with Halfmoon will always look distinct, so that the focus is on the website and content itself, and not on the framework that was used to build it.

Again, I am not saying that everything should be allowed to be personalized. But knowing who the framework is for and what it is designed to do helps make it clear what should be personalized.

Looking ahead

I strongly feel that flexibility for customization and accounting for user preferences are often overlooked on the web, especially in the framework landscape. That’s what I’m trying to address with Halfmoon.

In the future, I want to make it a lot easier for developers to implement user preferences, and also promote diversity of design with new templates and themes. That said, here are some things on the horizon for Halfmoon:

A form validator (demo video)

New components, including range sliders, tabs and spinners

High contrast mode user preference

Multi-select component (like Select2, only without jQuery)

A date and time picker

A data-table component

A GUI-based form builder

More themes and templates

You can, of course, learn more about Halfmoon in the documentation website, and if you want to follow the project, you can give it a star on GitHub.

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