#once again only spent roughly an hour on this. i think 1 hour 20 mins total? including the sketch.

[cuteiemonster]

sweaters your stress

[gold-rhine]

Would you recommend Playing Star Rail to anyone? Why or why not?

no, i wouldn't. my own dislike of turn based games aside, here are the reasons:

1.Way too little content. Right now there are basically two regions and a starter area. Each has like 6-8 maps, every map is just corridors with like 10-11 chests and couple of puzzles on some maps. You go through basically all of it during main quests. They just released second half of the second archon quest. There are like some side quests, but they play pretty quickly. You can go through all of this in like a week max if you play slowly and bc some quests\puzzles are time-locked to make them feel longer.

There is simulated universe, which is fun at the start, but once you build your characters and figure out best buffs, it also becomes boring, because it's the same enemies in the same corridors. I enjoyed it for like a week, and now I play it once a week for rewards and thats it, which takes like 40 min.

There is also like hsr's equivalent of abyss. Idk, you can theoretically replay same fights over and over there until you get 3 stars, but like. I mean, if that's your cup of tea, I'm not kinkshaming, but personally I play through it once and that's it. so like. another hour in a week mb.

2.So, once you burn through available content, there is literally nothing to do but grind resources. I explain to you my daily routine:

1.log in. Do daily rewards missions for primos.

2.use autoplay to grind resources. mb upgrade characters if you can

3.log off.

because there is no exploration in hsr, there is literally nothing to do but replay abyss and simulated universe over and over

3.Again, because there is no exploration and limited number of quests, it's literally impossible to get primos if you want them without spending. You can only get them from daily rewards (like 60 I think?) and events. Like, if you already did quests and abyss, that's it, you can't get even one wish per day. say what u want about genshin, but if you actually play the game, you can get 2-5 wishes daily just from exploration and quests. And there are roughly bazillion more quests in genshin, bc it's a huge game that was out for years. I have 100% exploration on my main account in every region and I still have like 20 quests and hangouts not done there despite playing for like 1,5 years.

so in genshin, if you want a character and you spent your free event wishes etc, you can grind the primos for free. I know, bc I do on my new f2p acc, like you can get like 100 wishes per banner which guarantees at least one 5 star. I started Kazuha's banner with 0 savings. spent 30 whishes on kazuha and then 70 on alhaitham and then stopped pulling bc i didn't want to main alhaitham again lol, so probably could get another 5 star on hard pity.

In hsr, you can do nothing, but spend money. Like, I started Luocha banner with 15 wishes saved and at the end of his banner I was at 70 pity. I couldn't even get to 5 star pity. I happened to get him on the last day on 73 pity and win 50-50. But if I didn't, I couldn't go grind like in genshin, I could just spend.

So I think gatcha monetization feels much more predatory in hsr bc once you're through very limited content, you're out of options.

TLDR: play this game if you, like me, need to waste time and only have your phone on you. Like I'm often bored at work, this is why I make shitposts on tumblr and have several other time-wasting apps. Also make sure you're won't be tempted to spend money on gacha. Please don't spend money on this game guys. Its turn based, its easier than genshin, you literally DO NOT NEED strong characters to play, and like. Paying money so game can auto-play itself is just insane to me. Please don't. You can find cool looking anime art on the internet for free.

Don't play otherwise.

[osum]

The post above made me laugh for days. It’s true though, they say change is possible and can begin small and be incremental. During this COVID-19 maternity leave I squandered a lot of time. Admittedly for 2 of those months I had a newborn and was sleeping odd hours and had a 2-year-old. Regardless, those can be seen as excuses.

In late March most and most of April I completed the contracted time with a client for my online marketing business. I completed a continuing education credit for my medical interpreting certification. I  completed training for a position I did not find suitable after all. I began work on a business plan with a colleague. I ran 26.5 miles, lost 4.2 lbs wrote 1 blog post, and read 2 books (audiobooks). Of course there were daily dinners on the table, packed lunches and bathtime, and bedtime. It was while barely keeping up with all these things that I decided that I needed a more systematic way of achieving my goals.

I was stumbling onto this feeling at the end of the year too, which is when I bought the Habit Roadmap for myself from The Best Self Co. It’s a tracker to manually write and track goals. I started using it but didn’t stick with it. I was annoyed by my lack of success with this tool.

I found a free app, Strides to track my progress. Simply using this app coupled with my obsessive-compulsive personality and the need to check off the bubble each day, I completed 30 days of 3 goals and added another goal 10 days after starting the first 3 goals. These goals weren’t necessarily big, but they are important to me.

The three goals I set for myself were to brush my teeth twice a day – once after breakfast, and once before bed. This seems silly but it’s unbelievable how many nights I’m tired and go to bed without a proper routine. My second goal was to hunker down and focus on my real estate education (one hour per day) so I can take the test and sell real estate as a side hustle or maybe more. The third goal was to consistently take my birth control – because another baby right now would sure derail all the other plans I have – duh. The goal that I added after 10 days of success with the original goals was to pump (breastmilk) daily, so that I could have enough milk stored up for my baby when I return to work in a week and a half.

On April 23rd listened to an episode of The Morning Struggle Podcast about changes to the morning routine that could be helpful. They mentioned rising an hour earlier to have an hour in the morning that was productive. In my case that would be 5 am. It seemed rough but also doable. Just one week prior I had inadvertently been waking up rather early to prepare for an all week online training starting at 7 am since the trainers were on the East Coast – and that went rather well. So I purposefully started waking up at 5 am, pumping then heading out for a short run where I would listen to more podcasts/audiobooks and set my head straight. I’d return by 6 at which time one or both of our boys were awake and my husband was tending to them. At first I felt bad that on a couple of occasions I got up at 5 and the boys got up shortly after which made my husband get up a lot earlier than he would like. But luckily he was a good sport, and within a couple weeks the boys mainly slept again until their regular time (roughly 6 a.m.).

I’m happy to report that yesterday was my 30th day of the first 3 goals. I successfully brushed my teeth every day twice a day. I didn’t think about before and after pictures before, so here’s the best picture I can find of me closest to the start of the 30 days and one of me today. Pretty. Haha. More important, dental health is a gateway to overall health so it’s a big deal if I continue to maintain this habit.

4-16-20

5-21-20

In the 30 days I finished my first of three courses to take the real estate exam! That’s a huge deal. It makes me wish I’d focused sooner. Regardless, now that I know how to do this, I hope to be ready to take the exam for my birthday (mid-August).

This goal was a little challenging because it required undivided attention for an hour a day, so I made it manageable by taking advantage of any time that I had available. I’ve recently learned that babies have awake periods that last 90 minutes, so I was able to more or less predict when my baby would be sleeping. He sleeps for 20-40 minutes, so the minute he would fall asleep I would start the ‘Tomato Timer’ app on my phone – basically just a countdown timer- and set my phone to airplane mode to prevent calls, texts, and notifications from coming in, and I would focus until he woke up or I completed my hour. So, somedays I’d do three stretches of 20 minutes, other days – rarely- I could get the full hour in one sitting!

When I spent more time than the hour, I would accumulate it in 5 minute increments on a post it note which I could ‘cash in’ on a weekend day/night when the family schedule got out of hand. So in this post it below, I have 45 min accrued, and upon the completion of the full hour, I can use it as sort of coupon for a day off from studying. This was very welcomed when it seemed like there was no way I would get to sit at all, or it was too late to begin to focus. An hour can seem like a lot or can seem like a little but I heard something very worthwhile in one of the books I listened to most recently: Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo. While people think they don’t have time, when they take inventory of their time, a lot of it is wasted. We are consuming other peoples creativity instead of ourselves being the creators. We are making other people’s goals come true (by being one more viewer, or consumer) before prioritizing our own goals. If a doctor diagnosed us with a condition cured only by sitting quietly for an hour, we’d surely find the time. So it’s worth finding the time to do the things that move us forward. 

The reason I liked this concept is because it ties back to the hour of power that I learned about in Leadership Santa Barbara and that concept helped me develop the 10 Hours to the F*ck It Bucket.

My third goal isn’t super exciting but this pill has to be taken at the same time every day to be most effective, so it worked well to have it be one of the last things I did each night coupled with brushing my teeth before bed so that I could check off both goals before putting my phone away for the night.

Lastly the goal I added 10 days into this process was to pump breast milk. It’s hard when you have a good supply and a breastfeeding baby that feeds on demand to prioritize storage of milk, but eventually, I’m sure he’ll need it, and I will need to do it a lot more often, so I figured I’d start now. Here’s where we are so far in 20 days + the rare times I did pump prior to that.

The last accomplishment of this 30 day window is one that I cannot claim for myself although I did play a role. My husband, my toddler’s caretaker and I have worked on potty training Lucca. We started the same day that I started logging my goals and he’s doing very well. He’s not quite there, but my goal was for him to be potty trained by the time I return to work and I think he’ll make it.

The point of this post is to reflect back on some accomplishments but more importantly to outline the process that can work for me again and for you too. I have questions about the process, like: what happens after 30 days? Do I keep working on the same goals or adding or swapping out new ones? How will this work when I get back to work? My thought is that goals are fluid. Habits are permanent and it’s important to recognize the difference.

Please let me know if you have any apps that you recommend or anectdotes of times you’ve tried to change things successfully or unsuccessfully and what made the difference. Thanks!

By Olivia Uribe Mutal – @osum on Twitter

30 Days of Focus. What can be achieved in 30 days and how to do it. The post above made me laugh for days. It's true though, they say change is possible and can begin small and be incremental.

[taegijae-blog]

SUNSHINE IN YOUR SMILE 2

pairing: sugamon

genre: fluff, a japanese pinch of angst, summer school!au

word count: 1.5k

description: min yoongi gets to spend the coldest summer of his life in school, but maybe hot mess kim namjoon can warm him up.

note: this is my first time writing fanfiction, so please offer your suggestions !

| Part 1 | 2 |

The day of the quiz, Yoongi was nearly late to class. He’d spent 20 minutes that morning lying in bed, tucked up to his chin in his snug Kumamon covers and debating internally whether he really needed to come to school. But at 6:21, when his phone pinged with a ‘Good morning hyung!!!’ message from that sweet summer child Namjoon, he begrudgingly rolled off his toasty mattress and offered himself to the interminable passage of time in the outside world.

He was whipped.

“Hey you little shits, I’m here.” As he thunked down his light khaki backpack dramatically onto the desk next to Namjoon’s, the tall boy offered him a warm greeting and a big dimpled eye smile so bright it lit up the cloudy skies outside. Yoongi picked the review sheet up from his desk.

Practice problems covered the page in an indecipherable mass of numbers and letters and graphs.

It was like something in his brain had been set off, and a slight throbbing began building in the back of skull as he tried to make sense of the writing. Not this again, Jesus Christ.

The light chatter that filled the room became a thick and inescapable buzz and his hands were unsteady when they released the faintly crumpled paper from their choked hold, letting it drift back onto the desk. He was suffocating.

“Alright, you have 20 minutes to prepare however you want to. We'll start the test at 7:25 sharp.”

“I'm gonna go to the restroom,” Yoongi strained, rising shakily from his desk. “You two start prepping without me.”

“Are you okay, hyung?” Hoseok asked, apprehensive.

Yoongi gave a brittle smirk. “Peachy. I'm fine.” He made his way past the doorway as coolly as he could.

He was not fine. 

Please, please not now. Get yourself together.

He hunched over the ugly bathroom sink top, gripping it so tightly his knuckles turned white with effort as he tried to stop his precarious swaying. Cold beads of water he had splashed onto his flushed face dripped from his wet fringe and onto the colored stone.

God, I’m pitiful. Losing it over a fucking math test? He gave a hoarse chuckle at his water-marred image in the mirror. A cheap smirk gaped back at him, as if mocking his laughable situation.

I wish I could just die here.

Bit by bit, he loosened his grip on the counter and let himself slump to the floor, curling against the cold tile like a helpless child.

✺

“Yoongi-hyung’s been gone for a while, huh,” wondered Namjoon aloud to no one in particular.  Hoseok’s eyebrows drew together as he pursed his lips. He glanced at the clock.

“Yeah, I guess it’s kind of weird. Want me to go check on him?” he offered, moving to stand.

“No, I’ll go,” the younger boy set his pencil down. “Can you finish these two problems for me?”

“Sure.”

Namjoon hurried out of the room, concerned. Is he sick? He didn’t look too good this morning.

✺

He was still on the ground when he heard door softly clicking open, and then rushed footsteps.

“Yoongi-hyung! What's wrong? Are you okay?”

Of all people—

“No, not really,” Yoongi choked out, fingers shoved roughly into his dyed hair as he cradled his forehead, praying for the pain to subside. “Do I fucking look okay?”

“What’s wrong, hyung?” Namjoon was beginning to panic. He didn’t know what to do with his hands. “Is it a migraine? Are you sick?”

“It hurts, it hurts so bad and I can’t”—he gasped, struggling to take in enough air— “I can’t breathe.”

Feverish tears had begun trailing down his pinked cheeks as he fought off his frenzy, and he let the taller boy pull him into an embrace with his strong tanned arms.

“Shh, shh, it’ll be alright. I’m here, hyung.” His warm hands thread soothingly through Yoongi’s thick black hair and petting his slight, shivering back in gentle strokes.

“G-God, I hate myself.”

The smaller boy buried the softening hiccups of his sobbing into the cushy yellow velour of Namjoon’s neon hoodie, hopelessly trying to hold himself together.

“But we love you. Hobi-hyung and—and I. We love you, and you’re going to be okay.”

They stayed like that for what seemed like hours, until Yoongi’s tears had completely subsided and his breathing evened out. He gently pushed himself away from the secure hug around him.

“I’m fine, let’s go back.” He rose precariously with Namjoon’s large hand ghosting cautiously over his lower back and took one last glance at the mirror, patting away what remained of the wetness around his eyes.

“Are you sure? We can stay a bit longer if you want.”

“I may want to, but something tells me Hoseok isn’t okay with doing the test alone.” He laughed as Namjoon cursed under his breath, almost tripping over himself when he checked his watch.

“Let’s go, Joon-ah.”

✺

“Yah, I really thought you’d both ditched or something! I was so pissed that you didn’t invite me, I swear to the old white guy in the sky—”

“Just say God.”

“That might be offensive, and I’m not going to take my chances in this outrageously PC world,” Hoseok continued, undeterred by his senior’s interjection. “Anyway, I swear I was this close”—he paused to hold two fingers about the width of a saltine apart to demonstrate just how close—”to hemorrhaging, and I find it utterly heartbreaking that neither of you seem to give half an expired Altoids tin of bullshit about....”

Looking back on it, it really wasn’t as bad he’d expected, Yoongi mused, teeth tugging on his bottom lip as he tuned out the chatter. They had made it back to the classroom just as the tests were being passed out, though Hoseok had looked very much on the verge of death by self-implosion. 

My life is in shambles.

Just as he was about to relive his entire regretful episode in the school bathroom, he was suddenly very aware of the situation at hand.

“Children,” Yoongi hissed, digging his stubby nails into Namjoon’s forearm as he narrowly avoided being barreled into by a small toddler that resembled a bald (but equally terrifying) Danny DeVito. “Why are there so many? Have they spawned?”

“Hyung, I...I don’t think that’d how it works…”

“Then tell me why there is a small army of munchkins on a college campus.”

Namjoon pointed matter-of-factly to the sign of the building next to them. Child Development Lab. “You should check it out, hyung. Everyone there is your size—maybe you’ll make some new friends.”

“You little shi—” The tall boy had taken off at a dead sprint toward the bus stop, and Yoongi bolted after him, his white hood flapping behind him as the chilly air infiltrated his cozy checkered sweatshirt.

They arrived at the stop six minutes before the bus was due, out of breath from the chase and from laughter. Namjoon could feel a bald patch starting where Yoongi had noogied him.

“Hey, hyung.”

“Yeah?”

“Today, in the restroom…”

Fuck fuck fuck fuck, not this again, Christ on a bike—

“Panic attack.” Yoongi looked down at his sleek black Pumas, trying to explain so the conversation as minimally weird as possible. “It happens sometimes, but I can usually get my shit together by myself. Sorry you had to see that.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” rushed Namjoon. “Sorry, I don’t mean to be offensive and you don’t have to answer me, but are there like, triggers? That cause your attacks, I mean.”

“Yeah. Stuff that I’ve bad experiences with before, like...like calculus.” Wow, this was sounding real stupid, real quick. “That probably sounds really dumb, I know.”

“Nah, it makes sense.” The bus had pulled into the stop and once again the two sat together, Yoongi at the window because Namjoon’s legs were not made for public transportation. They were astonishingly similar to uncooked spaghetti: too long and not very flexible.

“Hey, hyung?”

“Yeah?”

“Can we keep studying together? I’ll help you prep for tests so well you won’t ever be worried again.”

Yoongi turned to face the boy. What a precious, wholesome egghead. His egghead. He’d have to remember to change his contact name later.

“Asking me out on another date? You’ve got balls, son.”

“It isn’t like that!”

“You said you loved me in the restroom,” he smirked, satisfied with the way Namjoon fell silent. “Or were you just saying that to butter me up?”

Namjoon shrunk into the fuzzy hood of his sweatshirt, tightening the strings until only his plush lips and round nose could be seen. “I’d never say anything just to flatter you. I think you’re really cool. And a good person. And Hobi-hyung likes you, and he has good taste in people.”

“Whatever you say, kid.” A comfortable silence fell between them as Yoongi leaned ever so slightly onto Namjoon’s velvety shoulder.

“Yah, Joon-ah?”

“Hmm?”

“Thanks. For being there, I mean.”

“I’ll always be there for you, hyung.”