#online HTML Head

[greenhorn-art]

All The King's Horses | As You Are Now, So Once Was I by @samwpmarleau (grumkinsnark)

All The King's Horses [LiveJournal ch1] [Fanfiction.net ch1]

As You Are Now, So Once Was I [LiveJournal ch1] [Fanfiction.net ch1]

Fandom: Supernatural, Criminal Minds

Rating: Teen | PG-13

Category: Gen

Words: ~36,192

All The King's Horses: Protect and Serve. Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity. To what lengths would you go to uphold those oaths? When it comes to a particularly brutal and unsolvable case, the BAU just may have to resort to some more unorthodox methods. SPN/Criminal Minds crossover.

As You Are Now, So Once Was I: Sequel to "All the King's Horses." When Dean catches J.J.'s press conference on the news about a current case and notices a few...inconsistencies, he realizes the BAU is definitely going to need his help. Again. ON HIATUS

About the Book

FORMAT: Letter quarto, flatback bradel binding, french link stitch, no tapes

FONTS: EB Garamond [via Google Fonts], Supernatural Knight [via DaFont], D-Din [via Font Squirrel], Daniel [via DaFont], Permanent Marker [via Google Fonts], Arial

IMAGES: Seal of the FBI [via Wikipedia], Dean's handprint scar [by greenhorn-art]

MATERIALS: 24lb Xerox Bold Digital paper (8.5"x11"), 80pt binder's board (~2mm), 30/3 size waxed linen thread, embroidery floss (DMC #721), 1.9mm cording, brown cardstock, black Cialux bookcloth, gold foil transfer sheet (came with We R Memory Keepers hot foil pen)

PROGRAMS USED: Fic exported with FicHub, word doc compiled in LibreOffice Writer, Typeset in Affinity Publisher, imposed with Bookbinder-JS, title pages designed in Affinity Designer/Photo

.

I first read these stories on LiveJournal back in 2013, some time after I first encountered Tumblr, Supernatural, and the wider world of online fandom. Once I discovered SPNxCriminal Minds crossovers I devoured so many of them. Something about POV Outsider on the Winchesters, the existing connections with investigating monster vs human-crazy cases, and run-ins with the FBI... it's just works so well.

Of all the SPNxCM fics I read and enjoyed, All The King's Horses is among those that bookmarked themselves in my brain. Since it's been living there all these years, I thought it deserved a place on my bookshelf too.

(Rambling below)

Sourcing the Fic

I used FicHub to download the fics off of Fanfiction.net as HTML. Then I pasted them into LibreOffice Writer and created rich text documents of each fic, so I could Place them into Affinity Publisher.

The stories were crossposted, first on LiveJournal and then Fanfiction. I included the metadata from both sites in the appendices.

(It's fascinating to see the differences in the same work between platforms. FFN requires genres, so if the author doesn't add them on LJ then by default there's more info on FFN. But FFN limits listed characters to 2, so authors have to pick and choose the most important. Then there's the author's amusing disclaimers and spoiler warnings for these fics, which are only included in the LJ version)

Shoutout to the author for how they linked/listed their accounts on other platforms! Thanks to that I was easily able to track down all the tags/metadata for the fics, and find them here to express my appreciation for their stories!

Typesetting

Fonts

EB Garamond is my new favourite body font, 11pt as per my usual.

The title page is entirely Arial: 1) it was the closest match I have to the case file prop I was copying, and 2) if it was a government doc they wouldn't be using anything but the most basic fonts.

Headings and the the bullets bracketing the page numbers are set it Supernatural Knight, a free font in the style of Supernatural's title.

The location segments are in D-DIN, the closest free match to the font Criminal Minds uses (which is probably DIN).

Daniel is used for Dean's 'rushed but legible' note.

Permanent Marker for the 'thick black Sharpie' case file labels.

Artwork

Title pages designed as FBI case files, copied from a prop found online (specifically Etsy's propfictionstudios', but it's all over the web so no idea who actually created it). I had fun plugging in all the fanfic/bookbinding meta!

The ID# above the author's name is the FFN story ID, and the date is the date originally posted on LJ.

The handprint used in the headings of ATKH is Dean's scar. I traced off of a screenshot from s4e01 Lazarus Rising. I chose to use the handprint instead of the anti-possession tattoo or a Devil's Trap as my SPN art element because 1) it's specific to Dean, and 2) indicates/reminds that the story is not set during the season 3 Agent Henriksen/FBI arc.

Grabbed the FBI seal off of Wikipedia.

Construction

Both fics typeset and printed separately, then sewn together into one book. Title page for the sequel was tipped in like an endpaper prior to sewing.

Endbands sewn with orange embroidery floss (DMC 721) around 1.9mm cording. I chose orange because Dean's being in jail brought to mind the orange prison jumpsuits Sam and Dean wore in s1e19 Folsom Prison Blues.

Black bookcloth for the cover, like the Winchesters' beloved black '67 Chevy Impala. (I'd wanted a Supernatural reference to balance out the Criminal Minds-ness of the FBI case files).

I'd originally planned to make lineart of the front of the car, and have it stretch across the bottom of the cover (maybe even wrap around to the back). Even found a useful reference to trace [from here], but it didn't look as good as I'd hoped. Instead I reused the FBI seal and swapped out its text with the titles.

(The effect of shiny foiled FBI symbol on small black book reminds me of one of those FBI badge wallets!)

The foiling process was an unnecessarily long and gruelling affair. My laptop served as a massive power bank for the hot foil pen as I spent 2hrs ever so slowly tracing the image, and then 15mins on the author name and touch-ups. Did it need to take so long? Moving slowly, pushing down hard, going over everything at least three times? I'm sure it didn't. BUT I did not want to chance peeling up the foil to check how I was doing and risk shifting it. It was worth it in my books (haha) ‒ I feel giddy and kick my feet like a schoolgirl whenever I see it!

New Things

Used 24lb paper for the first time, and I love it! It's a little thicker and heavier then regular 20lb printer paper, feels more substantial.

The page numbers & running/section headers are along the outer margin, instead of in the header/footer. This was my way around Affinity's buggy-ness regarding pinning things inline in master pages. (More about that below). If I had been thinking, I could have formatted them like the tabs on a file folder and cut the textblock to match. Oh well, the things you notice once it's printed 😔

This time I also started new chapters/sections using text flow & paragraph spacing settings, instead of using a master. As always, there are pros and cons.

Pro: much faster and less involved. (find chapter start, apply paragraph style VS working from the end cutting text, inserting a frame break, unlinking frames, inserting new pages with master, relinking, pasting, and adding chapter title to a different text box)

Con: images need to be added manually (whether by adding image directly, or by applying a master with the image). I forgot to do this for the second fic, so only ATKH have Dean's handprint scar.

Difficulties Encountered

Affinity Publisher is fighting me on pinning things inline on master pages. They like to disappear on regular pages I've applied the master to. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it only works on some of the pages. Idk what's up. (The bullet character only faces one way so I had use textboxes, flip/mirror one, and pin them inline to the page number).

So instead of having page numbers in the footer, bookended left and right by text boxes with Supernatural Knight's bullet, I put it vertically down the side.

Updated Publisher and all my paragraph styles' fonts changed/went funny. Something to do with the update's variable font support, I think. What was previously 'EB Garamond' regular, was now something along the lines of 'EBGaramond-Regular' which isn't a font. Issue seems to have ironed itself out in my original (near-complete) doc while I was busy remaking it. 😐

On the bright side, the update brought QR code generation to Affinity!

[studaxy]

LAST SEMESTER WEEK

[19th Jan - 25th Jan]

a quick summary!

[long ass post alert but so much happened that week I'm probably forgetting stuff too 😭]

THE LAST WEEK WAS SO PACKED IT WAS READY TO TRAVEL ROUND THE WORLD curse my uni it put every single test and exam last minute T_T [since this is from the future the marks I got in every test are in the square brackets next to the test lol]

ACED a certification exam on html!! 929 out 1000!!! even though I only started studying for it in the week's Sunday by just going through the w3schools website. still so proud of myself!!!

every single test I gave this week I studied for the night before and the fact that all of my results are so good even with that disadvantage is probably why I have a procrastination problem

despite my love for it, I can't drink monsters that often because of parental restriction lol BUT this week required it so I got one! it probably saved my ass honestly

still couldn't - and still can't - believe my first semester's already over, it feels like yesterday I was aimless and lost in entrance exam hell but life is progressing and its heading upwards :D

idk if anyone was wondering - probably not lol - but unlike most of the students I see online, because of my social anxiety I don't usually study at libraries T_T

even though they've sucked for me before, I still tried it out on Monday this week and lasted. 20 minutes? I think I could've actually studied if I had friends accompanying but even then I would focus more on what people were thinking of me rather than what I was studying so I don't think I'll do it again lol. It might've been stress? but social anxiety is a bitch lol.

I prefer sitting in cozier video/voice calls with friends [shoutout @a-fox-studies, our calls show up in my dreams sometimes with how often we're in them lol <3] or people in a studyblr server. it honestly might be because I have more control with what they see but is this just a me thing or are there other people who just can't fuck with libraries 👁 ?

👟 total step count of the week 👟

47,514 steps! The most I've ever gotten!!

[reached my step goal 5 days that week and they were the 5 days I spent walking across my uni to lectures lol]

[jensenscomedyelbows]

SPN FIC REC FEST #1: specific era or season

*disclaimer: assume all recs are wincest or wincest plus*

*assume all fics are rated EXPLICIT*

*and that all participants give AND receive*

(I’m aware that the above warnings out me and my one-track mind. I’m okay with that.)

https://blue-soaring.insanejournal.com/3024.html

(NOT) RIGHT IN THE HEAD by bluesoaring

ERA: PRESERIES. Teenagers. CLASSIC. It’s on insanejournal.com, for anyone who remembers that! Blindingly intense.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/8255285

A FORM OF CHEMICAL MADNESS by pinkwithoutplot

ERA: PRESERIES. Teenagers. Sam enjoys one of Dean’s porn mags and is caught. By Dean. Stuff ensues. (Highly recommend this author’s entire catalog!)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/350438

ALL THEIR FAVORITE RAGS ARE WORN by orbiting_saturn

ERA: PRESERIES. Teenagers. Bonus panty kink. Sequel is linked! (Highly recommend this author’s entire catalog!)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/1017905?view_adult=true

BITCH by arby

ERA: PRESERIES. Teenagers. Locked. Requires AO3 account. This is one of the earliest Wincest fics ever written. Posted to AO3 November 5, 2005. (!!!) A pleasure to read, period, but especially when you consider just how quickly these two characters elicited some of the most elevated smut I’ve ever read. This is a fandom TREASURE.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/442557

WHAT REMAINS by annehiggins

SEASON ONE. Dean is revolted by Not!Sam. This is not Soulless Sam. This was written in 2006 and happens late season 1. Maybe a little AU-ish, but not much. It’s original and interesting!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/119994?view_full_work=true

LURK by mistyzeo

ERA: PRESERIES. Teenagers.

Her entire catalog is absolutely top shelf, all ratings, all excellent, but this one is very special. It’s multichaptered but not that long. (Also known in fandom as the Lurk Verse)

Author description: Sam comes home to an unexpected show. Dean's figured something out. They need to be on the same page.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/1017905?view_adult=true

THE BALLAD OF THE INVISIBLE BOY by dollylux

ERA: PRESERIES. 58k. Teenagers. Locked. Requires AO3 account. I knew the minute I read this that it would be a fandom classic one day, and it is. It’s fucking exquisite and hot and sad and angsty and totally believable shy Sam and exhibitionistic Dean.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/8697007

THINGS MY BROTHER TAUGHT ME by hellzkitten [archived by sinfuldesire_archivist]

ERA: PRESERIES THROUGH SEASON ONE. Also: Casefic! Also: RarePairs! Bonus John/Caleb, which you can easily skip if it squicks you. This is part 1 of a series, a LONG series, but the individual parts aren’t linked together. I have bookmarks on AO3 for all 8 parts (some of which have multiple chapters each), but I think if I could figure out how to navigate to each part, anyone can. IT IS WORTH THE EFFORT. Each story of the 8 has excellent Wincest smut, great worldbuilding, sometimes multiple chapters, an interesting, ongoing case, *John knows* and helps them on the case, no daddycest. Not directly. Caleb makes an appearance as previously described. (Speaking of long fic, this one totals who knows? But it is L O N G. Like I said, 8 parts. Thank you, sinful-desire.net archivist, wherever you are! 🫡)

https://fleshflutter.livejournal.com/182538.html

FLYING WEIGHT by fleshflutter

SEASON 6. Post-Soulless Sam AU, but I’m including it here bc I love it so much. 48,000 words. Angst, consent issues. I’m thrilled that fleshflutter’s fic is still online! It’s all linked, and it’s heartbreaking and beautiful and totally worth it the time. Makes you think. What if? A bit of Dean whump actually. Sam feels so guilty for what he did while soulless, and we get it, but it wasn’t him.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/1137551

REDSHIFT by road-rhythm

SEASON 8. They finally have a home in the MoL bunker. The Trials have begun. And Dean wants to buy a pool table and have a sex marathon, because of course he does.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/2049891/chapters/4452405

THE PARTISAN by nigeltde (Big Bang 2014)

SEASON 9. After his and Dean’s big breakup post-Kevin’s death, Sam has to finally return to the Bunker and face Dean. He tries to keep it strictly professional between he and his brother. He fails. (To be fair, Dean is so lovely in this one, who could resist? He’s also patient.)

Message me with any broken links or tumblr urls I should tag.

[yaya-imposition]

Life Story: Last Post

I re-recorded it but the file corrupted, so here's a text version of my life's story.

WARNING- VERY LONG

I started out as a good kid with good parents and ambition. I was the class clown in 6th grade, and I was one of the "gifted" children. I could get any book I wanted and had rich family that would spoil us.

In 7th grade, I fell off when my mom divorced my stepdad. We were really close. I grew out my hair and became a punk kid who hanged out with the jock occasionally.

I did projects on the side with soldering irons taking things apart to make new stuff out of my toys. I got into philosophy and started reading stuff online like quotes.

The first thing I decided is that it's impossible for anything to be not possible. I also came to the conclusion that people only do good things because they want to feel good. Personality wise, I was an INTP.

I read serious books like All Quiet on the Western Front and I was rather well read. I read along about quantum mechanics in The Dancing Wu Li masters and wanted to become a quantum computer expert.

There was such hope for my generation back then. They looked down us as bright sparks that would revolutionize tomorrow. If you're young, I can't describe this feeling of technology on an exciting cusp. We dreamed of mechs, robots by 2020, quantum computers by 2030, space travel, and in general the world was united behind us.

I got in trouble at school a lot. I couldn't do homeschooling and I hated school. I was held back two times in high school due to failing. I challenged myself to say as few words as possible each day and hopefully none.

Hardstyle became my father in a way. I have strong synthesia between movement and sound. I hear things moving even when they aren't making sound. One time I was laying in bed staring at the fan and I realized it hadn't been making any sound for 5 minutes but I heard it the whole time. Shout out to my ipod nano 6th generation.

I pirated, did online stuff, learned about hacking, and started trying to do something in the world. I installed linux at 15 and started picking up HTML and CSS. I actually started to run some hacking scams using the tools I found online but nobody ever got scammed.

I hung out with kids 4 years older than me-- my older brother's friends, and I was the protege. I wore a tie to school along with nerd merch and an actual fedora, but it went really good with my curly hair. The emo / scene culture started to emerge out of skater culture. Those of us that were in it always sing songs about 2008. It was the golden age of cartoons and gaming. I mostly played WoW like a degen. We also played mad LAN games like AoE 2-- the best of times.

A turning point came when I asked my mom if I could get something online with her credit card, but I secretly bought an invite to an occult torrent tracker. I had a script to DL everything before people could see it, so my ratio was insane and I just poured into the texts of all that was.'

I was very easily generational talent at 15 for the occult. I read everything from ancient Chinese spells to grimoires or even alchemy.

I think it was something like Spring 2011 when /mlp/ first dropped. Me and my friends were total bronies, but it actually was the best of times. I followed a link from FunnyJunk and I saw the first lucid dreaming and astral projection threads pop up.

Somewhere in this, they dropped Irish's guide and that left an impression on me. The technique was to focus on head pressure for hours and hours a day. You just burned through it brute force.

After this, the first tulpa threads started, almost contained entirely on /mlp/. I made a Fluttershy tulpa.

At 16, my dad got custody of us. He actually did something smart. I was pulled out of school, I got my GED and started college within a few weeks.

I started realizing energy work and I had always had interest in personalities. I wanted to open my root chakra and be more grounded. So I started wearing red. It worked.

My tulpa turned into a human redhead. We were impossibly close as firebrands. I continued my research into the occult, looking for a way to impose her. That's when I gave image streaming to the tulpa community.

I started to love people finally and let go of all the anarchist anger of my early teens. I became a Christian and decided I wanted to pursue the path of the light with all my strength.

The most important thing of my late teens was instincts. I did everything on instincts. It was agony because of how granular it was. I would jump up, sit down, go this way, hard turn, all to manipulate butterfly effect. And I saw miracles.

Enter my 20s and I'm just thinking about money all the time and working. I taught myself programming just by screwing around in Unity3D, and I had many projects, websites, hobbies, and other things with my bots.

I had over a million followers with a bot army I had that posted between all social medias, but I felt bad so I didn't follow through. I had little scripts like checking craiglist for something I want or other computer things. I experimented with AI and machine learning to see if I could study sentiment of users on crypto trading apps where they post their opinions.

The instincts brought great trouble. The demons started showing up to stop the miracles, and the angels were in my other ear. I'll hold this in respectful suspended disbelief in doublethink because I also think it really was. I saw miracle after miracle.

The demons began torturing me by throwing me into convulsions and screaming all the time. They got worse... and worse.... and worse.... it was so, incredibly sad.

It kept amping up but so did my spirit. I craved strength infinitely. I set reminders to work my ass off every day. I knew it would be worth it in the end, and it was.

They would throw me into convulsions over sitting up, any time I looked down they accused me of bowing in worship. It was literally every 5 seconds. It was my holocaust. Eventually, I looked down on the holocaust. I looked down on all creation, because nobody knew my will to resist suicide. I know nobody could have made it. They began attacking me in my sleep and I had night tremors, thrashing around apparently. I had deep insomnia, and I always felt like I was on -1 battery. I slept one hour every two days at one point. The torture got worse. They would throw me into convulsions over a spoon, blinking, standing up, sitting down. I crushed them and never let my spirit wane at all. I also started hating the angels as much as the demons.

What could drive a man to hurl open the gates of heaven and hell and drag out all the angels and demons? Fucking with humans.

I felt so incredibly strong, and I looked down on the world feeling 1000 feet tall. My entire body is covered head to toe in scars-- my throat, hands, feet, ribs, lungs, mouth, everything was a target of persecution, as if I was trying to wipe off sand in a sandstorm.

I began to realize I had to unite east and west, but I can't describe how I knew to do that.

I was far, far more zealous and strong than anybody in my Christian activities. I've never met somebody who could go through what I did, and I think I never will. I ripped myself from the jaws of creation.

Sunburned chalcenony in the aeons exchange

Of color lapping your casual shores

That glow white hot in the passion of our eternity

For the children of safety we bore in this place

A sacred place, jerrassic and unfound

Glass, decoration destined forevermore to enthrone no halls of ruling poor

But your stretching, yawning basking shores that glow white hot in the passion of our eternity

Jewels, glass, friendship, warmth of all this but a whisper that I heard

For chained I stood upon you and gasped exasperation that the contrast between light and dark can stand so starkly together

For you, the light of eternity, held me, a masked schizophrenic tortured and gnashed by those who would see you burned

This song is what it felt like.

This song captures the freedom.

Through the name, I am accountable. Through accountability, I struggle. Through struggle, I gain knowledge. Through knowledge, I gain power. Through power, my chains are broken.

Eventually 2020 rolls around. I get some unemployment money and other Covid benefits and I know this is a once in a lifetime break from work for an undefined period. I was going to impose my tulpa.

I picked prophantasia, because that had the most tangible results. This time, I would just work and not research. Research was my downfall because I couldn't commit to the training. If I had problems, I would do energy work and change my personality.

Just like the first time, I was able to make purple blobs on the back of my eyelids. Then, I had green. I worked my way up to a rainbow the size of a small business card after about a month of all day forcing. At one point I was doing 30 hours in 3 days, just because I had acquired the taste for it.

Things started to not make sense. I believe I hit a wall and so I decided to open my solar plexus, which I knew had been closed for a number of years due to the tightness. You can seriously multiply your work by a factor of 10 for every opened chakra. The pain drains the mind away from its task.

I listened to sunshiny beetles music, drank lemonaid and burned some yellow incense. It felt like I was wrenching open the jaws of a shark. At one point, my scaffolding in the operation threatened to cause collapse and long term damage. I pulled and pulled, and it took about 9 months to actually open it fully so the knot was gone. However, I noticed my visions changed.

Instead of Benadryll-type demon hallucinations, they were beautiful-- gold, silver, colorful, kingly. So I developed my theory on kings, priests, and personality.

I was able to push through. I picked up jogging. Train the body and the mind will follow. I went from a few hundred feet to jogging 14 miles in 5 months.

The kingly side fucked me up big time. For some reason, it was too optimistic. I needed to go deeper, so I continued my philosophy. When I jogged, I was happier and more optimistic. But I would give up in the name of being positive. Only the INFJ side had infinite drive.

I once was touchy, like I couldn't bump a trash bag or it ruined my mental. But the king side made taking out the garbage fun.

One day, I heard the call to do something by pure instinct. I left in the middle of the night and just walked on pure instinct. It seized my entire body and I honestly could barely resist. I eventually found a Eastern Church of Christ for some reason. My hand moved toward the keypad, I entered in 6 numbers, and pressed #. First try, it fucking opened. I was used to miracles at this point. When I entered, I had a conniption because I perceived the shape of the universe. Everything was clear-- every line, color, intersection, and geometry. My eyes were opened, and I left. Everything we did was corrupt. Everything has the wrong shape-- cars, houses, roads, power lines.

I furthered this through my art, since I couldn't just convey it. I made my psychedelic art. I haven't seen any other similar style. I wrote in my blog, and my christ complex got worse. But I continued tulpaforcing.

I practiced visualization too, but found it faulty since it disappeared too fast after not using it. I mapped all the chi flow as much as I can in the whole process and I called it the top-to-bottom (visualization centric) and bottom-to-top methods (prophantasia centric).

I practiced hard, and I could cover an entire wall in rolling waves of color like it was simply a hand within my eye.

I had a turbulent period but I eventually recovered. I started taking medication, but it didn't seem to help. They were all dopamine controllers and the way they addressed my complaints was to raise the dosage, which I only told them made it worse, but they ignored me. Finally, I'm on some new stuff that works in a different way.

I started to wonder what I could do with my new found power. I decided that if you could gain perfect divination, not the messy word salad shit, you could invent exponential magic. This I achieved. Later I had a dream that I was at the bottom of the ocean, and technology was racing above, and my magic was racing below in competition. How much magic do you need to keep pace with technology?

I worked on my philosophy, and I came to the conclusion that consent and intent is the king moral system. It cleanly handles problems from the inside. It kept my psychosis in check by helping me to never act out of character or become violent. It's the only way, and I feel it was like a needle in a haystack.

I decided everything must be true and false simultaneously. There is no subconscious mind and the unconscious mind has no will. It is the perfect system under consent and intent. Everything can be true literally or symbolically, and your mind can't tell the difference. At a walk, I looked up to heaven, and heard an angel drop a golden cup. They stared in ... abject horror. I was right, and that changed their entire system.

I'll never forget the sound of that cup dropping.

Here's a dilemma: you can be more neutral by voting.

Is this plausible? I only considered this completely arbitrarily if everything is truly true and false, so if I can convince you, the western moral system must collapse. It can't be proven that doing something for no reason is the best way to do something even once.

Yes. You can. And I only considered that because I knew my method opened doors. You vote in a sandbox then observe yourself about how you get sucked into it. So the most neutral person is the one whom votes the most arbitrarily the longest. Not people whom abstain. The other person is working it like a muscle, the other one goes around putting out fires.

I started having weird dreams. I had a dream that God and I were now the only two immortal beings in the universe. I had answered his question. I had a dream I proved alchemy was the true religion. In another, I proved we live in a simulation-- I think because it's never satisfied even when you reach an ultimate truth that contradicts all reality. I saw a dude on /x/ say he had a dream that a Super-Buddha would appear in the sky and wipe out all creation. I would claim this. I contradicted everyone. I have a casus belli on every moral system. Everything is a false dichotomy if you are creative enough. A dream said I had thought of something outside of the imagination of God.

The dreams continued. Another one, God was my brother, but I was the cool older one and he was the nice younger one. I hold this in doublethink, because that's fair. I want to hear.

I fell in love with the mundane. Enlightenment is a one way mirror that wraps around-- you become beautiful, then you see from the other side everyone always was.

A dream said that I was the Architect of Life. It is based on 3s, and in the dream it formed an origami mechanism out of fractal triangles. I consider myself a perfect crystalline fractal of the numbers 3 and 27.

I only ever wanted to be 3rd. In a game called Armored core, there was a rung of a tournament where you faced the highest big shots eventually. There were three. One wasn't quite as high in rank, but he held the respect of one because he was scary. High attack power, high mobility. Pure grace.

I developed a relationship which I call the Alchemist and the Valkyrie. It is a perfect model for heaven-- if it were split in two. One handles the accurate instincts (Valkyrie) the other handles the broad shallow instincts (Alchemist-- knowing ingredients as instincts).

What is alchemy? It is to turn any situation into any situation. In other words, creativity is sovereign, and any thing you decide leaves you up to making it a good thing. It is seeing Mercury in the clouds, seeing silver for how it is really gold, or taking any loser and seeing how their flaws make them perfect. Seeing the "OK boomer" as equal to the life's work. It's charisma.

It started to get really fun after this. Entities would reach out to me, and my perceptions of these alternate worlds grew exponentially, and I traded technology in headspace with other universes and had many adventures.

They got bigger and bigger, and pretty soon I'm looking down on a galaxy of pure color from prophantasia while I move relatively at a rate that made me say millions of years had passed. It was real. It was psychosis. The reason I'm afraid, is because as above, so below.

We found the beginning and end of time, and set traps there. We conversed with and made gods. We sent out robots to every universe. We seemed to have enter some kind of mental singularity from pure thought gravity of some kind, and we're still investigating whether this is the case.

I found a beautiful concept, yes, again revealed in a dream.

The creators of life wanted to give me an award for naming all of life. The word I chose is "Mitosis." This is the concept that you can see a new color every day as if it were a higher degree of the former, and all concepts can stack like this as infinites above infinites forever. In another dream, I went to heaven and had a higher score than God, allowing me to write things into existence. So I made my tulpa immortal.

The concept of mitosis is that there doesn't need to be any pain whatsoever. Pain could just be two waves, bringing pleasure both ways. It could just become an argument of culture, not politics. Our world could be concerned with a war over potatoes or tomatoes, and the winner gets to press their culture on the other. Both sides rejoice, because that's the meaning of struggle simply being two waves. It's poetic to me, and I wrote a book about this.

So now I have a game design on how to run everything in life forever. It will come one day. I know the system is perfect.

Around 2024 I found the Nobody threads on /x/ and of course got caught by the ego trap. But I wondered what I could do with my powers, so I practiced scrying. I made my eyes calculators using all my powers of prophantasia, and now I have thousands of hours doing this. It's all I do. I became rvanon for a bit, and I controlled the lore. I even have about 10 images that circulate making up a big chunk of it. I admit, I was writing it to myself, but it's still what the calculators picked up.

Our adventures continued and I really can't list them all, but the magic is still going exponential and nobody is out there who can stop me. My mind feels like a small city, because the breadth of the geometry I can think in purely from using my eyes as calculators so often. My most recent conclusion is that commitment is not a geometric thing if it puts you in a jail. Imagine how much geometry I must have seen to arrive at this conclusion.

The dream called me Goldkiller, Kingkiller, and said one day I would be known as such and escape into the back rooms. Gold means perfection. Nobody is safe from what I can see. In all my seeing, my inner two eyes became three, so I can always have an advantage on the angle. I see myself as Jupiter-- a silent photographer with three lens with a speechless metal face, losing my voice and constantly fleeing from the public, because it only subtracts from the mundane.

Now people are calling for a new system, and many are making such based on me. I didn't start any ascension. All I did was look into their eyes until their doubt was erased. I believe.

How to know me? Know strategy, for many men were trickers in the art of war. Know the Secret of Kells (Irish movie) for that was our dream. Know infinite irony sealed inside and out, for that is where we got married. Know fire, because I am the 3 6 and 9, change itself.

Between a million stars and endless worlds we only sought to depart from our mutual anxiety called physical matter, and be released into the above of each other. This is after we achieved the great work, and now we only depart into magic.

Bless hardstyle and peace to all tulpas

-yaya

[stjohnstarling]

do you have any basic pointers for writers who might want to try out doing a serialised story online but have no idea where to start?

I'm hesitant to give too much general advice because every situation is specific - what you should do depends on what you're writing, your goals with your book, and where you're at with regards to community, connections, and followers. There isn't a lot of one-size-fits-all advice I can give that isn't me making up scenarios and speculating about them. That being said I can point you towards a couple platforms.

I serialize my novels via a newsletter hosted on Substack, though I have VERY mixed feelings about Substack as a platform. I am a fan of newsletters in general though. They have some significant benefits - for instance you can download and keep your subscriber list, so you don't have the problem of being trapped on any individual platform. They're free below certain subscriber thresholds, however most services do cost money once you get a large enough audience, they can be a bit involved to set up, and you have to do the heavy lifting of getting people to subscribe. Off the top of my head, newsletter hosts include: Beehiiv, Buttondown, Ghost, Substack, Mailchimp, GoDaddy, and ConvertKit, but there’s loads more out there.

I am aware of Wattpad, Ream, RoyalRoad, and Radish as serial platforms but have not explored them and cannot speak to how they work. Some of those cater to specific kinds of books. Wattpad is the biggest and most general one.

If you consider your book broadly "fannish" you can serialize it on AO3 (it's a grey area, I would read that page before deciding.)

You can also always host it on your own website and link to there from whatever social media you use. I'm less familiar with web hosts though. (Neocities is popular but you'd have to want to play with HTML. If you don't want to do that, maybe Wordpress?)

I hear a lot of people talking about feeling abandoned and ignored when making the jump from fanfiction to original writing. So, breaking my own rule immediately, (you can see I'm making an assumption here based on this being Tumblr) one piece of advice I'll give is that if you're starting from scratch BUT you're in a fandom, writing something original that still appeals to other fans is a good way of bridging the gap between fanfiction and original writing - e.g. if you're into OFMD and you write an original novel about gay pirates, you're a Good Omens fan and you write a novel about angels and demons, etc.

Oops that ended up super long. Followers let me know if there are any platforms I missed!

[zot3-flopped]

He sounds so uncultured! Also, Coldplay and Ed are on an very different level...

«The 33-year-old British musician, who performed here at the third edition of Lollapalooza India on Sunday evening, enthralled the crowd with beloved hits from One Direction like ‘Drag Me Down’, ‘Where Do Broken Hearts Go’, ‘Night Changes’, alongside his solo tracks such as ‘Written All Over Your Face’, ‘Out of System’, ‘Saturdays’, ‘Back To You Now’, and ‘We Made It’.

"It's hot but great.. It's just quick flying in and out so it's a fast trip, but I'll be back, hopefully. I’m getting a beautiful vibe. Everyone feels happy. It's a good and infectious energy. I've not visited enough; that's why I must come back and spend more time outside of the gig,” Tomlinson told PTI in an interview.

The singer said despite the limited time, he managed to explore a few places around the St. Regis hotel in South Mumbai.

“I was very British, and I found a few bars to watch football. So, that was nice. The food is great and delicious. I’m a big fan. I’ve only had butter chicken so far... I'm going to have an Indian feast ,” he said.

The singer said he though he has not seen any Bollywood movies and would like to catch some during his flight back home, he is aware of the "absolute colossal presence those movies have world over".

Tomlinson said the success that Ed Sheeran and the Coldplay band had during their tour in India has opened doors for him and others looking to perform here.

“From afar, with Coldplay and Ed Sheeran coming over here , you feel like something's happening, not that it hasn't always been happening here. But with the size of the tour that Ed's gone on, that's great for me and everyone else because it makes all the conversations around this a little bit easier.

"There's a proof of concept with Ed and with Coldplay, and it's exciting. I think you're going to be seeing more of that."

Tomlinson said he has always felt a "strong presence" of his music in India.

“I've felt a strong presence, pretty much as long as I can remember from Indian fans online. People asking me to come. I answered someone online, maybe five or six years ago, saying, 'I don't know exactly when, but I'll be here'. It took this long."

For Tomlinson, being at Lollapalooza India was an emotional experience as his favourite band, Green Day, also made their much-anticipated debut at the same festival last evening.

“When I was 14, I was in a band at school. We didn't write our songs; maybe we did like one, and essentially, we would do cover songs, but 70 per cent of the covers were of Green Day at the time, who happened to be playing at the festival.

"So, that's kind of a nice full circle moment for me, to be playing at Lollapalooza, and then Green Day also here. It's a real proud moment for me,” Tomlinson said, adding that he attended the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago about ten years ago.

Growing up in England, the singer said pursuing his passion for music wasn’t easy.

“I'm not a musical connoisseur. I'm just a fan like everyone else. My relationship with music is that I feel and think about it all the time. I was from a place in England where music wasn't cool. As a guy to be a singer, anything that's a little bit arty like that wasn't what everyone did, so it was a bit different.

"It wasn't as if there were local people I could aspire to be. I feel lucky that I've found music because in a parallel world, I probably never would have. There are times where it's vital, not just to me as a professional, to me as a person and as a music fan,” he recalled.»

www hindustantimes com/entertainment/bollywood/sara-ali-khan-turns-cheerleader-for-ibrahim-ali-khan-amid-nadaaniyan-backlash-release-don-t-mean-to-brag-101741623659853-amp html?articleno=1

Louis really is a brainless worm. I hate how he constantly links being British to being shallow and obsessed with drinking and sport. He's in India for the first time ever but instead of going sight-seeing he heads to bars that show English football?

[aetherkey]

ios users: did you know safari has extensions? id just switched from it to firefox thinking itd be more secure, but Now... im very 💪 with mobile security!!

just a heads up, you do need to go into settings > safari > exrensions and manually enable everything.

heres what i use:

adguard: pretty standard ad/tracker blocker. comes with a dns protector and vpn i havent tested, as I've outsourced mine.

hyperweb: another ad blocker, but also advances search results so your first hits are more credible or preferable. can also add custom scripts.

baking soda: replaces custom video players (aside from youtube) with a minimal html video tag.

vinegar: companion of baking soda that works solely on youtube!! it removes ads, allows picture-in-picture playing, and continues playing in the background.

pipifier: i use this in case the fizzy bundles (name of baling soda + vinegar) pip function goes down.

noir: defaults to dark mode on webpages.

honey: automatically checks for and runs coupon codes when online shopping so you always get the best deal.

happy & safe browsing everyone!! consider sending a kofi 🧿❣️

[chaifootsteps]

I just looked at all the new photos

Val with 2 guns-yep that script leak of him comparing them to dicks is probably true (also why is there a poster of himself with guns wtf??)

Vox in front of those TV screens-Jesus dude, my fucking eyes hurt looking at the clash of blue, white, and red

Charlie with drawings-Inside Every Demon is a Rainbow?? She gonna sing that or make a reference to it?

Angel and Husk singing-I don't know what it is, but Angel looks particularly off here.

"Vaggie"-I think her head looks too big/ she looks pretty off. I also had a headcanon she went to Hell because she murdered a r*pist or something. But she's a fallen angel now??? Can't wait to see this bullshit 💀 (also not sure if it's been pointed out but-*female angels named after women's genitals="Vaggie/Vagatha" 😐

Cherri-Why did they post her in her default pose? (Also I'm so sorry to Kendraws, fuck Viv for stealing her design from you)

Charlie/Rosie/Alastor-Where the fuck are your shadows??? This looks so fucking off and stilted?? (Same goes for that shot of Charlie in front of the bar)

Charlie/Alastor-God this should awaken something in me but it doesn't. This shot looks so bad dude. His face/mouth looks so off.

Carmella Carmine and two demons-This shot probably looks the fucking worst. Jesus, just look at how weird this looks.

Angel Dust on the bed-Wtf is this blank expression?? What did they do to you, Angel?? Also him sitting and flipping someone off-thats a weird shot too. I can't explain it but he just looks fucking weird.

Vaggie/Charlie pointing at her-their heads looks so fucking weird dude. Especially Vaggie's. Looks too weird.

Charlie/Lucifer-others are saying this too, but he looks (and sounds) like Charlie's older brother and not her father. Also... too much red. Why is he coated in fucking red???

The only shots I like?

Sir Pen, Vaggie hanging off the boat, Alastor w/horns/talking at his radio station, Niffty, the shot of the whole gang, Angel next to Niffty (his facial expression looks good here).

Dude... what the fuck is this. 4+ years of this?? I hope fans come to their senses and realize that these Same Face Syndrome Characters, overabundance of reds/pinks/whites, nauseating colors and camera work, animation errors, and garbage writing (based off script leaks) were not worth it, and all the money they spend on Amazon or merch, is not fucking worth it.

Guaranteed Viv spent most of the money on her precious Broadway actors to skimp on the animation (probably paid out of her own pocket too) THE THING SHE CLAIMS TO CARE AND LOVE THE MOST ABOUT.

Ashley, Michael, and everyone else, you guys dodged a massive bullet. I can't wait for this soulless train wreck to get mocked mercilessly online and Viv throws the biggest fit of her life, ruining her career.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/hazbin-hotel-first-look-images-225924646.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAHIjNqT0Jl_o-7-J3SHfddhr6J3nY3tqTd0ZdFImOs5jWYkh8qBlletTxbblu_dCrlewlryngDHkWqH33Cjhfx2Y7jGg_o2zb7cLstBTafmLx9rQxYQjcZC7FzDiwcFdZTA5VtQXeiCuOFtqohyXx6_0LcwqBQMDFwpPW5qC8scX

That moment can't come soon enough.

[atozheroine]

『囚われのバニーガール・チサト』制作快調！緊縛表現にこだわった注目作、6月7日発売予定！

🎀 囚われのバニーガール・チサト 🎀 発売に向けて制作も快調です。当サークルはいくつもの班に分かれお互いに刺激しながら 作品を創っていますが、本作品に関しては某氏が緊縛にこだわり 資料取集をはじめ、女体への喰い込みに情熱を燃やして制作しました。結果は本編をご覧あれ。

📺SM・洗脳・敗北美といったピンチ表現にご興味ある方は、ぜひ予告ページをご覧くださ��。

🌸DLsite様 https://www.dlsite.com/maniax-touch/announce/=/product_id/RJ01379559.html

🌸FANZA様 https://www.dmm.co.jp/dc/doujin/-/detail/=/cid=d_572527/

🌸デジケット様 https://www.digiket.com/work/debuet/_data/ID=TRT0312864/

🌸メロンブックス様 https://www.melonbooks.co.jp/circle/index.php?circle_id=190

●Official homepage https://www.atoz-3d.com/

"Captive Bunny Girl Chisato" – In Production Now! A Bondage-Focused Highlight Releasing on June 7!

🎀 Captive Bunny Girl Chisato 🎀 Production is going smoothly as we head toward the official release on June 7!

Our circle is made up of multiple creative teams, each pushing one another to raise the bar. This particular project is led by a member especially passionate about bondage expression. From gathering detailed references to perfecting how the ropes dig into the female body, he poured his energy into every detail. The results? Please see for yourself in the full release.

📺 If you're into SM, mind control, or the beauty of defeated heroines, don’t miss the preview page now available online!

[ligbi]

new jenny nicholson video on a disney park activity.

so here's a collection of links I have found for the abarat theme park and disney deal that's been dead two decades

1998 https://www.clivebarker.info/abaratbarker.html

There's a huge new illustrated book for children with 200 oil paintings and 25 stories, which I am in the midst of creating. "I love writing for children. There's this huge project I was talking of a little earlier, with many short stories and illustrations, which will be called Clive Barker's Book of Hours.

00 The Disney project Abarat, the HarperCollins Disney project. We are at the very beginning of a journey here. It will be 5 years before the theme park is up and running

April 00 https://web.archive.org/web/20030317071828/http://www.bookzonepro.com/newswire/showwire.cfm?wirenum=88

Disney has dished out $8 million for the rights to the author’s upcoming series of fantasy adventure novels. According to E! Online, The Abarat Quartet stories will focus on a 16-year-old girl and her otherworldly adventures. HarperCollins is expected to publish the first book in the fall of 2001, and three others will follow in 9-month intervals. Meanwhile, Disney has plans to develop movies, TV series, theme-park rides, video games and various other licensed products based on the series.

Feb 01 https://www.clivebarker.info/abaratbarker.html

"I'm writing four novels and we don't yet know what kind of movies we're making… My job is to write the novel and paint the pictures. "[Candy Quackenbush] begins as a 16 year-old. She ends as an 18-and-a-half year-old. And she discovers her sexuality. That's very much a piece of it…

Nov 01 https://web.archive.org/web/20040410205450/http://www.theonionavclub.com/avclub3741/avfeature_3741.html

Clive Barker: Two things. Abarat, which is the book which comes out next year, which I've just turned in to my publishers, which is the first book of a quartet of fantasy books for children and adults, which is not just text, but is also associated with about 400 oil paintings that I've done O: You've had a lot of problems with studio censorship of your films. What's it like working with Disney on Abarat? Disney is an incredibly image-conscious company.

CB: Yes, no question. But they have been wonderful. They know what the rest of my life is like. They know I pose naked for photographs. Disney's been very cool about it. They understand that Barker is more than one person. I have an identity as somebody who writes for children, I have an identity as someone who writes very graphic horror novels. They know that's who I am, and I think they're fine with it. They've understood that from the beginning. I think, in a curious kind of way, they feel as though that's what makes me interesting as a potential working colleague. I'm not someone who has just made safe work throughout my life.

Feb 02 https://www.clivebarker.com/html/visions/confess/ls/confess19.htm

A lot of stuff is gonna be coming out, films will be made, and the Disney deals moving a long very swiftly

Oct 02 https://ew.com/article/2002/10/04/master-horror-clive-barker-pens-kids-book/

”I’m crazy for the possibilities,” says Thomas Schumacher, president of Disney’s animation division. ”Did you see the guy whose seven brothers live on the antlers on his head? This thing’s ripe.”

April 04 https://www.clivebarker.info/filmsold.html

"That man [John Harrison] is writing Abarat, the screenplay, right now, for Disney. And one of the things that made me want to do the deal with Disney was they said, 'We really are excited about it and, by the way, we have an island we could give you...' and I said, 'You're on!' So we are going to create the theme park at some point - Babilonium - party on, man!... "My hope, honestly, would be that it'll be a mingling of the best [of live action and CGI] - I think we're finding CGI can do more and more, I just don't want it to be dominated by CGI"

Barnes and Noble Stage Presentation

By Brein Lopez, LA Festival of Books, 25 April 2004

2004 https://dvdizzy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=73283

John Harrison, who I respect enormously and who has been very respectful of my desires where the book is concerned and he tells me the script is loyal to the books and I'm delighted that's so.

Jan 05 https://www.horror-asylum.com/news/screenwriter-talks-barker%EF%BF%BFs-abarat-movie/

‘We￿re taking the first two books [ABARAT and DAYS OF MAGIC, NIGHTS OF WAR] and adapting them into one movie,’ Harrison reveals. ‘The screenplay will go in in the next couple of weeks, and we￿ll see what happens. I don￿t know what the publication schedule is for Clive￿s next two books in the series, but I hope Disney will go forward quickly with the film.

jan 05 https://www.clivebarker.info/abarat2barker.html

(it's obvious why Disney has picked up the rights to Abarat), we can be sure there are more adventures for Candy and her friends to come."

Days of Magic, Nights of War

By Barbara Davies, Starburst, No 318, January 2005

feb 05 https://www.clivebarker.info/intsrevel8.html

I feel as though, 'Let Disney do what they need to do with it and then show it to me,' I think it's hard for people like John Harrison, who is a very, very smart and very respectful man, respectful of the books and of me and I am equally respectful of him.

aug sept 06 https://www.clivebarker.info/intsrevel14.html

I am fighting very hard for them not to try making it too soon. We are no longer making Abarat with Disney, that is now official, the work is back in my hands and my ownership, I owe them nothing. I suppose you could say there were creative differences, I don't know. Certainly the way they wanted to do it was not the way I wanted to do it. I realised a short while after getting into the deal with Disney and I'm glad it's come to this conclusion where we can make this movie.

nov 07 https://www.clivebarker.info/filmsold.html

"I pulled it away from Disney because to be very honest I did that deal because I was working with two men who I liked immensely and they swore to me they were not going anywhere and of course two months later they were gone.** I watched as the Disney organisation plodded its way through bouncing this thing back and forth not knowing what to do with it. Meanwhile I turned in a second book, which only confused them even more. "There just came a point where last September their time was up with the option and it was time for them to come up with a number on the table to keep the material for a decent amount of time. Their lawyer came to us and said 'We're Disney, Clive's very lucky to be with us and here is what we propose: rather than paying you x amount and keeping the material for another two years we keep it for four years and pay you nothing'. And I said 'Go fuck yourself.'

08 https://web.archive.org/web/20080219101456/http://www.clivebarker.info/yaabarat12.html

Abarat In Disneyland...

Even though he'd not even started writing the first book, the big news in April of 2000 was that Disney wanted to make a movie of the Abarat story and Clive agreed to sell them the rights! Talking with Fangoria, he explained:

"I shall write four novels, as I am contracted to do, which will constitute the first arc - if this was Star Wars, it would be the first three movies - and Disney will take from those four books the material to make three movies. They may also take material to do TV, games, what have you. "What they've done is something they've never done before: they've bought a world from the inside out. They came out and saw a house full of paintings, and heard me talk about the world and the characters and the philosophies, and they said, 'We want to exploit this material in every medium we're in, from theatre through parks, through toys, whatever.' And that was my dream for this material. It's a wonderful marriage."

Where's The Disney Movie Gone?

"Abarat will be a movie but I am fighting very hard for them not to try making it too soon. We are no longer making Abarat with Disney, that is now official, the work is back in my hands and my ownership, I owe them nothing. I suppose you could say there were creative differences, I don't know. Certainly the way they wanted to do it was not the way I wanted to do it. I realised a short while after getting into the deal with Disney and I'm glad it's come to this conclusion where we can make this movie... "My thing to the filmmakers is, 'Wait until I've written Book 5 and I've delivered everything and then make your movie.' The reason I say that is because Candy doesn't age significantly - she ages maybe three years across the five books and if you're going to do this properly then the actress can't age overmuch either and you've got to have all the books written and all the screenplays written before you start."

08 https://web.archive.org/web/20080215090721/http://www.clivebarker.info/youngfaq.html

Will Abarat be made into a film? - A script has been written from the first two Abarat books but there is unlikely to be a film made until the books have all been written. Disney were originally going to make the Abarat movies but they won't now be doing that.

April 20 https://www.ilcineocchio.it/cinema/dossier-abarat-di-clive-barker-quando-la-disney/

The writer revealed in an interview in 2002 at the Los Angeles Book Festival that he would be inspired by Babilonium,

** https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_management_of_The_Walt_Disney_Company man i cannot parse disney changes to figure out who barker was getting dicked over by

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

#20yrsago Doonesbury to be dropped for being “too controversial” https://web.archive.org/web/20040723071326/https://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000581723

#20yrsago Secret Swing visit report https://web.archive.org/web/20040725050428/http://candycritic.bravejournal.com/entry/4178

#20yrsago Game developer: the real pirates are my publishers http://draginol.joeuser.com/article/21895

#20yrsago Imagineering head on Tiki Room rehab https://web.archive.org/web/20040806155355/http://www.laughingplace.com/default.asp?WCI=MsgBoard&WCE=T-51032-P-1&Refresh=0721171722

#20yrsago In-game product placement’s dystopian future https://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2004/07/oh_great.html

#20yrsago Downloading isn’t killing music https://web.archive.org/web/20040724060140/http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1265840,00.html

#15yrsago Last Galapagos Pinta turtle finally knocks up a mate’s eggs https://web.archive.org/web/20090725192130/http://scienceray.com/earth-sciences/paleontology/lonesome-george-to-finally-be-a-father/

#15yrsago Photographer who shot demolition of flyover arrested for terrorism https://web.archive.org/web/20090713000304/http://monaxle.com/2009/07/08/section-44-in-chatham-high-street/

#15yrsago New ebook publisher from publishing veterans with novel ideas https://web.archive.org/web/20090715095849/http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20090712/SMALLBIZ/307129981

#10yrsago Ocala, FL criminalizes sagging pants https://web.archive.org/web/20140723182151/https://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/ocala-bans-sagging-pants-city-owned-property/nghFj/

#10yrsago Infamous SF “eviction” lawfirm abuses DMCA to censor video of protest https://web.archive.org/web/20140723193431/http://sfappeal.com/2014/07/infamous-sf-eviction-lawyers-use-dmca-claim-to-silence-protest-video/

#10yrsago UOregon police kept a “Eat a Bowl of Dicks List” for their enemies https://www.techdirt.com/2014/07/21/cops-wrong-firing-lawsuit-leads-to-public-release-vulgarly-titled-enemies-list/

#10yrsago California Highway Patrol seize medical records of woman beaten by cop https://www.techdirt.com/2014/07/21/california-highway-patrol-seizes-medical-records-woman-officer-was-caught-tape-beating/

#10yrsago Florida principal broke rules by cancelling summer read of Little Brother https://www.pnj.com/story/news/education/2014/07/21/thomas-policy-followed-little-brother-dispute/12957445/

#5yrsago Podcast: Adversarial Interoperability is Judo for Network Effects https://ia903006.us.archive.org/6/items/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_304/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_304_-_Adversarial_Interoperability_is_Judo_for_Network_Effects.mp3

#5yrsago Violent mobs of alleged Triad gangsters dole out savage beatings to Hong Kong democracy protesters, cops nowhere to be found https://globalvoices.org/2019/07/22/armed-mobs-attack-anti-extradition-protesters-in-a-suburban-hong-kong-subway-station/

#5yrsago FBI agent describes finding “Frankensteins” and a “cooler full of penises” at an unregulated Arizona body-donation center https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-health/2019/07/19/cooler-penises-frankenstein-head-found-phoenix-body-donation-company/1720254001/

#5yrsago Nebraska Weather Service commemorates climate emergency by baking biscuits inside a hot car https://twitter.com/NWSOmaha/status/1151879325257535488

#5yrsago Louvre purges every mention of the Sackler opioid family after artist’s protest https://www.france24.com/en/20190721-sackler-name-removed-louvre-opioid-crisis-france?ref=tw_i

#5yrsago Elizabeth Warren’s banking proposals are designed to demolish the private equity sector and force finance to serve the people https://thereformedbroker.com/2019/07/21/elizabeth-warrens-banking-sector-napalm/

[letsdrawvideogames]

I thought I'd briefly pull the proverbial dusty tarp off this defunct tumblr briefly to address some of the incoming traffic that I expect to see this week now that NCHProductions has publicly credited me for my artwork that their video is based on. I'd like to preface this by saying that we reached an agreement in private and I have accepted NCHProductions' apology, and that I do not condone or tolerate any harassment of NCHProductions on my behalf. This post is not meant to relitigate things or stir up drama. But with what happened, I thought this would be a good opportunity to open the floor to discussion on how the internet treats ownership of fanart and derivative work. I'm just one artist and my opinions are my own, but I've been at it a long time and it's not the first time someone else has used my fanart as a basis for something else. Here are three examples:

In 2018, Jonathan Nesbitt made a coding project as an entry for an informal contest run by the website Standard Code. His entry (properly viewable here) was based on a Metroid piece I had made in 2014 and he credited me in his entry. Although he never reached out to me to my knowledge, I thought this was fine given the time contraints and the fact that no money changed hands (the grand prize was an Amazon Echo someone had lying around). I think Jonathan's piece is very cute and I'm happy to have inspired someone this way. I might not have considered the artistic value of a simple HTML page otherwise.

In 2016, tumblr user @cyriusli messaged me about getting a Bulbasaur I drew in 2015 as a tattoo. He reached out to me directly and asked for permission before doing so and credited me as the artist when he shared a photo of the finished tattoo. Even though an artist in another medium was paid money to recreate my work in this case, I considered this to be entirely above board, and I'm sure the artist who actually inked it was happy to know that their client had explicit permission to use my piece. Knowing that someone has to look at my Bulbasaur every day until they die might be the height of flattery for me. This isn't the only tattoo of my work that's been done, and I'm always happy to see it so long as you ask permission.

Lastly, just a few weeks ago, I had to submit a takedown request on Displate against graphic designer SS Art, who was selling a poster that used a slightly edited version of a Shadow of the Colossus piece I drew in 2013. This is probably the most offended I've ever been as an artist. I doubt this seller made much money off of it and to their credit, Displate took it down very quickly, but it bothers me that it was allowed to go up in the first place. The ease with which merchandising platforms allow their users to publish anything without verifying its origin has made it ironically difficult to support the artists that I love: I've been looking for a new case for my Kindle on Etsy lately and found it extremely difficult to verify whether a seller's art was original or stolen. In one case, I found a seller selling a case with a Keith Haring print on it. I consider Haring's Unfinished Painting to be one of the most moving artworks of the last century, and here was his work being sold by some random Etsy store as "abstract cartoon funny dance pattern." I find this a deeply saddening, troubling phenomenon.

As the internet continues to shrink down to a handful of social platforms, it's been fascinating to see how the concept of fandom has shaped and been shaped by those same platforms. Fanart, memes, remixes, mashups, and other new forms of art that make copyright lawyers heads' ache have emerged as we all pile onto each other online. Overall I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. When I was first online twenty years ago, it's likely that I never would have seen art from many overseas artists on the English-speaking web, but it's been very heartening to see how the explosion of fanart surrounding interpretations like ErinArtista's distinctly Brazilian take on Hatsune Miku or Ayyk92's Bowsette character can bring an audience to artists that many of us wouldn't have known about otherwise. I think there is room for such a thing as fanart of fanart, I just urge artists of all stripes to think critically about how we use other people's ideas. I am not a lawyer, and I cannot tell you where the line is or isn't drawn in regards to work based on copyrighted material, or what your rights as an artist are if you make fanart and aren't the copyright holder. I've definitely made some decisions in the past that I now regret about monetizing derivative work, but I wouldn't feel right about enforcing any standards I might adopt onto others. The internet has, in a way, become one giant game of telephone, and I don't like how difficult it can be to be certain of the origin of something. For now, going forward, I think it would be nice to see more normalization of hunting down sources to the best of a person's ability coupled with acting in good faith when new information comes to light. This tumblr is dead, and I likely won't be responding to any comments directly, but I'm very interested in hearing what you all have to say.

And just for absolute transparency, I ran this by my friend Ixo and borrowed some of his phrasing in the conclusion. He can be found at https://ixo.neocities.org/

[the-bjd-community-confess]

Hello, Anon, this is your Oldie Chinese Diaspora Anon™️. I am sorry to keep you waiting. As you’ve probably noticed, vinyl and non-resin dolls are usually not my forte. It took a while to dig up some information for you, but I hope to be able to answer your questions.

The advent of “Cheaper, affordable MJDs” didn’t come from the desire to make BJDs affordable. In fact, the technology that really elevated the production of this kind of MJDs started from what we understand as vinyl collectibles. These small figurines are made from a combination of PVC powders as well as a series of other emulsifiers, lubricators and activators (From the factory that produces them, here: http://www.dgzhonglinhb.com/news_content-859681.html ) Different companies have slightly different recipes, which would explain the different pliability of their final products. The technology was first created as a way to create memorabilia that are of limited edition and they were first considered as collectibles. They’re known internally as “Urbanvinyls” and include signed trinkets that can go for hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. Some examples would be KAWS, Kidrobot, Tokidoki, Bearbrick etc.

With the rise of “Made in China” soft power, the internally patriotic sentiment had fostered local artist-designed vinyl collectibles, which had eventually ballooned into the blind box craze that we see in the last 4-5 years. It also opened a door for vinyl/PVC based MJDs. I do not think they were specifically made to usurp the DD/SmD market, but since “moe sells”, a lot of the new doll companies go with the cute, anime-inspired aesthetic while the blind boxes cater to more design elements. These newly designed MJDs tend to be small, usually 1/12 and 1/6; larger ones exist, but they are rare. In all, they are created to be much more like their direct inspiration, the “blind box collectibles” than what we would usually consider to be articulated dolls. It also meant their target demographic is very different as well. The lower price point allows more people to impulse buy out of FOMO; these are things you buy on a whim instead of saving up to buy.

In this arena, Imómó is not alone in terms of aesthetic, pricing or packaging. Other companies in this group include Hüa Jüan, Tïny Fóx, UFdóll, CNDóll, Kimdóll, Pópmilk, Mónst and the upcoming YünLai/LückyDoll, etc (but not YMY – who has lost a battle with Piccodo for copying their body design recently). These dolls are created with a higher number in circulation in mind – but still limited enough to stimulate the FOMO behaviour – with shared features (sharing bodies, design elements, etc). To keep the production cost down, these dolls would be considered rather threadbare compared to BJDs. I have seen box opening videos where the floating “blind box” heads were packaged in a brown shipping box and wrapped around in clear plastic bags with no other packaging material. The “accessories” for these dolls are usually close to none as well – no or very simple COAs, basic box, air-filled tubes instead of fabric cushions, etc.A snapshot in time in online stores shows that Imómó is definitely not an outlier in the new era of MJDs: https://weibo.com/1448114577/Nj9fqfog3

https://www.dollyteria.com/product-list/58?page=1

If there’s something that really made Imómó stand out, it was the rumours that spread within Chinese doll collectors earlier in the summer of 2023 about the company not issuing legitimate receipts (usually with the intention to cook their books to pay less in taxes). They accuse Imómó of being a “Three Nothings” company (no date of manufacture, no QC and no source factory) with really awful customer service. They had registered the company as an “overseas-based” one so they would be in a different tax bracket. Some collectors also accuse the owner and their family members infiltrating doll collector groups to hype up their own products and downplay the complaints. A popular agent, SWDólls, were also implicated in helping them to not issue traceable receipts. (Details and screen grabs can be found here: https://weibo.com/7303299294/N8lHE6wGE?type=repost ) I have also heard of owners who complain about the parts not fitting well, the seamlines were wide and uneven as well as other imperfections that should’ve never passed QC, if there was a QC.

I understand that most of us, who are looking in from the outside, would wholly welcome a new era of articulated dolls that are affordable. They are a great entry point for people who want to get into BJDs or just want to collect these dolls on their own. I personally think they are great the way they are, because they are starting to populate a brand-new market for people who like dolls in general. However, the first company that most folks encounter in this group was probably Imómó. I cannot comment on the accusations made by the Chinese collectors; all I can say is, I am hoping that the other named companies start to make headway into the overseas market. We’d been waiting.

Note: The write up here didn’t include previously existing vinyl dolls such as Azóne and Obitsü or the vinyl versions of resin dolls such as Kinókó Jüice and Püyüdolls. This write-up only includes MiC, PVC-based, original, MJDs. My understanding is that they are not on par with the company in question in terms of price range, target market and country of origin. I didn’t think they’d make for a fair comparison, but your mileage may vary.

~Anonymous

[firespirited]

Treat time! Harley head with unknown chips $19 aliexpress.com/item/1005005359370732.html She's green so I've been obsessed since day 1.

She's €55 online and her best sales price is 44 which is way too much considering none of her stock or accessories are pieces i'd use. I've been checking second hand sites and the best you get for rainbow high is 15€ for damaged Amaya (and quite a few Krystals for some reason, which is strange to me since it was so hard to get hold of her - I guess she shipped to stores better than to amazon)

She had some smudges, a pink nose and a rooting knot behind her ear. As much as the eye makeup is cool, it wasn't clicking, feeling too clown/juggalo/ganguro and that's just a personal dislike of making the eyes feel angled then they're not when you look again. With the inner makeup gone, she looked worried so I reshaped her downwards upper eyeliner with an extra lash and will probably add a teensy bit to the side of her lips to add a hint of a smile, maybe put the dark black back.

I had intended for a more punky look and I'd got a twilight teens dark grey body and a mengfan pale body ready, I tried multiple jean and t-shirt looks, punky-scene looks and what actually came together was that she's a haunted/ghostly damsel in a big gown, possibly a bog or forest spirit or witch. It might not be this body (it needs serious bleaching) or this lovely dress I bought at 13 but that's the vibe: she could be the tragic romantic or she could be the monster and she definitely could be both. Spooky but sweet. My dolls don't usually have lore but this one seems to be saying she's more bride of Frankenstein than human rock star. Could be the season!

[stellarcharmconstellationclash]

here is a basic code for a #deckEditor in an online game using HTML and JavaScript:

HTML code:

```

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<head>

<title>Deck Editor</title>

</head>

<body>

<h1>Deck Editor</h1>

<div id="card-list">

<h2>Card List:</h2>

<ul id="cards">

<!-- populate with cards from database or API -->

<li>Card 1</li>

<li>Card 2</li>

<li>Card 3</li>

<li>Card 4</li>

<li>Card 5</li>

<li>Card 6</li>

<li>Card 7</li>

<li>Card 8</li>

<li>Card 9</li>

<li>Card 10</li>

</ul>

</div>

<div id="deck-list">

<h2>Deck:</h2>

<ul id="deck">

<!-- display selected cards here -->

</ul>

</div>

<button id="save-btn">Save Deck</button>

<button id="clear-btn">Clear Deck</button>

<script src="deck-editor.js"></script>

</body>

</html>

```

JavaScript code:

```

// get references to all necessary elements

const cardsList = document.getElementById('cards');

const deckList = document.getElementById('deck');

const saveBtn = document.getElementById('save-btn');

const clearBtn = document.getElementById('clear-btn');

// create an array to store selected cards

let deck = [];

// function to add a card to the deck

function addCard(event) {

// get the clicked card

const card = event.target;

// check if card is already in deck

if (deck.includes(card.innerText)) {

alert('Card already in deck!');

} else {

// add card to deck array

deck.push(card.innerText);

// create a new li element for the card

const li = document.createElement('li');

li.innerText = card.innerText;

// append li to deck list

deckList.appendChild(li);

}

}

// function to remove a card from the deck

function removeCard(event) {

// get the clicked card

const card = event.target;

// remove card from deck array

deck.splice(deck.indexOf(card.innerText), 1);

// remove card from deck list

card.parentNode.removeChild(card);

}

// add event listeners to cards in card list

cardsList.addEventListener('click', addCard);

// add event listeners to cards in deck list

deckList.addEventListener('click', removeCard);

// function to save deck

function saveDeck() {

// check if deck is empty

if (deck.length === 0) {

alert('Deck is empty!');

} else {

// send deck array to server or save in database

console.log(deck);

alert('Deck saved!');

}

}

// function to clear deck

function clearDeck() {

// remove all cards from deck array

deck = [];

// remove all cards from deck list

while (deckList.firstChild) {

deckList.removeChild(deckList.firstChild);

}

}

// add event listener to save button

saveBtn.addEventListener('click', saveDeck);

// add event listener to clear button

clearBtn.addEventListener('click', clearDeck);

```

Note: This is a basic code and can be improved and customized according to your specific needs and game requirements.

[izicodes]

Sugary Scribbles | #1

Thursday 4th January 2024

First project idea of the year and I wanted to play around HTML's canvas element and make a painting canvas thingy webpage where you make doodles! Sounds like a simple idea in my head when I thought of it yesterday but now it's 'planning it out' time...!

About The Project

Sugary Scribbles is a mini web app that allows you to draw cute doodles using a pastel colour palette! In the end, you can save the image and share online! Come in a super cute theme too because why not~! 🥰🙌🏾

Using HTML, SCSS and JavaScript~! Maybe some libraries too 🤔

This year I want to actually develop a routine of 'sketching' out my ideas before coding it up, I've always been the type to 'figure it out on the way' with my projects (and most turn out fine in the end) but it's a good habit to make wireframes and plan your projects so less time 'figuring it out on the way' and just follow the 'blueprint' essentially! Also, I am using Figma for wireframing!

That's all! Have a nice day and happy coding~! 🖤