#someday I will fix my website

[boneless-mika]

I was going to rewatch Bingo and I encountered a new exciting problem on the Dropout website in that the website itself loaded, but the embed site they use didn't

[thebettybook]

On Your Mark…Get Set…Itto!!!

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About: Racing Driver Itto AU headcanons. Racing Driver Itto is also gn!reader’s boyfriend.

Photo and border credits: Itto art from HoYoFair on Twitter. Kaomoji borders from “Emoji Combos” website.

Warnings: None, all fluff and crack headcanons, enjoy :D

Special note: Woke up and saw the new HoYoFair art of Itto, and now Racing Driver Itto is living in my mind rent-free :’)🫶

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🏁 Racing Driver Itto got into racing after he watched Cars *one* time. He claims that Lightning McQueen is his role model.

🏁 Racing Driver Itto, in all seriousness though, has never seen a professional Oni racing driver before. He’s the first, and he feels a strong sense of responsibility to represent all the Oni out there and show the world how proud he is to be an Oni.

🏁 Racing Driver Itto is the type to name his race car “Petunia” or something equally wholesome. He got the race car at a junkyard and spent days and nights fixing up the car. Itto painted his race car in all colors of the rainbow, and decorated his race car with string lights (he had to take off the string lights because he wasn’t allowed to race with them).

🏁 Racing Driver Itto can barely afford car maintenance and even gas, so when he’s not racing, he’s working odd jobs here and there in Inazuma to make more Mora to support his racing endeavors. The Arataki Gang, even Shinobu, also pick up odd jobs because they want to help Itto.

🏁 Racing Driver Itto, who’s also your boyfriend, calls you his good luck charm. Sure, he has his prized Onikabuto plushie in his race car at all times, but Itto truly believes that he won’t have a good race if he doesn’t get a kiss (or two, or three) from you before the race.

🏁 Racing Driver Itto always says “Psh, I’ll be fine” whenever you tell him to be careful on the tracks and to not do any reckless stunts while racing. While it doesn’t seem like he’s listening, Itto takes your words to heart because he never wants to make you worried.

🏁 Racing Driver Itto thinks he’s the luckiest Oni in the whole wide world when he sees you in the stands as you wave a poster you made for him. Every race, you’d be there with his Arataki Gang, and all of you would make sure to be the loudest in the stands to cheer Itto on.

🏁 Racing Driver Itto, before the start of every race, always makes sure to dramatically comb back his hair with a black comb he keeps in his pocket.

🏁 Racing Driver Itto has never won a race, but he’s determined to win one someday. He’s competitive by nature, and he has the drive to excel at anything he sets his heart and mind to.

🏁 Racing Driver Itto is the type to adorably yell “Look, Granny! I’m on TV!” when a cameraperson aims their camera at him. During interviews, he’ll always talk about Granny Oni, you, and the Arataki Gang.

🏁 Racing Driver Itto, despite appearing confident, is surprised when he learns that so many people in Inazuma are cheering him on: the kids he’s played games with, their parents, and even the Tenryou Commission! The Tenryou Commission is just glad that Itto’s not up to his usual shenanigans on the streets of Inazuma now that he’s more busy being a racing driver.

🏁 Racing Driver Itto, when he finally chooses to listen to Coach Ayato’s advice, ends up winning a race for the first time. “I WON? I WON! BOOYAH, BABY! Look out world! Arataki Itto, the Numero Uno Racing Driver, is here to stay!” Before Itto can jump up and down in joy, the Arataki Gang is already lifting him up and throwing him in the air. Once they let Itto down, he catches sight of you. Without warning, Itto lifts you up and twirls you around. He feels like the king of the world, even more so when he finally puts you down and you tackle him with hugs and kisses.

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Important:

🍓 I don’t own any of the characters I mention or write about; they belong to their original and respective creators.

🍓 All content on this blog is created by me, @thebettybook (excluding posts I reblog that aren’t my own posts and unless I state otherwise). Do not modify, claim, repost, or translate my work onto this platform and any other platform.

🍓 Reblogs are appreciated :).

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[altraviolet]

old fic retrospective

I realized today that the oldest fic I've written that's still available online was posted in 2004. it's 20 years old!!! holy moly!!

(I wrote fic way before then, but those stories are all lost, either to long-dead computers or long-dead websites)

I just finished reading a bunch of my old fics and thought it'd be neat to write out some of my observations :)

also, before anyone asks, I won't be linking to my old work. maybe someday I'll share, but not now.

The Things That I Have Improved On:

-headhopping: the narrative jumps from character to character in a way that I don't write anymore. the jumps are clearly done and don't interfere with the reading experience - I think I did it well - but that type of writing is considered old fashioned now, and a limited third person is more my style. to fix this, I'd use limited third person, as I do now

-scene length: not sure how to explain this one. the stories feel like they drag a little, even though there isn't anything actually extraneous in the text. to fix this, I'd probably try to trim a bit, or make sure the dialog has more action around it

-that's a little too much stylization, babe: I went really hard on the abstract descriptions. this is something I really love to write, but the old fics go a little too far imho. sometimes it gets a bit cringey. even when purposefully done, the 90's style of in your face awesomeness can be a bit much. to fix this, I'd knock it down a little. for reference, The Angel Breaker is this kind of style at the knocked down level, heh

The Things I've Stayed Good At:

(I'm basing this on the comments I got)

-worldbuilding: people complimented me on writing believable sciencey stuff, expanding on canon, and integrating my fanon into the canon seamlessly/filling in plot holes believably. there was a fic where a character talked about mechanical stuff they invented and the compliments were very similar to things I've heard about my TF writing. I'm happy to say that this has always been a strength and something I still enjoy!

-characters in character: people complimented me on writing characters in character, and also on expanding female characters' importance in stories (it was fashionable to hate on the female characters, sadly)

-the story overall: I used to get a ton of comments and I never got a flame, haha. people complimented the stories overall as being very well written and enjoyable, and I'm proud of that, and very glad that it still seems to be the case! one person even suspected I worked "behind the scenes" on creating the canon, which made me smile, because more than once I have been asked if I wrote the TF comics. heh heh.

(I have never written for TF canon)

Why Am I Sharing This? Seems A Bit Egotistical

I think it's nice to be able to look back and see strengths and weaknesses and improvements. Also, I know a lot of people enjoy my stuff, and sometimes people leave comments saying they feel like they'll "never be as good as" I am. So I want to share so that you know that the writing you see now is built on a lot of practice. I've been writing for over 20 years. I've improved and you can, too :)

It's much easier to see improvement in art, because two side by side pictures can be evaluated with a glance. But for fic, well, you'd have to read it, and that takes a lot more time. A summary feels like the quicker way to share with others the improvements I've made.

Where To Go From Here?

Well, I would like to write original works. I considered TEG my big practice for that. My brain is not ready, though, so I'm slowly composing a new fic. I do hope that when the season properly changes [I do MUCH better in cold weather, dear god, when will the summer end] my brain will kick back into creative gear. There have been a lot of Stressful Things happening this year. As soon as the last upcoming Big Family Obligation is done, I'll be able to focus a bit more on writing. Oh, also, hah, let's hope for a good outcome in the November election 🤞 Um, ok, try to stay on topic... yeah. Once things calm down, I really wanna hermit up and Fuckin' Write. So yeah. Write!

Any advice?

Write? You gotta keep writing to get better. Just like art. If you don't practice, you don't get better. If you have specific writing advice questions, feel free to hit the ask box.

Thanks for reading :)

[godbirdart]

Heyo, hope you're doing well and healing from surgery continues to go smooth. I'm not sure if this was asked before and hope it's an okay ask. How do you usually allocate your time between doing commissions, personal art, life, and everything in between?

let me start with: i have a very very unhealthy work life. i'm not gonna sugarcoat it, not gonna glorify The Grind™ because What I Do Is Unhealthy. It's an ongoing issue, and in recent months I've been trying to do more to fix it.

I habitually put in 12+ hour days, often five or six days of the week. I will be at my tablet from dawn until dusk. This isn't always spent drawing; it's also emails, website updates, menial administrative things and promoting my work. This is solely because I am a chronic workaholic. Even as I was recovering from this major surgery at the beginning of the month, Physically Unable to do much for the first week, my mind kept fussing over the work I needed to get done when I got back. It's Very difficult for me to relax and simply Do Nothing.

Now, this isn't to say I don't see people or talk with friends. I do, I socialize as much as my introverted self can handle. But my work has very plainly taken over my life to the point that it's eclipsed any personal alone time I could have. Tragically, it's a double-edged sword. I would love to be whisking my matcha and enjoying it in a little sunbeam but alas, bills keep knockin at my door.

That, and I genuinely Do Love working!! I love drawing for people!!

ALL THAT SAID THOUGH, I recently relocated over the summer. My new location offers a lot more opportunity to separate work and personal time with a physical barrier. It's easy to say "oh I can do little a work as a treat" when your tablet is Right There. Now that it's jailed in its own room I've found it a bit easier to say "no, I need a breather today actually" and sit down on my balcony and simply watch the world or play the video games I've been neglecting all year. I'm also making adjustments with my workload to better fit the schedule I need. If I keep chipping at this and taking the breathers I'm supposed to, I should have it all sorted by the end of the year. I have amazing people behind me kicking my ass and swatting me with a broom every time I try to overwork, and I'm grateful to have them to keep me in check while I straighten out my work-life balance. I have so many MXTX books I need to finish I want to read about my blorbos so bad ;;

TLDR: I work too much and am doing my best to get a grip on it. I want to be able to actually take a Real vacation for a month someday.

[on-friday-afternoon]

Hey hi,

I found you comic Balderdash, and I love your style and all, but the website has a problem with its css or security (https and whatnot). Apart from the main page, there is no style whatsoever. It makes it kinda difficult to read it. I know it went on hiatus in 2018 and will most likely stay that way, but I still wanted to let you know :)

ughhhhhhhh thank you, i am aware of this issue...i do actually want the site to be readable, but someone else built the site, so i don't know exactly what's wrong in the code. i'm fighting for my life trying to figure out to fix this, and i frankly don't know how :,)

i believe, as long as you don't try to log in to make comments or anything, it should be safe to view all the images on the site by manually allowing it. hopefully i can work with someone soon to fix it, but "soon" might mean like. a year. or whenever i have time, since i'm currently focused on other comic projects

at the moment, though, i have no plans to take down the site...i still want my first big project to be accessible...maybe someday...i can fix it...:,,,,,,,)

[angelmalocaris]

Emeryfession

Hello NEN Tumblr! Tumblr NEN fans! NENblr! Whatever you are!

There are like 5 of you at most, even when rounded up, but I have a confession to post.

This shrine, you see this “shrine” right here? From the NEN website? (CONT. under cut)

That is MY shrine. I made that. Those objects are in my possession.

This image is sort of old. I haven’t cleaned my bedroom in awhile so I will hold off on taking new ones for the time being, but here are my Emery related trinkets I have and projects I have worked on. This is not a complete list by any means, mostly just my biggest or most well known ones.

Lets get the big stuffy fluff-filled elephant out of the room, the pillow. Yes that is an Emery body pillow! (Or dakimakura I suppose.)

YES it is hand made! YES I do sleep with it every night! and YES my mom did help me make it! While it has become SIGNIFICANTLY more faded over time, it is well loved. That is my wifey! Of course I take care of her!

It's almost completely homemade, my mom prints t-shirt so we just printed on some fabric. There is a heart-shaped button and a few feathers in the stuffing, think like a BaB plushie.

Enough of that, time for a walk. Here’s the Emery engraved collar!

Real metal! After saving a bit of money and walking and hour or so, I purchased this at a store to be made by an engraving machine. Why? Because I can! And have you seen Emery? That’s definitely a critter.

I'm hungry... so hungry I could eat... an Emery!!!

Here are three separate Emery cakes I made! Left to right in order. They're all box mix but I baked them and frosted them on my own.

My grandma made this one. Goo Goo Gah Gah...

By now, all the cakes are long gone.

First Cake Death

Second Cake Death (My favorite!)*

Third Cake Death

*(also a remake of the first.)

Quick time event!!! Here's some Emeries I made in video games.

Note, while I did not make the Emery Mii (Hal did) I am including it here because I think it's notable that I got to marry Emery in the game.

I have lost my membership in this time so the full outfit is not possible for me anymore, but feel free to recreate it. Its simple and the items shouldn't be too hard to acquire.

It's just 1, the Square Glasses (members only) from Jam Mart Clothing in green for 350 gems 2, the tie from Jam Mart Clothing in red for 100 gems, and the Rare Crimson Topcoat (members only). While the topcoat is marked "Rare" its quite common for a rare item and IIRC I may(?) even have more than one.

I want to update the Petz 4 Emery. I could probably make it better now and I want him to be a dog when I decide to remake it.

I have lost my old save for tomodachi life but someday I will get married to him again... just you wait!!!

You know what games are made of? Code. So are webbed sites... Usually not the same code, but you get the idea.

This is my Emery web shrine! I will not link to it because its very old and not very good by my current standards. You can see its age by Emery being called "Telly" and some of the older artwork ( being by Hal of course.) Someday it will be made better and strong...

and yes. I did help with some (a lot) of the code on the NEN site. I'm blaming any of the messy stuff in there on Hal though because she's the one doing most updates. Sorry Hal! Maybe learn more than some HTML and I won't throw you under the bus. I need to log on and fix up some of that in a bit. I am sure it looks like a tornado hit it from the inside.

I have been at this for months, even years now. Longer than the NEN official site even existed. A lot of this is hand made and if not that, completely out of my own pockets. I plan to continue being crazy even if my pockets are reduced to nothing but lint and moths (they have, more than once.) I love Emery Phone.

Peace and Love (except for the french, that being Emery. I will get you Emery.)

Tschüss! Buh-Bye! Until next time! Au revoir! (Eww... French...)

[damnfandomproblems]

I think one issue with the AI debate (which is apparent with this exchange) is that even if their heart is ultimately in the right place, some anti-AI folks would prefer to insult and scold rather than to educate.

I'm currently anti-AI myself, though about a year ago when it was just starting to blow up I was somewhere between pro and neutral to AI, because the way a lot of anti-AI arguments were presented just didn't make much sense to me at the time.

There was a lot of "its ugly!!" which is, for one thing, is EXTREMELY objective, and from my perspective, not always true. There was a lot that I found interesting or even beautiful. (One thing I still think even today, despite my disillusionment with AI is that it's the closest thing I've ever seen that accurately represents the real uncanniness of dreaming, although this is usually unintentional.)

I didn't like the "it's bad because it doesn't MEAN anything!" or some out-there woo-woo "it wasn't Created with the Divine and Blessed Soul of the Human Spirit" type stuff, because a part of what art is about is what meaning the viewer brings to it. Maybe the computer doesn't understand what symbolism is, but I could still find it whether it was meant to be there or not, and in this way, something that "no one made" is elevated to something a little bit higher.

And while I was more convinced by the argument of theft of individuals art, I still thought, "well, it's not like people are going to pass it off as their own creation! it's more of a starting off point, like an inspiration board! of course people are going to CHANGE it and actually make it their own, and that's a transformative work!" And this final point got proven wrong very, VERY quickly, because people WERE releasing clearly jacked-up images as "their own creations" with no regard to the artists whose work it came from. All it did was make people extremely lazy, because look at all the AI images with screwed-up text, the part that would be the EASIEST thing of all to fix, no artistic skill required, just ten seconds in any editing program and the ability to give half a shit. People either didn't even notice they were posting absolute nonsense, or didn't care, because they thought no one else would.

And not just people, but businesses, corporations. In such a short time, people's standards for quality control has dipped below zero. Quantity over quality, now half of any Google Image search is AI. When misinformation gets passed along faster than ever and no one ever thinks to question it, let's just create misinformation at an exponential rate! Now every website has its own AI feature it wants you to try, phones have AI generators built in, everyone is racing to capitalize off a technology we haven't even figured out ethically.

And then, most important of all, is the environmental impact. Like yeah, you might not feel like you're doing art theft with your character AI chats, since you keep it to yourself and don't profit from it. But if they have to cut down a tree every time you want to pretend to talk to your blorbos, isn't it just easier to open up your Notes app?

I don't think AI will never work, I think someday someone will be able to figure out a compromise that doesn't steal artists work and doesn't overheat the planet, where it actually can be a tool artists enjoy using instead of something to replacing artists entirely. But I don't believe that day will come very soon, when potential for quick profit reigns over all else.

Posting as a response to a previous problem.

[type1diabetesinfandom]

I'm thinking about writing something with a character who has type 1 diabetes. Where might I find information about what it's like to have it?

That's awesome!

Start with my #how to write t1d tag!

It's got a mix of do's and dont's, infographics and legit how-to-write-this posts, and also will give you some blogs you can browse for daily lives as t1diabetics.

You are ofc welcome to browse this blog as much as you find useful!

Some fic recs for a good look at diabetic perspectives, written by diabetics or people familiar with the disease, are:

My fics When the Warmth Hits You and Lost were written specifically for diabetes awareness and are long enough to cover multiple aspects of it. You should be able to read them both fandom blind, especially if your focus is on the medical stuff.

@rpgwrites's Pathfinder, Truthseeker series and her Diabetes Awareness Day series.

Outnumbered by @heartofcathedrals.

A Painting of One Thousand Voices by WolfieChan12.

Wescott Preparatory Academy by adder574 is a good view at t1d care and life ~20 years ago. Note that the medical information is dated, but useful for stories taking place 20-ish years ago.

(God I can't believe it's been that long 👵)

A New Low by Rosie_Rues.

Anything tagged with Diabetes by Carbon65.

Ditto with witchry9.

Some OG fiction books I recommend borrowing from the library or however you get books:

Let Me List the Ways by Sarah White.

Sal and Gabi Break/Fix the Universe by Carlos Hernandez.

Sweetblood by Pete Hautman.

Sweet Desire by J.M. Cagle. (You can get part 1 for free).

There are lots of bloggers, youtubers, and podcasters who share t1d focused content. I don't really pay attention to these so I'm not going to recommend specific ones, but definitely poke around. You'll find cool stuff.

The JDRF and Beyond Type 1 websites have easily-digestable medical info, but note that anyone can post on BT1 so it's not as accurate as I would like it to be.

Dr. Bernstein is also awesome for medical stuff, but hardcore, and his methods are extreme, although effective.

Now There's a rabbit hole if you want to explore differing medical opinions 🤣

You are always welcome to send me asks or dm me directly if you have specific questions! And if you decide to get seriously into the research, I have a discord server with a specific channel for asking questions about how to represent t1d, that's open to all diabetic peeps in the server.

Hope this helps, and I'm excited to see your character someday! Good luck writing!

[piggybankstomfoolery]

I've been quickly setting up some new spaces following the closing of cohost:

The MarkandFlops Newsletter:

You can now sign up for a MarkandFlops email/RSS newsletter! My goal with this page is to notify you whenever I've released a new personal animated project, no matter if it's on Youtube, Newgrounds, at a festival, with a studio, under a dumpster or on another planet! I also wanna use this space to send progress updates and WIPs as I'm able, and maybe more things in the future??

A Piggybank's Grotto

I really enjoyed having a personal blog on cohost that was specifically for writing about whatever and not just art/reblogs, so I decided to make a quiet and dedicated space for these writings. warning: may eventually contain maniacal ramblings about animation nerd stuff and other things, probably!

I might also try to post updates here on tumblr since there's some overlap, but you're always welcome to visit the site/grab the RSS feed if you'd like! I'd love to build my own website for this blog stuff someday, but for now this is a quick fix lol

[joycew-art]

Hey there! I absolutely love your art!

Do you have any tips for new artists on where to start?

I can do some simple line art as long as I have references, but it’s very stiff and the colors are flat. I can only hope to be as amazing as you someday! 💙

Thank you so much, that is so kind of you! That's a very broad question, but I'll try to explain my process in this to the best of my ability.

First, just find the subject you really want to draw. Wither it's characters, environments, objects, it doesn't matter, grab your interest and go crazy with it! Doesn't matter if you draw it 10 times, a 100 times or a 1000 times. The most important thing is to have fun, cause if you have fun it's always much easier to want to try new things!

So, for example, if you really love drawing a certain character, draw them a lot to get familiar with them. Look up a lot of references. Not just from their original media, I tend to look up fanart as well, to get inspiration of how to stylize the character you're drawing. Maybe there's a certain way you love how they color, or how they draw the eyes, or do the lineart, etc. Trying to copy or trace them can be a very good study, but of course you shouldn't claim those pieces as your own.

It's important to just learn one thing at the time tho! If you jump from one subject to the other it's harder to remember the things you've learned. Of course if you get stuck, it's also fine to move on for a bit. Sometimes a thing won't click until later. There are many tutorials out there and many ways to learn the same thing, but not all of them work for me either. It's up to preference.

The way I learn new things is by doing this;

I analyze my own drawing and compare it to the references I got.

I find the problem, for example the hands. (sometimes it can be multiple things, so then you pick the one you want to fix the most).

I then google 'how to draw hands'. I also try other websites like Youtube or Pinterest, you don't always get the same results.

I also look up references of hands, like photographs or images from media I like (recently I screenshotted hands from the manga Bleach, cause I love how the author draws them).

I then follow the tutorials that I found, sometimes mimicking exactly what they do, sometimes I only copy the parts I am most struggling with.

I use that new knowledge trying to copy the hands from the references I've saved.

If you feel like you've got enough of a hand (pun unintended) on the subject, then I try to apply it to my own art.

Most often I actually learn new things while making big, complicated art pieces. Like, when I drew my Toxic Rick piece last year I had to google how to draw slime textures, since I've never done that before. And it's not really a subject matter I normally stumble into. Sometimes I go through the whole process I described above, but sometimes I can apply it immediately. It kinda differs from situation to situation.

And just start learning the thing that interests you the most right now! I always put off backgrounds in the past and forcing to learn them while I didn't want to never gave great results for me. It wasn't until recent years that I finally got interested in drawing them and then learning to draw them went much easier.

___________________

There's one tip that might help with stiff lineart; gesture drawing! For a long time I've had the problem where my poses felt very stiff as well and gesture drawings really helped for me. Actually this video has almost the same workflow as I have; gesture first, then the structure, then the lines.

Of course, look up many tutorials of gesture drawing, there might be one out there for you that will work even better!

___________________

For the flat colors, it might help to focus on values instead. What I mean with that is to look at your drawings in black and white.

I always check my values by adding a gray layer above my whole drawing and put it to 'color' mode. I just switch that one on and off whenever I need to check my values.

Here's an example video where they explain what values are. They talk quite fast, but the video has subtitles.

Of course if this video doesn't help, you can always try to google for more. There are many videos like this out there!

Perhaps you can try the process above to find the answers you need?

Good luck on your art journey! I'm very flattered that my art is something you want to strive to. Be patient and kind to yourself, you'll get there! :)

[myevilmouse]

Ships and Stuff Meme

Thanks for the tag @kaleidoscope1967eyes​!  This was a very fun thing to do over my tea this morning 🤗😘💛

Three Ships: 

Luke x Mara (of course)

Jane x Lisbon (choice no doubt influenced by “what I’m watching” answer)

Mulder x Scully

First Ship:

Last Song: (an answer I know my tagger will enjoy!):

Last Movie: Omg for real I watched this last night and then found one of the bad guys has a website and I sent him fanmail. 

Currently Reading: I swear to god someday I will finish Fairy Tale by Stephen King but I’m going to say MY book because I found two typos in the published copy dammit and now I have to reread the whole thing to make sure there aren’t more so the layout people can fix them.  Sigh.

Currently Watching:

The Mentalist.  This is a rewatch (I’ve seen it all before) and this show is 300% a guilty pleasure.  My husband is always around (but not watching exactly) when I’m binging it and he’s experiencing it by proximity osmosis.  He also ships Lisbon and Jane so he’s in for a treat 🥰

Thank you again for the tag @kaleidoscope1967eyes​!  A nice start to my Sunday! 🤗🥰

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

What are your favorite types of swords?

Do you have any personal theories about the creation of true damascus steel?

What are the top 3 swords you would recommend for home defense?

I love swords.... that have a SOLID construction...

when you can look at a sword and go "if I reversed it and hit someone over the head with the hilt/guard, it wouldn't even rattle afterwards" that to me is amore

as a kid I loved the knightly swords, the long boys with the straight cross-hilt guards, but now I just desperately pine for anything with a curved single edge and maybe a sharpened false edge at the tip O///O so like, messers, sabers of some forms, hangers, the shamshir, the kilij-

oh my gods WAIT also also any jian by LK Chen okay it's a straight sword but oh wow WOW and they did a much more affordable version of the Munich town guard sword which is just, so, so pretty and satisfying to my brain...

not much interested in the whole damascus steel thing. Any sword that gets used is gonna get beat up in the end, so for me it's more of How Well Is It Put Together and How Easily Could I Fix It.

or How Cheap Would It Be To Replace This

if I could someday own a bronze short sword, now THAT would be true bliss.

Home defense?

....

Don't use a sword for home defense.

To me a sword is nice because its easy to carry and a fairly good compromise between several better things that wouldn't be so easy to carry.

Maybe I don't wanna walk several miles lugging a spear AND a shield around just in case of gets attacked :(

Sword is nice then. Better reach than a knife, not as clunky as a spear, can be used to block and parry pretty well, only problem is they're not very intuitive to use.

(please don't eff up your wrist by overextending it while swinging a hunk of metal it's not worth it it's not it's not)

so when I go for long walks I actually just carry a staff or walking stick WITH a knife. I'm not trusting my life on a sword if I can help it.

Home defense I'd, I'd really say please don't wave a sword at someone who got into your house. Even in Ye Oldie Times I feel like, throwing stuff is the better bet unless you've been spending a good bit of time training with the sword and preferably actually fighting with it. Or are lucky and good at a bluff.

Like... a master swordsman might fear the unpredictable windmilling of an amateur...

...but a scared guy with a knife doesn't need to be a master knife guy to rush in and kill you after your first overextended swing.

Poking at someone from out of their range might work better but gods help you if they smack your sword point away with their coat or whatever.

People are good at throwing things though! I suggest a heavy ceramic mug. Or several.

If you really want a sword in your house then something straight-ish and short-ish would be best unless you live in a Very Open Space house. Don't worry about hand protection either. Unless your visitor also brought a sword this probably won't turn into a duel. Or last long enough for hand injuries to be a big worry.

If you have a longsword with a screw-on pommel maybe just loosen that up and end them rightly. If nothing else it'd be really funny way to go XD

please note: i am not a resource for good information i am an idiot on the internet but im also not kidding about the wrist thing, swing with your arm not with your wrist unless you've got one of those hilt-heavy light-tipped swords with amazing point control or are really good at redirecting momentum cheers <3

Also shoutout to my baby the Devil's Edge Celtic Short Sword for sale on Kult of Athena's website, she's a heavy hunk of historically inaccurate metal that was just barely within my price range at ammunition grade and I love her dearly <3 <3 <3

truly proof that your "type" doesn't always dictate the whims of your heart ^w^ b

[thiawen]

Since I’ve asked about challenges recently, I wanted take a minute to talk about my favorite challenges that I follow. (Though I confess I have yet to participate even though I’ve followed them for years. Someday, damnit.)

These are all multi fandom events that are free for everyone to follow and participate. I highly recommend them.

First up: Evil Author Day

EAD is an annual event that occurs every February 15. It’s where authors post any of their Works In Progress for people to get a peak at and enjoy. Here’s the evil part - there are no promises attached to these snippets. The author may never get back to it. There may never be more than what you see or they may finish it next week. It’s read at your own risk. Seriously.

Jilly James maintains a masterlist of EAD participants that can be found here:

This goes back to 2015 and it’s still going strong. I encourage anyone who wants to participate. I’m thinking of doing so myself this year. When the time comes, you can drop a link to Jilly and she will add you to the masterlist.

Next: Quantum Bang

Quantum Bang is a Big Bang Writing Event and the theme is fix-it fics. It’s been going for a few years now and I love it. It’s too late for anyone else to participate this year but posting begins in June for anyone who wants to see this years offers. They also maintain an archive of previous years if you want to check it out. There are some absolutely amazing fics there and I highly recommend it.

You can find the website and archive here:

You can sort the archive by years, fandom, genre, author and artist. Very convenient.

Next: Rough Trade

Rough Trade is a multi fandom theme challenge. There are three challenges a year in April, July, and November. It’s technically two themes at a time and you can do one or the other or both. Whatever you want. The challenges for 2023 will be as follows:

April: Crossover / Found Family

July: The Sentinel / Natural Disaster

November: Magical World / Second Chances

You can check it out here:

You have to become a member to dig deeper into the site but anyone can sign up and subscribe.

Last: The Big Moxie

The Big Moxie is another multi fandom themed challenge but I think its a little more flexible than Rough Trade. Here are the Rules:

1. Minimum 5,000 words count (no maximum)

2. Any fandom (no RPF)

3. No limit on the number of stories

4. Only unpublished works qualify

The Big Moxie is a quarterly challenge. It’s too late to sign up for the first quarter this year but here they are:

Q1 - Inexplicable Babies

Q2 - Fusion/Crossover

Q3 - Friends to Lovers

Q4 - Time Travel

You can also find the To Every Season Challenge on this site. It’s a seasonal theme challenge that I’m sure a lot of people would enjoy.

Original Winter – January – March

Theme: Original Characters

Alternative Spring – April – June

Theme: Gender and Sexuality expressions outside of the binary

Sapphic Summer – July – September

Theme: Femslash pairing (Yes, it can be platonic)

Vibrant Autumn – October – December

Theme: Characters of color

You can find the site here:

I hope everyone enjoys all of these as much as I have. And I encourage anyone who wants to participate. It’s open to everyone and the fandoms and fics I’ve seen have been diverse and amazing. Go check it out.

[gerardswayg]

hey fam we are having a crisis here a little i brought home a bunch of library books i really want to someday own my own home so i’m gonna do so much reading to figure out if UX designer is right career switch for me and it’s scary??

i have a degree in psychology i don’t use because i couldn’t afford grad school. i am an artist (with decades of training). for money i am an art supply sales associate. i am rusty w my html and css but i’ve been doing light coding since i was 12 and know a bit of python also. i love computers and critique user interfaces of websites and apps all the time all by myself, always wishing i could fix people’s poor sad poorly thought out and managed internet offerings.

tell me things. please.

[lotusflowerbreakingthesurface]

🪷𝓐𝓫𝓸𝓾𝓽 𝓣𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓑𝓵𝓸𝓰 {𝓟𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓧𝓲𝓮 𝓞𝓷𝓵𝔂 𝓕𝓲𝓬 𝓡𝓮𝓬𝓼}🪷

First of all, I AM NOT the authors/writers of these fics. I DO NOT own any of these amazing fanfictions. I WILL NOT repost these fanfics without authorization. I will only recommend them to you. If you find that it is inappropriate to recommend the fanfic here. Please let me know, I will delete it immediately.

The link (if there is any) will only lead to the fanfictions that the authors/writers posted themselves, such as AO3, Lofter, Weibo, their personal websites, etc. After much deliberation, I will only share the author's personal website link via private message.

I will try my best to provide the link, but some fanfictions are quite old and difficult to track down. However, if you are really interested to read that fic, you can search it directly on web browser. Since I couldn't confirm the authorization and because of the strict rules, I can't share it here.

The fic recs here are based on my personal preferences. Everyone has their own standard and level of acceptance. So, please be considerate. It is also because of this matter that a warning is needed to serve as a precaution, I have no intention to offense anyone. I will put a warning if it is necessary, but I will not give any OOC warnings (unless the author/writer said it themselves). If you think there is something more to add on, feel free to tell me.

Most of the fic recs here are probably in Chinese, of course it does not mean that I am against English fics. It is all the same as long as it suits my taste and also it is no secret that there is a lot of food in Chinese fandom.

Chinese fanfiction is different from English fanfiction, sometimes there is no summary, no tags, and the rating is basically just "no R (without restricted content)", "with R (with restricted content)", or "high R/H (explicit content)". Therefore, I added some additional details that were intended only for better understanding of what you are going to read and I by no means have any intention to disrespect anyone, especially the authors/writers.

Please note that I cannot speak Chinese (but it didn't stop me lol). I just like to wander in PingXie Chinese fandom and desperately use machine translation apps to read. That being said, it is hard for me to completely capture the real nuances of a fanfic in Chinese. I may only understand the gist or the vibe of it with my reading comprehension. So, if there is any weird translation, misinterpretation, and misunderstanding, I apologize in advance. Maybe you can kindly help me to fix it :)

I hope someone will translate them properly someday, and of course with their permissions >.<

I will only recommend the fics that I have read before. So, if you want to recommend/submit a fanfiction it will take some time to put it here, and of course it should be under my fanfic criteria that I've mentioned in the pinned post.

No regular updates, and the number does not represent anything.

This is my first time doing something like this. If there are some small changes here and there, sorry for the inconvenience. Any suggestions are welcome :D

Last but not least, this blog is PingXie ONLY 【瓶邪ONLY, 不拆不逆】 ☆𝓟𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓧𝓲𝓮 𝓘𝓼 𝓘𝓻𝓻𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻𝓼𝓲𝓫𝓵𝓮 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓤𝓷𝓫𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴𝓪𝓫𝓵𝓮 ☆

🪷𝓐𝓫𝓸𝓾𝓽 𝓜𝓮🪷

No one seems to care about my preferences here, but due to the huge difference between Daomu Biji Chinese fandom and English-speaking fandom (it seems the attribute is important in Chinese fandom), I feel like to explain it here just in case to avoid misunderstanding.

I am PingXie Only/瓶邪Only, which means that I do not ship any ship/pairing/cp(s) who break PingXie apart or multishipping, and I do not accept switching either. My recommendations are all PingXie and I only like PingXie, but it is not always the case with the author/writer of the fanfic I've recommended/recorded here (I put a warning for those who mind).

I was so clueless back then that I didn't pay attention to the food I'd eaten, and there was a moment when I didn't care about it all. My preferences and way of thinking have changed since then. I apologize if there are any crumbs left from the past or even some changes here and there. My attitude towards other ship/pairing/cp(s) are basically "neutral" or to put it bluntly I don't really care about them, anyway it is normal to have different preferences and opinions, but please do not cross the line and cause unnecessary troubles, everyone respects each other like an adult should be.

That's it, the most important thing of shipping a ship/pairing/cp is to be happy :)

🪷𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓴 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓪𝓽𝓽𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷❢🪷

[gregorygerwitz]

okay so... the chances of me turning anon back off at some point this week are not zero. not right away, because I did just post something heavy today and welcome people to use anon if they wanted to talk about anything, and I stand by that. but, uh... I did close out of my app for work and get some notifications.

It's just three of those. Sent within minutes of each other. Which is super great when I had just gotten a super stressful notification (why I was in the work app in the middle of my weekend), and I wasn't already feeling shitty at all.

Obviously, not all of my anons are like this, and I completely understand why the function itself is necessary on this website, but this? Is absolutely uncalled for.

I cannot emphasize how much I am literally just sitting here. I'm writing my little Hallmark AU and catching up on Puppet History and relaxing as much as I can because it's, you know, a Friday night and I have things to do. And this is probably a stupid question, but what is this even about? Is it still because people won't bend to your will while you go around shit talking their friend? Is it because you don't agree with how I ship? I doubt I'll be willing to do whatever bullshit thing you want me to do to make this stop, but oh my god...

You are clearly going through something, anon, and I can try to understand that. It's a rough time of year, we're about to go into a fourth year of a pandemic, we're all more than a little frayed at this point. But this? This is not how to fix that feeling. Taking it out on other people is not okay, and I did not write an essay today about separating yourself from that kind of treatment to get it sent directly into my inbox.

this? the week of not one but two of my attempt anniversaries? seriously?

Do what you have to do to take care of yourself, nonny. Talk to someone, write a journal, find some way to get this all out, but do not continue to take it into the inboxes of people you can't even face. I really hope you get some help, in whatever form you need it, and in a year you can look back and awkwardly laugh at all of this, maybe we'll all be able to, with enough time and reflection. But don't do this. Don't drag others down into whatever you're going through.

You are worth celebrating. Yes, nonny, even you, but so is everyone else. I truly hope you understand that someday soon.