#sorry for the wait all my posts are basically queued so it goes to the end of the line skjfhskf

[hashileio]

figuring this out a little more

also here’s ya man @lady-of-disdain :3c

[confessions-of-a-paramedic]

Why I Will Vote To Strike

I haven’t posted in awhile for that I’m sorry, just been thinking of what to actually write. For awhile now my motivation working in the NHS has been very low, the lowest for the last 7 years I’ve been in the ambulance service for.

So, the current climate in the UK has forced the NHS to ballot for strike action.

Why I’m voting to strike: people say you guys can’t strike people will die. Colleagues in the service are also saying they won’t as patients will die.  Unfortunately, our patients are already dying. It’s become all to common to see 12, 13, 14 + ambulances queued outside of A&E departments all waiting for a hospital bed. Only too recently I took over a bigger crew looking after a 90year old who was having a stroke, who hadn’t been picked up by that night crew, nor the day crew before them but the night crew before them!! 35 hours in total that 90 year old spent laying on a uncomfortable ambulance bed in the same ambulance they were originally picked up from. 35hours!!!!!! And in that time despite multiple requests for food none ever appeared!! As they were on soft food only made it difficult for us to just grab them food. 35 hours!! And that’s not even the longest wait for a patient to be offloaded. Due to these waits patients in the community can’t get an ambulance as there isn’t any to send. It is now all to common for patients to wait 6+hours for an ambulance to be able to get to them. This is not the job I got into. I am currently unable to do my job. I have zero faith in the NHS to be able to treat my own family members in a timely fashion due to these delays.

Now you maybe thinking if you strike how is that going to help. Well, the ambulance service and the NHS will not just refuse to come into work. Chances are strike action will more likely be a work to rule if on shift with some calls being redirected to self travel which to be honest would be quicker than waiting for an ambulance. Those who are off shift will be invited to picket lines I’m guessing outside of the ambulance stations. So patient care will not be compromised anymore than it already is.

The NHS staff are massively underpaid and haven’t received a liveable above inflation pay raise in well ever. So every pay rise has resulted in a real terms pay cut. Remember the big Brexit argument 250million per week goes to the EU let’s find the NHS instead. How the Tories said all that was never a thing. But don’t worry they came out and clapped us all during the toughest period the NHS has ever faced. That’ll pay the ever increasing bills, the ever increasing fuel costs, the increasing Morgage rates. 5.58% currently the cheapest when me and my partner looked to buy a house this week.

Now the only way anything is ever gonna change is if we take action! No one who works for the NHS wants to strike but we have been backed into a corner to much and now we left with no choice. I’m lucky that my living situation is favourable. However, many are not lucky enough. The pay is peanuts, considering the life saving decisions we make day in day out. As I am unable to do my job and help people who need us the most, seeing patients die preventable deaths if we could just be able to do our basic jobs. The very thing that made us able to do our role for the poor pay, the long hours, the destruction of our own mental well-being, facing abuse and assaults, the knowledge and skills we possess knowing that we are the only thing standing between life and death of someone no longer has any weight, as we are unable to use the skills, the knowledge, gained over years of training and hard work. There is no greater feeling saving someone’s life bringing them back from the dead to get discharged from hospital to the loving arms of their family, to stop someone on the brink of death of making their way to the pearly gates and helping them to recovery and prolonging their time on this earth with the people they love. We can not do this anymore. Instead our mental well-being is taking massive hits constantly seeing preventable deaths and saying the word SORRY over and over and over again for the delays. This strike won’t just be over our rightful pay rise that will allow us to live, but a highlight of things need to change. Many colleagues in the ambulance service and nurses, hospital staff and doctors have been forced to leave due to pay making a move to better paying jobs and the need to use food banks.

People with respected jobs, dedication to helping others, day in day out, forced to use food banks and to decide whether to heat their home or feed their kids!! How is this right? That is why we are voting to strike or not to. That is why I am voting to strike!!!!

[uwuwriting]

How the boys SIMP! w/ Bakugou, Kaminari and Todoroki

Request: I got like five requests about several of our favorite boys simping over their girlfriend so yeah, here we are. 

Hi I’m not dead, yet at least. I;m starting to believe that my brain will turn to goo after all the chemistry and biology I’ve been studying. Sorry for not posting, my tumblr decided to be a dick and deleted my queued posts so haha yeah. Anyways my posts won’t be as regural as they used to because school....kill me. Love ya. 💖💖💖

masterlist

rules

warnings: SIMPING

Bakugou Katsuki

-Okay he is rather subtle with his simping. 

-He won’t straight up kiss the ground you walk on. 

-BUT he will be kinder and a little softer. 

-Maybe sometimes to the point others notice and it’s not a good look on him. 

-Or at least that’s what he believes. 

- “I have a reputation to keep, baby.”

-That was said behind closed doors at 3 am on the rare occassion he stayed past his bed time. 

-And yes he will ignore his bedtime for you. 

-One of his simping tactics. 

-He will cook for you, he will pretend that he’s annoyed that you aren’t eating well enough or healthy.

-So he becomes mama Bakugou and starts cooking for you.

-Bento boxes for school, snacks while you are studying, dinner and breakfast.

-He will teach you how to cook some dishes for when he is not here and you get hungry. 

- “We’re doing your favorite.”

- “Aww Katsuki, you know my favorite.”

- “Shut up dumbass and pay attention.”

-Speaks rather softly after a while, showing you how to correctly cut the ingredients and how to stir the mix without making a mess. 

-He will just leen on the counter and watch you add all the ingredients with that little concentrated pout on your lips. 

-His heart goes oops. 

-He will be so engrossed with your beauty that you’ll have to give him a small shake when you need him. 

-Pretends to enjoy what you’ve made if you messed it up somehow but will give you honest feed back and advice so you make something edible next time.

-You tend to spend the night at his dorm and he loves it. 

-It’s usually on accident.

-You cuddle him while he goes to sleep and your plan is to get up and leave once you have taken your fill. 

-But he is warm and oh so cuddly that you fall asleep as well. 

-He wakes up around ten o’clock everytime to make sure you left and when he still feels you next to him he just lets out the most genuine smile. 

-He will pull you flush to his chest *if you are not already* and take in your scent saying a little I love you before going back to sleep. 

-The next morning he will wake you up before anyone else gets up and walks you to your room. 

-Thankfully you are on the same floor so you don’t have to go far. 

-He always walks with you to and from class no matter his mood.

-He monitors his tone when he can help it and will warn you when his mood is really awful. 

-In general it’s the little things with him not grand gestures and all out simping. 

Kaminari Denki

-Worships the ground you walk on. 

-All out simping no shame. 

-He will straight up give his soul for you. 

-And he is rather proud of that fact. 

-The polar opposite of Bakugou. 

-And he can get on everyone’s nerves with his simping. 

-Picks you up form your dorm room every morning, carries your bag to class and opens every single door you come across.

-Gives you his food if you show the slightest of interest in his meal. 

- “Denki I just want a bite.”

- “I CAN GET ANOTHER ONE BABY!”

-Calm down sir....calm down. 

-Has canceled game night because you had period cramps. 

-The thing with that is you never actually asked him to come cuddle or something you just mentioned that you were heading to Recovery Girl for some pain killers. 

-Man was waiting you at her office in -0.5 seconds. 

- “I thought you were playing COD.”

- “I canceled.”

- “YOu wHAt?”

-Bakugou legit thinks you are the reason Kaminari keeps blowing them off. 

-That you are some type of overly clingy girlfriend. 

-DENKI IS AN OVERLY CLINGY GIRLFRIEND. 

-Has gone off on a russian dude because while you were playing COD together he said something about girls being really bad at video games. 

-Your man almost got banned.

-He skips class if you’re sick which is rather sweet but simultaneously really really dumb. 

-Aizawa is coming fro his ass in 3....2....1.

-Boy didn’t even reach your door. 

-You just heard your boyfriend’s girlish screams coming from down the hall followed by pleads of mercy. 

-You were -><- this close to going out there to see what was going on but then you heard Aizawa’s monotonous voice and just went back to sleep.

-He later came over and narrated his traumatic experience. 

-Poor baby just wanted to take care of you.

Todoroki Shouto

-He’s a mix of Bakugou and Denki.

-He likes being subtle and showering with affection behind closed doors but also will be at your beck and call. 

-In your or his room he likes to hold you close like really really close.

-Oh you are studying?

-Will just hug you from behind.

-You are watching something on Netflix?

-Will rest his head on your shoulder. 

-You do the same really because he is a very very touch starved baby and he needs more love. 

-He Likes to bring you food that Fuyumi makes. 

-He visits his sister on the regural so he always or almost always comes back with a small bento box with your name on it in Fuyumis delicate writing.

-Fuyumi loves you and she knows what a simp her baby brother is for you.

-In public he isn’t on Denki’s level.

-Yeah sure he will open the door for you.

-Sure he might ignore everyone else and only answer to you. 

-But that doesn’t make him an immediate simp.

-No no.

-What makes him a simp is the way he treats you during free period. 

-Clingy boy to the fullest.

-And a bonus, will do anything you ask. 

-You are doing a project and you need to test something in extreme heats? He has laready rolled up his sleeve.

-You are thirsty from studying? He is already on his way to buy you a water bottle. 

-He’s more of a protective simp.

-Considering who his father is he really gets protective over you whenever he is around. 

-Also doesn’t like training with you because he doesn’t want to accidently hurt you. 

-The last simp characteristic of his is drum roll......

-Your sleeping schedule. 

-It’s fucked up basically.

-You tend to study until you pass out in his room and he will always carry your to your dorm unless you tell him otherwise. 

-Will risk detention for being out past curfew just to get you to your room. 

-I LOVE HIM!

TAG TEAM AY:

@iwaqchan​  @the-arcana-fan-fic​ @angelwritings​ @axerrri​ @reinyrei​ @bemorefiction​ @dnarez-mangetsu​

[fe-semi-decent-scenarios]

Hello :3, do you perhaps do relationship head-cannons? If so could you write some for Ignatz? If you don't then feel free to ignore this lol

[Of course! I take head-cannon requests, imagines, scenarios, one-shots- I take it all lol. I’m sorry this took so long but my computer did an automatic reset when I was in the middle of writing. Basically I lost this and three other responses I had written on a dox. and ready to be queued :( I have to rewrite them all and I cri] 

What would Ignatz be like in a relationship?

He is a soft boi. Must protect at all costs 10/10

Poor thing doesn’t even register that someone willingly chose him out of everyone else. He is f l a b b e r g a s t e d 

Glasses fog up a bit because he covers his face with his hands

“A-are you serious? This isn’t some prank?...I can’t believe it” - Genuinely thinks that someone’s pulling his leg. 

At the beginning he’s very awkward in terms of communication. He doesn’t know what boundaries shouldn’t be crossed or what might offend you 

Too nervous to ask what’s okay and what isn’t out-front. When you’re older he might let it slip how being by your side was like taming a fire. Your presence is dangerous for his sanity yet warm and welcome. (somehow he makes even slightly offensive comments beautiful like wtf)

Walks you to your room every evening. Not because it’s the ‘gentlemanly’ thing to do but just to simply spend time at your side. He’ll chat on and on about his day each and every time. Initially he’ll become embarrassed over the rambling, yet with time those insecurities fade away 

Talks of the future often. When he was young it was always a topic of anxiety, but when he’s with you it’s something he looks forward to. Ignatz loves to talk about his dreams and learn about yours 

The other deer tend to tease him about any PDA so young Iggy doesn’t dabble too much in that area. He’s used to being picked on but the last thing he wants is you feeling insecure 

Will not turn down any of your advances though. Kiss him on his cheek goodbye. I dare you. He will SQUEAK so LOUD that the kids across the courtyard can hear 

So cute 

He’ll always ask for you to accompany him when he goes to paint. Something about sitting together in silence makes him feel calmer than being alone. If you’re lucky he might be so distracted that you can snatch a glance at his art. Just stay 3 feet away lest he get startled and then suddenly your shirt gets a new color pallet 

I have said it before and will SAY IT TILL I DIE 

SMOOTH. TALKER.

AND HE KNOWS IT 

Let him speak to a block of ice. I bet you he’ll get it melting. 

The boy is clearly conscious of his flattery otherwise he wouldn’t retract when people ask him to speak up. He has no filter and it’s such a blessing in disguise. You can always tell what he’s thinking by his open attitude and mumbled remarks. 

You will always be reminded that he loves you. It’s the one thing he isn’t shamed of in the slightest. If you wanted he would say it right in the center of the mess hall with no hesitance 

I also dare you to make any self-deprecating remark. He will s l a n d e r it

“If the eyes of the beholder are truly what make something beautiful...than I wish the goddess would give you a glimpse into my sight. Just once, for nothing in my eyes is of truer beauty than you” 

He loves any pet name you may give him. They make him feel special despite the teasing he may receive alongside it

If you try on his glasses he’ll ask if you like the style. You know, because he does. They’re cute. You’re cute. Do you need (new?) glasses because he will get you a pair 

Raphael treats you as his little sibling. Ignatz is like his brother so you three become an inseparable trio. When you all are together no one’s a third wheel, y’all are just three besties. Not awkward in the slightest because Raphael is chill like that. Hold Iggy’s hand and he’ll keep talking like nothing’s going on 

If you sneak into his room he’ll freak out. Ignatz is a goodie-two-shoes so no cuddles till post-time skip 

8/10 cuddle boy though. No complaints aside from that he drools a bit in his sleep and never wants to be the little spoon. 

Final note: get ready to meet his family. They love him so much and thought finding a partner while also pursuing his art would be difficult. They’re just so proud of all he’s accomplished and can’t wait to tell stories about him/hear some from you 

[mrfutureboy]

@rovermcfly tysm for tagging me and sorry this took 5ever!!

why did you choose your url?

i wanted a bttf url last summer when i got back into the fandom, and i wanted it to be specific to marty bc i love him but i also want to be him. im like, obsessed with the nickname "future boy" that doc gives him in 1955, and the url futureboy is taken, so i am mrfutureboy bc i am marty (kinnie shit)

any side blogs? if you have them, name them and why you have them

i literally only have a handful for url-saving purposes. @rhodeystark and @masloki are my most notable old urls so i wanted them for safe keeping. i also have @goodnightfutureboy bc that was one of the bttf urls i was considering and i never got around to deleting it (if by chance anyone wants that lmk)

how long have you been on tumblr?

I think i joined in 2010.

do you have a queue tag?

back when i blogged a lot on desktop, xkit worked for me, and i actually queued shit for my blog it was “since queue been gone” bc i thought i was clever. i still think its clever tbh i just dont really queue anymore

why did you start your blog in the first place?

Iirc, an irl friend of mine heard about tumblr thru an upperclassman she was friends with, so she was like “sonny we should sign up for tumblr!” and i was like sure why not. first url was miss-math bc thats my deviantart username

why did you choose your icon/pfp?

im obsessed w mjf but im also a kinnie /j. i specifically love his look in that interview and also i own a very similar sweater now so. it me. also im basically aromantic even tho i dont really use the label so yeah i put that behind his pretty face

why did you choose your header?

skfkdksk its because i kept fucking dying in the stuart little 2 gba game. I havent played in a while but im stuck on the level where stuart goes into the sink drain to retrieve the wedding ring that isnt even in there

what’s your post with the most notes?

Feel free to fact check me, but im 90% sure it’s a screenshot of gwen and trent from tdi that i took, where gwen is like leaning on the table all miserable and trents got his hand on her back, captioned “rb if you agree” bc i thought they were really cute. i still get fucking notifications for that post i think its at over 500 notes now

how many followers do you have?

i dont particularly like sharing this since this is the only site that doesnt make that public, and it’s nice to not feel intimidated or make other people feel intimidated or ashamed, like how it kinda makes you feel bad when you have fewer followers than your friends on insta. but i’ll play, and as of right now i have 1065 followers im very grateful for <3

how many people do you follow?

240. ik my ratio is bad i promise im not being an asshole abt it

have you made a shitpost?

Ive been on tumblr a long time. Of course i have

how do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this’ post?

I get turned off by those posts a lot but i do be reblogging shit sometimes ill admit. but not blindly like i have to actually read it and care about it. But if its a 10 mile long post where everyones adding how necessary it is that its rb’d, forget about it

do you like tag games?

yeah!!! it just takes me a long time to finish them lol

do you like ask games?

I dont play them v often or receive them but i do!

which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

@chloezhao, period. also @jedflah and @lonepinetimeline were some of the big names within the bttf community that i kept seeing last summer and i remember being like “omg they followed me”. (Well. Actually with theo i didnt recognize his main blog so for an embarrassingly long time i didnt realize we were mutuals slfksk. he would like my personal posts and i was like “wait who is this” and i felt like a huge idiot when i realized it was him! our 1 yr friendaversary is coming up love u cowboy <4)

do you have a crush on a mutual?

no but @biathelstan and i are cowboy soulmates

Tagging: @biathelstan @thereisnosafetythistime @anakins-rattail @mahourobotto

[teentitansheadcanons]

Hey so my last response to your response to my ask doesn't seem to have came through so I'll just summarize it here: If those headcanons don't count as pairing bashing, what does? Because I know that when you are basically calling the pairing dumb and the shippers stupid than I'd argue that you're long since crossed the line so if you wouldn't mind explaining to me what you consider pairing bashing/ the line between it and a difference of ships (preferably with examples) than that'd be great!

Hey, sorry for the wait! I struggle with clarifying things sometimes, I’ve been busy and tired lately, and I wanted to make sure I had my thoughts together before I replied. Especially because you do make a valid point.

You said you blocked this blog, so I don’t even know if you’re going to see this? Tumblr won’t notify you. And, well, I won’t apologize for having a life outside of this blog. But let’s address your question. I’m not here to change your mind (nobody can change anyone’s mind if they aren’t open to their mind being changed, you know), but there is a rationale behind the stance I’ve taken as a moderator.

To me, ship bashing is more of an attack on the fans who ship it from other shippers, rather than a reaction from the fictional characters involved. Ship bashing isn’t just saying ���Robin and Raven don’t get why people ship them”, it’s a sort of action taken by people of the fandom directly to other real people. Take, for instance, a fan who ships BBRae sending us an ask that actually says “fans who ship RobRae are stupid”. It’s not really a headcanon, it doesn’t really attack the ship itself but the people who do the shipping, and it’s just mean.

Saying “the characters don’t Like each other like that” is a headcanon. It deals with the characters. It isn’t an attack on a real person. It’s literally just a difference of opinion on how the characters feel about being in a relationship with someone. Same for “[x] and [y] don’t get why people ship them”. Same for “[x] and [y] are disgusted by [z] ship”. It’s an opinion of how the fictional characters interact with the abstract idea of a relationship.

Ship bashing is a direct attack on a real, living person. A fictional character disagreeing with other fictional people in a fictional world isn’t someone coming into our ask box to say “anyone who ships robrae is an idiot”. I have had to delete messages like that in the past, so I do hold that stance very strongly. I’ve seen a lot of asks trying to start ship wars here, and I’m not gonna let that hapen.

However, the rules do say “no ship bashing” regarding the submissions. It’s not just attached to the ask box, so that’s something to consider.

But even more than that, I’ve been following the precedents set by the previous mods on this blog. This blog was around for a good long while before I joined. The archive goes all the way back to July 2012! I didn’t become a mod until March 2016. There were a good 4 or 5 thousand submissions already here before I joined. I think the founder was the one who wrote those rules, accepted those headcanons, queued and formatted them, and in all of that, must have consciously decided that these were not ship bashing.

So that’s how I’ve rationalized it.

Update: I went back through my messages to the mod who added me to the blog, and his instructions to me included “if they submit anti ship headcanons then just tag them as anti-” so that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.

But you’re right in that some of the anti-ship posts are, well, not fun for shippers. I do understand that.

So here’s a question to our followers: 

Are you guys uncomfortable with submissions that say “[character] doesn’t like [ship]”? Or do you think submissions like that should be allowed? Ultimately, this blog is here for the fandom, so I think the fandom’s voices at large should inform how we deal with this going forward rather than one single individual.

[prorevenge]

Angry moms tirade BACKfires, literally

Hello Tumblr, my friends are pretty invested in you and this subreddit, and after hearing about it I decided this story was worth creating an account for. This is my first post ever, so I’m sorry if I violated any unspoken Reddit rule or anything like that. (I know people will say this is fake because of the new account, but I promise it’s all true, down to every detail).

So over the summer (around 7-8 months ago) my family decided to take a vacation to Pennsylvania (we live in Cali) for a week to visit some relatives. We end up meeting up with our twice removed cousins, who are around my age. (14-15, yes I’m a minor, I don’t bite) We have never even seen each other before, so to break the ice a little we drive to a quarry that filled up with water. The “lake” had a nice little water park on it, with inflatables chained in place that you would swim out to. Some attractions included slides, obstacle courses, and the big kahuna inflatable.

The big kahuna, aka the fat boy is a giant peanut shaped inflatable where one person sits on the end while another jumps on the opposite end to launch the first person up into the air and down into the water. This being the main attraction, we decided to go try out the big kahuna first.

SOME (semi) IMPORTANT SIDE NOTES: It was kind of packed that day, and when they handed out life vests before you go out in the water, they began to run a little low. I ended up wearing a small and basically inadequate life vest meant for 8 year olds, even though I was 13 at the time. It was the biggest size they had though that wouldn’t swallow me whole.

Moving on, we swim over to the line for the big kahuna. The queuing system was a line of inflatable poles that people would lean against as they waited to get to the stairs. We got in line behind a lovely family of some kid about 8 or 9 and his (what I assume is his) mom. I banter some with my cousins as we wait, and since I’m floating the waves naturally push me around some. This direction just so happens to be towards these angels, who will now be referred as Red Haired Lady (mom) and Brat (kid). I accidentally bump my back into the RHL and I apologize and paddle back a foot or two. (In the line we are packed tighter than sardines, keep that in mind). She glares at me with a burning hate, which frankly catches me off guard. She huffs loudly at me and says “Well, aren’t you going to say sorry?”

Me: “I did, but I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bump into you.”

RHL: “Well, back up”

Me: swims an inch or two back as far as I can, against the inflatable

RHL: “|=ucking move more, your literally choking me to death”

Me: “I’m back as far as I can, sorry”

RHL: “Don’t apologize, back up”

At this point I’m so squished up against the inflatable I’m almost under it. And mind you, these aren’t pool noodles. These are huge things that are surprisingly heavy, about the length of a semi.

I then accidentally brush my leg on her leg, her ankle even.

RHL: starts hyperventilating “Did you just attempt to sexually harass me young man?”

Me: (Slowly and cautiously) “No...?”

RHL: “Don’t do that ever again, sinners like you will go to prison and hell alike”

Me: “It was an accident, I swear I didn’t mean to do anything”

RHL: “So you aren’t sorry?”

Me: “Wh-“

RHL: “RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPEEEE!!!! HELP, RAPE!! RAAPPPPPPPPIST!!!”

Everyone around us, including my cousins and I: o.0 wtf

It’s obvious to pretty much everyone that this lady is crazy, and they all saw her overreact and snap at me, so nobody really did anything.

A short while later

Me: slowly drifts over without realizing it

Brat: detects enemy

Brat:swims over

Brat:whines “You know this is our spot, right”

Me: “Yeah man, don’t worry about it”

Brat: “Well then move”

Me: moves

Brat:”MOVE!”

Me: franticly doggy paddles my way over because of my garbage life vest

Brat: I guess gets done with my sh1t

Brat: Deadass dunks my head underwater and holds it there

I was caught by surprise and my lungs invited some water over for dinner. As I struggle I pop up and shove the kid off my. The mom, smuggly watching the whole thing unfold, turns from being a spectator to an ass. She SLAPS me hard as hell across the face and screams at me “DON’T EVER TOUCH MY SON AGAIN!” The brat starts crying saying how I hurt him and hugs his mom. At this moment, coughing up water, I began to plan. And oh what a plan it was.

When we got to the stairs, there was a sign in how to properly and safely jump on the big kahuna. The best way I can describe it is putting your legs out in front of you straight, folding your arms across your chest, and almost sitting in mid air. (But with your legs straight). So the RHL goes up and Brat jumps fine on the cushion and crawls over to the other side. His mom, being the insane person she is, is scared to jump 10 feet down to the cushion. For 5 minutes she sat up there breathing slowly and looking down in fear. It got so bad that people even starting cheering her to go, then booing as she just stood there.

I had an idea and pulled her aside. I said “To make it up to you for being so rude to you,” I said with my best happy go lucky smile “I’ll give you a little tip. What helps me is that I put my arms on my knees and my legs straight down when I jump, it helps break my fall.” She nods and being the idiot she is and not reading the signs, does exactly what I told her to do.

What follows was so satisfying words cannot describe it. She jumps down, and the moment she hits that bag in that position, her whole spine and body just whip up and back like a whip, and I hear this loud crack! Her kid flys off the other end and does the crispiest belly flop I’ve ever seen, while his mom hits her neck on a rebound on the bag again. After she hits her neck in the second bounce, she belly flops in the water too, and she just lies there floating. Her kid ends having to literally drag her across the water and lay her on the beach. She doesn’t move her back or neck, she just stays there moaning in pain from the brutal punishment and force of that jump.

She ended up fracturing something or other in her back, and I didn’t get mentioned at all or got any blame. They just said that it was her fault for not following the safety directions, and even when she threatened to sue, apparently the owners kept their calm and cooly explained that she signed a waiver and blah blah blah. It was legally airtight, and she ended up with a broken back essentially. Best day of my life, hands down.

(source) story by (/u/ILickCement)

[guylty]

It’s been so bloody long, I really need to put this baby to bed. The last few things that need to be said about Red Dragon Con 5 – and I’ll make it relatively short because, yes, I am already bored with myself, too. [Added pre-publication but after finishing the post: Yeah, right, “short”… ] Sorry sorry sorry.

The brutalist charm of an airport hotel. The RDC venue, the Renaissance Hotel. Lovely.

When I rocked up in the venue at about 10.30am on Sunday morning, my first order of business was – queuing. You might remember that I had been blinded by the gorgeousness blinked in my precious photo with Richard, so I had to come in early for a re-shoot while Kate had a little more time to make her way to the hotel. I joined my queue… As I was finally getting into the room where the photo sessions were being held, observing Richard and his various co-sitters in the set-up, something amazing immediately occurred to me: Richard was putting his arm around everybody!!!! *gasp* Apparently someone had had a change of heart over night. Or someone else had taken him aside and given him a few pointers. Or maybe he just sneaked a peek at Twitter and saw that there had been some complaining. In any case, Richard seemed quite different on Sunday morning – and his new willingness to appear a little less reserved had a massive influence on his fans: The buzz in the room was undeniable; people literally appeared to be happier, more relaxed, very much in love even. Despite the human rights violation of a pair of loosely cut trousers, flapping from the supposedly delectable derriere of the OOA.

So once again the conveyor belt pushed me inevitably closer and closer to the epi centre: Leave your bag on the table. Show your photo badge to the helper. Five steps. Get the same warning as the day before. “No touching, no flower crowns.” Four steps. The flashes are really bright. Three steps. I must remember to really keep my eyes open. Two steps. Shit, I forgot Pop!Thorin. One step. I am next. Lift-off: I move into the frame. I say a polite hello to some tall bloke in a dark leather jacket. I look at the camera. Last second I decide to make the picture silly by pointing at that bloke. I feel a hand and an arm ghost across my back. I plaster a stupid grin on my face. As the flash goes off, I blink. I hurry out of the frame as quickly. What a horror show!

It remains a mystery to me how something as pedestrian as queueing and getting your photo taken, is so immensely draining on body and soul. When I came out of that session, I was basically ready for a lie-down. And it wasn’t even as if there had been any exciting exchange between me and Mr A. Quite the opposite, actually. We both very much kept to ‘our side of the bed’, so to speak. Luckily the next event was the 1pm Q&A with Richard. I readjusted my flower crown and went to look for Kate and Armidreamer.

Not *my* long face, but Claus with C – the rocking horse – modelling the exclusive Red Dragon FC, made by a sub division of RAPS Inc.

After another heart-breakingly good Q&A session with interview pro Richard Armitage, it was time for another stewarding stint again. And now the story got really interesting.

American Gothic all the way

Like the previous day, I had been put on photo collection duty for my volunteering on Sunday. When I got to the collection room, most pictures from the morning’s photo sessions had already been picked up and not much work was left to do. I spent a little while counting the photo “badges” (little receipts that had been used to make sure only paying con attendants got into the photo studio). It occurred to me to look for my own photo from the re-shoot. When I picked it up, I could not help but snort loudly. Once again I had closed my eyes when the flash went off – another photo op ruined. You really had to laugh. I was kind of muttering more to myself than anyone else “Ah no, I blinked again, my eyes are closed in my photo… too bad.” But a couple of women who actually worked properly for Starfury, apparently heard my mumbling, and I explained to them that I had ruined even the *second* of my photo ops. Ah well, no need to be sad. I had never really wanted to have a photo anyway. So I just accepted the fact that I am oversensitive to photographic flashes, and that was it.

And then, after a minute, the woman in charge of photo collection dropped a bombshell. “Do you want a re-shoot?” I could hardly understand what I was hearing. “Eh, yes…” I stammered, a thousand question marks in my tone. “Then you need to go now with this girl here. It’s the last picture of the day. Go go go.” Before I had time to understand what was happening, one of the Starfury assistants from the photo room was already looking for me in the photo collection room, and next thing I was already running with the girl through the hotel lobby to the backrooms where the photo sessions were held. The photo sessions were officially over, so the photo equipment was being packed up, the room rearranged. Instead of con attendants, the room was filled with volunteers and Starfury staff who were tidying up. The girl took me to the photographer, explaining that I was the last person that day to have a quick re-shoot. I apologised profusely for prolonging the photographer’s work, but he was calm and nice. He just told me to position myself in front of the backdrop, ready to have the picture taken as quickly as possible. Richard, I noticed, together with Mads Mikkelsen was still in the middle of signing one of the big banners that were going to be raffled off to the con attendants. Having to wait while standing under the bright illumination of the photo lights, is pure torture for someone who doesn’t like to be photographed in the first place. And I didn’t even have a prop with me to hide behind. Instead the thoughts were reeling in my head, telling myself I would have to concentrate on keeping my eyes open. And how the hell was I supposed to smile when I was actually struggling to keep myself from blushing with embarrassment?

And then things happen very quickly: At last, while I am still apologising/chatting with the photographer, Mads and Richard suddenly step into the photo area . I vaguely hear somebody explaining to them that there is to be one last re-shoot. I don’t know where to look, I am mortified, babbling apologies. Mads turns up on my left, and I sense Richard passing behind my back. It is actually Mads who addresses me with a grin and a chuckle: “Are you the blinker?” I have to laugh. “Yes. I am.” And I feel really bad when I actually turn him down – “but not with you but with Richard.” Mortally wounded (haha, or rather: not) Mads leaves the scene while somehow RA cops on that he is the one I want the picture with. I kind of sense that there is no point in saying much to RA – he is possibly less than impressed to have been roped in for a re-shoot and just wants this to be over. And so do I. I stand awkwardly beside him while trying to appear nonchalant, last-minute repeating my fun little finger-pointing gesture from the morning. *flash* I can feel I had my eyes closed. And the photographer says “hold on, let’s take another” while I feel my facial muscles spasm from the awkward artificial smiling. Yeah, American Gothic all the way now.

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Alright, alright. Richard isn’t American Gothic, only I am. He smiled and his eyes sparkle. So there:

But boy, was that a struggle! I think the picture shows the strain, and so my advice to anyone similarly suffering from acute embarrassment in face of the OOA is to actually bring some kind of prop to the photo op. I definitely felt much less exposed when I had Pop!Thorin with me the day before. In the unlikely event of having to talk to Richard, Pop!Thorin at least would have provided a topic. Moreover, Pop!Thorin gave my hands an occupation, therefore avoiding both mirroring RA with hands in pockets, or looking like a family photo from a small town photo studio ca. 1984. Believe me, I know what I am talking about. I have been there. Both in 1984 and 35 years later. – I ran back to my stewarding job to finish my shift. And to thank the photo ladies for giving me the opportunity to re-shoot that picture. I knew that they had made an exception for me – it’s usually not possible to re-shoot photos (as is actually explained when you buy a token for the photo sessions). I, however, was lucky because I was volunteering with the right people. They simply were nice women. Which they not only proved with the whole re-shoot thing but something else.

The Heart in the Right Place

I always like to leave the best for last, and the following last incident from Sunday at RDC5 definitely ranks high among the many memories. The photo collection was pretty quiet by the time I came back from the photo re-shoot, and the ladies told me that there was no need for me to continue waiting there; they would look after the photo collections themselves. I packed up my stuff and was about to leave when I remembered one thing. Even though Hariclea couldn’t attend the con because of her mother’s death, she had obviously paid for her ticket. And while her included autograph allocation basically expired, the guys at the registration had promised me I could pick up Hariclea’s badge at the end of the con. After all there was a picture of Dolarhyde on the badge! The registration guy was sitting in the same room as the photo people, so I popped over to his desk and retrieved that badge. And by way of conversation I mentioned to the lovely photo ladies, that “my friend could not attend the con because her mother died the day before the con, and I am at least bringing this back for her as a souvenir”. The two of them looked at each other. Then one of them said: “Who’s her favourite star?” I said, “Richard.” She reached out her hand and said, “Just give me that for a moment.” I handed over the badge and she vanished with it. After 5 minutes she was back.

Just to spell it out: Without any prompting or suggesting from me, she had run over to the backrooms where Richard and Mads were still doing their autograph duties, and had obtained a signature from Richard on the ticket. I don’t know what she told him and how she did it, but she got the ticket signed by the man who Hariclea would’ve wanted to see. And for free. I was gobsmacked. And I don’t think there are words enough to say thank you to the photo ladies at Starfury’s Red Dragon Con 5. This was simply two decent people being touched by the kind of sad story that life writes – and reacting in a generous, kind and thoughtful way. And that counts for so much more than any kind of petty criticism for commercialised fandom events. I am annoyed with myself that I never asked for the two kind photo ladies’ names. But even without naming them, I am sure that the universe will reward them for their kindness. They so deserve it!

(Second but) Last Words

Right, I actually wanted to wrap up the whole con thing in this post, but again, I have been too elaborate. Apologies. I could leave it at this but that would be a bit unfair. I do want to give their dues to the other people whose appearances at the con I enjoyed. And I also want to say a last word about the fannibals and the various encounters I had. I promise, just one more post.

But to tie this one up, here’s a last reflection on the whole photo malarkey. I realise I am a lucky fan. I got my photograph with my favourite actor, and I was really lucky in that I came away with a version in which I *don’t* have my eyes closed. No complaints there. If there’s anything to complain about, it is me. The fangirl mind overanalyses all the time. Too busy are we, constantly monitoring what we say, what we think, and how we feel, in face of the OOA. Sometimes, I feel, that actually overshadows our enjoyment of the moment. That’s certainly what happened to me. There I was, standing beside this bloke whose talent and skills as a performer I so admire. It’s not every day that happens. And regardless of the vibes of reluctance and/or shyness that he was exuding all weekend, I *should have* loved every second I could stand beside the guy. I loved photographing him at the panels, I certainly loved listening to him speak, and if I had been a little less dim I would have loved the one-to-one moment at the signing, too. But the photo sessions? Boy, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough! This is just me and does not apply to everyone, but here is what I felt: The fact that I had two re-shoots kind of intensified or exacerbated the whole scenario for me. A rather luxurious complaint, I know. Taking three separate efforts to get a photo with my favourite star, I felt so embarrassed and awkward, put on the spot and as if my cover had been blown. No, I don’t believe that RA recognised me – I doubt he knows who I am. There is no reason why he should know me – I am one of thousands of people who turn up at events, waving a book or a programme at him, asking him to sign. Most of the time I hide behind my camera, anyway. But as much as I appreciated the exceptional circumstance that allowed me to have my picture taken (and *again*), for me it was definitely also a situation way beyond my comfort zone.

Even though the commercial aspect of the photo sessions legitimises our desire to be close (in proximity) to our favourite actor, there is one thing that money can’t buy: genuine interest. And that is what makes these photo ops and selfies by the stage door so difficult for me: I am there because I *want to* be there. I am genuinely interested in my favourite actor, and it is a pleasure for me to have the opportunity to see him live. But that is a pleasure that is not reciprocated. I understand that it can’t be, of course. There is only *one* of him – and *thousands* of fans. It is impossible for every fan encounter to be as meaningful to him as it is to the individual fan. But it is precisely this imbalance that I dislike. And I’d rather admire from afar and without acknowledgment, than from close up and only with polite tolerance. It also has got something to do with how *I* see myself, I guess. And while I know my shortcomings very well, I do believe that there is more to me than the fact that I like Richard Armitage. I don’t like to be defined predominantly by my status as a fan – especially by the guy who I am a fan of. Is that a contradiction or a logical conclusion?

I really don’t know. But I know one thing – with all my niggling about imbalance of interest: He was very fair about not singling anyone out – although he certainly had a bit of a Dibley revival weekend. But RA is not to blame for my difficulties with RL interactions. My overriding impression after observing those photo sessions and seeing Richard at the autograph signing, was one of gratefulness. I don’t know how he manages to so but he made every attempt at giving every fan their own special moment. Whether it is chatting with those Kiwi girls about NZ, expressing his admiration for Flat Richie’s international itinerary to armidreamer, laughing with Kate about Jill’s Gymkhana, or playing ‘Spot the Location’ with my photos, RA did try to be personable. You just have to be cool enough to take it. Which I am not.

High Emotions – Sunday at #RDC5 [part 9] It's been so bloody long, I really need to put this baby to bed. The last few things that need to be said about Red Dragon Con 5 - and I'll make it…

[simmancy]

I was wondering how you first started your berry legacy? Did you make a new simblr for it? How did you first start posting and getting into a routine? I really want to make a legacy myself but i'm scared that it would look really mediocre and unorganized! Any tips on how to plan out the storyline and start posting? Thank you!! (asking this to a few different blogs so sorry if yo see this question somewhere else)

I’m honestly super honored that you’re asking me! I’m still a pretty small simblr compared to a lot of people.

I’m going to put this under a cut, just so it doesn’t clutter up people’s dashes because I RAMBLE (like seriously, I’m re-reading it all now and I go on and on and on) but I’m gonna cover everything you asked!

TL;DR: get mildly inspired, get involved in the community and have fun with it!

I cannot recommending creating a new blog enough. While it’s definitely easier to just create a sub-blog off your personal, you’ll have a harder go at keeping things separate once things take off. Plus then you probably won’t have ALL your million tumblr things that you’re already following mixed in with your sim stuff, making things so much harder to follow.

Once you start your simblr (whether a sub-blog or whole new tumblr), TAG EVERYTHING. XKIT SAVES LIVES. Not really, but it will save you a lot of time once you install the Quick Tags and make tag bundles. Seriously.

At least once a day, a “reblog if you’re a maxis match simblr” thing comes across my dash–don’t be afraid to reblog those when you’re starting out. (Or the alpha equivalent if that’s your thing).

Seriously, don’t be afraid to reach out to people and get involved. Ask for sim requests, reply to things, join a Discord server–don’t be afraid to talk to people! I’ve actually made a few good friends this time around. It’s awesome.

This is just one of the unfortunate realities about things–if your pictures look good, you’ll get noticed quicker and blah blah. You can get by on just writing, but it’s a lot harder. This is still tumblr. It’s microblogging. LOOOOONG text posts (like this one lmao) are not what it’s geared towards.

Anyway. I play TS4 on Ultra, and that does a lot of work for me. Sometimes all you really need to do is sharpen and brighten things up. Reshade is another good alternative, if your computer can handle it–that takes a lot of the decision making out because it edits for you! I used to use PickyPikachu’s reshade presets. The downside is that it’s pretty resource heavy.

The basic point here is that having good lookin’ pictures goes a long way to making your stuff look “not mediocre.”

Also, and this is a side thing–find a good theme for your simblr, something that looks good for both text posts and pictures, probably something with either a sidebar or header (or both).

This is the meat of the section and it’s all really Kit/Pastille-specific.

I started up the Pastel Pastilles because I saw Berry’s challenge–I had already read Splash of Color a long time ago, and had a (now obviously abandoned) TS3 rainbowcy. But TS4 was fun and ran like a beast and I liked berry sims, so I dove in. If you were to go back in my archives, though, you’d see that I started posting a TS3 LEPacy, and that’s not even my first one.

I’m not going to even talk about the Grims in this post, since they’re really new. But they’re a prime example of using community involvement to stay interested haha. I’m very excited to play with Ruby and her future family because of all the nice sims people sent for her to eat alive become friends with. 

Planning with the Pastilles

With the Pastilles, I honestly got a little tipsy one night and did my initial planning based around Halsey’s Hopeless Fountain Kingdom. Like… Not even gonna lie. That was honestly my starting point. You can almost see hints of this in some places. From there, I had certain scenes I wanted to hit.

Gen 1 - Luna - “Hopeless”; it’s about being in a shitty relationship and hoping that changes lmao (“I hope hopeless changes over time”). Luna and Dianthus were meant to have a much more obviously toxic relationship but Luna ended up having four kids by her second pregnancy and I just couldn’t play and write that fast. However, I always knew that Luna’s big moment would be telling Dianthus to get out.

Gen 2 - Verity Vine - “Now or Never”/“100 Letters” - There are a couple things that have stayed consistent in this gen: Veri and her dreams, the peach spouse’s dad was gonna be a dick and they would be separated for years, and they were gonna hook back up at a wedding. 

My very first concept was that Riesling was going to be a bit more wishy-washy and bend to his father’s will (hence “Now or Never” being the song). By the middle of the generation, it was clear that Veri would become the distant one (“he said ‘please don’t go away,’ I said ‘it’s too late’”).

Part of writing a sims legacy sometimes is… letting the sims do the writing for you. Meri and Forest weren’t supposed to be the ones getting married (it was supposed to be Chai Tea and Black Cherry) and they definitely weren’t supposed to have the twins but honestly the story is better for it, you know? And obv most of Veriling’s story isn’t the way I initially planned.

All this said, once I knew where I wanted the story to go, I knew I wanted to plan around a few set-pieces: the fountain scene where Riesling trips onto Veri and she realizes “OH SHIT,” the scene where Eiswein walks in, Punk!Veri’s “I don’t dream at all anymore,” and Riesling’s “Hi, I’m Riesling Puck, you might recognize me from your dreams.” Those were all scenes I knew I HAD to get.

Gen 3 - ??? - “Angel on Fire” - it’s about anxiety lmao so I don’t mind linking it, it’s pretty obvious. Gen 3 has an anxious heir, a song about anxiety was on the nose.

I don’t really recommend the getting tipsy part, but definitely do recommend going in with a basic concept.

The cool thing about challenges is that you already have the guidelines as a starting point. One of my favorite parts about this challenge in particular is seeing how people re-interpret the rules–for instance compare the Gumdrops, Frosts, Amours, Pastilles, Fairyflosses, Prisms–we all started from the same basic rules and there’s still a lot of variation, especially once you get past the initial introductions.

Also, SERIOUSLY: don’t be afraid to take inspiration from crazy places–a song you heard on the radio, a movie, your own life, whatever. Like, I decided Veri’s generation would have it’s first Act at Oxtail University because of the “dream of ivy covered walls and smoky french cafes” line in “Beautiful” (from the Heathers musical). The song otherwise has VERY LITTLE to do with Gen 2. It’s just that line became a starting point for me.

Keeping Things Lookin’ Snazzy with the Pastilles

Looking back, you can kind of see Gen 1 was a bit brighter and lighter/different in editing style than Gen 2. I purposefully set out to get a “dreamy” feel for Gen 2′s pictures. It works for me and the Pastilles–it might not for your legacy! Play around with things to see what works.

I’ve also noticed a lot of banners nowadays (they weren’t as big my first go around here on simblr, but they’re everywhere now). I think that helps to keep things “on brand,” organized and consistent too. I personally don’t use a banner for the Pastilles–I didn’t start with one, and now it looks super wrong to me when I try to use one…. So instead, I’d recommend looking at @frost-rainbowcy–she is SUPER on-brand. I can only aspire to reach that level of #a e s t h e t i c.

HOWEVER, I do keep everything on my blog hyper-organized–there’s a main page where everything’s pretty much linked, and the character page. 

TBH, you don’t need to go that in-depth. I just like leaving weird easter eggs in places. You might too.

Posting Consistently

So, I started posting the Pastilles officially almost a week after I made the first post with Luna. That’s because I played a BUNCH right at the beginning, so I’d have something consistent to post for a while. It wasn’t initially as story-heavy as it is now. That’s something you probably want to decide before you start posting.

Right now, I’m posting inconsistently because I’m trying to wait around for Cats and Dogs and not give into the temptation to give Veri and Ries the babies they keep wishing for, but….

I’m in game almost every day–I get off work most days between 2 and 4 now, so by 6 PM I’ve eaten/showered/started up TS4. Even if it’s just to make a sim for someone.

I tend to do all my picture editing on Sundays, as it’s my day off. Sometimes it bleeds over into Monday, my other day off. I don’t always write posts up those days, but I at least stick them in the queue so they’re THERE. For me, it helps giving myself that weird deadline lmao

As a result, I almost always have something queued up.

I utilize the queue like MAD. Right now it’s set at 6 posts a day between 3 PM and 12 AM EST, but I change it up depending on what I have going on and what I can crank out. Usually I leave it on 13 posts a day.

Basically, learn what works for you. It does take some trial and error, but you’ll get it eventually.

Now here’s the real truth: you won’t post consistently if you don’t love your game or your sims.

I love playing the Pastilles as much as I love writing them. To the point that I have them backed up in several places just in case. I’m genuinely attached to the family, and that makes it worth it to me. Sometimes that doesn’t happen immediately (I love Luna, and Vino, and even Dianthus that shitbag, but you can tell that I got invested with Veri and Ries–Gen 1 is 30 pages long on my blog. Gen 2 is 92 and counting).

Storywise, I stay interested because I love the fluffy romance bits and snappy dialogue as much as the Drama Bombs, and also (spoilers) I’m a sucker for supernatural stuff. So I tailored my legacy to fit that.

But when I don’t want to play sometimes I just go in game, grab a few pictures of them in CAS and redo the character page for the 25th time. And that’s okay too. I just always try to make sure I have something to post, even if it’s a small (even if it’s just Riesling’s face. Because I know that’s what y’all want. It’s cool. I get it).

I seriously rambled a lot, but I hope this helps!! Once you get started, please let me know too! I’m rooting for you, non, and any nons to come after you.

[complexitiies]

PSA / ACTIVITY NOTICE ;

okay so, i’ve been meaning to post this for a while but have been crazy busy. i have my midterm paper due this week and i’m gonna try and get done by this weekend ( hopefully ) and still have to do 4 more ( 3 hrs each ) school obersavations and papers on top of 18 hrs of community service asap. so basically i’m crazy busy until most likely next month and just won’t be active until then. i do still my queue going and will still run for now ( though nothing is marked and queued oops, but just know that it is! ) i’ll be on from time to time just to dash scroll or w/e but won’t actually be active. so technically i’m putting this blog on HIATUS. so i’m sorry if you’re waiting on threads or im replies. i just don’t have the time rn and really wanna focus on getting all my school stuff done! with that being said, i WILL be archiving this blog and starting over on a new blog once school settles down for me. i’m working on replies in the background and waiting to transfer them to the new blog, which is where my time goes when i’m not on here. but i won’t be officially archiving until next month, most likely. also i am still heavily considering taking on COMMISSIONS to help with my current personal and financial issues and will work on making a post for that as well maybe after the weekend. so, that’s where i want to focus my time on, school and commissions ( if ppl are actually interested?? ) wow!! sorry this got sooo long. anyways i love and miss you all 💖✨

[rkjb-blog]

OOC &  TRACKER ! 

i’ve been buzzing through to get all of jb’s plots done and i’m finally ( basically ) finished ( minus the few replies that others have posted today/yesterday ). this tracker is for my own benefit and also to let people know that i haven’t forgotten about you ( unless i have, otl )! under the cut is where i’m at with plots! let me know if there’s any things i missed or if there’s a plot on here that you’d like to drop. from now on, i’m gonna try to fill up my queue to post everyday so if you’re on the writing list with something, it’ll go into the queue in order. i’m sorry to keep people waiting i looked to see the dates on some of my replies and i was a s h a m e d. i’m trying to be better, i rly am ( soft sobs ). i’m also gonna say at this point, i’m probably not gonna take on any new plots for rkjb; only the few that i’ve plotted with people already ( or ones that i really like or think that are gonna give jb more depth ). with that said @rkhani​ is always looking for new relationships ( hint hint @ new rk members )

writing / total: 7 

@rkyug​ / cuddles please, it’s for science @rkjcksn​ / ode to him  @dahyexrk​ / fwb @rkparks​ ( 3 ) / catblocked, my buzzer goes, candle wax  @seolhyunrk​ / serendipity 

waiting / total: 16 

@rkluna​ / wake up call @rkxminhee​ / rushes to  @rkrose​ ( 3 ) / flyer, no strings, the tutor @rkchungha​ / makeshift cupid @rkseoyoung​ ( 2 ) / catching up, family bonds @seolhyunrk​ / often @rkgunhee​ ( 2 ) / bad dad, like a tattoo @yienrk​ / salt skin @kasrk​ / lonely hearts club @kaiark​ / lemme pick your brain @rkcyj​ / angels and pine trees @rkseungyoun​ / recipe 

queued / total: 2 

@rkgunhee​ / doubt @rkxjimin​ / old friends

plotting / total: 2

@rksana @rktaehyng

grand total: 27 

[williamlwolf89]

How to Do a Webinar for Free (No Expensive Tools Required)

Step-by-step guide for creating a free webinar. Updated for 2020.

It’s just too scary, isn’t it?

You see all those fancy schmantzy bloggers offering webinars.

And everyone and their cat is queuing up to watch them.

They have the authority; they get the attention.

Yes, I bet it’s crossed your mind to do it too.

After all, webinars are supposed to be the hottest thing on the Net.

But to run a webinar yourself? It’s just too damn scary.

There’s the huge cost. And how do even start creating a webinar, let alone broadcast it?

It’s beyond the reach of a blogger like you, right?

I’m here to tell you something: the world of webinars has changed.

It’s now affordable. It’s easy. You can do it.

In fact, you should do it.

Here’s why…

Why Serious Bloggers Love Webinars (Even if They Don’t Have Anything to Sell)

If you start blogging about any topic that more than a handful of people care about, you’ll be up against fierce competition.

Many bloggers will be fighting for the attention of your audience, and from the outside looking in, little will distinguish you from them.

So if you want to rise above the mass of wannabe bloggers, running webinars is a savvy option. Here are the benefits:

You transform your ideas into events. As the experienced blogger Chris Garrett says: You get the opportunity to create a sense of event around your ideas, value and information.

You forge a unique bond with your readers. Watching you on live camera is the next best thing to seeing you in person. Not only can they see you, but they can also interact with you. And in the future when they read your content, they’ll hear your voice.

You become an authority. When you appear as a presenter and give value to your readers, you create fans who respect you as an authority.

You increase your blog traffic. Online events, like webinars, are like magnets. They attract traffic and generate new subscriptions.

You can make money blogging. If you review, promote, or talk about a product as an affiliate in a webinar, you can make sales and earn income.

But if webinars are so damn sexy, why don’t more bloggers use them?

The honest truth?

Because they’re scared.

Why Most Bloggers Are Scared Witless by Webinars

Let’s face it.

Running a webinar sounds daunting.

The technology seems like a scary challenge.

And then there are those embarrassing glitches you hear about…

Like the guy who talked for thirty minutes before noticing that people could hear zilch.

Or the trolls who stalk webinars and disrupt presentations.

Sh*t happens, but most problems are avoidable.

Bottom line: you have to practice before you go live.

Unfortunately, I headed into my first webinar ever with the attitude, “I haven’t got time to practice, but, hey, it can’t be so difficult!”

The webinar ended in chaos. Here’s what went down…

It was in 2009. Leo Babauta and I had just created a blogger training course, called A-List Blogging, and we decided to run a webinar as part of our launch.

The software we used at the time allowed us to appear live on camera. It looked easy, so I didn’t bother to practice.

The plan was that I would start the webinar and Leo would appear after my introduction.

We agreed to meet up as presenters in the software’s “green room” a few minutes before kickoff.

But Leo was nowhere to be seen.

I waited a few minutes and then started the webinar without him.

I was rattled.

After a little while, I said to the participants:

“Er… sorry, folks, I seem to have mislaid Leo.”

“WHAT!?” The chat-box erupted with questions.

It wasn’t a good moment.

Suddenly, a few lines appeared in the chat box, written by Leo. He couldn’t get into the system as a presenter so he entered as a participant to let everyone know he was locked out.

I soldiered on.

Now and then, Leo popped up in the chat to say he was still trying to get in.

The participants got involved:

“Leo, REBOOT!”

“Mary, has Leo got the right password?”

“BUY A NEW LAPTOP, MAN!”

Leo never managed to show — and the webinar slowly slid into chaos.

And when I think about it today, I still feel a little sick.

Since that time, I’ve learned how to create webinars that are goof-proof.

And I’ll tell you exactly what you need to know to run successful online events.

But first, let’s consider what content to choose for a webinar.

How to Choose a Webinar Topic Your Readers Can’t Resist

Most people are busy, and leisure time is in short supply. So if your webinar topic is boring as bat’s piss, they’ll chill out with funny cat videos on YouTube instead.

To get your readers to watch, you must wow them with a topic that’s as satisfying as placing the final piece in a puzzle.

But how to pick the right topic?

Hidden in your blog are two sources of fail-safe webinar topics: your list of popular posts, and the list of keywords that lead readers to your site.

Take a look at your ten most popular posts and think about repurposing them as a webinar.

For example, on my blog WritetoDone.com, three of the ten most popular posts are hot contenders for webinars:

How to Write Better: 7 Instant Fixes

201 Ways to Arouse Your Creativity

How to Finish What You Start: A Five-Step Plan for Writers

I’m sure you can imagine how these topics would lend themselves as content for a webinar. In fact, 201 Ways to Arouse your Creativity could be transformed into a whole series of webinars!

A webinar is an opportunity to drill down into the topic of a popular post. It’s your chance to expand what you wrote, give detailed suggestions, offer examples, and discuss questions.

The second source of content for success-prone webinars are the keywords people use to find your blog. If you have Jetpack installed, you can find them in the Site Stats section, or you can look in Google Analytics (under Acquisition > Keywords > Organic).

For example, the following keywords brought readers to Write to Done on a recent day:

Things to write about

Sexs (yes, written like that!)

Writing dialogue

How to write better

How to be a writer

…and the list goes on and on.

Apart from the second keyword [YIKES], all the others would be great starting points for creating webinar content.

But what about your blog?

What keywords do people type in to find you?

Once you’ve picked your topic, you’ll be itching to create content right away.

However, I suggest holding off until you get a tight grip on the technical aspects of running a webinar. Creating content is much easier once you understand your webinar basics.

How to Host a Webinar Like a Pro (Without Spending a Dime)

Editor’s Note: In April 2020, Google Hangouts and Hangouts Chat were rebranded as Google Meet and Google Chat. The following sections have been updated to reflect these changes.

Thanks to Google Meet, it’s possible to run webinars for free. And you can accommodate up to 100 participants!

(Zoom is another free webinar option. With a personal Zoom account, you can host a meeting with up to 100 participants for up to 40 minutes.)

If you reach the point where you need to scale up your webinars, you can simply upgrade your Google Meet account. With G Suite Essentials (affiliate link), you’d have access to additional features for $10 per month. Alternatively, paid Zoom plans start at $14.95 per month.

So how do you get started with Google Meet? Simple. Just log into your Google account.

(Don’t have one? You can create one here.)

If you already have a Google account, log into your Gmail.

If you’re a G Suite user, log into your G Suite account.

Simple, right?

Now it’s time to get cozy with running a webinar. And there’s only one way to get confident: practice!

How to Do a Webinar (Without a Hitch)

Get to Grips with Google Meet

Practice With a Friend

Learn How to Schedule a Video Meeting

Create a Test Webinar

1. Get to Grips with Google Meet

If you used Google Hangouts, the learning curve for Google Meet won’t be very steep.

Here’s all you have to do to start a video meeting:

Go to your Gmail;

In the sidebar, click Start a meeting;

In the Meet window, choose Join now.

That’s all there is to it. Here’s a helpful video to make it even easier:



If you watched until the end of the video, you saw how easy it was to invite guests to your meeting.

This segues nicely into our next step:

2. Practice With a Friend

You can only test so much in a video meeting when you’re the only attendee. So, let’s invite a friend or two.

Go back into Gmail, click Start a meeting in the sidebar, and choose Join now.

In the new window, a pop-up will appear that gives you the option to invite guests:

Click Add people and you’ll be able to invite friends to your Google Meet. Enter their email addresses (one friend to help you test is good, but two is better) and click Send email.

Once your friends have joined, test everything.

Can they hear you?

When you share your screen, can they see it?

This is the time for you to test and troubleshoot everything. If something’s wrong, you want to find out now — not when you have a hundred impatient guests.

3. Learn How to Schedule a Video Meeting

Next, we need to practice scheduling a webinar in advance. After all, you’re not going to set everything up minutes before you go live (right?). So, let’s go over how to schedule one.

First, go to calendar.google.com. (You could also click the calendar icon inside Gmail.)

Next, you can click the “Create” icon or the date on the calendar you’d like to hold your webinar.

In the window that appears, you can enter the title of your event, the time and date, invite guests, and more.

But most importantly for our purposes, there’s a “Add Google Meeting video conferencing” button. Be sure to click it before clicking Save.

Once you click Send, your guests will be notified.

Here’s a video that goes into a bit more detail:

Now it’s time to put everything together.

4. Create a Test Webinar

Let’s integrate what you’ve practiced so far:

Create an event in Google Calendar;

Name the event and schedule it sometime in the near future (30 minutes is fine);

Add 2 or more guests to the event and click Save.

Once the time of your event arrives, join the meeting and thoroughly test everything again.

Did your guests arrive? Can they hear you? Can they see your screen?

And so on.

Now that you’ve come to grips with the technical side of webinars, let’s get creative and give shape to your content.

How to Design a Webinar to Engage Your Audience from Beginning to End

For killer webinars, the classic three-act structure works best.

The first act is the introduction which includes your story of why you’re passionate about the topic. The second act is the main presentation, and the third act is the question and answer session.

Here is my blueprint for forty-minute webinars:

5 minutes for the introduction and personal story

25 minutes for the main presentation

10 minutes for the Q&A

A key part of your main presentation is the last five-minute stretch. Always end with a call to action. If your webinar is educational or inspirational, suggest one simple action your viewers can do today.

And make sure you know what’s in it for you too. Ask them to sign up for your email list or like your Facebook page.

If you’re using your webinar to sell a product, use the last five minutes before the Q&A to explain how the product solves a problem you’ve been talking about, and encourage people to buy it now.

Here’s the process of creating a webinar.

First, create a rough outline of the introduction and the main presentation with headings, subheadings, and bullet points.

Next, decide on an approximate length of each section so that you can work out how many slides you need — five slides per minute is about right.

In order to create slides, you need some presentation software. Depending on whether you have a PC or a Mac, you can use PowerPoint or Keynote to create slides.

Another option is to use the Google Slides app, which you can access on Google Drive for free.

When you create slides, use text only with big bold headlines.

Once you’ve created your slides, you can go back and add images for extra emphasis.

Of course, you’ll be speaking to your audience as you show each slide. You might be tempted to wing it, but write a script to follow. Believe me, you’ll feel more confident if you have the power words you want to say in front of you.

How to Make Sure the Camera Loves You (and Your Fans Will Too)

People love seeing their favorite bloggers live on camera because they feel connected in a way that’s difficult with writing alone.

But most of us don’t like how we look on camera. However, the truth is that talking, smiling, laughing — even making mistakes — on camera endears us to our readers.

You don’t need a “TV-face” to be successful, but you do need to know something about the psychology of relating to your viewers on video.

The key factor is camera placement. The camera needs to line up exactly with your eye-height.

Here’s why.

If the camera is below your eye height, attendees will get the feeling that you are “talking down” to them.

On the other hand, if the camera is above your eye height, attendees sense that you’re looking up to them and lack authority.

So line up the camera exactly with your eyes.

If you’re using a web-camera on your computer or laptop, you may have to balance it on a stack of books or adjust the height of your seat to achieve the right height.

One of the advantages of systems that use Google Meet is that you can choose between appearing live on camera and showing slide presentations. This also means you don’t have to be on camera every second of the webinar.

For example, you can start live on camera, then follow on with your slide presentation and appear live on camera again for the question and answer session.

So now that you’ve created your webinar, it’s time to let people know about it. After all, you want your fans to show up for your online event.

How to Create Irresistible Buzz for Your Webinar that Gets People Queuing Round the Block

You can create a great webinar. But what if nobody watches it?

The best way to create buzz around your event is to treat the lead-up like a mini-launch:

Get participants to register for your event. It’s a good idea to set up a special email list with a corresponding signup form to use for registrations. You can do this easily if you’re using an autoresponder service like ConvertKit (affiliate link) or Mailchimp. You can create an automatic response that gives them the URL of the page where you’ll embed your webinar.

Write a blog post that gets readers fired up about your webinar topic. You can heighten anticipation by opening up questions in your post and promising to answer them in the upcoming webinar. Place the webinar registration form at the bottom of your post and make a point of asking people to register.

Email your subscriber list. Once you’ve announced the webinar on your blog, send out a series of emails reminding the people on your main list to register. In his ebook, The Ultimate Webinar Marketing Guide (affiliate link), Lewis Howes suggests sending out a sequence of three emails as a mini-launch. The first email could go out a week before the webinar, the second one four days prior, and the last one on the day before the webinar.

Use social media to keep the buzz going. Don’t forget to use social media to let people know about the webinar. And reach out to other bloggers to let them know about the event too.

Another fantastic way to build buzz is to write a guest post on a popular blog covering a related topic and announce your webinar in the author byline. This takes some effort and planning but could have a huge impact on the number of attendees.

In general, you can expect about 25 percent of those who have registered to actually attend. To boost that number, send out an email just before you start the webinar to people who’ve registered.

It’s Time to Join the Ranks of the Webinar Pros

If you’re serious about becoming an authority; and want more traffic and subscribers, webinars are an opportunity you can no longer ignore.

You might think webinars are scary and costly, but thanks to free webinar tools like Google Meet and Zoom (plus a little practice) you can run slick, successful webinars at zero cost.

But the big question is: will you take action?

Because let’s face it, most people don’t; taking action requires grit.

So they stay hidden in the background, just another wannabe blogger who’s too meek to truly connect with their audience.

But that’s not you, right?

Because you’ll take the steps laid out in this post and put them into action.

You know this is your chance to finally rise above the mass of wannabe bloggers.

So grab it.

Use it.

Enjoy the attention and become a true authority!

Editor’s Note: This post has received significant updates since it was first published in 2014. As a result, some of the blog comments reference points that have been modified or removed.

The post How to Do a Webinar for Free (No Expensive Tools Required) appeared first on Smart Blogger.

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