#they have evolved a lot since february LOL

[happiness-of-the-pursuit]

2023 Fic Round Up (Part 1: Fic List)

I have been tagged in about a million different round ups of sorts, so here's Part 1: A Comprehensive 2023 Fic List sorted by month posted (if a multichap, I listed it the first month it posted), featuring the major details and a single-sentence summary/quote (so a fun challenge for me).

I'll post Part 2: Favorite Quotes and Part 3: Channeling Nora Holleran to Bring You My AO3 Data over the next two days (for the data I want to wait til the last possible day).

Without further ado, here is my 2023 Fic List:

January:

Nothing, I was still a lurker.

February:

Prince Henry and FSOTUS Alex Claremont-Diaz Answer the Web’s Most Searched Questions (T, 2.4K, YouTube Script Fic)

10 Things Alex Claremont-Diaz Can’t Live Without (T, 3K, YouTube Script Fic)

10 Things HRH Prince Henry Can’t Live Without (T, 2.5K, YouTube Script Fic)

March:

Prince Henry and FSOTUS Alex Claremont-Diaz Take a Couples Quiz (T, 5K, YouTube Script Fic)

The Super Six Take a Lie Detector Test | Vanity Fair (M, 7K, YouTube Script Fic)

Baby's First Pride (E, 10K, WIP Multi-Chap)

Post-canon, canon-compliant (ignoring bonus chapter) look at the Super Six celebrating their first pride after the emails—I want to come back and finish this (I got interrupted by Life) but my writing has evolved a lot since March and I'm daunted by all the editing I'd have to do, lol

ALEX CLAREMONT-DIAZ COMMUNES WITH HIS ANCESTORS WHILE EATING SPICY WINGS | Hot Ones (T, 3K, YouTube Script Fic)

April-June

Trying to survive the end of the school year as a teacher before I left my job :)

July

PRINCE HENRY SENTENCES US TO THE DUNGEONS WHILE EATING SPICY WINGS | Hot Ones  (M, 3K, YouTube Script Fic)

August

FirstPrince Sings Queen, Lil Nas X, and Taylor Swift in a Game of Song Association | ELLE (T, 2.5K, YouTube Script Fic)

Claremont 2008 (M, 26K, Complete Multi-Chap, Canon Divergence)

A world where Ellen gets elected in 2008 instead of 2016, and the friends-to-lovers path that puts Henry on. If you want to relive the early 2010s, enjoy epistolary fics, or want a glimpse of a world where Alex & Henry go to college together, you might like this.

September

How well you play...that's up to you (M, 4K, FirstPrince Week)

Grey's Anatomy-Inspired AU, where Alex & Henry are both surgical residents—currently a one-shot, but I plan on writing a multi-chap prequel for this at some point.

Keep this Love in a Photograph (T, 2.6K, FirstPrince Week)

Post-Canon: Henry finds Alex's old photo album and they take a stroll down memory lane.

The Starwand (T, 1.7K, FirstPrince Week)

Three vignettes from Alex's life (two featuring Henry) where a sparkler makes an appearance—both a kid fic of Alex and Alex with his kids.

Somebody Call 911 (M, 2.4K, FirstPrince Week)

College AU where Alex is sneaking around with Henry behind his roommate's back—until it all goes to shit.

October

Sets on the Beach (M, 4K, FirstPrince Week)

Crack Treated Seriously, Alex and Henry are on rival queer beach volleyball teams.

Water over Blood (G, 3K, FirstPrince Week)

Post-Canon 5+1 of five times Henry's niece loved Alex, and one time she loved Henry

L(ate) S(leepy) A(morous) T(exting) (M, 1K, FirstPrince Week)

Text-fic of a missing moment from the book, because I am convinced that Alex did, in fact, study for the LSAT (it's just more realistic if we're to believe he scored well enough to get into NYU)

November

Freaky Friday (I woke up in my enemy's body) (M, 9K, Halloween, Huh?)

Canon Divergence, Freaky Friday-Inspired Body Swap AU, Crack Treated Seriously: Between Cakegate and Alex's visit to London, the boys swap bodies and proceed to learn a lot about each other. And themselves.

December

Alex Claremont-Díaz Answers Your Questions | Actually Me |GQ (M, 2K, YouTube Script Fic)

Super Six and the Siren's Call (T, 111K Total, Posting Bi-weekly)

The Percy Jackson AU, co-written with @read-and-write- and @inexplicablymine. Quests and Greek References abound! Check out more @auntiepezzasupdates

(Dil)Do It Yourself (E, 16.7K, New Traditions Advent Calendar)

Alex attends a DIY Dildo Workshop for the holidays, where he meets Henry, who's helping to lead the workshop—and eventually, helps Alex in other ways. The tags will tell you all that you need to know.

Thanks to @rockyroadkylers @hgejfmw-hgejhsf @kiwiana-writes @welcometololaland and anyone else who tagged me that I missed! I was waiting to post all my fics for December before I did this :) Since I'm pretty late, I'll tag @ssmtskw @matherines @affectionatelyrs and an open tag to anyone who's made it this far and wants to do this!

[tacoma-narrows]

Which OC have you had the longest? How did you think them up / create them?

Vostok is the OC I’ve had the longest! I made him back in late January/early February of 2017! Prior to making him, I’d just had a Google doc with possible names that would work for each of the 7 original Wings of Fire dragon tribes, mainly from thinking “ooo how could would it be if a IceWing was named Vostok, after the coldest place on earth :0?” Not long after I made that doc, I joined the WoF Amino and discovered that making OCs was a thing lol

Shortly after I joined WoFA, I went to a WoF event at a sci fi convention in Boston, got to meet Tui Sutherland and they had printouts of all the tribes’ Joy Ang bases, and I grabbed one of each tribe. Later on, I decided to color those bases in, mainly just trying different colors together to see what worked (not too different from how I do character designs today lol). Then I used the name I had previously come up with! This is the same process I used for all of my first batch of 7 OCs, although Vos, Agouti and Arroyo are the only ones I still have to this day haha

Here’s my base color drawing I did of Vos! The colors are kinda hard to make out since the lighting wasn’t great but you can still see them!

Another fun fact is that I didn’t make him with the intent of having him become a sona. Since he was my first OC, I just slapped him up on my Amino profile and the name kinda stuck lmao. He evolved with me over time, and even tho I don’t use him a ton anymore, he still holds a lot of value to me and he’s still a sona :3

[choccy-milky]

Hi! I started reading your story sometime in the last week and I’m OBSESSED! I normally don’t have much patience and can’t get myself to read anything past like 15k or anything that’s still being worked on, but your story hooked me almost instantly! I really liked the description and decided to give it a try and I’m so glad I did. The detailed descriptions you give pull me into the story and the way you seamlessly switch points of view feels so natural. I just wanted to let you know how much I’m enjoying reading so far and I’m excited for more! ❤️

AW TYSM😭😭 this means a lot, esp since ive been kinda self conscious about the length of my fic lately (and also how long its gonna end up being once im actually done LMFAO) and ik my chapters have gotten ginormous BAHAHA so im glad that even if you don't usually read long stuff you still gave my fic a try and enjoyed it so much + are looking forward to more!!💖💖so ty again😭🙏 AND as usual i'll be using this to answer other asks:

thank you and AA im glad to hear it!! a lot of people have been telling me ive been inspiring them to draw lately and i love it (im just sorry i dont have any concrete tips to give people other than keep practicing LOL) but good luck and i hope you keep at it!!🥰🥰

GIRL IDK, IDEK HOW LONG THE STORY IS GONNA BE, but assuming im still brainrotted even when its done then YEAH u wouldnt be able to stop me if you tried😊 (im glad you like them so much as well, ty!!😭)

thank you!! and yes i usually have at least a vague idea of what i want in the story before i start, though a lot of it didn't become concrete until i started writing/things evolving from there. i made a big (slightly) vague timeline of the entire fic from beginning to (almost) end, and then i keep fleshing it out from there as the ideas keep coming to me/evolving, and for each chapter i make an even more detailed outline, and THEN i get started on the final chapter. so its a bit of a process bahaha, but the brainstorming is really fun!! as for any advice, im not sure. maybe just brainstorm/write down scenes and ideas that you know for a fact that you want to put in your fic, and then try to find a way to connect them to other scenes from there and work backwards. basically WRITE WHAT YOU WANT TO READ, cuz like im my own biggest fan fr, thats the most important part LMAO

LMFAO speaking of outlining future events.....this may or may not happen in the future/in an epilogue when clora is pregnant and she got those pregnant woman hormones that seb is fighting for his LIFE to keep up with HAHAHA

ive been drawing since i was 4 years old so...a while. LOL. and if you even look back to the beginning of my blog, my first drawings of seb were SO UGLY💀💀 so if you just keep drawing you constantly get better naturally (also in response to the other ask you sent as well, i use clip studio paint to draw!)

AW TYYY. AND YES CLORA WILL HAVE ANOTHER MC MOMENT, the ranrok confrontation is still coming, after all...👀👀 and true, idek who would win if clora and seb duelled again with neither of them holding back, but u are so right. even if clora DID win that would do nothing to change sebs mind about how protective he is LMFAO. THANK YOU AGAIN im glad you like my fic + drawings so much!!💖💖

BAHAHAH in my fic (for smut reasons and so that they could be 17 when they did the nasty) i made clora's bday april 3rd and sebs february 12, so clora is an aries and seb is an aquarius (and yes i just checked and apparently they ARE compatible, so seb can rest. also i just read up on aquarius and damn it unintentionally suits seb so well?? LOL "Aquarius is undoubtedly the most innovative, progressive, rebellious, and humanitarian. " and "They have incredible energy, though they may not always use it wisely. They find it easy to get through life on charm and good looks." LMFAO. ok king we love that

[fractalkiss]

tierno (ferrari au) fic notes / commentary

i've tried a couple of times to start writing this post sooner and each time i've just stared at the blank grey space and just closed the text editor. and now it's mid-june. lol how has it been 2 months already since i posted this fic. but i will write this up since i do want to talk about it, belatedly, and it was born out of an au by a friend that i really had a lot of fun coming up with inspired by the lovely art.

concept

obviously this is all thanks to dave @penaltyboxboxbox. i distinctly remember looking at the piece and going 'WOW so cool! how would that work.' i moved along and went back to life. and then a week later i saw it reblogged again on the dash and got slapped in the face by the question. literally how would that work. how would it happen. i love canon divergence sooooo much btw even though i was worried about having to change the year in dave's work from 2017 to 2018 because lol, the fucking research threw me a curveball.

thought that this was going to be fernando pov because to upend and change his ferrari era from loser to championship winner with the red team, would be cool. and then i figured it couldn't work because i already knew what i wanted to happen anyway with him in the fic - that he'd retire after the championships, after ferrari just cannot keep up with the evolving changes in the sport over the years compared to their stronger contenders. retirement is all so anti-climactic and a given, so what the hell would even be interesting there lmao. it would feel like a weird fix-it and i have never done a fix-it fic in my life. let flaws be flaws etc.

so then i started writing this in lance pov, and told myself that this would just be me exploring how would lance be like in a team without his father's direct influence and hold. i say direct, because i'm always reminded of the rumours that lawrence funded some part of fernando's career as well while he was in ferrari, but don't quote me on that those are just (believable and unsurprising) rumours.

process

started writing this early january. and then i did not touch the wip at all or write anything for about 3 weeks in february?? i spent so long just casually trawling for research in between writing the first few scenes because i had not figured out what would be the conflict yet. i asked a couple of friends to read over some of what i had, just to help me point out any blind spots. sometimes i still can't tell how my tone comes off in early draft stages. i kind of knew what i wanted to do with it, i just didn't know yet how to execute it.

thing that never fails to surprise me about writing is that whatever i think would be so fun and exciting to do would STILL turn out to be excruciating and difficult on some days. i think i've made about 6 versions of the draft. i love research and i LOVED that this gave me an opportunity to dig into more things, but at some point, the research felt like too much, but i managed to spread it out in a digestible way in the story. it's challenging to glean what you can from actual canon to use in a fic without it sounding trite or boring, like some mechanical retelling.

ANYWAY. by the time i'd written the 2016 party scene where lance and his gf were eavesdropping on fernando having sex with not-linda, i still had no fucking idea what a good narrative here would be. i was distracting myself by making the playlist, and choosing to just move around parts of the wip here and there in the doc aimlessly just to see some things and hope that i'd figure it out. to put it simply: fernando wins a few championships (stared at some of the details in dave's art, and got tickled at the cards and their numbers) then retires. ok. and lance would eventually move on from ferrari, which he will at some point if they don't give his seat to someone else, but he'd have his father to fall back on so ok. how boring.

and then i realized, hold on, that SUCKS actually. that would kind of be a huge fucking bummer if you were already finally living out a childhood dream with the team almost every racing driver dreamt of. huge bummer when your big fat crush retires as well after a harrowing but magical year of finally getting the validation you wanted.

there's something devastating about how quickly athletes are forced to grow up, and with lance, the issue is both obvious but also it's complicated. it's not as if he doesn't possess any autonomy to make his own decisions, but there's a certain agency you're not entirely granted with when you do something with a parent, no matter how loving and giving that parent is to you. lance is like...the schrodinger's cat of an adult but i could say the same about all of these men and people born into wealthy privilege, or people who could never just bear to cut off their parents, to some extent. of course it's fernando who has to tell lance this in the story: "I will tell you something your father won't. You are upset because you know now what it feels like, to have people support you and your racing ability without him."

also something really devastating about how family is just a self-fulfilling prophecy. i love that word, self-fulfilling. i think it's tragic and i do think everything about ferrari is tragicomedy so it goes hand in hand.

this is why i also think andrea stella and fernando's driver-engineer relationship is compelling: fernando has everything he should have to win, except the one thing they can't grant him. but he thinks he should be grateful to be in the team, and he's teetered back and forth between demanding everything he should have and not wanting to fuck things up when he's fighting for championships, so he clings on to the belief that ferrari seems to carry, that ferrari makes you feel, and you can hear the trust in andrea stella's radio messages to fernando that i (and plenty of others) believed was kind and steady and almost nurturing to fernando in getting the most of the car and helping to fine-tune his strengths as a driver amidst the pressure. you can't truly say that luca baldisserri following lance to williams after the fda was even close to a similar parallel done entirely out of devotion, but i'd like to think it was duty, on luca's part. plus, if engineering young racers' wins in junior series gets you a nice salary from their dads, why not.

highlights of finishing this fic were:

getting to see beautiful and harrowing fanart of the fic by dave.

writing and getting to share the research and lore i gathered in this post. first time actually trying to put something like this together, and it was so fun... i love putting in my little captions under photos and adding in sources.

some of my fave lines from the fic:

"Thanks. You too," Lance replied, and Fernando's smile crooked up into a real one, sharp enough that it fish-hooked a fresh wave of fascination in Lance's stomach. Perfect teeth, Lance thought to himself as he ran his tongue along the back of his own.

There's a saying that Fernando's mother taught Edoardo. The saying is Spanish, Edo's words lilting in a thin curl that Lance had to lean forward a bit to hear it again: La cabra tira al monte. The goat always takes to the mountains, which then means that you can hold down the goat in a pen but that won't change where it came from. "Fernando has always been who he is, and his heart, always up in the real mountains of his home," Edoardo said, raised his glass of lemonade in mock salute, and Fernando silently flicked a card at Edo's direction across the birch table almost childishly. That race weekend in Montreal, the weather stays the same, as clear and beautiful outside as it had been all week.

Lance stops idly rolling the pen he's been holding, a habit he'd gained from writing the confidence mantra they'd made him do at the academy. "Well. Can't beat a dead horse." "Beat, what?" "Luca was done here," says Lance, shifting in his seat. "So I'm saying that it's pointless because uh, the horse is dead and you can't like, get it to move." He makes a whipping motion with his hand.

As a teenager, Fernando had Ayrton Senna's picture stuck on the inside of his closet above his racing gear. For all of Lance's responses to the obligatory interview question that asked who his favourite driver was, he never had Fernando's picture up in his bedroom. Didn't exactly need it when Fernando's been around for years now, coming and going at Dad's invitations in the warmest season like object permanence developed through red-toned photos of a memory.

i love the theory of object permanence so much btw!! just saying.

writing anything new lately has been um...well. i thought i could do it again last week, but it turns out i'm still not fully back into it yet. and that's fine. i signed up for a fest (non-motorsport fandom) so...pray that it will help me kill the fears. guess i'll also go back to my attempts for other fic ideas, we will get through this. i'm trying to write more intentionally, less reactionary, so i guess if that means putting out less things then this is positive at least. hope i have fun along the way is all!

[mylifeasjazmine]

bella, where the hell you been loca?

Last year I rediscovered Tumblr and then I was on a roll, then I fell off! I’m not entirely sure how that happened but I’m back and I have a lot to say!

I’m not even sure where to start so here’s a 2023 recap;

January was calm from what I can recollect, I was still getting my autonomy back and the 31st of that month marked the one year anniversary since my accident and I’m not sure if I mentioned this but I also got a car a few days before my year anniversary which was very special to me to have been able to come full circle like that. Romantically, I didn’t have anything going on. I was going dates to fill the time but nothing serious ever evolved from any of it.

February brings me to my first trip of the year and the first time I had been able to use my flight benefits. Ashley and I took a day trip to New York and came home and drove to Miami for a day, it was quick but fun! Since I was mobile in more way than one now, I was getting back to my “old” self again. Getting dressed, hanging out with my friends.

March was nothing to write home about either. I had training for a new position at work and spent a lot of time with my niece. I can’t recall anything major happening this month either if I’m being honest. I can remember emotionally feeling a little sad because I was feeling disconnected from the world. I had gotten a little busy with work and I was becoming a little bit of a hermit crab again.

April is when the year started to pick up a little speed for me. Adel and I took a trip to Puerto Rico, it was the first time for the both of us. We had so much fun we ended up extending for another day. During this time I started to get a little into fitness and I was shedding my little hermit crab shell again. Maybe it was the braids, the tan and the warm weather, but life was feeling like life again.

May started with a bang! I went on a cruise with like 12 other family members and we had a blast. It was short but we still enjoyed ourselves. The whole month was actually pretty eventful. Allie’s surprise 30th party was that month and I also got to see Bryson Tiller live with Zamira. We sang and cried our little hearts out. Eli’s birthday is also in May so we celebrated her too. As you can see, we are well into the year and we are still batting zero in romance department, but we keep living.

June may still go down as my favorite month of the year. As soon as the month started I went to Miami with Cindy and Eli to go see Kathy before she popped out her new baby but you know we still turned it into a trip while we were out there. The week after I got back I went to Chicago with Gabby and some of the girls for her Bachelorette Trip. It wasn’t my first time in Chicago but it was the first time I spent real time there and I really enjoyed myself. When I got back from Chicago, I went to the Sorry Papi Tour with Eli and Cindy! I also had training for what would be my second promotion of the year. We also found out the gender of my brother’s newest baby, it was a boy!

July I tried to sit my ass down but I think I still had June ants in my pants. I spent 4th of July with Liz and Amanda and the kids which I love to do. I flew to Texas a few days later to spend Adel’s birthday with her. Such a cute little trip. I was trying to get back into rest mode this moth so I didn’t pop out too much after that. I remember going downtown one hot ass night with Amanda and Liz and then just spending the rest of the month in my pool trying not to die of heatstroke. I also made one year with my job, which came pretty quickly.

August is when life started to get a little interesting I think lol. This month I was feeling overwhelmed with my living situation and in that same swoop someone I know needed a dog-sitter for a few days so I packed my shit and was a dog mom for like 4 days. I won’t get into too many details but long story short, that was the last time I ever saw that person because they lied about their flight being canceled so they could stay an extra day knowing their dog was sick and I was ready to go home. That weekend was also the weekend we celebrated my Grammy’s 65th birthday. This weekend, I also started going back and forth with a handsome man that I had always been interested in back it just never seemed to happen. Before the month was over, we had hung out a few times and if I am being honest, I was feeling pretty optimistic. I blame my Sagittarius Venus for that.

September rolls around and we celebrate my godson Zavier, my niece Amaia also turned 2 this month. Not to mention, my little sister turned 18 on us! All the while, things with this handsome man seem to be working in my favor. We are spending a good amount of time together, I’m getting to know him more and I am liking what I’m seeing. At this point, the only things I’ve been up to is working, working out, spending time with my family and seeing him when I could. I think it’s important to note that neither one of us had really said anything about how we felt about the other. Everything was more of a “use your context clues” kinda vibe for a little. I also didn’t want to get ahead of myself so I was just going with the flow.

October is finally here! This is my birthday month so I knew the vibes were gonna be 1000. We kicked off the month celebrating my cousin Jazmin. We had a cousin’s night out and we had a blast. The next week was Gabby’s wedding so I traveled to the Dominican Republic for the first time. The wedding was beautiful and I cried my eyes out pretty much the whole weekend. Plus, I was the ONLY single person there. Don’t tell me I’m not one of God’s strongest soldiers because my lord lol. In between this, I am still seeing the handsome man but at this rate I have developed feelings for him and I don’t know what to do with them. So naturally, I decided to do nothing and bury them. But we were still hanging out so that was getting hard. My birthday rolls around but this year I wanted to spend it solo. So a few days before I went to dinner with some of my best friends and on the day of I just hung out with my brothers.

November hits and I’m literally catching a flight on the 1st. For my solo trip, I went to Sacramento to see my favorite artist Victoria Monet. It was an AMAZING show, I am so happy I went. While I was out there I think there was one day that I literally didn’t even speak. It was so peaceful. But it gave me time to think about some things and I felt like I was getting in over my head with the handsome man so I started to subconsciously pull back a little. When I came back from my trip, I saw him for what I didn’t know then would be the last time for 4 months. But looking back, that last time felt different. Something felt off. On the bright side, I did have training for another promotion, that makes 3 for the year. I also got to take my brother to see the Magic play at an in-season play-off game which was dope. The best thing that happened this month was rekindling my friendship with Eyad. We ran into one night out and decided to make a pact to hang out once a week and we’ve been sticking to it! He’s legitimately become one of my best friends.

December marks the end of this relatively smooth year. Christmas is my favorite holiday so the vibes were up. I hadn’t really spoken to the handsome man because I was trying to swallow those feelings I had for him. Then one day, he asks me if I listen to Christmas music and sends me a playlist. That playlist sends me into a frenzy and I can’t think straight for like 2 days. If you know me, you know how much I love music and thoughtful gifts so the me a playlist is the perfect depiction of that. It might not hold that kinda weight for everyone, and it’s probably silly, but no one has ever made me a playlist before so I was geekin’. That drove me to finally tell him how I feel about him, sort of. I told him that I like him but there’s so much more I wanted to say. He told me he liked me too but, at this point what his but was doesn’t matter because having a “but” in the first place just puts a stop to everything. What I will say is that his “but” was enough for him to just decide I need to fall back. With the tale as old as time, as I pulled away, I could feel his energy more. I tried doing on dates to distract myself but it didn’t work. The only thing that worked was time.

Fast forward to April 2024, so far I have gone on two trips and both have been with Adel. We went to New York and we just back came back from Atlanta. So far, I am on promotion number one of the year and in July I will make 2 years with my job. I have seen the handsome man again and he has sent me yet another playlist. Do I still have feelings for him? I think so, but I can’t keep driving myself crazy wondering, I have to keep on living and remember that what’s for me, will always be for me. If you made it this far, thank you for your time. This felt really good for me to release.

[2024and40]

JANUARY. Just a quick update before February really starts.

20// I was able to visit a new country - @visitcambodiaofficial, it was a fun trip and posted about it and will probably post more about travel tips and suggestions, solo travel at 40, difference between traveling in your youth and now that I’m older. Let me know if this resonates with you and if you have other thoughts? 1// I’ve tried starting a blog and it was a nightmare. Haha. I thought it was gonna be easy, having been an OG blogger (Geocities! Blogspot!). But so much has changed now. Drag and drop blog making sites are non-existent so it seems the only way to do it is sort of starting through wordpress and getting a page builder and all other other plugins for security, social media feed, etc. I was too overwhelmed so I ended up working with good old @tumblr, as the last one I made was through it. But I will figure this out before the year ends! If I have to die to do it. LOL. 2// I’ve started two books. I was reading Jonathan Rosen’s Best Minds. The text is lovely and it’s been very informative. But the topic has not been easy and there’s always a lot to unpack for me so my brain keeps trailing off. Started with Before the Coffee Gets Cold which seems shorter and more dreamy. Hoping to finish it this week! 3// Met with old work friends (CPDE). I will make a post about this soon. I’ve actually been thinking about the friendships I’ve made over the years, how they came to be and how they have evolved cos I feel like it has affected the way I make friends now. 5// Gratitude posts everyday! 6// Started a Save account on @gotymebank specifically for this. Also have some sense of which charity I would like to give it to. 9// January snaps are up. 10// Tracking weight since the start of the year. It’s been up - down. Let’s see how we can be consistent! 12// Watched a few movies. Gomburza, Society of the Snow, No Hard Feelings, Maestro. Post due soon too! 22// So far, logging 10K steps. 32// Sticking with my daily devotionals.

So many things, so little time. Maybe this will go over a year. LOL. For full updates, link on my bio.

Hows your January been? 

[theminecraftloser]

Grian Art Designs over the years

I adore Grian fans. The way the fanart of him has evolved over time is amazing! I’ve been watching since basically the start of EVO (description of EVO at the end of the post for those who don’t know it) and seeing all the different ways he’s been drawn through the years is crazy!

During EVO, Grian was drawn with his old skin until they updated enough that they got their current skins back. So all the fanart was basically a Link from Legend of Zelda cosplayer. Then when they got their skins back he was drawn as Just A Guy with a red shirt.

Flash forward to season 6 and he began as Just A Guy but then fans began drawing him with wings!

Grian was wing-ified due to his skill with Elytra! If you’ve seen season 6 he was awful at them at the start of the season because he’s never used them due to him playing mostly creative mode after a certain point with updates in Minecraft so he was unfamiliar with a lot of new features used in survival play. However, within a few episodes, he was one of the best fliers in the server, even setting up a complex elytra course in the shopping district for which he held the fastest time.

During season 6 Grian was often depicted with either white/black feathered wings or purple feathered/bug like wings. The purple wings relate to a popular Headcanon fans carried over from the ending of EVO when Grian became a watcher. In Watcher!Grian AUs there were various designs that depicted several different aspects such as masks, multiple eyes, being based on Biblically Accurate Angles, wings (sometimes multiple sets), claws, fangs, robes, etc. the list goes on and on.

Grian’s popularity skyrocketed during season 6 as HermitCraft is a well known series that had loads of fans prior to his joining and attracted many more to the series afterwords as well. So many people knew Grian to be proficient with Elytra and the general consensus among fans was “Grian has wings”.

Sometime between the second part of season six and early season seven, artists swapped his red shirt for a red jumper.

His design regarding wings was adapted in season 7 to give him parrot wings due to the Pesky Bird shenanigans. Season 7 also had a massive increase of viewers as it happened during the major part of the COVID-19 lockdown with the season kicking off in late February, just weeks before the lockdowns began. Once again, an influx of new fans seeing Grian in fanart being depicted with Red Parrot wings was majorly influential to artists designs.

Some fans began drawing winged ear things (don’t know the word for them lol), goggles, and bird feet/legs around this time also, further cementing his place as an Avian of some sort.

His design since then has remained mostly the same due to the similarity of his skin and no new justifications to have changed (excluding MCC art which shows him in his Team’s Colour for outfits rather than his typical red)

Grian has experienced yet another increase of fans/fanart due to the Life Series, especially double life. This gaining interest and Martyn’s inclusion of Watchers in his Last Life series has lead new fans to watching EVO and bringing back the popularity of Watcher AUs meaning there are Watcher!Grian designs circulating the internet again!

What is EVO?

Evolution SMP, commonly called EVO or EVO SMP, was a survival multiplayer series that began in late 2017. The players included Grian, SolidarityGaming (Jimmy), InTheLittleWood (Martyn), MiniMuka, NettyPlays, SalemsLady, BigBStatz, Tomohawk and SystemZee. Later in the series, Taurtis and PearlescentMoon joined as well.

The premise of the series was to take players back to old versions of minecraft and as time passed, upgrade into the next version. Often they would skip through a couple of versions each update as older updates didn’t add much to the game at a time. They updated by completing challenges and scavenger hunts as well as solving riddles and puzzles set up in the world by The Watchers.

As the name suggests, The Watchers watched over the world as unseen powerful entities. They created the portals that lead Evolutionists to the next versions. Grian has said that Watchers are meant to be the audiences of EVO because we watch the episodes. This is further shown when Grian leaves the EVO series because he was invited to join HermitCraft Season Six and simply didn’t have the time to manage both series. Grian departed the series and had a conversation with two Watchers (named Watcher 1 and Watcher 2) in an altered version of the End Poem that played after Grian defeated the Ender Dragon. At the end, Grian becomes Watcher 3 and says he looks forward to watching the rest of the EVO as he has now joined the audience.

Watchers were seen by fans in AUs as cruel tormentors who dragged Grian away from his friends in EVO that imprisoned him and forced him to become a watcher rather than a human that he was originally. This is an incredibly popular interpretation of the Watchers and one you will see very often if you engage with any Watcher AU content.

(My own opinion on the watchers disagrees with this headcanon however that’s discussed further in this post.)

[mcmansionhell]

Coronagrifting: A Design Phenomenon

We now interrupt our regularly scheduled content to bring you a critical essay on the design world. I promise you that this will also be funny. 

This morning, the design website Dezeen tweeted a link to one of its articles, depicting a plexiglass coronavirus shield that could be suspended above dining areas, with the caption “Reader comment: ‘Dezeen, please stop promoting this stupidity.’”

This, of course, filled many design people, including myself, with a kind of malicious glee. The tweet seemed to show that the website’s editorial (or at least social media) staff retained within themselves a scintilla of self-awareness regarding the spread a new kind of virus in its own right: cheap mockups of COVID-related design “solutions” filling the endlessly scrollable feeds of PR-beholden design websites such as Dezeen, ArchDaily, and designboom. I call this phenomenon: Coronagrifting. 

I’ll go into detail about what I mean by this, but first, I would like to presenet some (highly condensed) history. 

From Paper Architecture to PR-chitecture

Back in the headier days of architecture in the 1960s and 70s, a number of architectural avant gardes (such as Superstudio and Archizoom in Italy and Archigram in the UK) ceased producing, well, buildings, in favor of what critics came to regard as “paper architecture.” This “paper architecture” included everything from sprawling diagrams of megastructures, including cities that “walked” or “never stopped” - to playfully erotic collages involving Chicago’s Marina City. Occasionally, these theoretical and aesthetic explorations were accompanied by real-world productions of “anti-design” furniture that may or may not have involved foam fingers. 

Archigram’s Walking City (1964). Source.

Paper architecture, of course, still exists, but its original radical, critical, playful, (and, yes, even erotic) elements were shed when the last of the ultra-modernists were swallowed up by the emerging aesthetic hegemony of Postmodernism (which was much less invested in theoretical and aesthetic futurism) in the early 1980s. What remained were merely images, the production and consumption of which has only increased as the design world shifted away from print and towards the rapidly produced, easily digestible content of the internet and social media. 

Architect Bjarke Ingels’s “Oceanix” - a mockup of an ecomodernist, luxury city designed in response to rising sea levels from climate change. The city will never be built, and its critical interrogation amounts only to “city with solar panels that floats bc climate change is Serious”  - but it did get Ingels and his firm, BIG, a TED talk and circulation on all of the hottest blogs and websites. Meanwhile, Ingels has been in business talks with the right-wing climate change denialist president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro. (Image via designboom) 

Design websites are increasingly dominated by text and mockups from the desks of a firm’s public relations departments, facilitating a transition from the paper-architecture-imaginary to what I have begun calling “PR-chitecture.” In short, PR-chitecture is architecture and design content that has been dreamed up from scratch to look good on instagram feeds or, more simply, for clicks.  It is only within this substance-less, critically lapsed media landscape that Coronagrifting can prosper.

Coronagrifting: An Evolution

As of this writing, the two greatest offenders of Coronagrifting are Dezeen, which has devoted an entire section of its website to the virus (itself offering twelve pages of content since February alone) and designboom, whose coronavirus tag contains no fewer than 159 articles. 

Certainly, a small handful of these stories demonstrate useful solutions to COVID-related problems (such as this one from designboom about a student who created a mask prototype that would allow D/deaf and hard of hearing people to read lips) most of the prototypes and the articles about them are, for a lack of a better word, insipid. 

But where, you may ask, did it all start?

One of the easiest (and, therefore, one of the earliest) Coronagrifts involves “new innovative, health-centric designs tackling problems at the intersection of wearables and personal mobility,” which is PR-chitecture speak for “body shields and masks.” 

Wearables and Post-ables

The first example came from Chinese architect Sun Dayong, back at the end of February 2020, when the virus was still isolated in China. Dayong submitted to Dezeen a prototype of a full mask and body-shield that “would protect a wearer during a coronavirus outbreak by using UV light to sterilise itself.” The project was titled “Be a Bat Man.” No, I am not making this up. 

Screenshot of Dayong’s “Be a Batman” as seen on the Dezeen website. 

Soon after, every artist, architect, designer, and sharp-eyed PR rep at firms and companies only tangentially related to design realized that, with the small investment of a Photoshop mockup and some B-minus marketing text, they too could end up on the front page of these websites boasting a large social media following and an air of legitimacy in the field. 

By April, companies like Apple and Nike were promising the use of existing facilities for producing or supplying an arms race’s worth of slick-tech face coverings. Starchitecture’s perennial PR-churners like Foster + Partners and Bjarke Ingels were repping “3D-printed face shields”, while other, lesser firms promised wearable vaporware like “grapheme filters,” branded “skincare LED masks for encouraging self-development” and “solar powered bubble shields.” 

While the mask Coronagrift continues to this day, the Coronagrifting phenomenon had, by early March, moved to other domains of design. 

Consider the barrage of asinine PR fluff that is the “Public Service Announcement” and by Public Service Announcement, I mean “A Designer Has Done Something Cute to Capitalize on Information Meant to Save Lives.” 

Some of the earliest offenders include cutesy posters featuring flags in the shape of houses, ostensibly encouraging people to “stay home;” a designer building a pyramid out of pillows ostensibly encouraging people to “stay home”; and Banksy making “lockdown artwork” that involved covering his bathroom in images of rats ostensibly encouraging people to “stay home.” 

Lol. Screenshot from Dezeen. 

You may be asking, “What’s the harm in all this, really, if it projects a good message?” And the answer is that people are plenty well encouraged to stay home due to the rampant spread of a deadly virus at the urging of the world’s health authorities, and that these tone-deaf art world creeps are using such a crisis for shameless self promotion and the generation of clicks and income, while providing little to no material benefit to those at risk and on the frontlines.

Of course, like the mask coronagrift, the Public Service Announcement coronagrift continues to this very day. 

The final iteration of Post-able and Wearable Coronagrifting genres are what I call “Passive Aggressive Social Distancing Initiatives” or PASDIs. Many of the first PASDIs were themselves PSAs and art grifts, my favorite of which being the designboom post titled “social distancing applied to iconic album covers like the beatle’s abbey road.” As you can see, we’re dealing with extremely deep stuff here. 

However, an even earlier and, in many ways more prescient and lucrative grift involves “social distancing wearables.” This can easily be summarized by the first example of this phenomenon, published March 19th, 2020 on designboom: 

Never wasting a single moment to capitalize on collective despair, all manner of brands have seized on the social distancing wearable trend, which, again, can best be seen in the last example of the phenomenon, published May 22nd, 2020 on designboom:

We truly, truly live in Hell. 

Which brings us, of course, to living. 

“Architectural Interventions” for a “Post-COVID World”

As soon as it became clear around late March and early April that the coronavirus (and its implications) would be sticking around longer than a few months, the architectural solutions to the problem came pouring in. These, like the virus itself, started at the scale of the individual and have since grown to the scale of the city. (Whether or not they will soon encompass the entire world remains to be seen.) 

The architectural Coronagrift began with accessories (like the designboom article about 3D-printed door-openers that enable one to open a door with one’s elbow, and the Dezeen article about a different 3D-printed door-opener that enables one to open a door with one’s elbow) which, in turn, evolved into “work from home” furniture (”Stykka designs cardboard #StayTheF***Home Desk for people working from home during self-isolation”) which, in turn, evolved into pop-up vaporware architecture for first responders (”opposite office proposes to turn berlin's brandenburg airport into COVID-19 'superhospital'”), which, in turn evolved into proposals for entire buildings (”studio prototype designs prefabricated 'vital house' to combat COVID-19″); which, finally, in turn evolved into “urban solutions” aimed at changing the city itself (a great article summarizing and criticizing said urban solutions was recently written by Curbed’s Alissa Walker).

There is something truly chilling about an architecture firm, in order to profit from attention seized by a global pandemic, logging on to their computers, opening photoshop, and drafting up some lazy, ineffectual, unsanitary mockup featuring figures in hazmat suits carrying a dying patient (macabrely set in an unfinished airport construction site) as a real, tangible solution to the problem of overcrowded hospitals; submitting it to their PR desk for copy, and sending it out to blogs and websites for clicks, knowing full well that the sole purpose of doing so consists of the hope that maybe someone with lots of money looking to commission health-related interiors will remember that one time there was a glossy airport hospital rendering on designboom and hire them. 

Enough, already. 

Frankly, after an endless barrage of cyberpunk mask designs, social distancing burger king crowns, foot-triggered crosswalk beg buttons that completely ignore accessibility concerns such as those of wheelchair users, cutesy “stay home uwu” projects from well-to-do art celebrities (who are certainly not suffering too greatly from the economic ramifications of this pandemic), I, like the reader featured in the Dezeen Tweet at the beginning of this post, have simply had enough of this bullshit. 

What’s most astounding to me about all of this (but especially about #brand crap like the burger king crowns) is that it is taken completely seriously by design establishments that, despite being under the purview of PR firms, should frankly know better. I’m sure that Bjarke Ingels and Burger King aren’t nearly as affected by the pandemic as those who have lost money, jobs, stability, homes, and even their lives at the hands of COVID-19 and the criminally inept national and international response to it. On the other hand, I’m sure that architects and designers are hard up for cash at a time when nobody is building and buying anything, and, as a result, many see resulting to PR-chitecture as one of the only solutions to financial problems. 

However, I’m also extremely sure that there are interventions that can be made at the social, political, and organizational level, such as campaigning for paid sick leave, organizing against layoffs and for decent severance or an expansion of public assistance, or generally fighting the rapidly accelerating encroachment of work into all aspects of everyday life – that would bring much more good and, dare I say, progress into the world than a cardboard desk captioned with the hashtag #StaytheF***Home. 

Hence, I’ve spent most of my Saturday penning this article on my blog, McMansion Hell. I’ve chosen to run this here because I myself have lost work as a freelance writer, and the gutting of publications down to a handful of editors means that, were I to publish this story on another platform, it would have resulted in at least a few more weeks worth of inflatable, wearable, plexiglass-laden Coronagrifting, something my sanity simply can no longer withstand. 

So please, Dezeen, designboom, others – I love that you keep daily tabs on what architects and designers are up to, a resource myself and other critics and design writers find invaluable – however, I am begging, begging you to start having some discretion with regards to the proposals submitted to you as “news” or “solutions” by brands and firms, and the cynical, ulterior motives behind them. If you’re looking for a guide on how to screen such content, please scroll up to the beginning of this page. 

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If you enjoyed this article, please consider subscribing to my Patreon, as I didn’t get paid to write it.  

[fatehbaz]

ughhhhhhhhh noooo stop it! aha! don’t release non-native earthworms in random plots of soil for enhancing gardens or free bait, don’t do it anywhere in North America lmaoooo! stop, it’s so dangerous and extremely harmful, with devastating and surprisingly dramatic and visible biome-wide effects! haha popular tumblr blogs should stop repeatedly and widely sharing advice recommending the release of non-native earthworms and calling it “anti-imperialist praxis” and “bioregional autonomy” and “vegan self-suffiency” lol! dooooon’t! it straight up destroys soil and outright kills forests :/ it directly causes death of understory plants; death of iconic species like goblin fern and serviceberry; elimination of vital fungal networks providing both soil structure and tree-to-tree nutrient-sharing; loss of native invertebrates and amphibians; savannification of the boundary between woodland and tallgrass prairie; death of red maple, sugar maple, and red oak stands; and especially harms hardwoods forests of the Great Lakes and Midwest lmao seriously stooooop it >:(

Anyway for real, I sure hope no one is deliberately releasing non-native and invasive earthworms, or bait worms, anywhere on Turtle Island/North American land, especially west of the Mississippi River or north of the Wisconsin glaciation. Earthworms and bait worms sold in stores are, by and large, not species native to the continent. They severely harm forests and soil ecology, leading directly to disruption of fungal networks; death of saplings and seedlings; death of forest understory plants; replacement of typical understory species with grasses; mortality in adult trees, as well; changes in pH; and other harm, especially devastating in northern hardwoods forests of the Great Lakes region.

Not gonna name names, but several times this year, popular blogs from the [forest-lover, anarchist/leftist/solarpunk, Moomin-fan, environmentalist-ish] realms of Tumblr have widely shared advice recommending the release of non-native earthworms or bait worms into the wild, as a form of “praxis”. I’ve got these posts screenshotted, but since I generally respect people in these circles - and in the interest of avoiding discourse and drama - I’m not going to share them. (A popular post was widely shared in February 2019; another “release store-bought earthworms” post was shared in December 2019.) I appreciate where their hearts are at. But:

Source: [x].

Some things:

From a Phys dot org summary of Great Lakes Worm Watch:

"The western Great Lakes region, which is the area we're focused on, has no native earthworms," says ecologist Cindy Hale, a research associate with the Natural Resources Research Institute at the University of Minnesota in Duluth. Native earthworms in the region were all wiped out after the last Ice Age. The current population was brought by Europeans hundreds of years ago, (soil was often used as ballast in ships) and they’re now changing the face of local forests. Anglers are adding to the problem by dumping worms that don't end up on the end of a hook.

With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Hale's team created the Great Lakes Worm Watch website and outreach programs to stop the spread of non-native earthworms and to clear up the common misconception that they're harmless. [...] Earthworms may be small but when they take over a forest, the impact is dramatic. They cause the rapid incorporation of organic material into the soil, changing its structure, chemistry and nutrient dynamics. What's known as the duff layer is suddenly removed, and this duff, or decaying organic material on the forest floor, is habitat for several species of insects, spiders, small vertebrates, bacteria and fungi. It is also the primary rooting zone for most plants."What's really the biggest negative effect on the plants directly is the removal of their rooting zone. It can cause mortality of adult plants but, furthermore, it can cause a loss of reproductive potential. A lot of these native plants have seeds that have very complex seed dormancy and germination strategies," says Hale.

--

Caption by Shireen Gonzaga for EarthSky: “A forest understory with a high diversity of native plants, the result when there are no earthworms in the soil. Image courtesy of Paul Ojanen.”

Caption by Shireen Gonzaga for EarthSky: “Forest soil with an abundance of non-native earthworms can result in a bare understory. Image courtesy of Scott L Loss.”

Non-native worms disrupt fungi networks, alter soil pH, damage seedlings, and allow grasses to gain stronger footholds to replace native/natural forest understory plants (from an EarthSky review of 2016 research by German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research):

Bottom line: European earthworms, introduced by early settlers, are changing the physical and chemical characteristics of soil in northern North American forests, creating a decreased diversity in native plants. [...] At the top soil layer, earthworms convert fallen leaves to humus. That’s a good thing if you’re growing a garden, but, in a natural forest, it causes a fast-tracking of the release of nutrients instead of allowing the leaf litter to break down more slowly, as it would without the earthworms.

Also, as they burrow through the ground, earthworms disrupt the mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship between fungi and plants. Some deep-burrowing worm species change the pH of upper soil layers by mixing in alkaline soil from deeper in the ground. [...]

All of these changes adversely affect native plants that did not evolve in such conditions. For instance, the goblin fern is rarely found in areas with high earthworm density. Other native plants facing threats include largeflower bellwort, trillium and Solomon’s seal. Earthworms also consume the seeds and seedlings of some plant species, influencing what grows in the forest understory.

In some locations, grasses, with their fine root systems that quickly absorb nutrients, dominate the forest floor. Non-native invasive plants that evolved in soils containing earthworms gain an even stronger foothold in these forests.

--

Cindy Hale, the prominent University of Minnesota-based researcher of non-native earthworms in the Great Lakes region, has published this book through Kollath-Stensaas Publishing:

--

Non-native worms harm birch trees specifically and hardwood forests generally (excerpt from University of Toronto research, 2016):

The worms can cause dramatic changes to ecosystems by altering soils, reducing leaf litter and disrupting microbial interactions, which reduces biodiversity. Now it seems they are also eating plant seeds in the wild, potentially altering the make-up of forest communities. (…)

“They eat a lot more seeds than we think,” says Cassin [ecologist at University of Toronto in Mississauga], now at the Ontario Invasive Plant Council in Canada.

The study shows another way that earthworms can alter forest ecosystems, particularly for small-seeded species such as birch, says Lee Frelich, an ecologist at the University of Minnesota in St Paul. (…)

Once earthworms have invaded a habitat, they are almost impossible to eradicate, says Erin Bayne, of the University of Alberta in Canada. Conservationists must instead work to keep worms out of pristine habitats, he says, for example by restricting the use of worms as fishing bait and by controlling accidental transport of contaminated soil.

--

Non-native worms lead to wildflower, fern, and sapling death. In hardwood forests, this loss is probably due partially to how worms degrade the duff layer; the loss of this layer also provokes soil erosion and directly eliminates the forest floor shelter of larger invertebrates and amphibians. When saplings cannot establish themselves, there is tree loss. (From Minnesota Department of Natural Resources)

Studies conducted by the University of Minnesota and forest managers show that at least seven species are invading our hardwood forests and causing the loss of tree seedlings, wildflowers, and ferns.

--

Sugar maples, important both for forests and human food production, are devastated by the worms (from several years of research by Michigan Technological University across multiple national and state forests in the Upper Great Lakes):

A new study suggests that non-native worms are eating up the forest floor, causing sugar maples to die back and perhaps harming other forest dwellers.

Sugar maples are prized as much for their valuable lumber as for their sugary sap and dazzling fall colors. In Michigan alone, they are the basis of a multi-million-dollar industry. But several years ago, foresters began noticing that the crowns of the big trees appeared unhealthy, with bare limbs and little new growth. “They were losing trees before they could harvest them.” (…)

--

Great Lakes Worm Watch has some fun links and resources:

You can download a comprehensive key that helps identify earthworm species. Available for free, via Great Lakes Worm Watch:

Text from Great Lakes Worm Watch: “Different plant species respond to earthworm invasions differently. Some native plants appear to be very sensitive, so much so, that they can rapidly disappear when earthworms invade a forest. Some examples of these plants include…” 

Worm Watch: “If earthworm invasion leads to changes in the mycorrhizal community of fungi, the diversity of plants that make up the understory would be dramatically changed. Fungi are a preferred food of many earthworm species and they graze it heavily, which could dramatically impact the abundance and composition of fungi in the soil.  By grazing fungi on or near plant roots, the earthworms not only can damage the roots, but they prevent the plant and fungi from forming the symbiotic relationship where mycorrhizal fungi exchange nutrients and water for carbohydrates with green plants.  If the fungi can't get enough food, they will die back even further.  For some of the native plants that need mycorrhizal fungi, especially when the plant is young and small, survival will be difficult if earthworms prevent this relationship from being formed.”

-

NO MUSHROOMS

[accidentalmistress]

orange: do you acknowledge it when other people sneeze? how? and under what conditions?

I do! I used to be a lot more awkward about it, especially family, but at this point I just bless folks like normal. Although if someone sneezes multiple times, they're only getting one. If my partner sneezes, sometimes I'll be flirty about blessing them. They know very well what I mean 😂

red: how long have you had this kink, and when did you discover that there was a community for it?

Oh man. Forever? Like many in this community, I've been interested in sneezing since childhood. Anyone else get weird feelings around that scene in Disney's Alice in Wonderland growing up? Yeah.

However, I did not recognize the attraction for what it was until college. I'm gonna chalk that up to me being ace. One night I saw a rerun of So Graham Norton where he had Gerard Depardieu on as a guest, and they talked about the sneeze fetish community and got a fetishist on the phone to react to Gerard blowing his nose? It was weird and uncomfortable, tbh, but that was the moment where I realized, "wait a minute... this is a thing?" I found and joined the forum shortly thereafter, because back then, in 2004, that was pretty much the only place to go. That and Bondi's Wav Page. YouTube wasn't released until December 2005. Tumblr wouldn't launch until February 2007. We've always been a small community, but I'm honestly grateful for how technology has evolved to allow greater accessibility for all of us to share our thoughts and content 😊

Probably more information than you wanted, lol, but I've been a part of the community for a long time!

[jo-washere]

every monthly calendar setup I’ve tried in my bullet journal !

I’ve decided I want to make some posts focusing on how I started in my bullet journal and how I got to where I am now, and the essential monthly calendar seems like a good starting point! Keep reading to see 10 different months out of my journals and how my layout developed to what I use now :)

May 2020, the first full month I bujoed and the first ever calendar I made. I didn’t get much use out of it because nothing happened in 2020. I don’t like how this spread looks really and I abandoned this layout after June 2020, but I have been considering going back to a full page calendar grid like this. 

In July and August 2020, I tried out this wheel type spread. I like how this page turned out and the calendar worked just fine, but it’s not really my thing anymore. 

In September 2020 I kept the wheel but made it two pages. I didn’t like this page because there was too much blank space and it felt very plain and wasteful. Also, you can tell this journal got some use by the split in the middle lol.

October 2020 is when I struck gold because this is basically the monthly spread I used for the entire next year. Even now my monthly calendar came from this idea. You can see I put birthdays on the calendar and everything else in the appropriate dated box on the right. Later this evolved to not have anything on the mini calendar. 

February 2021 I clearly did not want to spend time setting up my calendar and I came up with this condensed but still practical version. In March, I went back to my original 2 page spread like October’s. 

However March was the end of 2-page monthly spreads because my April and May 2021 calendars looked like this. I condensed the date boxes to fit into 3 columns below the mini calendar. 

In June and July, I did the same basic layout but with both months on one page. Since I don’t have school in those months, I combined them into 2-month spreads for the calendars and habit trackers. 

Last September is when I came up with the ideal right side page for this school year. There is a lot of blank space, but it’s there if I need it to plan. Also, I made a space for future events (this is when I realized I needed a future log). 

Once again in October I found a favorite layout. It’s basically the same thing as before but with boxes for weeks instead of days. It’s much less cluttered and easier to read when I’m transferring things from my calendar to my weekly spreads. 

For December and this month, I did a 1x1 instead of 2x2 calendar and gave myself a little more space in the week boxes, but that’s the only change. Now that I’m in my new journal I have a future log, so I got rid of the “future events” section for now. 

And that’s all the progress my monthlies have made! It’s cool to look back on things like this and see all the ways I’ve experimented. I will be making a series of posts like this, and I’ll eventually have a masterpost coming as well! Thanks for reading :)

[miserere-mei-deus]

It’s time to move on.

I have no idea why I’ve been putting this off for a while, I’ve been stressing out over this way more than I really should. But anyway...

How are you all doing? Totally forgot about me? That’s okay. I haven’t been active since like February of last year after all. I don’t know if you’ve ever kept tabs on me this whole time, but if you indeed have and have been wondering where I’ve gone this whole time, let’s just say a lot of things have happened. Of course, there’s the big elephant in the room that is COVID-19, but otherwise, I’m okay. I’d prefer not to talk about what went down with me, but y’know, if you’re still willing to be there to hear me out whenever I need it, please leave a like on this post and follow my new blog. No need to comment or message me privately, but you can if you want to.

Long story short, I want to switch blogs. What, you thought I was done with this hellsite for good? Nah, I still kinda like it in this weird way. But I just didn’t know what to do with this blog for the longest time until recently. I opened this account of mine in 2015, and I didn’t even use it until like 2018. And back in the day, I just used it to show off my bad Pixlr edits of Disney characters. No joke. Eventually, it evolved into a thing where I wanted to show off my art (made originally/traditionally/digitally and in dressup games) and original characters! But then there came another problem - how should I organize my characters... and blog in general? Well, I tried many things, and now two years later or so, my blog is now a mess, imo. Fear not though, because I’ve created a shiny, brand new blog that’s a lot more aesthetically pleasing! 

Enter: madame-mozart.

Blah blah blah, I don’t know what else to say, but you can find me here now. I will no longer be posting on this blog once I publish this post, but I’ll still leave it open for y’all to view and reminisce, I guess. I might even reblog something to my new blog once in a while! At some point, I will also change the email and password to this account so I don’t get more notifications about this blog flooding my inbox. I also have a toyhou.se and Pinterest account which I also use for my characters, and you’ll be able to find the links to those on my new blog. I’m even working on a site in which I archive all the art I’ve done throughout my life, and the link to that will also hopefully be posted on my new blog.

So go ahead, spambots, raid this blog all you want, I don’t care anymore about the DMs and follows. You’re trying to communicate with an inactive account, give up lol. And I’ll just block you on my new account, anyway, so your resistance is futile. I don’t know if the 60 or so followers that are tied to this blog still keep up with it, but if you do come across this post in your feed, holla.

Once again, my new blog is madame-mozart.tumblr.com.

See you there. 🌈

[follychromatic]

Welcome to Follychromatic!

Welcome to Redwood Village! My name is Dimonds456, and I’m here to tell you about this world! This is essentially an FAQ, except no one’s asked a whole lot of questions yet aha. 

What is Follychromatic?

Follychromatic is an original story that I am working on. The idea is that it would be a cartoon show, with at least 3 seasons, maybe more. The idea started out as just me wanting to make my own cartoon that worked with the 1930′s animation style, but it kinda... evolved from there. Now it’s Very Complicated lol.

What is the plot?

What I can tell you is that the world is black and white. Redwood Village is home to many residents, all of whom have a place. Everyone fits into their roles perfectly, and their society is perfect, and everyone is content! ...Except, maybe not. 

One day, Fauna the Fox overhears a wolf calling out several flaws in the system, and is tempted to learn more. When she follows her out of town, she and the wolf- named Emma- have a talk, only for their eyes to suddenly and inexplicably change color! What does it mean? Is that good or bad? They set out to try and mend their broken homes, and meet many friends- and many rivals- on the way.

How much content do you have on Follychromatic so far?

Here? Not a lot. Written out on Discord to a friend and etched in my mind? At least 3 hours of conversation material! With a ton more on the way!

I am also, as of writing this (February 18, 2021), making an animatic for a potential pilot episode, so stay tuned for that! If it’s been a while, see if it’s already done. The tag is #/pilot episode !

What are some themes to look for in here?

I want to say a lot with this story. It is going to have themes of sexism and positive imagery, positive LGBTQ+ representation and homophobia, a trans character, a nonbinary character (and possibly more of each), racism and the consequences of it, implicit bias (which we all have, even me, and more people need to be aware of), Very Fluffy Valid Boys, references out the ying-yang, determined teenagers, different relationships (both healthy and toxic, romantic or otherwise), a few characters with ADHD, many with mental illness, I want to do autism as well and am currently researching the heck out of it, positive portrayals of all three of those, and much more. 

My goal is to bring to light a lot of issues that our modern society needs to address, no matter how uncomfortable we are about it. There needs to be positive representation of different religions, and the gay person shouldn’t just be the comedic relief, and aroace people exist! Homeless people need to be discussed, and positive, healthy ways of dealing with them and helping them out. Drugs is another thing I want to talk about. All four ways of abuse need to be discussed (mental, physical, emotional, and societal). And I’m not done, but I’ll stop there.

Woah woah woah, what is the age group? I thought this was a cartoon!

It is! I hope. I am gearing it towards all ages so everyone can understand, but my target audience is going to be ages 12-adult. Anyone should be able to sit down, enjoy, and understand, but there are a lot of sensitive topics in here that I will not handle lightly or disrespectfully. Besides, many cartoons have talked about dark themes before and gotten away with it. ;)

Okay, who’s our main cast?

Well, the main character is Fauna the Fox (though I’m debating giving them all last names since there are multiple Fox families). She’s the one really keeping up morale and driving for a better place. Then, Emma the Wolf, who was the one to show Fauna that people everywhere are suffering, where Fauna thought it was just her. Dante the Dog is the local jock with a surprisingly large soft side, Momo the Monkey is a street magician (he’s also the funny one), Cassy the Cat is the one who is always looking for a bright side and is probably the mom friend, Rose the Rabbit is the passive-aggressive friend who won’t hesitate to insult you, but also will cheer you on every step you make, and finally, Ben the Bunny, who is the quiet, shy one we found out in the woods one day and immediately adopted.

How can I follow this story? Can I help in any way?

Not asking for money here (idk what to do with it if ya gave it to me anyway), but I do have a Discord server you can hop on! I take story suggestions there and go much more in-depth on the whole thing. Plus, there, you can see (almost) all the art I make as I make it. Of course, the same applies here, too, but Discord will be easier for everyone to manage. :)

Do you take asks and submissions? Can I tag you in stuff?

ABSOLUTELY YES. Flood my inbox! My rules for tagging here are they have to be related to this story somehow (even if it’s just a “this post reminds me of Momo” or something). If you just wanna tag me, my name is @Dimonds456. Tag that blog instead. :)

Do the colors have meaning?

Depends. Their placement on the body definitely does, but the colors themselves? Depends on the situation, and the character’s means of getting those colors...

That’s all for now! If you still have questions, I repeat, flood my inbox! I’d love to answer any questions you might have! I love this world, and all these characters, and I could ramble about them for probably years if you let me (don’t let me go that long though- I need water first, at least). 

Discord server HERE! The link should take you to the welcome page.

Old banner below!

[gretacatchlove]

Greta Catchlove Intro

BASICS

★ BIRTH DATE / 25 February, 1960 ★ BLOOD STATUS / Muggleborn ★ PRONOUNS & IDENTITY / she/her; cis female ★ FACECLAIM / Sydney Sweeney

ACADEMICS & ROOMING

★ PRIMARY SCHOOL / London School of Witchcraft, class of 1978 ★ ACADEMIC PURSUITS / Wizarding Academy of Dramatic Arts, class of 1980

tw: disordered eating

POINTS OF INTEREST

★ She was only fourteen years old when an aspiring fashion designer discovered her in a small boutique in London while she was shopping with her mother. The designer approached Greta, saying she had the perfect look for her line she’d just finished up and was soon to launch in springtime. She’d never modelled in her life -- but when someone of the industry was telling you, that you had it, that you had the look, it gave you every bit of confidence to go through with it. Now Greta’s been modelling since fourteen, in both the muggle and wizarding world. At just the age of sixteen, she was selected for a contract with Witch Weekly. The magazine often discovered fresh faces and now Greta would be one for the era of the 70′s.

★ Greta walked onto a photoshoot with slightly shorter hair once and was almost immediately fired. It shook her up good. She already knew this world she was in heavily depended on her looks, but when something as simple as a haircut or eating an extra bagel meant receiving harsh scrutiny, she began to pull back. Witch Weekly was already searching for a fresher face, because that’s how the modelling world was constantly evolving. She loved the creativity she was allowed to bring onto each set, but maybe this was no longer the career for her. Her mind was suddenly set onto acting, amazed by the way you could be one person on Monday and someone completely different by Saturday with no shaming. There were stories to be told and Greta wanted to be the voice of them. She had never planned on going to school after primary, but she enrolled into the Wizarding Academy of Dramatic Arts for acting specifically.

★ Based on a steady stream of reviews that came in after every production the WADA put on (and there were a lot...), it was clear... Greta needed to work even harder. Here she was again, facing harsh criticisms. Her acting was mediocre at best, wrote one critic. After pulling back on modelling, was she about to do the same with acting? She has contemplated leaving school more than she’s focused on reading her lines by now. Greta’s stressed.

★ Michael ‘Mickey’ Catchlove’s job was something she’d always admired with a full heart, wide eyes, and lots of curious questions. Mr. Catchlove owned a toy shop in the heart of muggle London called Catch the Wonder, granting wishes of young children all throughout the city. She’d worked there a couple of summers, watching in amazement and even feeling inspired to do something herself. Of course if there was anything she and dad would connect on, it was the child-like spark that still burned bright in both of their adult lives. Soon she began turning the drawings from children into stuffed toys, bringing all of their creations to life. It’s been a work of trial and error, but she hopes to start up her own business in the wizarding world, or better yet, add to her father’s. It will definitely keep her busy between lessons.

TRAITS

✓ warm-hearted; optimistic; open ✗ gullible; lack of backbone; easily flustered

OTHER FUN THAAAANGS

here’s her about! and her pinterest! i apologize for her aesthetic DLFL;SJFKJASF she looks like she shops at claire’s 

b/c she has had many brand deals while being with witchy weekly, she has acquired quite a wardrobe and is often giving away things to friends. so if you’re friends with greta, say HOLLA to some new designer clothes LOL!! she feels very fortunate as she grew up workin’ class/not very fortunate at all

muggleborn! so! there’s ThOsE kinda connections to be made too :eyeemoji:

i was not kiddin’ in the group chat when i said i was makin’ this b tall LDJF;LSJDFJSF holla 5′11 and often wearing some form of heel/wedges. we like to see everything, thank you

does anyone have a single dad? asking for a plot ;LDSJFLAKSDJAF NO GRETA IS NOT TRYIN HOOK UP WITH YOUR FATHERS. it’s for something else okay SDFKJLFJA;LSKDFJ

looooves a good cheese board! can’t wait for this retired model to write a book about cheese in her future LMAO chrissy teigen who????

ADHD queen, like all of us

is also the queen of making friends, so i feel like she knows A LOTTA PEOPLE. she went to london school! so anything stemming from that is great to start with. but literally anyone, yes pls. she probably comes around hogwarts whenever they’re putting on a play or something anyway too!!!

if your characters have any bbs or siblings or cousins or little ones in their lives that have made drawings, let greta bring them to life as stuffed animals as a special gift!!! <3

and of course, hmu to plot connections or anything. she is mah child. my day one marauder baby so im real excited to play this new and improved version of her yay!!!! thanks for reading yall <3

[phonaesthemes]

tag game thing

@padawanyugi tagged me a while ago (12 days apparently) and i forgot entirely about this until i saw it half-done in a note, whoops.

1) Why did you choose your url i wanted something linguistics-related and initially picked "phonesthemes" but thought it looked like phones-themes so i ended up using the alternate spelling. 

2) any side-blogs ? if you have them, name them and why you have them glittery-phonaesthemes, which initially was like travel/sci-fi stuff but now it's just where i put literally everything else in the hopes of not annoying people who followed me for language stuff.

3) how long have you been on tumblr ? that is a good question. apparently since february of 2015!

4) do you have a queue tag ? ahahah no. tagging anything on my phone is a rage-inducing experience so i only bother for content warning kinds of things now

5) why did you start your blog in the first place i was kind of in between communities and had seen content from tumblr elsewhere and decided to give it a shot

6) why did you choose your icon/pfp ? i couldn't think of anything related to my blog theme that wasn't a wug (not that there’s anything wrong with that) so it's a picture i took of a statue that i really liked in helsinki

7) why did you choose your header ? do i have one?? i think it's a foresty something or other maybe?? i like trees??

8) what’s your post with the most notes ? i’m not actually sure but after the nsfw crackdown, one of my (exceedingly rare) posts got flagged and i bitched about it ("those are back vowels not boobs" or something) and it escaped lingblr and gathered some notes

9) how many mutuals do you have ? 86 apparently

10) how many followers do you have ? 638

11) how many people do you follow ? 315

12) have you ever made a shitpost ? probably. maybe less so on tumblr compared to Elsewhere

13) how often do you use tumblr each day ? it varies. a lot less now bc i just have less time

14) did you have a fight/argument with another blog once ? who won? no, but i would not win, i am more the type to let someone else have the last word lol

15) how do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts ? i remember getting chain emails back on hotmail and i am kind of surprised at how that medium has evolved (or not)

16) do you like tag games ? yes very much, although i am TERRIBLE about checking my tags

17) do you like ask games ? it depends! i like sending in asks when i see them because i think most people enjoy "mail" (and if they didn't, why post reblog the game?)

18) which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous ? i have had mutuals who were lingblr infamous, does that count 

19) do you have a crush on a mutual ? no, although there is at least one where i think we followed each other for language stuff but they've gone through like 5 other themes since then and possibly a few new names, and although i still enjoy their content (their Untamed phase may be waning, so i am excited to see the next fixation), i can never help trying to remember what the hell their old name was, just out of curiosity. they’re one of my oldest mutuals!

20) tags i am too nervous to tag anyone, but please feel free to tag me or say that i tagged you if you want to talk about yourself too.

[starryknight09]

I absolutely love your Out of Darkness Irondad series!!! How do you write a huge multi-chartered fic? I really want to write one (even a five chapter one lol) but I just cant seem to ever finish one because I feel like I get unmotivated or something. Any tips? 🙏

Thank you! 😊

First, I’d say if you want to write a multi chaptered fic, you can do it!  Having the confidence that you can finish it and committing to it is the first (and probably hardest step).  Then as Ernest Hemingway said - There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter (ahem computer) and bleed. 😆

But seriously, what I do might not work for you, but I’m happy to share it.  Before I start, I write down a kind of stream of consciousness outline for the entire story.  It doesn't have every single detail but it has the plan for the beginning, middle, and end.  Knowing your ending I’d say is the most important part because if you know how you want to begin and how you want to end then the middle stuff is just getting there.  I’m assuming you’ve read Unforeseen dangers so as an example I included my outline below (to where I am so far, don’t want to spoil the entire story for people).

Aftermath of Ross’s capture – Tony makes Peter start to wear a watch with a tracker. Peter thinks it’s too invasive and doesn’t want it but then Tony promises he’ll only use it if it’s an emergency and Peter agrees. Talk about hacking Friday, sneaking out. Peter changes his name (with Pepper’s help) as a Xmas present for Tony. Peter’s identity is at risk of being discovered. Tony ignores it thinking it’ll blow over and they don’t have any real evidence anyway.  He has the government aide fired. Peter continues to be bothered by his experience with Ross. Xmas with the Avengers – Peter gives Tony his present More and more pictures of Peter come out with Tony, the Avengers, Pepper, etc. but they’re never good enough to figure out who Peter is. Peter wants to be able to do things with Tony and wonders if it’s really so bad if they just tell people since it seems inevitable anyway.  Tony tells him all the reasons it’s a bad idea (uses Ross as an example).

As you can see, it’s not super detailed, but it’s a rough guideline so when I sit down at the computer to write I’m not staring into space wondering what the next step is.  And sometimes the story evolves as I write it and huge chunks of my original outline get cut out or bits get added.  I’d say don’t follow your outline so strictly that you resist letting the story go where it organically wants to.  Some of my favorite scenes turned up completely on their own.

What other advice can I give?  Um I’d say start out with small writing goals so it doesn’t seem so insurmountable.  If you sit down at a blank page and think wow I have to write 20,000 words you’re going to have a tough time, but if every time you sit down you just think, ok, my goal today is to just write 250 words, then it seems more attainable.  And most times when I do this I end up writing more than 250, but on the days when that’s all I can squeeze out I feel like I accomplished something.  Plus, if you write 250 words a day, you’ll have 3,500 words in 2 weeks, and 7,750 in a month (unless it’s February).  Not too shabby...

My last piece of advice I’d give is to stop before you get to the end of a scene, which might seen counterintuitive, but it really helps keep your momentum going from day to day!  So if you’re chugging along and know where the scene’s going, then stop before you get to the end of it, so you can pick up where you left off the next day.  You can leave short notes for yourself so you don’t forget anything vital the next day - like I’ll sometimes leave a few lines of dialogue I’ve thought up and I want to incorporate in so I don’t forget.  But stopping in the middle (or at least before the end of a scene) is important because when you sit down the next day to write you’ll know exactly where you were and where you want to go, so it’ll be a lot easier to start writing than if you’re trying to start writing after you’ve just finished the scene/chapter and you’re staring at the blank page with no sense of where exactly you want to go next.  Also, I find I get more excited to start writing and I’m more likely to sit down and make time for writing if I’ve cut myself off in the middle of a scene I'm enjoying writing, so maybe that trick could help with the lack of motivation you’re talking about?  The only caveat is that when you start in the middle of a scene and do get to the end of it you can’t call it a day, you at least have to start the next part so you’ll be in the midst of another scene before ending, but I find it so much easier to transition from the end of one scene to a new one when I’m already in the writing groove compared to sitting down cold and trying to come up with something.

This was probably way too much of an overshare but I love talking about writing and I hope it helped at least a little bit!  Good luck!