#How do you get free subscription boxes?
Text
{ MASTERPOST } Everything You Need to Know about Saving Money and Being Frugal
We’re all in this together. Don’t give up.
On food and groceries:
How to Shop for Groceries like a Boss
Why Name Brand Products Are Beneath You: The Honor and Glory of Buying Generic
If You Don’t Eat Leftovers I Don’t Even Want to Know You
You Are above Bottled Water, You Elegant Land Mermaid
You Should Learn To Cook. Here’s Why.
On entertainment and socializing:
The Frugal Introvert’s Guide to the Weekend
7 Totally Reasonable Ways To Save Money on Cheap Entertainment
Take Pride in Being a Cheap Date
The Library Is a Magical Place and You Should Fucking Go There
Your Library Lets You Stream Audiobooks and eBooks FOR FREEEEEEE!
What’s the Effect of Social Media on Your Finances?
You Won’t Regret Your Frugal 20s
On health:
How to Pay Hospital Bills When You’re Flat Broke
Run With Me if You Want to Save: How Exercising Will Save You Money
Our Master List of 100% Free Mental Health Self-Care Tactics
Why You Probably Don’t Need That Gym Membership
How to Get DIRT CHEAP Pet Medication, Without a Prescription
On other big expenses:
Businesses Will Happily Give You HUGE Discounts if You Ask This Magic Question
Understand the Hidden Costs of Travel and Avoid Them Like the Plague
Other People’s Weddings Don’t Have to Make You Broke
You Deserve Cheap, Fake Jewelry… Just Like Coco Chanel
3 Times I Was Damn Grateful for My Emergency Fund (and Side Income)
When (and How) to Try Refinancing or Consolidating Student Loans
The Real Story of How I Paid Off My Mortgage Early in 4 Years
Season 2, Episode 2: “I’m Not Ready to Buy a House—But How Do I *Get Ready* to Get Ready?”
The Most Impactful Financial Decision I’ve Ever Made… and Why I Don’t Recommend It
On buying secondhand and trading:
Almost Everything Can Be Purchased Secondhand
I Am a Craigslist Samurai and so Can You: How to Sell Used Stuff Online
The Delicate Art of the Friend Trade
On giving gifts and charitable donations:
How Can I Tame My Family’s Crazy Gift-Giving Expectations?
In Defense of Shameless Regifting
Make Sure Your Donations Have the Biggest Impact by Ruthlessly Judging Charities
The Anti-Consumerist Gift Guide: I Have No Gift to Bring, Pa Rum Pa Pum Pum
How to Spot a Charitable Scam
Ask the Bitches: How Do I Say “No” When a Loved One Asks for Money… Again?
On resisting temptation:
How to Insulate Yourself From Advertisements
Making Decisions Under Stress: The Siren Song of Chocolate Cake
The Magically Frugal Power of Patience
6 Proven Tactics for Avoiding Emotional Impulse Spending
On minimalism and buying less:
Don’t Spend Money on Shit You Don’t Like, Fool
Everything I Know About Minimalism I Learned from the Zombie Apocalypse
Slay Your Financial Vampires
The Subscription Box Craze and the Mindlessness of Wasteful Spending
On saving money:
How To Start Small by Saving Small
Not Every Savings Account Is Created Equal
The Unexpected Benefits (and Downsides) of Money Challenges
Budgets Don’t Work for Everyone—Try the Spending Tracker System Instead
From HYSAs to CDs, Here’s How to Level Up Your Financial Savings
Season 2, Episode 10: “Which Is Smarter: Getting a Loan? or Saving up to Pay Cash?”
The Magic of Unclaimed Property: How I Made $1,900 in 10 Minutes by Being a Disorganized Mess
We will periodically update this list with newer articles. And by “periodically” I mean “when we remember that it’s something we forgot to do for four months.”
Bitches Get Riches: setting realistic expectations since 2017!
Start saving right heckin’ now!
If you want to start small with your savings, consider signing up for an Acorns account! They round up your every purchase to the nearest dollar and save and invest the change for you. We like them so much we’ve generously allowed them to sponsor us with this affiliate link:
Start investing today with Acorns
#frugal#saving money#personal finance#money tips#financial tips#financial literacy#financial freedom#money#debt#money management#how to save money
402 notes
·
View notes
Text
This whole backlash against printing fics irks the fuck out of me, and I got some shit to say about it. Mostly "Fuck You" but here's some nuance:
On the surface, I understand where the naysayers are coming from. It's a legitimate fear that making a profit from fanworks will bring down the C&D Hammer on fandom. I get that. Do not put on the One Ring, or you'll risk the Eye of Sauron.
But here's the thing. Fuck capitalism. Fuck digital only. We're living in the digital dark ages, and 100 years from now huge swathes of our history, fact and fiction, will be lost to our descendants because there will be no physical copies of our lives for them to find in old libraries and boxes in the attic, etc.
Creators deserve physical copies of their creations, and so do the other people in the world who love them.
I don't want to profit from letting people print my fics. That's why I use Lulu, since they have an option to set zero profit and make the links hidden so only fans in the know can get a copy. Other printing sites I've looked at in the past don't have those options. In fact, the first time I ever even thought about printing one of my stories was when I won NaNo for the first time and one of the prizes was a coupon for 3 free printings of your story. HELL YEAH, that's a copy for me, a copy for my beta, and a copy for the artist who made the cover for me. Perfect! But I ended up not using that coupon, because the site required I set a profit margin, and did not have an option to make it private. Ummm, no thanks. Not worth the risk. And even though the profit margin could be set as low as ten cents, I did not want to make ANY money from my fic, because I know that would be breaking Fair Use rules. I found Lulu instead, and decided to let other people get copies too, because I'm nice. And if I don't, it's not like I can stop them from doing it themselves, no matter how much I'd rather they not do that.
But that's not good enough for the Reporting Trolls. Their argument is that it's not possible for it to be completely profit free, since Lulu makes a profit on the printing costs and the shipping carriers make a profit off the shipping costs. Someone is making a profit, and that's unacceptable, even if that someone is not Me, The Person Who Made The Printing and Shipping Worth Paying For.
I would like anyone who thinks that to delete your accounts where you read fanfiction. AO3, Wattpad, FFNet, LJ, Dreamwidth, hell even Tumblr for the short ficlet stuff that only gets posted here. Because even if the website it self isn't profiting, (AO3 for example), the companies that sold them their server hardware made a profit. Since utilities are privatized, the electric company that runs those servers are making a profit. IF YOU PRINT IT ON YOUR PRINTER AND PUT IT IN A 3 RING BINDER, the paper, printer, and ink manufacturers made a profit from your dinky little print out. The companies that build all the parts for your computer or your smartphone made a profit on your portal to the internet, who profits from your monthly subscription, just like your electric company profits from the power it takes to run your pc or charge your phone battery. IT'S A SLIPPERY FUCKING SLOPE, AND YOU NEED TO LEARN WHEN TO BACK AWAY FROM THE LEDGE.
We live in a Capitalist Hellscape, and if a company could figure out how to charge you to breathe and for every single beat of your heart, they'd fucking do it. So get off your goddamn high horses with this "wELL SoMEonE iS makINg PrOFit" bullshit. Or if you truly believe that, shut off every account you own, turn off your utilities, and go live in the woods and make up your own goddamn stories, which you can only share orally to the local wildlife. They give kudos by biting you and giving you rabies.
(not to mention; these assholes don't go after fanartists who are ABSOLUTELY making a profit off their work. but noooo, Flirty can't format a fic for print and allow other people to pay for the printing service and shipping, while never seeing a penny of that herself, despite all of the GODDAMN WORK I HAVE PUT INTO IT, WRITING IT IN THE FIRST PLACE INCLUDED FUCK YOU VERY MUCH. fuckyoufuckyoufuckyoufuckyoufucky--)
1K notes
·
View notes
Text
Finding Stories
Okay so I started a conversation/poll the other week about anon fics, which clearly made it clear that I had the wrong impression about anon fics. I thought that people avoided them, whereas it turns out most people don't even notice if a story is anon.
However, it started me thinking about how people find stories in general. Because this would imply that anon stories get found because people are reading new in a fandom, are they actually doing that? And do people find published books the same way, just reading in the bookstore or free-scrolling on a site? So. I ran two new polls. Fandom. Published books.
And I gotta say that this was clearly something fired off while I was avoiding my communications class, and I have never taken stats. This is in no way formal. But I was really interested in the things that are similar and the things that were different. Do patterns change when you're actually spending money for things? What happens when people click boxes?
First off, in both cases, the thing that won the poll was "browsing new", either in the fandom or in the bookstore. But the percentages were quite different.
I figured that knowing "I want to go to the paranormal shifter romance section of the bookstore" is approximately equivalent to "I know I want to read Stucky Omegaverse" so I compared those two percentages. 49.3% of fic readers were out here just scrolling new, whereas only 28.4% of people would just rock up to a bookstore and start looking around. (or IS this true? A lot of people in the "several of these" (24.2%) said they did a lot of these, but they did not regularly specify if that meant they just browsed in a bookstore.)
I figured that sorting by kudos or hits would give you a similar impression as being on a book social media, where the popular books rise to the top. 24.8% of people were looking for what was popular in fandom, whereas 11.2% of book people were looking for buzz books. On the fandom side people said frequently that when they were new to a fandom they would read by kudos to get a sense of what the fandom was like, whereas there wasn't really an equivalent experience reported on the book side of discovering a sub-genre and reading popular in it. People just didn't mention it? Possibly.
It's noteworthy that on the fandom side being able to target your search specifically by tag or ship was wildly popular and came up again and again in the notes, whereas on the book side I saw less people saying things like "when I know I want a cozy mystery"— possibly the poll didn't hit cozy mystery or paranormal romance readers.
Getting personal recs: this was a Very big one on the book side and less on the fandom side. 18.2% of people on the book side would go to librarians or friends, whereas only 12.4% of people on the fandom side would look in bookmarks or get recs from people. Possibly that is because a book club is thing and in many circles reading books is a social activity, whereas while being in fandom is a social activity, the specific fics you are reading is not as much the same thing. I know a lot of people mentioned in the fandom side that matters of taste would come up, and that they'd be aware that what other people would rec wouldn't be of interest to them. One big thing on the fandom side though, people mentioned very frequently going through the bookmarks of authors they trusted, so if you are an author, people are begging you to leave your bookmarks public.
Sticking with authors you trust: this is something that I expected to be much bigger on the fandom side than it was, and part of that may come down to how I phrased the poll, as I had people saying that their subscriptions aren't "new fics", they already found them. However, the result that I got was 2% of people read from their subscriptions for fic, and 4% of people stick with trusted authors for published books. Clearly more people will get auto-buy authors in the published world, but it's still a comparatively small percentage.
And then closing it up: 0.9% of people read for specific themes or events on the fandom side, and 2.2% of people read things like best of genres or horror recs on goodreads, 0.2% of people read ARCs, and 0.2% of people read email blasts like book funnel and their "best regency paranormals" emails. Is this a perfect comparison? No. Mostly I was impressed that any people still selected that they read for specific events on the fandom side, though I think some of that was people meaning that they read In The Gore Tag, and not reading like, Goreswap 2024 Exchange.
Do I have any conclusions? Not really, other than going oh man, people do legitimately just find the stories they want to read by browsing. A good summary/cover copy+cover legitimately can help people find your story. And please please please make at least some of your bookmarks public people are crying.
60 notes
·
View notes
Text
hello boobers of tumblr! because it seems like our streamer never does it, i wanted to give you all a refresher on twitch prime !
if you're unaware, if you (or a family member) pays for an amazon prime account you have access to one free twitch subscription a month! all you have to do is link your amazon account that has those prime benefits to your twitch account, and then select "prime gaming" when you subscribe. its easy!
this is a tutorial for my desktop friends, but its fairly similar in the apps i assume!)
first, go to https://gaming.amazon.com/home and log into your amazon account
once signed in, open the drop down menu and here you'll have the ability to sign into your twitch account! i don't know if it will say "manage twitch accounts" or "add twitch accounts", because mine is already linked here, but it should be in around the same spot.
(i don't want to go through the process of unlinking and relinking mine so i'm pretty sure this is how it looks, sorry if not!)
once linked, go to the streamer you want to sub to! (this is for ranboo fans, but if you want to sub to someone else the process is the same!)
the purple button here will say "subscribe" ! click on it, and open the menu. once in the menu, there will be a small box to tick to use your prime gaming subscription (sorry for no screenshot, again i cant undo my sub so i cant give an example sadly)
tick that box, scroll down and hit subscribe!
its completely free, and gives money from amazon to ranboo every time you use it! just remember after a month, you have to resubscribe manually. benefits include not getting pre-roll ads and using sub-exclusive emotes!
if you go on to link your twitch account to your discord account, you can even access ranboo's sub-exclusive "ranmail" discord channels in his server, where he occasionally posts!
if you don't have an account that pays for amazon prime, ask a friend or family member if they do, and if they would mind if you linked your account! its a benefit that many people don't know they have, and using it costs nothing!
that's all. happy boobing!
#sorry this is scuffed but i didnt want to wait til my sub ran out#i love twitch prime more people should use twitch prime. take money from bezos#ranboo#twitch#twitch prime#not updating ranboo
57 notes
·
View notes
Text
How much you’d have to pay me to get me to hook-up with SDV Characters✨
Lil bit nsfw but in the throwaway comment way
(BACHELORS)
SHANE: Like a whole pizza. Love him, hate the smell of alcohol 🤷 Maybe some mints as well but like for him not me there’s no way he remembers to brush his teeth often ngl
ELLIOTT: A hair tie and the audiobooks for all his books (hair tie for him) he’d be lovely in bed honestly so I’d be down
HARVEY: A chocolate eclair. He needs some live in his life so I’d do it for free I’m just hungry
ALEX: An Oreo-Nutella cheesecake and £10, he’s fine but like he needs more respect woman juice in his life and also is probably a virgin (I said it)so may not know women also get the pleasure out of sex (if ya know what I mean). If I was a man like £3
SAM: a jam donut (and another one for him). Babyboy
SEBASTIAN: A packet of mints (for him) and some strawberry flavoured chewing gum (for me). I’m sorry but cigarette smell/taste is very strong I refuse to sleep with him without mints
(BACHELORETTES)
MARU: Nothing I’d do it for *free* that’s my WIFE-
EMILY: Like £10 and a steak bake, she’s not my fave and she might try to meditate half way thru or something idk
HALEY: A lollipop and some confidence. She’d insult me and I’d like it tbh
ABIGAIL: The ability to update all my mods on all my games instantly. She’s fine but like I see her as more of a friend then a love interest
PENNY: £30 and some flowers, I’d feel bad she seems like a wait till marriage type
LEAH: The biggest pack of copics and refills for all. I get the hype but also not really-
(OTHERS)
If people aren’t in this list it’s because they’re either a child or you couldn’t get me to do it ever
WIZARD: £500, he’d be weird in bed but like I feel that’s an experience I can’t give up, ya know? I mean it definitely worked for Caroline-
CAROLINE: Soeaking of! Like a Jaffa hot chocolate, I’m down :]
PIERRE: Ew. Like 5 winning lottery tickets and a lifetime supply of double cream Oreos. I’d do it but I wouldn’t be happy. There’s a reason his daughter isn’t his.
ROBIN: £5. She’s hot and is definitely strong 👀
LINUS: A winning lottery ticket and a lifetime supply of cheesecake. He’s lovely, I love him, not in that way
WILLY: £100 and some mints his breath smells like fish.
MARNIE: Some notebooks, she’s lovely. She needs to be shown Lewis is a dick and not in the way she thinks
KENT: £98 and a subscription to an art box. He’s fine? Strong probably? He has issues tho and infidelity does not need to be one of them
JODI: £100, she’d be easy to convince she wants to abandon her family anyway but the boys need their mum so I’d need convincing
20 notes
·
View notes
Note
In honor of the books I picked up today that I ordered a week ago (finally got more kimi ni todoke!!), what series of manga can you see some of our haikyuu favs reading? Or if not manga what kinds of books can you see them reading, YA, thriller, mystery, etc. Feel free to pick whomever you want for hcs, I humbly ask for Tanaka thou <3
A/N: Look at you getting two answered in one day, it's like you own my ask box at this point bestie lmao but yes I have so many vibes for this one, okay <3
TAGS: manga/reading headcanons, fluff, general
CHARACTERS: Tendou Satori, Tanaka Ryuunosuke, Kenma Kozume, honourable mentions at the end
TENDOU SATORI
Okay so we know he used to collect shonen jump magazine when it was around in a physical form. I say he was a subscription owner who would get each issue.
He strikes me as the kind of guy who likes collecting things. Especially artsy types things like his movies. Especially in physical form so his shonen jumps are no different.
He's a constant but casual reader in terms of what he keeps up with in terms of series.
By that I mean he's not like 'OMG I NEED TO READ ALL OF ONE PIECE I'LL BE SO UPSET IF I MISS ONE CHAPTER.' Absolutley not. He's a casual One Piece fan. I know it seems like they don't exist because once you're in you're in BUT HE IS.
He enjoys reading it, don't get me wrong, it's just he's not tearing the issue open for the next chapter.
Tendou's an allrounder with his reading. Will try everything in the issue. Really liked The Disastrous Life of Saiki K the year it was published! He just vibed hard with it.
With Shonen Jump, he's collected it forever so he's read all the early 2000's classics like Naruto, Bleach and Death Note. He watches the anime too.
Outside of the shonen jump I feel like the only manga he would go out of his way to purchase and read would be something of the horror vein because he's a horror fan.
The first time he went into a manga store and saw the covers of the Junji Ito works he HAD to know what they were about. Started with one and ended up collecting them all.
Still prefers watching horror and thrillers over reading them. There's just something more satisfying about cinematic terrors BUT he does enjoy his small collection of manga too.
He just over all prefers reading manga to chill out. Which is why his go to is more the popular shonen series.
Tendou is pretty good with recs too! If you handed him a romance and told him it was the best series in the world and he had to read it he would. He doesn't care, you like it so why wouldn't he? It's just not something he would usually pick up for himself.
He's pretty good at recommending things too. If you're unsure he'll just hand you a shonen jump mag and tell you to go nuts. Just don't read the ads like Ushiwaka please, he can't handle another one. lmao.
Hanging out with Tendou as teens reading manga together would honestly be the best lowkey date every. Just vibing in each others company. Probably watching anime together after too.
TANAKA RYUUNOSUKE
I see Tanaka as more of a manga reader too over anything lengthy like novels. He just doesn't have the discipline to sit there and read for long periods of time.
This is why studying is so hard for him! He just gets bored! Would rather be doing something where he can move around.
Definitely doesn't mind picking up a manga every now and again though.
Now as for what he reads. Well. Here's the things. He's actually a real softy at heart and a sucker for romance.
How does he discover this? Totally by accident, he swears.
He went in to pick up a couple shonen series and the shonen jump issue (he doesn't have a subscription he just picks it up on occassion) and the cashier accidentally mixed up a shoujo series into the bag that was on the counter on the side.
Tanaka didn't realise until he got home and for some reason he just never bothered returning it. He had paid for it after all. He might as well read it.
The thing is once he did, he couldn't put it down! He had to read another and another. He was hooked. And what was this serious? Well guess what it was also Kimi ni Todoke!
That gets him hooked on Shoujo romances and has him going in buying more series. He buys one for every two shonen series he gets, hiding it under them at the casier mentally telling them 'They're totally for my sister.' as if they can read his mind.
Doesn't get too embarassed if you ask him about it though it's just an awkward flush of the cheeks and 'Yeah, I like them.' Because Tanaka is one to stay true to himself.
Okay but because he reads a lot of it he kind of gets real sappy ideas about romance and dating.
All those ideas about being a gentlemen? Carrying your bad, walking on the side of the sidewalk closest to the road, standing in front of you during confrontations? All further reinforced by reading those manga.
Has a cute little blushy face when he reads the confession scenes too. Hopes to be that cool when he confesses on day.
If you like manga he really likes sharing that with you. Going to bookstores together, he vibes on just watching you browse with a content look on your face.
Will buy you anything you want. Even if its a whole stack. Tanaka is slamming those bills down and paying. Anything to make you happy and see that smile on your face.
KENMA KOZUME
Kenma started reading and collecting manga when his parents forced him to have a hobby other than gaming. Something about resting his eyes from screens.
He did already sort of like reading manga anyway. Was into series like the legend of zelda because of the game. Also collects the standard shonen jump series like one piece, hunter x hunter and naruto too.
The thing about Kenma is he started out with the popular stuff and then he branched out and collected a bit of everything the more he read.
He has a bit of everything from each demographic. Has your Sailormoon, Fruits basket and NANA from your shoujo. Josei like Chihayafuru, shonen/seinin like JoJo's bizarre adventure, fullmetal alchemist, AOT, Gintama, Tokyo Ghoul.
As time goes on he'll collect ones like Given, I hear the sunspot and Blue Flag too.
Likes going to art stalls and places he can collect fan djs and art books too. Isn't really big on chit chat but will say a sweet 'I like your work.' Then pays and scurries off with a little happy face.
Like buying work of his favourite games and characters at the same time. Especially at conventions. Hates the crowds but finds this worth it.
Appreciates being able to do these things with you. Bonus if you like doing them too. If you simply go just to be with him he'll just swoon lol.
Back to the manga. He likes the anime adaptions too but doesn't always get a lot of time to watch them. Prefers games after all. If he does though he prefers to watch the anime after he's read the manga.
Loves watching the anime as a way to spend time with you though after you both have read the manga. Loves being able to compare and criticise it together. Just cuddling and vibing.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Reads books/manga: Semi Eita, Kuroo Tetsurou, Yamaguchi Tadashi, Yaku Morisuke
Reads manga: Hinata Shouyou, Atsumu Miya, Kunimi Akira, Hoshiumi Korai, Nishinoya Yuu, Kindaichi Yuutarou
Reads books: Sugawara Koushi, Yachi Hitoka, Oikawa Tooru, Kita Shinsuke
Reads food packaging and social media: Kageyama Tobio, Suna Rintarou, Kiyoko Shimizu
#haikyuu requests#haikyuu x reader#haikyuu headcanons#hq x reader#hq headcanons#tendou satori headcanons#tendou satori x reader#tendou satori#tendou headcanons#tendou fluff#tendou x reader#tanaka x reader#tanaka ryuunosuke#tanaka ryunosuke x reader#tanaka headcanons#tanaka ryuunosuke x reader#tanaka ryuunosuke headcanons#kenma x reader#kenma headcanons#kenma kozume#kenma kozume x reader#kenma kozume fluff#kenma kozume x you#kenma fluff#kenma kozume headcanons
117 notes
·
View notes
Note
Heyyyyy love! If you don't mind me asking, what app do you use for writing?
HEY! I don't mind AT ALL. The bad news is that I am wildly inconsistent but the good news is that if you are looking for options, I have SEVERAL.
90% of the time I draft in google docs and then move around between different software depending on my needs.
The major exception to this is during November for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I've alternated between using Scrivner and LivingWriter from year to year.
Scrivner is more robust and integrates with a lot of other planning software. It's a one time payment, but doesn't store anything on the cloud. You'll have to manually export/re-import and keep version files if you use this.
LivingWriter is on the cloud, is a little more clean-looking and user friendly in terms of use, but is a subscription service. I travel a LOT so I wound up switching to this. It also has story beats outlined for you in a template if that's important to you. I still prefer scrivener but switching between mac/pc was killing me.
If I am getting especially distracted, then I turn to Writing Analytics. This is fantastic if you're really into tracking data for how much you write or want to build a habit and see the little boxes get checked off. I wind up exporting all files to either Scrivner or LW after the fact.
After I have something drafted up, I usually will send to Grammarly or ProWritingAid. I am leaning more towards ProWriting Aid these days since it's geared more towards creative writing than Grammarly. I cannot write in either software however, b/c my brain will want to edit at the same time and that slows me down.
If you want other really cool software for writing (specifically for plotting). I think these are a combo of free, paid, limited free etc.
Lynit - Really great for outlining complex stories that you need to untangle in your brain. I don't think it exports right now, but the devs are really responsive and could probably help you figure out an alternative. (Free for 2 weeks)
Obsidian - If you are the type of person who likes to world build and get lost in the details or want a writing editor that's a bit more bare bones, this is great. And it's free!
Plottr - if you want to plot out your story and see how events visually line up with each other this is for you (and exports into Scrivner). It's one time payment and lives on the cloud.
Miro - where I go to plot out my interactive stories! It's totally free and has so much flexibility in how you use it.
I hope this helps <3
EDIT: If this was about the bar graphs... I just used a random website.
21 notes
·
View notes
Text
Episode 47 S5: Mana Runs too Slow and it Kills 2 People
Tumblr decided to change the way it does image posts so this is going to be my hell. I can only have max 30 "blocks" of images (yikes) and uploading all your images at once and then just adding text in between is actually not possible! (least it's a nightmare on browser. I have not figured out how to drag my text in between images, so I'm just uploading every image one by one and hoping I don't forget one)
thanks, I hate it!
Peeking up at us over the horizon, our end of the world apocalypse has reached the next step of his rampage: which is to shoot glowing missiles out of it's Dragon crotch until Egypt is destroyed.
Seto is doing his best to look productive, but unfortunately this is Sad Seto, who is still buffering.
Just uh...give him a minute. He has to remember how to be Seto.
(read more under the cut)
I'm pretty sure Kissara told him straight up to call her whenever, and considering how few words they've ever said to each other, you'd think he'd remember the words she said like half an hour ago. Then again, he was kind of...sleeping when that happened. Or hallucinating, or dreaming, or all three.
Bakura and Yami are watching this pan out from the Shadow Game Zone, Bakura kind of nodding slowly while Yami becomes overwhelmed with embarrassment over how much everyone around him is screwing it. This is not meant to be funny, but it was very funny to me.
I have brought this up before, but Bakura does bring up a good point, that this entire arc was kind of against the grain of who Yami became over the course of the last 4 seasons.
+++++STAND BACK I'M GONNA RANT, FEEL FREE TO SKIP++++
Don't get me wrong, Yami LOVES to make bad choices that end the world. But why would he continue to go back here and destroy the world of the future he knows and loves so much? Especially since it already went SO south with Dartz the last time he opened pandora's box?
He has a new identity now, he has so many friends, last arc was just so many women throwing themselves at Yugi. His life is really good! I think they could have developed more of a line of logic between last arc and this arc, but like with a lot of things in this arc, it was rushed.
So him giving up his newfound modern identity that he made all himself through hard work and friendship first off feels kinda bad. Like I'm OK with him being a new guy, he worked hard for that! Lets not go backward now.
And then him coming here to regain his old identity is sort of like the show knew what it must do, but the characters were like "nah." and then went and did it anyway seemingly at gunpoint.
And I kind of wish there was any contrast between who Yami's new identity is in the future and who Yami was in the past. It would be fascinating to dive into the fact he's now two people yet again, even though Yugi is no longer in that bean. but eh save it for the fanfiction, because they needed to end Yugioh in a certain number of episodes.
And that happens sometimes. Stories are character driven, and when you try and drive the characters, they become less like people and more like iconic symbols. Here's our hero. He must do this because he's the hero. That's it, that's the reason. Welcome to Shonen Jump.
+++++++END RANT AKA THIS ARC HAS COOL IDEAS AND I WISH IT HAD ENOUGH TIME TO DO THEM BETTER++++++++
Problem is, Yami isn't that meta. He's dumb though, so in a way it does make a little sense why he had to open the box. He dummy thin.
Dummy thin and still can't read.
And like in case you've jumped in here after my accidental hiatus (hello!) and not realized this, I had to binge watch the rest of the season before we cancelled our Hulu subscription. There was the option of watching it for free on the Yugioh website, but I didn't want to change my Photoshop actions.
So get ready for me to talk about how the ending of this show bothered me, for like 8 episodes. I'll try to keep it in, so we can get there when we get there.
But you can't say lines like "We were meant to be together." in the context of this arc, you can't DO that, show.
Apparently the creator of Yugioh got hospitalized while he wrote this arc, hence the dick king demon. But also it got....messy. We have like 3 seasons of development in like 8 episodes, buckle up. They did the best that they could do with the resource's given, and we'll even get to meet my favorite character a few times before it's over (the Storyboarding God that occasionally guest stars on Yugioh, love that guy)
Back on the playing field, Yami is running out of options, when Isis informs us we can just go to McDonald's and get more McGuffins.
Out of basically no where, Mana zips onto the screen because she's ready to have at least one girl's night before the end of the world. The contrasting energy from both Mana and Isis is peak goth babysitter vs the parrot that hides behind the couch and bites your feet.
Back near Pharaoh's tomb, Yugi is still dueling over a deathpit with the child who these kids think is Ryou bakura.
This is not however, Ryou Bakura. It's sideways adjacent evil Bakura.
And it didn't really matter that this plot point ever happened because it's not like Yugi, Joey, or Tea ever catch on that this isn't Ryou anyway. But at least I, the audience can feel a little bit better about the weird twist by the dub there.
Ryou is still passed out on some stone steps. He's fine.
You might be wondering "Oh so what asinine thing is Isis going to have to do to get the items back?" and uh, you're wrong actually.
Turns out we could have just picked up the items in the desert at any time but I guess we forgot. I'll blame it on Shadi.
Joey Wheeler, who can punch out probably anything but a ghost, chooses to hide behind Tea because he knows she can punch a ghost and I believe it, too.
Back on the surface, is a scene that would have been emotional if it hadn't been 3 minutes. it was NOT enough time to give a proper send off to our girl Isis here, and they tried, but if you imagine the Yakety Sax song playing under this death here, that's about the speed at which this girl biffed it.
speaking of Yakety Sax theme, this is what was happening while Mana was crying her eyes out.,
And you may ask, was it really that goofy? and yes, yes it was.
and like I get it, animation and pacing are really, really hard. Parts of me wonder if maybe on paper this seemed OK. If maybe even as a storyboard this seemed OK. But something you learn quickly when doing any sort of narrative art, is that you need like 2x as much space as you think you do. Pause is an underrated godlike skill that takes a lifetime to master.
However, it still had good stills going on, it still had some lovely direction just...I mean they dropped Isis from top to bottom of that frame so freakin fast it was like she was a dropped banana hahaha.
They still have to carry these items physically to the Pharaoh, and so becuase Mana is a slow runner, 2 people freakin died this episode distracting Zorc. Which is also the title of this episode because I want to send home howfreakin funny that is to me.
Ah, back to Episode 1.
So how breathtaking and epic is the Kaiju fight you ask? Well good thing for you, I capped it.
The look on Seto and Yami's faces about sum it up.
And as quickly as he showed up to do a few silly punches, the great Exodia was cut exactly in half. Don't ask me how the card logic works for that, I have forgotten how this game works already.
Mana finally makes it to Yami, cursed puzzle in hand, and that ends this episode.
Can you imagine adding 7 characters to a story knowing you have to kill all of them individually before the anime arc is over? Breakneck deaths going on here.
Sorry for all you people that were so deeply attached to Shimon, the guy who isn't even Grandpa, by the way. A moment of silence for all 4 of you.
And we get back this thing. This horrible thing made out of thousands of dead people's souls. The thing that trapped him for 5000 years and launched him into the future. The only thing that can save mankind.
(If I have used this Mokuba joke like this before forgive me it was like a different lifetime before I caught covid, and I will not be able to regain those memories because I cannot curse myself with a rude ass puzzle.)
The abusive relationship with the Millennium Puzzle is a whole anime college essay I would write if I had half a brain, but alas I have the immune system and fatigue of a sickly gerbil or a goldfish that feels a little bit chilly. So I will not be writing that in depth episode but like...
Think about how far we've come with this jackass puzzle. And yet, I'm supposed to forgive it? Nah I don't think I have yet. Go to hell, puzzle.
This puzzle can go straight to hell.
Anyway, if you just got here you can read these recaps in chrono order at the link here:
https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono
PS I had to do so much assholery to get that to go to my chrono link and not my main link. They would just. Change my link. They would just change my link every time I pasted it. Tumblr you have GOT to give me my old post editor back omg.
#yugioh#YGO#yu gi oh#photo recap#yugi muto#joey wheeler#tea gardener#seto kaiba#priest seto#demon king bakura#bakura#yami muto#shimon#mana#isis#exodia#S5
33 notes
·
View notes
Text
New Taglist
It's been over a year I think that I made my original Stranger Things taglist and since then -and I'm only sharing this because it is actually incomprehensible to me- over 150 people signed up to be tagged in my fics. So, first of all, I do want to thank everyone who has done so.
Unfortunately, with such a huge list, there are some problems that come up. Some people have perhaps changed their URLs, or hadn't filled them in correctly, so I have not been able to tag them properly, and also Tumblr has lovingly made a 50~ tag limit per post, which means I have to reblog my fics several times to make sure everyone gets notified which takes a lot of time and effort.
I have also realised that I would like my tag system to be a bit more specific to ensure that people get tagged in the things they want to read and not see the content they are not comfortable with, so I have made a
New Taglist
brief explanation on the update:
from now on, and let this post be an example already, tagging will be done through reblogs of my new side-blog @uglypastels-taglist. this is so I will not be clogging up people's feed, and also maybe making the notifications a bit clearer. since that account will always mean UPDATE!
I am including more questions for even more specifics when considering content/trigger warnings
I will be checking for ages. I have always said that smut is 18+ only, but I would prefer if those who want to be tagged in that content have their age specified somewhere on their blog. Minors/ageless blogs signing up for NSFW content will be removed from the lists.
No idea how it will work exactly, but I have permitted response post-editing, so you should be able to change your answers after submitting.
I am also including a question box for song recommendations for a collaborative reading playlist. just as a little fun project :).
Book Club Playlist
If you have added yourself to my old taglist and wish to remain being tagged in my fics, please fill out this new form. See it as a [completely free] subscription renewal lol
33 notes
·
View notes
Text
Todays rip: 20/02/2024
Chex Invaders
Season 4 Episode 1
No Album Release (Read More)
Circus (Chex Mix) - Five Nights at Freddy's
Ripped by LiterallyNoOne
youtube
Requested by Realchickenmanny! (@realchickenmanny)
So remember back when I said in Goodbye To Love that I'd be providing some sort of further explanation to the Circus rips at a later date? Uh, yeah - that later date is today, and I still...don't really know how to properly explain it.
It all feels like a giant web of in-jokes that were never quite properly explained, culminating into a channel-long mainstay to the channel. SiIvaGunner presents itself as a place for listening to edited video game music, and it certainly stuck to that for...at least its first few weeks? That blurry line would get pushed and prodded with rips of "Nintendo Direct themes", rips of fake games like Battle Theme - Zeno Blade Chronicle X, and rips that didn't contain the original track supposedly being ripped at all for a complete bait and switch - all of it leading up to the release of Rip Squad, the first Circus rip ever, on March 16th, 2016. In just 37 seconds, it manages to be extremely memorable from just how good the execution is, with the beginning music box jingle, the coy transition out of it, followed by the hilarious skrillex-like dubstep drop edited to play the Flintstones theme. Given that the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise was still enjoying meteoric success from the original four games releasing across 2014 and 2015, yet lacked much of any music to rip on SiIva, to do this sort of complete bait-and-switch was a pretty fun workaround for a one-time gag. Yeah. One time gag.
Except, with just that one rip, NBGMusic had seemingly summoned a monster - due to the Circus theme technically just being the ditty playing at the first few seconds of the rip, any remaining runtime could be dedicated to doing exactly what Rip Squad itself did - quite literally anything on the planet, related to video game music or not. Circus thus became home to every kind of rip under the sun, with the very same song being ripped again and again and again with different "mix" names for each one to at least ATTEMPT to distinguish them. Trust me, "Chex Mix", as Chex Invaders dons, is far from the most absurd mix name out there, and given their sheer variety going to the Five Nights at Freddy's playlist alone is akin to playing a ripper-based game of russian roulette.
But then, let's return to Chex Invaders then - because with the unlimited freedom that Circus rips provided, not even asking rippers to come up with fake games to loosely attach their rip jokes to, they were free to go absolutely hog wild with whatever concepts they could think of. I praised Plantasia 2 yesterday for just how well the theming of its joke and game ripped matched together, yet Circus mix embody the complete opposite side of that spectrum, and take full advantage of it. The only tie that Chex Invaders has to your expectations is the dubstep-adjacent electronic music featured in it, which many rips taking after Rip Squad also did, but it's not as if that's at all a constant for Circus rips - that rule was broken by Chaze the Chat himself just a month after the Circus rips began.
No, Chex Invaders isn't playing on any sort of emotional attachment you may have to Five Nights at Freddy's, not any sort of expectations on the part of viewers upon clicking - it simply appeared in SiIvaGunner fans' subscription boxes like a face-down card, its true intentions unknown to those who didn't click it. Those who did, however, were met with one of the few contributions to SiIvaGunner by the excellent artist LiterallyNoOne, still going strong today with 245K subscribers on YouTube. And while I'm unfamiliar with their more numerous contributions to fan channel TimmyTurnersGrandDad (as mentioned in V-v-v-v-v-a-V-v-v-v-v-v-r), Chex Invaders alone proves their talents to me in its sheer quality. The base track Space Invaders by Teminite & MDK is played with in so many creative ways, from sections of melody-swapping in and out of one another, to overlaying vocals from other songs and clips onto the song, to full-on mashups, to moments doing all three in harmony...the amount of jokes featured, especially during Season 4 Episode 1, feels almost overwhelming! From the first four years of the channel's life, there's only a few channel mainstay jokes to NOT be featured here, from Flintstones to Snow Halation to CaptainSparklez to Megalovania to Inspector Gadget, yet it all ebbs and flows in and out of one another at such a befitting pace. A calmer moment in the song will play Fireflies, a more ominous section plays 8-Bit Beast's Haunted House (see Maroon 5 more like Maroon 8 hehehehehehe), the beat drop at one point is a single "op" from Gangnam Style - for having SO many different pieces of SiIvaGunner's long history in play, for being a rip made by just one person, it all fits together shockingly well, to where I almost forget that Space Invaders is a song that exists outside of this rip!
Loud, bizarre, unexplainable, and as memorable for their contents as they are easy to forget from their titles and presentation...Circus rips on SiIvaGunner are a true enigma, and I'm really not sure if I've even listened to them all. Yet there's rarely one that's disappointed me thus far - without a source game to pull from, it feels as if a rip almost has to be inherently interesting to have even been submitted as a Circus rip to begin with. Chex Invaders most certainly isn't an example of just HOW deep the rabbithole goes with these rips - but it is an example of an absolute banger from them.
#todays siivagunner#season 4 episode 1#siivagunner#siiva#LiterallyNoOne#tentative rip name#circus rip#fnaf#five nights at freddy's#teminite#mdk#electronic music#electronic dance music#dubstep#space invaders#Youtube
9 notes
·
View notes
Photo
On food and groceries:
How to Shop for Groceries like a Boss
Why Name Brand Products Are Beneath You: The Honor and Glory of Buying Generic
If You Don’t Eat Leftovers I Don’t Even Want to Know You
You Are above Bottled Water, You Elegant Land Mermaid
You Should Learn To Cook. Here’s Why.
On entertainment and socializing:
The Frugal Introvert’s Guide to the Weekend
7 Totally Reasonable Ways To Save Money on Cheap Entertainment
Take Pride in Being a Cheap Date
The Library Is a Magical Place and You Should Fucking Go There
Your Library Lets You Stream Audiobooks and eBooks FOR FREEEEEEE!
What’s the Effect of Social Media on Your Finances?
You Won’t Regret Your Frugal 20s
On health:
How to Pay Hospital Bills When You’re Flat Broke
Run With Me if You Want to Save: How Exercising Will Save You Money
Our Master List of 100% Free Mental Health Self-Care Tactics
Why You Probably Don’t Need That Gym Membership
On other big expenses:
Businesses Will Happily Give You HUGE Discounts if You Ask This Magic Question
Understand the Hidden Costs of Travel and Avoid Them Like the Plague
Other People’s Weddings Don’t Have to Make You Broke
You Deserve Cheap, Fake Jewelry… Just Like Coco Chanel
3 Times I Was Damn Grateful for My Emergency Fund (and Side Income)
When (and How) to Try Refinancing or Consolidating Student Loans
The Real Story of How I Paid Off My Mortgage Early in 4 Years
Season 2, Episode 2: “I’m Not Ready to Buy a House—But How Do I *Get Ready* to Get Ready?”
The Most Impactful Financial Decision I’ve Ever Made… and Why I Don’t Recommend It
On buying secondhand and trading:
Almost Everything Can Be Purchased Secondhand
I Am a Craigslist Samurai and so Can You: How to Sell Used Stuff Online
The Delicate Art of the Friend Trade
On giving gifts and charitable donations:
How Can I Tame My Family’s Crazy Gift-Giving Expectations?
In Defense of Shameless Regifting
Make Sure Your Donations Have the Biggest Impact by Ruthlessly Judging Charities
The Anti-Consumerist Gift Guide: I Have No Gift to Bring, Pa Rum Pa Pum Pum
How to Spot a Charitable Scam
Ask the Bitches: How Do I Say “No” When a Loved One Asks for Money… Again?
On resisting temptation:
How to Insulate Yourself From Advertisements
Making Decisions Under Stress: The Siren Song of Chocolate Cake
The Magically Frugal Power of Patience
6 Proven Tactics for Avoiding Emotional Impulse Spending
On minimalism and buying less:
Don’t Spend Money on Shit You Don’t Like, Fool
Everything I Know About Minimalism I Learned from the Zombie Apocalypse
Slay Your Financial Vampires
The Subscription Box Craze and the Mindlessness of Wasteful Spending
On saving money:
How To Start Small by Saving Small
Not Every Savings Account Is Created Equal
The Unexpected Benefits (and Downsides) of Money Challenges
Budgets Don’t Work for Everyone—Try the Spending Tracker System Instead
From HYSAs to CDs, Here’s How to Level Up Your Financial Savings
Season 2, Episode 10: “Which Is Smarter: Getting a Loan? or Saving up to Pay Cash?”
The Magic of Unclaimed Property: How I Made $1,900 in 10 Minutes by Being a Disorganized Mess
#saving money#being frugal#money advice#personal finance#how to save money#impulse spending#spend less
3K notes
·
View notes
Text
Greetings Ladys, gentlemen and... things, today I'll be posting my first headcanons but for what you may ask? ...go on ask me... I'll assume you asked
It's for Honkai Star Rail!
Now over time I will indulge in a bit if smut but for more I'll just probably mention characters doing something lewd or shit for one reason or another anyway let's begin!
Honkai Star Rail headcanons 1:
Stelle:
She's a lost puppy god damn, if she gets attached to someone and they wander off from the friend group she will not hesitate to go off with them
Stelle has more then occasionally had to run from law enforcement because she beat someone for bothering her friends too much
She occasionally just doesn't wear a bra and if someone points it out she'd genuinely have to remember what that is
She can and will bring a trashcan into the Astral Exress if no one stops her last time no one stopped her record was twelve in one room
Stelle will spend a good while on figuring out the perfect song to play in the Express for the day... only to just put it back to Take the Journey it's a good song I can't blame her
Stelle has made copys of their wanted posters and put them up in the Express Welt and Dan Heng have learned to not both with them but March can't stop taking the ones of her down only for seven more to appear
Silver Wolf:
As a gamer you'd expect her room to look like a tornado rolled through well you're very wrong! You foolishly foolish fool she's so meticulous in certain games she's had it bleed out into her real life
Wolfie have more then once stolen Blade's crdit card to use on monthly subscriptions ...not like he knows how to use that thing anyway
Sliver Wolf is a brat change my mind doesn't matter the scenario as long as it isn't life threatening if she finds it funny she'll be a brat
While yes she is amazing at multiplayer games she actually prefers single player and party games think, Mario Party, Smash Bros, The Jackbox series stuff like that one time she got Kafka and Blade to join her in Smash Bros and dear lord the look of Confusion on Blade's face
On the daily she will wear something similar to a hazmat suit and take all her limited edition collectibles and clean then meticulously from dusting off boxes to fixing any mistakes it has to make it absolutely perfect
She try's to make a ligament playlist to listen to but it somehow always get infested by video game osts and when asked for good song recommendations she takes a second to not say a video game song unless it's unironically good
Natasha:
Ask her what sleep it she'll take a couple seconds to respond because this woman doesn't sleep yet she tells everyone else to sleep
An entire corner of her room is dedicated to stuffed animals and she'll have a full on ceremony when she plans to gift one of them to one of the kids
She definitely listens to to System Of A Down in the same playlist as Barbie Girl but no one knows ...about Barbie Girl no one except it from her for some reason
Natasha sets up play dates with the kids and herself many times she has played the princess needing rescue and on occasion she'll play the hero or villain if requested to
On accident some of the kids managed to get her grenade launcher and she had a full on panic attack luckily it had no ammo but afterwards she kept it closer by at all times
Natasha in her free time likes to spend it with a cup of coffee and any one of the solitaire versions or any of those old computer games like minesweeper and has become unironically really good at it
Ah well that will do it for now, I'm only doing three for now as they're the three I would say, I know the best but I do feel like Natasha's wasn't as good as it could be I don't know why though, but I may see you all tomorrow with another post
Goodnight my lovely audience!
18 notes
·
View notes
Note
Hi! I just read your tutorial on making your own media server (it's great! I'm going to use an old laptop and a big external hard drive for now before I buy anything, thanks so much for writing it!) I had a question completely off topic, how did you make your Windows 11 look like that? You have a screenshot of your desktop with labelled boxes for sorting icons and your task bar looks completely different.
I use Fences and Start11 to modify the look and functionality of Windows. I've been using Fences for years, it's great, unfortunately Stardock has started following the "yearly subscription" model for their software, they still allow you to buy a permanent license, but it's a lot more expensive than it used to be, I got grandfathered in at a lower cost. It's up to you if it's worth it, but there is an open source alternative called Nimi Places that looks alright. I really do like Fences though, it's one of my essential programs, really keeps my desktop much more organized and things like Folder Portals and multiple desktops are A+ features.
As for Start11, well Windows 11 is a lot better than 10 in all sorts of "under-the-hood" ways, it has much better task scheduling, and it's much more efficient which results in noticeable performance gains in many games. Microsoft also did introduce a few very nice QOL features like a tabbed file explorer if you still prefer using the default Windows File Explorer over something like Q-Dir. That said, they fucked up the Start Menu. It's useless and cluttered with all sorts of shitty internet results and now AI bullshit. Start11 lets you get change the style of the start menu and make it actually useful. Want something closer to the Windows 7 Start Menu? You got it. How about something minimal? You got it. Again there is an open source alternative in StartAllBack, I've not used it myself but I hear good things.
But yeah, I recommend both if they're not too pricey for you, definitely go for the permanent license option, otherwise the free open source alternatives are out there. I'm very much an advocate of making your computer your computer i.e. if you don't like the way something works, find a way to change it. I swear, the moment there's a Linux distro that has 100% Windows software compatibility and non-shit audio drivers I am switching over.
For anyone confused by this, there's a screenshot of what my desktop looks like just under the read more.
Now isn't that much nicer than the default?
7 notes
·
View notes
Note
I finally read your last fix and it just… did not do it for me. I found it implausible and you hammered Lucy’s internal monoulge into us too heavily. I am hoping that your next fic is lighter and has less original characters. I wanted more Jesse and Kai and less of the people you created. They were fine, but not who I was interested in reading about. You are a good fic writer. I wish you would focus on what people want to read.
Friends. Romans. Countrymen. Anons.
I don't usually publish this stuff, but I have lost count of the number of times I've gotten asks like this in my inbox lately - specifically since joining this fandom. It's been anon message after anon message. And each increasingly more, like, offensive as they go on.
It's one thing to read someone's fic and nope out of it after a few minutes, then go about your business without telling anyone that you didn't like it. It's even one thing to tell your friends, hey. This wasn't my jam. But it's another to drop into the creator's ask box, repeatedly, and tell someone how much you didn't enjoy their work or how they didn't create what you wanted them to create.
I love writing. I love to write for myself and I love to write for you guys. Why else would I do this? Why would I spend hours upon hours - not just writing, but brainstorming during work hours or talking with my beta until 3am - working on something if I didn't want to share it with people? I'm certainly not getting paid to do this. I get exactly $0.00 to do this. But that's the best part about fandom, right? Sharing your work so everyone gets to enjoy it. For free! No subscription required.
I obviously know everyone isn't going to enjoy everything, but people like this make it impossible for creators to even enjoy creating. I won't speak for everyone, but it makes me look at other things I was planning on creating for this fandom and I just... don't want to anymore. I don't want to put my stuff out there. I'm hanging up the gloves for a while and messages like this are the exact reason why.
You can't go into people's askboxes, on anon (which tbh, is very cowardly, I'm not gonna lie), and drop messages like this. You can't go into creator's spaces and drop this kind of a message and expect the creator to want to keep pushing through this shit.
What it does is push people out of creating. Like, when people trace back why they left, some of it is messages like this. It's people who treat fandom members like they owe people something. We're out here doing this for fun! You're like a kid spitting on our birthday cake before we can blow out the candles.
It's poor form for a fandom, tbh. It's poor form across all fandoms.
Do better. Or do it better. Your choice.
#i was gonna put this under a 'read more' but i really feel like this needs to be said#i don't expect you to like everything i create but i'm not in your kitchen telling you that your homemade mac and cheese tastes like#you got it out of a box you know?#and anyway this fic is OVER#it is done it cannot be undone#count me out of fandom for a while y'all i need a break
167 notes
·
View notes
Text
Bookbinding for Beginners by a Beginner Part 2
Am back there were some things that I missed stating in my last post. And starting up where I mean to continue. I may add things as I go, fair warning, but there is a lot to cover and sometimes I walk away and go "Welp.... forgot that thing". But for the sake of things not being overwhelming I tried to get the most "Up front" stuff done and out of the way in part one.
And I would like to take this time to say: Take it slow, pace yourself. There is no race. And the learning curve is steep in areas. You have to be ok with making mistakes because it WILL happen. Accept that you've made a mistake but don't get upset with lost time or materials. Make a note of what happened and have a journal on hand if you'd like to see how far you've come and the "OK so.... that didn't work. Don't do that again." At the end of the day we're here to line our shelves with lovely wonderful stories and have the pride of "I did this ain't that cool?"
There are a few optional things you might want to consider.
A paper guillotine this is to make the pages of your bind more tidy, but there is nothing wrong with a deckled edge.
example of deckled edges. It's just a fancy way of saying 'uneven'. There are ways to trim your project with a crafting knife / box cutter and a ruler but my experiments have yielded not so great results. Likely, it's due to several factors: One I don't know my own strength half the time, Two "light but firm pressure" means exactly "Well which is it cause for me those are two different things". Three See one. So deckled edges it is. But if you splurge on a paper guillotine, I salute you. You can also take it slower with a more traditional paper cutter but I recommend measuring twice before committing to a tape marker of where to line your pages up. It is up to you.
Optional but fun: Scrap book paper for decorative end pages. It's fun hunting around a craft store and finding what suits the vibe of the fic you're binding. My only note is aim for something that's not too stiff aim for something fairly easily folded and thin. Card stock like paper won't lay nicely in your book.
End bands these will go on the edge of the spine of your fic but over top of the mull (What is mull? That's coming up)
Mull which is essentially stiff cheese cloth this will add extra structure to your bind
Another option is a Subscription to Canva I only say this because you can sign up for free, but some of the options are locked behind a pay wall. It's fun to play with but the Pro version of Canva also lets you resize your canvas and do custom sizes. I have also done my binders logo in Canva (I actually have two as variants). I also use it to make decorative cover pages.
For your viewing pleasure this is what I came up with. Fun fact about me, I'm a thalassophile (I love the sea and everything about it) since I was consciously aware of the sea. The primary reason WHY I got into book binding is because I am going to be eventually moving onto and living and working off of a boat.
Lucky Seas Bookbinding one and two. Depending on what I feel like using.
Cricut all cricut accessories- there is a mini cricut if you want to dip your toe in. IF you go this route you'll need "HTV" or "Heat Transfer Vinyl"
You can also build your covers in canva and get as cost saving options
Printable sticker paper. OR Heat transfer paper
But this is stuff for covers. I'll get into what you need for covering the chipboard in a minute and give you a "Recipe" for book cloth (Cause I ain't got time nor the funds for some of the book cloth that is out there) but if you want to splurge for your project by all means look and see what is out there. But make note of this- you can just cover your book case in paper and just use sticker paper. I will recommend getting some sort of transparent contact paper to protect your cover (I will go through all of this in future just make a mental note of this)
Now for I promised:
I will be using Celestial Navigation as my example fic of how to down load a fic.
You're going to go to AO3 and go alllll the way over to "Download" and hit "HTML" you can either have it pop open right away or you can go to your downloads and open it up along with your word processor of choice.
You're going to hit Control A (PC) or Command A (Mac), Control/Command C, and then go to your word processor and hit Control/Command V. And listen to the take off noise your computer brand of choice inevitably wants to do while the fic makes it's way from the HTML over to the word processor.
What this all did was copy EVERYTHING and plop EVERYTHING (Save for comments) onto your document. Feel free to save what you have this far and pat yourself on the back you're about to start type facing.
I'm a minimalist in my designs but I have expanded a touch in terms of what I'm doing just to know and experiment for what works for me and what doesn't.
I will reiterate that I will be using Microsoft Word but I'm sure there's away to do this on other processors I just don't know how to do the other one's. I know Mac has something called "Pages". I never worked with it. I will try to add as many visuals as possible but some of my instructions will be "Go to this tab, click X Y and Z to make a thing happen".
Just know that this is what works for me and this is how I've managed to bumble through thus far. This is hardly perfect and I'm still very much experimenting with EVERYTHING. IF you find a better simpler way of doing things- by all means do so.
There's even a way to set up a template when you fire up Word but I've yet to figure it out.
But for now the fun begins- there is some tedium with this but it's best done with music or something on in the background that you can easily listen too but not watch.
First and foremost what you need to do is make the formatting into "Booklet" How to get there is:
Next up hit command A again. Yes... trust me. There might be a lot of this going on for a little bit while you fiddle and fart your way into a typeset you like.
Indent first line and line spacing is found here: Home Tab, Paragraph section hit the arrow pointing down towards the document- next to that is Line and Breaks- hit that if widow and orphan control is clicked unclick it what that does is allows paragraphs to be broken up and will flow into the next page.
Widow/Orphan control example:
Font: For me personally I do Garamond at 11 or 12 depending on my mood. I just like how it looks but find a font type that pleases your eye.
To get rid of hyperlinks:
Line spacing I set mine to 1.5 lines for easier reading. You can keep it to 1 or bump it up to two but the more space between lines means the larger the text block (AKA the book itself) will be.
Now I go back and highlight all of the fic information, and go to the popup menu after highlighting and take the line spacing down to 1 and remove the indents.
I also like to go to the headings section and get rid of the indents one by one on the chapter headings and then center them in the page. Go in front of the Chapter title EX "Chapter 1" and hit backspace until the indent is gone Highlight, there should be a pop up that allows you to change formatting, font and where the indent is.
This is all in the Layout Tab of Word:
Margins- I keep my margins at 1" all directions just because of how it looks on the page but you can have that as narrow as you please.
Next Page- separating the document to make type facing easier. What this does is make the document have "Chapters" within the document. Do this between Chapter one and the first few pages- the opening blank pages, title page ECT.
Double click on the header and footer on the document itself and click "link to previous"
What this does is make sure headers and footers (page numbers and the like) do NOT go up to the "Section" above the area you're working.
Word of note- I like having Chapters start at the beginning of a fresh page so I will go to the beginning of the Chapter Title "Chapter One" and hit "Next Section" and it will jump automatically to a new page.
You might also want to open up the navigation panel so you can hit the headings tab (I have mine set with Navigation Panel already open I don't recall how to get there, play around BUT the Navigation Panel will look akin to this on the Left Hand side of the document:
I downloaded "The Prize" to continue the examples as best I can sometimes it's hard to screen grab what I need on an already done document.
You can also add section breaks but leave it linked to previous to continue page number flow.
So you know selecting "Different odd and even pages" means that if you set a fun or different font for the page numbers you will have to go to ex page 2 and unlink the section from the previous.
Do this for headers as well. But that this does is give you the option to put the author's name and fic title alternating on odd and even pages:
Headers and footers:
With headers and footers section still highlighted hit "Page Number" "Format Page Numbers" Hit "Start at" and hit "One" for the section with the main text body.
This... I will admit took some fiddling for me to figure out. There were some frustrated noises and some choice words at times. But if you hit Layout, Next Page it should prevent you some heart ache instead of just constantly hitting the Enter Key and hoping for the best.
Different Odd and Even Pages what this means and how it works:
In my experience you will have to go to the first 1-3 pages to unlink everything from the Previous Section so it doesn't show up on the beginning pages of the document- but if you like the look of it, more power too you. It's your fic. It's going to be on your shelf at the end of the day. Follow your joy. I'm just letting you know what I do.
You will also have to unlink to previous section with the footers as well, and if you choose a different font and you want the numbers to match through the whole text you will have to input that. Hit the "Pages" Navigation and use that to scroll through things quickly so you can check your work and see if you're happy.
I'm kinda a fan of leaving the headers with the author's name and fic title alternating on pages OFF but I have experimented with it a little bit just to know what it looks like and what it does.
But here is an example of alternating Headers for Sabrecmc's "The Prize" (It was on my To Bind List and since Sabrecmc has given their blessing I'm hoping they don't mind me going "Alright people need visuals.... and this is what I'm working on."
To get the header from the left to the right side- hit tab and type what you please you can also highlight and set colour and font type. This is just Garamond for now for ease of example and reading for now.
Choices choices choices.
Some fic binders like to keep everything including author's comments at the beginning and ends of fics. Personally, I remove them just to keep the flow of everything. You can have a section at the back of the fic if you'd like with all of the comments but that is entirely up to your own personal preference. This is the fic for your shelf make it in a way that makes you happy.
Now all the way at the top of the fic I want you to insert 6 blank pages. But keep in mind this is front and back of pages in a book. Two blank pages on the document equals one page. Some binders go more than that depending on what all they like to do. You'll figure out what you like and what works for your project. Think Bob Ross- Happy little trees and do what you want.
But for me in the document: Pages 1 and 2 are blank as a sort of buffer page, 3 is the title page with the fic name and author and likely some simple design, 4 is all of the fic information- I keep the pairing, chapters, any additional or important tags or warnings, rating and a QR code to link back to the original fic. Page 5 is either left blank but I have added images as something fun for the hell of it that fits the fic, page 6 is my logo. In earlier experiments I played with where my logo goes this works for me I think but it may change in the future. IF you want to have a table of contents by all means add some pages to do so. I don't find it necessary so I don't do it.
To insert an image- for QR codes or title pages:
QR codes can also be just dragged and dropped I've been lazy and dragged and dropped and resized them from there.
I also put a disclaimer in red font: "This is for personal use only and is not intended to be sold! Retail value is estimated 25$" That is to cover the cost of the materials you have used or made in the process of your book that way if your fic somehow ends up in a donation bin it can't be sold for very much.
This is what the info section of a completed fic looks like for me:
To insert an image:
Insert Tab (Next to Home Tab) , Picture- next to the "Table" section, hit the drop down menu and hit "Upload from this device" and select where you have saved the QR Code to, desktop downloads what have you.
It should appear on your document and you can resize it as you please, if you click on the image there should be a pop up with a grey looking rainbow with lines- that's important for QR codes I have it "in line with text"
for fun headers "Have image behind text"
This is.... getting LONG as hell... so I'm going to stop here. But this should give you a jumping off point to start with your fan binding. Play around! Have fun.
Last few Tips:
Home Tab- in the paragraph section- if you need to know what the nitty gritty of what's going on in the document is- hit the backwards looking "P" with the line that's the sign for "Enter" on your keyboard. So you can see what that looks like I don't use it cause it clutters everything for my eyes, but it won't show on the final product. You can turn that on and off at your leisure
Insert Section: Scroll along the top until you see "Word art" one more over "Drop Cap", That's how you can get fancy letters at the beginning of the chapter. Sometimes you DO need to add some spaces between the Letter you're Drop capping and the rest BUT what that window looks like is this When you hit "Drop Cap Options" you can set whatever font you please for however many lines I typically do 3 but the more lines you drop the larger the letter. Tinker with it have fun.
There will likely be more type facing goodies next post... but after I get done type facing I'll get into getting the document ready for printing, how to print and what to do with that shopping list I gave you in that previous post.
REFERENCES, LINKS AND HELPFUL PEOPLE!
Some links for your consideration you will need this for future reference so book mark these:
French Link Stitch
Perfect bound books (AKA Paper backs)
Fun Fonts to spice up the document body itself, you can also import them into Canva.
Da font
1001 Free Fonts
Another resource to keep in mind for ink is this site here if you have cartridge printers see if you can't get a refillable set for your printer so you don't have to sell your arms, your legs, your first born and your house to keep printing your fic projects.
These two tiktokers right here explained everything the best, they are worth checking out even if you don't have Tik Tok. They've been going at this longer than me and don't go "OH SHIT I FORGOT A THING" constantly.
EDIT ONE!
This is the punch cradle I have it makes it easy for french links for me
HoneyMinCo Sea Lemon
11 notes
·
View notes
Text
How to Steal Youtube like your Dad Stole Cable: A non-comprehensive guide.
Piracy is cool and you should do it.
I mean it, I fully condone the theft of copyrighted material online for the masses. You should consider the relative prices of a sturdy VPN to the cost of all your monthly streaming subscriptions and see what I mean: The mere fact that so many of these services trade the same movies back and forth on a bi-monthly basis only proves one thing, They don't respect you or your hard earned money. The prices go up, the services offered get more narrow and ill-defined, and worse to boot, but the torrent sites still exist and they still have everything I could ever want.
There are other guides on how to get any movie or album you want online, and maybe I'll write another, but today I want to talk you through something different. Piracy for the modern age, stealing something that would make the eyes of any tin-foil antenna wielding cable pirate misty with pride.
Let's get around youtube's bullshit under the jump:
We're going for the big dog. We're going… for youtube premium. I'm writing this guide with Firefox and Android in mind, but as far as I'm aware this will work more or less on chromium based browsers as well.
The two web extensions you'll need for your desktop:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sponsorblock/
If you're like me and find yourself in a youtube death spiral more often than you wish, you might want this one too:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/hide-youtube-shorts/
Now, we address the app on your phone. Real heads have known about this trick for years, but it recently came to my attention.
ReVanced is a revival of the original Vanced app modding tool, and what it lets us do is very simple: bypass restrictions in many of our favorite apps like youtube, duolingo and others, so that we can get back essential features that have been paywalled. Specifically for youtube, we can now access off-screen playback, windowed playback, ad-free viewing, and we even GAIN a feature for our trouble, sponsor block, which uses crowdsourced data to find and skip embedded sponsor spots in videos. Think Squarespace and raid:shadow legends.
When you're installing revanced, you need to be careful not to install a pre-made hacked .apk, you really need to apply them yourself because nefarious users are everywhere and WILL send you malware. The ReVanced Manager app makes it very easy anyway, so you shouldn't need to rely on pre-hacked apks anyway.
You can get revanced from their page. Make sure it's the real deal, because there ARE fakes around.
You can find a current or slightly out-of-date youtube app around online very easily if you search. A slightly out of date apk is preferable here, as it means more of the hacks will work out of the box. If you've already downloaded the ReVanced app, then it will suggest a version for you to download.
"What about my TV?!"
I haven't done this one personally, though I do intend to soon. My understanding is that you can use the command line on your fireTV stick to download a hacked app there as well! It's not an Enter The Matrix-tier operation, you just have to type a couple lines into a console. Super simple!
"Why aren't there more links in this post?"
The companies have the internet too, and you probably know how to use it a bit more than they do. Posting links is like handing info to the enemy.
5 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
khatava
Una mirada a las danzas Indias
fawnuh
⋆✭Funky From The Womb Funky to The Tomb✭⋆
worm-in-a-trenchcoat
Wörm
maduroganoso
Sin título
se-juns
victon