#Product design fault

[romanijuva]

This is a nationwide fragrance recall from Aldi stores. Aldi issues 'emergency' notice to shoppers and offers them immediate refunds -

#recall #product design #Product design fault #Fragrance recall #Aldi #Lacura his and her fragrance

[milk-ducts]

here's a cropped flat coloring/wip of my invincible oc aconite grayson <33 waghhg…. my problematic pathetic failure of a girltyrant … soon.. the whole world will know of ur atrocities, ur inevitable downfall and most importantly ur irredeemable actions < 33 ..

rant incoming ,,.. !!!

I've been going through one hell of an art block lately and it's really starting to stress me the fuck out. I've got so many wips and ideas but actually sitting down and drawing anything has felt impossible. I'm open to any tips on getting inspired or bypassing this shit cause I'm struggling hard right now;;;.

On top of that, interacting with others in the invincible fandom has been difficult as hell,,, I get alot of DMs and messages but when I try to reply I just blank out and get too shy to actually say anything worthwhile ;;[ i think all my moots r insanely talented. like fr,, the skill and creativity in this fandom blows me away on the daily. part of the reason interacting has been so hard is bc i feel like i can't match up !! imposter syndrome is a bitch.

ALSO ..ANOTHER THING !! THIS IS IMPORTANT .. because i feel like ive offended some people by doing this but PLEASE know that I'm not ignoring your DMs/msgs on purpose!! I'm usually way more active on discord n or insta, and when I'm not I just get.. scared… !!! I hope we can get close eventually !! don't find me annoying when I spam like your posts,, I just think ur soso real when ur raving about the fucked up lil men in the fandom.. <<

anyways soso sorry for the rant,, i'm just feelin stressed and wanted to get this off my chest. Hopefully talking about it will help get these creative juices flowing again. fingers crossed…!!! lemme know if yall ever wanna chat art or OCs or really anything invincible related. i need more invincible moots ;;..,,,

#invincible oc #aconite grayson #art wip #wip #digital illustration #digital drawing #oc #original character #oc design #character art #oc artwork #oc art #my art #my wips #my wip #milkyrants #finally drawing her ... will talk about her maybe . #she is problematic to A FAULT . #she is seemingly a product of her environment and the inescapable cycle of nolan's fuckups is not lost on her .. #in short shes somehow worse than her father. but even more pathetic too .. #blackhole boywife .. #aconite grayson .. save me aconite grayson . #i love rambling ab her 2 my disc moots.. #reblogs would be well appreciated .. #i love her .. she is very trevor gta5 to me.. #also anakin skywalker ig idk #invincible fanart #invincible show #nolan grayson #invincible

[dragons-hoard-of-fandoms]

Posting one Murder Drones meme a day until Episode 5 drops, Day Eight.

#Murder Drones #Liam Vickers Animation #Glitch Productions #Uzi Doorman #Murder Drones Uzi #Solver Uzi #Serial Designation J #Murder Drones J #Murder Drones Tessa #Leaked Uzi VS. Tessa fight scene 100% real not clickbait #Finally figured how to remove the link things from pictures #So if you need me I'll be going through all my older posts and doing that #In other news apparently I've had the date wrong this entire time #I thought E5 was coming out on the 6th when it's actually the 9th #IDK how I got it mixed up but I'm so upset that I did #And I refuse to accept that it's my fault #So I'm gonna blame the Australians and their stupid day/month/year thing instead /lh #On the bright side tho it means I get to post more memes #Straight From the Dragon's Mouth

[mr-payjay]

animationepic after releasing the most abhorrently ugly plushies for the highest price imaginable

#ii neg #juice.txt #i cannot fucking believe they look like bootlegs #what a disappointment #can't believe they're making children pay for this shitass product #legitimately disrespectful #and don't start telling me #'oh it's creatorink's fault' #'poor poor animationepic has no choice but to release the ugly fuckass plushies they design' #i literally do not care #they paired up with this company in the first place #they should've done some fucking research on it #absolute disappointment #my fault for expecting anything good quality from animationepic ever tho

[rawliverandgoronspice]

"…minimize the toll of time taken on both of them the same way it did for Zelda, especially since they semi-turn to stone immediately after. There are a lot of dialogue bits that feel like they are here for damage control and reassure us that the nice things are nice and the bad things are bad…"

So much yesssss. I honestly wonder if they did that because the story plays in a way where Link at no point feels like an active participant in any of what is happening.

Like "Oh yes there are consequences… but don't worry nothing is really gonna happen until we're in the present time with Link." It's weird how it almost feels like the game doesn't even acknowledge calamity Ganon. Not saying we need this huge cutscene about it, but imagine just showing Calamity Ganon being born at the same time as Zelda turns into a dragon. Showing the immediate negative consequences, and how Hyrule now has to wait millennia for totk-Link to finish what was started.

Hey, thanks for the ask, and sorry for the wait!

Yeah, I think there *was* a way to connect past and present more efficiently --using the past as revealing new information to guide objectives in the present-- but I think it would have gone against their open world philosophy (which didn't really mesh with the kind of story they tried to tell). As a consequence, nothing in the present really happens either honestly? The consequence to restoring a region involves giving you a tactical advantage and having some key players moving to the main Lookout Camp, but fundamentally you could skip all of it and lose almost nothing plot-wise, because the philosophy is: you can beat the game in any way you want.

And while I think it worked for BotW, where rediscovering that world you lost is never mandatory but it does give you emotional stakes in the fight ahead on top of helping you prepare your final battle, here it just feels... meandery? Your main goal is to find Zelda, but you don't actually have to find Zelda. You can finish the whole game without having invested a single thought into finding Zelda beyond the tutorial area. The overarching objective to Destroy Ganon worked in BotW because it remained the core pillar all the way, literally staring you in the eye from all across the map: every other quest objective is nested in the first one and optional by default, and it is made abundantly clear what the game expects of you while guiding you to opportunities to make your journey easier and more grounded as you rediscover Hyrule (gradually mastering the land, your own abilities, and your understanding of your place in that land to give you the best possible chance --mastering the Wild and becoming part of it, if you may).

But here? The game *tries* to hide its core objective (which is to Destroy Ganondorf: this is what actually triggers the ending credits sequence, not finding Zelda, which triggers... nothing at all actually) in a mystery the game... isn't actually that invested in gameplay-wise.

For example: you go handle the issues in the various regions because there are problems to fix and maybe you'll get information on where she is, which is honestly an assumption that is kind of based on... nothing? Why would the ritos facing an unnatural ice storm or the gorons facing a drug problem give you a clue on Zelda's location? Like yes, surely there is something weird going on and it might be linked to the same phenomenon that made Zelda disappear, but what makes you think going there will give you any hint of where she is? Honestly, the Lucky Clover sidequests almost feel like they should be the main quest given they actually involve Zelda sightings directly, but the fact that the game extra-diegetically categorize them as sidequests lets you immediately know these are all red herrings before you actually complete them...

But honestly: it would make sense to go look for her.... where she was last seen. Which is under Hyrule's Castle. And I didn't go there immediately, not because the game convinced me it was not necessary, or was too dangerous and I wasn't prepared yet, but because I knew for sure it was where Ganondorf would be, and so I pretended to be stupid so I would let the game lead me to its interest points while ignoring the glowing red hole under the core landmark of Hyrule where I had last seen Zelda and Ganondorf.

Sure, there was a glowing red boar in BotW screeching into the night, but. The game told me it's where the final boss was. Immediately. It was not trying to surprise me with that information. TotK, on the other hand, does an awkward little song and dance being like "oooooo I wooonder what you'll have to dooooo neeeext" and... it's pretty damn lame that I need to consciously course-correct the bad job the game does at leading me places to have a good time with it, using game design literacy to assume what I should and shouldn't do not to ruin my own experience as I play (same could be said for the Dragon's Tears as well, and it does an even worse job at it since I *did* spoil myself almost immediately, because I trusted the open world philosophy to carry into the memories like in BotW --and the fact that they are linear??? somehow?? without telling you and it's the only linear thing in the entire game?? is just so so so Not Good).

When I say the quest design of this game is a complete mess, I do mean it. It's layers upon layers of these baffling decisions, and I don't understand why they didn't apply any of the lessons learned in Breath of the Wild, given they were genuinely good and interesting lessons that have guided open world quest design ever since the game was released.

#asks #thoughts #totk #botw #totk spoilers #totk critical #when will my brain return from the imprisoning war... #quest design #narrative design #thanks for the ask!!! #sorry I used it to talk about something only loosely related as alwayyys.... #but like yeah as someone who worked on AAA open worlds #and a teacher who literally analyzed botw quest structure for lectures to aspiring gamedevs #I am genuinely shocked at the choices made here #(not to shame the actual quest designers I'm sure it's not their fault it doesn't look like the result of grounds level incompetence) #(it looks like weird priorities and directioral intervention and production stumping them in the face) #(I'm sure they tried their best given the circumstances and it's not a slight against them) #(but I refuse not to criticize the result because... it's astounding to me) #(after dropping breath of the wild it's just.... yeah it's really bizarre how much they didn't prioritize this at all)

[your-local-granny]

Being critical of art is all fun and games until you are the art that is being critiqued :(

#God I was feeling so good today but duuuude I’m so scared abt the opera from purely a technical standpoint #like I’m not even stressed about fucking anything up anymore it just hit me that like. I invited people to see this and it might be bad :( #due to variables outside of my control!!!! I hate not being able to fix things #I would be less stressed if my mother wasn’t seeing it but tragically I’m proud of what /i/ am achieving so I really want her to be there!! #but I know it’s going to be SUCH a fucking let down after the other shows she’s seen at my school like #the productions she saw were SO GOOD on a technical standpoint and both of the productions this year were so bad :(((( #like even conveptually I don’t even know if I’m fully convinced and I’m in the show!!! #And idk. It’s hard when you don’t have an extended family (or like much of a family at all) #so the only people coming to your show are like. Broadway technicians #the closest thing I have to an uncle is a lighting designer and a stage manager my mother knows #very fun sometimes. Other times I want to throw myself onto a pyre #Why do the stakes have to be so high why can’t they just be happy to support me :)) I shall never be the center of her world. Ah well #But also we would not be as close as we are without our shared love of theater production so. Catch-22 #And at the end of the day I’m more sad that I can’t be proud of the show #it’s not anyone’s fault it just is and I need to be okay with it #I worked really hard and it matters that I’m doing this #GOD SORRY!!! #vent #portal of rambling

[toughtink]

continuing the trend of watching movies i had put off seeing before i cancel my disney plus service again, we watched poor things. honestly, i should stay away from oscar bait because i always find them entirely too self-satisfied and pretentious. for a film that wanted to be about a woman growing into herself despite the constant cruelty of men around her, i found it undermined its own theme by not having one single woman leading this movie beyond emma stone herself who was the only female producer on it—and it showed. it feels really unfair that it got so much oscar recognition, tbh.

#i kinda figured i wouldn’t like it but as a historical costuming buff i thought i might change my mind #at least for whimsy reasons #but the world didn’t really feel all thst whimsical either #barbie should have gotten best costuming and best production design #havent seen killers of the flower moon but im convinced lily gladstone probably was robbed formbest actress based on the bits i have seen #emma stone just felt like she was Trying to Act so hard idk is that really best actress?????!? #like part of it is the script and director’s faults but eeeesh #poor things

[somelazyassartist]

What do I have to do to never see graphic novel Taako ever again (/nbh)

#THAT FUCKER MAKES ME SO GODDAMN UNCOMFORTABLE I CAN'T STAND HIS FACE #I HAVE SO MANY TAGS BLOCKED TO TRY TO AVOID HIM BUT I STILL SEE HIM CONSTANTLY #NOT THE FAULT OF ANYONE HERE AND I GUESS IT'S UNAVOIDABLE WITHOUT LEAVING THE FANBASE ALTOGETHER #BUT HE MAKES MY FUCKING SKIN CRAWL I CAN'T STAND LOOKING AT HIM #ESPECIALLY AFTER GETTING 'THE ADVENTURE ZINE' AND HOW CAREY USED TO DRAW TAAKO #LIKE. THEIR OLD DESIGN FOR TAAKO WAS BORING BUT THE GN VERSION IS SO MUCH WORSE NOW #BECAUSE SHE LIKE. ACTIVELY CHOSE TO GIVE HIM VISUAL TRAITS THAT ARE VERY SIMILAR TO CERTAIN ANTISEMITIC CARICATURES #(WHETHER SHE KNEW THEY WERE TRAITS OF THOSE CARICATURES OR NOT DOESN'T REALLY CHANGE THE FINAL PRODUCT) #ESPECIALLY SEEING THAT SHE USED TO DRAW TAAKO IN A COMPLETELY NORMAL WAY #AND THE LOOKS PAIRED WITH HOW THEY CHANGED HIM TO BE SO MUCH CRUELLER AND GREEDIER IN THE GRAPHIC NOVEL.... #LIKE. CAN YOU UNDERSTAND WHY HE GIVES ME THE FUCKING CREEPS #I CAN'T STAND LOOKING AT HIM I ONLY EVER ACTIVELY LOOK AT HIM WHEN DIRECTLY TALKING ABOUT HIM #I DON'T EVEN DISPLAY MY COPIES OF THE BOOKS. I ACTIVELY COVER THEM UP BECAUSE I CAN'T STAND LOOKING AT HIM #OUGHGHGGGHHHHH AGAIN THIS ISN'T DIRECTED AT ANYONE IN PARTICULAR #HE JUST MAKES ME FEEL SICK TO LOOK AT AND I SEE HIM CONSTANTLY DESPITE HAVING EVERY TAG I CAN THINK OF BLOCKED #(EXCLUDING TAGS THAT INVOLVE THE ORIGINAL SERIES. IT'S SPECIFICALLY THE GN THAT BOTHERS ME) #(I DON'T WANT TO BE LEFT OUT OF THE PODCAST'S FANDOM BECAUSE I LOVE THE ORIGINAL) #(BUT THE GRAPHIC NOVELS OFTEN DON'T GET TAGGED WITH SEPARATE TAGS SO IT'S HARD TO FILTER OUT JUST THE COMICS) #(AGAIN LIKE. THIS MIGHT BE JUST ME AND I'M NOT TRYING TO VAGUE ANYONE BUT JUST. UGHGHHGHHGHHHHH HE MAKES ME SO UNCOMFORTABLE) #vent

[toadlessgirl]

Guess who’s spending her Friday night writing a thoroughly pretentious, probably a little bit reach-y, thesis-length analysis of the shape of the doors in Mon Mothma’s apartment?

#it's not my fault #blame the production design team #this is what happens when star wars is good #self #andor #star wars #mon mothma

[myownprivatcidaho]

literally mcu movies are just getting pumped out by the dozen every 6 months in a manner that is so heartless and so tasteless its literally the prime personification of art having the life drained out of it and cheapened for the sake of mass production and profit and it literally tastes GROSS

#how do people still enjoy those though. HOW #like. its lowkey unfuckingbelievable #theres fast fashion theres fast food theres all types of things mass produced to be mass consumed to be bought again and again #to rake in profit #but FILM?????? #a whole ass art form. something invented specifically for the sake of creation and self expression #THIS medium being hijacked in a way that so blatantly equates it to other instances of consumerist culture ? #like. food and clothing are basic means of survival. cheapened mass production designed not to last #(plus planned obsolescence) #are one thing. theyre easy to target and exploit because people Need those #but. theres something so so odd about fucking mcu #theres all types of art out there and SPECIFICALLY theres all types of movies and shows that are extensively thought out with a purpose #or at least just arent so blatantly soulless #ig what im getting at is. HOW do people still engage in mcu consumption #you need food & you need clothing and if youre in a pinch and you have to go with the fast unethically produced stuff thats not your fault #but. tv and film are such luxuries how they hell do peoples standards ride so low when the whole point is for it to have SOUL #idk how much sense this makes but. yea

[terrorbirb]

I understand I design the method of manufacturing, but I really don't think I should be held accountable for all qc problems. It used to be a shared responsibility between me and the supervisor, but now there is no supervisor so it's just double me. Tbqh when there was a supervisor, I don't think I should be held accountable for qc problems unless there was something stupid I designed into the process.

#totes bro #im not sure how this usually works #but i would like to actually have the job of design and manufacturing engineer #and not have my foot in everything #because the issue with me helping with everything #aside from stress #is that in some way every single thing that happens in this building is somehow also a problem i need to take accountability for and fix #and simply speaking #its not my problem #like production is having qc problems because lack of paying attention to qc check? #its my MANAGER who should have to deal with this because its MANAGING employees #i shouldn't! i may be taking over supervision somewhat but thats also my managers fault #this is entirely a management issue in my book but I guess i should have designed to process to include better qc 🙄 #and i guess because i design the processes i should work with the production team to correct these mistakes 🙄 #which sounds like my problem when you put it that way which they always put it that way #but why dont we go back a step and ask if there is a mismanaging of employees perhaps #I DONT MAKE ALL THE MISTAKES HERE #we have like 3 qc complaints TODAY when we usually have MAYBE 1 per year like we dont have qc issues #which sounds like my fault when you put it that way but listen im not good at like managing people and that has something to do with this #if I apparently act as the GM then pay me to be GM otherwise this is not my problem

[sabertoothwalrus]

so I’ve been gaining a lot of insight into the animation industry recently, especially in regards to pitching & the creation of new shows. There’s a few ways to go about it.

First, there’s pitching to a studio. When you pitch, it has to be SHORT and CONCISE. You may write a lovingly detailed pitch bible that perfectly breaks down episodes and characterizations, and it might barely even get read. First impressions, first impressions, first impressions!

Most peoples’ first projects don’t get picked up. I’ve heard a few stories from directors that said they tried pitching a story they’d had for years, which got rejected, to then spend a week or even several hours in their car coming up with a new idea, only for that to get greenlit.

But that’s not the end of it. Just because a show gets greenlit, doesn’t mean it will ever get finished. There’s lots of things that can happen. Sometimes, unexpected major world events (like… a global pandemic) can cause projects to get chopped. Sometimes, a CEO change or studio merge means a single person can decide a project “no longer fits with the company’s brand.” Sometimes, the one producer that was rooting for your project gets laid off, and no one else cares enough, so it gets shelved. Sometimes, a streaming service decides to create an animation department, and then they decide they don’t want it anymore. Sometimes, the studio will be simultaneously be developing another project that was too similar to yours and they just didn’t think to tell you until they decide yours is the one with less potential.

On top of that, almost everyone in the industry is saying that “studios just don’t pick up original content anymore.” Studios want something they can franchise, something that will bring in money. New content is risky. Established fanbases are safer.

However! Studios can still be a very good thing. They can be unionized. They can provide better benefits and resources. They can have connections and infrastructure and a larger volume of workers. At a studio, you can divide the labor and produce more in less time. Longer episodes, longer seasons, more consistency in quality.

But this comes with all of the disadvantages of having more in the kitchen.

The alternative is indie animation.

With indie animation, you have total freedom. Full artistic control. It doesn’t even matter if your idea sucks ass, because there’s no one to tell you you can’t make it. You could make it anyway, and you can make it whatever you wanted.

The thing is, making animation is hard. In my production class last semester, the average maximum animation one person could make in that timeframe was 30-60 seconds, and that’s not even counting background design, sound design, or cleanup/color. To make a 5 minute animated short, you should probably have at least 5 people.

And it is CRUCIAL you have a production manager. Ideally someone who’s not already doing art for the project. Most projects without a production manager will fall apart pretty quickly. Once the adrenaline and impulse-fueled motivation wears off, you need someone to hold you accountable and enforce deadlines and proper time management.

Speaking of time, that’s also hard to get. The more people you have, the more likely schedules won’t line up. Most people will have school, or other jobs.

And it costs MONEY!!!!!! You either have everyone work for free and volunteer their time & energy, or you establish a business as a proper indie studio, with people who may or may not have experience on how to handle paying someone else’s salary. And the money has to come from somewhere, so you have to rely on crowdfunding like patreon or kickstarter. (This, by the way, is why I could never fault an indie animation for releasing merch with their pilot.)

And like, maybe you wanna do a series, and all your friends agree to volunteer their labor and time to make the first episode, but it was unanimously not sustainable. Deciding not to produce a second episode until you can raise enough money is not being suddenly greedy, it’s attempting to compensate people rather than expecting them to be continuously taken advantage of.

You have to consider your output as well. There are some outliers like Worthikids, who afaik does all his animation himself, and afaik can work on it full-time thanks to his patreon subscribers. And he still has only produced a total of 30 minutes of animation (for Big Top Burger specifically) in the past 4 years. This is an IMPRESSIVE feat and this is with using a lot of 3D as part of his pipeline!!

Indie animation also has the complication of being more accessible for fandoms. When you’re posting your Official Canon Content on youtube, it doesn’t look a lot different than the fandom-created video essay in the sidebar next to it. What’s canon vs what’s fanon becomes less distinguishable. The boundaries are blurrier. When the creator is just some guy you follow on twitter, it’s easier to prod them for info regarding ships and theories and word-of-god confirmation. They don’t have a PR team or entire international tv networks to appeal to. And this is when creators get frustrated that their fans snowball and turn their creation into something they don’t recognize (and no longer enjoy) anymore.

So it’s tricky.

Thankfully, the threshold to learn animation is fairly low nowadays!! There are TONS of resources online to learn it on your own without forking over a couple hundred thousand to a private art college. There are conventions and discord servers and events where you can network, if you know where to look.

I know it can seem discouraging in the face of capitalism, but I think that’s all the more reason why it’s so important to BE DETERMINED about animation!! We’re already starting to see the beginning of an indie animation boom, and I think it’s a testament to humanity’s desire to tell stories and create art. Even if there’s no financial gain, we do whatever it takes to tell our stories anyway.

#animation #2d animation #indie animation #long post #not 100% sure why I made this post #all this to say: I’m still not sure what direction I want to go towards for my own show #ngl!! i think im confident i could get people to like my show. i think I could find an audience #i have some experience at this point getting people to like my ocs #its just a matter of MAKING the damn thing

[renthony]

Tobacco users aren't dirty or stupid, and some of y'all are deeply poisoned by DARE-style propaganda.

Even from people who are supposedly "supportive" of addicts and users, I see so much hateful vitriol toward smokers, as if nicotine addiction is somehow The Worst Kind, and it's okay to target them as Terrible Monsters, even from people who should know better.

"But I have TRAUMA--" Trauma doesn't give you the right to be cruel to every single smoker in the world. It does not give you the right to assume the worst of every single smoker you meet.

"But they pollute my air--" Designated smoking spots in public areas have been a thing for decades now, and I have never met a single smoker who wasn't perfectly willing to move to another location to smoke, as long as they are asked respectfully and not treated like criminals or monsters just for smoking. If you approach a smoker and treat them like a criminal and act like they're intentionally trying to poison you, they have every right to get annoyed at you. And if an individual smoker is a dick about it? That's still the individual, not smokers as a whole.

"But it sets off my asthma--" This is what is known as a "competing access need." Smokers deserve space to smoke, because drug withdrawal is severe and is a legitimate medical issue. Non-smokers and those with respiratory issues deserve smoke-free air. Two things can be true at once, and the answer is not, "so we dehumanize smokers!" Also, y'all may be shocked to learn this, but there are asthmatic smokers. I know several. Using asthmatics as a gotcha against smokers is not productive or kind to either group.

"But tobacco companies--" Are not the individual smokers, and are not responsible for tobacco companies' actions. Blaming Joe Schmoe Smoker for the actions of Big Tobacco is the exact same as blaming someone for climate change because they bought a pack of Walmart-brand hamburgers. Not only is it not effective, it doesn't target the core issue, and it's a douchebag thing to do.

"But it's bad for you--" Suicide and self-harm are worse, and cigarettes are the only thing keeping some people alive. Blame the system, not the individual.

"But vaping is obnoxious and bad for kids--" Vaping originated as a way to help people stop smoking, and it is not the fault of individuals that vaping became another predatory industry. Removing access to vapes, which are commonly still used as a tool for addicts to help quit, is not the fucking answer.

Stop being cruel to smokers and pretending you're progressive for it. Unlearn the DARE propaganda, kill the cop in your head, and recognize that someone's humanity is not dependent on their drug habits.

#original post

[lowkeyrobin]

HII so I was reading your who you write for and saw you write for Charlie Bushnell, so I was wondering if I could get like reader and Charlie at like the an interview???

Thank you -🍄

hell yeah of course 🙏🙏 ; thank you 🍄anon, hope you enjoy 🫶🫶 ; i dunno how but this got a little off topic?? I apologize

CHARLIE BUSHNELL ; the interview

summary ; youre a journalist, he's an actor

warnings ; language, little cringe kissing scene (totally sfw dw)

disclaimers ; I said "scandalous ankles" because back in the olden days ankles and showing any skin was considered scandalous, for anyone who didn't know. reader is described to be not into fitness stuff, also don't mind me not knowing shit about fitness/weightlifting

word count ; 883

masterlist

"Hi, welc-hum inside." You smile, waving to Charlie as he enters the room. You then cringe at yourself in embarrassment. "Sorry, hi, welcome." You awkwardly chuckle, "I apologize, my words are all tangled today"

"You're good" He waves, a comforting smile on his face. He wears a black t-shirt with a logo in the corner and design on the back, paired with some jorts and sneakers like he just came from the gym. You didn't mind though, you urged your guests to come comfortable over casual.

Video interviews that weren't in front of a live crowd were the best for both of you, thank God. Meeting this Godsend of a man nearly gave you a heart attack. Just looking at his gorgeous eyes and his perfect features, nothing was wrong with him whatsoever. He was genuinely a 10/10.

He sits down in the guest chair across from yours, watching you sift through a desk a few feet away, looking for something. Your dress pants rise at the ankles every time you make a step, revealing more of your scandalous ankles, covered by socks.

You finally sit down, apologizing for taking so long to find your notebook where you held a few questions and conversation starters. The cameras begin rolling, and you introduce yourself and Charlie as per usual.

"So, what's it like being on set, with all the cameras, lights, props, and green screens? What are the action scenes like?"

Charlie lightly smiles as he gives you an answer, using his hands to talk a little bit. He seemed a little tense and nervous, but you didn't point it out or blame him, it took you years to be fully comfortable where you sat.

"What even are you? Cause like, you're an interviewer but also a journalist, what do you prefer being called?" The curly haired boy asks you.

You shrug, "Journalist, I guess. Interviewer could be put like, inside the circle of journalism, I'd say. I'm a journalist before I'm an interviewer"

He nods, giving you a gorgeous smile that you had to quickly look away for. You discreetly hide your flushed face, looking down at your notebook.

You write down some memorable quotes as you sit and chat with him, bringing up some interesting conversation and learning more about being on set and the production behind media.

After the cameras are off, you thank him and invite him to stay for some aftertalk and lunch. You came in with a large bowl of taco salad you needed to finish before it went bad and were offering it to anyone who wanted it. He accepts the offer, staying back in the break room with you to eat some of that salad you'd brought in. In his words, it was very much better than whatever fast food he was going to go get before returning home.

Your conversation quickly turns into one regarding music and working out, although you weren't too into fitness, the occasional jog here and there keeping you healthy, apparently.

You both stand up, setting your bowls and forks in the dishwasher to get them cleaned. You stand against the counter as he leans his hand against it a couple feet away.

He pulls up his t-shirt sleeve, flexing his arm to show off his muscles. He's trying to impress you, mostly, but you had asked how frequently he worked out. Not his fault.

"Usually lift about 145"

You nod, paying more attention to his face than his muscles. Not exactly your question, but you'd take it.

"You okay?" He asks, seeing you zoned out staring at him.

"Yeah, sorry-"

"Am I that handsome to you?" He asks, lightly teasing you.

"Wh- I mean, hey now-"

He lightly giggles, stepping forward a bit.

You stare into his brown eyes, colored like a dark chocolate mocha. A smile tugs at the corners of his lips, seeing your eyes almost glimmer as they stare into his.

He's just a guy, you're an interviewer, a journalist. This is weird, isn't it? Is it not?

"May I?..." He whispers, looking down at your lips, then up at your eyes.

Triangle Theory.

You nod, a soft smile painting your face.

He quickly embraces your lips with his, hands resting on your waist. You melt into his kiss, your bodies tied together. He picks you up, hands resting behind your thighs, placing you on the counter.

You quickly pull away, hands on his shoulders as he stands between your legs. "Okay, what the fuck? Do that again"

He smiles, looking up at you. His arms are now loosely wrapped around your hips and waist area, his curls falling into place like dominoes.

"You're an interesting one"

"Says you, actor guy"

"Don't try and play me at my own game"

You open your mouth to speak, but shut yourself up, seeing the smug look on his face.

He holds your left hand in his right, a slight panic running through both of your heads as he rubs your knuckles with his thumb.

You speak up now, finding your stomach filled with butterflies.

"You make me want to grab a dictionary and manually find the words I'm looking for to describe you and how attractive that was."

He lightly laughs, kissing your hand.

"Whatever you say, journalist"

#lowkeyrobin #gn reader #gender neutral reader #they/them reader #charlie bushnell x reader

[nothorses]

I hope this is okay to ask but I’m pretty desperate and googling stuff has failed me, so do you or one of your followers have recommendations on how to deal with the BO that comes with taking testosterone? I never had BO that couldn’t just be managed by showering enough and putting on just any deodorant but now that I’m taking T I sweat a lot and I smell bad and I nothing I do seems to fix it. My boss has politely mentioned it several times now despite all my effort and it’s so mortifying and embarrassing.

Things I’ve tried and am currently doing include so many different deodorants which I bring to work and reapply, putting baking powder in my shoes, on top of general basic hygiene. But none of it seems to make a dent and it doesn’t help that I can’t really change clothes or shoes throughout the day. I have to wear closed toed shoes and a lab coat and my job is pretty active, plus it’s 10 minutes walk from the parking lot and it’s over 100F or 40 C right now so when I arrive at work I’m already pouring sweat. I also have a large chest so it all gets under my bra and soaks into it and by the end of the day the bottom part of my bra reeks.

I know some ocasional BO on a busy day can’t be helped but none of the other people at work including other male coworkers seem to have the same issue at all, so there’s got to be a solution but I haven’t found it. Im thinking of trying antiperspirants but I also know I need to sweat and I would rather not put my health at risk. So if anyone has something that works for them please let me know bc im really desperate here.

First I want to say: you're not doing anything wrong. You probably just sweat more than some other folks, and that's not your fault, and you shouldn't feel bad about it. I'm gonna give you some ideas to try if you haven't yet, but I don't know how much you've already tried, and it sounds like you've been through a lot already.

I also have always had terrible BO, and the only thing that helped at all pre-T was "prescription strength" deodorant. I honestly have had less of an issue since starting T, weirdly enough, but part of that is also that I physically cannot stand to shower any less frequently than every single morning (not necessarily a good thing lol), and I also started using antibacterial products on my armpits when I shower.

Currently I use benzoyl peroxide body wash on my armpits, which can be drying, but it hasn't caused me issues so far (just look for Panoxyl, other brands have caused irritation for me and my partner both). I used Betadine surgical scrub before that for a bit (you collect weird shit when you work with horses 🤷‍♂️) and that worked well, too- plus it's less likely to irritate skin.

I also find that certain shirts cause me to sweat there more, and those also tend to be the more form-fitting shirts that get up into my armpits. That skin def needs to breathe.

My partner has had trouble with feet/shoes in the past, and he's used cedar shoeforms to mitigate that (cedar is also antibacterial!). He also makes sure any shoes he gets are breathable (not leather), and if they are leather, he gives them at least a day or two between wears. Probably good practice if you notice any kind of smell on any of your shoes.

You mention baking powder, and I'm not sure if you meant baking soda and just mixed them up (which I do all the time lmao) but just in case: if you are using baking powder, the one you want is baking soda.

I don't have much advice for chest sweat, except that you may want to consider bringing an extra bra (and maybe an extra pair of socks if you're noticing it before the end of the day) to change into midway through the day. You can also look for more breathable fabrics in general, especially athletic-wear, which is already designed to help wick sweat and mitigate those issues.

Lastly, I want to stress again that you're not doing anything wrong. Some people have more trouble with this than others, and if you're really struggling in a way nobody around you is, it may be that you've got something going on in your body that they don't have to deal with. This could be a medical thing as well (like acne!!), and there's no shame in seeking medical solutions for it. Talk to your doctor if you can; it sounds like it's causing you distress, and you deserve to be comfortable.

#advice #resources #testosterone #hrt #testosterone hrt

[xamag-draws]

BBR thoughts 2024

Since I mentioned that I finally dusted off an old project of mine and was ruminating on how I'd remake it, I thought I'd elaborate a little, now that I've solidified some concepts. For funsies

This is gonna be a bit of a long and unfocused one, but I don't share my personal thoughts here often, especially the stuff about my projects I always marinate in. And for once it's something that people have existing context for, so hey why not

So for anyone who hasn't been following me for a gajillion years, The Black Brick Road of OZ was a webcomic that I posted around 2013-2015, back when I was in highschool going on college (which is kinda crazy to think about). It was sort of a darker twist on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, although I definitely leaned a lot more into dark humor more than anything in those first few chapters

I don't think it's available to read anywhere anymore, and I know people have been asking me about it. So here's the full proper archive of BBR, as full as it can be with deceased Flash

I totally used it as an excuse to shamelessly and self-indulgently experiment. It had interactive pages and GIFs and was wayyy too overproduced for what I could handle or what was necessary, but I did have great fun making it while it lasted

Unfortunately, that excess and the fact that I've changed too much as a person by the time I was in college is what ultimately killed it. The direction I wanted to go in was practically unrecognizable from the original idea started back in 2011, so there were many old hold-ups that I felt ruined it

At the time I kinda wished I could start/rewrite it all over, but considering that I pretty much had the entire script done at that point, it felt like a pointless sisyphean task. So I just put it on a shelf and didn't look back for about 8 years, because I didn't know what else to do

Now to be fair, the nature of my art has always been iterative and cyclical; when I feel like my creative juices have run dry I prefer to leave a project to marinate and move on to something else; cycle through other old things and bring in new skills and perspectives into the mix when I'm ready again. Not very productive, but it is what makes me happy to work on my OCs; I'm doomed to hit a wall with them eventually and I need some time to be able to find a new direction

So that said, I'm glad that BBR was left to marinate for that long. I don't think I was prepared, emotionally or intellectually, to tackle it again until now. The Wizard of Oz book (and the entire series of them, really) has always been near and dear to my heart, but there's a lot of context around it that I'm only unpacking now that I'm older

I think I always inherently feel negatively about the stuff I've made in the past, like its faults always jump out to me more than the positives, especially the more time passes. I've never liked that, and I do really appreciate the kind things people have to say about BBR to this day. The fact that it still can be recognized and remembered is very sweet

When I left it, I already found it "kinda cringe", and that feeling only deepened with years. When I took my first look back at it, asking the question "how would I rewrite it now?", at first I took a very cynical approach, as in "everything would have to be torn down"

But the more I sat on it, the more I found that I still see some merit and charm in the ideas I was putting out; I just didn't know how to execute them at the time (not to pretend that I know what I'm doing now, but I certainly know more at least). Turns out a lot of my old concepts could be changed substantially with just a few small tweaks. So I'd say that's a nicer way to think about my previous work

If you haven't seen yet, I posted a first draft of my new designs for some of the characters (the main group, the Goods and the Wickeds). Definitely subject to change, but more or less how I see them now

I'm just playing with these concepts; by no means would I attempt to remake BBR right this moment. Call it a pipe dream among my other ones. But just for fun, this is the direction I'd like to take:

Nowadays I'd probably make it a visual novel, with more emphasis on the visual part than the novel because I'm no English prose writer by any means. It'd still let me play a little with the interactivity while helping cut some corners on the drawing part (only some, I imagine I'd go hog wild anyway)

I've always intended for some events inspired by the sequel books to take place in BBR's past. Stuff like Jinjur's revolt or Ozma's rule preceeds the main events here. So I think it would be fun to follow the past of a few key characters alongside the main story. One chapter focusing on the present quest to see the Wizard, then one focusing on the past events (that are maybe reflective thematically); rinse and repeat

I'm also sticking a little closer to the original text in some regards. Not everything that I enjoy from the books would be translated here, it's still just a very loose fantasy on the material; but I'd like to be closer in spirit at least

I like mature, wise and powerful Glinda, I like kind and vulnerable Tin Man, I like the Wizard being a pathetic yet loveable liar, so I'm sprinkling in more of that for example

I'd like to keep some whimsy, but make it more grounded and a bit more serious to be coherent in tone. I think the original TWWOOZ book was a more realistic fantasy in some ways, even for the standards of the time; I like its simple but vivid tactile descriptions and details like bringing attention that Dorothy needed to eat and sleep

I find it funny that Baum specifically was averse to making his books scary or unpleasant, finding that unnecessary for telling a compelling kids story, but they still can get pretty dark and disturbing, at least for our modern sensibilities. Let's just say that I intend to use the Evoldo and Chopfyt storylines for my purposes. In that way, I feel like a "darker" Wizard of Oz retelling can still mostly be tonally in line with the original and balance it with enough heart and occasional humor

I slowly grew to appreciate the quaint old-timey quality of the original series, as well. The first book is both timeless and very much a product of the 1900s. Originally I tried to give it a little modern or at least anachronistic spin, but it was moreso because it's what I knew best, so these days I'd rather intentionally lean into the time period. Still not fully historically accurate by any means, but at least directly acknowledging the influence

The events of the story span across 40 years of these characters' lives, so I'm drawing inspiration from the entire so-called La Belle Epoque: the time period around 1880s-1920s. Basically I'm cooking, and my soup is old Victorian fashion morphing into Edwardian fashion and slowly inching towards flappers

Some new Dolly outfits

Lots of crazy things, political changes and innovations were happening at the turn of the century, which I think is noted and reflected by Baum in the books as well; the character of Tik-Tok might not blow any minds now, but he was one of the first robot characters in literature at that point; and don't even get me started on Jinjur, etc. Plenty of really interesting stuff one could lightly ponder in an Oz adaptation these days

Aesthetically, art nouveau has always been a big artistic influence for me, and it'd definitely be its time to shine here. John R. Neill's illustrations of the Oz books often keep me company as well. Nouveau architecture in particular fits that fairytale whimsy extremely well imo

I'd allow myself a little bit of art deco here and there, but ultimately its intimidating geometrical splendor is an antithetical to the flowery nature of nouveau and I associate it with a completely different era. Definitely fitting some characters like my Wicked Witch of the West, but shouldn't be overused

One of my main problems with the original BBR was that eventually I lost track of what it was even about; and the original ending felt too mean and unfulfilling to be worth it. Now I'd like to stick to the theme of home and family as my main theme, but in a different, more bittersweet way than in the book

An interesting connection I made is that a lot of my aforementioned older key characters (the Witches, Jinjur, the Nome King, etc) all came from the same reformatory as kids, that's how they know each other. In my recent research I learned that in those reformatories it was usually frowned upon to release the children back to the families, which were seen as the original corrupting influence regardless of the circumstance. The reformatory did everything in its power to cut that connection and make itself the only family those wayward kids were supposed to know and love. That's an unexpected tie into the theme of home that I'd like to explore as well

So yeah that's the current state of it. I have a bunch of outfit concepts I'm slowly cooking, although I'm now sure whether I'd post them... But I do miss these funny guys, and I'm glad some people still do as well :)

#my art #xam rambles #the black brick road of oz #long post #ohsees tag