#feel free to private message with crit | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

honeyblueroad · 3 years

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To the new people from twitter

There are probably enough posts already, and probably im one of the last people who should be making one of these because I migrated from Reddit in January, but I really want to make one of these so here it is.

First of all, welcome! I hope you have a good time while you’re here, it’s one of the better fandoms I’ve been in on this site and is generally a really nice environment. However, Tumblr is fairly different to Twitter both outside and inside the context of this fandom.

One major difference is the way content is spread, on Tumblr likes do little to nothing while reblogging is the way the majority of content is shared, reblogging puts a post onto your page, while still showing the creator at the top, this lets anyone who follows you or looking through your page see the post allowing them to reblog the post from you sharing it to more people. Reblogging is not the same as reposting, which is extremely rude, you are just showing more people the post and it is encouraged especially for art.

One thing that will make your experiences infinitely better is cultivating your personal fandom experience- meaning don’t be afraid to block people, even if they haven’t done anything wrong and you just disagree with their opinion, or they make you feel uncomfortable with them, and even if you just feel like it- just block them. Also, do not take it personally if someone has blocked you it doesn’t mean they even dislike you, just that they don’t want to see your content which is fine.

Another thing that is important is the lack of content creators, the majority of people don’t want content creators to see their posts, and with the lack of any content creator one here publicly its strange to be creating content of any sort with the desire for a content creator to see it. Although they’re some content creators here, while we do sometimes joke about finding their accounts- do not actually try and find their accounts. Also do not fall for the Kinnie/roleplay/trolling blogs they are not actually the creators.

While there are no content creators with public accounts, please respect their boundaries still even if you think they won’t see it, @smpboundries documents the majority of these- the most obvious being to not ship people who aren’t comfortable with it, don’t sexualize people who aren’t okay with it, and don’t truth people.

Another important feature of Tumblr is the tagging system, this is how people can see you’re posting if they aren’t following you and also how people can avoid seeing your posts. To tag your posts you should add the relevant smp (probably the dream smp) you can do this by adding #dream smp, #dsmp, or #dsmpblr into the tag section at the bottom of the post, then you should add the relevant characters in the same way as well as any relevant group name like the bench trio or sbi. Another thing you should add are tags to warn of content, this means any trigger warnings or content warnings- adding them at the top does nothing, it also considered common courtesy to tag critical posts for example c!(insert name) critical for characters or tagging dream smp critical for the dream smp as a whole, this also applies to groups such as L’manberg of the syndicate- it also considered polite to tag discourse. Tags can also help you navigate the archive which everyone has unless they have turned it off. You should make sure make sure to not tag things that are not relevant do not tag dream smp post as Minecraft and do not put Minecraft in your tags or it will show up in the main tags (for example Philza Minecraft)- the same applies for mineblr, don’t tag origins that is already the name of another fandom and don’t tag characters you didn’t mention in the post or only mentioned briefly. To block tags, you can go into your settings and find it there, here you can block any Tw/cw or anything you would rather not see (I would recommend block mcyt x readers also).

Trending is something that also very different on Tumblr as while you can get trending, it’s a lot hard and we don’t really try to- please do not spam tags to try and get trending.

If you want to communicate with a user there are many different ways to do so- you can send asks which don’t have to be a question, this can also be done privately and anonymously. Do not send hate to anyone no matter how much you disagree with them. You can also privately message people although isn’t always the norm. You can also submit posts which are will be put on their blog if they choose to feature it. Bots will follow you occasionally but they are generally quite obvious and just trying to get you onto porn sites. Don’t be afraid to ask people to tag things.

As you may have already noticed generally opinion is very different to other sites, with more Tommy, Tubbo and Wilbur sympathy and more techno and Philza crit then other sites. Please do not take character crit personally and feel free to block tags/ people if they make you uncomfortable pr make you day any worse- no matter your opinions you are guaranteed to find at least a couple mutals who agree with you.

There are also somethings that are not excepted here, ableism is not okay in any form- do not demonize character for mental illness symptoms, do not infantilize neurodivergent people, don’t call technoblade monotone, and don’t insult characters by comparing them to a mental illness (e.g., calling dream a psycho). Don’t be sexist, even if you do it in a girl boss away- don’t infantilize female content creators, don’t be overly critical of them, and don’t sexualize them if they aren’t comfortable with it. Don’t be racist- don’t assign poc characters traits based of racial stereotypes, don’t call them racist for expressing their own culture and don’t create racial allegories in the dream smp story where the poc characters are oppressing white characters. Don’t be creepy towards the minors of the server- UK consent laws are more complicated than you think and even if what you are doing is technically legal you are still a bit of a nonce, it’s still not okay to sexualize them if you are the same age, and once they are no longer underaged it is still not okay to sexualize them if they aren’t comfortable with it. Don’t post abuse apologism- it makes people uncomfortable (especially abuse victims) and leads to a negative fandom space.

Overall, although I’m sure you’ve seen some posts joking around try to scare you a little bit- as a general we aren’t that bad, and you shouldn't be afraid of interacting with most people, make sure you are having fun. Although the content tends to be focused more with analysis and friendly discourse- don’t engage with if you’re comfortable with it- I’m sure there will be something for you whether it be fanart or meme. Don’t be afraid to follow random people and respond to posts even if you are newer and don’t feel like you have t watch anything you don’t enjoy or take part in any activities you don’t want to. Fandom is for fun and if it ever stops being that don’t be afraid to take a few steps back.

#dream smp #dsmp #dsmpblr #meta #long post

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discotits-mp3 · 3 years

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I'll be falling asleep shortly, and I have a few messages to reply to tomorrow. That being said, I didn't actually expect to get such a large volume of support regarding my posts about sex work, and I appreciate it. I also want to say that if you are following me, or considering following me, from a main blog that isn't radfem/gender-crit/terven associated - that is okay, and I won't ever reveal your blog name. You can also feel free to open a chat message or send me an off-anon ask, and I will respond privately. (I also have Anon asks activated.)

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risingmoonyue · 4 years

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Batman/P5 Crossover

-Sometime before Akechi but after Futaba or Haru

-Damian is sent to Tokyo to check it out for whatever reason (maybe they had a fight, or he’s going stir crazy, or he’s just the only one they can send at the time and didn't bother with all that "you're not old enough" business)

-Dami is younger than Futaba by a year or three or four

-He is baby

-He is transferred to Shujin as a child prodigy where he also immediately joins the "outcast" community because of his attitude and intelligence

-Talia goes too, manages to cut off all his communications with the Batfam, and is planning to take him home in a month whether he likes it or not

-For whatever reason, Batfam doesn't realize this??? (Like, either she's faking reports or they're too busy (think fight or chaos in Gotham scenario maybe???))

-Anyways, obviously Dami doesn't want this

-Somehow the Phantom Thieves hear about the situation

-Maybe he was assigned to shadow Makoto for a while, and they managed to overhear a phone conversation either to Talia or Dami trying to get in touch with the Batfam and nothing really working

-And eventually they outright see him fighting with his mother with him at some point (either in person or over a phone call) mentioning that she already disowned him, he's happy with his Father's family, and that he will head her family business over his dead body—and oh would you look at that, you already managed that, care to try again Mother?

-The PT's are understandably alarmed

-And learn her name from Damian (from Makoto maybe or someone else he bonded a little with) (MORGANA) (THEY GAVE HIM MONA FOR A DAY AND NOW THEY KNOW EVERYTHING FROM HIS MANY PETS TO HIS LEAST TO MOST FAVORITE SIBLINGS STARTING FROM TIM TO DICK TO HIS FAVORITE FOODS TO EVERYONE IN HIS FAMILY’S NAMES TO HOW STUPID HE FINDS EVERYONE AND WHY THEY'RE STUPID TO HIS FAVORITE MUSIC TO WHY ANIMALS ARE SUPERIOR TO HUMANS AND MONA’S LIKE OMG TMI BUT LOVED IT THERE BECAUSE HE WAS PAMPERED LIKE NO TOMORROW GOT ONLY THE BEST FOOD AND THE BEST BEDS AND TOYS THAT HE GOT TO TAKE WITH HIM BACK TO LEBLANC AND NOW AKIRA AND SOJIRO ARE LIKE DUDE WHY AND MONA’S LIKE IM KEEPING HIM THIS HUMAN IS GOOD SORRY AKIRA YOU’RE DEMOTED)

-The palace is basically a fortress full of assasin ninjas and clones

-Dunno what her keywords are tho

-Or her what her palace actually is

-Help?????????

-Cognitive Bruce, Ra's, Damian, Dami clones, and Jason (maybe rest of batfam??? Idk)

-Long story short, the traps are so assassin-y that they need someone who knows the actual Talia because egads, this is the closest they have all come to actually dying

-And they didn't really want to do it and were just gonna power through

-But Dami manages to find out and get in and of course uses his background to help out whether they like it or not

(-he's slightly off put by Joker's name, but then decides to just solely call Gotham!Joker "The Clown")

-At some point they are captured by the Shadow Talia who is decked out in super fancy traditional Arab clothing and probably every conceivable hidden weapon known to man

-Talia says Damian won't and can't ever change from who he "is meant to be", referring to him as her Alexander and basically brutally addresses all of his insecurities concerning the batfam and people and society in general

-And all this is kinda killing him cause he still loves Talia despite the fact that she killed him and had a violent citywide custody battle with Batman but he also loves the batfam too even if he would absolutely never admit it (except to maybe Grayson)

-Joker does his emotional kick-start thing and/or Dami is like Makoto and just gets so mad he triggers it himself, but either way, lo and behold, Damian is now a persona user, usurping Futaba's place as the baby of the team

-The outfit is kinda inspired by his future adult league outfit with the top and bottom and gold jewelry, but has a raggedy cloak with dull gold edges, a Robin mask and gauntlets, and his main weapons are batarang-sword hybrids

---acknowledging his past and moving on with his present

-Persona: Aladdin, Tsun Zu, Ali Baba, somone else???? Need ideas plz help

-Probably the fastest member of the group

-His small body makes his hits not as strong, but hoo boy can that kid move around

-Hits a lot and dodges most

-Most of his Persona abilities are physical and have high crit and/or are status affects

-Downside is he has not a lot of SP (compared to the rest of the group)

-And he has pretty good HP

-Those good ol' “superior genetics” have to be good for something after all

-Anyways they escape to find the treasure another day

-And Dami is all smug because HA you definitely can't stop me now

-And the PTs are just resigned to keeping an eye on the extremely competent snotty assassin/vigilante child

-They do like him though so it's not too bad (comes with learning all his darkest secrets via his mother and thought processes that tends to accompany watching someone at their lowest get a persona)

(-They do manage to temper him a bit and help him adjust better to actual society too that's nice)

-As such, they also know about Batman and Robin and his whoooole family. Both sides.

-Damian decided not to tell batfam because he does agree with the whole "most adults suck" mentality that the Phantom Thieves have; despite his deep, deep respect for his father and mother and Grayson, they all do kinda suck

-And he’s rather not get pulled out as he surely would if he told them

(-On a side note, he likes Sojiro

-The man gives him coffee, curry, and leaves him mostly to his own devices

-Instant win)

-He is dubbed "Mockingbird" apon return to the metaverse because of his freaky talented vocal skills in mimicking anyone and everyone's voice

-Eventually, they beat Talia

-She doesn't publicly confess to all her sins unlike everyone else

-PTs don't realize it worked until Damian came into school with a genuine smile on his face, and more relaxed than he'd been since he got there

-PTs are confused until Damian's like, this works out because hey, don't want to have several people assassinated and draw the entire freaking league to Tokyo

(-Which was probably why Talia didn't)

-They agree

-But she does break down to tears in Dami's arms and promise to ACTUALLY TALK CIVILLY with Bruce to try and make up for everything and try to fix up the league

-He stays for the rest of p5

-But steers all his reports very much away from the Phantom Thieves

-If anything, he downplays absolutely everything, and makes it seem like it's nothing super big but he's gonna stay a while to keep and eye out because y'alls are busy and I like it here and I haven't gotten expelled so there

-The PTs like to add funny stuff on there just to see if they’ll notice

-Like, Akira likes to have Dami describe his day in excruciating detail. Like, recounting the entirety of his nine or so months to Sae during police interrogation, excruciating

-Mona is pushing for the shiny stuff

-Yusuke just likes to put in bursts of randomness (Dami once mentioned that an acquaintance made another acquaintance T-pose in a church for art lol)

-Ann loves to rant about food

-Haru is always insisting on about feelings

-Ryuji likes to complain about everything and puts in ridiculous requests

-Futaba is just putting in every gen-z thing ever

-Makoto is actually responsible and tries to get him to talk about his progress in school and his social life

-And Akechi is absolutely nowhere near any of this and doesn’t know it exists

-When they have the Tokyo/Japan-wide calling card, Batfam sees it too because let's face it, that's totally the sorta thing that they would keep an eye out for even if he didn't look at the news in the entirety of the time Dami was in Tokyo

-And they send a message to Damian (the first actual communication they've had since before Talia) saying "WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON OVER THERE????"

-And with the entirety of the Phantom Thieves looking over his shoulder, Damian's just like "Chill dudes, everything's fiiiiiiiiiine"

-And they're like "UH WHAT PART OF THIS IS FINE????" because they've dug around a bit and found every news report, and oh hey, this isn't anywhere near as calm as Damian described and he’s being super OOC and what’s going on?!?!?!?!?!

-And Damian, being egged on by the most of the PTs, just sends a winky face

-Just

-😉

-And he's smug, because it's still chaos over there so they can't actually come get him and try to pull him out because he's being super ooc

-Which means he's free to do what he wants/needs in the meantime

-Cue the end of the game

-And Dami is going with them on their summer road trip and cackling because the batfam is scrambling to find him in Tokyo but lol nope he's in a van the Japanese government tried and fail to follow

-And he found all the trackers like, a year ago

-Every

-Single

-One

-They eventually track him down to Akira's house where they're calmly eating dinner (and they've been expecting this for the past week so Mona was keeping watch just so they could pull this off) and talking about how uneventful the school year was

-Cue mass confusion in the batfam

-As the PTs enjoy just confusing them so much

-By talking to Mona

-Talking normal then crazy then normal again

-And just generally being their normal selves lol

-They explain absolutely nothing beyond gushing about how much progress socially and academically he’s made (gotta embarrass the baby of the group somehow) and making sure that if Dami absolutely has to go home that he's able to stay in touch

(-Later, Damian forms his own hero persona outside of Batman and Robin)

(-He names it Mockingbird)

(-Batfam proceeds to have a brain aneurysm while the PTs dab their happy proud tears out of their eyes on their regularly scheduled tea time at the Wayne Manor)

(-Damian sends a private plane every week or two lol)

(Bonus: ARTTTTTTT)

(Psst if you guys have ideas for art, outfits, interactions or scenarios, let me know)

#my writing #my art #batman #persona 5 #p5 #persona #batman x p5 #damian wayne #akira kurusu #ren amamiya #p5 protagonist #ive been holding onto this one for a wHILE

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bahrrss-blog · 5 years

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DIGITAL PROTOTYPING Malmö University -2019

DE/RE CONSTRUCT - 1st of April

De/construct. Promoting our insight into the ongoing course, this task wants us to investigate and "deconstruct" an actual GUI, recognising configuration examples of the interface. Deconstruct phase is followed by reconstruction.

Beginning with the procedure of deconstruction, I started from researching the applications on my phone, seeking around to check whether there are applications with specific capacities that are confounding, hard to enrol naturally, or just inadequately planned. That being stated, telephone applications these days have experienced a lot of cycles and update that most apps are about flawless usefulness astute other than the occasional bugs. I unquestionably experienced serious difficulties finding an application that I had serious issues with. So I decided to avoid confusion this time and go for just any app, giving myself a hard task. That I chose to look at as a challenge rather than an unsolvable problem.

I settled with the application of Instagram. Instagram is a popular application. It is structured is founded on picture sharing. What makes this application emerge is the exceedingly adaptable showcase. You can change the look of your pictures and videos, comment, explore, share, and chat, privately and publicly. In a case of private chate, this feature, probably due to a secondary role for Instagram is very locate.

The fundamental issue I'm having as I utilise this application is that as the primary GUI is made for single communication/share and not to interact.

STUDYING THE STRUCTURE OF INSTAGRAM

I generally end up experiencing considerable difficulties finding and getting to the page where you can see private messages. The application makes it easy to glance through the communities and explore but could be troublesome when you might want to rapidly access chats your friends sent you.

As an extrovert and someone who likes to communicate, this seems overly complicated for times when talking to people anywhere in the world is free of charge. I attempt to deconstruct in detail Instagram and understand why they have placed direct messages in a place where is hard to find.

These are some of the Instagrams GUI. Here you can five different pages and choose between 5 different functionalities of Instagram. Each display has its purpose. To navigate, to explore, to follow, to add new media, and your own profile.

The main issue with the page I have is, the messaging part. Insofar it is available only on the main page. So not even on your profile, nor any other page of the applications. And, to make even stuff more dislikable for me, there is no even messaging part when the application is accessed from the browser, computer or phone.

The app makes it easy to navigate through all features, such as, follow, like, add a new photo, the main page, or your own profile. However, once you find yourself in any place except on the main page, you can’t see messages being delivered. And, this, in my opinion, can be troublesome, due to a pure fact that messaging is a huge part of social networking.

It is that much complicated that Instagram even made official guidelines on their ‘’how to’’ page. You can see their guidelines on the picture under.

REI found messaging one of, if not the main reason why I use social networks, especially Instagram, it is convenient, retro, and modern way of exploring and sharing, so obstacles like one presented above, strike accords, and that's why I am talking about it. Especially as a Student living abroad, and having friends and families all over the world. I would benefit from facilitated messaging options. I will deconstruct Instagram into details furthermore down in this post. So, stay here around and keep reading.

BREAKING IT DOWN

As you can see on the image, in the right upper corner messages are placed, and on the exact opposite side, down left corner is the home page. (the little house looking alike icon)

Furthermore, I will talk about the Instagram story, in the media presented below, you can notice circles and some of them has a red outline, and some not. The red outline is to show that there is a new story published to buy the user. Once you watched the story (the circle becomes grey and moves away from the top of your notifications)The way to watch someone's story is to just simply press (and hold to pause) on the top of the story. Stories usually can’t be longer than a few seconds, and a maximum number of stories is 100 per day. Each story disappears after 24 hours, with the possibility of being stored on the profile afterwards. It will be available (hidden on the profile, meaning only visible to the owner of that profile for next 12 months, and then it is lost forever)

You can see the stories from the main page, or you can access them also when visiting the page of the person or desired agency. Also, if you desire to share it outside of Instagram you choose from pressing and choosing the option for three dots in the right corner of the media.

In order to not be too subjective, I have asked some of my colleagues to look into this and give me their honest opinions. I also asked some of my friends who are not familiar with the school project, thinking this way I could avoid bias.

Below is a deconstruction of Instagram with annotations of patterns and functions.

RE/CONSTRUCT

If you look closely to provided re-constructed xd prototype. The icon for messages is located in the bottom grid. Inheritably the bottom grid is fixed on the GUI. Hence, to access the messages will be easy and quick. As explained in deconstruct part, the messages/share feature was placed in multiplied places. Giving the cluttered look and giving a feeling of confusion to users. This design patterns can be blamed on Instagram policies to keep their platform explorative and not based it on messaging. It can be argued that Facebook came to a similar problematics, which Facebook solved by creating separate app only for messaging, But this caused the decrease of usage of the main Facebook overall. However my improved design look is minimal, it would not cause major division between messaging and sharing content on Instagram. On the contrary, it would facilitate the usage of both features.

User testing

In user testing, the general feedback I got is can be summed in three words. ´´Oh, THANK GOD´´ what users meant to say was: someone else is also feeling the same way, Some of the users mentioned that they use Instagram as calling app, video calling app. Instagram has incorporated video and voice calling together with iOS and Android, so when someone is calling on Instagram, feels like you are getting regular phone calls. Furthermore, accessing to the deaths of this calls is a bit harder. Because of the issue mentioned previously. Thus having messaging (which is call and video call) feature display on the main GUI of Instagram on the bottom fixed grid, seemed as change worth changing.

vimeo

Analysis

When starting this project, I wanted to focus only on a rather overall redesign than touching only some visual design patterns. Like messaging feature. However, the visual design does have a big impact on user experience. For the above solutions, I wanted to show how small changes can make a big impact.

The patterns, as far for the control that Instagram induces, is hard to notice. Mainly because announcements are very well integrated, it is hard to distinguish them from real person posts. It is, however, a typical iOS application pattern. It is very well adjusted with adds.

Instagram has an integrated variety of shapes in its design. Rounded, and squared icons.

The font used on Instagram is: Roboto is used along with Freight on Android. The Instagram website uses Proxima Nova for all text with Neue Helvetica and iOS Freight Sans.

On Instagram, when uploading a photo the design pattern of carousels can be noticed. You can scroll between pictures to select as many as it is allowed to upload.

This is the noticeable design patterns, I was also when user testing attempting to found more of them, but I couldn’t notice. I would need to do an in-depth analysis to find more, or maybe with any new updates of design, the new pattern will appear. Sometimes also, when we are to dwell into deconstructing.

BEYOND THE NORM - 15th of April

Questions:

What is the speculative approach? What is the critical design? How to relate this to interaction design? Should we, as designers, ignore issues of the world? Should we, as citizens, be satisfied with the world we have?

How can a designer play a role in engaging with the world most critical issues?

Check out the video called Technological Dreams Series No. 1, Robots Dunne & Raby, 2007. It talks about interactive experiences. This video has no voice-over, explaining but clearly explain the power roles that we have over the objects.

https://vimeo.com/2611597

Critical design is rather about asking a question than finding solutions or looking for the problems.

Answers:

Rather than finding a solution to current life problems, Critical design offers a step into the future and gives us feedback about where should we go further. Critical design tests wander and explore with ideas in a rather than unconventional way. Their exploration can be understood as something between reality and impossible. There is an attempt of drawing distinction between affirmative design (design that reinforces the status quo) and Critical Design - design that rejects how things are now as being the only possibility, it provides a critique of the prevailing situation through designs that embody alternative social, cultural and technical, or economic value (Dunne and Raby 2001)

Manifesto of the Critical Design: Design as a medium, asks, questions, social fiction, parallel worlds, functional fictions etc.

Is it even needed? Do we need art in design? Positive critique is that is pushing boundaries that might result in positive changes. Negative critique is that this type of design is just trying to make some noize and that we don’t really don’t need this design.

What to be thoughtful about is that critical design creates a space for critique.

Thoughtful design is taking into perspective, projecting scenarios and establishing the use of emerging things. Discursive design is distinguishing design field, commercial, experimental, and discursive design. What is essential in design fiction is that the object fits into its surroundings.

Relation of these designs to #IXD

Prototypes are tenuous, material and experienceable. Prototyping is aligned in order for situations to be understood.

Issues with Critical Design, it is very hard to know you are on the right path. We don’t know if we are doing a good or bad job.

In a short conclusion: Critical Desing is here to provoke, to question, to change values, to challenge the status quo, do it with great care if you adopt the techniques of critical design.

Adobe XD tutorials

Learning XD in detail has its advantages. Basic functions sometimes are not enough, it is quite a time saving when you know where something is located. Most of the things we learned in the first Adobe tutorial, I have already been familiar with, but haven’t really used them so much. For example, doing animation with xd was valuable insights. We were wireframing the news app. We created load screens, and the screens were supposed to give feedback. And the feedback was load time. I find this very funny, in times when 5G networks are to be implemented.

We created only a few screens and made the animations. But, it is interesting how this animation would look like for enormous news apps, that contain thousands of information and it is updated literally every minute. I guess this information tells how important this trick was when designing an app.

If you look closely you can see that the small dots under the titles are not all the same for each screen. This, when using the app would give the impression of time passing.

Furthermore, learning about wireframing tools, was also valuable. The thing is not only learning is enough, but this skill also has to be practised and put to use. We used already made screens, in my opinion, it is a bit limiting the creativity of the designer, but on the other hand, the time-saving aspect has to be taken into consideration. It would take much longer to make these screens from scratch. Hereunder you can see some screen I made during the XD workshop.

ANALYTICS EXERCISE -23d April 2019

After an in-depth exploration of Google merchandise store, there are few design suggestions that I could recommend for googles improvement in sales. Right under you can see chars that are visualising backing up my argumentations.

If we look closely to these numbers under. There is an enormous differentiation between mobile users and desktop users. It is certain there today in mobile purchases are common and becoming the main way of using the internet, also purchases.

This makes sense in many ways because mobile phones are always in our pockets, and we reach for mobile more often then we do with our laptops. So, I am raising the question about this issue, since Google merchandise store, has more visits from their desktop site.

Overall desktop visits are around 51 000 visits, where on phone it is only around 16000 visits.

This data, made me go and look at the mobile site of the store, and here I have found several design changes that can be applied. This, in my opinion, would give the store market standard, and boost mobile visits. Let take a look at the mobile site (check the media under). There we can see a variety of information hidden, behind the same icon. There are cluttered and not even necessary because all of the information this icon contain can be placed within one icon, or simply displayed on its own. The number of items purchased can be placed on the basked. And the icon next to towards left can be eliminated, or unified with the same icon under.

In conclusion, the site is clean from announcements, which gives it a peaceful place to do your shopping. Adding these small changes would make a site mobile friendly and it would boost visits and purchases made through the phone.

Digital Prototyping - How do speculative approaches reveal qualities of digital prototyping practice, and what are these important qualities?

To begin with, I can mention that speculative design process requires definitely more than one iteration. In my opinion, there is a need for researching the topic of choice from different angels. To understand the complexity of the design opportunity. It is practically a necessity to deconstruct the science behind the design opportunity.

In this course, the topic was drowned from the perspective of the UN sustainable goals. The pros of having to work with information like this is that is a very well researched topic. Easily accessible information online, multiple sources. All of this facilitates the process of speculation.

On the other hand, I will argue that this limits the creative process. Which many would agree, is necessary for any good speculative design process.

However, since this was the first project of speculative design, having predefined filed of work, can be taken as beneficial, then disadvantageous

Furthermore, if we would attempt to answer the following question: How speculative design is relevant to prototyping experiences in general? We can argue that relevance depends on the design aim. In this project, there was a necessity to use previously acquired prototyping skills, but the context was directed towards, information, visualising or grabbing attention overall. To achieve this our prototyping practice needed the help us come up with this design. I would argue that it help to understand speculation in design, but not to the point where the speculation was entirely clear.

For instance, the design process that my group was undertaking in this course, was clearly divided into two major ideas. Where the first idea, was a bad attempt to speculate, and a rather good attempt to solve the problems. Prototyping wasn't contributing much. On the contrary, on the second interaction, when the ideas were considered quite speculative, prototyping, especially using digital tools (such as xd) made the project harder. This is due to the fact that the initial ideas needed to be transferred to visual aspects. Thus, everything seems as constrained. With each small design implementation, the idea of speculation seemed losing its value.

Conclusively, it is worth considering, in future speculative design practices. that the prototyping practices can be arguably big constraint to the speculative design process.

To relate just argued pros and cons of the mentioned topic to the question of this essay (How do speculative approaches reveal qualities of digital prototyping practice, and what are these important qualities?) I can say the digital prototyping has visual aspects as support. Meaning, the tools digital prototyping uses are dependent by the large scale on the visual aspect. Whether we use video or just images. Having said this, and taking into consideration the complexity of the speculative design. Digital prototyping can serve to clarify this complex nature of this form of design.

To wrap up this thought, I can say, the visual aspect is (if well made) self-explanatory, and overall easy to understand (compared to other expensive mediums) therefore, this characteristic of digital prototyping can serve as an advantage when used in speculative design.

However, there are other qualities of digital prototyping that speculative design can reveal. For instance, these qualities can be reviled depending on which angle we are observing digital prototyping. If we looked at it from the perspective of humans needs, then we have to understand that people seek influence over their environments, and digital technology has traditionally extended possibilities to extend knowledge and control (Gaver & Martin, 2000).

There are examples where just simple machine intelligence was used to arranged and to shape birds' behaviour, by approximating a target tune for birds singing. This allowed could allow the different birds to be trained to take different harmonic roles in an overall composition. Hence, digital prototyping can give a man much more than even imaginable at first glance. We can argue that digital prototyping practice could allow people to extend control to the very wildlife and navigate the future of (wilderness and of nature) simply uncontrollable. Another example can be given from this course speculative design project. The project Swipe Dream, developed with my classmates, held in itself speculative understanding of the UN sustainable goal number 17. Partnership for goals. Swipe dream places serious manners such as development and many flows from developed to developing world, by using modern dating environment such as tinder. There is no-the less controversy in this project. But, it proves the point that speculative design allows (with use of digital prototyping) us to see important questions in another light, thus illuminating problematics, that otherwise would pass unnoticed.

Furthermore, when the design is used to ends that are provocative, we are bridging and constructing things. We are also telling stories through objects, which become effectively conversation pieces in a very real and persuasive sense. Through the projection of design scenarios, design fictions, and narratives of use, the designer as storyteller shifts focuses beyond efficient use, to embrace uncertainty, interpretation and meaning (Malpass, 2016).

It can be argued that speculative design holds immense importance for society. It pushes the boundaries from what we know already. It teaches us new perspectives on the stuff that are already around us. It gives purpose to things that presumably are useless. I connect us with objects around us and allows us to create better futures. Speculatively, digital prototyping shines the most in my opinion when using storytelling through film and images. And when mediums for expression is mixed. Her plays important roles in the ambiguity,

Furthermore, when prototyping in relation to the digital world, if we position design as an effective medium with the intent to construct public and engage user audiences by questioning conditions in everyday life. We need a powerful perspective for the user to understand our points. We need to achieve this critical perspective of the user or observer.Here is when digital prototyping can show it’s powered. If done correctly and with huge dedication, we as a designer can affect the direction where our society is going.

Design can push furthermore from orthodox way of thinking. If we manage to encourage the user to interpret the object, we put the user in a role that opens up for exploration, reflection and engagement. And, is it even necessary to explain how important is for every individual to fully engage in explorations of their own lives.

Conclusively, we can argue that there are multiple design approaches when it comes to speculative design. Firstly the combinations of disciplines. Design can be related to art, architecture or even philosophy. But, due to a necessity for clarity and simplicity, to my knowledge, we can narrow down speculative approaches in at least three different ones. The first sees designers reflecting on and critically questioning design practice. In this course, it was a digital prototyping design practice. Also, the second approach is based on re-thinking the design discipline. For example, rethinking if the digital prototyping is the best approach to explain certain problematics, or would is politics the best place to express concern about climate change, and so on. When we are talking about politics, to my knowledge and from what literature supporting this paper is indicating, one of the approaches of speculative design could actually be related to the overall importance of this speculation and design for society. Nonetheless, it is important to see the speculative design more as a discursive practice, based on critical thinking and dialogue, which questions the practice of design than to try to select and eliminate this practice in any other way (Malpass, 2016).

On the other hand, digital prototyping practice in too many ways can be a limitation in the ability to explore possible futures. We are all explorer, and the medium we use matters. Different strategic approaches are both desirable and necessary to achieve the best results possible in the process of exploration.

Digital prototyping is a way of thinking and expressing. It is certainly no so different from physical prototyping. But none the less, the experience digital prototyping can create, might interfere with how we think of our future and how we as mankind will continue to go about our lives. Yes, I argue of the benefits of digital prototyping, but however good and beneficial this prototyping is, it will never bring better results than feedbacks that real users give us.

In conclusion, it can be stated that digital prototyping together with the speculative design is of big importance, it gives us a modern perspective of ourselves and of the context we found ourselves in.

Literature

Gaver, B., & Martin, H. (2000). Alternatives. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI ’00. https://doi.org/10.1145/332040.332433

Malpass, M. (2016). Critical Design Practice: Theoretical Perspectives and Methods of Engagement. The Design Journal. https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2016.1161943

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bixgirl1 · 7 years

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if you're such a sensitive baby that you cant take negative criticism, then you shouldn't be writing in the first place. You're not getting anywhere when all you accept is people praising you and telling you what they love about your story. Grow up.

Well howdy, horribly, random rude nonnie!

This was... completely out of nowhere, so I’m a bit taken aback by it. Is it, by any chance, a response to the piece I wrote months ago on how it’s not the nicest thing to receive unasked-for crit in feedback, as it pertains to the development of a finished story? If so, it seems you missed part of the discussion, and you may want to go back and read some of the more eloquent responses to that post.

But in response to this... Well, First, I don’t think that anyone “shouldn’t be writing” if they can’t take negative crit. Writing is done for lots of reasons, including but not limited to working through trauma, getting out ideas that no one else has written, and sheer enjoyment. So (excuse me) fuck that shit. :)

Also, when did I (or anyone) say that we can’t take negative criticism? I actually get a lot of crit — from my beta readers, and my prereaders, and friends who don’t mind listening to me storyboard. The distinction is that I trust these people, and I seek out their help because I am, in fact, looking to get better. However, though I am so, so grateful for the feedback I get on my fics, I don’t actually know the people willing to leave snarky little comments questioning my writing choices. Are they upset because I made Hermione bossy? Because they don’t read bottom Draco? Because they wished they’d seen a scene that I’d left out, or didn’t write the epilogue the way they would have? How on earth is that helpful to me? That’s not the kind of criticism I seek, nor the kind my writing benefits from. They’ve consumed a story (for free, mind you) and then felt the need to tell me what they thought was wrong with it. That’s... Well, rude. I didn’t ask for that.

And before anyone starts, yes, there are some people that like random people saying, “do this, not that,” or “wow, this was ooc and I hate where you’re going.” Those writers have the option of leaving a note that welcomes crit from strangers, that’s totally their right. I’m just not one of them. I welcome crit from people whose motives I know are to be helpful, who want to help me make my stories tighter, and better. And I’d possibly, possibly be okay taking it from someone who messages me off anon (privately) to say, “hey, I noticed this, not sure if you meant to do it or not, but hope you don’t mind me bringing it to your attention.” (You know, politely. ...Or maybe you don’t know.)

This brings to mind a piece of crit a friend of mine received the other day. It essentially said, “you’re so good that you could be published, but you’re also crap because I see grammatical errors and if you weren’t so dumb to have those in, I’d be able to read your fics in full.” On anon. (For the record, she rarely uses a beta and still manages to be one of the technically best writers I’ve ever read. The whole thing made her feel awful and me feel like setting something on fire.) How and why is that kind of backhanded, insulting crit okay? Because you feel like we should get “better”? Because our writing doesn’t fit some idealized version you have in your head about what fic should look like? At what point are we allowed autonomy over our writing choices?

Basically, nonnie, it comes down to showing common courtesy for... well, people in general, but specifically to those people who take a gulp and hit “post” on something they’ve worked hard on, and possibly agonized over, and poured their time and effort and hearts into. That takes no small amount of courage. We write and post because we like it, and if you’re making the assumption that we don’t/cant take crit, you’re flat out wrong in most cases — and where you’re not, it’s not fucking up to you to decide that we should have it shoved in our faces.

So... Thank you for stepping into nonnie land to try to start something with me, I guess? Maybe it’ll work and this’ll go viral, and you’ll have started a mini-tumblr war. Or maybe people will read this and think, “Hmm. Maybe I shouldn’t comment that I hated the sex scene because I don’t like rimming, and that I thought their premise was stupid even though they’re a good writer,” in which case I’ll do a happy dance that this managed to get through to anyone. Because being nice to one another is not that hard a concept.

Good luck!

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portraitoftheoddity · 6 years

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Hi Lina. Just wanted to send you a huge thanks for your Drawing 101 Lessons. I don't have the time right now to attend a proper course and yours is just great! Love your way of explaining things, love the exercises you recommend. Thanks again. Kisses from Brazil!

Aw man, you are very welcome! Proper drawing courses are great, but there’s a lot you can just learn online, and teach yourself if you’re committed to it. (Though this reminds me I need to get back into doing those lesson posts -- I have notes for a few more I want to do.)

If you ever want to reach out to me privately via message for individual crit, please feel free. And good luck with all your art! ♥

#Anonymous #lena answers things

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nyrator · 4 years

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the story of the Ryuutama campaign of Kresna we started a few months agoo

okay so

Ryuutama, that game with that character Sagi I drew? Well, it be finished~

And mannnn, what a fantastic game from start to finish. I’m not going to lie, I’ll be honest- tabletop games aren’t for me, I think. I’m pretty terrible at roleplay, honestly- maybe if I had the right character? But either way, yeah.

Kresna provided a game that someone like me, who doesn’t really enjoy these games, really, really enjoyed. He is a fantastic GM, I mean absolutely stellar- and not just saying that because he’s my boyfriend/best friend, he’s got talent, I mean it.

So, campaign was basically four adventurers (Sider, Lord Simon Darquias, Sully, and Sagi, the “S” team) meeting up in a port town to deliver mail in a land that’s enjoyed peace ever since the great King of Palatora ended the war and spread kindness throughout the land. Two nations are Palatora and Ryder. Sider, a countryboy and chef for a Count from a Honeyhollow, has a letter to deliver to the King of Ryder, and ends up meeting with a Noble, Lord Simon Darquias (the best character), a flamboyant above-it-all general from Ryder who is meant to accompany him to the kingdom, master of dramatic poses and introductions, slamming his sword into the ground as he states his title- until a city guard has to remind him not to brandish his weapon. This happens multiple times.

While they meet, a young scholar named Sully, a hunter who left her home to journey like her great-grandfather and to prove herself to her family as responsible, runs into the two, and she’s offering her map skills to assist- in exchange for travelling with them, she gets to fill out her map. They end up going to the post office, where they’re told it’d be faster to deliver their message to the King of Ryder on their own. But if they’re doing that, to bring the post with them, as adventurers going to other towns is how mail gets delivered in these parts. Plus, they get paid, which of course, draws the interest of the merchant calling himself Sagi (that’s me!), who worms his way into the party (flattering Lord Darquias) and thus our motley crew is born, and spend the night together (with Sider sleeping outside, with Sagi’s Sheep of Golden Fleece).

So they travel through Palatora, complaining about Sagi’s Sheep (who he wants to sell, but is in general a loud and ill-behaved pack animal) and the joys of other party members having to rope it, crossing streams, they run into a couple camping who are delivering map in the opposite direction- telling them that the King of Palatora seems to have fallen ill, and his son is starting to form forces for some reason. After spending the night with this couple, they get to the post office and take on another mail job to the capital of Palatora, which warns the party of demihumans and nekogoblins. Lord Darquias, master of of many talents, including signing his name, tries to sign the contract for the mail but is beaten to it by Sully, of course. All enjoy a fine meal too that evening, sans the cheap Sagi of course, which benefits them later on.

Of course, after sleeping at an inn, the Sheep goes missing- having chewed through the rope, though Sider, having formed a bit of a bond with the Sheep, manages to find it. Lord Darquias, meanwhile, manages to get himself covered in wine, somehow, while already being covered in mud and ink as well. The party travels through rainy hills, all having their own ways to travel down a large slope (though Sully’s attempts at shield surfing were not successful...), and eventually come across an old abandoned house.

Taking shelter from a big storm, the party resides there- Sully goes to collect firewood, but doesn’t return, causing Sider and Lord Darquias to search for her, while Sagi stays at the house should she return. The search yields no results, and so they return to the house- except Sagi has now also disappeared, leaving only the Sheep.

The two search the attic to no avail- except the door locks them in. They manage to escape through the window, and discover a cellar entrance with a broken lock- there, they find Sagi and Sully, tied up in the basement. Nekogoblins did it- and are now trying to rob the Sheep, and thus, the party attacks. Except, the nekogoblins eventually run away in fear... from a zombie right behind the party, leading to another battle.

The party, now in a place cleared of enemies, decides to cook (but fail), camp (also fail), and rest for the night. While everyone else collapsed on the floor to sleep, Sagi chose to sleep in the single bed available.

The next morning they head out towards the capital, after Lord Darquias manages to impressively stab his foot after doing one of his poses, while Sagi tends to be attacked by his sheep again (the sheep does a lot of damage to people during travel). They still end up making it to the capital, where Lord Darquias makes another grand introduction, sans sword this time, starting to learn that throwing his sword everywhere is becoming a bad idea. The guard, exhausted by him, just hands him a map and lets the party in.

The city is intricate- One needs a map to explore it, and Lord Darquias is probably not the best one to handle a map- him trying to find the post office left Sully feeling dead inside, and she made sure to immediately find another map for herself. Sider makes sure to deliver the mail before Lord Darquias even has a chance to open his mouth again, and the party is paid.

While at the post office, the party also learns of a festival going on- a Festival of the Hunt. Lord Darquias is enamored by the poster of the man towering before slain monsters, but after teasing from Sider, sticks his nose up and declines such an event.

Afterwards, the party decides to explore the city a bit and split up- Sagi and Sully explore the fountain area, while Sider and Lord Darquias head off to buy some general wares (where Lord Darquias buys a beautiful azure windbreaker as a cape- the salespeople sold him well)

Meanwhile, Sagi gets involved with a gambler- Betting money on a game of dice, called Down to One. The man gives him a free game to try it out at first, and then they gamble for real- First one to roll a 1 wins, with the dealer going first. And of course, Sagi loses both games, lost some money, and lost some pride having lost said money to a gamble, but fair’s fair, after all, as the gambler disappears into the crowd. Sully consoles him with a portrait she drew of his face so Sagi can have his revenge and try to earn his money back another way- and boy, did she crit that drawing roll, a perfect portrait of the gambler.

Anyway, the two groups meet back up, and then decide to go to the guild for the hunt afterall. Sider and Lord Darquias have been having a rivalry going on for a bit- even arguing who signs them up for the Hunt first (Sider wins). The party’s healed, and the hunt begins.

Sider and Lord Darquias first compete for cheers from the crowd- Sider doesn’t receive any, while Lord Darquias receives some cheers- the people love a good show. The party first encounters some boars- two small and one large, before fighting two wolves, all while Lord Darquias tries to gain morale from the crowd- before finding a chicken roaming the battlefield. Huh. Sully tries but fails to grab it, but Sagi succeeds- using it as bait to tease a wolf (but tossing it to safety while attacking), and the party beats the wolves, but not without major struggle.

There’s one more enemy left to fight the weakened party- a giant bear. By some freaking miracle, the party defeats the bear. Don’t ask me how. Bloodied and exhausted, the party receive tons of cheers from the crowd, fill out a bunch of paperwork for their victory, and get a well-deserved bath and rest.

The next day, after winning the hunt, the party is invited to the Prince’s Ball. After splitting up again and doing a bit of shopping, the party go to the castle and end up in a strange meeting with the Prince- Lord Darquias of Ryder is sure to give a fine introduction of himself, despite all the tensions in the air lately, and the Prince speaks and congratulates the party.

After going to the castle’s private chambers for the night, they are confronted by a royal retainer- Anabelle. She tells us of a devious plot- a plot to kill the good King. And not only that- to frame someone for his murder. Who? Someone from the Kingdom of Ryder, Lord Darquias. Because the darned fool just can’t stop announcing his freaking name everywhere he goes, he’s the perfect scapegoat.

The King is being murdered tonight, and the party has to escape. Anabelle is a part of a small group of retainers against this treason, and so is helping the party escape, giving them clothes of retainers (and Lord Darquias a female outfit, to boot- two male and two female outfits), and so the party ready themselves to escape to the sewers in the dead of night.

Sider and Lord Darquias manage to talk their way past the first set of guards, but another guard lies waiting in front of the sewer exit- and with the Sheep, it’s even harder to explain. So, using Sider’s magic to summon a pile of leaves, the party creates a fire as a distraction. Classic, classic arson, the solution for everything. Anyway, they convince the guard to break down the door- the sewer leads to water for the fire, after all, and as he runs to put it out, the party runs into the sewers, abandoning their retainer garb and travel through a maze of sewers, into the river, with the mountains of Ryder seen in the distance (cue Lord Darquias pose)

As they continue on the run as accused criminals, the party crosses a rickety bridge thanks to the help of Sully and her useful rope. Sagi and his Sheep couldn’t cross the bridge, though, but still make it across a different path. Finding another house to take shelter in- before being attacked by bandits, no doubt in part thanks to Lord Darquias’ idiocy in handling the situation.

After beating the bandits, a few escape, with the defeated ones tied up. The group end up spending the night inside this house- but of course, in the middle of the night, the bandits return- this time, with friends, to take back the people we captured. There were two groups- a large group of bandits, with the leader riding on a FREAKING GRIFFON bursting through the door to block the exit.

Instead of fighting, Sully ends up giving them money- 1,000 gold, as a matter of fact, in agreement that they can take their friends and the money and we can leave. The boss accepts this agreement, and the party is saved from having to fight an army and a freaking griffon. Really clever moves, Sully, no one saw that coming and we were expected to be captured.

Anyway, the party continues, foraging for foods, travelling through a swamp- mushrooms and herbs all around. Everyone debates trying the mysterious herbs and mushroms, and so Sagi ends up trying one of each, taking a few for the road to see if he can pawn them off (he can’t).

After the swamp was a small town, where they discover the herbs are white night chrysanthemums and are good, while the mushrooms are... bad. Huuuh.

After some general buying and selling, the party spends the night here, with Sully insisting to refer Lord Darquias as... Simon. And thus, Simon had to adapt to not declaring his name everywhere he went, and to start learning to get off his high horse.

Oh yeah, and of course, Sagi gets very sick thanks to the mushroom, whoops.

Of course, next morning, sheep’s missing again, but Sully tracks it down. Sider, after many unsuccessful attempts in the past, finally cooks a decent meal, and Sagi is healed from the sickness.

The group continues their travels, going through a desert towards Ryder, when they see a merchant travelling on a carriage, who they decide to ask for a ride to the kingdom. Except, they recognize this merchant- At least, Sagi and Sully do.

So, it turns out, this guy is named Marcus- the gambler from the capital of Palatora. And he doesn’t seem to recognize the party, but boy do they recognize him. And of course, Sagi, with the portrait Sully drew, creates a convincing story of how he’s a wanted criminal, being falsely framed for a hand in the murder of the King, among other crimes (illegal gambling, domestic abuse...), and that they believe he’s innocent- but wish to travel with him to cross the border. Confused and concerned, he eventually allows the party to journey with him- for a price. They decide to gamble for it, Down to One, to see if the party rides for free.

Sagi, of course, loses immediately, before he can even roll- upsetting Sider and Simon, who at this point want to murder this man, but Sully and Sagi restrain them and agree to pay 1,250 gold to travel with him.

Sagi and Sully, who are without passports, hide in the merchant’s secret compartment hidden in the carriage, and travel across the border- Stating their business, Sider claims he’ll be done in three days, and after an inspection of the carriage, they’re allowed passage.

After journeying for a ways, they reach the capital of Ryder- their destination. Marcus invites them into a warehouse, where he’s known as “Chris”. The party is seen as favorable to the group in the warehouse, and is offered a job- to deliver a package to the palace, disguised as messengers of the 56th Battalion of the Eastern Front. 1,500 up front, 1,500 afterwards once the package is delivered. Sagi, of course, accepts this job immediately, to the concern of his party. But this way, they have access to inside the castle to deliver Sider’s note to the king as well.

The morning before the job starts, the party explores the capital- where Sagi convinces Simon to venture to a Fortune Teller- this way, Sagi doesn’t have to spend money, and they can figure out if they’ll even survive whatever mission these shady guys have planned. His fortune describes Simon as an herbalist- a man with a turbulent future, but good for a career change, leaving Simon to think. He’s also suckered in to finding out his lucky color, as well as other bits of dime and nickeling him out of money. Good times.

Sagi ends up buying some local Red Moon Wine- with the intent to peddle it later- but Sider begs him for some. Sagi agrees- for a 10% cut on all his future profits, where Sider, gleefully drunk, accepts.

The group later on meet up with Marcus (or “Chris”), acquire their uniforms, and leave the Sheep in Chris’ hands, though Sagi is sure to give the Sheep a firm rub, just in case they need to track him again later.

With Sagi carrying the package, the four enter the castle and speak with the king- stating their business, with Simon doing his best to avoid being recognized- but also a bit sad at not being recognized by the king as one of his generals at all. The party delivers the parcel, and the letter- of which Sider claims was given to him in passing, hiding his official duty. The King of Ryder reads the letter, finding out the Count of Honeyhollow is aware of tensions in the air, and wanting to arrange a meeting immediately. And so they’re sent by the King with a message to deliver to invite the Count, a trusted family member of the King, and safely bring him to meet with him. (I’m a bit fuzzy on what the letter said, my notes get sparse around this part admittedly). The king is also to make sure to cut funding to the 56th battalion for their bumbling about.

As the party leaves, with knowledge of the letter in hand, a huge explosion shakes the castle- the package was a bomb. The party has to flee from the chaos, guards chasing after them, keeping doors open and doing their best to escape the castle walls. They manage to get through the closing gates, but are stopped by two guards on the path to the meeting place with Marcus/Chris, and have to fight (one poor guard was stuck fighting a scarecrow, unfortunately for him), and knocking the guards out, the party continued their escape to the back of Marcus’ carriage.

They go riding through the night path, the chaos in the distance, throwing lanterns and whatever they can to impede the guards chasing behind them- Sagi receiving the payment owed to him, thankfully, but definitely not enough for the job he just did. The carriage comes to a halt at a northern gate (?), where the party is thrown (jumped?) from the road into the river below.

At this point, Sider’s player had decided to leave the game, and vanished in the raging current, fate unknown but presumed the worst. My notes have basically become footnotes at this point, so a lot of this is from memory, but I’ll do my bestt

Anyway, so yeah, party has now been accused of killing one King, and accidentally blown up another. Things are kinda messed up right now. The party manages to get to land, into a mushroom-y area- Simon’s world is kind of messed up right now, but in this area, be begins to study the land (as now a Noble/Healer), and Sully begins to wisen up after dealing with all these experiences, with treachery and with nobility (Hunter/Noble). Sagi remains a Merchant, though. Sagi, however, ends up splitting the money for the job (at least, the 1,500 from the latter half of the job) evenly between the three of them after all they went through, instead of keeping it for himself.

Travelling through a muddy forest, they stumble and muddy themselves, before stumbling across a den... containing a chimera. They battle the best, and honestly, it was fairly easy to kill, somehow, with Sully making sure to claim some parts of this beast. The party continues, stumbling into a small- literally- village, filled with nekogoblins. The party explores the village, does their shopping (doing their best to fit their heads into their tiny buildings), and find a shack they can all fit in to sleep into. Sully, before bed, brings the meat of the chimera through the nekogoblin village... where a meowscular chef, with a scar over one eye, proceeds to cook the meet for all the nekogoblins in the village, a downright party, where Sully and the villagers feast like never before at this wonderfully cooked chimera meat. Sagi and Simon, meanwhile, had no idea any of this was going on. Huh.

Anyway, the three continue on their journey, but after buying so many wares, Sagi feels it’s time to purchase another pack animal to journey with the party. And in a rural stable, the pack animal given to him is... a capybura. Much friendlier and easier to manage than the Sheep, but the Sheep was sure to still accompany them on their journey.

The group has options on where to go- and ultimately choose to go to the Eastern Front to have their letter delivered to the Count- still disguised in their 56th Battalion outfits, of course.

There, conditions are rather poor- the 56th battalion doesn’t recognize them, but doesn’t really care. They’re overworked and underpaid. Simon is more and more defeated by his lack of recognition- he, a highly honored general, now simply regarded as a lowly messenger. There’s also this huge guy, Doug. Dude and his friends cut in line for food, have arm wrestling competitions, real schoolyard bullies. Of course, Simon knows how to talk the trash and run his mouth- eventually declaring that he is truly Lord Simon Darquias, and he will have Doug demoted- to which no one believes or cares, except to just annoy Doug, and eventually gets destroyed in an arm wrestling competition after trying to be rational and civil about things afterwards. Sagi, unfortunately, lost the bet he placed on Simon to somehow win. He’s not very good at betting.

The two meet again outside of a shop tent, where after more trash talking, Lord Darquias gets decked in the stomach by Doug. Dude is huge and powerful. With that, they leave him alone for now, and come up with a plan- if they can’t win by force with this guy, win by brains and tell the commanding officer his rank. And so, they do just that, with his passport and badges and all- and the officer did not believe him at all and confiscated these belongings, another crushing blow to Lord Darquias’s ego.

However, soon it’s time to line up in attention- a visitor is arriving. And not just any visitor.

The King of Ryder has survived, badly injured, but survived- and with him, another man they recognized. Except this time, decked out, looking of a much higher class- Marcus. Chris. Also known as: Karmakoff. A leader in his own right (of exactly what I don’t have written down, but he’s a leader of Northern Ryder, basically). And the King, very cross, makes sure that the 56th battalion remains, and that the messengers remain- Staring the party straight in the eye, he interrogates them. Asking for what the heck is really going down.

And so, they’re honest- Their names are Lord Simon Darquias, Sully, and... Connor. They give Sagi a vile look, but Sagi rarely goes by the same name, this is just one of the few times he was actually asked for a name in the campaign, and so it still checks out. They accuse Karmakoff as the head of the operation, but are thrown into jail in the camp- placed behind bars for days and days.

Until finally, the King and Karmakoff return. With the Count of Honeyhollow, who proceeds to question our heroes as well. He believes them- their story checks out, and though saddened by Sider’s loss, he knows these are the people sent on the journey to deliver the message and end the upcoming war. But the King is still uncertain, and Karmakoff is still too trustworthy.

That’s when Sully brings out the Ace Attorney in her.

For you see, we still had that portrait, explaining him being there in our getaway. He admits to letting the party travel in his carriage, and claims that picture could have been drawn at any time after seeing his face. But Sully points out- the paper was wet and dried from the river they fell into after the carriage ride. And the ink on the paper was also wet and settled on the paper as well- Meaning, the picture had to have been drawn before they fell into the river, meaning, they met him before the carriage ride and getting locked up!

This of course caught everyone off guard, but with evidence this damning, Sully succeeds at proving our innocence (again, freaking Sully with these crazy swerve balls that Kresna has to give to her- and shout outs to Kresna for allowing this and changing the story accordingly, we were not meant to win this interrogation, or that one bandit attack earlier honestly)

And so, the King, needing more time to think, takes the paper and agrees to let them free. The Count returns to them their belongings, including Lord Darquias’ passport and badges, and they discuss how to handle Karmakoff and what to do- more evidence to find of his wrongdoing, to prove he was involved with the attack on the castle. And so the party, with the Count, journey back to the capital of Ryder to search for clues- now given badges to prove their authority when searching.

After some travelling, the party learns more about Karmakoff and how he came into power as the son of a previous offer and how he climbed the ranks. Afterwards, the Count parts ways, wanting to meet with them once evidence has been gathered.

The group explores Ryder, does general shopping- Lord Darquias acquiring herbs and such, Sagi meeting a weird lady to sell Nekogoblin staffs he acquired in the village, a very interesting lady. She also has things to sell, except, no, she doesn’t. Meanwhile, Sully also gets involved with her- and sells the chimera horn, of which she is completely smitten by. Sully promises to bring her more chimera meat should she ever come across another, as this lady loves the meat.

Sagi also finds a strange mask merchant, and decides to buy his wares with a straight face- Lord Darquias, meanwhile, is freaked out by the variety of strange and peculiar masks for sale, all with different expressions. Sagi buys a mask of Anguish, Horror, Blank Stare, Discomfort (to reflect how Lord Darquias looked at the time), and a Young Lady’s face to stand out from the rest. Lord Darquias also asks for any nicer masks, and so Sagi is given a mask of Bliss as well, because that one never sells.

Anyway, after all their shopping, the group goes to the warehouse where they received their mission- except, everything’s changed. It’s just a general store now, a farmer’s market. The three go in separately, interacting with different people- Sully talks to the shop keep to get some information, but fails to get anything. Lord Darquias speaks with a strange man obsessed with... aubergine, and learns a looot about aubergine from this guy, who seems to only care about aubergine. And so he convinces Lord Darquias to buy some, and also manages to steal Lord Darquias’ heart... somehow. Ryder is a strange, strange place. Sagi spoke with an old deaf woman, saying he was new to the area, and she thought he was a “nudist”. So of course, Sagi just reverts back to trying to sell the sheep instead, and also fails.

After receiving no information, Sagi makes one more attempt, talking to the shop keep. He pretends to look for a job selling wares, but the owner is uninterested. After a talk, about how he got this place after a job at the castle and how he got ripped off, they have a gamble, where Sagi wins his first gamble (Down to One, of course), but loses the second one for information- Where the old man gets to ask Sagi a question. He offers Sagi a smoke, and the two share a long smoke, choking Sagi a bit. Asks him what Sagi is after, why he wants to find the guy he got the shop from, and Sagi explains how he too was ripped off after doing a job for this guy, and just wants to get even. The old man tells him to wait for him at the tavern, that he’ll be there at sundown.

So, the group meet up at the tavern and wait with the Count. And wait, and wait, and wait. Until finally, it’s closing time, and the Count is very impatient. Sure enough, there’s the old man, wondering what took them so long, smoking outside of the “no smoking” tavern. Gives Sagi the keys to the warehouse and leaves, not wanting to be involved with any of this.

And so begins the infiltration to the warehouse- a stealth mission to find evidence, while not disturbing Karmakoff’s men, who are sitting around playing cards and drunk. Lord Darquias keeps an eye on them, while Sully and Sagi sneak upstairs to search for crates- After a lot of tense searching (so many close rolls), Sully finally found more explosives, and with that, we alerted the Count to bring the guards to seize the place.

The guards did just that, arresting the men who were there- one of them being the man who gave them the mission, the right hand man of Karmakoff, giving a salute with his armband on his arm, before being taken away.

And then, after a night’s rest, the final session.

The group wake up and prepare- Sully buys some armor to be safe (keeping her eyes protected with sunglasses from the gleaming bald, black forehead of the merchant), and Lord Darquias visits a fortune teller one last time- being told his future contains... lots of aubergine. Also told his lucky color for half price (except the original price was doubled), and a weather report too- she walked outside and saw it was nice and sunny. She also didn’t recognize him at all, but she never forgets a face. As soon as he left, Sully goes in and asks what his name was. She claims it was “Farquad”. Classic.

Anyway, we travel back through Ryder to discover battles are already happening- The nationalists of Karmakoff vs the normal people, all there is is confusion, no one knows why they’re fighting, there’s just fighting everywhere. The King meets with us and tells us Karmakoff’s plan- he’s going to Palatora to meet with and murder the Prince of Palatora, in the name of Ryder, and cause an international incident and die a martyr in the name of nationalism. And so we’re given 20 of the King’s best knights, and need to get through the city and stop him. Meanwhile, Sully gives the King and the Count directions to the Nekogoblin village- it’s so hard to find, that they’ll be safe there. The party makes their way through the fighting, only to come across a hefty man, also fighting anyone he sees with his bare fists... Doug.

So the party ends up fighting Doug (I thought we’d be fighting back to back against the nationalists, personally) as well as his two companions, but other than Lord Darquias getting hit pretty hard a few times, he was defeated fairly easily, and his cohorts ran away carrying him.

Arriving in a carriage, Sully drives with Sagi’s assistance, plus two of the strongest knights with us, as the other knights traveled in their own carriages. We arrive at the swamp forest near Palatora, where we continue on foot- with Sully finding their tracks on the move.

The party decides to perform a pincher manuever on the enemy group, as they still haven’t left the forest- half the knights on one side, and their group with knights on the other. Beginning the attack, they send one knight on his own to set flames to their tents- to help signal to the Prince that something’s going wrong, just like Lemony Snicket would have wanted. Meanwhile, the battle goes on, and Karmakoff tries to escape- but is halted by the flames. So, he calls for his dragon, and the final battle begins.

Sully and Karmakoff basically fought it out one-on-one, I debated getting Sagi involved given their history, but it just felt right to have it between those two. So Sagi aimed to kill the dragon first to help humiliate Karmakoff. Lots of big hits, lots of poetry- including throwing a random die and randomly bumping into it to roll it for old time’s sake of Down to One (no real reason other than for fun), and sure enough, Sully almost dies to a crit, but gets a crit back on Karmakoff, and eventually kills him. Meanwhile, Sagi and Lord Darquias fought off the dragon, Sagi had a bit of trouble hitting it, but they managed- with Lord Darquias dealing the final blow, slaying the dragon and cheering.

And with that, it was over. The Prince arrived, the King arrived, lots of talking was to be had, but our motley crew was to be regarded as heroes for what they’ve done, and given enough riches to live comfortably for life.

Days later they were rewarded, and asked what they’d do. King was blinded in one eye for life, of course, but hey, not completely our fault. Lord Darquias would live that aubergine life, open an apothecary on the mountains of Ryder, and get married to the aubergine guy. Yeah. Sagi, aka Rohan Valois, would continue to journey with the Sheep and the Capybura, making a modest living, trying to get more money by selling his journal of all the events that happened on their journey, the Story of Rohan Valois. And Sully would return home, get the horse she wanted all journey-long, and continue travelling the land, expanding her maps and visiting all the people on her journey to thank them. And who knows, maybe find another chimera for the weird Ryder buyer to eat and live happily ever after with.

AND THAT’S THE CAMPAIGN

I uh

started writing this at like, 12:40AM, and now it’s 4AM, but look, this had to be chronicled, okay?

Dude, it was such a good campaign. I can’t describe to you the variety of interesting NPCs we’ve encountered, the fun events, the good stuff, mannn. Kresna was a fantastic GM, Lord Darquias was a fantastic, hilarious character with great development, and Sully was the MVP with the whole “let’s draw a sketch of this guy” and then getting to use it in an Ace Attorney like scenario. Mannn, Sully’s player really thought outside the box, really great stuff. Also helped that Sully’s rolls were like the best early on to kill a lot of stuff. Sider’s player ended up leaving halfway unfortunately, but glad we still managed to continue on (helped that it managed to fit into the narrative fairly okay)

Sagi I felt I definitely could have played better- Originally just a merchant meant to rip people off, but I never felt really good about that, or how to play him properly beyond “try to sell the sheep and make money”, yeah. I’m very bad at roleplaying in general (especially verbally), but still, it was good fun, lots of good people. Ended up at level 6, double Merchant double Technical, with 2,400 gold at the end (before any rewards), so could’ve done better making money, but honestly that goal wasn’t that major by the time the story got rolling, mannn

And really, shout outs to Kresna, for devising the campaign, getting us all involved, and making something phenomenal. Everyone else is inspired by his campaign to make their own, and it was just so perfect, man. His writing, his NPCs and acting and dialogue for them, his on-the-fly making of stuff, mixed with his twists- We joked that the gambler would end up being the final boss, and he and a spectator friend posted logs that was basically them planning that out before the gambler was even introduced, godddddd.

I probably got some events wrong/misunderstood and probably spelled a lot of stuff wrong but hey, that’s life (it was all done in a discord call on a weekly every-other-week basis, good times). I think I got the general message across, anyway. Our team got very good rolls throughout honestly, I’m happy with how the game turned out and how every decision led somewhere interesting, basically.

Everyone remaining now wants to do their own campaigns and admittedly I feel a bit burnt out on it at the moment so not sure if I’d join them, but we shall see what the future holdsss, but yes, fun timesss now I should go to bed and rest my typing hands

#text stuffs #kresnyan~#ryuutama #long post #nyrator plays games and stuff #how do I even tag this

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imissyoulilgucciv · 7 years

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So this has become more of a journal/grief thing which is interesting because I’ve also had a blogger but set to private since like 13 so thats intense and I have thousands of compulsive letters to no one, but my head just doesn’t seem to sort itself out, unless I can actually slow down enough, like right here.

Today,

Woke up 2 hours earlier than usual so I could have 1.5 hours more to instal my art, the word art makes me uncomfortable which is funny to me, so I went to install my thing but there was an accident so instead I got there with 30 mins, I got most of it done but not all, didn’t matter it was an inprogress crit and I could enough up to see. I always have so much in my head and I also used text this time which I thought was also funny because when talked about they called it poetry and I just didn’t even look at it like that

I feel like this is the first project I didn’t stress over at all, but also had a lot of time to do it and no pressure from the teacher with harsh deadlines or anything so that was part of it, the other part is being in such a place of discomfort and shock that I have to be slow and I don’t have it in me to add any more chaos to the grief I’m feeling. So for me that is actually one benefit of this, its just saying fuck it to a lot of things, but in good ways.

my teacher cried during my crit which made me feel just great, and then I didn’t get a parking ticket but I should have, so I was excited and left but then went back to remove my shit and photo and then I went to get my car and bring it closer for the camera (long story) but I drove my car back in a slightly different spot and then still got a ticket because the chalk was still on my wheels even though I was gone for at least an hour and a half. but whatever theres like 4 hours worth of “work”, not my biggest worries though.

Then I busted my phone, my thoughts were oh well now I have an excuse for not wanting to respond to this persons text about hanging out.

so i go get my old phone to see if I should still use that one, and ofcorse doing this leads me to 1 years worth of messages with gus. The struggle is real, I can’t even cry because this is so overwhelming, I knew it was always hard, and I was different this time around because I Was pushing back, but like you just see the back and forward nature and gus is like “im done” this is too much for me and then the next day or same day its like hopeful for the future we have and even one that was a super cute photo of like flower people (to me it was super sexual but he didn’tn notice this until I pointed it out then we joked about being watered) but he said he wouldn’t worry any more and that he was sure no matter where we ended up we’d do something good or something like that, something that could make a small difference or whatever and that is heartbreaking, then you know the next day all over again fast and furious and I imagine how exhausting that was for gus, it’s overwhelming and I Feel in my state of greif I can understand BUT from the point of view that I have a reason to feel these ways which is much easier than to have a seemingly perfect life, beautiful face, no visible problems and people think stop whining or whatever and you feel crazy as shit because nothing feels right but nothing is wrong except you. Thats not a good feeling. Thats the invisible wheel chair. I just wish I had done so many different things, and said so many different things, I started joining in on the upset because I Wasn’t going to do that this time, I was being hurt to so lots of fuck you’s and I love yous and its fucking nuts, its all nuts, and this was the last time... I had no idea what I was in for. I could have done better but I was too involved, and also blinded by optimism. you don’t know whats in someones head and I forgot while gus was honest, he also had a way of only discolosing certain info, I thought he didn’t do that with me but in reality I can see now he did, just like he picked and chose what to tell his therapist about me, so that my image was protected. Gus was odd in that way, to protect my image because of how he felt, and its not that he was protecting his image to me, but I know he did want us to work out and he was giving me his best sides, and I loved those sides, and to think I got all the good, and yet still by the day, maybe week, maybe once a month you name it we would have really confusing fights where he would insit on withdrawing and I should have let him, I should have understood it was TOO much like he said I mean I thought I felt it was too much too, but like then it comes down to the I dont want to live without you

and he realizes he can’t live with me

and he doesn’t want to keep hurting me or his mom, and he realizes he could actually really hurt either one of us when he’s not making any sense

and its exhausting back and forth, one week feels like a fucking month, and I think his whole teen/adult life was like that, it was super condensed and super fast. He did travel, he did live in a commune for a period, dual citizenship, went through a good amount of personality growth and interests, and the last being one that I respect a lot, permaculture, and then the things that stayed the same with him like the inside jokes and the laughing, his clenliness and interest in some rap with the perfect lyrics and same taste in music, so loving, so embracing.

I can’t read these and think its over, I still open the door to his room when I get home and I think Hey Gus I’m back!! and I want to tackle him and give him all the hugs and kisses. The thing is we never had that though, I mean I never came home here, this was never my home, always a place I felt welcome but I didn’t live here, and I didn’t come here like every day nor usually when I was done with school, there would be times wher eI’d come but he would greet me at the front door, so this coming into the room and him being there is a fantasy I’ve created, Its the one where I think god like why couldn’t this be how it was, why couldn’t we have been this ideal happy family.. why did you have to leave, and why did I go so hard on you, and I know it wasn’ my choice but I really I’m so stubborn I can’t get over it I can’t forgive myself, I can’t thin it couldn’t have been different because it could have, and it wasn’t and I was part of that circle. I failed in ways I wasn’t aware of but I still feel accountable.

So now to complete my overwhelming day,

to see the medium perform ! Gus I hope you come, Ive been talking outloud to him, it comforts me, I think now Im going to be crazy lady , the one that doesn’t talk to cats but talks to the deceased bf.

Its a disaster. I can’t be the same. I feel so wrong, but also free in all my wrongness because I can say piss off, I’m still working on my piss of people pleasing skills because it just happens, I get nervous, then adrenaline that allows me to perform instead of being myself, or how I Feel. instead I can only use words and when my expression doesn’t match people don’t take me seriously, how can I blame them ?

I just miss you,

I have a bracelet from the women in my group, she said she thought of me, that means so much to me, it says “my story isn’t over yet” super cliche but the intention and the person behind it just makes me cry because we share the worst thing imaginable. Blessed. although I’m not sure how to ever wear it because its a set size metal bangle type which never fit my wrists.

I feel pretty nuts when I write like this, but I’d rather be here than having real friends and feeling like im going to have a melt down. I can’t cry right now even after reading those texts, I don’t know how I feel. I’m confused and upset but its numbing today.

I do think gus was Bipolar which was what he said the first time around, he had actually been diagnosed, but that fell through, which I partically wonder if that was my influence on him and unfortunately I think between me and drug counceling he was oppossed to understanding the benefit of medication/or even necessity, and also the benefits of being diagnosed so proper treatment can at least be attempted, even though, unfortunately, the books just don’t always work. Like the book of parenting, or relationships because I Was all wrong, and I have to think from the side of being with someone mentally ill, while I knwo I can’t be treated like crap, most of the time gus wasn’t treating me poorly other than making me hurt by the break ups and while I knew sometimes it was him being withdrawn and worried about how I felt, or being paranoid and we’d be okay sometimes it wasn’t that easy and my emotions would also take over so I’d believe him entirely and I’d be very hurt because it would always be very sudden. if only wed gotten help sooner, but I think again this time he was actually doing everything by the “book” all at once, he was invested in his interests, he was working out, he had a routine, a loving girlfriend, he was sober, seeking help..

and then he looses his shit with me and we think okay moving therapy up

then he looses his shit with his mom

then he’s gone

it doesn’t feel good when you’re doing all the “right” things, thats why I said he wasn’t patient, you expect results, tired of hurting people and tired of feeling hurt, overwhelmed and the fucking pyshcotic voices convincing you of things that make no sense and go against what is actually true, the ones that tell you we’d be better off without you. the ones that told you I was lying or only using you, or whatever

IT wasn’t fair for you or us, and this is the price for all of it. We’d do anything to have you back. I still would have rather been taken out first, but that isn’t what happened. I need your mom to have something from you, I have my dreams but she is sinking and needs to hear something, what is “real” doesn’t matter because to me, whats there is real, just like your delusions, they were real.

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savvystories · 7 years

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Announcing the July 2017

Word Weaver Writing Contest!

Enter your amazing piece of writing! We have over $400 of valuable prize packages!

YOU will have the month of July to enter an amazing piece of your own writing to our contest.

Here’s what you do:

Uh, enter a piece of your writing in the contest. I thought that was obvious.

Here’s what you GET:

The FIRST PLACE Winner will receive THIS prize package:

Cover Design & Publishing Package from Award Winning Moyhill Publishing (www.Moyhill.com)

This insanely great package includes

COVER DESIGN and EBOOK FORMATTING for your edited book

PROOFREADING and up to two electronic proofs with changes if needed

MARKETING COVERS (larger formats) for Amazon and Smashwords.

PROMOTION for the book placement on the shelves of the Moyhill virtual bookstore.

YOUR BOOK GETS FOUR WEEKS AS A PINNED TWEET to over 20,000 followers from Sally Cronin’s Smorgasbord Cafe and Bookstore account.

A first time author will also be guided through the setting up of social media, author page and other marketing strategies, plus Moyhill can upload the manuscript to Amazon and Smashwords for you!

PUBLICATION of their winning piece on this website

A GUEST BLOG POST or AUTHOR PROFILE to appear on this site (that’s priceless, really)

a video interview with me, should they so choose, also to appear on this site**

MASSIVE BRAGGING RIGHTS

** requires a quality high speed internet connection and a good camera on your computer or phone. Maybe other stuff. I’m not doing this at 3am, okay?

The SECOND PLACE Winner will receive THIS prize package:

RUSSELL J. FELLOWS EDITING

EDITING PACKAGE from Russel J. Fellows Author Services for YOUR book! (www.RusselJFellows.com)

PUBLICATION of their winning piece on this website

A guest blog post or author profile to appear on this site

slightly less massive bragging rights than first place (because that’s only fair)

The THIRD PLACE Winner will receive THIS prize package:

WriteMind author’s idea management and project organizing system ($19.99 Digital Printable Version) from Perry Elisabeth Design

PUBLICATION of their winning piece on this website

A guest blog post or author profile to appear on this site

also bragging rights because why not, but try not to outbrag the first and second place winners, okay?

EACH OF THE FIRST 20 25 ENTRIES WILL ALSO RECEIVE:

A CRITIQUE OF THEIR WORK BY ME!

Yep, I’ll critique your work (up to 3,000 words), whether you win or not.

I will spend an hour of my time giving you the Dan Treatment of your 3,000 word piece, just like I do in my private critique group. Don’t worry, I’m pretty nice and very encouraging. Most people like my crits. Not all, though. Some people are just babies.

I might spend more than an hour if it’s really good, and you can send more than 3,000 words, but I’m only human and I’m not gonna be able to wade through 10k from you for this contest, okay? Doing 20 25 critiques is a LOT of freaking work.

EACH OF THE FIRST 50 ENTRIES will receive a 20% discount on a consulting session with former Time-Life Books editor MOLLI NICKELL, a $60.00 savings!

(www.GetPublishedNOW.biz)

MOLLI survived 35 years in the publishing biz as a Time-Life editor, publisher, motivational speaker, UCLA writing instructor, and six-times published author. Currently she mentors writers as a pre-submission specialist, story doctor, query wizard, and marketing guru. Molli helps writers achieve the ultimate goal of agent, publisher, and shelf space at Barnes and Noble.

Each of the first 50 entrants in my July 2017 will receive 20% off of a one $300, one hour consulting: participants will email Molli email their query, synopsis, or first page, which Molli will read and then evaluate before doing a 30-45 minute consult by private video chat. USE PROMO CODE: WORD WEAVER to receive your discount at her site, HERE

Moll is the real deal, gang.

PLUS!

“DOOR” PRIZES just for entering!

ALL contestants not winning first, second, or third place will be put into a drawing for other prizes!

How awesome is that? Lots of stuff for you to win!

Several contestants will receive ONE month FREE membership in my PRIVATE CRITIQUE GROUP.

Receive up to 3,000 words of your story per week critiqued BY ME in my private critique group. Get The Dan Treatment. This $50.00 value will be awarded to several contestants.

an audio book prize from an Amazon Bestselling author (audio books are not autographed)

autographed books from one of several generous authors listed below, in your choice of paperback or eBook (but the e-Books aren’t signed, either, okay?)

a few signed copies of Poggibonsi: an Italian misadventure, my funny and sexy romantic comedy (unless you choose an eBook, right? Let that signed eBook thing go. Just let it go!)

Amazon $20 gift card

Starbucks $10 gift card*

* My goal is to have ALL the entry fees go to prizes, not to make a profit on this contest, so I may use entry fees to buy and award more prizes. They won’t all be Ammy; that would get a little boring, and even though I personally HATE Starbucks, you might like it.

HERE are some of the AMAZING AUTHORS whose books will be in these packages

Allison Maruska, Project Renovatio. Author of the runaway bestseller The Fourth Descendant, Allison Maruska offers an audio book version of her latest hit, Project Renovatio.

With over 550 reviews on Amazon, The Fourth Descendant established Allison as an amazing breakout author. I read Project Renovatio. It is a brilliant, thrilling YA novel that grabs the attention of readers and holds them until the very end.

Hugh Roberts, Glimpses

28 short stories that will take your mind on a rollercoaster of a ride into worlds that conceal unexpected twists and turns. You REALLY wanna win that!

Dana Wayne, Mail Order Groom, Secrets of the Heart

Dana Wayne is all about the romance! Mail Order Groom is a historical western romance. Secrets of The Heart is a contemporary romance. Both are amazing!

Curtis Bausse, Perfume Island, One Green Bottle

One Green Bottle, set in Provence, is the first in a series of Magali Rousseau detective stories. Perfume Island is the second book in the amazing series. You’ll love it!

T. A. Henry, Scripting The Truth

Any story that takes place in post-WWII Britain and has the phrase “She’ll try to do it all while trying to keep the seams on her stockings straight” has to be read. You’ll agree.

Patty Fletcher, Campbell’s Rambles

A unique and energetic author, Patty obtained her first guide dog, Campbell, from The Seeing Eye™ in Morristown, New Jersey: what motivated her, the extensive training she had, the special relationship she developed, and the good friends she made all comprise fascinating reading!

Joanne R Larner, Dicken’s Diaries, Richard Liveth Yet

One reviewer called Dicken’s Diaries “a ‘diary’ with lots of amusing stories and indeed it is a cleverly written, humorous book.” Richard Liveth Yet is Richard III as you have never seen him before! Great stories from a great writer.

Yecheilyah Ysrayl, Renaissance: The Nora White Story

In 1922 Mississippi, Nora White has graduated high school and is college bound, but she is fascinated by the prospect of being a famous writer in The Harlem Renaissance – and decides on a change of plans. Techeilyah will amaze you with this one!

and of course, ME

A few folks will be selected to receive a copy of Poggibonsi: an Italian misadventure, my hilarious sexy romp through Italy (definitely a hot commodity, so to speak) as a signed paperback or as an eBook. Don’t even ask me if I’ll sign the eBook. Just. Don’t.

and

Annette Robinson,

3rd place winner from our April contest,

graciously donated a gift card to be a door prize for an up-and-coming new talent.

Check out Annette’s winning story HERE and her website HERE.

OKAY, HERE ARE THE RULES

You must enter an original piece of your own writing and pay the entry fee. Please don’t exceed 3,000 words; entries can be as short as you want. FEEL FREE TO USE A CHAPTER OF YOUR UNRELEASED BOOK. (That’s what I’d do.)

THEME: To promote the July 31 release of my paranormal thriller An Angel On Her Shoulder, which involves paranormal experiences, a family, and a LOT of nail-biting suspense, entries need to touch on the theme of FAMILY. In some way, shape or form, your entry has to address family. Somebody can hate their family. Some character can be missing from the story because they are visiting family. Doesn’t matter. “Where’s Bill?” “Visiting family.” That counts. I’m pretty loose on this.

All entries must be submitted on or before midnight eastern time on July 31, 2017.

There is NO restriction on genre. Go crazy.

You may submit a chapter or passage from your book if you so desire (I would – this is great publicity), but it should be an unpublished work.

HOW TO ENTER

You MUST submit your entry via the Contact Me button and pay your $10.00 entry fee (USD) via PayPal to [email protected] . If your entry is too large to submit that way, simply send me a message using the Contact Me button and I’ll email you back; from there you’ll be able to attach your piece.

BUT

You can avoid paying the $10.00 by pre-ordering my new paranormal thriller An Angel On Her Shoulder for $5.99 before July 15! (Click HERE to go to the pre-order link)

this is a mock-up cover, obviously

You must pre-order on or before midnight EST JULY 15, 2017, and you don’t get the deal if you pre-order on July 16th. It’s okay to tell friends about the secret discount. Reblog and RT and all that, sure. Those are friends. Can you go crazy sharing this info on Facebook? Yeah, what the heck.

Do I rock, or what?

AND

ALL winners from my April 2017 Word Weaver Writing Contest are AUTOMATICALLY ELIGIBLE for the July 2017 Word Weaver Writing Contest, for free. So whether you got 1st place in April or 5th place or even Honorable Mention, we want you back for the July contest – at no charge! Whaaat??? I know!

LEGAL STUFF

Void where prohibited. ALL entries will be subscribed to my email list. Don’t worry, I won’t spam you. (I don’t know how.) Winners will be notified here on the blog in a big announcement, and they will be contacted by email, either by me or by the sponsor donating the prize, to make arrangements to get their prize – that might include an address to deliver a paperback to. Winners who live outside of the country of the sponsor whose prize they won may be limited to a prize that can be emailed or sent electronically, like an eBook, audio book, PDF, or Amazon gift card. You still get your work published here, and the profile, etc., if you win those things, but sorry; mailing a paperback to from here to Canada and other places is super expensive, so we’re letting you guys into the contest but we have to limit the costs that way. I’m sure you understand. Hey, if you live in London and so does the sponsor whose prize you won, congrats – you’ll probably get the signed paperback! One entry per person. If you cheat, you’re toast. Play fair. By entering you agree to all this stuff. I pretty much get free reign in selecting the top 3 winners but it’s gonna be stuff that appealed to me (typos matter but content matters more); the rest of the winners will mostly be random drawing but I’m not above awarding stuff to a really great fourth place person. Or not.

WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED ON OR AROUND AUGUST 15, 2017

unless I get an overwhelming amount of entries, and then I’ll delay that part but trust me you’ll know because I’ll be whining about it here on the blog.

It is my desire to help each and every one of you succeed as authors and writers, so get busy!

Tick tock. July 31 will be here before you know it.

TELL EVERY WRITER YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS CONTEST!

REBLOG this! And please SHARE this post on Facebook and Twitter! Your friends need to know about this contest, too.

See those little buttons down below? Put on your glasses. There they are. Click them. (The FOLLOW button is now in the lower right hand corner.)

Dan Alatorre is the author of several bestsellers and the amazingly great sci fi action thriller “The Navigators.” Click HERE to get your copy of The Navigators – FREE on Kindle Unlimited!

Available in paperback and audio book formats, too!

Dan Alatorre’s WORD WEAVER Writing Contest for July 2017 – let the games begin! Announcing the July 2017 Word Weaver Writing Contest! Enter your amazing piece of writing! We have over $400 of valuable prize packages!

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