#i actually did this months ago based off a review from THE website

[opt1gan]

Smbp !!!

#mario #luigi #mario movie #hope everyone enjoyed the movie... 💝 #i actually did this months ago based off a review from THE website #my art

[cyncerity]

I posted 482 times in 2022

360 posts created (75%)

122 posts reblogged (25%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@cyncerity

@baka-monarch

@pixiethesizeshifter

@dingbatnix

@oh-i-need-a-name

I tagged 456 of my posts in 2022

Only 5% of my posts had no tags

#cyncerity - 345 posts

#mcyt gt - 278 posts

#mcyt g/t - 274 posts

#dad’s troubles au - 92 posts

#not g/t - 67 posts

#tw vore - 57 posts

#cyn art - 51 posts

#cynshitpost - 43 posts

#g/t - 29 posts

#store shifter au - 29 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#don’t forget how much you and this community mean to him even now cause i’m damn sure wherever he is he’s watching all this go down hskslsh

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

this took three days but i’m actually really happy with it? that never happens??

anyway, feel free to send asks for this au, i think by now we know that i’m thinking about it too much, but i hope you like these!

also click for better quality

See the full post

131 notes - Posted June 25, 2022

#4

Steddie stranger things borrower au is all I need and want in my depressing life

just for you 💖

The nickname “big boy” just became twice as flirty jokingly mocking

133 notes - Posted August 6, 2022

#3

this isn’t my usual content but i could not rest until i drew this

this is kinda a “secret world of arriety” type au (if you’ve ever read “the borrower” or “the littles” book series, think of those) but with stranger things!

idk how much i’ll do with the idea cause stranger things isn’t my main hyperfixation, but i’m in love with this idea

See the full post

156 notes - Posted August 4, 2022

#2

This was based off of an instagram meme that i think was made for women over the age of 50, but when vore inspiration strikes, you have to do something.

So, here’s this!! I may make this a series, I may not, but it may depend on if y’all even like this story or not lol

so without further ado, here’s some crimeboys noms >:)

tw: kinda implied mentions of neglect/abuse, swearing, and vore

He had to get away. Tommy couldn’t stay another day in this damn house, he felt like he was suffocating. He had to leave, somehow.

All of his things were already packed. The little he had was stored in various bags he had stolen from the attic when the thought of running away had first occurred to him. When he had first realized that he couldn’t stay in this shithole any longer.

Now to think of where. That had been his main concern. Hotels were too expensive, and god knows he didn’t have any friends who would let him stay with them.

Which left him with one option, though he was dreading it.

A few months ago, a new app had been created. A way to book “unique” temporary living arrangements with giants. It was part of some weird initiative to get humans and giants to get along better, and had fully stapled itself to the claims that some humans who lived with giants made about how being eaten could be “relaxing.”

That’s right, as awful an idea as this seemed to Tommy and almost everyone else, there was now a way to book what could qualify as the worlds weirdest airbnb within giants. Literally. Apparently some giants were completely ok with random humans using their organs as a weekend get away, because there were plenty on the app for Tommy to scroll through. And scroll he did.

He had realized a while ago that this may be the cheapest option, and had gone through the website for hours until he had found someone. Early 20s, no criminal record that he could find with a limited google search, good reviews that he could tell were mostly from humans friends that he had, but the man seemed nice enough. He ignored the paranoia that told him that this man was only cheap because he would lure Tommy to his death. That the moment he and Tommy met, it would be over, and he’d be just another missing and forgotten person. Another victim to a random giant where there’d be no proof of his death and nothing to-

No, he couldn’t afford to think like that. This had to work. And, besides, was it really worth still living if he had to be at this house any longer? As much as he hated himself for thinking it, he’d rather let this stranger be the death of him than spend another second with his abusive shit family.

Tommy had messaged him once or twice and had paid him once already just to settle the deal. He ignored the feeling of dread in his gut every time he even thought about the giant, but he couldn’t help but be nervous. After all, this man would be holding his life in him until he got his shit together enough to at least get a job. He didn’t know how long that would be, but he needed to be practically untraceable. He couldn’t risk his family finding him. He couldn’t risk being taken back home.

He sent one final text to the man about where to meet. He knew it was late, but he had warned him in advance that he was probably gonna get a text in the middle of the night, so he slowly crept out of his window and, seeing that the coast was clear, ran, not looking back.

He would never look back.

…

Tommy had arrived at the meetup spot and had been waiting for 30 minutes and, still, no sign of the giant. Ok, now that he thought about it, maybe this did seem a little suspicious. Supposing the giant was a normal ass man, getting a text saying “meet me in an abandoned Tesco parking lot” was a weird thing to receive at 2:45 in the morning. But, again, Tommy was shooting to be untraceable. He couldn’t risk anyone seeing him or his giant. Could he call this stranger “his giant?” Whatever. Tommy knew his family. He didn’t want other people to get hurt, but he couldn’t do this alone. Even if it was a stranger, he needed help.

Tommy just sat and kept thinking, thoughts spiraling into what he would do if the giant never showed up, if he actually had to do this by himself, when the ground began to shake. Tommy quickly stood up and had to strain his neck looking up to see the giant approach. And, holy shit, this fucker was tall.

Tommy had never met a giant before. Hell, almost no humans had. But from what he knew, they shouldn’t be this tall. He felt his knees begin to shake and his palms sweat as he took in the full size and image of the monster that he had hired to eat him. He had fluffy brown hair, wire rimmed glasses and a yellow sweater with a brown puffer jacket on and, weirdly enough, had a mask covering his mouth. He seemed to be hunched over, looking around for what Tommy could only assume to be him, pulling his red-brown beanie further over his head almost nervously. His eyes frantically scanned the empty lot until he found him, where he quickly made his way over as Tommy stumbled back, falling onto the ground and shaking violently from the cold and fear.

“There you are!!” the giant said, “Tommy, right? I’ve been looking all over for you! What were you thinking making this the meetup spot?!”

Tommy could barely speak. It felt like his head had been stuck in a freezer, his throat frozen and his mind muddled and cloudy, unable to form a response. “I-I..it….i- it was c- close…” he whimpered, stumbling back farther. The giant only then seemed to notice Tommy’s fear as he sighed and knelt down, trying to be more eye level as he spoke quieter. “It’s ok, kid. Fuck, you’re younger than I thought you’d be. You mean it’s close to your house, right?” Tommy nodded hesitantly and Wilbur continued. “Thought so. You probably didn’t want to haul your stuff all the way to the giant side. It’s just…i’m not technically allowed to be here.” Tommy looked up at him, confused, his breath slowing and his panic was subsiding now that the giant wasn’t towering over him and scanning the grounds for him like a fucking predator hunting it’s prey. The giant must’ve noticed his confusion, as he continued. “This isn’t a mutual territory. If i get caught here, i could get in a lot of trouble. I tried texting and calling you to tell you, given that humans don’t know a lot about the laws giants have to follow, but you weren’t responding, so i figured i’d just come and make this quick before the cops notice me.” He said. Ah, so that’s what the surgical mask was for. So the cops couldn’t recognize him. He held out a finger to Tommy, and he tried not to think about how this singular finger was taller than his whole body. “I’m Wilbur, by the way, i don’t think i ever introduced myself.” Tommy shuffled closer and grabbed the tip of the finger in an awkward attempt at a handshake. “I-I’m Tommy.”

“As nice as it is to meet you, you seem really nervous. First time?” Tommy nodded again, miraculously feeling less nervous by the second. Something about this guy, maybe his calming voice or how much more human he was than Tommy assumed he’d be, made Tommy trust him.

Or maybe it was the fact that this was the first time in a long time he had been treated with kindness. His family was barely decent to him, so this was a nice change, if an unexpected one.

“First time meeting a giant, actually.” “No offense, I can kind of tell.” Wilbur said, though there was no judgement in his voice. “Y’know, you don’t have to do this now. We could always resched-“ “No!!” Tommy shouted, interrupting the giant. “No, no, I want to, I have to, I’m out of options, please.” At that, Wilbur began to look concerned. “Tommy what do you mean ‘out of options?’ Are you ok? Do you need help?” “This is my help! Sure, maybe I’m a little bit fucking terrified, but i have nowhere else to go. I- I can’t go back, please, please, Wilby.” Tommy finished, the nickname naturally rolling off his tongue like he had known the giant his whole life. Wilbur looked at him with a vague look of concern and pity before bringing one of his giant fingers closer to Tommy’s face. Tommy didn’t even have time to react before it gently swiped across his cheek, wiping away tears he didn’t even know he had shed. “Ok, ok, i’ll help, it’s alright.” He said, giving Tommy a warm smile (he assumed; his eyes scrunched up a little near the outer edges, which seemed like a good sign he was smiling) that only slightly hid the concern still plastered on his face. And though Tommy still couldn’t see most of the aforementioned face, his eyes portrayed everything Tommy needed. Wilbur wore his heart on his sleeve; he liked that.

Tommy could have sobbed in relief as Wilbur’s words fully sunk in. He was going to get away, and the thought of finally being free was enough to drown out any more fears of what was about to happen. Wilbur then reached behind him and grabbed some of his bags, which looked ridiculously minuscule in his hand, as he brought them up to his mouth before pausing. “Do you want to go down first or do you want me to do to do these? For some people, it can be a bit nerve racking to see me swallow something first.” Tommy thought about it, then shook his head. It’s not like he wanted to see his few meager possessions disappear down the throat of a giant, especially knowing he’d have to join them, but he wasn’t gonna chicken out now. He just needed a few seconds to collect himself, and what Wilbur did with his bags in that time was none of his business.

Wilbur calmly lifted the bags back up, all of them at the same time, and slipped them under his mask. Within a few seconds, Tommy saw a vague outline slip down Wilbur’s throat, bobbing his addam’s apple a bit as they descended to where Tommy would be staying for a short while…maybe he should have gone first.

It all reminded him of a nature documentary he had seen on snakes once; he could see the outline of some poor rodent slowly trail down the snake to its final resting place.

Tommy tried not to think about that last part. After all, he’d be fine. He wasn’t prey, not to Wilbur, anyway. To his family…maybe. Not like they mattered anymore, though.

Tommy felt giddy enough at that thought that he stepped forward towards Wilbur as he watched the man press against his midsection gently, presumably to make sure Tommy’s bags had ended up in the right organ. After that confirmation, Wilbur looked back down, setting his hand palm up next to Tommy. “You ready for this, big man?” Tommy grinned at the nickname, at the way Wilbur treated him. Like a person; an equal. He grinned so hard it almost hurt. “Ready as i’ll ever be.”

Tommy felt himself be lifted and watched as Wilbur used his free hand to lift his mask just enough for Tommy to fit under and into his mouth. Tommy quickly found a perch on his lip and tried to climb in the rest of the way himself before realizing holy shit oh prime good fucking god his teeth were sharp. Wilbur made muffled cry of concern as his hand came back up under Tommy as he stumbled a bit. But, after the initial shock of the teeth being way sharper than he thought, Tommy managed to climb in the rest of the way successfully.

See the full post

182 notes - Posted August 25, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

the last post did so much better than expected! i’m genuinely really surprised, thanks for all the support on my short little shitty comic hsjsksl

Anyway, here’s pt. 2!!

See the full post

188 notes - Posted August 5, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #THE SHARK TALE AU #OH MY GOD #Also I guess I made more Dad’s Troubles AU content this year than any other au #that’s not surprising at all to me #also kinda embarrassing that the Stranger Things posts are all at the top and then my Stranger Things hyperfixation kinda just…died #sorry #i still like the show a whole lot don’t get me wrong it’s amazing #i’m just way less motivated to make stuff for that than mcyt #and don’t ask me why cause that hyperfixation lasted a month and dsmp is going on 2 years strong #also the longest tag made me a little sad but hey #it still holds true #:) #thanks for a good 2022 everyone #i’ve hit so many milestones and the fact that y’all are here is so just unbelievably amazing #thank you all so so much 💖

[aesthetic-survivor-of-twd]

Hey, good to see you active again. Have you read Clementine Book 1? If so, will you maybe do a review of this comic, and say what you think of it? I'm damn curious about your opinion on it. I personally think it has some interesting ideas but the plot itself is lame.

For a second I thought you were referring to those pages we saw forever ago and I was gonna say I ranted about it a lot, not realizing the actual book released last month lol.

But nah, I have not read it yet.

Truthfully, the preview put me off the story because the direction and writing seemed quite flimsy and a flanderization of the source it’s basing itself on, but I’ve decided to give it a proper try even if I do not agree with the characterizations.

So I’ll do a full review of it if people are really interested :) 

As I’m probably going to be using a few pages as references in my review (I might have a non spoiler summary with a spoiler section further down) I don’t want to just take it from a website online, so I’ll buy the book to support the creator as they did also put time into making it after all. 

I am quite curious to see how it ends up.

#So you may have to give me a week or so until I'm able to #twdg #the walking dead game #twdg tfs #twdg clementine #skybound

[albrightmcintosh7]

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[elitegymnastics]

Q: What is this?

A: It’s a flyer for a virtual fundraiser on June 4th that Elite Gymnastics is playing. You can access the show at quietyear.com

Q: Hasn’t Elite Gymnastics been inactive for like, ten years?

A: Yes. This is the first Elite Gymnastics performance of any kind since November 30th 2012, at the Horn Gallery at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. 

Q: Why did Elite Gymnastics stop playing shows?

A: Elite Gymnastics started out as me (Jaime) and a bunch of my friends agreeing to help me play my songs live back in 2009. I made a lot of weird demos in GarageBand and my friend Dominique Davis from the band Dearling Physique got tired of watching me sit on them. So, he booked me to play at a show he was curating as part of a small local music and arts festival called Clapperclaw. For several months that’s mainly what EG was. At some point the focus shifted to making recordings rather than playing shows, to participate in the emergent culture of new music distributed via MP3 file-sharing. The lineup winnowed to just me and Josh Clancy, who began creating digital EPs that we posted on this Tumblr page as ZIP files full of MP3s accompanied by a PDF of artwork. This is the incarnation of the group that most people are familiar with.

This was before Patreon existed. If Bandcamp was around, we’d never heard of it. Though MP3 file-sharing culture and file transfer sites like MediaFire and MegaUpload allowed anyone to distribute music freely across the world via the internet, it was still pretty difficult to get people to pay you for it. I think it was for this reason that a lot of internet music back then featured a lot of sampling. A lot of artists’ first forays into the world of DAWs and production took the form of mash-ups, bootleg remixes, and DJ mixes. Artists like Animal Collective, MIA, Kanye West, and Daft Punk for whom sampling was a pillar of their creative process were extremely influential. Elite Gymnastics was no exception - the first song of ours to gain traction online was “Is This On Me?” which made no attempt to hide the fact that it heavily sampled Faye Wong’s “Eyes On Me.” The fact that it was so difficult to make money off MP3s pushed people to make different creative decisions than they would have otherwise. It was sort of a free-for-all.

Eventually, all of this started to change. The major labels started getting a lot more aggressive about trying to destroy MP3 file-sharing culture. Platforms like MegaUpload were raided and taken offline. The replacements that sprung up to replace them were increasingly infested with ads and malware. Corporate platforms like YouTube and SoundCloud adopted Content ID filters to prevent the proliferation of copyrighted music there. Blogs and private torrent trackers being taken down meant thousands of hours of labor were wiped out in an instant. Some of the best archives of the history of recorded music ever created were destroyed without hesitation. Even the most devoted participants lost the will to keep repairing and re-making the stuff that cops and record companies kept obliterating.

Josh and I both dreamed of being able to make a living as musicians. We still do. Back then, we were willing to accept a lot of changes in order to make that possible, which seemed necessary. A lot of the stuff that we were great at just didn’t make any money. Once, we were asked to do a remix of a song called “Sa Sa Samoa” by the band Korallreven. I did the remix by myself, which was normal for us, and Josh was so inspired by it that he spent a week working non-stop to create a video for it. People loved it - the day the video dropped, Pitchfork designated the song as a “Best New Track” and New York Magazine wrote about it in their “Approval Matrix.” The video led to a ton of exposure, but from a financial perspective, it just did not make sense to put that much effort into promoting a remix of someone else’s song. The stuff we were personally excited by just seemed to have less and less to do with what actually makes money.

A lot of internet bands during this era began to palpably shapeshift in an effort to succeed in music as a career. Artists who’d first attracted notice for sample-based bangers they made on a laptop started posing with vintage hardware in their press photos and trading in their laptops for live bands and recording studios. It became harder to distribute DJ mixes or mash-ups that contained copyrighted music in them. Influential bloggers either closed up shop or were absorbed into the traditional music industry in some way. Feeds that once touted bizarre songs by laptop-toting weirdos with no industry connections started to become populated mostly by artists with labels and publicists. The bottom rungs of festival lineups started to consist mostly of new major label signings who have lots of money to spend on stage production but not much in the way of grassroots fan enthusiasm or media buzz. 

Internet music and what people tend to refer to as “indie music” split off into two separate streams. Today, there’s a pretty intense firewall between internet culture and whatever you want to call the culture of vinyl records, mid-sized indie labels with publicists, and positive reviews from the few remaining websites that still pay people to write about music. I call it “publicist indie,” “lifestyle techno,” or “prestige electronica” depending on whether or not the music features guitars and/or vocals. The recent online kerfuffle about NFTs really emphasized this split. The worlds of digital illustration and game development campaigned aggressively against mass adoption of cryptocurrency - if you saw any Medium posts explaining crypto’s environmental issues, chances are they were written by someone from those fields. Every new announcement by an artist that they had minted an NFT was met with a swift and vocal backlash from fans. Though I’ve never really been much of an Aphex Twin fan, it was still pretty startling to look at the replies under his NFT announcement tweet and see hundreds of furious people announcing that he was now dead to them. That’s an artist who has seemed more or less unimpeachable for most of my life up until this point! All of that seemed to change in an instant.

There is a massive disconnect between the insular world of the industry establishment and the cutting edge of online counterculture. We saw this again a couple of weeks ago with the online response to the crisis in Gaza. We saw passionate advocacy for Palestinians from games journalists and developers much more often than we saw it from musicians. This is a very serious problem for music! I do not believe it is possible to please both sides - that is to say, I do not believe it is possible to be part of internet counterculture and the industry establishment simultaneously. The music industry is too conservative, too compromised, too corrupt. If it weren’t for the ocean of valuable copyrights that labels are sitting on, most of them would be bankrupt within a year. If the industry was forced to live or die based on how they handle what’s happening right now in the present, it would most assuredly die. The only people who don’t realize this are those who are being paid to stay ignorant. 

Josh and I did not know this back then. From where we were standing, it looked like internet culture and established media industries were on track to converge. A career in the arts seemed genuinely, tantalizingly possible, right up until the moment that it no longer did. 

In my case, I had really been struggling up until that point. My life had been this ongoing sequence of evictions and hospitalizations, and it seemed to be getting worse, not better. I donated plasma twice a week to pay for groceries and while I was sitting there with a giant needle stuck in my left arm for an hour I would see my picture in The Fader or my songs being recommended by one of the Kings of Leon on Twitter or whatever. Music seemed like the only thing the world thought I was any good at. It felt like my only chance at a peaceful, happy life was somewhere out there in a world I could only perceive through a laptop screen. 

Gender, for me, was a big factor in all of this. The more invested in the craft of songwriting I became, the harder it was to repress or ignore my gender stuff. At that time I’m not sure I even knew what the word “transgender” meant - I just knew that when I showed up at a venue wearing a skirt, no one would talk to me or look me in the eye, and that reading about people like Anohni or Terre Thaemlitz or on the internet made me feel like if I could get out of Minneapolis maybe I could find a place where people would accept me. The internet was like, a pretty toxic place for someone in my position. When I tried to find people to talk to about what I was feeling, nobody tried to tell me to read Judith Butler or ask me what pronouns I preferred. The internet was just like, overrun with predators who just wanted to fetishize me and exploit me. Music seemed like the only way I’d ever have an actual life as myself. I was desperate for that. I was well and truly desperate.

Between all the big changes that were happening to us individually and the music industry moving farther and farther away of the anarchic free-for-all of MP3 file-sharing culture, the strain on us just got to be too much. We stopped trusting each other. We became the unstoppable force and the immovable object, crashing haphazardly against one another’s resolve in a dazzling display of youthful futility. Our partnership ended, and after finishing out the remaining live shows on the calendar by myself, I retired the name “Elite Gymnastics” and started making music on my own under other names. That was that.

Q: Why is Elite Gymnastics coming back now, then?

A: Over the years, Josh and I eventually started talking again. Though there was a lot we did agree on, and potential future projects were discussed, nothing truly felt right. We haven’t been in the same room since Summer 2012, and we’ve both changed a lot since then. We both have other projects and we’ve both developed other ways of working since we stopped working together. It’s a pretty big commitment to put all of that aside in order to join your fortunes together with someone you haven’t seen in a decade.

Recently, Josh decided to leave Elite Gymnastics. His reasons are his own, and I was very surprised by his decision, but after having had time to adjust, I’m really grateful to him. I had kept these songs at a distance for many years, because it seemed foolish to allow myself to get too attached to songs I didn’t feel like I was allowed to think of as mine, if that makes any sense. The songs felt like casualties of a conflict that I had to bury in the ground and try to forget about. Being able to embrace them again felt like re-growing a severed limb or having a loved one come back to life, almost. Feeling like it was safe to love these songs again made me feel whole in a way I didn’t expect to. I became really excited by the prospect of revisiting them, so that’s what I decided to do.

Q: Does this mean you’re going to put RUIN back on Spotify?

A: No. Taking the record off Spotify was the right thing to do. That record was only ever intended to exist during the era of MP3 piracy. I never envisioned a world where the music industry would be so aggressive about policing the way that copyrighted music is allowed to exist online. If we hadn’t opted to take the record down when we did, someone would inevitably have forced us to. If you want to hear those specific recordings again, you’re going to have to do it the way we originally intended: by downloading MP3 files from the internet. Try SoulSeek.

Q: What’s next for Elite Gymnastics, then?

A: Here’s the situation currently. There is no Elite Gymnastics music available to stream or purchase in an official capacity anywhere on the internet. It wouldn’t really be possible for me to put the old stuff on Spotify or Bandcamp now because of all the samples. Like I said before, it was a different time. Those records were created to thrive on a past version of the internet that no longer exists. They weren’t designed to be compatible with the 2021 internet.

Technically, Elite Gymnastics didn’t ever release a debut album. We had EPs, a compilation, and a remix collection. We didn’t make an album, a record that existed as the distillation of all that experimentation that contained all of the songs that fans of the EPs would want to hear, all in one place. It’s like we did Good Fridays but stopped before we made My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

So, I am currently working on the first Elite Gymnastics album. If you were following my stuff as Default Genders, you may have noticed me posting demos on my SoundCloud page from 2015-2018 that were all eventually reworked into the album Main Pop Girl 2019. The album I am making is taking that approach to all the old EG songs, including some unreleased stuff. I’m collaborating with others on some songs and I honestly feel like it has resulted in some of the best and most exciting music I have ever been involved with. It is a drastic reinvention, but iteration and reinvention have always been a big part of what I do. I want to make something that feels like the culmination of everything that came before, and so far, I think I’m succeeding.

Q: When will I be able to hear this new music?

At a virtual fundraiser on June 4th, 2021, where there is a suggested donation of $10. You can access it at quietyear.com

[thebiggestshrimp]

A Special “Souvenir” part 3

SFW (for now)

MLQC: Victor X MC (featuring Kiro)

Potential Spoilers!! brief mention of Kiro’s other half (so brief you’ll miss it if you blink), plot from Chapter 10, another slight reference to Airplane Date with Victor

Narrative Switch to Victor at the end

Word Count: 1.5k

Part 1 & Part 2 link

Part 3

As soon as you exited the building, you noticed Kiro leaning on a black car, clearly waiting for you.

“Ah Miss Chips! Are you ready to go?”

“I have to head down the street to LFG to hand in a report to my boss” you say while waving the documents in your hand.

“That’s fine, I’ll drive you there so we can get our night started as soon as possible”.

Kiro eagerly opens the passenger door for you, and then confidently strides to the driver's side. This is the first time you’ve ever seen Kiro behind the wheel, and to be honest, you didn’t even know that he could drive. You had just assumed since he was an idol, he wasn’t allowed to drive for legal reasons.

LFG was only down the street, barely a 5-minute walk, but as tired as you already felt you appreciated Kiro taking you there. When you looked at Kiro, you noticed how handsome he looked, how his expression become sterner when he was driving, how his hands look so muscular when he gripped the wheel, or how for the first time you realized just how big and manly he looked... You quickly looked away; it wasn’t your intention to think of Kiro in any way but as a friend. But you could at least admit that he was very hot. No wonder all of his fans fangirled as hard as they did.

You both arrived at LFG, the sight of which made you nervous. You checked your phone: 8:03. Victor prefers it when you show up to hand in your reports before 8 o’clock, so he would hopefully only call you a dummy once for being a few minutes late.

“This should only take a moment.” you nearly sigh while opening the car door.

“No worries, I’ll be waiting for your swift return Miss Chips”.

Little did you know Kiro was intently watching you as you walked towards LFG, admiring the way your ass ever so slightly jiggled. He caught himself staring for too long, whispering to himself, “God damn, I want to show her all of me one day”.

You were currently nervously fidgeting in the elevator, heading up to the top floor to see your boss. You almost caught yourself silently praying that he would let you off easy, in case Anna and Kiki actually lied to make you feel better about the report.

“Ding!” chimed the elevator when you reached your destination. Shakily, you exited and headed to the door marked “VICTOR LI: Loveland Financial Group CEO”.

You knocked. Nothing.

That was unusual, Victor never waited past one knock to invite whomever waited outside in.

You knocked again, a little harder this time in case the previous one was too soft to hear. Again, you were met with silence.

You checked your phone, thinking maybe he responded to your text. Nope.

You sent him another.

MC: I’m outside of your office with the report, are you out on business and I just missed you?

You waited impatiently until your phone said it was 8:16.

MC: I guess I missed you today so I’ll be here early tomorrow morning to hand it in, I hope that won’t interfere with your schedule.

You swiftly entered the elevator again, awaiting the descent to the ground level. At least now you had no reason to be nervous and could loosen up a bit tonight with Kiro before you were mocked by Victor.

Kiro was leaning against his car again, as the vigor returned to his eyes as he noticed you approaching.

“So, did it go well with the boss?”

You gave him a half confused, half relieved look, handing your report to him.

“Well, he wasn’t in his office, so I’m sure he’s not going to be too happy to receive this tomorrow because I was a bit late making it here”.

Kiro quickly eyed your documents and reassured you with his trademark smile. “If it’s from you, then I’m sure he can forgive you missing one deadline”.

Although you appreciated his optimism, you weren’t so sure Victor would feel the same.

Sensing your reluctance, he quickly opens the car door for you, urging you in.

“Don’t worry Miss Chips, tonight we’ll have so much fun you’ll forget all about your troubles!”

Kiro’s sudden declaration and the cheerful tone he emitted made you giggle, which, to his surprise, he found so adorable his face blushed a new color. Luckily for him, your giggle also caught you so off guard that you turned to the side to avoid meeting his gaze out of embarrassment.

You once again were admiring the beauty of the cityscape while Kiro drove. You recognized some places you passed, trying to guess what surprise Kiro had in mind. By 8:32, you finally arrived at the surprise location.  

“You know how hard it is to actually be here on a day they’re open...” Kiro said with a wide grin.

You gasped in surprise, not expecting Souvenir to be open. It had been 3 weeks since you last heard it was even open, and 5 since you were last able to enjoy the fine dining. You realized that since it was actually open, it must mean Victor was inside.

“Hm, so that’s why he never answered.” you said to yourself a little too loudly.

“What was that Miss Chips?” a certain blond chimed in while leaning closer to hear you better.

Slightly embarrassed you nearly exposed your boss’ secret, you quickly wave Kiro away, stating that you were simply shocked that you finally had a chance to eat here again. That answer seemed to satisfy his curiosity based on the way his eyes lit up at the thought of sharing a beautifully made meal with a beautiful woman.

Kiro boldly decided to grab your hand, leading you into the small establishment. You were too consumed with the thought of possibly having to explain away to Victor why you hadn’t come in earlier to hand him the report to respond to Kiro’s assertiveness.

Mr. Mill’s greeted you both, sat you down at a candle lit table, handed you menus, and swiftly walked back to inform the boss that two customers had arrived, one of which being you. This caught Victor’s attention. He wanted to know who you had come with, figuring it was either one of your work friends or, more likely, the idol Kiro Zhou who often frequented Souvenir with you.

Victor had nothing against Kiro, in fact he appreciated that he didn’t mind the “weird paying system” that Souvenir had, and that his love and admiration of his dishes was pretty much the only nice review on the restaurant’s website. However, he knew that Kiro was an evolver, and a surprisingly dangerous one. He wasn’t 100% sure what exactly his evolve was, but he was certain that he had some kind of mind control ability.  

Seeing you with him always left Victor feeling like he lost. What did he lose? A few months ago, he wouldn’t have known the answer to that question. But now, he knew all too well that he had fallen in love with you. He didn’t like to admit it to himself, since he never saw himself as the type to ever fall in love with someone. But then he reunited with you, and you shared tender moments together that ignited something deep within him. You sacrificed yourself for him, just as you did all those years ago. When he had finally confirmed that you were the same girl, the number of emotions that welled inside him made him weep, but not tears of sadness but instead joy that at long last, he had found his first and only real friend.

Of course, he’d never tell you that, not unless you accidentally divulged your feelings first. Victor didn’t like losing, and was confident in his ability to make you confess. Even if you only wanted to be friends, that was okay with him, but he felt that you wanted something more.

It started small, with the way he sometimes caught you looking at him, at which you would quickly make up a half-assed excuse. He then noticed that you commented on his moments way more than you used to, and he found himself commenting on yours more too. He realized that you invited him out to do things, things that weren’t work related. You had once attended a business trip with him so that you could mingle with important people to gain more reliable sources, where you got embarrassingly drunk off a couple sips of Brandy (which he had told you was not a drink for a lightweight such as yourself, but you didn’t listen on the plane ride either). As he carried you to his car and set you down in the passenger seat, you leaned over to him and whispered.

“You know *hiccup*, e-even though you’re my boss and sometimes a hard *hiccup* ass, I still really appreciate your friendsh- *hiccup*. And, it helps that I reallllllly like to *hiccup* look at you”.

Victor suddenly laughed out loud while remembering how embarrassed you were the next morning when you found yourself sleeping in one of Victor’s guest bedrooms. He had told you not to worry about it and that you were not a burden to him.

A thought occurred to him then, accompanied by a mischievous grin.

“Simple, a fair price for a delicious meal” he said to himself.

Victor reached into his fridge and grabbed some of the ingredients to make his signature dish, and also your favorite; pudding.

Part 4

#mlqc fanfic #mlqc victor #mlqc kiro #mlqc smut #mlqc spoilers

[muthaz-rapapa]

Let’s talk TroPreCure! (^∀^ 🌺)

i’m so stupidly proud of this dumb pun “tropurikyua~”, hahahahaha

Last post of the year and wow is there are lot to be excited for!

I even had to make a list for the stuff I want to talk about and I’m sure I already forgot one or two things but we’ll get to them as we continue to float~ along the wave to February 28th, mmkay? :)

Now for what has peaked my interest so far. And yes, we have to talk about the following first:

1) HealPre the shortest Precure season??

Unless they plan for double features in February (which I doubt but you never know), HealPre is likely going to reach only 45 episodes long instead of the usual 48~50 before TroPre I’m using this shortening of the title for now so if there’s a better alternative, tell me and I’ll switch out begins its broadcast.

Understandable because the producers probably want to get back to their normal scheduling as soon as possible (toy sales, y’know) and I suspect pushing the start of the new season back by a month is the most they’re willing to compromise.

As for me, I’m quite happy about this since HealPre’s lost its hold on my attention a while ago so the sooner TroPre gets here, the better. Though the downside might be a scrambled climax and a rushed, underwhelming ending for HealPre (I dunno if it’s January’s titles that feel a bit messy or if the hiatus is still throwing me off) but whatever. We’ll refresh ourselves with the new blood Cures so it’s all good.

2) Tropical movie announced for Autumn 2021, no All Stars??

(source)

First saw this mentioned on Youtube somewhere but it’s all over the fandom forums by now. I mean, HealPre’s movie is set for March, the usual time slot for All Stars release. If Toei intended for there to be an All Stars in 2021, there’s no way they would announce the seasonal movie before it so speculations of them skipping it this year are probably true.

To squeeze it somewhere between March and October-ish would force them to readjust their budgets as well and I don’t think even Toei wants to go through that extra hassle after all the trouble the pandemic’s caused for everyone already. It’s just easier to resume All Stars in 2022.

That, and I think Laura being a major character in TroPre despite not having a Cure title (yet) would make for an awkward situation when the three latest teams gather so perhaps that’s also one of the reasons. But I’ll get back to Laura in a bit.

3) Cure Summer is a RAINBOW Cure

So god help me if I see anyone calling her a Pink Cure.

Yes, she’s the lead Cure for this season. NO, she is not a Pink Cure.

Look, even the official website has a rainbow overlay for her profile pic and text font while everyone else’s respective theme colors are a solid hue:

Therefore, RAINBOW.

In promotional material and merchandising, they’re probably going to advertise her primarily with pink bah and at worst, she might occasionally be labeled as a White Cure with multiple subcolors (her outfit is not pink-dominant) but definitely NOT. PINK.

...also, this goes without saying but f***yea, we finally got a lead Cure practically and unabashedly wearing the LGBTQ flag and you cannot tell me otherwise, Toei!

Own up to it! Declare Manatsu/Cure Summer as the Precure queer icon!

I’m not gonna stop yellin’ until you do! 😠

4) Laura = obvious midseason Cure is obvious

First of all, Laura is a babe. I already love her the best and she’s not even Precure yet. <3

Anyways, the set-up is pretty much in the description. Important main character who’s not a mascot, stated to have a self-confident personality and just speaks her mind (oooh, I like~ :D), magical/foreign being from another world looking for Precure to save her home, possesses her own special item(s), has aspirations to become the next Queen (so she’s a princess-candidate or something to that effect, I suppose).

We’ve seen various combinations of these traits in past midseason (and a few starter) Cures so nobody should be surprised when we all guessed that one of the Cures would be a real live mermaid.

The only question is why not just make Laura a Cure from the get-go if she’s introduced to us at the beginning (like Hime or Lala) and having a team of five with no unnecessary extra add-ons later on (like Smile).

Well, there’s a simple answer for that: formula.

Toei is afraid that if they don’t spit out some new animation sequence at the halfway and third quarter points of the show, the kids will lose interest and abandon the series altogether. Which means failed toy sales. Oh nooo... [/sarcasm]

...Yea. 

And this way they can also have Laura available in the Cure lineup for the next All Stars in 2022 instead of making her sit the fight out if we were going to have one in 2021. I’m convinced that’s gotta be one of the reasons. *shrug*

But ok, whatever. Her debut is gonna be later, that’s all. She’s a delayed Cure.  Midseason Cure, same difference.

Moving along to the more important stuff now like what’s her Cure name gonna be, y/y?

Well, knowing Toei, a translation of the term “mermaid” into another language is the most predictable route even though we already have a Cure Mermaid. Not like that ever stopped them from repeating words before (ex. Cure Happy vs Cure Felice). Though if they do go down that road, I hope they opt for the Spanish/Italian “sirena” and not the French “sirène” because the latter sounds too close to how Cure Selene is pronounced in Japanese. And, putting it nicely, we all know Japanese pronunciation of foreign words is as off kilter as can be.

Hell, even the the Portuguese “sereia” sounds aesthetic as hell so it’d be nice if they can just remember there are other languages that exist out there besides Japanese, English and French when making the final decision at the writing table! *stomps foot* >:/

Alternatively, “nereid” or “naiad” are good choices too but they remind me too much of Greek myths and Laura’s from the Grand Ocean which covers more than just a couple of seas (Greece is surrounded by three, btw) so...

I dunno. But whatever it’s gonna be, she’s definitely got a strong association with water and her powers will probably be based on that.

As for theme color, since there’s noticeably no blue or green Cure in the starter lineup, it’s likely she will take up that spot when she debuts around ep 20.

Pink is also open since Cure Summer, again, is technically not a Pink Cure and Laura’s hair and tail fin are hot and light pink respectively but looking at Laura’s design and concept, does anyone seriously believe that?

Her upper torso consists of aquamarine while the body of her tail is definitely some shade of cyan, implying they’re aiming for somewhere around the middle of green and blue on the lighter spectrum.

And yea, I’m aware that green and blue are considered exchangeable in some perspectives with how close some of their shades are to each other but officially, I think Laura’s gonna be grouped with the Green Cures.

Cuz of the hair. If Laura’s gonna keep it the same or a similar shade after transforming, that is. The Blues have always had cool-colored hair so putting Laura in with them might disrupt that harmony whereas if you put her with the few Greens there are (including Parfait), she’d fit right in.

I mean, we’ll see but that makes the most sense, doesn’t it?

On another note, I just want to say that I love how they added frills to her arms instead of letting her elbows go bare naked. It definitely makes her look more like a genuine mermaid than if she didn’t have them (remember, half fish doesn’t mean half the body :P).

5) Magical Items

Frankly, I’m tired of seeing the transformation device being a compact again even though one of the main motifs is make-up this season. But at least, as far as Precure compacts goes, the Tropical one is my favorite cuz of how cute and delightfully colorful its toy version looks! So I guess I’m okay with it.

The Heart Rouge Rod, though? ...I dunno. I think it would’ve been fine without that...straw (?) jutting out at the top. It looks weird, doesn’t it look weird? :S

As for the collectible clip-ons, I can live without those for the rest of my life. Yeesh.

Laura’s items, the Aqua Pot and the Ocean Prism Mirror.

Again with the portable, travel-size housing. *sigh* 😩

Alright, I can let this year slide cuz Laura (I’m so soft for her, omg) probably won’t be getting legs for 20 weeks so she’s got to move about on land somehow. But unless they’re really thinking about turning this idea of carrying your apartment around in your bag/pocket/purse into a reality (cuz that would be effin’ awesome), please be more creative with your toys.

On the other hand, I’m much more interested in the Ocean Prism Mirror but from what Kusyami (the Precure merchandise reviews I follow on Youtube) said in his latest vid, this is the ED dance item so don’t know if it’ll actually have an relevance to the story or not. But I did hear him mention it having something to do with the Queen as well and since Laura wishes to become Queen, maybe it’ll be important after all? Maybe it’s her transformation device?

That’d be super cool. Let’s continue the trend of the midseason Cure having a different transformation item than the starters. Honestly, we should alternate every other year or two but we’ve gone three seasons with all of them using the same henshin gimmicks up till HealPre and I just want a break from that.

6) Fin sleeves??

These look so impractical for combat so maybe it’s exclusive to group attacks.

And/or a sort of precursor to the super forms?

*GASP* Does that mean they all eventually turn into mermaids? 🤩

7) Yui finally became Precure!! 😭

lol, it’s all crack from this point on so don’t take it too seriously but man, after Yuni’s deceptive braids, I thought I wasn’t gonna see anything that reminded me of Yui for a while and lo behold, Sango.

kehehehehehe xD;

Though Yui might be closer to Minori in terms of personal interests (fairytales and storybooks).

8) Akira, the actual Onee-chan version

I didn’t think this when I first saw her but once I read “Onee-san” in her profile, there’s no saving you now. Sorry, Asuka. 😅

Also, damn, do her sandals make her feet look big! Compare them to the heels she wears as Flamingo. Are they even the same?! lololol

9) ...this sounds awfully familiar...

Translation:

Tokimeku Tokonatsu! [Exciting/Thrilling Everlasting Summer!] Cure Summer! Kirameku Hoseki! [Sparkling Jewel!] Cure Coral!  Hirameku Fuurutsu! [Flashing Fruit!] Cure Papaya!

Japanese reiteration:

Mallow/Mao: Pink no tokimeki! Lillie: Blue no kirameki! Lana/Suiren: Yellow no kagayaki!

….........

@Toei 

Care to explain yourselves, punks?! 

୧(ʘ ∀ ʘ ╬)

#it is 1:30 AM and im hungry and still have to do work on new year's eve so i'll come back to amuse-rage later #tropical rouge! precure #precure 2021 #cure summer #cure coral #cure papaya #cure flamingo #laura la mer

[it1776]

Xbox Series X Pro Controller Hex Blade Pro Controller Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQUxVg75v2Y

Hello everyone! Welcome back to Too Much Tech.

And in today's video, we're going to be reviewing

this controller that I have from Hex Gaming.

This is the Xbox version of this controller

and obviously will work with Xbox One, One X, Series S,

and Series S.

Why Microsoft name of that?

Not entirely sure.

I actually don't have the new consoles myself.

I have an Xbox Series X, but I primarily use this

on PC.

So what, that's what most of my experience is going

to be on.

Obviously, it's an Xbox One controller

like all the functions you know, what not worth the mic.

This whatever port that nobody ever really uses.

And it does have Micro USB,

just like a regular Xbox controller, because that's what

it's based on.

But, I do wish that Microsoft would like update

to USB Type-C. Sony did.

Sony did.

So, Microsoft, you're next.

But, not necessarily in regards to this controller,

because obviously they're just modifying the ones

that Microsoft has.

And this one I think is an incredible value

for what it is.

And it's really easy to use, other than like maybe

like swapping the panels and whatnot,

but we'll talk about that a little bit later.

So first up, let's go ahead and talk about

the unboxing experience. So, I think the box

actually looks really clean.

It's got a controller just so that you can easily take off

the thumbsticks, and then the two paddles,

or buttons I should say, that are on the back

of the controller.

The Hex Blade tactical gaming controller

for Xbox One and PC.

Designed for esports through Hex Gaming.

Blah, blah, blah.

I will leave Hex Gaming's link in description below,

because they did send this controller out to me

a couple...

No. Two, three months ago I want to say, in January.

And it's pretty clean.

They do give you a few different thumbsticks in the box,

so they give you a domed medium, a domed long,

a concave long, and a regular thumbstick.

And then, obviously you have the ones that come

on the controller. Two remappable buttons

on the back, and the trigger control mechanism

basically you have trigger stops.

So, really nice I would say.

The controller, the feel in the hand is pretty premium.

But let's check out this carrying case

that they give you as well, because this is not

a bad value at all.

So, you have a quick start guide right here,

which is just going to show you, you know,

how to use the controller and whatnot.

And then, on the back, obviously you know,

you have your rear button setup that we'll get

into in just a bit.

Actually, let's go ahead and talk about that right now.

It is also really nice as well that they give you

a six-month warranty for defects with the controller,

but if you have any issues, I would just hit them up

on social networks. And then you just have

like these little, little storage compartments

very similar to an Elite controller for your additional

thumbsticks and whatnot.

And taking off the thumbsticks is really easy.

You just pull it off, and then you just have

to line it back up to put it back on.

And that's it.

Super duper easy. Personally, I have been using

the two convex thumbsticks, the shorter ones.

I wish that there was a medium length thumbstick

that came in the box that was convex.

That would be perfect for aiming for me,

because this does feel a tad short.

But, otherwise, you know, I think it's fine.

And it is decently grippy as well. I would say it's a bit

more grippy than the thumbsticks that Microsoft uses

on their controllers.

Okay. Getting down to the controllers.

So, the controller obviously is extremely comfortable.

Some of the options that I selected myself,

because they did allow me to customize the controller myself.

I just went with the black back buttons,

and then this white back here,

the side grip I believe only comes in black

if you want this kind of texture.

But I think that it looks pretty cool.

And then, the best thing about this controller

is the different face plates that you can get.

Now, these you can't really, you know, swap them out.

You just got to pick it when you decide to get

your controller, but these face plates

are really cool and they do have themed controllers as well

that you can pick from, but I would just customize

my own personally.

I like this little swirl that they got going on.

I just think it looks really cool and very novel.

In terms of like the performance and whatnot.

You do have trigger stops here, so you do have

a full trigger press.

You switch that down and now you've got

a half trigger press, which I think is very useful

for shooters.

Three step trigger stops I don't really think

are fully necessary.

Two steps I think are fine. It's nice to just have it,

but if you did have one additional step,

what I found one some controllers that usually have

those multi-stage trigger stops sometimes it just comes off

and then it doesn't even...

It's not that it doesn't work,

but like if you hit it too hard, sometimes they just

get disengaged, so I feel like the one level of trigger stop

is fine.

Now, in terms of the batteries and whatnot,

you know, it's not rechargeable or at least I didn't opt

for the rechargeable battery pack.

This is more of an Xbox issue.

The battery life is just however long your AA batteries

are going to last.

So, performance wise, thet thumbsticks

are extremely smooth. I would say that these

are comparable to the PowerA controller

that I reviewed a while ago which, those I like quite a bit.

Those are extremely smoooth.

This is very similar.

Maybe...

If I have to quantify like 10% slower-ish.

But I mean, you know, controlling it wise,

is perfectly fine. I do think that these thumbsticks

are very good, very grippy as well.

D-pad it's just normal.

You know, it's just a regular D-pad

from an Xbox controller, just recolored.

But, it is fairly tactile. Controller does feature Bluetooth.

I usually just paly wired, but otherwise,

it's a very, very good and premium feeling

Elite style controller for the Xbox platform.

And this is also now probably going

to be my favorite controller to use as far

as having controllers on Windows.

Reason being, I just really enjoy the placement

of these back paddles here. Like this is just so easy

and natural to hit quickly.

And it doesn't really,

you know, take much effort to actuate it.

And there's no weird placement that your thumb has to

basically learn like you do with a Scuf.

Like having a Scuf, you got to kind of learn

like a weird placement to use these back paddles.

But, using this Hex Gaming controller,

it's very easy. Like it's very natural.

Nothing that you have to relearn.

Your hands just naturally rest right where

those buttons are.

And I feel like that's the most important thing.

If you're going to be using a Pro controller,

it should feel 100% natural to you.

So, if you're looking for the most natural feeling

Pro controller for the Xbox platform,

I will look no further than this.

And then, and also, this thing is extremely customizable.

Like I mean seriously, it's like insane.

So right now we are on Hex Gaming's website,

and you know, you can view all the available controllers

that they have.

But personally, I will go right to making my own.

But I mean, it looks like they got a sale going on

right now where some are between $35-ish to $45 off

which is very good.

I mean that's pretty insane.

And then, also they do have PlayStation controllers

available as well, but I believe these are

for PS4.

The case, honestly for me, looks a little strange,

so I don't really know if I would check out

a PlayStation controller from them.

And obviously, the PS4 controllers...

PS4 controllers are good and you can use them

on PS5. But more or less, you're only going

to be using it on PS4 games.

Like if the game is not PS4 compatible,

your controller doesn't work on PS5 which kind of sucks,

and I wish that Sony would change it,

but I'm pretty sure they aren't going to,

because obviously they want to sell their new controllers.

So, I hope that Hex Gaming is going to get

PlayStation PS5 controllers in soon

that are also just as customizable.

As we can see, they are indeed planning on it as well,

so for your PlayStation guys, be sure to stay tuned,

because I'm pretty sure they're going to be coming out

with something and I will probably

review it when it comes.

But back to the topic at hand, the Blade controller

so you can make your own. We're going to click that.

And I mean look at just how many face plates there are.

Is this...

I don't think that's the one that I picked.

Let's see here.

I got this origin of chaos.

This one looks so clean to me. I absolutely knew

that I had to have it when I seen it.

I mean you got a blood splatter.

Weeds. You know, if that's your thing.

Like you know, whatever, dude.

Oh, they got a couple of them. There are a couple of it.

If you're a cannabis enthusiast, you know,

they got you covered.

And they got chrome.

Chrome cy... That's kind of clean. That chrome cyan,

chrome silver.

Okay. You know. Just depends on what you're into.

Clear. Even if, you know, if you're after the Game Boy

retro vibes.

Well, they got this...

What is this? Like a translucent, where it's not exactly

as transparent. That's kind of clean.

D-pad, they got a ton of different options.

I believe I went for the matte white.

And then, they got some chrome options as well.

ABXY, you know. They just have a ton

of different options in all the different categories.

Different base colors and whatnot for your thumbsticks.

RB buttons you can change as well. You can get a little wild

with them.

Even the buttons on the back, you can also change

the color of these two. So I mean,

It's pretty cool. I think that, you know,

by the time you get one of these all the way out,

you know, you get up to about that $200 price point.

I think it's a pretty fair deal. I mean, right now,

I mean this controller looks pretty insane.

And we haven't like added anything functionally

to the controller, you know. We could have went

with the barebones controller for $140 which is pretty nuts.

But, you know, once we start to customize it,

add on a few of those things, it's only like, you know,

$40, maybe $50 max if you're really pushing it,

but I don't even think it'll let me go that high.

I mean it really only added like an extra like $35.

And we had a pretty fully kitted custom controller.

Hex Gaming...

I don't know guys. That's a really good deal.

You know, Scuf is very easy to go.

$200 plus.

I think that this is a very good and fair price

for, at least an Xbox controller. I'm curious

what the price is going to be

on the PlayStation 5 controller.

So, you know, I'm pretty sure it's going to be a bit more.

If it's similarly priced to this,

I would say it's incredibly fair.

Even topping out at about $200.

I think that's pretty decent.

You know, spending $200 on the controller,

especially like after I'm kind of past the whole

controller phase at the moment,

it's just a little, it's just a little much for me.

$150, $170 is quite a lot.

But at the same time, you got the Elite 2 controller

which is pricey as heck, but this is a lot

more customizable.

So, I don't know. I don't know.

But for now, this controller is definitely my favorite.

Huge shout-out to Hex Gaming for sending this out as well.

If you guys are interested in it for yourself,

I will have Hex Gaming linked in the description below

so you guys can check them out.

But that is going to be it for this video.

If you guys enjoy, feel free to drop a like,

subscribe, if you guys are new to the channel as well.

And thank you again for watching.

Join the Discord, follow me on Twitter,

and I will see you guys on the next one.

[things2mustdo]

I doubt anyone needs to be reminded that the media is rotten to the core; even the most reluctant and closed-minded people are accepting this as a given now. But despite the media being widely condemned nowadays (my special thanks to Germans for bringing the word “Lügenpresse” back), few people know or understand what’s really going on in the journalistic kitchens, where the foul slop of lies that people are fed every day is cooked up. However, there is always a way in—through purposeful infiltration or, in my case, by accident.

I have an old friend—let’s call him Sven—whom I always knew as a kind-hearted and sincere man. However, these traits are also coupled with always assuming the best of people and being rather naive. Due to this, he keeps ending up in awkward and sometimes dangerous situations. One of them turned out to be a short stint as a journalist for a popular online newspaper. He barely maintained contact during his employment and eventually went completely off the grid. In about a month, he resurfaced a changed man, and not for the better. As he explained, he quit the job and then shut himself in for a while, armed with nothing but alcohol, to cope with the depression working as a journalist gave him.

Now, this probably sounds very soft to many of you, including myself. Men don’t sink into depressions or try to drink themselves out of problems. While I granted my friend the clemency of explaining his failures to him, I also recognized the usefulness of his experience and started questioning him about what he saw and heard at the job. I will relay his findings below; however, I will not disclose his true name or the name of his employer—given the “free” country we live in, this can land him in very hot water.

Whoever pays you, owns you

Sven joined the ranks of journalists to tell people the truth. To his credit, he believed he would be doing exactly that. His first assignment sounded so simple, after all—talk to a person, record the conversation, write an article, publish it. The reality turned out to be diametrically different—after our fresh-baked journalist returned from his first interview, he was immediately ordered to transcribe the recording and email it to the content manager. Half an hour later Sven received a heavily edited version of the transcript, with the parts he considered most crucial replaced with meaningless buzzwords or removed completely. When he went to the manager to voice his indignation, the manager simply replied: “This man did not pay us for an article that would disparage him. Get back to your desk.”

This was far from the only case of Sven witnessing how much pull money has in journalism. His numerous colleagues almost never produced independent content—they were too busy publishing one paid article after another. When Sven asked whether these articles should be marked as sponsored, the only reply he got was a bitter laugh. Very often the content manager would come over to his desk and say something along the lines of “Do you know the guy you are writing about is a close friend of our boss? Do not screw this article up.” Sven was also surprised to see that many interviewees (usually politicians) would not even bother to talk to him, instead referring him to their secretaries or assistants. One of them even went as far as to hand him a pre-written speech, tell him to work with it and walk away.

However, our Sven also happens to possess a burning sense of justice, which has several times led him to ignore the “recommendations” his content manager gave him, deviate from the official story and allow small snippets of truth to make their way into public view. For each of such occurrences he was called to the manager’s room, given a strict admonishment and had his paycheck for the month reduced. Any “unsanctioned” things that he wrote were quickly edited away afterwards—even if the article had already been read by thousands of people. And his was supposed to be a “neutral and objective” media outlet!

Standards? Never heard of ’em.

It was a big shock for Sven when he finally realized that his employers were beings without conscience who whored themselves out to the highest bidder. It was an even bigger shock when he discovered how nonchalantly his colleagues treated their responsibilities. Investigative journalists relied on information they got from Google searches and Twitter posts, editors and sub-editors used rumors and hearsay to write scathing op-eds, website managers just posted any content that caught their fancy as long as they could come up with a flashy enough headline for it to attract people. Fact-checking was almost unheard of, unless someone specifically paid for it.

When it came to choosing topics and writing articles, the guideline for the entire establishment was simple: do not make the people angry. Not the regular people, mind you—those were not even considered human beings, just a faceless mass that one threw articles at and got pageviews and money in return. No, the label “people” was reserved for people who mattered. This included representatives of the powers that be, well-known public figures, moneybags with fingers in the political pie and, of course, personal buddies of the outlet’s owner.

These were to be protected, coddled and praised at all costs, while everyone else was fair game. Needless to say, politics held as much sway in the outlet as money did—whenever something noteworthy happened, “protectors of truth and objectivity” immediately went to work spinning the events in a way desirable for those holding their leashes. Hit pieces against political opponents and undesirables were churned out, smokescreens were cast, facts were omitted, denied and misinterpreted. Sven confessed to me later that the day his outlet covered the parliamentary elections was the first day in his life when he spent the entire evening drinking. Journalistic ethics, a term that the media loves throwing left and right, turned out to be nothing but hot air.

In the media omelet, you are an egg

The title says it all. For top dogs in the media business, a rank-and-file worker is not just a pawn—he is a condom. Contrary to what many people think, a typical journalist’s existence is quite pathetic: underpaid, undervalued, thankless and constantly bossed around. Staff turnover in the “kitchen” is very high, and not because people are getting promoted. In this field, the term “veteran employee” frequently means a poor sod who has no alternatives and cannot quit.

According to Sven, plenty of his colleagues worked only for the sake of getting their paycheck, which explains their negligence. Grey faces, pinched mouths, shifty eyes and sour attitudes—whatever it takes to get through the day. In addition, the higher-ups avoided any responsibility for the published content: whenever an angry reader called the office and complained about an article, the guy who wrote it was immediately thrown under the bus, even if his work was reviewed and approved by the management before publication. After all, what does it take to find another office drone with half-decent writing skills?

However, Sven also describes those of his coworkers who enjoyed their job. They arrived at the office with a spring in their step, a smile snaking across their faces and a mischievous glint in their eyes. These were the “talented” favorites of the outlet’s boss—unfeeling, cold assholes who would sell their own mothers for a juicy piece of gossip that they would later smear all over the website. Whenever they got a chance to write a hit piece, spread a nasty rumor or ruin someone’s life, one could almost see them light up from within. Remember all these smug, holier-than-thou, oh-so-intellectual articles churned out by rags like Salon, Dagens Nyheter and Huffington Post? You can bet your pinky finger they were (and are) written by these people. Which brings us to the next topic.

No wrongthink allowed

As you have probably noticed long ago, the media field is a huge and accommodating Petri dish for all varieties of Kulturbolschewismus. In Sven’s case, it wasn’t just a fear-based company policy of snitching and self-censorship, but an actual agenda at work. He told me there was a flowchart hanging in the newsroom explaining what to do when reporting crimes and incidents. It went something like this: “Was the perpetrator native (white)? Y = report in detail, amplify, N = gloss the details over, downplay.”

Sven wrote an article about a national holiday once, but his content manager refused to approve it for publishing due to it being “too patriotic,” advising him instead to “write more inclusively about minorities’ participation in the festival.” Anything praising the country and its indigenous inhabitants was undesirable and omitted whenever possible, while any piece that brimmed with self-hate, praised inhabitants of other (read: African and Muslim) countries or attacked the natives and their way of life was a big hit and flew through approval like a bird.

Needless to say, the outlet’s newsroom was crammed full of women, their pet cucks and, of course, Jews. The former enjoyed absolute power regardless of their position—a simple complaint to HR was enough to fire anyone, no proof required. The cucks, represented by twig-armed, piercing-laden, wispy-bearded creatures in Che Guevara shirts, were very pleased with the way things were going, sipping lattes and snitching to HR on those who expressed ideas incompatible with the narrative. Jews were in their native element in the newsroom, doing their usual “arrogant intellectual” schtick and getting promotions out of nowhere. The majority of articles bashing natives, their culture and values came from them, as later study of the newspaper’s website showed me.

Liars for hire

So, to sum it all up: the media is not composed of good but misguided people, as many still think. On the contrary, it is a very purposeful and self-aware entity that positions itself somewhere between an unscrupulous opportunist and a loyal lapdog of the state. At best, it is faux-patriotic (“such a wonderful country we have, let’s invite more immigrants!”), while at worst, it is openly hostile towards the indigenous population of the country it exists in.

Moreover, it allows for consolidation and self-affirmation of globalist forces—the traitorous governments, the world Jewry, the multinationals, the entertainment industry and the like—against the increasingly disenfranchised and declining native population. And last but not least, the media is complicit in crimes committed in the West by non-White immigrants due to purposeful obfuscation of them and, if that fails, rabble-rousing to pressure the courts into letting the criminals off scot-free. To me, the latter reason alone is enough to send all the journalists and their owners to the gibbet.

The bottom line is to always remember that the media is not your friend in any way, shape or form, even if its lowest tier operatives fit the description of hapless victims rather than nation-wrecking enemies. The media must be opposed, exposed and boycotted at every turn until it starts bleeding money and choking on its own venom.

Read More: Is Washington Post Writer Adam Taylor A Shill Or Part Of Something Larger?

While reading  Roosh’s article about Adam Taylor and the Washington Post, I noticed quite a few things I would like to share with people here. The direct link between Adam Taylor and the Radio Free excerpt is an anomaly. Such blatant copying is a very rare thing to occur because it gives away a possible collusion between entities.

Looking for these open relationships is long and hard. The better way to analyze  the relations and motivations of certain publishers, policy makers and other manipulators  is to study the various themes they put out and where these themes repeat. While Roosh  might assume that Adam Taylor is the paid shill by himself, I’ve noticed that his writing changes to whoever publishes it. Therefore the Washington Post Worldviews section may be the one that is parroting US State Department themes not just Adam Taylor.

As is shown in Roosh’s article, the similarities between Adam Taylor’s piece and Radio Free Europe are quite telling. It is a possibility that it is a coincidence but a small one. People that try to influence public opinion go to great lengths to ensure things like this do not happen which is why I’m assuming that Adam Taylor is  part of larger machine and not a shill by himself.

Looking back at Adam Taylor’s writing for the Huffington Post, he wrote fluff pieces about gay dogs and other mass consumption items for that audience. His writing about geopolitical intrigue only takes the current form when he begins writing for the Washington Post. All his articles are the Who’s Who of what the US State Department doesn’t like. The roster includes Russia, China, Venezuela, Syria, and Zimbabwe. He writes nothing critical of any American allies.

Could this mean that his change in format indicate that someone turned him? I doubt it. Compare his work at the Washington Post to the rest of the “world views” section there, his writing is merely a contribution to a giant echo chamber and not unique to him.

As I said earlier, it’s very rare for open evidence of collusion such as the similar quotations to present themselves. A better technique to discern propaganda and collusion is to analyze trends and themes.You should look for such things as what the work attempts to convey, does it try to get you to think or act in a certain way, and does it try to get you to disregard other things.

In the Adam Taylor case, the pattern changes significantly from the Huffington Post to the Washington Post. You can also apply this trend analysis to pretty much any author. You can even apply to the contributors here at  Return of Kings and see what you get. Do the trends indicate that the publisher may dictate what the writers write about? Do the trends indicate whether or not the writers have freedom to write about whatever they want? To help you readers out on this exercise I’ll inform you there were two articles I did at the direction of the publisher. They were my article for fat shaming week and my article for #backtothekitchen.  Feel free to comment on any other trends you might notice and if they do not line up with the “about” page.

[dailyaudiobible]

04/10/2021 DAB Transcript

Deuteronomy 34:1 - Joshua 2:24, Luke 13:22-14:6, Psalms 79:1-13, Proverbs 12:26

Today is the 10th day of April welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I'm Brian it's wonderful to be here today as we reach the conclusion of another week. And today is the 100th day of the year. And, so, as we cross this mile marker, 100 days in the Scriptures together, we will conclude our reading of the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament and move into some new territory. So, special day here. And as I was saying yesterday, those of us using the Daily Audio Bible app and kinda checking off the days as we read them, when we check off today's reading we’ll see, we’ll receive our…our Pentateuch our Torah badge telling as we completed this particular section of the Scriptures. And even though the story will just be going forward it really is a shift. It's like everything has been leading us to this point, and then we turn the page into the next book of the Bible, the book of Joshua and take that next step. But let's conclude the book of Deuteronomy first and then we'll talk…talk about the book of Joshua and…and dive in. So, today will read Deuteronomy chapter 34, the final chapter of Deuteronomy, and then we’ll launch into the first two chapters of Joshua. So, we’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week, which is today. Deuteronomy chapter 34.

Introduction to the book of Joshua:

That concludes the Torah and that concludes the book of Deuteronomy. So, we’re about to take that step forward into the book of Joshua. But let’s take a deep breath for a second and just let it go because we’re transitioning, and we just said goodbye to Moses. So, Moses has died, and we have traveled at length with Moses and we've been in the wilderness with the children of Israel and Moses, we’ve been slaves in Egypt when God comes to rescue them with Moses. But let’s also just remember where we've come from to get to this point. We remember meeting Abram. We remember his name being changed to Abraham. We remember a promise, a promise of land that he would go to, that he would be shown. And he obeyed God and he walked that land, the land of Canaan. And he had a son of promise there, Isaac and then Jacob. And then Jacob had children and those 12 were known as the children of Israel, and they all became tribes. We remember the lengthy story of Joseph and the way his family, his brothers, human trafficked him as a slave into Egypt and how he rose to be second in command because of his interpretation of dreams. We remember how the children of Israel, right, Joseph's brothers, how they got to Egypt, was because of a great famine and then they flourished in the land of Egypt and stayed there for four centuries, 400 years, and they grew into a mighty people that were enslaved by…by the Egyptians. Moses, we remember meeting Moses. Baby boy put into the river in a basket because it was commanded that all newborn baby boy children be thrown into the river to die. So, he was put into the river, all right. He was put into a basket that floated and Pharaoh's daughter found him. And, so, Moses, sort of had a dual upbringing where he understood that he was a Hebrew and was very interested in the Hebrew people, but also was brought up like royalty in Egypt, a well-educated person who ends up killing another Egyptian in favor of a Hebrew and then he has to go on the run for his life. That's where he finds a burning bush that will not be extinguished and God calls him to go back, to go back to land…to the land that he came from and to tell Pharaoh to let his people go. We went through all of that, all the plagues of Egypt, the entire wilderness experience. Everything has been leading us toward this land, this promised land that would one day belong to the children of Israel. We remember the spies going into that land and coming back and saying, we can't take that land and dooming an entire generation to the wilderness. Well, we’re back at the Jordan again and this time, this time we’re gonna finally cross it. It's almost mythic at this point because we’ve been heading toward it for so long and now it's actually time to cross the Jordan River. And Moses, he can’t go in. So, he dies on Mount Nebo after pass…passing the mantle of leadership to Joshua. Joshua is the name of the book that we’re about to read. Joshua we will remember was one of the spies. He had been kind of Moses's assistant. He had been mentored up under Moses for a very long time. So, the people know, Joshua, and as the mantle of authority passes to him, they all obey him, especially after the three discourses that make up the book of Deuteronomy where Moses is very, very clearly reviewing everything that they did and passing the authority to Joshua. So, we’re gonna begin reading the book of Joshua and we will pick up basically right where we left off, but we have to remember now Moses has died and the people have to mourn for him for a month. Joshua is now the leader of the children of Israel, and he is commissioned with leading the people into the promised land and taking the promised land and settling the promised land. And, so, we begin the book of Joshua, chapter 1.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for Your word and we thank You for bringing us successfully through another week and successfully through 100 days of this year. We are so grateful, and we are so thankful to have reached this point. And, so, as we leave this section of the Scriptures, these first five books and then move into…actually preparation…and then into the promised land that we’ve been moving toward so long, we invite Your Holy Spirit, certainly to help us to absorb the stories, but also to allow Your word to become the mirror into our souls and motivations because it is transforming us. We thank You for Your word. It…it calls us out. It…it looks us in the face and tells us the truth and challenges us, challenges us that…that there is more and that…and that we can…we can go there and that we can do better. So, we’re grateful for that. And, so, we mark this 100 days, we mark this transition into a new section of the Scriptures with worship and with a heart of gratitude. Lead us forward we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that’s home base, it's…it's the website, it’s just the portal into this big hole platform that we’ve built over these years to draw us together and…and support the distribution of the Daily Audio Bible every day. And, so, check it out, be familiar. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can access all these things from there.

But the Community section, this is where the links are, where we are on social media, where to get connected. It's also the home of the Prayer Wall which is a place to get connected in prayer any time. Day or night it's always there, and people are always praying. And, so, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if this mission to bring the spoken word of God to whoever will listen to it, if that…well…that has reached you, but if it's life-giving and is making a difference than thank you for your partnership. We’re in this together and if we weren't we wouldn’t be in this at all. And, so, I am deeply, deeply, deeply grateful. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper-right hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you've a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey family this is James in Fort Worth. I just want to pray that the Lord guides my words and I hope what I say helps and touches someone to move in a positive direction. Toda is April 6th my daughter's birthday will be April 14th. She passed away January 27th 2020 and I just…I just praise the Lord I thank the Lord for the fact…so many things…but the fact for almost 12 almost 13 years, you know, I was blessed with her. She lived a life that I always wanted to live. She lived a great life. She was a cheerleader, she was an athlete but she had asthma and that's what eventually took her life. But I know for a fact that the Lord has her. Her death has brought me closer to the Lord, closer than I've ever been. I don't think I would’ve been on this app without her passing. Her brothers and sisters they miss her. My wife. Camile, I pray for her, she misses…I miss her. You don't have... as a parent you don't have favorite kids, but you know, she was my favorite person on this planet. Lord I just want to thank you. I want to thank you. I want to pray for the parents who have lost children.  __ Tony in Cleveland. I want to pray for you guys. I hope that you find the joy. I know it's a cliche when people tell you, O she's in a better place and they tell you she's in a better place. Trust me when I tell you they’re with the Lord. I’ve seen things that are supernatural that I would not have believed but I know my daughter Ryan is with the Lord. You couldn't tell me otherwise. I'm going to pray for the parents who lost children. I want to pray for the people around the world who've lost people during this COVID-19. But Lord I just want to thank you. I want to praise you. I want to continue to praise you. Thank you, father. In Jesus’ name.

Hey family it's Jesse from Washington it's like Tuesday something-th. And, so, Holy Spirit's been…been on me to…well I'm supposed to be talking to people, I'm supposed to be telling them and we all are actually, but I've been slacking because he's just been…he's been on me every day and I haven't been doing it and just making excuses. And there's a guy at work, he's been suicidal, and he attempted suicide like two or three months ago and his wife's divorcing him and you know left him and took the kids and he's just kind of in a rough spot and he's kind of one of those no nonsense guys and I've…I'm supposed…I've supposed to tell him for over a month now, I’m supposed to talk to him and I haven't done it. And finally, I talked to him today. And we're like closing up the shop and like three times I'm like no…no…no God I'll talk to him later. And finally, when we were both pulling out I just pulled up next to him and talked to him and man it was…shouldn’t have been that difficult but it was. But I did it and I just want to ask you all to…to lift up Colin, that he'll just accept God's outreached hand and embrace it and start to recognize it in his life because he's a good guy and it sucks to see him hurt.

Hi family this is Biola from Maryland I hope you're all doing well. Brian and Jill God bless you. God bless your family. China I'm rooting for you and I'm praying that you have a safe and easy delivery in Jesus’ name. Sister who called in about her 89-year-old mother. Sister I want to remind you that the Lord is faithful regarding his promises. Don't forget that your mother, you're not the one that's responsible for bringing her to Jesus. People have sown seeds into her life including you. Another person will water, and the Holy Spirit will bring the increase. And my prayer for your mother sister is that God will touch her heart, soften her heart, woo her to Him and that He will prolong her life. Bible says that the Lord is not willing for any top perish and is patient to all of us. And I pray that your mother's eyes will be opened the scales will fall from her eyes and she will come to love the Lord Jesus in the name of Jesus. I also pray that for your nephew and the members of your family who do not know the Lord. God bless you sister. Caitlin I'm praying for you. My heart just went out to you as I heard the divorce that your husband had asked for. Sister I just want to encourage you to just, you know, be at peace. I know it's not easy but be at peace and let the Lord work what is gonna work in your husband's heart. And I pray that, you know, what the Lord has started He will complete. So, and then teacher, James the teacher, I’m praying for you that God would comfort your heart and God will step into your situation and also touch your wife's heart. In the name of Jesus.

Good morning DAB family this is Sally Amazed by Grace in Massachusetts. I…I listen every day and I'm so thankful like many others for this community for this opportunity to hear God's word, to meditate on it and to be strengthened through Brian's commentary. Lord, I just thank you for this community, for Brian and the whole team that makes it possible for us to be together. And I am thankful for each one of you who call in and encourage and sing songs and share your burdens. We are so blessed to be here together, God's family. And this morning Katie called telling us that her husband of seven years wants a divorce. And this is such a hard hard thing Lord for Katie and for her children. And, so, I lift up Katie to You Lord and I pray Lord that You would just bring her comfort and her peace. Lord, You tell us in John 16:33 Jesus said I tell You these things so that in me You may have peace. In the world You have trouble but being of good cheer I’ve overcome the world. O God I pray for Katie as she cares and loves these dear children and she looks to You to be her protector, her refuge, strength. I pray for this Young man Lord. Open his eyes to his need of You, his wife's need, his children's needs. O great and holy and powerful God I pray Your mercy and power in this family and other women who are facing a similar situation and men. Lord just strengthen them in Your great love and grace to know that You are with them in Jesus’ name. Thank you.

Hey this is an encouragement for Brian. This is Micah in Awe. I just want…I just wanted to thank you again for the way that this is laid out, that you laid out DAB. Whenever I pick people up…I bring people to and from dialysis and I bring kids to and from school districts when they move out of a school district. So, in the morning I listen to DAB regardless, but I try to get the Old Testament listened to because there's some stuff in there that's just sometimes it's really hard to just jump right into without knowing the context. But anyway, so when the kids get in the car, I try to have the New Testament about to come on, right, and already playing. So, then they hear the New Testament the Psalm the Proverb and then your insight and then the prayer before they get dropped off. It always…like it always usually works out that way, that they get dropped off like right at the end of the prayer. It's so cool. So, they get to see how a Christian lives. We take in the scripture then we apply the scripture. Your insight shows how we apply it. And then we pray for each other and give encouragement. So, every day these kids are seeing what a Christian is, how Christians do. And I just think it's an awesome thing. And I can start it over and do it for each kid. And I do it for adults that I bring to dialysis to. So, thank you so much for this. And I want to ask all you DABbers out there to pray for these kids, they get in the car, that the seed will be planted and that the soil would be good. There's a scripture that says His word will not return to Him void. I just want to ask you to pray for an abundant increase in these kids understanding of who God is and what the Christian life is all about. You're touching generations, all of you. And Brian this is messing with the next generation. It's awesome. I love you guys.

[amphtaminedreams]

I Shopped at YesStyle So You Don’t Have To: Lookbook no.10

Hi to anyone reading,

And welcome to what I guess is my first “review” post of sorts! Which is basically an excuse for me to rave about Korean street style and ask why the fuck Seoul fashion week isn’t more of a big deal!? Though I’ve pretty much quit fast fashion over the last few months and have been getting my clothes from Depop, I did want to talk about the website YesStyle which I ordered from back in May (jfc, the fact that May was almost 4 months ago now is terrifying) and how impressed I was with their service and the clothes I received. It should go without saying from the fact that investing in someone with about 200 followers on here wouldn’t be a very good financial decision, but this isn’t a sponsored post-I just think that if you’re gonna order from anywhere, YesStyle is a good shout for those of you who, like myself, are inspired by East Asian street style. I have to give credit to the incredible Katie O, otherwise known as StealTheSpotlight on Youtube and Instagram; she’s the medium through which I’ve been introduced to the world of “k-fashion” and YesStyle in the first place. Yes, my current knowledge of k-pop doesn’t extend far past fan tendencies to flood every popular tweet with fancams of their favourite singers and girl groups (I admire the dedication), but through Katie’s content and Instagram accounts like TokyoFashion on Instagram,  I have come to the conclusion that the stylists behind these groups and Asian designers in general are owed a huge amount of credit by Western trend forecasters. If you have any Instagram account or blog recommendations with similar content please let me know! For now, I’m gonna give a run down of the pieces I ordered (most of which are still available), prices and sizing, and also a bit focussing on ethical concerns and what I could find out about their practices from my research.

DISCLAIMER: The photos used as backgrounds are mine. Yes, I’m in mourning over the fact that this time last year I was inter-railing, in case the ham-fisted insertion of touristy pics didn’t make that obvious. Remember when we could leave the country? When it didn’t feel like the world was ending? When everything didn’t seem to be going to absolute shit all at once? When there was a glimmer of hope that we wouldn’t spend the next 4 years being governed by the Conservatives here in Britain? Simpler times :-)

The Pieces

1. The Alizio V-Neck Camisole Top in White: £4.97, Size M

So, what you’re gonna get from the off here is that YesStyle’s prices seem ridiculously cheap, which is something I’ll address in the ethics section at the end of the post. For £4.97, you’d expect an ill-fitting SheIn/Zaful style number but I was so impressed by how flattering this top actually is. I was a size 8 and 32C for reference and my only complaint is that because the neckline has a slight plunge, it was a little awkward to wear with a t-shirt bra. You know, unless you’re into that cups poking out of the top kinda vibe that was a rite of passage for all British teenage girls going through puberty back in, like, 2009 when you wanted everyone to know you’d been on your first bra shopping trip to M&Co with your mum at the weekend. 

2. The Rhames High-Waist Plaid Mini Skirt in Purple: £9.12, Size M

Clueless being as iconic as it is, a plaid mini skirt is always going to be timeless and I know this is a piece I’m gonna be basing outfits around for a long time. It fit perfectly and is surprisingly good quality material; I was kind of expecting it to come in that super thin, semi-see through jersey that you get when you order from a lot of UK fast fashion sites, but a recurring feature of the clothes I picked out was that they were such good quality for the price and exactly as they appear online. I’ve found in the past that UK sites are deceptively canny with lighting and angles in that when the garment actually arrives (Boohoo in particular is a repeat offender in this regard) it’s a lot frumpier than it looks on the model. It seems to be common practice to pin back and temporarily alter the clothes during photoshoots to give the illusion that they’re a lot more fitted and structured than they actually are which ultimately just leads to disappointment when you try on the supposedly bodycon dress and resemble a sack of potatoes. Been there, done that. I worship the ground all carbs walk on but I don’t want to look like them. Should go without saying really. It’s nothing to do with size, but it’s just crappy tailoring and cutting corners on the brand’s part and that’s what irks me. I really appreciate that YesStyle has photos of “regular” people just wearing the clothes out rather than the outcomes of these overly edited, studio lit shoots that aren’t necessarily the most representative of how the garment is gonna look irl.

3. Nikiki Garter Belt: £5.59, One Size

As comfortable as garters come, I guess? I don’t have much experience with them tbh, lol. 2021 to do list, if we make it out of 2020 alive: try more garters.

4. Lucuna Floral Embroidered Cropped Cardigan in Almond: £15.61, One Size

Don’t get me wrong, this cardigan is adorable and there’s nothing misleading about the photo on the website. What I will say is that considering it only comes in one size, it’s pretty tight on the arms. I’m a size 6 right now and it’s really not like I’m ripped or anything (lol) so it’s safe to say that in terms of the Lucuna brand, their sizes come up very small. The cardigan wasn’t the only one size thing I purchased and whilst the others did fit, I think in general the fact that said “one size” is pretty much only suitable for UK sizes 4-8 is pretty shit. A few of the pieces had elasticated waistbands but in general in 2020, when we’ve come so far in the last few years with body positivity and being more inclusive of all sizes, to have a sample size that runs so small isn’t acceptable and this sizing issue is my biggest problem with the store. Though I recognise that YesStyle acts as an outlet for smaller East Asian brands (in this case Lucuna) and thus aren’t themselves responsible for the designs, more consideration should probably go into the harm that could potentially be done by stocking these supposedly “one size fits all” garments. Brandy Melville, I’m looking at you too. Your designs are cute but your lack of inclusivity is shitty.

5. Ohnana Ruffle Trim Strappy Cami Cropped Top in Purple: £5.01, Size M

I’m not as jazzed as I was about this top now it seems that everyone and their mother’s dog is selling it at an extortionate price on Depop but I will say that it’s also very flattering. Makes my strangely long torso look somewhat proportionate, which is nice. The material is pretty thin but it is for all intents and purposes a tank top and the price is reflective of that.

6. Sisyphi Plaid Shirt in Tangerine: £11.30, One Size

So the “one size” option strikes again, though this time with less vengeance-I would say this would be wearable up to size 12/14 so slightly better than with the cardigan.

7.  BBChic High-Waist Wide-Leg Jeans: £10.04, Size M

When it comes to these jeans, I only have good things to say. Like firstly, they make me feel like early 2000s Avril Lavigne AKA. my childhood icon/potential clone/queen of millennium grunge and an incarnation of Y2K fashion I can actually get behind. Secondly, they have an elasticated waistband, which is ALWAYS a good thing. Thirdly, they didn’t come up ridiculously long on me which I feared would be the case; I did wear the platform Filas with them but as you can see, it’s not like they’d be trailing over my feet even in flats. I’m somewhere between 5′3 and 5′4 for reference and usually go for petite in jeans  and trousers just to be on the safe side.

8.  HERMITAKH Ring Detail Halter Crop Top in Black: £5.15, Size M

I have only recently become a member of the itty bitty titty committee but even back when I shot this lookbook this halter actually fit! When it came to tops that necessitate going braless, I always had issues with finding pieces I didn’t feel were going to cause an unintentional free the nipple moment, but the fact that you can tie this top up at the neck and back yourself allows you to work out a fit that’s supportive for you. 

9. Puffie Lightning Print Straight-Cut Pants: £13.76, Size M

I’d wanted a pair of trousers like these for ages before I saw them on YesStyle but the ones I’d come across in the past were a bit extra for my hometown and typically cost more than they seemed to be worth. This pair lack the bulk that the original styles I came across had, which helps give them a more casual, laid back feel, though they are just as vibrant and substantial BUT there isn’t much give in them. They have the slightly baggy look I was going for however they aren’t elasticated on the waist so I recommend having a look at the guide that’s available next to the drop down box where you select the size you want.

 10. Alfie Mesh Long-Sleeve Top in Pink: £7.71, One Size

No, the Jennifer’s Body top isn’t from YesStyle, I’m sorry to disappoint. Go to RedBubble for that one! The considerably less exciting mesh top underneath however, is, and in spite of its relative mundanity (you can’t top Megan Fox as a man-eating demon) it does the job as a versatile staple piece. It’s one size but it does have a lot of stretch in it so would probably go up to about size 14 (not to say that’s great).

11. Barrash Harness Bag: £17.10, One Size

The harness vest is one of my favourite trends to come out of k-fashion and I wanted SO badly to pull this piece off (especially because it was one of the most expensive pieces I purchased from the site) but it was far too big for me even when I adjusted it and TBH...I don’t even know if it’s just the sizing? I kinda felt like a paranoid tourist with their bag on back to front and yeah...I don’t think that’s the desired effect. Here’s an example of how cool they CAN look from Seoul fashion week, and with that another example of why NYFW should lose its place in the “big 4″ to make room for SFW:

And just Blackpink just setting the standard for the utility wear trend in general:

12. Mikiko Short-Sleeved Blouse in White: £8.79, One Size

I appreciate that the website notes that the “one size” here runs small, however it does also say that a “base layer” is needed for under the shirt which I didn’t find was necessary at all. The fabric is quite thick and it genuinely looks like the kind of shirt you’d find tucked away in a vintage shop, cute af and will go with anything.

13. Closette Sleeveless V-Neck Vest in Black: £11.87, One Size

Again, I was really impressed with the quality of this jumper; it definitely looks like something you’d pick up in a uniform shop (though this one is probably cheaper because those shops are daylight fucking ROBBERY) but I can never get enough of that grungy school girl look. Blame St.Trinians. 

14. Niji Smile Pleated Plaid Skirt with Insert Shorts in Green: £9.12, Size M

This skirt might be my absolute favourite of the items I ordered on the sole basis that it comes with shorts built in underneath, like, WHY DON’T ALL MINI SKIRTS HAVE THIS!? Plus the shape and the bounce it has to it makes me feel ultra-feminine and effortlessly cute which I love. It didn’t even turn up crumpled! Which you’ve really got to admire considering half the clothes in my local H&M look like they’ve never got within 10 metres of an iron in their short lifespan. 

15. LINSI Elbow-Sleeve Print T-Shirt: £10.92, One Size

If I had to pick one more favourite piece, it would be this graphic top that I wore underneath a pink chiffon Ebay dress. It looks and fits exactly like the photos on the website and I have to restrain myself wasting a wear of it just lounging around the house because it’s also ridiculously comfy.

16. LINSI Plaid Straight-Cut Pants in Orange: Size M

These trousers are currently out of stock, however I will say that of everything I’ve ordered they’re probably the least comfy and on that basis I’m not sure if I’d buy them again. They look great and I will push myself to wear them for that reason but they’re the kind of itchy fabric that I rush to take off and swap for some pyjamas the moment I get into the house. That being said, I don’t know if this is an issue everyone will have because I am someone that is overly sensitive to fabrics so you might not even notice it, plus-stretchy waistband! Which is a plus for sure.

I was also very impressed by the accessories I ordered, which once again completely surpassed my quality expectations. Pretty much everything pictured here was under £5 apart from the shoulder bag which was closer to 10, and when you consider that the price of these is inflated at the moment because of the resurgence of the Y2K trend, this is still ridiculously cheap.

The prices are definitely a concern of mine because unfortunately, when products are this cheap there’s usually somebody being exploited down the line. Since I made this order in May, I’ve had a small slip up with a Motel Rocks order, but other than that have cut out fast fashion completely. I want to be as ethical a consumer as I can, and that’s something I considered before making this post; that being said, YesStyle, actually a Hong-Kong based company in spite of it being touted as the destination for k-fashion, was recognised as a "Caring Company" between 2014 and 2019 (I don’t think this has been updated for 2020 yet given the circumstances) by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service. From what I can find online, this award is given to Hong Kong companies that demonstrate good corporate citizenship and responsibility. Whilst this seems like reassuring information, like I said, I find it hard to believe that the production of clothes selling for these kinds of prices isn’t outsourced to low wage workers at some stage of the process. It’s a hard to know where to stand, because obviously the fast fashion industry DOES create jobs that people rely on to sustain themselves but at what point does the treatment of workers in developing countries negate the opportunities the industry provides here in the UK? “There is no ethical consumption under capitalism” and all that but shouldn’t we try to make a change where we can? I agree with the statement though at times it can come across like a deflection of individual responsibility. Plus there’s the environmental side of the debate-having to fly the garments over from the point of manufacture obviously takes a massive amount of fuel which it goes without saying is hugely detrimental to our planet. The sizing is also an issue; the average clothes size here in the UK is a 12, I believe, and yet a size medium seems to come up as about an 8. Asian sizes do tend to come up smaller in general but at the same time, if that’s the case, as an international retailer shouldn’t YesStyle at least address that somewhere on the site?

I don’t want to end on a negative note because compared to sites like Zaful, SheIn, and even UK based retailers such as Pretty Little Thing and Boohoo, YesStyle appears to be one of the better ones. The quality of their garments is incredible for the prices and I admire the transparency of having reviews for every product be so readily accessible. It’s also great to see that they have a section specifically addressing their response to the COVID-19 pandemic, AND  offer refunds to their customers for import fees. God, I don’t know why this isn’t something that more websites do? I will never forget being slapped with a £100+ invoice for a Dolls Kill (bleurgh) order I made once back in the more impulsive shopping days and all the Karen-y emails I sent back and forth. Import fees are understandable but international retailers should definitely make it clearer how these are calculated and give more of an indication of just how steep these fees might be if you’re making a large order. It almost seems disingenuous not to do so especially when said retailers most likely know that customers wouldn’t make these orders if they had an idea of what it would cost just to get access to the goods they’ve already paid for.

I won’t ramble on for much longer because there is so much important shit going on in the world right now and I don’t want to take up time that could be spent reading more valuable posts-with the shooting of Jacob Blake earlier this week, and the death of Chadwick Boseman earlier today (I can’t imagine the amount of mental and physical strength it takes to film all the movies he did back to back whilst dealing with colon cancer), the most important thing to do is listen to how black individuals are feeling and what they are thinking right now. I will keep an eye on my dashboard and retweet what I can. Thanks for reading. Even if you’re just here for the photos, I appreciate it! And I don’t know if I’ve said it before but please know that my messages are always open to anyone struggling, especially with everything that’s going on at the moment. I don’t claim to be a professional but I can always listen. Lots of love<3

Lauren x

#k-fashion #streetstyle #k-pop #fashion #fashion blog #style #style inspo #fashion review #yesstyle #stealthespotlight #blackpink

[melhorsitedehospedagem2021]

Siteground Hosting - Full-Review

9 REASONS WHY I CHANGED MY BLOG HOSTING TO SITEGROUND

I switched to Siteground Hosting over 2 years ago and I absolutely love them. I have been with 7 other hosting companies, and I can categorically say that Siteground is much, much better. They are not just better, they are at a completely different level to everyone else.

I have 23 active websites in my online business. So my customers and partners always ask me about my hosting company, because I never have any issues and I never complain. So when they start going on about the issues they’re having, slow loading times, terrible support etc, I realize time and time again how lucky I am to be with Siteground.

So in this post I am going to explain why I love Siteground so much, and I hope this can help you decide which hosting is right for you.

REASON 1 – ASTONISHING CLIENT SUPPORT

There isn’t anything more irritating than having terrible client care at your hosting organization. I have been with Hostgator beforehand, and my involvement in them was horrendous (sorry HostGator, however it’s actual!). Damaging even. I used to submit uphold tickets and afterward not hear back for 2 days. At that point I needed to present another help pass to circle back to the current help ticket. Also, again no answer for 2 days. It was driving me extraordinarily crazy.

Also, when I attempted to utilize Hostgator visit uphold, I’d need to stand by a terribly prolonged stretch of time to get somebody to talk to me. Also, more often than not they requested to present the ticket at any rate so that “the specialists can investigate it”. It actually raises my heartbeat to consider that experience. At the point when your site is down or not working as expected, and you’re losing cash and deals, you need somebody who will help you in a flash.

This is the place where Siteground truly sparkle. I will discuss it in detail beneath, however they truly are the market chiefs in client care. All issues or questions that I’ve at any point had get managed essentially immediately. Their help tickets get tackled inside 30 minutes and their visit uphold is moment – you get somebody to talk with you inside a couple of moments.

REASON 2 – CHAT SUPPORT IS INSTANT

Alright so Chat Backing at Siteground truly is remarkable. At the point when you have such an issue, or even an inquiry, you can essentially tap on Live Chat, and you get somebody to converse with right away, there is no pausing.

What’s more, after you begin chatting to somebody, they don’t simply send you off to another region. They really figure out how to help you on that chat more often than not.

Here is some information which shows how Siteground looks at to 12 other hosting organizations and I have given that beneath. So from the second you begin chatting to give goal normal turnaround time is just 5 minutes. This information is given by Siteground, however I need to say that I would say it’s right on target.

Chat answer time: instantaneously

Chat goal time: 5 minutes

REASON 3 – PHONE SUPPORT IS INSTANTANEOUS

I don’t care to call my hosting supplier all the time. I have just done it a couple of times. However, there could be individuals out there who might want to call up rather than chat or tickets.

So I can’t completely say that phone support is Consistently instant, yet in the 3 or 4 multiple times that I needed to call, they did for sure get quickly. Details from Siteground’s survey:

REASON 4 – 30 MINUTES REPLY ON TICKETS

Here and there you can’t get your issue addressed over chat. For instance, you may have to give screen captures, or login subtleties, or a record of something. In those occurrence you need to send in a ticket.

With most other hosting organizations a ticket implies many long stretches of holding up prior to hearing anything back. Once more, my involvement in Siteground has been overwhelmingly certain, in light of the fact that each ticket I have sent in the course of recent years was settled in a flash.

REASON 5 – PROACTIVE SECURITY

I don’t have the foggiest idea how to state this appropriately, so the most ideal approach to portray it that I can consider is Proactive Security.

Twice in the previous year I have been attacked through a DDOS attack, where fundamentally programmers send a large number of bot clicks each moment to your site, making it load pages at an inconceivably quick rate, and in the end cutting the worker down, which brings about your site being disconnected for quite a long time or days all at once.

Siteground, shockingly, proactively distinguished that for me, and sent me a warning message by means of email to exhort me that was going on, and that they figured out how to obstruct the DDOS attack. So my attacked destinations copped a touch of harm and were down for 10-15 minutes, yet were back online after that. The entirety of that occurred while I was sleeping.

REASON 6 – EXTRAORDINARY LOADING TIMES

As I have referenced, I have been with 7 other hosting organizations, including HostGator, Bluehost, FatCow, Namecheap Hosting, GoDaddy Hosting a few more modest ones. Siteground load times have consistently been the quickest and I have never experience any uncommon gradualness of sites.

I haven’t actually done such a time loading comparison , I can simply say that my HostGator shared hosting sites now and then required 4-5 seconds to try and begin loading. With Siteground, it’s constantly been instant, super quick.

The outcome at the bottom is with the SuperCacher enabled, which is fundamentally a choice you can turn for in you to enable caching.

REASON 7 – BACKUPS ARE FREE OF CHARGE

I didn’t understand how significant backups are. I never truly had any issues as far as the info in my sites going bad or anything like that.

However, in April this year, for one of my product item launches, my developer committed an error and a ton of campaign information that I had put away on my site got lost. There were around 15 campaigns, with designs, banners, and loads of other info. It would have taken me days to re-make.

So I went to Siteground support and got some insight about backups. I didn’t know whether they had it or not. Fortunately, they give free every day backups for free, all included for all your hosting accounts (30 days backup for Shared and 7 days backup for VPS). I figured out how to get my info reestablished, and it was a monstrous help.

REASON 8 – MIGRATION SERVICE

If you ever need a migration service Siteground offers that as well. Once you have selected a domain, you can easily migrate an existing site to SiteGround on step 2 of the Website Setup Wizard. To initiate a site transfer, click Select under Migrate Website.

Then, you have the option to choose between an automatic migration available for WordPress sites via our Migrator plugin.  For detailed instructions, check out the WordPress Automatic Migrator tutorial.

REASON 9 – COST

I put this at the extremely base, on the grounds that genuinely cost isn’t the greatest factor while picking your hosting supplier. The main things are client service and website loading speed.

In any case, Siteground additionally follows through on cost. Their common hosting begins at simply 3.95/month which is just about as modest as some other modest organization out there. Hostgator plans are about a similar cost.

What’s more, regardless of whether you could save $0.50 or $1 every month somewhere else, I truly don’t suggest picking the least expensive hosting. You may save $6 or $10 per year by picking the least expensive host, however you are probably going to think twice about it when you run over ghastly customer service.

Also, Siteground are not costly using any and all means – they are incredibly reasonable, and still exceptionally near being perhaps the least expensive organization.

GATHERING…

All things considered, there you go. As should be obvious, I truly love Siteground. Furthermore, I have no hesitation in prescribing them to anybody. They have a choice of plans which can grow with you… I began with a modest common hosting plan and now I’m running a VPS (Cloud) account since I have such countless sites. In any case, it’s absolutely adaptable and you can begin with a standard shared account and afterward go up when you need to.

Click here to begin with Siteground

#siteground hosting #best hosting providers #full review #hosting review #web hosting #best web hosting #hosting reviews

[doberbutts]

 Okay so this is going to get long and more than a little bit tmi but it’s a post summing up some strides I’ve made regarding my own transgender journey and I wanted a place to talk about it and maybe help some BabyTrans figure themselves out along the way so I’m putting it under the cut but it’ll go here >:V

Anyway long story short my insurance settlement from my car accident finally figured itself out and I found myself suddenly $30k richer and immediately spent about $10k of that digging myself out of a very deep debt hole I’ve been wallowing in for a while so now I have some actual financial stability plus have some money to throw at some things that would probably make my life a bit better.

And since I have the money to throw at some things, I bought myself a few new binders and also a packer. Binders because my old one was literally disintegrating- part of that is my fault, washing binders in an industrial machine on high heat plus throwing it in the dryer means your binder falls apart faster than it should. Remember I’m from the very end of Ye Olden Days of transmasc products, which means previously most binders lasted a year at most. My binder made it 2.5 years before giving up and becoming a sports bra instead. I’ve learned from my mistakes and treat my binder(s) much more gently now, plus I have more than one so I can rotate them out and not wear the same binder 8-12 hours daily for 2.5 years and kill it doing exactly the same shit.

For reference sake, I’m 5′10′’, 180lbs, 36C bust, and fit a XL from gc2b. Which is who I bought both my previous binder and my current set from. They are low cost, lightweight, well made, and LGBT-owned and operated which makes me super into buying from them instead of some of the other companies offering something similar.

Being that I am biracial and finding something my skintone is always somewhat... interesting... I followed the internet’s suggestion and went with PeeCock for the packer. I’d bought a zip binder from them a few years ago and actually found that to be the most comfortable binder I’ve ever used in the history of ever, but I will say the durability of zip binders is low compared to pull-over binders in my experience, as the zipper exploded one day when I bent down to pick up a small dropped item. I’d had the binder and was rotating its use with my pullover gc2b for about 6 months when this happened, and was in public when I went from flat chested to big uncontained tiddies in the span of seconds. Not great. I’ve been told that probably means it was a little too small for me, but PeeCock is a company based in Singapore, and their sizes like most East Asian clothing do run quite a bit small (I was a XXL in PeeCock sizes when I wore a size L gc2b binder) so there’s not really a lot of wiggle room for me to go up in size. Additionally their sizing taps out at XXXL so anyone who’s bigger than me in the chest/torso is a bit out of luck for their binders. A shame, because that zip binder was so comfortable I fell asleep in it forgetting I even had it on more than once.

Anyway. Since I did like that binder even though we had the wardrobe mishap, and the internet had pretty good reviews on the PeeCock packers because they are multifunctional and actually make correct skin tones for black dudes, I got one. Since money wasn’t an issue I did get the most recent model which was not cheap (~$300) and so far I like it a lot. I got so used to wearing it that when I take it off to clean it, it actually really bothers me. The weight of it is... comforting, in a way.

HOWEVER I did see a bunch of reviews about how I would be super likely to pee on myself the first time using it and then used it and went “wow I don’t have any idea what you guys are talking about this is easy” aaaaand... then peed on myself by accident. Gotta control your stream or things are going to overflow and you’re going to be really sad. And wet. And stinky. Thankfully I had the forethought to practice at home before actually doing this at work/public restrooms but be warned. Being that this is my first one I can’t say if this is common with all packers however I told several of my transmasc friends that do pack and use STP about this experience and they all assured me they did the exact same thing on and off for the first couple weeks and most of them do not have the same brand. We’ve yet to have a repeat at least?

Plus there’s a little attachment rod so I can use it for sexy times with the boyf and also feel what I’m doing to him so there’s that too. 10/10 A+ experience would recommend. The packaging warns you to be careful how you pack because of the way the silicone works, and your partner cannot be on top or ride you, so keep that in mind if you’re considering it. Cleaning is pretty straightforward however and packing feels correct and natural as long as you follow a few rules:

I’ve discovered that whatever size you consider a perfect fit? Unless you like really relaxed fit for your pants, you’ll need to go a size up. I wear tighter clothing and usually skinny jeans at that, and my exact perfect size has been 34/32 for some time now. When packing I need to go up to 36/32 because otherwise wow that crotch is way too tight. I can’t sit down in one of my pairs of jeans and I’m legit sad about it. I also can’t have anything in the pockets of a different pair of jeans or else I have the same tight crotch problem. I went up a size in underwear and that was more comfortable, so I ordered new pants from online and I’ll see if that helps as much as I’m expecting it too.

Speaking of underwear, ymmv, but I genuinely did not expect this. Jockstraps? Super comfy, super durable, and super convenient. Additionally unlike boxers or even briefs, I don’t need a special packing-specific design to be comfortable in one. I never wore one before and honestly this doesn’t even feel like wearing underwear. They’re really just a banana hammock anyway so that’s probably a large part of it, but honestly I would definitely recommend trying them if you haven’t yet. I do have a few pairs of packing briefs and boxers, as well as normal briefs and boxers, and I’ve been alternating between the various types of undies to see which ones I prefer, but I already know my decision so I bought several because I can. One word of advice, though... if your pants ride down understand that your entire butt will be out. I don’t wear low rise pants because they draw too much attention to my waistline and make me super dysphoric, but those that do, watch out.

Jockmail is highly rated and multiple transmasc websites recommend them for packing and I can absolutely see why. Usually the waistband of my underwear irritates my skin and so I was dubious because Jockmail stuff- being that it’s for athletic wear- has a minimum waistband of about 2in... but it’s actually more comfortable and less irritating, rather than the other way around. They also have briefs, boxers (more like short shorts), and boxer briefs, which I also have of the same brand, but... not as comfy. Once again Jockmail is a Hong Kong company so like all East Asian clothes, they run small. I’m a M in most men’s clothing sizes... I am XXL in Jockmail. I also had purchased a brief harness from PeeCock (goes by inches for waist) as well. (Also where I discovered you need to go a size up- I bought a 34in waist brief from PeeCock and it’s a tad tight. I bought a 36in waist brief from Jockmail and it’s perfect. I have been buying 34in waist things for the past few years now- I didn’t suddenly gain 2 inches at the waist, I did suddenly gain a need for a deeper crotch)

If you look down your body from above it will be super obvious that there is a dick there and you will go “oh god I look like I have an erection”. I have been reliably informed that it is actually not true and if you pack correctly a bulge will be there but not so obvious that it looks like you have a raging hardon the whole time. Better to look in the mirror, rather than down your tummy.

(Additionally I voiced my doubts to my boyf who immediately reminded me that most people don’t spend their time staring at someone’s crotch and as long as I wasn’t constantly messing with mine, no one was likely to notice even if I did have an obnoxiously obvious bulge. He then gave me some tips on how to let it hang if I wanted a “natural” look, and when we walked around while I had it on he made sure to check in on my mental health. He’s cute y’all.)

Some (cis) guys will have a specific leg they like to let things hang against. Some switch it up. Some are okay with it hanging straight down provided there’s not a lot of squish happening. Find what feel comfortable and needs the least amount of adjustment for you, and then stick with that. For me, I’ve found straight down or off to the left feels better- a friend of mine prefers off to the right, another straight down only, etc. Also can depend on the size- some (cis) guys I know are a bit smaller down below and are more comfortable with straight down than those with larger weiners.

If you pack you probably need to shave. I was very uncomfortable until I shaved. Now I feel much better packing. So trim that jungle or else you might feel a pinch every few minutes when a hair gets pulled.

And there you have me this morning before I got dressed. As you can see, both fit very nicely. I’m not particularly happy with my stomach or feminine hip set but eh, I cover those with layers and no one bats an eye.

At this point it’s figuring out the whole hormones thing, yelling at my insurance to cover certain surgeries, and... fixing some minor details with my wardrobe... and I’m feeling way more confident than I was a few years ago.

Anyway if anyone has questions feel free to hit me up

#text post #shut up jazi