#me trying to make this blog usable 2 years after i made it?

[toranekooo]

yellow purple and white for the editing ask game :3

- @enananhearts

i alrdy answered yellow in another ask !!

purple: give a few least favorite characters to edit (outside of your blacklist)! is this due to them being hard to edit or a different reason?

i hate editing eichi ☺️ OK HEAR ME OUT. i open his wiki page. i get distracted. i do not make anything well or usable in the next 2 hours bc im busy looking at him. etc

for more realistic reasons i hate editing akari hnw bc her HAIR COLOR changes every goddamn mv and it kills me a lot i also have a hard time coloring characters with green or orange in their upper palette bc "what the FUCK are those" is basically my reaction whenever i try. examples of these r hokusai and satsuki pararai

also. fe puts me thru a horror whenever i try to color the sprites without hopefully murdering the details

white: what got you into editing and what motivates you to continue?

i think around 4 years ago, i followed a random blog bc they made smthn of gin bsd who i loved intensely (still do) then i opened their blog. they were an editor and perhaps my first ever encounter? back when kinblr and editblr were still very closely linked . but that wasnt exactly where i began. from that editor's mutuals, i found someone who rly became a big inspiration for me to start! they were super sweet and i ended up drawing my approach to editing through them bc i found them really cool ! ! then at some point after, discourse caught up (beep beep lets just not expand on this) and within my first few months editing, i found out they deactivated and left which generally made me really sad. to the point where i was literally contemplating deactivating too bc i just came back from the trenches (discourse) and everything felt so scary back then. during those, i found most of my editor mutuals, notably roll who was my first follower ever i think, i adjusted, i made more friends everywhere including all my mutuals and the like, and somehow i'm still here three years later.

as for what keeps me going... i got nothin' better to do with my life 0_0 KIDDING! i like it. it's fun! i made so many friends bc of it and i like fiddling around w colors bc it keeps my brain alive . silly !

#8.28 | ask #sorry for pouring out my life story here

[buckstopped]

baby time.

#there’s a fish in the percolator! ( ooc. ) #( mobile. ) #me trying to make this blog usable 2 years after i made it? #yes

[disasterdemi]

This is the demiromantic anon that asked for love advice. I appreciated the meme (I think that's what that was? I'm an 80 year old in a teenage body) but I kind of need advice. He's a close friend - we've been friends for almost 3 years now and I have no idea how he feels and I don't want to wreck our good friendship. Please send help (and more memes, I really liked the one you posted with your message, it made me laugh)

Of course!

Before I say anything else though, a good friendship should be able to survive people catching romantic feelings. Despite what the alloromantics will tell you, friendship and romantic attraction can coexist! People can still be friends even if they have different types of feelings for each other, as long as there's consent and communication about it. (I'll talk more about this towards the end).

Anywho, I wanted this to be somewhat thorough which means it got... rather long. So I'll put the rest under a read more:

I’d suggest doing a few things:

1. Work out what you want

This is a very important first step! We often say attraction ≠ action with regards to orientation (like asexual doesn’t mean celibate, etc) but it goes the other way too. You have a crush on your friend, but it’s completely up to you whether you want to act upon it or not. You can enjoy the feeling of liking someone romantically, but not want to be in a relationship. Or you may decide that you do really want to go out with him. Have a good think about what you actually want to do with these feelings before you initiate any conversations.

Along the same lines, think about your more specific wants and boundaries. Like, do you want to hold hands, or kiss, or call him your boyfriend, etc? But also, what are you not comfortable doing (especially if you end up dating) – for example, I think parts of my romance aversion tend to stick around for a while even after I catch feelings for someone, so I’d want to communicate that to the person (e.g. “I don’t feel comfortable kissing just yet, but hugging and holding hands are okay” or whatever).

2. Work out how he feels

To be honest this is the hardest one to offer advice on because it is so dependent on the people involved. But uhh here are some ideas:

For some people, the best option is to just be frank about it. Like: “Hey, I like you romantically and I’d be interested in [insert stuff from part 1 here] with you.” (Probably not those words exactly haha they’re a bit dispassionate). Maybe also mention that you value your friendship just as much, and that he shouldn’t feel bad if he’s not interested in doing those things. If you feel confident enough and think your friendship is pretty solid - so he wouldn’t freak out if he doesn’t like you back - then this is a good option.

However, it sounds from your ask like that road might be a bit intimidating. Which is totally understandable! In which case, you might want to do some sleuthing first :P

Has he had a crush on anyone while you’ve known him? If so, how did he act around them, how did he talk about them, etc – and is he doing anything like that with you?

Recruit a mutual friend to do some reconnaissance (I’m making this sound way more dramatic than it is haha). If you have someone you trust to do this, then this is probably the least personally risky option? Maybe?

Some people suggest starting to do flirty/romantic things like lingering touches or whatever but I’ll admit that rings my Consent alarm bells, and I feel like it could lead to miscommunication. Up to you though.

NOTE! In my opinion, asking them “Do you have a crush?” Or “Who do you have a crush on?” is probably the least likely to yield usable results. Especially with teenagers. It’s bloody intimidating to confess to your crush if they ask you outright without establishing that they like you first. (Again, why option 1 can be good if you feel confident enough. He’s more likely to admit he reciprocates if you take the first step.)

3. Go about getting what you both want

(if you don't want to change your current friendship/relationship)

If you're happy just chilling in your romantic feelings and not doing anything about them, you can probably either

Continue as you have been

Explain the situation to him. This could help if you want to make sure he understands why you might be behaving differently towards him.

(if he likes you back and you want to change your current relationship with him)

If you go with sleuthing, once you’ve worked out if he likes you I still strongly recommend telling him how you feel (see: 2.1). Communicate communicate communicate. You won’t get want you want if you don’t communicate. Dropping hints is just so rarely successful and can cause a whole lot of miscommunication, so I know it’s scary but if you think he likes you back you’re better of having an open, honest conversation about it.

Then after that, you can go about explaining the stuff you thought about in part 1! If being aspec has taught you anything, hopefully it’s that no two relationships are the same – so talk about what you both want so everyone is consenting and happy! Listen to him as well, and encourage him to think about his wants and boundaries. Maybe even give him a few days to think about them before continuing the conversation.

4. What to do if he doesn’t like you back

You can’t control other people’s feelings. This is so important. Of course, you can be sad if he doesn’t like you back, but remember that it’s not his fault, (it’s also not your fault for catching feelings,) and make sure he knows you are okay with him not returning your feelings! He’ll probably feel bad, so again reiterate that you don’t value a romantic relationship with him any more than your friendship.

Then you should both try to be sensitive to boundaries (probably talk about them if you can):

You might need some time away from him. That’s okay and understandable, but tell him that’s why and that it’s not because you don’t want to be friends anymore.

He might want some space from you. It can be uncomfortable for people to know someone has an unreciprocated crush on them. Maybe he’ll need some time to get used to it. But if he doesn’t bring it up, make sure you check.

Where do you go from here?

(Super important!!) Like I said earlier, people can have different feelings about each other and still get on well! You can like him romantically and he can like you platonically and you can still be good friends! So:

You shouldn’t have to “get over him” (unless you want to). A crush is about your feelings, not expectations from him. But make sure to ask him how comfortable he is with that knowledge - and explain the point before this if you need to.

On the one hand, he might be more comfortable if you stick to strictly platonic things. Make sure you respect that.

On the other hand, maybe he’s actually okay with some aspects from part 1. Maybe he’d like to hug you more, or is okay holding your hand (platonically?), but doesn’t want to kiss you or be your boyfriend. People can do things together that have different meanings to each of them, as long as there’s consent and communication.

Final note: Please please don't take this as an instruction manual - these are just my own thoughts, and what works for some people won't always work for others. So use my answer more as something to start from - something to form your own ideas from. Use pieces that you think will work, and discard others. You know yourself and your friend much better than I do :)

Best of luck dear Anon, I hope you and your friend figure stuff out <3

And as a send-off, here's a relevant old meme of mine for you :)

(There are also plenty more memes in my memes tag (link in the description at the top of my blog) if you haven’t already seen them lol)

#demiromantic #ask #anon #advice #crushes #disasterdemi #gosh this got so long I'm sorry anon - read it in chunks if you have to 😭 #love advice anon

[atrixfromice]

If isn't one thing, is another!!!

Or “the odyssey of quest for the best microphone!”

I’m going to talk about this, because I promised to some folks I would. But also because I feel the need to talk about this to feel...well, maybe not better...but to feel a bit less dissapointed at least.

I was really excited about going one step further to a higher level regarding my fictional characters, but unfortunately for me, “if isn’t one thing is another” as we say in Mexico. Is an expression for when we have one and another and another misadventure or bad thing happenning succesively.

And that’s precisely what happened to me in general this year. But specially, with this animation project. First my computer started to have trouble, so I told myself “well if that’s so, I might just make the animation in traditional and I could tell my brother to lend me his computer so I can put the drawings together on movie maker”.  And my mom helped me with the traditional animation tools that are the glass desk I use as animation table, and the portable lamp. These ones!

But at the same time with my computer trouble, I had a lot of trouble too with the quality of the audio records when I found my character’s voices, since the peeps who were enthousiastic to work voicing my characters had no microphone to record, and I had no microphone to record either!

They recorded directly with their smartphone, and I with my smartphone and using an earphone as microphone. So in all the cases the voice was overcame by the sound of the street, the neighbords, people talking in the distance, etc.

Plus, one of my friends was so nice to spend an afternoon and night with me until 4 am (via chat online of course, he lives in mexico city and is far away from where I live) talking about my fictional characters and making voices so I could know if he could fit for one of my characters, because he was so excited a bout this animation, and mostly because, as I said before, he always wanted to be a voice actor for animated cartoons.

So I thought it worth the effort to help them and myself a bit, and I had the brilliant, brillant idea ( now I know it wasn’t a good idea XD) of making a tour on my town to see if I could find a good quality micro for a decent price so I could buy at least 2 or 3, and send then 2 to my friends and one for me, or send one to one of  my friends and take one for me.

But what happened I think I wouldn’t have predicted it!

Firs of all, almost all electronic stores were closed due quarantine. Except for one who was a little modest store that had recently oppened. So I bought my micro there because I had no choice.

The first “micro” I bought was actually not a micro (even if the girl who was selling there told me that is was usable to record) but just some headphones that worked via bluetooth with a micro included but they were only to talk, not to record. So yeah that day I learned that you cannot record via bluetooth. Because even if I installed an app so my smartphone could recognize the mic, the sound was horrible!! It sounded like someone who was talking to you from 3 meters away or something like that! Even the records sounded better with my earphone used as micro! And that was so much to say.

So I went to the store and I told the girl I needed to change the product or the return of my money cos this product wasn’t able to make what I needed it for, that was RECORDING AND GIVE ME A GOOD QUALITY SOUND! And then the girl said she couldn’t give me back my money because their enterprise didn’t allowed that, but yes to product changement in case of trouble. So I accepted and she gave me an earphones with microphone included, it was a generic brand but the girl told me it worked well, so I thought everything was going to be ok.

But no, actually that was worse! It got worse and worse.

I arrived home almost at dawn and I spent almost all day walking to go from store to store and come back. So as you can imagine, I was exhausted. I felt like the toothpaste you squeezed and it’s almost to get over. I wasn’t going to record my fictional character’s voice at that moment. I even didn’t ate all day! But I didn’t really cared, I felt too tired so I just I collapsed on the bed like a log.

So the next morning, I woke up and I happily proceeded to test the micro, and for my misfortune, just one of the headphones worked well, and the other didn’t, and the microphone, that was important part I needed, it didn’t worked at all!!! So there you have me, walking 2 hours to go and come back from the same store (since the transports are not doing their service due COVID) to change that micro, and then the girl gave me another brand of headphones with microphone, and I prayed God for this to the good one!  

Again, same stuff, I didn’t ate and I was tired, but this time I didn’t collapsed like a log, I tried to test the micro to know if it worked or not, and then, it happened that the headpones worked both of them, but the micro didn’t work!

So next morning I went to the store for the 3rd time and I was very upset, I told the girl to give me back my money because I didn’t wanted any other product from this store. I'm appreciative she was very understanting with me, because she treated me nicely and with calm even if I was so exasperated, pissed off and cursing in french.

No kidding on this! In retrospective...it was so embarassing because every people at the store turned their gaze at me like if I was a mad woman! LOL But you can deny after the 3rd time receiving a bad product you would probably have felt the same.

so I calmed down as well. And this time she gave me a lapel microphone, because she couldn’t give me back my money. And thanks goodness when I came home, I tested it and it worked. I I felt relieved and could eat finally.

The next morning I prepared myself a sandwich, and took care of my home duties like moping and swepping and dish washing, that stuff. And when the afternoon came and I tried to record on my new, and I realized that while it worked, the sound quality was very bad cos it picked up a lot of the background sounds and it made to some clicking and squeaking like if I was moving it but I wasn’t.

So I took my afternoon to look on google for how to record with a cheap or bad quality microphone (this one was not that cheap, but it was bad!) and I did all what people adived on on youtube and on blog articles. And I tried to record for two afternoons. like 6 and 6 hours, imagine it, I spent 12 hours voice acting!

Even I put covered my windows on aluminium paper, and I recorded on my bathroom and inside of my closet! XD But nothing worked because, while there was a bit les background noise, the recordings still had those annoying squeaking sounds, and when the voice made high notes, it sounded like someone's fingernails on a blackboard!

It was particularly hard to record on the closet, cos I was up for 6 hours and a bit more standing up trying to record something, and I had to start from the beginning because of the so annoying sounds that were made when I made emphasis on the words. So at the end my feet were numb and burining like hell! That not counting that more the time passed, the less my physical strenght to record I had.

And then after I finished, I thought it was really good, and I was so proud and satisfied with the result, then I gave the record to one of my friends, who offered as beta tester to listen my records, and he commented he heard an squeaking sound and that in the pauses when I talked, he could hear my breath! And that he couldn’t understand what was being said. And he’s an native english-speaker, soo, sooo it meant the record was not going to be able to be used!!!

So you can imagine why at the end I was so dissapointed and sad! Because I had a really exhausted body, a wounded pride, and a sore jaw and throat, because when you record voice (specially on a bad quality mic) you must exagerate a bit your voice and pronnounce well, and move your mouth a lot so you can get a good emphasis on your dialogues. And after all this effort I only got a 2 or 3 minutes recording, which was awesome, but the quality wasn’t good enough to be on an animation!!!! *sobs*

It was a dialogue between two characters, the main character from “good team guys” and the main “bad team guys”, from one of my stories. It was an epic battle between these two, and it was so...so awesome and mindblowing!

No kidding! It had all what I wanted it to have, all those delicious emphasis on the right words and phrases. I don’t even know if I’ll be able to record something THIS GOOD ever again in my life! Because I was inspired, and this doesn’t happen very often.

That without counting that I feel like a great jerk now because I feel like I failed to the peeps who were so participative offering their voices to voice my fictional characters, and who were enthusiastic and excited about voicing one of my original characters. But I think I’m smart enough to notice that right now I don’t have the tools to do neither animation nor voice acting.

So.. that’s why I dediced to not record more, not continuating animating, because I’m just I messing up my health and sleep and with this bad quality micro and computer I’ll not have any good results.

I think is better to save money to buy a good microphone for the voice, or a couple of ones, and send one to my friend. And wait until my brother could borrow me his laptop.

I think, while it makes me sad to come back to illustration and comics only...I feel a bit better by talking about my oddysey. So I thanks a lot to y’all who have been here to support my art and listen to what I write about my art projects.

#atrixfromice #late night rambling #animation

[fundielicious-simblr]

wips!

Hey y’all, author here (still feels weird calling myself that ngl) I was inspired by @meetthefundies​ post about pose making from a while back and decided I’d take the dive and finally get into cc making for the sims 4. It’s always something that I’d thought about, and with corona basically shutting everything down I’ve had ample time to try and learn how to do things. The whole of last month was basically a bunch of trial and error, YouTube watching, and Tumblr scrolling (coupled with my parents asking why I have pictures of random white people saved onto my google drive almost every other night 😂💀)

In the middle of august my dad caught corona, and so the government isolated my whole family and I in the house (he’s all better now thankfully) for 2 weeks, meaning I had 14 uninterrupted days of just coming up with different designs and trying to make things work. So this post is to basically just put out there what I’ve been working on, a few have made it into my game to be play tested, but so far only one has actually left CAS 😂 I know these are definitely major works in progress, but my anxiety means that I’d keep redoing things over and over again in an attempt at perfection while the rational side of me tells me that everyone has a starting point - this one is just mine. Anyway, I’m rambling (as usual), so let me just post the damn picture so I can go back to actually working on these pieces 😂😂

I’ll start with the casual clothes,

This is what I’m working on right now, ironically it’s the easiest thing I’ve done so far. This is essentially one of those ‘Snoga’ sports skirt things that fundies wear, this is the second round because the first had annoying clipping that meant I had to go in and change the design. If this one turns out fine enough then I will make different skirt/legging length combinations, but for now I just need this to be usable enough in game to warrant making different styles. 

Sleeveless frumper dress thing (I’ll sit down and come up with names for these later 😂) 

This was inspired by Anna Marie Maxwell and her #fabulous frumpers as well as the frumpers the Maxwells used to wear in the 2000s, I stalked the Maxwell blog right back to the beginning and just started saving pictures 💀 This is so far the only thing that’s made it into an actual game save, and you’ll be seeing a sim or two wearing this in different swatches in around a month since my queue is now below one month long. This dress is probably between the 8th and 10th attempt at making a basic frumper as this is what I started trying to make as I was trying to learn everything I could about making cc.

Basic short sleeved cheap looking dress (like I said, official names will come later 😂)

This your basic average amazon dress that fundies love ( a la bates sisters boutique style) I’m at that point where my instagram explore page thinks I’m a 14 year old Apostolic girl or a baptist mother of 8 looking to change my style, so I have a wealth of inspiration to choose from 😂 This is something I made and forgot about because I got excited about the exercise skirt almost working in game, meaning that this hasn't even made it into blender yet. 

Now we can move onto the formal stuff:

Ruffle mother of the bride/groom dress

This is my attempt on that blue ruffle dress that Kelly Jo Bates wore to Erin and Zach’s weddings. I initially tried to make it exactly like the dress she wore, but then I realised I was falling into the tendency of making things hard on myself unnecessarily 😂 This has made its way into CAS but there was some awkward clipping around the arms which I need to fix in blender, and will fix the textures before I can try and test it again.

Fishscale type dress 

Yup, you guessed it, this is my take on that dress. This made it into blender, but seeing the uv_0 layout made me go “eek” and distract myself with something else 💀 I’m probably going to go in and change the design, take some creative license and change the ‘fishscales’ around because there's only so much space in the uv map. 

Wedding Dress 1 aka the ‘Anna Marie’

I’ve highkey been calling this one the ‘Anna Marie’ in my folders because this wedding dress is directly inspired by hers (fyi: this link does take you directly to the Maxwell family blog, that web archive website is banned where I live and I’m not sure how to upload an archived link with my vpn on cause sometimes my laptop starts moving mad) This dress is one step away from being tested in game, and was so far the easiest dress to ‘design’ because there's literally nothing on it. I have been watching some more advanced texturing tutorials and want to try and make this look a bit better than it came out in my initial texturing attempts before I bring it I game to test.

Wedding Dress 2 aka the ‘Elissa’

This dress was inspired by Elissa Maxwell’s wedding dress, there's not many close up details of her dress so at some point I just got creative and probably the only thing I can really lend to her dress is the gathering on the side. The bolero came in as an idea after I had attempted doing these cute sleeves but was defeated after a while, so I changed things up so as not to frustrate myself 😂 This dress also has a bit more texturing needed before I can attempt to see how it looks in CAS, but I think I'll just see what happens with this one.

Wedding Dress 3 aka the EBP

In my head this dress was meant to resemble what Erin Bates Paine wore to her wedding, as in, a dress that is fine and would be considered modest (albeit a bit dated) but is chopped and skewed to make it EVEN MORE modest. The kind of changes that are obvious so the whole world knows you’re extra special and extra modest. This dress was an experiment as I played around and attempted to construct a corset back for this dress and the ruched tacked on sleeves, which turned out alright but it needs a bit of tweaking here and there, as well as an overhaul of the initial texture I'd tried out for this dress. In the notes app on my phone the initial look I was going for with this dress was “EBP overly frilly disaster” because that’s what I thought her wedding dress was like, but when I found pictures I decided I’d save the overly frilly disaster for when I was slightly better at the whole cc making thing.

Anyway, this is what I’ve got for now, I’ve got a swim dress thing next on my list which might be slightly easier to bring from start to finish? Not sure, at this point its hit and miss with how the weights transfer which affects the end result. I do have to say, seeing all these unfinished things laid out has sort of reinvigorated me to try and finish what I’ve already started before making something else, especially since a lot of them just require me to play around with the texture.

#wow this was a lot #but also fun to do #sims4cc #lets hope I can get more of these finished so I can model it in game and have nice pictures #ive scrolled my way through so many google pages #literally never reached page 4 on google before until I started learning how to make cc

[thejourneytolovefrancisrose]

i made this today and i loved it...

but in this is some updates for this blog...

sso i got really behind on updating my life and everything the second half of last year, but i will try to sum it up briefly now, even though im not sure anyone pays any attention to this tumblr lol

1: I NOW IDENTIFY AS A NON-BINARY MAN/MXN.

Since top surgery, I still get some strange feelings, way less than before, about whether this is the kind of chest I want. I have have some friends that are transmen, nonbinary and/or agender say that its very normal to have those kinds of feelings post surgery, but especially so if you don't actually feel you identify as a binary transperson. And... I had to admit to myself that all the signs pointed that way. I don't want bottom surgery and really never did. I still include the man/mxn after nonbinary because I am still heavily leaning towards that male/man side, just not in any binary definition of what i want my male/man body to look like.

I now use "they" pronouns in addition to "he/him" pronouns and will be getting the X marker on my new ID once I get everything I need for getting the ID for the state I just moved to and thats gonna be a pain in the butt since they want all kind of identification. Its got nothing to do with the gender marker though and everything to do with them making their state ids compliant so they will be usable for domestic flights and trvael to canada and mexico once they new travel laws take effect this year.

2: TOP SURGERY UPDATE

So, I know have SO MUCH MORE feeling in my chest. A bunch woke up a couple months ago and, at first, it stung and had this staticky feeling. Also, it would hurt when i would go to brush crumbs or something off my chest and I dont know if maybe I was brushing harder before since it was numb or if it was just sensitive. Certainly was a shocker the first time it happened. Its adjusted a lot now. There are still some numb spots along the sides and where they made the incision, but a lot of it is back. My nipples also no longer look all shriveled up, but the flesh is still tight. Hoping that eventually I will be able to pierce them, but I have awhile to go still since a piercer told me i should wait 2 years.

3: HRT

I went on and off hormones a lot in that last half of the year. I spent almost two months off at one time and I wasnt sure I wanted to get back on... but eventually I did. My hairline is starting to recede, but for now, i think its that normal amount that testosterone does to give you a more masculine hairline... but im keeping my eye on it. im hoping, with the new year and all, to get back in the gym soon and hope the hormones help with the body sculpting. im also just so curious about how much more body hair im gonna grow. stomach hair that started near my pubic region is creating a tower and is climbing above my belly button now. theres some hair growing around my nipples and some on my feet. how much more will sprout up???

4: NEW YEAR

So, I finished college in December and this month I turn 29. I got some stuff to figure out, but I think I want to spend a significant amount of time in the next some years working on writing and art. I went to school for education, but I have been inspired to be brave and really push myself to go for my passions, which has been writing and art forever. Im gonna look into some masters degrees about art business and publishing. Might apply for that next year, who knows. We'll see just have to wait and see.

I'll be posting my new years resolutions/goals after this and maybe some more pics/videos and stuff. 😊😊😊

#trans #transition #transgender #nonbinary #enby #nonbinary man #top surgery #post op #transitioning #transition update #gender marker #hrt update #hrt testosterone #ftm hrt

[purge-that-urge-rhackathon]

-gently kicks thru the door- how did i only now find ur blog hot dang. hey if ur still doing requests or prompts.. consider... a thing where jack takes care of rhys. just like in whatever way u might want to take that. im thinking like rhys is sick and is 2 pitiful to take care of himself but u can totally... smut that up to ur own tastes should u so desire. yes the first time i interact w/ u its to ask for smut and no this is not out of character for me sdjgskhhffh im so srry

It’s a big internet out there and this blog is only 3 years old…. it happens heheheh xD And you caught me in an excellent mood SO:

This labeled as Assistance. Also on my ao3 here :) My masterlist archive of bullshit i write can be found linked at the top of the blog or here.

–

Rhys was frustrated.

Not just because he’d tripped over his own damn feet bringing Jack his morning coffee, nor from the resultant fracture to his left hand that the doctors told him to absolutely not use for the remaining two weeks as it healed nicely, and not even from the fact that his right hand needed recalibration after the embarrassing face-plant in front of the CEO’s desk.

No, he was frustrated because Jack– for all his teasing and braying laughter- was actually being nice about Rhys’ clumsy fall, had shunted off the majority of hand-intensive work to his secretary, and was being extra considerate and handsy with him in the office in ways that set Rhys’ heart beating faster.

In the very sense of the word, Rhys was getting desperate, and desperation lead to… creativity.

His cybernetic arm was a mechanical wonder of technology, yes, but even without the calibration it so sorely needed, it wasn’t quite the same– or welcoming- as his flesh hand.

He’d considered asking Jack to recalibrate it for him- more than a few times- but the idea of letting his boss into his subsystems and opening up his hardware was…. Well… Jack had a questionable attention span already, and coupled with his brilliant mind, Rhys was worried about what he could possibly put in there. Spyware. Weird voice commands. Or worse, with the connection to his echoeye, he might encounter all the very-specific searches Rhys had done about the man on the echonet.

Not worth it, in his opinion.

His right hand was… usable, yeah, but it wasn’t the same. He wasn’t what he’d call ambidextrous, and the lag in how his fingers worked– imperceptible to others but frustratingly off to him- made even the most enthusiastic jerking-session a lesson in persistence.

He was horny was the thing. Crazy horny. Unable-to-ignore and stressed-out-of-his-mind-and-required-release horny. Release was good, the relief itself a blessing, but he wasn’t satisfied. And the fact that his insanely-attractive boss almost seemed to be touching him more than normal in encouragement, watching him more keenly than usual in case he needed assistance, wasn’t helping matters.

Of course he could have just been being paranoid, and Jack himself was more observant than he was given credit for. But if Rhys didn’t figure out some way to get himself off that wasn’t shamefully sticking it in a sock and fucking between the mattress, then he was probably going to end up short-circuiting something.

And then he’d be out two hands and up one easily-encouraged boner and he could just kiss his professional reputation goodbye.

Not that he didn’t feel he was doing that already.

Jack had given him half days to rest– or more like half-weeks. Rhys spent some days working from the couch in his apartment– or his bed when feeling particularly lazy- and other days spent in the office with the CEO doing not much else than fetching coffee or looking pretty when Jack yelled at people.

He was doing that now, actually, listening to music and working remotely with his echotablet from bed to organize things for Jack’s meeting tomorrow.

Well speak of the devil. A notification popped up on his echoeye; the personal chat Jack had had him install mainly so he could write snarky comments to the younger man during meetings. Though it also proved very useful to quickly communicate since Rhys’ hands weren’t doing what he wanted them to these days.

→J4ckRule5: ive got some shit I need you to personally look through→J4ckRule5: stuff for 2morrow these idiots didnt send in the brief

Crap. What timing.

←Rhy5winz: Do you need me to come in?→J4ckRule5: nah ill drop it by your crappy little apartment after work→J4ckRule5: been meaning to see if that part of helios needs fumigating again :p←Rhy5winz: >>:|←Rhy5winz: Thanks for your kindness and consideration, sir.

There was a pause, and Rhys smirked to himself. Jack was probably laughing at his own jokes, but even more at Rhys’ overly polite response. They were hardly this courteous to one another anymore after working together so long, and his own way of handling his boss made him grin. Jack’s response met his expectations entirely; probably bored with nothing better to do than bug him.

→J4ckRule5: U mad? (:

Rhys smirked.

←Rhy5winz: I don’t know what you mean, sir.←Rhy5winz: Please take care when coming down here.←Rhy5winz: Don’t want any vermin biting our CEO.

Rhys was amused as he waited for Jack to get back to him, the CEO typing for ages it felt, when Rhys realized something.

Shit. He was getting hard over Jack’s playful messages. Really? Over a few innocent texts from his boss about work? Seriously? That’s what was getting him excited nowadays? Jesus he needed to take the edge off ASAP because this wasn’t just embarrassing, but downright insulting. Not to mention what it said about him to be getting all hot over Jack’s denigrating teasing.

Rhys stared at his tented boxer briefs with judgment as Jack’s response was overlaid right over the tip of his dick.

→J4ckRule5: dont get ur panties in a twist there pumpkin ;D

Rhys’ dick twitched at that.

Fuck.

Even as he was disappointed in his cock’s lack of taste in what was erotic, he was already palming himself through his underwear with his metallic hand. Maybe he could make this work.

→J4ckRule5: if u even own panties

Rhys’ brows shot up in interest and a spike of undue alarm at the thought that Jack knew what he was doing went through him– and made his cock harder.

→J4ckRule5: speaking of which:→J4ckRule5: do u own panties? (;

Rhys actually laughed, a husky sound as his cock liked this conversation very much so, and didn’t give much thought as to the appropriateness of the topic.

←Rhy5winz: You can’t bring up a topic and then say ‘speaking of which’, Jack.→J4ckRule5: i just did ;p→J4ckRule5: dont change the subject

Rhys’ chewed on his lips, his breathing deep and hips moving just a little of their own volition against his hand. He freed his cock from its confines and stroked himself, cursing the lag and responsiveness of his hand, but making do.

←Rhy5winz: Wouldn’t you like to know→J4ckRule5: i would ;D→J4ckRule5: answer the question kitten. im really bored here

Rhys allowed his mind to wander, to fantasize over any possible subtext. Bored. Right. The idea that Jack was bored and jerking off in his chair gave him a little thrill. That he was talking to Rhys of all people while possibly doing so made him very excited indeed.

←Rhy5winz: Sorry sir, that is classified information.←Rhy5winz: You don’t have access :p→J4ckRule5: brat→J4ckRule5: and how does one gain access? ;D

Okay, this was some next-level flirting for Jack; playing along and furthering the teasing. And that response was fast. He was either super bored and having a laugh at Rhys’ expense, or he was passing the time by playing a little five-on-one.

Good idea or not, Rhys wasn’t the one writing his responses to the older man so much as his cock was, and all the thoughts of Jack’s hands on him in the office– little innocent but overly familiar touches- was adding to the novelty of the experience.

←Rhy5winz: This is pretty privileged information←Rhy5winz: I don’t know. Maybe you should work harder→J4ckRule5: OH believe me cupcake im the hardest worker on this station

Rhys made a little noise at that, now certain Jack had his dick in hand and taking out his boredom at Rhys’ expense. Well, teasing the CEO back was probably safe at this point, right? He knew Jack appreciated some good word play, and though it was risky, he decided to let the older man know he knew what he was up to. It wasn’t like Jack didn’t make dirty jokes in the office constantly. Turnaround was fair play.

←Rhy5winz: I have no doubt you are ;)←Rhy5winz: Sucks having to take matters into your own hands

Jack was typing for several moments, Rhys’ heart beating and his cock pulsing as he awaited the response. It was shorter than all that typing lead him to expect, making him curious what the older man might’ve sent instead.

→J4ckRule5: ur killin me here cupcake

Rhys snickered at the response, waiting for more, but none came. Huh. Well, that was anticlimactic, though it was useful as he was harder than ever (or as hard as he’d been since the injury) and he quickly forgot about their conversation in lieu of inflating it for masturbation fantasies.

It was going pretty well, actually, and he’d have to thank Jack (in some roundabout way, of course… maybe a cheese and sausage basket to be funny) because he knew it wasn’t going to be a goddamn nightmare trying to get himself off this time. No lubed-up and ruined socks– which was a crime in itself- nor errant twitching of uncalibrated fingers to throw off his delicate movements on his poor neglected cock.

No, rubbing himself against his thighs was actually working pretty nicely, and the smooth metal of his fingers warmed with his body heat actually felt really good. Imagining Jack at his desk imagining Rhys was doing it for him, and rereading their conversation from earlier only added more substance to his fantasy.

So when Jack himself stuck his head around the corner of Rhys’ doorjamb, the younger man thought he was just getting really good at visualizing what he wanted– for approximately a quarter of a second.

Rhys made an impossible sound between a gulp and a squeak– impressive in Jack’s opinion- as he quickly pulled a pillow over himself, face crimson and speechless that Jack was in his apartment, let alone his bedroom.

“Heeeeey cupcake… Whatcha doin’?”

The dirty leer on Jack’s face told Rhys the older man knew exactly what he’d been doing. There was no way out of this, and Jack looked about as pleased as anyone finding someone else jerking their dick possibly could.

“H-How– How did you get in here? Why are you in here?!”

“Was gonna deliver that stuff to you but forgot it halfway after those dirty texts you sent me, kitten. Not to mention, the door locks on this level are ridiculously easy to hack.”

Jack’s grin was predatory, shark-like, and it did funny things to Rhys’ stomach, and furthermore, his cock beneath the pillow.

“This how you’ve been using these work-at-home days? It’s not like I’d stop you if you wanted to do this at the office, kiddo.”

Rhys whined, embarrassed, frustrated, tired, and goddamn horny and just wanting a little relief. His damn cock was still hard beneath the pillow.

It had flagged a little, yeah, but with the object of his fantasy right goddamn there and the way Jack was leering at him, well… Rhys’ cock was a dirty goddamn traitor and he wasn’t getting out of this situation gracefully.

“Cat got your tongue, kitten?”

Jack’s eyes were darting between his face and the pillow, interest and amusement there both but not yet moving closer, and Rhys was so close yet not, and so goddamn fucking frustrated he didn’t even care at this point and rambled quickly to the older man. “…I’ve had a rough week and shit timing and no sleep and I hate this damn cast and being useless and I can’t sleep-” he repeated, “-and nothing is working how it should and I can’t even do my job right and I feel useless here.”

“That it?” Jack asked smugly, still looking expectantly at the pillow.

Rhys knew he was not going to drop the topic, so he internally said fuck it and just blurted out: “…and I’m just really pent up and this isn’t fucking working and if I don’t get off I’m going to strangle someone… with someone else’s hands,” he growled.

A pleased shiver went up Jack’s back as a smirk took his face, and he moved closer as if his personal assistant’s dick wasn’t out and leaking beneath a Hyperion-branded pillow. “Babe, kitten, is that all? If you were horny you could’ve just said so. I’d have been down here ten minutes ago.”

Jack sat down next to him, a hand starting at his thigh and disappearing under the pillow. He heard the way Rhys’ breath hitched, the younger man’s face becoming less red with embarrassment and more pink with arousal, and his whole body very aware of the path Jack’s hand was taking. When it made contact with his shaft, Rhys made a mumbled sort of whimper in his throat, eyes shutting tightly as Jack’s big hand wrapped around his cock and gave him a gentle squeeze. Rhys whined pathetically, and Jack cozied up into his space to whisper smugly into the younger man’s ear.

“Baby,” Jack said, breath hot on Rhys’ skin as he allowed his face to touch Rhys’ own just barely. “I’m always up to get you what you need. Even if all you need is to get off.” He gave him a stroke and Rhys’ hand shot out to grab Jack at the man’s shoulder, bending a little at the waist towards Jack as it felt so damn good and was just what he needed and god he wanted Jack to stroke him.

Jack pressed his lips to Rhys’ neck where the younger man’s flesh was exposed to him, grinning and feeling his own cock rallying in his jeans as he played with Rhys.

The pillow was flung away, and Jack wrapped one arm around Rhys’ waist, the other giving him long, tight strokes that passed over his cockhead every few. It was rougher than Rhys was used to– but he was so on edge and it was so goddamn satisfying and it was Jack doing it to him- and he came relatively quickly with pleased little cries over the older man’s hand.

Jack wiped his hand on Rhys’ sheets before hooking a hand behind his neck and kissing the younger man senseless. It totally blew Rhys’ mind.

Sex was one thing, kissing was another, and Rhys was thrown through so many loops and twists and turns of defied expectations that he threw caution to the wind and wrapped his arms around his boss, the Handsome Jack, and kissed him back for all he was worth.

Jack’s heavy breathing and the way the older man’s kisses turned to nipping bites was already rallying Rhys’ cock for a second time, but he pulled away when Jack broke it, a filthy look of desire on his face that Rhys’ attention was only stolen from by the older man’s tented pants.

“Jack, I-I want to– to– fuck,” he cursed, wanting more than anything to return the favor and get his hands on his boss’s dick like something out of one of his fantasies. Neither of his hands were up to the job and the last thing he wanted to do was have the CEO think he was shit at handjobs, but the way Jack was tenting his own jeans was nothing to tease about. He’d done that to the CEO, and dammit, he really wanted to do something memorable to it.

“Maybe next time, sweet pea,” Jack laughed at Rhys’ words, a big hand on Rhys’ thigh as he bit at the younger man’s neck. “When you’re all healed up and I don’t have a meeting with distribution in an hour. Maybe in my big yellow chair, mm?”

Rhys’ eyes widened as he looked at the older man. Next time? Wait… he wanted to fuck him?

Jesus Antwerp Christ, Rhys must’ve actually fell on his head and not his hand, and he was having a coma-wet-dream right now, because that was right up there in his impossible bucket-list of imaginary jerk-off material.

“In the meantime baby, you don’t need your hands to give a blowjob, right?”

Rhys swallowed and his mouth watered, and at this point he didn’t give a shit about Jack’s smug look that said he knew he was going to get what he wanted, or that insufferable grin that knew how much Rhys wanted to give it to him.

No, the younger man slid off his unmade bed, cock still out at half-mast, to eagerly get between Jack’s knees while the older man chuckled with arousal and undid his belt and fly to remove his cock from his jeans.

It wasn’t the best blowjob he’d ever given, or even in the top five, but the way Jack moaned his name, carded fingers through his messy hair, and talked dirty to him as Rhys sucked him off definitely ranked it among the most memorable of experiences to boot. The strangled curses that left the older man’s lips as he’d come down Rhys’ throat was the best of all, and knowing he was one of the few privileged enough to know the sound of Handsome Jack being thoroughly wrecked was enough to get him through this hellish period until he got full use of his hands back.

“Jesus kiddo, if that’s what you can do without your hands, I can’t wait until you’re all fixed.” He swiped a thumb under Rhys’ swollen lower lip, teasing it over his mouth before applying the barest of pressure. Rhys sucked the digit into his mouth with a pleased hum, and Jack just chuckled, pleased. “Damn buttercup, you were pent up, huh baby?”

Rhys just nodded in agree– would agree to just about anything Jack said right now- and hopped back up on the bed when Jack patted it.

The older man kissed him into the mattress, hand already back on his cock which surprised Rhys enough to make a noise about it, and Jack just laughed until he’d jerked him to full hardness and through another orgasm.

Rhys’ sheets were a ruined mess, and he was more or less feeling the same. His eyes gleamed with satisfaction as Jack tucked his own spent cock back into his pants, redid zip and belt, and told Rhys his work for the day was excellent. It made them both laugh, and Jack moved to leave until he gave one last look at the younger man laying there, the very picture of contentment.

“Forget something?” Rhys asked, voice teasing but dripping with satisfaction.

“Yeah, I did.”

Jack came and bent at the waist to kiss him again, moving to his neck where he sucked and bit at the younger man. It felt good until Rhys yelped, and Jack rose with a laugh, moving Rhys’ hand that had moved to the spot where he’d bit him. There was a pretty decent hickey there. Rhys bruised up nicely.

“What the hell, Jack?”

“Just making sure you don’t forget about me, cupcake.”

Rhys gave him a frown. “We work together.”

“So, so well, sugar pie.” The glare Rhys sent his way had zero effect on the older man. “Okay pumpkin, see you tomorrow, bright and early. Same old same old. Or maybe not so much.”

Rhys snorted. His neck smarted, but he was already excited about work tomorrow, clear this little liaison was going to be continued, and pleased as fucking punch about it. “Lock up after yourself, will you? Don’t want any vermin getting in. There was a big rat in here that just bit the shit out of me.”

“You little brat,” Jack laughed, himself feeling ready for the dullery that was distribution, his own edge without his pretty PA well taken off. “But guess I don’t want anyone else taking a bite of my cheese.” Rhys snorted. “See ya babe.”

Rhys laid in bed for a while after, replaying everything in his head all giddy as hell. Dream come true? Yes please and thank you for seconds if you don’t mind.

He got up later with interest as his doorbell rang, wondering if it was Jack and if the older man had remembered his manners.

A special delivery from one of Helios’ most expensive boutiques was instead waiting for him to sign, the Hyperion-yellow lace of expensive panties inside with a note that said ‘Mystery solved -J.’

Rhys told himself he was going to spite the older man by not wearing them to work tomorrow, but Jack’s pleased laugh of surprise when his face was in Rhys’ lacey-crotch the next day was worth it.

With Jack’s special deliveries and their new work ethic, Rhys found that fracturing his hand wasn’t so bad in retrospect, and for every stormcloud, there was a Hyperion-yellow laced-lining to look forward to.

kofi | ao3

#rhack #handsome jack #rhys the company man #fanfiction #poisonjack #my fic #LOLOL believe it or not i actually began work on this right after you sent in the ask but it did take me a few hours to fill SOOO...still fa #im still fast imo >_> AHAHAHA xD look at that i actually did something new for the moment AHAHAH #not exactly what you asked for but im currently up to my neck in hurt/comfort stuff across all fandoms and about 8 fics so i went #in this direction instead of the sick thing xD ...LOLOL did it work? i think it worked...we got fairly kinky hahah #ummmm if anything looks off or missing could anyone let me know? i havent done a read through to check cuz no time xD #gotta wash my uniform xD im pretty sure shit aint missing tho >_> i ended up catching some stuff in the coding process hahaha

[ixiomdraws]

[CLOSED SPECIES]

I would like to officially introduce a creature species I've made. They arent really new since I've had them for years and posted them several times on a couple different blogs, but they were originally just one, not really a species, but I love them and i just wanted to expand on them and what they were, so here we go.

Please read under the cut for full info on budbugs.

BUDBUG is the species name, named after the original, Pillbug.

(this is Pillbug^)

Pillbug was the only of their kind, created in a lab for testing purposes, and not good ones. They were practically tortured, cut open countless times, experimented on, ect. They were made to be docile and obedient, no aggressiveness at all, to the point of almost being just a living stuffed animal.

Pillbug is quiet, and pretty much completely incapable of choosing to do anything. They will wait for someone to tell them to do something, sitting in the same spot till they starve to death. Think of the sims with free will option turned off. This is specifically Pillbug, the first and original, and does not apply to the whole species. All budbugs come from Pillbugs DNA, so, in a way, Pillbug is the mother/father to all of the others.

now onto the species:

BUDBUGS

Scientific name:Vitula mollisparva

CLOSED species

Lifespan: unknown. Oldest living budbug is 36 (human) years old.

Average height: on all fours:around 1 foot. Standing: 2 feet(bitty versions also available)

Average weight:15 pounds

Sex: Budbugs are a genderless species, and cannot reproduce. if you adopt one, you can choose any pronouns youd like to call them, they don’t care.

DIET: they can pretty much eat anything. Their diet is whatever is offered to them or available, including things like bark. They have no specific needs, but  there was a recorded overall preference of fruit and sweet things. Sweet milk is the number one way to attract them. It seems to be their absolute favorite, warm or cold. They have some semi-sharp molar like teeth in the back of their mouth that they use for crushing/chewing harder materials.

YOUNG: a hatchling(called pups) will not have vision, or be able to walk. they have feeling and scent to go on, much like a puppy. they have slight hearing that comes through to them as muffled sound. they are bottle fed milk like substance and sugar water(or a mix of both) for 3-4 months. 

since budbugs dont have the ability to reproduce, nor a gender, there is no mother to nurse them and is done by bottle. there is the possibility of an adult budbug attempting to nurse young, but it’s unlikely theyll produce milk in time before the young starves.(we of course have the ability to make ‘nursemaid’ parents, bottle feeding the hatchlings until their milk comes in from stimulation((e.g pups attempting to nurse on them for prolonged times))

 It's best to feed them mushy like food up to 6 or 7 months old. eyes open around 2-3 weeks old, along with better hearing. they start walking shortly after, 4-6 weeks. they will follow after people or animals in a fashion similar to ducklings, seeking a bigger ‘parental’ figure to protect them and make small chirp noises.

PLANT GROWTH:

Typically has any type of plant matter growing on their head, sometimes it can trail down their back and tail or even have random patches of plant matter elsewhere. the plants that grow on them are a part of them, for instance- cutting off a flower will cause a pinkish blood drop to emerge. They don’t seem to feel the pain of cut flowers/plant matter, nor does it need to be bandaged or treated, its fairly similar to regular plants in that aspect. [note:please do NOT use a mower or weedeater on your budbug]

The plants that grow on them are similar to regular plants, but often are more 'sturdy' and a little tougher to break/cut. This can vary somewhat by the individual, some will have more fragile type plant matter that easily comes off, others may have plant matter that is thicker, rooted and more connected to them. Usually youll know depending on plant type, thicker looking stems and such are most likely more rooted and a part of them and we highly recommended not trying to pull any plant matter out/off of them.

 its best to let the plant naturally die/fall off, and typically the plant doesnt overgrow to a point of causing difficulty to the budbug.

BEHAVIOR:

a common site is seeing the budbug grooming itself; licking like a cat and patting or somewhat 'pulling' on leaves or whatever plant matter they have, to shed the dead leaves, ect. If left with water, they might bathe themself, somewhat like a hamster or cat, except they dip their arms in the water instead of licking them.(if water is available)

They have horn-like nubs on their head covered in fur/felt, the horns stop growing at a certain point and then remain that way for life. Their horns have no use other than for hatching out of an egg at birth. Its extremely rare for them to be aggressive toward anything, including others of their species. They’re very sharing, and around their own kind, they will often groom each other, make soft calls, and sleep in piles. 

The few aggressive ones only did some mild growl like sounds and avoid the others, most of which stopped within an hour and joined in the regular activities.

There have been no cases of any attacks or biting, whether to their own species or other animals/people.

Meeting other species, they wont typically make the same call noises as they do to each other, but will still act friendly and try to sit next to or sleep with, and  even try to groom them.

They’re quiet, almost mute. They can make soft call noises and various other light toned sounds, they cant bark/moo, and even in distress or extreme pain, they typically only make soft whine noises or stay silent. they also make rumbling like sounds similar to a purr. They have a very high pain tolerance, some people might even claim they cant feel pain, but trust me, they do.

heres some similar noises they can make(budbugs sound a bit more soft though, kind of like cooing? if that makes sense) 

[1][2][3][4]

urgent call/trying to get attention(rare)

young/baby chirps

distress/pain call(rare)

Their arms are flipper like, though still usable as paws if needed, they prefer walking upright. their eyesight differs greatly, some excellent, some poor.  If you don’t like things staring at you, this isnt the pet for you. They are very observant, watching others is probably like tv to them. smell is their best sensory, along with hearing. their fur type can vary from otter-like(waterproof) to very fine silky soft fur and many others.

Personality:

trusting, obedient, friendly, happy, quiet, patient. They will spend the majority of their time observing their surroundings or others.(some are 'lazier' than others, falling asleep instead)

Intelligence:

varies. They can learn a lot, but they typically have low functioning free will and require commands or encouragement to act on things.

As an example, we set a waterer that works similar to a fountain, needing a button to be pressed to release water for drinking. The creature sees us operate it and with mild encouragement, will press the button and drink. We leave them alone for days,  and while they know how to operate the device, they do not, simply waiting.

It took several days of being completely alone before they finally activated the water by pressing the button. By their straightforward action, we could tell they knew how to operate it and it wasn't an accident. This test was ran on several others, all similar reactions. On average, only 3 out of 10 would react sooner, within 24 hours, 5 took about 3-5 days before reacting, and 2  passed out from dehydration and had to be taken to medical. (test was ran on 5 groups of 10)

Many other tests provide similar information: they typically wait for something to encourage or command them to act, even on simple survival such as food and water. If it isnt offered to them, they seem to get confused and wait for an offering, even if theyre next to a stream.

 In some tests conducted, when in groups, they will follow suit after others, even of different species. e.g, one walks to a stream to drink, they follow suit to drink as well. It’s possible this is a faulty instinct of survival, watching others to drink or eat something to make sure its safe for themself, the faulty part being that even once they know a source is safe, they’ll still often wait for encouragement to engage.

 thankfully, about 74% of them will get over this faulty instinct over time and regular encouragement towards a water/food spot. moving their dish or having a non-regular feeding area can cause this faulty instinct to return or worsen. it’s recommend to have a designated water and feeding spot set up for them to help them overcome that behavior.

other than that, they are extremely adept at learning commands and copying (to the best of their ability). they learn tricks incredibly easily. (e.g, roll over, sit, fetch, ect)

again, this is a CLOSED species. you do not have permission to make one of these without my consent. below are permissions if you get one- RETURNS: If you decide you do not want your budbug anymore, you can message me and I’ll take it back, either keeping it or putting it back up for adoption.  but i can not and will not refund you. Which should be obvious, but just in case, i’m stating it here. PERMISSIONS: -you have complete permission to draw/write/ect of them. harm/violence/gore is allowed. I dont mind gore or sad angst stories, so whatever you want to do with them once bought, you can. However, you do not have permission to include them in anything sexual. if they’re just being the pet that watches their owners do it, like how cats sometimes do, then that’s fine. But absolutely no fucking the budbugs or other sexual activities with them. -You do not have permission to resell them or sell merchandise with them on it.

This post will be updated as needed if anything changes to their species info. Last update: 10/18/2018 

#creature #species #closed species #animal #fantasty #budbugs #budbug #adoptable #adopts #in a soon future post

[moneyintrend]

10 best side hustles for college students

It's almost time for the new college school year, and with rising college expenses comes the perennial issue of finding work to help pay for your education without using student loans.

Jobs are hard to come by nowadays, especially when you have a busy schedule with school and assignments. Finding work online is one of the finest solutions. Working online was once a curiosity, but it is now becoming more mainstream. One thing to keep in mind is that internet jobs are not like normal employment. Many of the better ones aren't even jobs.

Here are some popular online careers and possibilities for college students.

1. Survey Junkie

I've always been wary of recommending survey sites since so many are scams, but Survey Junkie stands out as a legitimate contender. Unlike many other survey sites, they pay quickly and have over 7 million users, so they must be doing something well. You won't become rich doing surveys, but it's one of the easiest methods to earn money from home. Get the app now! Android or iOS

2. I-Say

I was hesitant to include this because it isn't a job, but it is a legitimate method to earn money. This one's for you if you want to get paid to take surveys on your phone. It beats working at a fast food place in college. Take surveys, get points, and cash out for PayPal or other prizes with Ipsos i-Say. It's a wonderful site and a nice user experience.  It's free to test them out if you join up here first.

Try I-Say!

3. Airbnb

Have you considered renting out your house while you're away? You may even list your dorm room. I read of a student who got his for $85 a night!

You may list it by night, week, or month. Airbnb provides a $1,000,000 guarantee against guest-caused property damage. They also offer a visitor rating system so you can decide whether or not to accept a guest.

More facts in the video below:

We Made $7,000-$10,000/Mo. Hosting on AirBnB | Our Tips for Successful AirBnB Hosting - YouTube

4. Lyft driver

Okay, so it's not really "online," but it's an app, so I counted it. You've undoubtedly used a Lyft by now, but have you considered driving for Lyft?

Up to $20/hour driving, You can make over $20/hour in some cities while having complete control over your schedule. What better job for a college student?

Lyft is the 21st-century taxi. In the app, you just pick up and drop off passengers, and you are immediately compensated. Cool, huh? Click the button below to learn more or start.

5. Swagbucks

This is a free service that allows you to earn cash, gift cards, and other incentives. They pay for completing basic activities (like reviewing a website), trading in old video games or books, and even playing games on their site.

I've used them for months and received many payments, so I can vouch for their legitimacy. While they won't make you rich, they beat working for minimal money in a college kitchen.

Download an app

6. Boom Gift

Get paid by downloading mobile applications, Boom gift is a new software that collects anonymous phone usage statistics and pays you $5 to install it. Then $5 each month if you leave it installed!

Simply click the icon to download the app and be paid by PayPal or Amazon gift card! Get the app now!

7. Blogger

An in-depth look at how one blogger turned his hobby into a full-time career. This works best if you already have a blog or have the time to develop one. You may start earning money from your blog after it has a few thousand monthly visits.

You may monetize your blog with ready-made advertising and affiliate schemes. Google Adsense is a complete advertising package - all you need to do is join up, insert the ad code into your site, and you're done. It's the easiest method to monetize a blog (get my book free here).

Use a program like CJ Affiliate for affiliate sales. You can select from a list of advertisements and goods. Pick the most relevant ones for your blog and you'll have another passive revenue stream.

So many of the finest online money making opportunities entail self-employment? Embrace it, especially if you're at college. After school, the entrepreneurial skills you get from running your own online business may assist you in ways you may not realize. It may even be your life's work!

8. Doordash 

Drive (or bike) for up to $25/hour, food delivery software Doordash lets you work on your own time. You work when you wish and deliver meals from restaurants to consumers.

Over 200,000 individuals are doing this, so it must be working for some. You may make up to $25/hr depending on your city, plus you can ride your bike! Learn more about DoorDash 

9. Online Selling at Thrift Stores

Do you like a good deal? Doing so may pay off financially. Most people know about Ebay, but there are other internet marketplaces.

And here's one that worked for me:

Download the BookScouter App on your phone to start generating money with this concept. This software allows you to scan the ISBN of any book and it shows you the rates that 30+ websites are ready to pay for that particular book. You can go to a thrift store or garage sale and buy books for 25 or 50 cents, sell them for a few bucks, and you have a basic company and some pizza money. Above is an image of the app and what bookshops are prepared to pay.

See this brief tutorial for more:

TIPS AND TRICKS FOR THRIFTING TO RESELL | POSHMARK EBAY DEPOP ETSY - YouTube

10. Testing websites

Many major corporations want input on their website's usability.  Here comes, Get paid to answer questions about websites, explaining what is excellent or poor, confusing or clear, etc.

You must be 18+ to be approved into the program, but the rewards are substantial! They now pay $10-$15 each test, which takes around 20 minutes.

#side hustle #money intrend #money tips #earn money #student #student life #university #study #side jobs

[quiisquiliae-archived]

Tagged by: @veritaslies​ Tagging: You!

BASICS:

Name: Trip Age: 24 Pronouns: Don’t care Sexuality: Pansexual Zodiac sign: Leo Taken or single: Taken Four Things About This Blog:

♛    I love my kids.  I don’t necessarily agree with them.  Some less than others.

♛     I’m slow as ever living shit.  I’m sorry.  I’m trying, I promise.

♛     Talon’s my first born and the muse I started writing with.

♛     Logan wound up a little canon divergent since I cannot and will not accept his death in s2.  I understand why they did what they did, but also, no.

Three Mun Facts:

♛  I have 3 cats who I adore very much.  One we stole from our former downstairs neighbors (who were shitty owners) and two we adopted from the shelter.

♛  I have a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

♛  When I was in 5th grade my pet rabbit won first place in her division at the state fair.  The blue ribbon is still hanging on my closet door at my parent’s house.

EXPERIENCE:

How’d you start:  Here.  @ass-sass-sin-archived​ was my first account that I started back in October 2015 when Tal’s backstory spiraled way outta control and got way more in depth than it ever needed to be to play him in game.  I didn’t want all that work to go to waste and followed a few rp blogs on my personal and thought it would be fun to try. Platforms you’ve used:  Tumblr mostly.  I’ve done a little on Skype, and I frequently do banter on Discord. Best experience:  Dunno if I can pick just one?  I think some of my favorite stuff rn is the group stuff I’ve kinda got going on. Worst experience: Had a ridiculous falling out with a friend when a ship fell apart for IC reasons and they got really manipulative and guilt trippy when I told them I wasn’t going to force my muse to get back together with theirs.

MUSE PREFERENCES:

Original or canon: Both. Favourite face: Probably Ben Barnes. Least favorite face:  Don’t have one???  Though as far as resources go it’s hard finding relevant/usable shit for Bruce Campbell (Brisco) and Calum Worthy/Myles Jeffrey (Keryth) which is kind of a downer. Multi or single: I like both?  It’s easier to keep your dash clean with a single, but if you’ve got multiple characters I think a multi makes shit easier if you’re an organized person.

WRITING PREFERENCES:

Plots or memes: Either.  Plots keep me going, but memes are nice to get characters familiar with each other and after a couple replies can get plotted out. Best time to write: No fucking clue honestly.  When the moon is a waning crescent, the planets aren’t in retrograde, it’s exactly 2 am, and the room is 72 degrees Fahrenheit. Do you like your muse(s): I’d sure fucking hope so.  How long (months/years?): Talon, almost 3 years now.  Ashe on and off for about the same amount of time, Logan was May 2017, Taliesin was September 2017 I think?  Billy I made his first account in December 2017 but didn’t start really writing him till this past spring sometime. Fluff, angst or smut:  Fluff or angst usually.  I’m not a huge fan of writing smut.

#{ramblings of the garbage collector: ooc} #I'm boring honestly

[dramallamadingdang]

The longest reply post in the history of ever.

These go back, like, two weeks, because I am a very bad llama. An I should probably break this up into multiple posts, but I don’t wanna go through and select replies again. So...apologies to those for whom the “Read More” cuts don’t work?

These be for @getmygameon, @alicenorthernlights-blog, @eulaliasims, @penig, @tamtam-go92, @didilysims, @taylors-simblr, @mortia, @delicatesoul88, @twofingerswhiskey, annnnnnnd @immerso-sims...

getmygameon replied to your photo “Owen, running in terror from Olivia. …..Well, OK, really he was...”

Small miracles, dear. Small miracles ;) *pats*

Yeah. :) I’m actually surprised Owen made it to graduation. He didn’t have great chances of going to class/finals, according to my rules -- which is why he often ended up on probation -- but eventually his Fortune aspiration kicked in and worked in his favor. He rolled up wants to go to class because of it, and rolled wants override the manual rolls I do to decide that.

alicenorthernlights-blog replied to your post “I woke up this evening in one of those little dream-induced panicky...”

Hyperactive shield volcanoes. The scaries thing I can think about Hawaii.

I dunno...Hyperactive volcanoes aren’t bad. They are constantly letting off steam, quite literally, so they just kind of constantly belch instead of going, “Oh, hey, I think I’ll catastrophically explode this week.” I worry about the quiet ones. Like, the last time I was in Naples/Capri and visiting Pompeii/Herculaneum, Vesuvius -- which is overdue for explosion -- was all grumbly and belching smoke. Creepy! Or there’s all those up in the Cascades here in the States that are kinda overdue to explode. And then there’s Yellowstone, which is practically underneath me. If that thing ever goes, we all gonna die. :)

To me, the scariest thing about Hawai’i is...the cost of living. Yowza. Which, now that I think about it, might have factored into the dream. Cost of living at possible destinations is definitely a factor when it comes to emigration planning. :) Hawai’i would be a terrible option in that regard even if it wasn’t part of the US. :)

eulaliasims replied to your photoset “Oriana toddlerated into a crisp untextured white tux, some cheekbones...”

I love the combo of pure white tuxedo and enormous (for a toddler) bun. Oriana's got a real Look.

Ohgodohgod, 90s flashback to that Roxette song! :D 

When my son -- who’s now a big, bad Army Ranger who’s killed people -- was around kindergarten age, that was his favorite song, and he sang it (with all the wrong words) while doing this hysterically-amusing dance to it. Which of course I recorded to keep as blackmail material. So now it’s like, “Behave, or your unit commander -- or, worse, your unit in general -- gets a copy of this, bucko.” 

*ahem* But yes, she is totally fabulous! And Maxis fails at tuxedos.

penig replied to your photo “Amelia is Unthrilled about potty training. But at least she...”

Nobody's thrilled about pottytraining. Can't blame her for that.

But she’s a Family Sim! She’s supposed to love this stuff! She’s supposed to be so proud of her little precious darling using the potty! She’s supposed to be glowing with maternal contentedness that she gets to stand there and watch her kid poop! 

...OK, OK, so in game-reality Family Sims are THE WORST at actually raising and interacting with their kids as opposed to just making/birthing them. (I’m tellin’ ya: Pleasure Sims are THE BEST parents...and Owen has a Pleasure secondary.) But, you know, they’re supposed to like this stuff. Ideally. Or at least theoretically.

tamtam-go92 replied to your photoset “Owen is, of course, excited to have another baby to cuddle, now that...”

Love how oriana's Shirt matches owen's skin.

HAH! It does, doesn’t it?

Which reminds me that I need to get baby clothes working in my game again. Since I dumped all my custom clothing and just defaulted most of the Maxis stuff, I’m back to diaper-clad babies...

didilysims replied to your post “So sad about the deaths �� Why don't you use Comfort soup? What are...”

Wait, are *you* saying you caused this plague?? MURDERER!!!! (I'm kidding...sort of. ;) )

MEA CULPA! I AM A PIXEL MURDERER! :D

Although, I didn’t deliberately start the sickness in this household. Sage came home from work with it. So it’s all the game’s fault.

taylors-simblr replied to your post “So sad about the deaths �� Why don't you use Comfort soup? What are...”

I’m very similar to this. I get super attached to my sims, but I still don’t coddle them. I do allow them to plead to the reaper otherwise I’d lose a lot more sims and I only have a small population. I just get very sad when my sims die, have a break from playing, them get over it. I always have the clones of them to play with anyway

I imagine it’s hard when Sims to whom you’re attached die. I mean, there are players who avoid it entirely, never allowing Sims to age past adult (or to age at all) and who use mods to make things non-deadly because they’re so attached. I confess that I don’t understand the mindset, myself, especially because you can make clones of them or resurrect them at will or whatever, but it does exist and is valid and all that. 

But yeah, if you have or allow only a playable population, you don’t really need population control. :) I’m more of a “let ‘em breed freely, then cull the herd when necessary” sort of player, though.  

mortia replied to your post “So sad about the deaths �� Why don't you use Comfort soup? What are...”

I like this. I also use the Realistic Sickness mod but I DO get attached to my pixel people and find myself coddling the hell out of them the second they even start to sniffle. I need to stop doing that and just let life play out once in a while.

I can understand, intellectually, the desire to coddle. I don’t really feel it myself because I don’t “attach” to pixel people, but I understand that other people do. There are times when I’ve felt a need to coddle that have nothing to do with attachment, though. Like, if I really wanted a particular Sim to breed because of unique facial features or the recessive genes they have and stuff like that. And I think I have coddled a few of those at times, over the years. But generally, I’m of the opinion that it makes no sense to use Real Sickness if you’re going to coddle because it just makes the coddling more drawn-out and frustrating. :) Then again, I suppose I can see where you might want to coddle your faves -- or, say, those in higher classes who might have access to some sort of dubious “medicine,” in a medieval game -- and let everyone else die as they will.

penig replied to your post “But alas: It was not to be.”

What?! Nooooo!

YEEEEEES! :) Well, OK, kind of “no” because child ghosts are wacky in that they just teleport around instead of float because they don’t have the proper animations. (Which is dumb. I mean, they made it possible for children to die -- as opposed to the immortal babies/toddlers -- so you’d think they’d’ve given child ghosts the proper floating animations, but noooooooo!) So, I kinda wish she’d croaked after her teen age-up, but...such is my game.

didilysims replied to your photo “Yeah, that hike was definitely not a good idea. :( I’m bummed. :( Sage...”

Sickness is not to be taken lightly. You should know this!!!

Yeah, yeah, bad llama! BAD! NO PEAR 4 ME! 

(One of our llamas goes absolutely insane for pears. She adores them, has since she was weaned. If she sees that you have one, she will follow you around and stick her head over your shoulder and poke you with her muzzle and give you little hums and long-lashed puppy-dog eyes until you give it to her. Only for pears, though. Other fruit she can take or leave, but she’s a total pear whore. And you can’t even trick her with pears that are oddly-colored or oddly-shaped. Like Asian pears, which are apple-shaped. She knows the difference between an apple and an Asian pear. Llamas -- camelids in general, but especially llamas -- are kind of scary-smart that way. I wish they could tutor the super-stupid horses. Seriously, if horses hadn’t been domesticated, I don’t think they’d still exist. They’re great big idiots constantly looking for new and interesting ways to die. Deer are geniuses compared to them. Sure, they’re loyal as all hell, and very trainable, and I love them to death, but...Dumb to the core, all of them.)

didilysims replied to your photo “Meanwhile, Gwendolyn exists and got gave herself a promotion! We’ll...”

ALlamaInEveryHome would make an excellent username...

It would be! Wish I’d thought of it, when I made this Tumblr. :)

didilysims replied to your photo “Heeeey, Cherry! I totally just knocked up your daughter, man. It was...”

Umm...tell me more about this (harvestable?) peach tree please. :)

‘Tis one of Sun & Moon’s seasonal fruit trees, from this set here. 12/10 would recommend. :)

mortia replied to your photoset “To get everyone’s mind off Sage’s death, Emmy took the girls on an...”

Ooh these are lovely!

didilysims replied to your photoset “To get everyone’s mind off Sage’s death, Emmy took the girls on an...”

This is such a gorgeous lot--and the background too!

It is one of my favorite lots that I’ve built. But it’s also kind of annoying. Since it slopes so much from road to waterline, much of the lot is pretty much unusable. Like, Sims trying to talk to another Sim just do a lot of stomping and yelling because of the slope. I kind of hate that in Sims 2 Sims can’t really interact with each other on anything other than flat ground. (They fixed this for Castaway, which is one of the things I love about that game, but not TS2. WHY??!) It’s one of the reasons why I (usually) build only on flat lots and why I’m (generally) fond of flattening beach lots from road to waterline, too. So...Yeah, that lot is very pretty to look at, but it’s pretty much only usable in the 10-tile-wide strip of flat beach. The rest just generates lots of yelling and stomping. So, it’s also kind of wasted space. :\

penig replied to your photo “Annnnnnd a couple hours later, this happened. *headdesk* I kind of...”

Everyone grieves in their own way?

I suppose one could see it as doing something life-affirming in the aftermath of death. Especially when you’re sick and possibly facing death yourself. Although I gotta say that sex is not high on my to-do list when I’m sick. :) But, to each their own!

eulaliasims replied to your photo “Yeah, that hike was definitely not a good idea. :( I’m bummed. :( Sage...”

Noooo, Sage. :(

I know. I was bummed. :( But, life -- or the game, in this case -- goes on. :)

tamtam-go92 replied to your photo “Stephanie does most of the gardening these days, while her dad’s at...”

What can you even do there?

Fishing, apparently. Which Sims can do pretty much anywhere there’s water, so what’s the point? :)

penig replied to your photo “Sage doesn’t do sitting still very well, and the next day he rolled up...”

This is what happens when you don't lock 'em in their rooms. You could have sent him out by himself, you know.

I could have...but my rule for hikes is that as many people in the household as possible go on them when any household member rolls a want for one and is able to take one. So, obviously toddlers get left behind as well as someone to care for them, and if anyone’s imminently due to go to work/school they don’t go, but everyone else, including pets, goes. Even if they’re sick. 

penig replied to your photo “Stephanie does most of the gardening these days, while her dad’s at...”

It has major routing fails and a fishing hole. Also the hydroponic garden for some reason.

Yeah, I’m afraid I’m pretty unimpressed with the hobby lots in general. :\ The only one I ever really use is the Cuisine one, and that just for food contests. I think what I’m eventually going to do, instead of fussing around to make over the hidden hobby lots, is just build all my own “hobby lots,” but just make them regular community lots and then use the Visitor Controller to limit their patronage to Sims for whom the dedicated hobby is their OTH. I think that would make them busier overall, which would be nice. They won’t have the hobby leaders...but if I wanted to, I could make them owned by the game-generated leaders, so they’d still be there...although I don’t know if they’d retain their “leader” functions, since I’d have to make them temporarily playable to buy the lots. It’ll be something to experiment with...one day. :) A large community-lot garden would be nice for Nature Sims to grow/maintain/harvest...although I suppose they’d have to stay on it for a number of days. And it’d be better if gardening was autonomous...And...

Well, anyway! it makes sense to have the hydroponic garden on the Nature lot, I suppose. I guess when the devs were building the lots, they just threw in anything that was related to (or “assigned” to, via the coding) that hobby that existed at the time.

delicatesoul88 replied to your post “So Tumblr decided to unfollow a bunch of people for me. :\”

It does that to me too! All the time! I really wish it wouldn't...

Yeah, I’ve seen people complaining about Tumblr unfollowing people as long as I’ve had a Tumblr. (Four years, geez!) Honestly, I always kind of suspected that people claimed that it did that in order to “cover up” the fact that they’d unfollowed people deliberately. But then it happened to me! And I didn’t even realize it! I just assumed those people had gone quiet for a while, as people do off and on...until I saw reblogs of posts that I didn’t recall having seen. And then I looked through the blogs I follow and, sure enough, they were no longer there. :\ I knew I didn’t do it, even by accident, because I don’t think I’ve ever unfollowed anyone, even when they announce they’re leaving... just in case they come back like, say, Trapping did. I’ll mute reblogs, sometimes, if they reblog a lot of non-Sims stuff, esp. real-world political/social things that I use Tumblr to escape from for a little while, but I’ll still want to see any original stuff they post. Otherwise I wouldn’t have followed them in the first place.

Anyway, yeah, it’s very, very annoying, and I wish that Tumblr would address whatever’s causing it. But then, Tumblr seems to like to try to control what we see, don’t they? :\ Thank God for Xkit! :D

eulaliasims replied to your post “Replies, yay!”

I love the graying snouts on the dogs too. :) Older doggos are great. Cats too! Kittens are lovely, but older cats are highly underrated. Grumpy old lady cats are the best.

Yeah, I have a huge soft spot for grumpy old lady cats. My own RL grumpy old lady cat passed away rather recently. (She was almost 19 when she got really sick and I decided to have her euthanized, so she had a good long, but always kind of sickly life, probably since she was a very runty runt of the litter.) Once she got past kittenhood, she wasn’t the cuddly kind -- she appreciated being petted and scritched and she would curl up next to you of her own volition, but would never get in a lap or tolerate being picked up or held -- but she was very chatty. She’d sit near me, and we’d have long cat-sound “conversations.” I often imagined that she was bitching to me about all the annoying young ‘uns and all the damn dogs underfoot.

I kinda wish the cats/dogs in game had more varied behaviors like that, but I understand the coding limitations and all. *sigh*

penig replied to your photoset “Samantha, childified. She looks just like Sage, down to the Vulcan...”

Bathtub piracy is one of the most important traits its possible to pass on.

YES IT IS! Bathtub piracy is probably one of those things that annoy a lot of people but that I just love, love, love. :)

penig replied to your photo “Later, the other Emmy GilsCarbo called this Emmy GilsCarbo. :) (The...”

You could start calling Simon's Emmy Em instead.

I could, yes...but I rather like confusing myself. Messing with my brain is so much fun! S’why I appreciate hallucinogens. :)

twofingerswhiskey replied to your post “SO MUCH DEGRASSED, THEY COULD CALL YOU DEGRASSI. okay there's my joke...”

The show is actually super popular, everyone I know has at least heard of it - it's been around for more than two generations, so I mean, yeah :D

Two generations? Really? I thought it was just a 90s thing. But then, I haven’t really watched TV since the early 90s, so there’s that. :) Anyway, I know the name of the show, but I know nothing about it other than that, since I never watched it. Seemed like it was aimed at a demographic that...isn’t me. :) My kids, maybe, but not me.

immerso-sims replied to your photoset “Annnnnd the younger daughter, Samantha. ”

Goopy and Sandy's genes still going strong!

They are! Goopy’s nose seems to override Sandy’s, but Sandy’s lips and jawline seem to override Goopy’s, so it all comes out even. 

immerso-sims replied to your photo “Heeeey, Cherry! I totally just knocked up your daughter, man. It was...”

I am laughing way too hard at this :D

Yeah, I think Sam is pretty much the most amusing Sim I’ve had in my game, ever, and he’s not even a playable. And really, I kinda hope he never becomes playable because then he’d probably become all boringly domesticated. It’s just, as an ex-llama-mascot, he’s freakin’ everywhere, and he’s apparently in a sort of eternally-adolescent hormonal overdrive. Don “Lothario” is a total amateur compared to this guy. Some folks will probably dislike him for that (and perhaps will dislike me “glorifying” or approving of his behavior or whatever), but I take this game not-seriously-at-all, and I have never had a Sim who’s made me laugh so much, sometimes in exasperation but also because he just does goofy things. I’ve had ex-llamas in my game before, but they’ve not been nearly so entertaining.

#getmygameon #alicenorthernlights-blog #eulaliasims #penig #tamtam-go92 #didilysims #taylors-simblr #mortia #delicatesoul88 #twofingerswhiskey #immerso-sims #replies

[crasherfly]

Weekly Update

It’s never enough.

Be it progress in a hobby, pages written, reps in a workout, miles run, dollars spent at local businesses, weight lost and gained back, video games completed or personal apologies issued to people I’ve been too brisk with online- the prevailing theme of 2020 has been IT’S NOT ENOUGH.

This is, on its face, ridiculous. We are in a pandemic. Whatever reservations you might have about the virus, the fact is economically, we will be in dire straits for some time. Surviving should be enough. Thriving should be considered a rare bonus.

Even so, this December, I’ve struggled a great deal with feeling like I’m bringing “enough” to the table in anything I do. If I play a video game, I lament that I’m not good enough at it. If I write, I mourn the words that go unwritten. In my friendships, I fixate on small arguments that I drew myself into, or a harsh word I shouldn’t have said, worried over their long-term impact. There’s a dozen anime shows I haven’t finished. I have a script that needs pages, an end of year anime blog that needs writing. I keep skipping meditation sessions and forgetting to brush my teeth. The NBA season starts tomorrow- will I watch it to have something to talk to other folks about, or will I settle into something easier to fill the time? 

Time.

I have nothing but time. I’m off until January 5th. I’ve had more time off this entire year than I’ve had any year since college. I tell myself this means I should be doing something remarkable, and yet, with more and more time off, I find I’m just doing the same things I would normally do- just in bigger quantity.

My therapist tells me it’s cuz I grew up in a home where praise was hard won- if ever given. Growing up with this deficit, it is only natural that I’d rarely feel like anything is “enough”- and blame myself when I feel lacking.

We’re still working on a solution for it.

I do know there are Good Things that I have accomplished this year. I made new friends. I became more knowledgeable about my hobbies. I picked up some new healthy habits- running, kettlebells, core workouts. I lost a little weight. I disconnected from the violently angry media sources that had wormed their way into my brain since my Gawker days. I got out of a little debt. I developed a more positive relationship with alcohol. I got to therapy. I’m becoming more comfortable with speaking truth to how I feel, instead of burying my feelings.

I still fail in many things. I have a laundry list of moments I failed this week to review with my therapist. I’m still not in a place where I can be a functional adult while also working a full time job.  I have lost friends this year because I am a hard person to endure. I have had to issue more apologies this year than perhaps in any year prior. And the people who know me best would still point out, rightly, that I sound like a very different person in online public spaces than I do privately.

As 2020 comes to a close, I’m thinking about the theme I want to bring into 2021- and my 32nd year on this globe. And I think the theme I want to embrace is vulnerability, which is, ironically, the theme I struggle the most with in my personal life. I am, by nature, a secretive person- reclusive, even. Without getting into a whole Thing here, I would just say “meet my parents” and you’d get why. This shit’s been wired into me.

But as I look back on many of my issues the past year- my breakowns and spirals, the arguments, the friends lost and stresses placed on my loved ones- so much could have been avoided if I was willing to just explain what was going on in my life.

I don’t mean the long stylized depression posts I was doing back in August. Those are helpful to a point, but they don’t actually drive toward a conclusion. I mean talking about how I feel in plain terms, and explaining the pressures that lead to those feelings.

‘Cuz I think we can all agree that after almost a full year of relating to each other almost exclusively through cynical tweets and mirthless retweets that we as humans are desperately deficient in nuance- an ingredient essential to understanding each other in actual human contexts. And the only way for nuance to be understood is to speak plainly and directly to one another.

I’m going to try and do more of that in 2021. Here’s hoping the results are good.

So lets talk some vidya games and anime, yeah?

Vidya Games

BlazBlue: Centralfiction and BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle (SWITCH)

Arc Systems was having a switch sale. I’d enjoyed my time with Guilty Gear and noticed the BlazBlue series was relatively cheap, so I picked them up. I’d seen some of the fighters on Spriteclub before, so I was excited to expand my fighting game knowledge a bit further.

BlazBlue is a 2d fighting game that uses drawn sprite fighters. The effect is a beautiful anime more reminiscent of Street Fighter or King of Fighters, but with modern mechanics that make them feel more approachable. The rosters are huge and the individual fighters varied. There’s a full “episodes” mode, as well as plenty of options for training and tutorials.

Of the two games, Cross Tag seems like the easier to pick up. I’m a sucker for tag systems so that one is an easier sell for me. It’s also fun to see the crew from Persona 4 on the roster, not to mention RWBY. 

Centralfiction seems to be more mechanics focused, but also includes a “stylish” mode that plays like Capcom Vs. SNK 2′s EO mode, where supers and command list moves are tied to single buttons instead of complex commands, allowing you to see everything a character can do without being stuck in hours of practice. I’m still trying to learn those damn quarter circle moves, but it’s a nice fallback option for moments where I’m not looking to exhaust my brain and thumbs.

Mario Maker 2 (SWITCH)

I’ve built three levels in the last week for Super Mario Maker 2. One I built during a work meeting, the other two I did as morning exercises over coffee. They’ve all been moderately played since and feature clear rates over 25%, so I’ll consider them a success.

I’ve uploaded over 40 courses to SMM2 since its release. That’s far more than I ever uploaded with the first game. I think Nintendo missed some big opportunities to make this game a centerpiece for the Switch. I also think the diehard fans got in their own way (designing courses on your tv is honestly not that hard- in fact, I prefer it to the portable option now). But overall, I do think that SMM2 is a success- at least for casual fans like me who value standard level design and ease of access.

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

My gaming has been somewhat hampered by the sudden implosion of my Samsung television, which houses my XBONE and Switch. About a week ago it shut down and began to flicker on and off. I unplugged it overnight and powered it on the next day to find a long black horizontal line across the panel and discoloration beneath the line. A call in to Samsung confirmed my fears- it was a wire defect and would require extensive service work. Because of the pandemic, it would take at least a few weeks before the part could make it.

The TV is still usable, so that’s a relief. I’m not dwelling on it much. Samsung was easy to deal with and they’ve promised this will come at no cost to me. There are many worse things happening in the world, so this is an easy thing to let roll off my shoulders now that I know what the solution is.

I also MIGHT have a Series X. Key  word is MIGHT because I technically got my order in on the 18th, but Gamestop has yet to actually send a confirmation e-mail. However my order number appears valid and does pull up a processing page on their site, so I’m going to hang tight. I ended up pulling the trigger on a massive bundle that includes a very expensive headset and a second controller...as well as a copy of Assassin’s Creed. I can’t emphasize enough how NOT the primary audience I am for AC. However, I doubt I could pay anyone to take it off my hands at this point...so...whatever. At least there’s a chance I’ll have the new system.

My final bit of news on the technical front- I returned Cyberpunk 2077. I have zero regrets. Microsoft processed my refund in about 15 minutes without issue. I was on XBONE and yes, I tried the 1.4 update. Frankly, the update did seem to improve matters, but not so much as to be a game changer. And as I wrestled with the conundrum of powering through, or shelving the game in hopes of a future update that would magically fix everything, I finally opted to take the third option- and get off this damn train at the first possible stop. I will play Cyberpunk 2077 someday. Hopefully, when that day comes, this whole mess will be somewhat resolved.

ANIME

Jujutsu Kaisen

Season 1 has officially earned a “this show is straight fire” tweet from me. It’s just so good. The fights are thrilling. The emotional investment is real. The cast is outstanding. The design is imaginative, moody and the prettiest direction to behold this side of Fire Force.

Do yourself a favor and give this show a shot. It’s my top recommendation for the winter.

No Guns Life

I’ve almost wrapped the first half of season 1. This lovely noir continues to impress as its world unfolds. It is sure to please those itching for a cyberpunk or technoir story. The overall story still feels a bit unfocused, but I’m not minding too much. No Guns Life is one of those worlds that’s just a joy to be a part of, even when we’re unsure what its driving at.

END OF YEAR LISTS

Tis the season for LISTS. Oh man, so many lists.

I’ll be focusing my 2020 end of year stuff on anime and video games this year, because of course. I’ll also talk a little about media I’ve been enjoying. It’ll be a whole THING, either here or on wordpress.

But here’s a quick preview for those who are a bit curious about what titles I’ll be visiting for my Top Experiences list. Bear in mind that these are not confined to 2020 releases- this is purely about what I as a person dabbled in this year. Here’s what you can expect me to touch on in my end of year post :)

Games

Crusader Kings III Call of Duty: Warzone Yakuza 0 The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel Fighting Games (genre) Consoles Oculus Quest 2 NEO-GEO Arcade Stick Pro Anime

Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World Gleipnir Jujutsu Kaisen No Guns Life Kaguya-sama: Love is War DECA-DENCE Tower of God

Manga

Berserk Fruits Basket

Tabletop

Dungeons and Dragons 5E: The Lost Mines of Phandelver/Ghosts of Saltmarsh

Streaming

Spriteclub Gawr Gura/Hololive WWE Network

Lifestyle

Kotatsus Sake

Music

Nightcore (genre) Personal Projects Alice and the Pale Horse (script) Legos (various sets) Like I said, this is gonna be a big ol’ THING. But I can’t wait to share it with you all :D

[kelanfilms]

First Shoot in the Age of Covid: My Secondary Role

[Nov/December 2020]

Going into 3rd year I knew I wanted to push my confidence and get onto other sets, so I decided to get a role that I’ve been wanting to do for a while: Assistant Director. I jumped onto the “Gripped” team to help them out onset and was excited to do so. For the main shoot, I’d be missing my main groups shoot, which usually would bother me (not that it didn’t), however, with Karina being my AE and script supervising/running onset, and 8+ people being on the set already, I felt I wouldn’t be much of an addition on the set. With Covid regulations as well, and Covid still running rampant in Edinburgh I didn’t feel confident going to such a busy set.

Due to not being told by any of the Gripped crew, I missed the test shoot, but was told by some attendees that “They need an AD”. Apparently some creative differences onset were leading to problems, so I was curious going onto this set as to how it’d go. I read the script and prepped before heading to the set for Day 1. On Day 1 you could see what people had been talking about, Claire G and Anton had some creative differences to iron out, but all they needed was an intermediary (this time, me) to help them see that they actually just need to listen to each-other rather than try and be constantly right. We got our schedule and shot-list for the day ready and the shoot went… really well. We ran on time and everyone in the set was in good spirits as they settled into things. By the end of the day we all left feeling good.

Shoot day 2 went well too, however started off rocky. Anton and Claire both didn’t know what to shoot. We had the actors for another day so why waste them? So I had to really encourage them to think about their edit, what did Anton want Sully to use, what extras did they want. Claire G wanted cutaways and close-ups for extra B-roll for Sully, but Anton was resistant to this saying “Sully will work with what he gets from Day 1, he can use what he’s given”. I remember feeling a bit of frustration at this and not understanding how a director wouldn’t want to jump on the chance for more footage, but if Anton had faith in Sully to use the day 1 footage well then… I had faith too, but I still wasn’t gonna let him waste a day. (Update: 9th December, 1 Day after crit. Looking back, the fact Anton said this… makes me so glad we pushed him for the 2nd shoot day because without it I don’t think they would’ve had ANYTHING to show at the crit). Eventually I compiled a list of shots from the previous day we would retake, some closeups, and other shots and we got started and yet again… it went off great.

(Anton also had time to film a 7minute shot of the Billy Crystal Oscar opening… not only did this slightly confuse me, I can’t be the only one who doesn’t get Billy Crystal at all. Here’s hoping they don’t use all 7 minutes! Update: 9th Dec… Might not have been 7 minutes but, there’s too much Billy Crystal in the final edit and I, still, don’t get it.)

I really enjoyed my experience being an AD for this group. Anton was a good director to work with, his effort with the actors was lovely to see onset. However he does need to be more confident in himself when it comes to the crew. There wasn’t a lot of communication about his vision before the shoot so all the crew members were very confused as to how to approach the script. Part of my job on the set became communicating Anton’s plan to the Sound Designer and DoP to aid their job, but even I still didn’t fully understand him. Perhaps it was just indecisiveness but I think if Anton had full confidence in one creative idea, and communicated with his team a bit more, the project would’ve gone a lot more smoothly. But, that being said, the group were a pleasure to work with and clearly cared a lot for the production they were working on. Despite differences in their test shoot everybody was extremely professional in front of the actors, and the environment was really nice to be in.

[Update: 9th December, 1 Day After the Crit]. I wouldn’t usually comment on another group’s crit, but after being on such a wonderful shoot and seeing so much work put into this project I was disheartened to see the end result and the crews comments at the crit. I’d heard a week or 2 before that the edit wasn’t going well. From the 2 shot edit to not hearing any updates I could see the toll the editor’s absence was taking on the crew. 5 days before the crit, myself and Mairi contacted Claire G to get the footage for their film. I had seen the film get shot, heard Anton’s vision at the time (and to be honest at this point Anne Marie needed something), so Mairi and I offered to edit the full thing the next day after our doc had picture-locked. At this point Klaudia decided that they’d see it through, seeing as we had other projects to work on. But Mairi and I stayed on standby… just in case.

[At this point I want to applaud Klaudia for her role as producer, because I know she feels like she didn’t do her best due to the issues with the delayed edit. Not only was she persistent in trying to get the editor to complete work, she contacted the Director constantly and tried to keep her groups moral up. On the set she aided me in ensuring we were on time, made sure the actors were comfortable, and ensured Covid Safety Regulations were met. She took temperatures every couple hours and checked the team felt well to come to set. As someone who’d been feeling anxious even leaving my flat on the morning of the shoot, I felt so confident and safe being on that set by Day 2. So if you’re reading this Klaudia, well done.]

Upon seeing the film at the Crit I did feel bad for the team, every member had played their role well and the shoot had been an amazing experience. Anton and Claire definitely spoke themselves down when they spoke about their creative differences. Sure they started off rough, but the change I saw between the start of shoot day 1 and the end of day 2 was amazing. They put their differences aside and started to listen to each-other and it was nice to see them begin to collaborate (really shows their dedication to their craft when they put their mind to it). Despite being two VERY different people they behaved professionally in front of the actors and got along well (despite what they said at the crit), which helped create a really wonderful atmosphere onset.

It is just a shame that the editor let his team down. The footage from Day 1 had been nice, or at least usable to create a basic 2 person film, but unfortunately he only used the Day 2 Footage (Claire G has been through the edit and figured out he didn’t sync the sound, so didn’t use Day 1 as there’d been no camera sound to use that day). It’s unfortunate he didn’t reach out to his team about his issues because had he a couple of days after getting the footage requested a reshoot, I would’ve jumped at the chance to work with that production team again. I won’t say much more because I’m sure that team’s blogs will be interesting… but it is sad to see that in 3rd year there is this kind of work ethic happening. When working as a crew we are a team first and foremost, friends or not outside the project shouldn’t matter, we work together. And we communicate, not just walk off and complain behind folk’s back that something isn’t working.

But all in all my experience as an AD for Anton and his team was the best I could ask for, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. And despite how the crit went I do hope the team feel proud of their contributions to what was a really good production to film.

[Side Note: I think I’ve found my calling as an AD, being in charge and making a wee schedule on Excel? Love it.]

[chelseyroseblog]

THE SKINNY CONFIDENTIAL'S MASTER LIST: DRUGSTORE BEAUTY ITEMS

Hey ladies!!

So as you know - I'm a podcast FREAK these days. The latest downloads have been from Tim Ferris, Aubrey Marcus, and Julie Soloman of 'The Influencer Podcast". (Highly recommend that you start listening to at least one of these a day for some daily motivation). 

BUT. The OG podcaster who got me into swapping the radio for podcasts was The Skinny Confidential, Him and Her podcast. If you guys haven't checked out her podcast yet, you NEED to start listening asap. You'll be overwhelmed with the amount of tips that Lauryn and her husband have to offer on everything from business and relationships to health, wellness and fitness. 

And obviously check out her blog, The Skinny Confidential, if you feel like getting into a black hole of completely usable and USEFUL health, beauty and wellness tips. 

One of the last podcasts that Lauryn did was a MASSIVE breakdown of her FAVORITE make up, skin care, food, business, and productivity products and let me tell youuu, you're going to want to listen to it like 4 times haha. 

As I was listening to it I wanted to pause it like every 20 seconds so that I could go purchase whatever she was talking about on amazon...and then realized that I haven't been working enough to afford everything lol (and I work a lot......eye roll..)

SO. What I decided to do was go back and listen to it for a second time and pull out all of the products that she mentioned were available to buy at your local DRUGSTORE. There were actually A LOT of products on there that were cheap that you could purchase on amazon but I wanted to keep this post specific to the beauty items that she suggests getting from the drugstore.

This way you can go in and get allll the things, in one spot. 

Okay - let's get into it. (Look for each product the next time you're at a drugstore or simply click on each picture to purchase online!)

1. FAKE LASHES - ARDELLE WHISPIES #113

Lauryn suggests obvi working with these to see if they fit your eye shape. She says curl, apply primer, apply mascara, apply lashes, and then apply mascara again. (I think). Clearly I need to step up my game since I'm a curl and apply kinda girl but hey, I'll get there. 

2. MASCARA PRIMER - LOREAL WHITE PRIMER

Apply this before your mascara to really get the most out of your lashes. You'll kinda look like a bug at first with white eyelashes haha but once that black mascara slips on your going to be looking gawwwwgeous. 

3. MASCARA - LOREAL BLACKEST BLACK CURVED BRUSH

Okay - YES YES YES. I have personally been using Loreal's Voluminous Mascara ever since I was even allowed to wear mascara. Instagram always made me feel like I should be trying Chanel or Dior Mascara but let's be real, I've tried those mascara's before because my friends would end up buying them, and they are seriously NO BUENO compared to this. 

This mascara NEEDS to be your go to. You can find it basically anywhere, it's a great price and it works SO WELL. And I totally agree with Lauryn that you should get the curved brush as opposed to the straight one but do what you like. 

4. MAYBELLINE GREAT LASH CLEAR MASCARA

PLOT TWIST - she suggests using this for your brows! This is funny because when I was like 10 and wanted to start wearing make up, this was the only thing that my mom would let me wear.... But anyways ! Use this on your brows to BRUSH UP! I get like straight anxiety when I wake up in the morning and find all my eyebrow hairs brushed down sooo don't let that happen to you in the middle of the day. 

Get this, do your brows, then brush them UP to keep them lookin fierce. 

5. BABYLIPS COVERGIRL (BLUE OR PINK TUBE)

I've never used this personally, but she says it's fantastic and now I'm probably going to get it next time I spot it haha. Great for a nude, plump look. 

6. BURTS BEES GRAPEFRUIT FLAVOR

Simply because it gives you the perfect red tint, and tastes BOMB. 

7. DRY BRUSH 

So I actually did a post on this like over a year ago because I also LOOOVE dry brushing. It's such a great way to detox and it helps to drain your lymphatic system...it can also help with cellulite which I tell you in this post, I used to have plenty of...

8. BLACK HEAD REMOVER 

Okay so i've never used one of these personally but I was stoked to hear in the SKINNY CONFIDENTIAL'S MASTER LIST that you can get one at a drugstore and that she's down with it! (Make sure you rinse it after each use to avoid keeping nasty bacteria on there). This one is called DAY LOGIC SKIN CARE TOOL.

For more beauty tips from The Skinny Confidential - check this out !

If you guys have any other drugstore beauty tips please let us know below!

XX

[kelmcdonald]

What went into last year's website change

New Post has been published on http://sorcery101.net/news/what-went-into-last-years-website-change/

What went into last year's website change

So last year I redesigned my website. I’d like to take you through the process of what I was thinking.

If you don’t remember what the old site looked like here are some old screen caps.

and

NOTES BEFORE GOING IN

The first step to the redesign was making a list of what I thought were problems with the old design. Here’s what I wrote down:

The navigation image was confusing people/not instantly  intuitive. It made it hard for people to get to parts of the site they didn’t always check like the store or to older comics. I tried giving it a small tweak about a year ago but over all the image nav wasn’t obvious enough. And clarity it key with these things.

The visual hierarchy wasn’t clear enough. With websites you want whatever is most important to be the biggest thing. So the image nav was too big and detracted from people paying attention to comics and new posts and really everything.

It wasn’t instantly clear which comics were updating or when. I had regular posts about when stuff did update but nothing that was instant. But there was no where to clearly show what was going on right now.

I am doing a lot of new stuff and it was hard to make space for it all. I had new comics, work for hire gigs, writer notes, podcasting, added a patreon, and planned to do more. With every new thing there was no clear place to put it, so it got slapped into that  sidebar with a tower ad. I wanted clear space for it.

The comic shelf was overly complicated and I had too much stuff. I like the visual of the comic shelf and displaying all my work. People rightfully complained that it had too many clicks to get to new comics. It was also hard to show which stories were connected. And if you clicked one of the finished comics at the bottom, you would have to scroll back up to the square to see what it was about.

Box ads (aka the 250 by 300 ads) are full of malware and autoplaying noise ads. More so that leaderboard and tower ad.

The please turn off adblocker message breaks which shows up when you come to my site with ad blocker was breaking the site.

Save my place marker which was under each comic page as you read it only worked on one comic at a time.

Then I wrote down my goals going into the new site design that you are currently looking at. They were:

I wanted a look that didn’t read as default webcomic site. One thing I’m not crazy about is there are a lot of webcomic sites that look the same. Comicpress and tumblr made it easier to get comics online, but it also made a lot of sites look very similar. That was something I always tried to fight against.

I needed a site that can handle multiple comics and make it easy for someone to read and find them all. I’ve always had more than one comic. Sure the first few were Sorcery 101 spin offs, but I always have wanted to do more. I quickly realized that getting a new domian name for a comic that will only end up 100 pages or so is too much work for something only running for a year.

Improve the comic shelf. I like the visual idea of the comic shelf so I didn’t want to scrap it completely.

Have the updating comic clearly marked.

Have the store be easy to find and mix my own ads into the general ads.

Get more people to pay attention to my Patreon since that will lead to getting rid of ads, which are always ugly.

Give the blog section easier navigation so someone can track down old posts.

Con appearances need to be immediately clear.

As I get more press from the print side of comics I needed a place to put those, a bio, and a headshot. I didn’t 100% need them on the site, but I thought having a press page would make it easier for someone to grab that info on their own.

I wanted the place where people read comics to be spars as possible so nothing would retract from reading the comic. I know folks like to comment on the page directly, BUT all I think comments really only add to discussion of a current page. If someone is marathon the comic I want them to focus on the comic.

No comic on the front page. I know this is unpopular in the land of reading webcomics, but I found that going this route leads to people not paying attention to the rest of the site. So comics that are finished end up ignored.

Make it clear which comics are connected. When Dracula Mystery Club started a few people thought it was the Sorcery 101 world, not a huge issue cause it didn’t get far. But this is more of a problem for with Fame and Misfortune and would be for future The City Between stories because they are close in tone and genre to Sorcery 101.

Branding is focused on me as an artist rather Sorcery 101. I’ve been slowly making this move I’ve been slowly making since Misfits of Avalon started and I knew Sorcery 101 would be wrapping up. With Sorcery 101 done, I visually wanted to make it completely clear. That only thing left in this is move is changing from sorcery101.net to kelmcdonald.com. But that is getting saved for when I don’t need ads companies to have approved my domain. Some of those are hard to get on to. 

Portfolio section just needs to look prettier.

Building the Site

So Kevin Wilson did the nuts and bolts of designing and building the site. After I went over the problems and goals with the site we also talked about websites I liked.

So first I told Kevin the colors I like and use for my branding. The blue, white, and black. He lightened the blue a little to make black text pop on it better after doing a few color blind tests (aka usability for people who are color blind). He then sent me a few fonts that he think for work. After those very basic things were decided, he moved forward.

He sent me two mock ups of the pages were the comic appears since that is the simplest page. For the wallpaper and Patreon button, he originally used Sorcery 101 art, but since that is no longer updating I told him to use art from Misfits of Avalon and Fame and Misfortune. I wrote my name a new times to give the site a nice header.

For the big this is currently updating picture, we briefly talked about using a slider, but apparently research shows that most people never make it past the 2nd slide. So a static image worked for now. The patreon ad being immediately to the right of that giant image makes it hard to ignore and all the social media is right there afterward. The sign up for my newsletter bar is also a new addition. So everything to keep someone up to date is right there when it first loads. And the big image would be easy to switch out as new books came out, kickstarters happen, or new comics end up updating.

Kevin, pointed out that my blog posts vary from giant writer notes posts to tiny here is a new page posts. This could result in a HUGE empty space in the sidebar. So small previews on the front page help it be more static and nicer looking.

Because I told Kevin I want my own ads in the mix and the big rectangle ads are a pain to place we decided next to them would be a good place for the personal store add. It would auto-fill with my newest product.

Navagation is pretty standard and resembles what people are used to on other sites. Easy and clear.

The blog itself was easier to design. I was mostly just a matter of adjusting the sidebar to have what I want on it and making it easier to navagate. We tried a tag cloud at first but that looked really ugly. So a list of links just seemed the nicest.

The press page, the portfolio, and various table of contents pages was just a matter of taking the blog page and only messing with the content part.  For the press page that was just a matter of posting some links and trying to get wordpress to make some columns so my headshot wasn’t just standing on it’s own. The portfolio was a matter of switching plugins. The one I was using was clunky, not very pretty, and also didn’t load very fast. The chapter list pages are a little bit of work. I was using a table before but those don’t resign nicely on phones or smaller browsers. Kevin did some custom coding to get the same result but resize nicer.

Then came the hard part, the comic shelf. Like I said I like the visual of the comic shelf but it was a problem to how complicated it was to figure out and how many clicks got you to the comic. After talking it over, the solution because making it look like a book store display, with an info card next to each book. This also solves the how to note which books go together. Each shelf can fit 6 books and two cards. I put Misfits of Avalon and The City Between up top because they were the ones updating at the time of launch. While Sorcery 101 is the longest, since it is done it needs to move aside to give newer comics the spotlight. I also made sure all my print only work is listed at the bottom because they don’t need to be accessed as much as the readable webcomics. They are also listed in the store, so they can be more prominent there rather than here.  To solve the too many clicks button I got an easy read for start button as well as a story list for each group.

Now for reading comics themselves, like I said that is the sparest. I left it to what needs to be there and ads. Which lead to some empty space here and there. So I gave each archive an in site ad to that comic’s book. So Misfits tells you to buy the newest Misfits books, Sorcery 101 tells you to buy Sorcery 101 vol 2, etc etc. Sadly we couldn’t get the save my spot comic marker to work. So it got scraped. Basically what would happen is if you were reading Sorcery 101 and saved a spot and then saved a spot on Misfits, the Sorcery 101 spot saver would be lost.

And all through out the site, I switched the 300 by 250 ads for Project wonderful ads. Those size ads were always the one that sneaks in sound even though I tell it not to and is usually the reason for malware problems. So giving that space to smaller webcomics advertising on Project Wonderful was a better bet.

Then the store is the final bit. I removed all the comixology listing cause there are 50 Sorcery 101 chapters on comixology and they were clutering up the store with something you can’t actually get from my website. So there is now a general Comixology ad to the side. I also put a gumroad ad to the sidebar too because the one thing my store can’t do is pay what you want. That means my dreaden files sketch book and any future art pdf’s I make can’t be in the store proper.

Over all I’m happy with this and it seems to suit the transition I’m making from Sorcery 101 to different work in the future. Even a year later I’m digging it, especially the comic shelf.

#business stuff