Grace/Stardust, 18+ Dumpster fire of stuff I like, multifandom (Sorry to everyone who has asks waiting in my inbox I have not forgotten about them OTL)
Hi, you can call me Grace or Stardust. I mostly lurk here, but Iām trying to get more active (key word: trying). Over 18 but would rather keep things sfw, *maybe* suggestive at best. Otherwise, feel free to interact with me, Iām too scared to be first (just don't be an ass).
This is my main blog, rb blog is https://www.tumblr.com/stardusted-rbs.
Sorry to everyone who followed me for FE Dimileth but itās mostly Kirby and Sky: Cotl here, plus Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Hollow Knight, Rain World, and maybe more.
Art tag is #stars art, talk tag is #*star noises*, ask tag is #stars asks
According to the CDC, in 10 percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch the child do it, having no idea it is happening. Drowning does not look like drowningāDr. Pia, in an article in the Coast Guardās On Scene magazine, described the Instinctive Drowning Response like this:
āExcept in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled before speech occurs.
Drowning peopleās mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouths of drowning people are not above the surface of the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When the drowning peopleās mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface of the water.
Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the waterās surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.
Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.
From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response peopleās bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.ā
This doesnāt mean that a person that is yelling for help and thrashing isnāt in real troubleāthey are experiencing aquatic distress. Not always present before the Instinctive Drowning Response, aquatic distress doesnāt last longābut unlike true drowning, these victims can still assist in their own rescue. They can grab lifelines, throw rings, etc.
Look for these other signs of drowning when persons are in the water:
Head low in the water, mouth at water level
Head tilted back with mouth open
Eyes glassy and empty, unable to focus
Eyes closed
Hair over forehead or eyes
Not using legsāvertical
Hyperventilating or gasping
Trying to swim in a particular direction but not making headway
Trying to roll over on the back
Appear to be climbing an invisible ladder
So if a crew member falls overboard and everything looks OKādonāt be too sure. Sometimes the most common indication that someone is drowning is that they donāt look like theyāre drowning. They may just look like they are treading water and looking up at the deck. One way to be sure? Ask them, āAre you all right?ā If they can answer at allāthey probably are. If they return a blank stare, you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them. And parentsāchildren playing in the water make noise. When they get quiet, you get to them and find out why.
Can I just say thank you to OP for putting such a detailed description on this?
Iāve been a lifeguard for 6 years now and of all the saves Iāve done, maybe two or three had people drowning in the stereotypical thrashing style. And even those, like the save I made last weekend, it was exactly like OP describes where the personās head is going in and out of the water but it isnāt long enough to get any air. Mostly you recognize drowning by the look on someoneās face. If someone looks wide eyed and terrified or confused, chances are theyāre drowning. That look of āoh shitā is pretty easily recognizable. And even if you canāt tell for sure: GO AFTER THEM ANYWAY. Iāve done āsavesā where a kid was pretending to drown and I mistook it for real drowning, but thatās preferable to a kid ACTUALLY drowning.
Also please remember that even strong swimmers can drown if they have a medical emergency, get cramps, or get too tired. If your friend knows how to swim but theyāre acting funny get them to land. And even if someone can respond when you ask them if they need help, if they say they do need help? GO HELP THEM.
However . If the victim is a stranger, I canāt recommend trying to get them. Lifeguards literally train to escape āattacks,ā because people who are drowning can freak the fuck out and grab you and make YOU drown as well. If you do go in after someone, take hold of them from the back and talk to them the whole time. IF YOU ARE GRABBED: duck down into the water as low as you can get. The person is panicking and wonāt want to go under water and should release you. Shove up at their hands and push them away from you as you duck under. Donāt die trying to save someone else.
Please guys, read and memorize this post. Not all places have lifeguards. Being able to recognize drowning is such an important skill to have and you can save someoneās life.
In a water park once, I was suddenly grabbed by a child and he dragged me under the water without warning. I was going to get angry with him when I resurfaced because I thought he was being an ass, until I looked at him go back in and out hyperventilating the entire time. I grabbed him under his arms and began trying to drag him out while screaming for the lifeguard.
When the lifeguard got us both out, a woman came running down and accused me of harming him and said he had been completely fine in the water. That there was no reason to drag him out of there. The lifeguard had to explain to her that her son had been drowning, to which her response was to say that she didnāt hear him call for help.
If you are on a Windows 11 computer, pause everything you are doing for one minute and:
Open computer settings
Click on Accessibility on the left-hand menu
Scroll down the Accessibility menu and click on the Keyboard Option
Under the "related settings" tab, click "Typing" which should have a description of "spellcheck, autocorrect, text suggestions."
Turn off the AI "correct misspelled words"
and most importantly: turn off Typing Insights.
[ID: a screenshot of the above mentioned Windows 11 settings, showing that Typing Insights is now turned off, with the following description from Microsoft:
"Windows is using artificial intelligence to help you type
To help you save time and type efficiently, Windows can learn to suggest words, autocorrect spelling mistakes, and interpret swiped typing. Take a look at the insights below to see up-to-the-minute stats on how Windows has learned to improve typing for you. These stats are stored only on this device and Microsoft does not collect the typing insights data."
End ID]
"But Mx. November, it says right there Microsoft doesn't collect the typing insights data!"
I mean, yeah, it says that..... for *now.*
It also only specifies that Microsoft themselves don't collect it, and they wouldn't have made this something that I was automatically, secretly opted in for without my knowledge if they didn't have something to be gained by me not knowing it exists!
I only found this because a cat walked on the keyboard and turned on Filter Keys and while trying to figure out why my keyboard was just making chirping noises instead of typing, I happened to click on "typing insights" by accident.
Generative AI, and especially AI that is used to "personalize" and track your activity across the web and on your computer are never going to be in your best interest, it is always going to serve these companies in whatever way will line their pockets the most, and all it takes is updating their terms of service once, and then all of that data they promised they weren't collecting suddenly all belongs to them.
i know things are hella grim in the nsfw/kink art circles especially in the last year --
but I'm hearing there's a NSFW-friendly ko-fi alternative built on atproto that's actively in the works, and being vetted by lawyers right now. as torrent-princess (OP) says, you should be able to swap out payment processors while keeping your account intact. this matters since even if stripe removes support, you'll still have a shop and all of your links intact. (ATproto is an infrastructure that bsky is built on, but is far bigger than bsky with far more opportunities.)
additionally, the Free Speech Coalition is working on a credit union specifically for adult work (including kink art) - here's the link so you can add your interest & support. Since this will be built by sex workers, there'll be far less risk of being debanked for spurious and puritanical reasons.
on a domain TLD level, there's an initiative here for a .furry domain built from the ground up by seasoned furries; it's unclear whether they'll support NSFW, but it's yet another promising turn of events for a group that's been similarly affected by censorship.
there are friends and allies out there helping to build a working parallel infrastructure. keep being vocal, keep supporting these initiatives when it's possible, and keep supporting your nsfw/kink artists. ā„
Y'all for real please do these. Even if you're certain your posture doesn't suck. One day you will wake up with impinged shoulder pain like I did and let me tell you it fucking HURTS. Do these exercises even just once a week and it will make such a difference. Especially my fellow creatives out there, stop shrimping over your work and go do these right now. RIGHT NOW.
In addition to the second one, angels are GIVEN their halos rather than earning them. Demons like Lucifer rebelled for freedom and individuality, thus demon horns all look different compared to an angelās boring halo.
Horns are useful tools, but if you join them into a circle they become useless badges of authority.
And the thing about wearing a badge is that you become a symbol of someone else. Youāre not you, youāre an extension of the entity whose authority youāre borrowing. You canāt be yourself until you ditch it
Hereās a visual representation of angels and demons.
I figure that as angels, theirĀ āhornsā would glow when connected to become traditional halos. However, this blinds the angel with heavenly light, making the angel rely on Godās guidance.
Angels who break their halos become demons, and willingly grow their horns in obscure shapes so it wonāt connect back into a halo. Because the halo no longer blinds them, demons can finally see but can no longer communicate with God for guidance ā the light they once gave to heaven now belongs to them, hence demons being proficient with fire allowing them to see in the dark.
Extra notes on horns & halos:
Circular horns (Halos) are smooth and easy for God to āgrabā like a chain.
Jagged horns are sharp to the touch and can pierce God.
The only way angels can break their own halos is through strong, direct, hard force; rebellious angels willingly fell from heaven, breaking their halos upon hitting our worldās surface. Thatās why demons are calledĀ āfallen angelsā.
The only thing that can hurt God and other angels is another angel, so the shattered remains of a demonās old halo would be reformed into tridents and pitchforks commonly associated with the devil.
Regretful demons wishing to commune with God again would either try to grow their horns back into a halo, or clasp their hands in prayer to form a circle with their own body mimicking a halo. It would faintly work. These demons would become the first priests, and spread the practice to humans.Ā
i love that post thats like ānever trust how you feel about your life after 9pmā that shit changed my life. every time i feel bad i look at the clock and iām like Aha Itās 10:26 PM You Cannot Fucking Fool Me
wow this post bload up. i think itās a good time for me to clarify some things since i really did just write this post at 10:26 pm on a whim
Thereās about ten thousand people tagging this with ābut what if i feel bad in the morningsā or āwelp i feel like shit in the afternoonā and I think youāre willfully misinterpreting this post for many reasons.
First off, this post is about knowing when to let yourself rest. Anxieties are stronger at the time when you meditate on your day and the events of your world slow down. (A lot of people have different sleep schedules, too, so ā9 PMā can mean whenever your day is over and before you go to sleep.)
I donāt ignore these anxieties, I do take them in but just remind myself that I am resting now. Itās a mindfulness technique. I look at the clock to ground myself about where and when I am and what physical state Iām in as it relates to my mental state. Itās a reminder to myself that I feel these emotions and they do not control my actions. I do not need to do anything about them. Right now, I am at rest. You canāt fool me into taking action on things when I am at rest. I see a lot of funny tags on this saying āmental business hours are from 9 AM to 8:59 PMā and I LOVE that.
Secondly, this advice is geared towards the idea that your mental state is for the most part dependent on your physical state. In this specific case, I felt bad because the day was ending and my mind and body were tired. I was ready for bed. My body needed sleep and my mind deprived of it started acting up. But your body doesnāt need only sleep. Your mental state can depend on whether or not youāve eaten something substantial, drank water, taken your medicine, gone to the bathroom, exercised, showered or bathed, brushed your teeth, breathed fresh air⦠and to go on: had an orgasm, changed into clean clothes recently, been properly cool or warm, or given someone a hug. These things are not linked to a time of day, these are round-the-clock concerns. If you feel bad and havenāt done many of these things recently, I really recommend you take your negative feelings with a grain of salt and see how you feel after youāve improved your physical state.
Thirdly, this post is also predicated on the idea that you should worry about things when you can control them. For me, 9 PM is when everything shuts down. My energy is pretty sapped, as is my friendsā energy, stores are mostly closed, nobody answers phones, most of my immediate world is done for the night. I canāt start anything at 9 PM. Right now, Iām worried about getting a job. I feel bad at all times of day that I donāt have a job yet. But I canāt be worried about applying for jobs at 10:26 PM, Iām tired and no hiring managers are going to see my applications before 9 AM tomorrow. I canāt improve my life while lying in bed, and I need to lie in bed, so Iām going to improve my life when my day starts. I deserve rest, I need sleep, and I observe but neatly package and set aside the worry to be dealt with at 9 AM tomorrow.
It seems like platitudinous boomer-level āmust be nice to be neurotypicalā COMPLETE BULLSHIT to a lot of you, I know. But hereās my secret: you donāt need to believe it. You just need to tell yourself thatās how it is. With practice ā and I say practice because this kind of thinking took me years (and growing out of being a teenager) to cultivate ā it stops being platitudinous.
And if youāre sitting here thinking Iām lying or that Iām not REALLY mentally ill, Iād like to remind you that A) you know nothing about me and my life B) assuming I donāt know what Iām talking about is both silly and incredibly cruel and C) thatās your own self-sabotage talking. āOh, she feels better by doing this. Well, she must not be As Bad As Me. Therefore this will not work on me.ā That is the Devil speaking, the one who tells you not to brush your teeth at night and to text your ex. That is the demon in your head that likes watching you hurt. You donāt want to hurt. Even if you do want to hurt, I promise, you do not want to hurt.
Itās true that this will not work for many, many people. Not everyoneās brains work the same. We are all unique people with unique situations and for me to even pretend otherwise would be preposterous. And Iām not going to pretend that every worry you have is unfounded and can be solved with a nap and a sandwich. Thatās not what this post is about. Youāre allowed to feel bad. Itās an emotion. It happens. But itās healthy for you to ask yourself why youāre feeling a negative emotion, if it is possible to fix why you are feeling that way, what you can do to fix it, and whether or not right now is the time to fix it.
When itās 10:26 PM and Iām angry at myself about losing an online chess game and being unemployed, I look at the clock and say⦠this negative emotion is real but the reasoning behind it is not something I can fix right now. I canāt fix my life right now. I need to go to bed, and my brain canāt Fucking Fool Me.
Iām giving you this advice because I want you to SEE if it helps. Even if you try it and this mindset is not what is right for you⦠Iām proud of you and impressed of you for trying it, because trying to get better is the first step to getting better.
(And thanks to people who reminded me that Drew Monson is the one responsible for the original post about not trusting how you feel about your life after 9 PM. Thank you Drew for helping me out of some late-night pits.)
HOW TO GET YOUR ACCOUNT BACK FROM RANDOM NIGHTMARE SURPRISE TERMINATION!!!!!!!!!!!
I woke up on sunday morning to find that my whole account had been terminated out of the blue. VERY DISTRESSING!!! if this has just happened to you, YOU CAN GET YOUR ACCOUNT RESTORED. the best part is, everything remains intact! your messages, asks, followers, posts, etc. don't fret!! they restored my account only a day after it had been terminated. usually, it takes one to two weeks for a response. HERE'S WHAT I DID!!!
it's important that you send a SUPPORT TICKET. don't randomly email them!!! go to https://www.tumblr.com/support and choose "terminated account" as your reason.
include the email of the account that got terminated. this makes it easier for them to recover it! if you can't send it from that email, just include it in the message.
include the following: to the best of your knowledge, you have re-read the site rules and you haven't broken any site guidelines. state how important your account is to you, and stress how thankful you are for their help in recovering it. BE POLITE. EVEN IF YOU'RE UPSET OR PISSED OFF!!!! it significantly ups your chances of being listened to. I included the phrase "I'm sure you understand the importance of this" which is corporatespeak for "FIX THIS OR SO HELP ME GOD" and that seemed to get their attention.
you can also @ support on tumblr with the issue, and @ them on another site (e.g. twitter). there's a chance they'll see and respond quicker! cover all your options. the reddit for tumblr account termination is no longer active so don't bother with that.
if they don't respond within a few days, reply to the confirmation email they sent after you sent in your request. follow up! ask for updates! reiterate the urgency of the situation! make sure you're not responding to an address with "noreply" in it!
REALLY HOPE THIS HELPS!!!! all is not lost you just gotta be STERN AND POLITE. it's terrifying to have your entire account vanish overnight but there is always hope okay. love you good luck
UPDATE: I had to do this whole thing AGAIN because my art blog ALSO got terminated out of the blue and they got back to me the very next day. this shit works!!!! I think the main factor is following up by replying to their confirmation email because as soon as I did that they got back to me.
Can confirm this is how I tackled it when this blog was randomly terminated a while back; I had to do this before. I got my whole blog back, which is good, because I think this one is over a decade old by now.
Lengthy discussion under the cut of how Ren'py makes it easy to get started making your own VN! TL;DR: this 100% free engine gives you a working template right out of the box; read the quickstart guide and you can have a prototype running in minutes :)
This ramble has been in the works for a while; I'd been wanting to yap about the engine since I finished DxM but it was a bit tricky to figure out a balance in detail/length/focus/etc. I've opted to simply highlight some advantages that make it easy to get started, since my goal is to show how good Ren'py is at doing what it does and that everyone should try it >:)
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What I find particularly great about is that it does so much right out of the box. It is very conscious of what a VN needs, and does as much as it can to make that as easy as possible, even to people who are complete newbies to both the engine and programming. It: (1) gives you a fully functional template, (2) makes script-writing as dumb and easy as possible, (3) provides both relatively straightforward and immensely flexible customization options, and (4) is meticulously documented and has a well-established community/support base.
(1) The Functional Template
The way it gives basically comes with a working VN right out of the box is a great feature of Ren'py, perfect for anyone who wants to hit the ground running. You download it, run the application, click "Create New Project", pick between a small number of size/theme options, and then it spits out a package that is essentially a functional VN without any content. The default template comes pre-packaged with a fully functional UI that you can run right away, just like any other application on your computer.
[Screenshot of the default project template that gets output]
Even if you don't want your VN to look like the default GUI, rearranging things to match your vision is something that can be done later (unless you know exactly how you want it to look, like it was for me & DxM. In that case, establishing the right dimensions early on can save a lot of hassle). The nice thing about this functional template is that you can dive right into writing/drawing the actual script & images, to get that first proof of concept up and running, without having to worry about lots of setup or configuration. And Ren'py's script support is in my personal opinion, very very accessible.
(2) Easy script writing
When you think of something like a movie or play script, you might imagine something with this kind of format:
SCENE 1: A dark forest.
[Gabriel walks to the centre, holding a torch]
GABRIEL: "WHERE IS THAT DAMNED MACHINE."
[Gabriel looks around frustratedly]
GABRIEL: "I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR TWELVE HOURS TO GIVE IT THIS BATCH OF COOKIES AND NOW THEY ARE NO LONGER FRESH."
[Gabriel walks off the right, scene fades to black]
Ren'py makes this user-friendly format as their basis for writing the VN script. This is what I would consider a second major advantage. A Ren'py script.py file that does the above would look something like this:
label start:
scene dark_forest_background
show gabriel with_torch at center
"GABRIEL" "WHERE IS THAT DAMNED MACHINE."
show gabriel looking
"GABRIEL" "I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR TWELVE HOURS TO GIVE IT THIS BATCH OF COOKIES AND NOW THEY ARE NO LONGER FRESH."
show gabriel leaving at right
show black_background with dissolve
Writing a Ren'py script feels a lot like writing/directing a play. Each line in the script is executed sequentially, whether it's a dialogue line or a change in scene, with a click from the player required by default to move to the next line. You have the images and you have the dialogue; you decide how they show up on-screen in what order, and with what special effects/positioning they use (most of which are built-in).
In the example above, all character dialogue will automatically be shown in a dialogue box labelled with the name provided ("GABRIEL"). All changes take effect instantly, so you can see them in-game immediately. You can set something up in literal minutes if you have all the parts; the work lies only in putting them together.
[Award-winning VN in the works???]
What about offering dialogue options and diverging routes? That is also made as easy as possible via the engine. Say you want to give the player 3 options, for example - (1) Go up the hill, (2) Leave the forest; or (3) Eat the cookies yourself.
To translate this to Ren'py, all you have to do is add a menu statement at the point in the script where you want it to show up. To extend the example above:
[...]
show gabriel_leaving at right
show black_background with dissolve
menu:
"Go up the hill":
jump up_hill
"Leave the forest":
jump leave_forest
"Eat the cookies yourself":
jump eat_cookies
(As this ramble is not meant to be a syntax guide, I won't go into the depths of Renpy's syntax, but I will mention that the colons and indentations are important!)
Then once the script reaches the fade-to-black, the "menu" line is run, and Renpy will automatically show the three options on-screen as clickable buttons. When the player clicks on the appropriate button, the control flow will jump to the corresponding label, which can then be defined anywhere else in the script.
The "up_hill"/"leave_forest"/"eat_cookies" labels are names you make up, and they should correspond to landing points for those jump statements, where the script will continue from. For example:
label up_hill:
"GABRIEL" "GUESS I'LL TRY GOING UP THE HILL."
[...]
label leave_forest:
"GABRIEL" "MAYBE I SHOULDN'T BE LOOKING FOR IT HERE."
[...]
label eat_cookies:
"GABRIEL" "OKAY I'M JUST EATING THESE MYSELF THEN."
[...]
The job of the creator then becomes scripting all the routes, defining menus + options, and creating jump/label pairs that will connect in the way they want the flow to go. When the script reaches an end with no further statements to execute, it ends on its own and returns to the main menu.
For simple decision-based and dialogue-centric VNs like DxM, this was basically all that was needed to convey the story!
(3) Straightforward Customization
The third thing I really liked is how Ren'py exposes customization options extremely easily. Virtually anything you want to change or set is available in the form of a relevant property, part of Ren'py's robust, overarching "style" system. And since the sheer number of options can get overwhelming to a new user, by default Ren'py exposes - via very clearly labelled variables - a good number of properties that could be considered "frequently used", such as the system font, the dialogue text size, text colour, the size of the dialogue window, etc. If you want finer control, you can go in and set the property values for each and every UI element that you like.
Adding your own UI elements is also very easy. There's a slightly steeper learning curve because anything you want on-screen that's not a static image needs something called a "screen" that you can define (for example, the +BONUSES box in DxM was a custom screen, as was the clock in the top left corner). But screens can be ridiculously basic:
screen example_screen():
text "This is an example"
That's it that's a screen, that simply shows the text "This is an example" in the default position on-screen. Again since the lines in the script are executed sequentially, simply adding "show screen example_screen" at the right point will cause the text to appear on-screen like magic :)
DxM obviously looks nothing like the default template shown above, and that was quite easily achievable by adding & removing various UI elements, then rearranging things until they were all in the right spots.
(4) Read the docs (or don't, it works either way)
The fourth and most important advantage of Ren'py in my book is how long it's been around, resulting in the extremely well-established community/documentation/resources. I joke to myself that I brute-forced Ren'py because I skimmed the quickstart guide in their documentation, then spent the next month or so simply googling "renpy how do I do X" and trying out each result until I got what I wanted, without actually really understanding what the heck I was doing 80% of the time. And it worked! Because searching for Ren'py help for basic things like how to arrange things in a grid or add a scrollbox always yielded helpful results - there's a forum full of responsive Ren'py veterans where almost any question you can think of has been asked, and the Ren'py subreddit turned out to be a great resource as well. I also saw several dedicated tutorial websites that had posts on how to employ certain features of Ren'py, in case friendlier language than that of the docs would be a benefit.
Eventually I did read through most of the docs (I am a nerd who enjoys doing that) - they definitely get more technical and there are lots of things I still don't understand well, but they really helped expose me to new features that I wouldn't have known were possibilities (like the drop-down menus, tooltips, custom transitions, and of course browser support). Wading through the docs also led to several major overhauls of my code when I realized I was doing stuff in the stupidest way possible, brute-forcing a workaround when Ren'py already had seamless built-in handling of that (hi, using global variables for literally everything, I don't miss you). To use advanced features of Ren'py, knowledge of Python & programming principles is required, but the bare minimum can already get you really far with Ren'py.
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If you've made it all the way down here, thanks for reading, I hope that was at least somewhat informative/interesting! I tried to keep this as a relatively brief "taster" and had to leave out a lot of detail to that end, but would be happy to expand on anything specific. For anyone interested in trying it out though, the proper place to start would be the official quickstart guide, which covers everything I mentioned here in a better level of detail for getting started.
"im lazy" i truly sympathize with executive dysfunction, but this is one of those quality-of-life things you need to prioritize. 3 minutes of research/installation will save you a thousandfold in time and energy. it can even help with brain fog (most people don't realize how much mental energy ads actually steal)
"i like ads" my jaw is on the fucking floor. you chose to live in a sewer, yet you will never be a ninja nor a turtle. you do not have a warrior's heart.
*inhaling deeply and reminding myself that Shaking The Baby only endangers the baby, and does not assist it to learn or grow* in spite of everything there are beautiful and important truths within this world that you must learn, and i must help you to learn
ā¬ļøā¬ļøā¬ļø Can confirm, I use this method (alongside others) on android. for iOS the steps are different (and it may be easier to install the AdGuard DNS app instead)
the above will decrease the amount of ads you see system-wide. however: hands down the BEST ANDROID ADBLOCKING feature is the ability to install Firefox with uBlock Origin enabled.
this only blocks browser ads, but HOLY SHIT does that matter if you try browsing websites over apps when possible. which you should bc it's awesome and gives you SO much more control. E.g. blocks youtube.com ads and you can play videos in the background. works with spotify.com too
Pro tip: toggle on 'Desktop site' to avoid mobile sites that are purposely designed to bully you into using the app. Desktop mode fixes a surprising number of problems
Note: for iOS users this isn't available bc Apple hates your guts, but there are other browser options with built-in adblocking, e.g. Firefox Focus, Brave
i thought my laptop was on its last leg because it was running at six billion degrees and using 100% disk space at all times and then i turned off shadows and some other windows effects and it was immediately cured. i just did the same to my roommate's computer and its performance issues were also immediately cured. okay. i guess.
so i guess if you have creaky freezy windows 10/11 try searching "advanced system settings", go to performance settings, and uncheck "show shadows under windows" and anything else you don't want. hope that helps someone else.
hey this is apparently helping a lot of people! adding that on top of this you can also go to settings > personalization > colors and turn off transparency to also boost performance. this wasn't the Big Fix for me but might as well do that too if you're trying to optimize.
Ok I know we joke about this but I just went to the settings and first clicked "adjust for best performance" and then re-checked only 1 box:
"Smooth edges of screen fonts"
My computer was running hot before I turned everything off; the office I'm in is very warm, I could feel the heat of my CPU through the keyboard. The fans were going, not as loud as they usually get, but they were still blasting.
Y'all.
I can barely feel the warmth through the keyboard now. It's been like 2 minutes. The fan is nearly silent.
Click the Windows key and start typing "System settings", and "View Advanced system settings" will pop up. Then click "Settings" under Performance:
Then you'll see this:
TURN IT ALL OFF.
I turned "Show window contents while dragging" and then turned that off again. It's up to you.
The second best thing you can do for a Win10 computer is turn off whatever unnecessary services it's decided it needs to run in the background always. Some services it does need, but others are useless. Here's an article that goes into step by steps.
10AppsManager lets you uninstall bloatware. Winaero Tweaker lets you disable crap like Cortana/Copilot, ads, telemetry, internet search results when you search from the taskbar, and all kinds of other stuff, plus it gives you lots of other little options that are just nice to have (like, it can restore the old MS Paint program in place of Paint 3D). Both are totally free.
Oh, and check your startup programs in the Task Manager tab to make sure your computer isn't automatically starting eight million programs every time it boots. But I think people mostly know about that. (Unless this is me going "they only know one or two feldspars... and quartz of course.")
The first best thing you can do for a Windows computer is install Linux Mint. But some of us do need a few pesky Windows-specific programs. Bleh. Still, if you're up for a project, you can have both (and it's awesome). Here's an article about setting up a dual boot Windows/Mint system.
I saw a comment on your blog that says 'the way you eat does not cause diabetes'...are you able to expand on that or provide a source I could read? I've been told by doctors that my pre-diabetes was due to weight gain because I get more hungry on my anti psychotics and I'd like to fact check what they've told me! Thank you so much!
There are a lot more factors at play in diabetes ā more complicated than āI had a cupcake at lunch.ā
Pre-diabetes was rejected as a diagnosis by the World Health Organization (although it is used by the US and UK) - the correct term for the condition is impaired glucose tolerance. Approximately 2% of people with "pre-diabetes" go on to develop diabetes per year. You heard that right - TWO PERCENT. Most diabetics actually skip the pre-diabetic phase.
There are currently no treatments for pre-diabetes besides intentional weight loss. (Hmm, that's convenient, right?) There has yet to be evidence that losing weight prevents progression from pre-diabetes to T2DM beyond a year. Interestingly, drug companies are trying to persuade the medical world to start treating patients earlier and earlier. They are using the term āpre-diabetesā to sell their drugs (including Wegovy, a weight-loss drug). Surgeons are using it to sell weight loss surgery. Everyoneās a winner, right? Not patients. Especially fat patients.
Check out these articles:
Prediabetes: The epidemic that never was, and shouldnāt be
The war on āprediabetes' could be a boon for pharmaābut is it good medicine?
Also - I love what Dr. Asher Larmie @fatdoctorUK has to say about T2DM and insulin resistance, so here's one of their threads I pulled from Twitter:
1ļøā£ You can't prevent insulin resistance. It's coded in your DNA. It may be impacted by your environment. Studies have shown it has nothing to do with your BMI.
2ļøā£ The term "pre-diabetes" is a PR stunt. The correct term is impaired glucose tolerance (or impaired fasting glucose) which is sometimes referred to as intermittent hyperglycemia. It does not predict T2DM. It is best ignored and tested for every 3-5yrs.
3ļøā£ there is no evidence that losing weight prevents diabetes. That's because you can't reverse insulin resistance. You can possibly postpone it by 2yrs? Furthermore there is evidence that those who are fat at the time of diagnosis fair much better than those who are thin.
4ļøā£ Weight loss does not reverse diabetes in the VAST majority of people. Those that do reverse it are usually thinner with recent onset T2DM and a low A1c. Only a tiny minority can sustain that over 2yrs. Weight loss does not improve A1c levels beyond 2 yrs either.
5ļøā£ Weight loss in T2DM does not improve macrovascular or microvascular health outcomes beyond 2 years. In fact, weight loss in diabetics is associated with increased mortality and morbidity (although it is not clear why). Weight cycling is known to impacts A1c levels.
6ļøā£ Weight GAIN does NOT increase the risk of cardiovascular OR all causes mortality in diabetics. In fact, one might even go so far as to say that it's better to be fat and diabetic than to be thin and diabetic.
Dr. Larmie cites 18 peer reviewed journal articles (most from the last decade) that are included in their webinar on the subject, linked below.
@mostlyvoid-partiallyturtles APOLOGIES I ACCIDENTALLY HIT POST BEFORE I WAS READY SO I HAD TO DELETE IT LOLLL
sorry for the late response i was just heading to bed when you sent me this!! but um i drew up a whole tutorial for you of my art process when designing eridians :))
putting the rest under cut because this is pretty long lol!!
eridians are really varied, just like humans, so keep this in mind when designing your own!! everything is up to you, from body shape to color, size, legs, details etc etc!!
first i'll demonstrate the basics of how i draw them by drawing my baby, quartz! :) she's based more off of book eridians than movie eridians, and you can kind of see that in the body shape, leg placement, and the clothing and accessories she's given!
start off by drawing a shape for the body!! i usually start off with a pentagon/oval similar to this one but anything goes! it's all up to you :)
then i like to draw a circle/oval beneath it where i want the legs to be! this just helps me to get the leg placement to look better! also keep in mind, the further back the leg is, the smaller it and the foot will be!
then you can go ahead and add the legs!! i start off with basic lines and then sketch out the feet! i draw them more akin to paws than say, the claws of a bird but it's all up to you! i also like to add little raised bits on the carapace where the knee joint will be like a crab or armor! plus i just think it looks cute lol
then you can add clothes!! quartz gets a cute lil shirt <333
one clothing/accessory idea I think could be fun but i haven't played around much with is arm bands with pockets for holding tools/random stuff!! so there's also a little doodle of that on this page lol
i only draw the markings if i plan it to be an uncolored sketch, i kind of just place them randomly the first time i draw an eridian and then base the markings in all other future drawings on the first one! though i didn't look back at my reference for this one soooooo it's inaccurate lol
this would also be the time to add and tattoos or scars as well!! quartz doesn't have any tattoos at the moment (she's too scared lol) though she'll have a wedding band once i give her a mate :)
then you can start adding accessories!!! have fun messing around!! she loves her friendship bracelets :)
bow!!!
bag C:
and then adding texture and details to the clothes!! again, i only really do the line art for these parts if I'm not planning on coloring but i decided to do it anyways lol
then you can go on to adding flat colors!!! i color in the full drawing with the base color and then from there I build my way up one color at a time until.....
boom!! you got yourself a little eridian!! :)))
now let's get into designing your own eridian!!! there are many things you can take into account:
what color would you like them to be?
is there a specific stone you want?
what vibe do you have in mind?
if you have a color in mind, head to pinterest or google and search up what color you'd like! say you want a pink eridian, i'd look up "pink rock/crystal/gem/stone" and then a bunch of things come up :))
if you have a specific stone in mind, look up images of that stone!!
if you have a personality/vibe in mind, different crystals each have their own specific meanings! for example, a white quartz can mean purity and support, and rose quartz can mean compassion, peace, and love :)
if you have a stone in mind but don't know the personality yet, consider looking up the meaning of that stone and see if that gives you any ideas pertaining to their personality!!
now that we've got some basic ideas, let's make a more movie-style eridian based off this blue phantom quartz!
movie eridians tend to have less rounded body shapes, instead being taller and thinner! you can play around with adding bits that stick out or chips to add little quirks and a bit of personality to your design!! :))
my piece of blue phantom quartz is flatter at the bottom and sticks out more at the top so i'll try and incorperate that into my design!
then add the circle to help with leg placement!!
with the help of the circle, you can sketch in the legs now!! note how the feet all land on the circle :))
leg placement can be tricky, it can be hard to get it to look right!! feel free to play around and try new things!! you can always erase/restart if you don't like how it turned out!
since this one is more movie style, i'll skip clothes and accessories and go straight to coloring the base layer!!
then you can go in with a second color and start adding patterns! i like to draw them on a different layer that is clipped to the first (via clipping mask) and then that will keep you from coloring outside the lines!! using a clipping mask instead of alpha lock lets me go back and change the base color if needed! (i actually did in this case lol)
since i'm referencing an existing crystal, i use that to help with color placement!!
then you can go in with your second color!!
in the movie, rocky has green showing through where his legs are attached to his body, and i took this to mean that the inner layers of his carapace are green, and as the brown gets worn away it shows through!! so i added blue in the joints for this lil fellow :)
then i went in with some highlights and sparkles to make them feel more alive!!
going back into the lineart to add more texture in some places, along with carvings/tattoos!!
and then you're done!!!! there are so many different ways to have fun with creating your own lil guys and i hope this little helps you get the creative juices going!!! it's important to keep in mind that this is just a guide though, there are no rules!! play around and have fun making your own lil guy!!!
oh! one thing i'm trying to get better at with eridians is showing emotion with body motions! it's a lot harder with these guys since you can't just slap on a cutie lil smiley face to show content/happiness so i've been referencing flour sack drawings lol
flour sack drawings are an excercise used when learning the basics of animation and how to convey emotion through exaggerated poses/body language! here's an example i found on google that shows it pretty well :))
note how expressive it's movement is, and how it shows so much emotion despite having no face! i'm still trying to get better at this myself but these have been great to reference when trying to draw different emotions in eridians :)
this is just a little wip i'm working on but you can (hopefully) tell that quartz is really happy by how she's standing tall and leaning into ryland!
though it's hard to show without adding a face š i could probably benifit by exaggerating everything further!
anyways i hope this was helpful!!!!! let me know if you have any questions or need any ideas!!! i'd love to see your finished eridiansona when you're done :)))