Between the Multiverses

mostly just a place to post moodboards, icons, & edits for others to be able to reblog || requests may be taken into consideration, but no promises made to actually make them || sideblog of @lefae

[daechwitas]

let me be very clear that if you voted for donald trump or support him in any capacity you are not welcome here. my blog is not the place for you and i do not want you interacting with me. 

[mcflymemes]

heads up! pinterest is now using your data to train their AI. if you use pinterest for aesthetics, make sure you go into your settings > privacy and uncheck this box, as it's turned on by default.

[fixyourwritinghabits]

It is with the deepest frustrations that I must report Microsoft has pushed out Copilot onto Microsoft Word no matter what your previous settings were. If you have Office because you paid for it/are on a family plan/have a work/school account, you can disable it by going to Options -> click on Copilot -> uncheck 'Enable Copilot'.

(Note, you may not see this option if you haven't updated lately, but Copilot will still pop up. Updating should give you this option. I will kill Microsoft with my bare hands.)

In addition, Google has forced a roll-out of it's Gemini AI on all American accounts of users over 18 (these settings are turned off by default for EU, Japan, Switzerland, and UK, but it doesn't hurt to check).

To remove this garbage, you must go to Manage Workspace smart feature settings for all your Gmail/Drive/Chat and turn them off. Go to Settings -> See all settings -> find under "Genera" the "Google Workspace smart features" -> turn smart feature setting off for both Google Workspace and all other Google products and hit save. (If you turned off the smart settings in your Gmail, it never hurts to open Drive and double-check that they're set to off there too.)

Quick Edit: I found the easiest way to get to the Smart Feature settings following the instructions above was to do it through Drive. Try that route first.

Now is the time to consider switching to Libre Office if you haven't already.

[madmanswords]

I think one of my favorite Doctor Who stories is that Lalla Ward was doing a play and one of the actors working with her gave her a little bit of a hard time for doing a Sci-Fi TV series and she at the time was like "I like Sci-fi." But it became incredibly hilarious after the fact because the actor was Patrick Stewart

[madmanswords]

Source

I'm honestly sure what I saw was a different source entirely, but this was the source I found just now.

[kithj]

games (mostly text-based) about houses and places-- exploring them, haunting them, feeding them:

childhood homes (and why we hate them) - after a decade, you return home.

return - a text-based horror game about coming home.

singing from the far side of the hill - about a trans woman, homeless after a bad breakup, who rents a stranger's spare room. it's a decision she comes to regret.

anatomy - Explore a suburban house, collect cassette tapes, study the physiology of domestic architecture.

leave house - leave house

the open house - We at Northtree Real Estate (in partnership with Optix Dynamix Labs) are proud to present our new, state-of-the-art, open house simulator!  Come and take a quick tour of 15615 Hollow Oak Lane, a familiar and comfortable showcase home in one of our premier developments!

what girls do in the dark - This little game is based off one of the greatest fears they had as a teenage girl: showing up late to a stranger's slumber party.

unbecoming - a sonically-textured interactive horror fiction exploring cycles of trauma and unspeakable forces of nature in a mythic rural American landscape.

13 laurel road - an interactive fiction game about the relationships we have with places and reconciling with trauma. You play as a young man named Noah who has been tasked with picking up some things from his cousin’s old house.

domvs - a gothic mystery game in which you rely on your environment to uncover the truth.

flesh, blood, & concrete - you find yourself in a vast, empty apartment complex.

i am still here - a short, unconventional ghost story and vignette reflecting on the end of a long lockdown.

vacant - Film a ghost-hunting show.

[tenya]

fucked up how colors look different depending on what screen you’re looking at them on. that should be illegal I think

[broskepol-deactivated20221009]

this fucking shit, you know

[bogleech]

I spend so much time carefully picking and adjusting the colors in every single drawing I make that I’d probably lose my mind if I didn’t just repeatedly push this out of my memory and pretend it’s not a thing. Why am I reblogging a blank empty post that doesn’t say anything??? Weird

[gaysheep]

good news! you can’t make sure that everyone will see the correct colors on their own device, but you can make sure your monitor is as accurate as possible for printing and sharing by calibrating it! 

there are a bunch of free monitor tests, but here’s an easy one you can use. the passmark and eizo tests are also pretty good, though passmark doesn’t work in your browser. be warned that some tests may cause eye strain.

you can either use the settings built into your monitor itself or use the display color calibration settings in your operating system to adjust the settings until everything looks correct, and then enjoy your accurate colors.

[zeldadiarist]

REBLOG TO SAVE A LIFE

[camerapits]

Photographers, too. Color calibrate your monitors if you intend to print or sell your work. There’s a ton of info out there for this.

[dorianpavus]

LET'S GOOOOOOO!!!!!!

[shinisenko]

[nockergeek]

My partner and I cancelled our Adobe accounts today because of this. Imagine if makers of physical art media had the right to pilfer your sketchbooks because you used their pencils and paints. That’s basically what Adobe is trying to foist on everyone.

[dduane]

These guys are way too famous for overreach. WTF.

[abatonandouro]

Some Adobe/photoshop alternatives:

[abatonandouro]

Just to add more information (copy-pasted from /u/habitual_viking for readability):

This pissed me off like many others, so I wanted to cancel my subscription.

You cannot access your account without agreeing - there's simply **NO** way of rejecting the terms and accessing your subscription page to cancel

Getting hold of an agent required something like 15 minutes of frustrating loops with their chat bot, where the same question was asked multiple times and same (invalid) solution provided multiple times

Got hold of an agent, they kept claiming that there's no way of terminating or opting out of your subscription, without paying a ~~fine~~ fee to adobe

Kept asking to be escalated to someone who understood the concept of contracts, changing terms and consumer rights, Agent first tried to give me 3 months free, then repeatedly tried to explain that I agreed to the terms when signing up several years ago

Finally got hold of a supervisor, within 30 seconds she could cancel the subscription with no refund for current billed, I challenged the last part and she immediately refunded 3 months worth of subscription

So if you can live with the open source alternatives (or any alternative) to Adobe, keep insisting on them cancelling and refund your currently billed period! And for the love of god, do **not** agree to the terms to access you account, it's a trap! Edit: Oh and when you try to uninstall, you are going to need to log in, which again required accepting the terms. DO NOT ACCEPT! There's a tool provided by adobe here: https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html Just follow the instructions and you can select complete removal of adobe programs without having to sign over your rights. Hopefully someone with more spare time than me can file formal complaints with EU, because consumer rights are being broken with zero remorse.

[mckitterick]

Efficient and Fast, Small and Portable. 100% Free

Geek Uninstaller is the best uninstaller I've found - gets rid of things your computer normally won't allow, and strips out all traces of their spyware aspects, too (plus it's free)

[shinisenko]

[nockergeek]

My partner and I cancelled our Adobe accounts today because of this. Imagine if makers of physical art media had the right to pilfer your sketchbooks because you used their pencils and paints. That’s basically what Adobe is trying to foist on everyone.

[dduane]

These guys are way too famous for overreach. WTF.

[alymccart]

[delyth-thomas-art]

Here's how to cancel for free

Cancel Adobe without paying the cancellation fee

How to cancel your adobe subscription without paying the cancellation fee.

[xxtc-96xx]

I’m pretty sure that has to be illegal, especially when it comes to NDAs in film and show projects who use photoshop for things like backgrounds. If they’re smart they’ll roll this back before they get sued

[artsileo-deactivated20241016]

You don’t suck at Lineart, you’re just not familiar with line weight👍🏼!

[ladyshinga]

[mamoru]

if you have an android phone get newpipe

thank me later.

NewPipe - a free YouTube client

[mamoru]

newpipe is:

YouTube without ads

YouTube with downloads (you can even download the audio by itself!)

YouTube with subscriptions and playlists without logging in

completely free.

[mamoru]

this is not sponsored newpipe just absolutely fucks

[bnyrbt]

newpipe also has a grade A privacy rating on tosdr.org, in contrast to youtube’s grade C

[noelle-ism]

It works with Soundcloud and Bandcamp too holy shit

[queen-mabs-revenge]

also, it supports picture-in-picture playing and background playing both when the app isn't in focus and with your screen off. it truly fucks

[felassan]

If working overtime on AAA games with giant budgets is the only way to succeed, 'then maybe the industry deserves to die,' says RPG veteran

Summerfall Studios co-founder David Gaider speaks in favor of industry unionization and his studio's four day work week.

Article: 'If working overtime on AAA games with giant budgets is the only way to succeed, 'then maybe the industry deserves to die,' says RPG veteran David Gaider: 'There is another way to be''

Summerfall Studios co-founder David Gaider speaks in favor of industry unionization and his studio's four day work week.

[source]

[kotori-mochi]

Can't afford art school?

After seeing post like this 👇

And this gem 👇

As well as countless of others from the AI generator community. Just talking about how "inaccessible art" is, I decided why not show how wrong these guys are while also helping anyone who actually wants to learn.

Here is the first one ART TEACHERS! There are plenty online and in places like youtube.

📺Here is my list:

Proko (Free)

Marc Brunet (Free but he does have other classes for a cheap price. Use to work for Blizzard)

Aaron Rutten (free)

BoroCG (free)

Jesse J. Jones (free, talks about animating)

Jesus Conde (free)

Mohammed Agbadi (free, he gives some advice in some videos and talks about art)

Ross Draws (free, he does have other classes for a good price)

SamDoesArts (free, gives good advice and critiques)

Drawfee Show (free, they do give some good advice and great inspiration)

The Art of Aaron Blaise ( useful tips for digital art and animation. Was an animator for Disney)

Bobby Chiu ( useful tips and interviews with artist who are in the industry or making a living as artist)

Second part BOOKS, I have collected some books that have helped me and might help others.

📚Here is my list:

The "how to draw manga" series produced by Graphic-sha. These are for manga artist but they give great advice and information.

"Creating characters with personality" by Tom Bancroft. A great book that can help not just people who draw cartoons but also realistic ones. As it helps you with facial ques and how to make a character interesting.

"Albinus on anatomy" by Robert Beverly Hale and Terence Coyle. Great book to help someone learn basic anatomy.

"Artistic Anatomy" by Dr. Paul Richer and Robert Beverly Hale. A good book if you want to go further in-depth with anatomy.

"Directing the story" by Francis Glebas. A good book if you want to Story board or make comics.

"Animal Anatomy for Artists" by Eliot Goldfinger. A good book for if you want to draw animals or creatures.

"Constructive Anatomy: with almost 500 illustrations" by George B. Bridgman. A great book to help you block out shadows in your figures and see them in a more 3 diamantine way.

"Dynamic Anatomy: Revised and expand" by Burne Hogarth. A book that shows how to block out shapes and easily understand what you are looking out. When it comes to human subjects.

"An Atlas of animal anatomy for artist" by W. Ellenberger and H. Dittrich and H. Baum. This is another good one for people who want to draw animals or creatures.

Etherington Brothers, they make books and have a free blog with art tips.

As for Supplies, I recommend starting out cheap, buying Pencils and art paper at dollar tree or 5 below. For digital art, I recommend not starting with a screen art drawing tablet as they are more expensive.

For the Best art Tablet I recommend either Xp-pen, Bamboo or Huion. Some can range from about 40$ to the thousands.

💻As for art programs here is a list of Free to pay.

Clip Studio paint ( you can choose to pay once or sub and get updates)

Procreate ( pay once for $9.99)

Blender (for 3D modules/sculpting, ect Free)

PaintTool SAI (pay but has a 31 day free trail)

Krita (Free)

mypaint (free)

FireAlpaca (free)

Libresprite (free, for pixel art)

Those are the ones I can recall.

So do with this information as you will but as you can tell there are ways to learn how to become an artist, without breaking the bank. The only thing that might be stopping YOU from using any of these things, is YOU.

I have made time to learn to draw and many artist have too. Either in-between working two jobs or taking care of your family and a job or regular school and chores. YOU just have to take the time or use some time management, it really doesn't take long to practice for like an hour or less. YOU also don't have to do it every day, just once or three times a week is fine.

Hope this was helpful and have a great day.

[kotori-mochi]

Incase people missed this.

[thesuperheroesnetwork]

Super Antics by Kerry Callen

[unprettyextra]

Fanfiction Community Rocked By Etsy Sellers Turning Their Work Into Bound Books

Several popular shops, which clearly violated Etsy's terms of use and IP laws, were deleted after 404 Media reached out for comment.

[terriwriting]

This is hitting the “Dramione” fandom—which pairs Hermoine and Draco from the Harry Potter series—particularly hard, because this type of fanfic is extremely popular on Etsy.

Interesting glimpse into Etsy’s demographics.

Also these dealers need to have their kneecaps broken.

[owlstory]

Ugh the article is accountwalled. I know why they do it, but I don’t want to create yet another account for a page I probably won’t read again.

[unpretty]

i actually have an answer for that! it’s because the site is owned and operated by actual journalists sick of their work being scraped by ai and spammers:

In December, we noticed that articles we spent significant amounts of time on—reporting that involved weeks or months of research, talking to and protecting sources, filing public records requests, paying for and parsing those records, hours or days of writing, editing, and packaging—were being scraped by bots, run through an AI article “spinner” or paraphraser, and republished on random websites.

[…]

Joseph’s article about how AI-generated plagiarism is showing up all over Google News, while our articles are not, was quickly picked up by a website called “Digital Information World” in a completely illegible, obviously AI-generated article called “AI-Produced Content Is Being Marketed Across Google News And The Company Is Aware Of It,” apparently written by Dr. Hura Anwar, a dental surgeon who publishes articles on the website roughly every six minutes, all day every day. Digital Information World is, of course, indexed by Google News.

[…]

Requiring an email address to read our articles has, for the moment, stopped our content from being scraped and repurposed by AI. It will also, we hope, serve as a preventative measure against the impacts of the internet being flooded by all of this AI-generated drek. We are worried that a flood of low-quality, AI-generated bullshit—articles written by robots to appease a robotic search ranking algorithm—is going to drown out what we do, and make it harder to organically find our work.

(source)

it still sucks that it’s necessary, but they’ve got good reasons imho

[heywriters]

Encountered this last night while just looking up some niche information.

The first link in search was a big site that is known for letting AI autofill its info erroneously, so I blocked that site.

The second link was a helpful article written by a real person, but it only answered half of my questions so i kept searching.

The third link refused to let me in unless I turned off my adblocker (ew, no).

The fourth link seemed promising because it cited the third, blocked link for it’s information! … until I read it and realized it was info and exact wording from the second link that had been run through AI.

The Information Age has officially ended and the internet is broken. If ¾ of the top links even firefox search brings back are AI and/or piggybacking off each other’s work, Why Even Bother.

I would hate for my work on this site to be regurgitated elsewhere (though I’m sure it already has), but I put nowhere near the amount of effort into this blog as the average journalist does on an article, and that’s their career. Let alone an author or screenwriter whose worlds, characters, and catchphrases are being peddled by thieves on Etsy!

[rainbowcrate]

🌈 What’s COMING OUT (pun intended) this February? Which books are you excited for? Which books are you adding to your TBR? Any other queer releases you know of?

Note: Some dates may have changed. We haven’t read all of these books, so please check reviews for more details on queer identities represented and check StoryGraph for content warnings!

1st

The Paper Boys by D.P. Clarence 

We Ate the Dark by Mallory Pearson (Author’s IG confirms release date as Feb 1)

Tristan by Jesse Roman

Dead Ringer by Robyn Nyx

2nd

Fairest of All by A.D. Ellis

Heart2Heart: A Contemporary Charity Anthology edited by Annabeth Albert

6th

Outsider by Jade du Preez

Truthfully, Yours by Caden Armstrong

How to Live Free in a Dangerous World: A Decolonial Memoir by Shayla Lawson

Ways and Means by Daniel Lefferts

V is for Valentine by Thomas Grant Bruso

A Vicious Game (The Halfing Saga #3) by Melissa Blair

The Cursed Rose (The Bone Spindle #3) by Leslie Vedder

Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly (Republished for US, originally out in Aus only)

Skater Boy by Anthony Nerada

Bless the Blood: A Cancer Memoir by Walela Nehanda

Cross My Candy Heart by A.C. Thomas

The Absinthe Underground by Jamie Pacton.

Who We Are in Real Life by Victoria Koops

Relit: 16 Latinx Remixes of Classic Stories edited by Sandra Proudman

How the Boogeyman Became a Poet by Tony Keith

Crushed Ice (Hockey Ever After #4) by Ashlyn Kane & Morgan James

No Time Like Now by Naz Kutub.

Somacultural Liberation: An Indigenous, Two-Spirit Somatic Guide to Integrating Cultural Experiences Toward Freedom by Dr. Roger Kuhn

Daniel, Deconstructed by James Ramos

The Tainted Cup (Shadow of the Leviathan #1) by Robert Jackson Bennett

Clarion Call (Ravensong #2)  by Cayla Fay

King Cheer by Molly Horton Booth, Stephanie Kate Strohm and Jamie Green

Your Shadow Half Remains by Sunny Moraine 

Infinity Alchemist by Kacen Callender

7th

Of Socialites & Prizefights by Arden Powell

Stormbringer by Erinn Harper

Vengeance Planning for Amateurs by Lee Winter

9th

Awakenings (The Chronicles of Nerezia #1) by Claudie Arseneault

12th

A Saga of Shields & Shadows by A.J. Shirley

13th

Blood Rage (The S.P.E.A.R. Mission Files #3) by Ileandra Young

What Feasts At Night (Sworn Soldier #2) by T. Kingfisher

When Tomorrow Comes by D. Jackson Leigh

The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles (Mossa & Pleiti #2) by Malka Ann Older

You Had Me at Merlot by Melissa Brayden

Bunt! Striking Out on Financial Aid by Ngozi Ukazu & Mad Rupert

I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition by Lucy Sante

Ghost Town by R.E. Ward 

The White and Blue Between Us by Kiyuhiko

Guide Us Home by CF Frizzell & Jesse J. Thoma

Bugsy & Other Stories by Rafael Frumkin

How You Get the Girl by Anita Kelly

*This Day Changes Everything by Edward Underhill. *NOTE: this cover is not shown due to the ongoing St. Martin’s Press publicity boycott (not a buy boycott, though! Please support queer authors)

Call of the Sea by Emily B. Rose

The Rewind by Nicole Stiling 

Lost Harbor by Kimberly Cooper Griffin

The Friendship Study by Ruby Barrett

Never a Bridesmaid by Spencer Greene

An Education in Malice by S. T. Gibson.

Good Christian Girls by Elizabeth Bradshaw

The Fox Maidens by Robin Ha

Hannah Tate, Beyond Repair by Laura Piper Lee

The Terrible by Tessa Crowley

Turning Point by Cathy Dunnell

Blackmailer’s Delight by David Lawrence

14th

Peaceful in the Dark by A.A. Fairview

15th

The Night Alphabet by Joelle Taylor

16th

Bloom by N.R. Walker

Sign Me Up by C.H. Williams

Queer Newark: Stories of Resistance, Love and Community edited by Whitney Strub

Samson & Domingo by Gume Laurel III

19th

Entwined: Essays on Polyamory and Creating Homeout ther by Alex Alberto

20th

We Got the Beat by Jenna Miller.

Remedial Magic by Melissa Marr

Lies that Bind by Rae Knowles & April Yates

We Are Only Ghosts by Jeffrey L. Richards

Surfer Girl by Alex Winters

Season of Eclipse by Terry Wolverton

Love and Hot Chicken by Mary Liza Hartong

Disciples of Chaos (Seven Faceless Saints #2) by M.K. Lobb

The Star We Sail BY by Glenn Quigley

To Cage a God by Elizabeth May

Tile M for Murder by Felicia Carparelli 

For the Stolen Fates (In the City of Time #2) by Gwendolyn Clare

These Haunted Hills by Jana Denardo

Out There by Iris Eliot

At Her Service by Amy Spalding

The Diablo’s Curse (Spin off to The Wicked Bargain) by Gabe Cole Novoa22

Blessings by Chukwuebuka Ibeh

23rd

Prove It by Stephanie Holt

How to Marry a Lich by Lizzie Strong

27th

Redsight by Meredith Mooring

Daughter of the Bone Forest by Jasmine Skye

Born of Scourge by S. Jean

Green Dot by Madeleine Gray 

Mewing by Chloe Spencer

The Moorings of Mackerel Sky by M.Z. Emily Zack

28th

Impulse Buy (A Bachelorette Number Twelve Short story sequel) by Jae

29th

A Taste of Earth by Nico Silver

Goddess of the Sea (Lesbians, Pirates & Dragons #2) by Britney Jackson

Live for you, Die With You (Heaven #1) by Kalob Dàniel

ID: A post of eight slides. Background is made up of a 6-stripe rainbow for each slide. Slide one has a white square which reads “94 queer books coming out in February!”. The 94 is in matching rainbow stripes and January is in purple. Text between the number and month are all caps black font. Subsequent slides feature a white grid outline with a column on the left that has the release date in white over a grey rectangle and book covers in three rows of 4 book covers each. End ID.