[noksims]

Painting list - Sims 4 (Updated)

I'm sorry, but I entirely forgot about this and figured I had to complete the full list!

I'm super lazy and got tired of having to check the gallery or have my sim constantly travel around to figure out if I had painted everything, so I decided to extract all the paintings from the sims 4 studio and well here we are. Also here's a link to download the entire folder, everything is already organized. There's also a folder called Unknown, I'm just too lazy to edit it out so basically not sure if they are paintings or not, just let me know if anyone figures it out.

Anyway I'm happy that I could update this for you guys!

Angry

Confident

Figure

Flirty

Focused

Grilled Cheese - Hidden Aspiration (Completed)

Landscape

Playful

Sad

Abstract

Classic

Illustrative

Impressionisme

Pop Art

Realism

Surrealism

[bone-cathedral]

[bogleech]

The Fungus That Turns Ants Into Zombies Is More Diabolical Than We Realized

Carpenter ants of the Brazilian rain forest have it rough. When one of these insects gets infected by a certain fungus, it turns into a so-called “zombie ant” and is no longer in control of its actions.

Science wasn’t actually certain how fungi like cordyceps “hijacked” their host’s behavior, and we always kind of assumed it was causing some relatively simplistic damage to the brain, but now it seems the truth is much more like all the dramatized versions of it in sci-fi horror.

These fungi integrate themselves on the cellular level with the host’s tissues all throughout their body, actually seem to send signals to the host’s muscles and even alter the host’s genes with their own.

And all the while, it turns out THE BRAIN ISN’T TAKEN OVER AT ALL.

These fungi, all along, have been converting their hosts into animal-fungal hybrids they control while the host’s brain and consciousness remain helplessly alive and largely unaltered.

[oldmosswoman]

[mybroomstickcloset-deactivated2]

Fairy rings occupy a prominent place in European folklore as the location of gateways into elfin kingdoms, or places where elves gather and dance. According to the folklore, a fairy ring appears when a fairy, pixie, or elf appears. It will disappear without trace in less than five days, but if an observer waits for the elf to return to the ring, he or she may be able to capture it. They are soooooo beautiful!

[igatherthedead]

fairy rings are usually caused by decaying organic matter, generally a tree stump. many types of fungi have symbiotic relationships with tree roots and mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of such fungus. So if a huge old tree was cut down, you’ll often find fairy rings. they can last for years and years as the earth  reabsorbs all the nutrients left behind by the beautiful tree.

sorry, didn’t mean to crush dreams - but i have a degree in horticulture and i was really excited when i first learned this.

maybe fairies and fungi are joining together to mourn the loss of the tree

xo

[notcuddles]

NO BUT FINDING OUT ABOUT WHY FAIRY RINGS EXIST IS ALSO REALLY COOL.

[wbqotd]

In a world where Jesus never existed, any ideas for what kind of event would mark the start of year one?

Here are a few ideas that could mark the start of year one to get you started: 

The founding of your world’s major religion.

The current sovereign (or other government) coming into power.

A particularly significant sovereign/government coming into power.

The birth of a particularly powerful individual (e.g. founder of a country, a chosen one, etc) 

The creation of the world or humanity (or the year it was believed they were created). 

The founding of an empire, country or major city. 

A major military victory (or loss, if they were conquered).

The day a rebel group overthrew the government.

Switching from one type of government to another (e.g. a monarchy to a democracy). 

A major disaster or apocalyptic event.

The creation/discovery of a significant piece of technology.

The creation, discovery or disappearance of magic. 

The extinction of a previously dominate or powerful species (elves, dragons, etc). 

A few other thoughts:

Don’t be afraid of having multiple years ones. Regnal systems (where you count from the year a monarch came into power, and then start again when a new monarch comes into power) are pretty common historically. 

Consider whether your system has a ‘year zero’

Consider whether different groups in your world use different calenders. 

If any one has any additional ideas feel free to chip in. 

[thewritershandbook]

Common Occupations in the Middle Ages

Almoners: ensured the poor received alms.

Atilliator: skilled castle worker who made crossbows.

Baliff: in charge of allotting jobs to the peasants, building repair, and repair of tools used by the peasants.

Barber: someone who cut hair. Also served as dentists, surgeons and blood-letters.

Blacksmith: forged and sharpened tools and weapons, beat out dents in armor, made hinges for doors, and window grills. Also referred to as Smiths.

Bottler: in charge of the buttery or bottlery.

Butler: cared for the cellar and was in charge of large butts and little butts (bottles) of wine and beer. Under him a staff of people might consist of brewers, tapsters, cellarers, dispensers, cupbearers and dapifer.

Carder: someone who brushed cloth during its manufacture.

Carpenter: built flooring, roofing, siege engines, furniture, panelling for rooms, and scaffoling for building.

Carters: workmen who brought wood and stone to the site of a castle under construction.

Castellan: resident owner or person in charge of a castle (custodian).

Chamberlain: responsible for the great chamber and for the personal finances of the castellan.

Chaplain: provided spirtual welfare for laborers and the castle garrison. The duties might also include supervising building operations, clerk, and keeping accounts. He also tended to the chapel.

Clerk: a person who checked material costs, wages, and kept accounts.

Constable: a person who took care (the governor or warden) of a castle in the absence of the owner. This was sometimes bestowed upon a great baron as an honor and some royal castles had hereditary constables.

Cook: roasted, broiled, and baked food in the fireplaces and ovens.

Cottars: the lowest of the peasantry. Worked as swine-herds, prison guards, and did odd jobs.

Ditcher: worker who dug moats, vaults, foundations and mines.

Dyer: someone who dyed cloth in huge heated vats during its manufacture.

Ewerer: worker who brought and heated water for the nobles.

Falconer: highly skilled expert responsible for the care and training of hawks for the sport of falconry.

Fuller: worker who shrinks & thickens cloth fibers through wetting & beating the material.

Glaziers: a person who cut and shaped glass.

Gong Farmer: a latrine pit emptier.

Hayward:  someone who tended the hedges.

Herald: knights assistant and an expert advisor on heraldry.

Keeper of the Wardrobe: in charge of the tailors and laundress.

Knight: a professional soldier. This was achieved only after long and arduous training which began in infancy.

Laird: minor baron or small landlord.

Marshal: officer in charge of a household’s horses, carts, wagons, and containers. His staff included farriers, grooms, carters, smiths and clerks. He also oversaw the transporting of goods.

Master Mason: responsible for the designing and overseeing the building of a structure.

Messengers: servants of the lord who carried receipts, letters, and commodities.

Miner: skilled professional who dug tunnels for the purpose of undermining a castle.

Minstrels: part of of the castle staff who provided entertainment in the form of singing and playing musical instruments.

Porter: took care of the doors (janitor), particularly the main entrance. Responsible for the guardrooms. The person also insured that no one entered or left the castle withour permission. Also known as the door-ward.

Reeve: supervised the work on lord’s property. He checked that everyone began and stopped work on time, and insured nothing was stolen. Senior officer of a borough.

Sapper: an unskilled person who dug a mine or approach tunnel.

Scullions: responsible for washing and cleaning in the kitchen.

Shearmen: a person who trimmed the cloth during its manufacture.

Shoemaker: a craftsman who made shoes. Known also as Cordwainers.

Spinster: a name given to a woman who earned her living spinning yarn. Later this was expanded and any unmarried woman was called a spinster.

Steward: took care of the estate and domestic administration. Supervised the household and events in the great hall. Also referred to as a Seneschal.

Squire: attained at the age of 14 while training as a knight. He would be assigned to a knight to carry and care for the weapons and horse.

Watchmen: an official at the castle responsible for security. Assited by lookouts (the garrison).

Weaver: someone who cleaned and compacted cloth, in association with the Walker and Fuller.

Woodworkers: tradesmen called Board-hewers who worked in the forest, producing joists and beams.

Other medieval jobs included:

tanners, soap makers, cask makers, cloth makers, candle makers (chandlers), gold and silver smiths, laundresses, bakers, grooms, pages, huntsmen, doctors, painters, plasterers, and painters, potters, brick and tile makers, glass makers, shipwrights, sailors, butchers, fishmongers, farmers, herdsmen, millers, the clergy, parish priests, members of the monastic orders, innkeepers, roadmenders, woodwards (for the forests). slingers. Other Domestic jobs inside the castle or manor:

Personal atendants- ladies-in-waiting, chamber maids, doctor.

The myriad of people involved in the preparation and serving of meals- brewers, poulterer, fruiterers, slaughterers, dispensers, cooks and the cupbearers.

By Lise Hull READ MORE

[headspace-hotel]

There is a type of plot that is prevalent in YA books and starting to get into general lit that I do not like. It is a similar trope to the MacGuffin, but instead of the plot being driven by an object, it is driven by the characters being in some sort of situation with formally fixed stakes.

Just as a MacGuffin is an object with no specific properties that affect its importance to the story, the identifying characteristic of this plot is that exact nature of the situation is irrelevant or at least not very important.

A very common example is when characters are involved in some sort of game or competition—for example, the first Throne of Glass book involves the protagonist competing to become the king's assassin, but the plot of the book would need to change very little if the competition was a beauty pageant.

"Gamified" plot lines like this often also include MacGuffins (to drive the "game"), confirming the tropes' similarity in my head.

The other common example is the "magic/superhero/assassin school" plot. The "school" is often just a device that brings the characters together and keeps them on a predetermined track, but there's nothing about what the characters are learning or even the school's specific identity as an educational institution that affects the plot.

[headspace-hotel]

so here's what i'm talking about:

The Hunger Games is NOT an example of this. The specific nature of the "games" drives and affects the plot on every level: it threatens the immediate survival of the characters, defines the culture and politics of the world, and affects the characters' relationship with each other. How the Hunger Games came to be, how tributes are selected, how the games are filmed and broadcast, and the "rules" of the game are all relevant.

But some of the successors of THG picked up the "formal game/competition" aspect and jammed it into their stories as a kind of pre-cast mold for the plot and stakes. This sucks and it's annoyingly commonplace.

These plots are probably attractive because they let authors avoid, or at least postpone, the hard questions about character motivation and stakes by trapping the character within an institution or binding arrangement of some kind.

When you're in college, you can offload most of your motivation to do things onto their utility in helping you graduate. However, as a college student, you also regularly face the question, "Why don't I drop out and become a stripper?"

Okay, that question is a stand-in for the general "why am I doing this, and why don't I leave?" but I think it's a good test to apply to stories where a protagonist older than like 15-16 attends an Institution.

Does your character think about "dropping out and becoming a stripper [or whatever is appropriate for their world and age group]?"

If so, why don't they?

If the answer is "they literally Cannot leave," you Must include this in your awareness of the kind of story you are writing. Your character is trapped in a coercive situation, and it makes sense for this to affect them in some way.

What you must Not do is use the coercive nature of the situation to "bury" the question of your character's motivation.

You must also be prepared to write About Institutions and to do so consciously. If a formal structure or coercive force is needed to prevent your character from fucking off out of the story entirely, that's a conflict and friction that underlies everything else. You can write this kind of story without explicitly tapping that conflict, but if you're trying to do something like that and it's???? very? hard??? it's worth looking into this as the reason why.

[headspace-hotel]

There's something here about how people have learned to be unable to see the The Friction as a "conflict" in a storytelling sense. Really, all of us are part of at least one Structure that would kill us for trying to leave.

Interpreting this in literature sounds very similar to what's called a Marxist reading of a book.

[headspace-hotel]

I'm writing this out partially because if you grew up on YA books, it's Super Easy to reproduce tropes as a baby writer that work or don't work depending on an element you don't know exists and that isn't taught.

This one in particular led me down into a bout of writer's block that I ultimately never solved, back when I was 15 or so. I hit a wall that can be described as "my character is basically in a cult, she doesn't have any of the tools to escape it, and the plot requires her to" and I realized this, but I did not have the vocabulary to make sense of what the problem was—she had what seemed like sufficient MOTIVATION to escape the cult, but she COULDN'T, because psychologically she could not do it, and therefore I could not make her do it.

The dominant narrative of writer's block was "push through it and ignore it," and this killed the entire project for me, because my inability to "make" her do the thing she wanted deep down was completely puzzling.

And this was because I hadn't intentionally designed her situation as a cult, and it hadn't occurred to me that there was a unique psychological aspect to being in a cult, because it was so similar to the books I was reading at the time—YA books with characters being driven through very structured, authoritarian institutions like a complex system of pipes.

There is, again, hella commentary on the society that writes these stories here, and it occurs to me that the whole idea of "motivation" as the main driver of a character's actions is very in line with rugged-individualism and capitalism.

It assumes a character is an independent, rational agent that acts to pursue an external goal, focusing on the character's agency and desire to obtain "something" they do not have.

The fatal flaw of this paradigm is very simple: real people have limited agency, do not know what they want, and do not act rationally, and well-written, complex characters usually reflect this.

In Othello, the titular character loves Desdemona and wants to be loved by her, but Iago toys with and amplifies his fear and mistrust, and he ends up murdering her instead. It is not useful or really even correct to say that Othello has a goal, or that he is motivated by desire for something; if you do frame it that way, you have to explain why his actions actively sabotage the thing he wants, and this explanation is likely to shift the "agency" onto Iago, and be very awkward in exploring Othello. I use Othello as an example because for me, it was a viscerally hard-hitting story about a character whose marginalization had made his approach to relationships deeply dysfunctional, because his constant awareness of his marginalization sabotaged his ability to trust.

You can say a great variety of things about Shakespeare's portrayal being racist or not, but his understanding of the experience of being "othered" hit like a ford f-350 being driven by a drunk wannabe redneck. And that's the main quality that I think makes Shakespeare enduring? The man had a DEEP understanding of the ways people have Something Wrong With Them and specifically could portray people doing wildly irrational things and show why it made sense for them to.

This was one of the things that I, as a baby writer, knew so crisply I could taste it, but simply did not have the words for—what a character wants is rarely what they think they want or what they have the mental and emotional tools to pursue, and it often doesn't make sense for them to have enough insight into themselves to make actions oriented toward a goal that aligns with their "wants." "Motivation" in the sense of an external goal or explicit desire is used interchangeably with "motivation" in the sense of driving emotions and urges, and those are VERY, VERY DIFFERENT.

[official-cisphobe]

here's a random word generator--whatever word it gives you is now the thing you are the deity of

[random-questions-fairy]

Oh my gosh. I just found this website that walks you though creating a believable society. It breaks each facet down into individual questions and makes it so simple! It seems really helpful for worldbuilding!

[theredscreech]

Heads up that this is a very extensive questionnaire and might be daunting to a lot of writers (myself included). That being said, it is also an amazing questionnaire and I will definitely be using it (or at the very least, some of it).

[heroineimages]

Bookmarking this…

[tired-fandom-ndn]

Extremely nitpicky but I hate white wedding gowns in fantasy, especially when they make absolutely no sense in the setting. No, that culture in the far north that prioritizes function over form and mostly wears heavy furs would not have the means, ability, or desire to make a sleeveless ivory silk gown with a semi-sweetheart neckline. Please be sensible about this and use your creativity instead of just slapping a Kleinfeld wedding gown into a medieval fantasy setting.

[tired-fandom-ndn]

Here's some tricks to making interesting fantasy wedding dresses:

Focus on the things that indicate wealth and prosperity in your fantasy culture.

What materials would your bride have access to and what would make the most sense for her to wear?

What colors are not only beautiful and culturally significant, but also require expensive or rare dyes?

What imagery could be used in patterns that are relevant to the culture (animals, plants, family crests, etc)?

What skills could be displayed in the making of the gown (beadwork, embroidery, fabric painting, etc)?

What interesting and unique materials can you add that are relevant to the culture (fur, leather, bones, plants, shells, etc)?

Would your culture be more focused on the amount of material, things like trains and heavy lairs, or on the quality and detail?

What will happen to the gown after the wedding (worn for other events, turned into household materials, turned into other clothing, etc) and are there details to it that make any other functions easier?

What other things make the bride stand out (veils, headdresses, jewelry, makeup, body paint, hairstyles, outerwear, etc)?

Is it more important in your culture for the gown to be made by other people (showing off wealth) or by the bride and/or her family (showing off the bride's talents)?

[tired-fandom-ndn]

For a quick example:

If your wedding ceremony requires the bride to walk through a cold and snowy forest for cultural or religious rites, she would freeze her poor tits off in a sleeveless silk gown. Instead, consider a heavy wool gown in rich colors with elaborate embroidery and a thick cloak, maybe hooded, made of fine furs to show off her family's wealth. Jewelry, headpieces, and detailing on the gown could be made with things carved from stones, wood, antlers, and/or bones, especially if it's a culture that prizes hunting skills. Maybe a heavy veil that isn't just beautiful but also helps protect her face from biting winds during the journey.

[memories-of-ancients]

Portable prayer wheel decorated with silver, jade, rubies, turquoise, and other semi-precious stones, Mongolia or Tibet, 17th-18th century

from The Walters Art Museum

[headspace-hotel]

Have noticed that differences between humans and fantasy races or beings tend to fall neatly into either “physiology” or “culture,” so here, some ideas for how fantasy beings can differ from humans in their thinking and perception:

They all have synesthesia. All of them. There are lots of forms of synesthesia, so, plenty of angles to explore. Imagine a species for whom numbers, calendar days, and other abstract concepts just...have colors and smells, and it’s hard for them to understand how people...think about things otherwise. Or maybe they can’t understand the distinctions others make between, for instance, sound and visual stimuli. The linguistic rules that say an image can be “blurry” but a smell can’t are incomprehensible to them. It gets even more interesting if the associations are in some ways consistent between members of the species.

More ideas for sense perception, possibly applicable to the synesthetic species: What if, just like we have a large number of senses but sort them into five (pain, touch, and proprioception are not the same senses, but we categorize them all as ‘touch!’) they don’t have categories for ‘types’ of sense perception, at all. In their own language(s), they can describe their experiences to others this way, but they have to learn to be able to clarify for non-members of their species whether they saw something or heard it.

Superhuman time sense, or no time sense. The fascinating thing about humans is that we can percieve time based purely on internal cues, but we’re kind of bad at it—we often have to count to give exact measurements of seconds, and we’re prone to not realizing how long or how late we’ve been doing something. Perhaps a fantasy being can percieve time in a more exact fashion—which could lead to amusement about how humans’ time sense tends to warp relative to how much fun they’ve been having. Or, perhaps a fantasy being can’t perceive time at all without external cues (for example, sunrise and sunset). This would make being isolated from those cues, like if they were trapped in a dungeon, incredibly scary and disorienting. They would also have a difficult time if they were asked, “How many days were you trapped down there in the dungeon?” They would probably respond, “There weren’t any! It was dark!”

A telepathic species, but they don’t have a “hive mind” or no sense of individuality. It makes sense that it would take an active effort to “read” someone’s thoughts, past just noticing how they’re feeling or the general “trend” of their thoughts. So it would be cool to have a telepathic species with, y’know, a sense of boundaries regarding thoughts. It’s probably a lot like touch in humans—certain levels of closeness or intimacy are permissible in certain levels of relationship, and a lot would be inappropriate with a stranger. Yes, they technically can sift through your memories, but why would you do that, what the fuck is wrong with you. For humans, rape is practically the worst thing you can do to a person. Among this species, entering someone else’s mind and viewing or actually tampering with someone’s thoughts is just as absolutely abhorrent, except that they probably have many different levels of unacceptable and unthinkable acts of violation that we can’t meaningfully distinguish in our languages. Among these beings, friends might share pleasant thoughts and experiences, relationships are a subtle interplay of feelings and thoughts and images. Being allowed to go deeper into someone’s mind is always a huge deal. Yes, members of this species might occasionally be recruited to pry information out of people, but doing that is just so vile to the vast majority that it’s not at all a common thing, even if only because the punishments are so severe.

A species whose memory just doesn’t degrade. Everything that goes into their memory remains perfectly preserved for...well, ever. They’re fascinated by, and a little suspicious of, the way human memories seem to change over time, how anecdotes humans tell have little inconsistencies in them, and how humans can straight up forget things. It seems like a terrifyingly chaotic way to live.

Alternatively, a species whose way of encoding and storing memories is just...different. It’s pretty weird, when you think about it, that mnemonic devices...work. Like, singing a song or saying a nonsense rhyme to remember information? “Thirty days hath September” is easier to remember than just...remembering which months have which number of days? Imagine being a member of a fantasy race that just...can’t?? remember things?? That way? Then they catch a human trying to alphabetize something and singing the ABC’s under their breath and they’re like “what the FUCK are you DOING”

A species that doesn’t really have “stages” of emotional or cognitive development. Like maybe their brains develop before they hatch or emerge or whatever, but once they’re conscious, they pretty much have an adult brain. The fact that humans spend part of their lives cognitively limited and unable to regulate their emotions because they’re underdeveloped, and not because of a lack of experience, is very bizarre, and the fact that being out in the world, making bad decisions with that half-developed brain, is in fact necessary for humans to develop properly is even weirder and honestly a little freaky.