A scene from chapter 11 of Why the Caged Bird Sings (part 2 of The Butterfly Effect) by @delicateartisantrash (who has emergency art comissions open). This is exactly what happened, right?
Based on a screenshot of the boat scene from episode 21. I’m not a fan of how this turned out (and how long it took) but even one more hour of trying to fix stuff I don’t like might drive me insane.
I got so many great entries for the DTIYS event! (And even more that were still in-progress... If you guys ever finish those, I would love to see!)
For now, let's appreciate all the contest participants and vote on your favorites!!!
(I tried re-uploading this FOUR TIMES, with several mistakes and I got it right but tumblr wouldn't post it... Why. Anyway, this should be the final line-up! Sorry for the inconvenience!)
Pixel art I made a couple of years ago in KoalaPainter, one of the oldest drawing programs for personal computers I could find. It was released in 1983 with a KoalaPad tablet. The version I used has limitations specific to Commodore 64’s Multicolor Bitmap mode: the canvas consists of 4 × 8 areas (8 × 8 if you ignore the fact that pixels have a 2:1 aspect ratio) that can contain only up to 4 colors, including the background (can be changed only with the Xcolor tool). Also, the image would get squished a little on a CRT monitor but I failed to consider that. Maybe next time.
If you want to give it a try yourself, there is a short tutorial below the cut.
To run KoalaPainter, just drag KOALAPAINTER.CRT on x64sc.exe (it’s in the bin folder).
To set up the controls, go to Preferences → Settings → Input devices → Control Port and select KoalaPad for Control Port #1. Exit the menu and press Alt+M (a shortcut to toggle input grab). You can use your graphics tablet as a mouse if the drivers allow it.
To switch between the canvas and tools, move the cursor below the screen and left click.
To save your images, you need to either create a new disc image (File → Create and attach an empty disk image) or attach an existing one (File → Attach disk image → Drive #… and click Attach / Load). Go to the tool screen → Storage and click Save, then select a save slot. To open a saved image, click Get instead of Save.
To export the images, drag the save file into the DirMaster window, double click on your image name, and select File → Export.
Another thing I did was download www.colodore.com as HTML and edit images.js to include my drawing to see what it would’ve looked like on a monitor of that time...
There are styles way more interesting and expressive than semi-realism but Vincenzo’s mutations reminded me of stuff I used to paint four or five years ago, so I just had to use it again.
The sketch is below the cut. If there is anything at all you want to know about the process, feel free to ask! I’ll take any excuse to talk about it.
A sketch of Kuras from Touchstarved. I’m not really happy with it but in my defence, I had to finish it with the “eraser” end of the stylus because the nib suddenly stopped reacting to anything other than maximum pressure. In better news, I managed to run the game on my phone.
On Android devices with Adreno GPUs, Winlator does the job. It took me a little over a week to figure this out because I may have damaged the game’s files somehow (redownloading it fixed everything), so I was on a goose chase looking for solutions to a problem that wasn’t real. I’m so done...
There are a few things you need to know before you download Winlator.
Is Winlator safe?
In version 10.0 (Hotfix), some internal programs were recompiled to address reports of a TestD3D.exe being infected with a floxif virus. There is no floxif in the VirusTotal results for the new TestD3D. While they show trojans now, threat labels look like false positives which seem common for Wine binaries. It could partially be because of vendors’ use of AI: when I transferred Winlator’s internal files to a PC and scanned them in Malwarebytes with AI detection off, TestD3D wasn’t flagged. The AV still suspected just about every .exe there (all generic Malware.Sandbox.1; it reacted the same to MiceWine’s). On the other hand, nothing at all was flagged by ESET. In the end, download at your own discretion.
Is my device supported?
Depends on the GPU. If yours is an Adreno, then most likely yes. There is a list for supported and unsupported Mali ones. Also, Touchstarved requires DirectX 10 while Mali GPUs generally cooperate only with DirectX 9 or below. The developer added some workarounds in version 10.1 that might work for you.
Why not use another emulator?
Here’s a fun thing about trying to run Touchstarved on Android: I’m 99% sure that the transition to the splash screen (the one with ‘press any button’) is a video file because of GStreamer-related errors I got in Winlator. Compatibility tools that are not able to play it don’t let you access the rest of the game: in MiceWine, Mobox, DarkOS, and GameSir GameHub, the music was there but the screen remained black after the Unity logo. It didn’t matter what components’ versions or presets were used. Termux-based tools didn’t care what packages I installed. I don’t know what it is that makes Touchstarved work in Winlator.
How to use Winlator?
Download the Windows release of Touchstarved.
Download and install Winlator (I used 10.0). Grant it storage permissions when prompted.
Create a new container (‘⋮≡’ → Containers → ‘+’). If you have an Adreno GPU, change the graphic driver it uses to Turnip, otherwise you’ll get a ‘Failed to initialize player’ error when trying to run Touchstarved.
When the container is created, start it and wait for a bit for the file explorer to open. From there, navigate to the archive. It should be in drive D.
Extract the archive by “right clicking” it (keep one finger on screen while short tapping with another) and selecting 7-zip → Extract to Folder in the menu.
Navigate to TOUCHSTARVED.exe. I recommend you create a shortcut before running it (Right click → Create Shortcut).
I followed ZeroKimchi’s advice and used a Box64 preset with BOX64_DYNAREC_CALLRET off (I’m pretty sure you can just set it to 0 in Shortcuts → ‘⋮’ → Settings → Environment Variables). I also put ‘-force-gfx-direct -force-d3d11-singlethread’ in Exec Arguments (Shortcuts → ‘⋮’ → Settings → Advanced) just in case.
How to open a keyboard inside the container?
Swipe from the left side of the screen to right. A menu with an option to bring up a keyboard will open.
How to prevent the game from crashing?
Where are the save files stored?
From the built-in explorer, the same as in Windows: ‘C:/users/xuser/AppData/LocalLow/Red Spring Studio/TOUCHSTARVED/NaninovelData/TouchstarvedSaves/’. Drive C is in ‘data/data/com.winlator/files/rootfs/home/xuser-1/.wine/drive_c/’. You can change the saves’ location to a different drive with Ajay-prefix. Winlator recognizes save files made on PC and vice versa.
How to access Winlator’s internal files?
Unless you have root access, only through Winlator’s file explorer or Android Studio’s Device Explorer (PC needed). ADB commands (PC needed) should work but I kept getting a ‘No such file or directory’ error.
A sketch of Kane and Entity from Lovers Paranoia demo / @loversparanoia. I went through a bit of an emulator madness to play it on my phone (Android). Long story short, if JoiPlay doesn’t cooperate, consider MiceWine; long story long is under the cut. The irony of this happening because of a fictional tech guy is not lost on me.
At first I tried JoiPlay (an RPGM technically-not-emulator with a Ren’Py plugin) like a normal person but the way it handled prompts to press specific keys defeated me: JoiPlay’s virtual keyboard was completely ignored by the game, and the gamepad worked only for Ren’Py shortcuts no matter what I did.
Look up your device’s GPU. If it’s not an Adreno, mentally prepare for none of this to work.
I looked for another compatibility tool and chose MiceWine for now. If you, at your own discretion, decide to use it, here’s what you should do:
Download MiceWine and a RootFS file (you don’t need root access, the file is called that because it’s used to generate a base for OS files — root filesystem). I chose MiceWine v0.3.0 (according to Zerokimchi, v0.3.1 is broken) and MiceWine-RootFS-.feb3603.-aarch64.rat.
Install MiceWine and follow its instructions: allow it access to manage all files, select the RootFS file using the built in file manager. It should be in ‘D:/Download/’.
Download and unpack a Windows release of the game you wish to play! There is a good chance that your file manager can extract ZIP archives but if not, you can use something like ZArchiver.
Launch the game by selecting the EXE file through MiceWine’s file manager. A window with launch settings will pop up. Enable Wine Virtual Desktop! If you have an Adreno GPU, that should be it. If not, try changing the driver from Mesa Turnip Driver to Mesa Android Wrapper in the settings. Confirm the change and wait for about a minute.
It might not work on non-Adreno GPUs. You can try settings mentioned here (Mesa Android Wrapper (Rev 9) 24.2.5, DXVK 1.10.6-Sarek-Stripped-Requirements, and VKD3D 2.14.1 can be downloaded through Settings → Rat Package Downloader). People also mention toggling BOX64_MMAP32 (Settings → Box64 Preset Manager → ‘⋮’ → Edit).
If the game opens, hooray! By the way, you can use save files created in JoiPlay if you move them from ‘[game]/saves/’ to ‘[game]/game/saves/’.
Now to the key press prompts. Solution 1: Resize and move the game’s window (move cursor to the window’s boarder, tap and hold anywhere on the screen, then begin dragging) and open a virtual keyboard (swipe from the left side of the screen to right, select Open Keyboard in the menu).
Solution 2: Use a custom controller overlay.
Go to Settings → Virtual Controller Mapper, click on the ‘+’ icon at the bottom, and name your preset. After confirming, it will appear on the list.
Click ‘⋮’ next to the new preset and choose Edit from a drop down menu. An empty screen with a grid will appear.
Swipe from the left side of the screen to right (the same gesture as for opening a keyboard mid-game) and select Add button.
To edit any button, select it and click on a vague dark shape at the very top right, right in the corner. A window will pop up.
Select a key in Button Mapping. When an overlay is on, tapping on screen to continue no longer works, so I recommend adding ‘Enter’. For Lovers Paranoia specifically, the rest of the buttons should be ‘E’, ‘A’, ‘S’, ‘D’, ‘F’, and ‘Z’. Ask me how I know.
This is what mine looks like. It’s on Dropbox, just in case.
To use the controller in game, scroll down to Selected Virtual Controller Profile in launch settings, and choose yours. When you run the game again, do the left to right swipe, scroll down, and toggle Open/Close Overlay. Now you should be able to get through the quick time event!
Bonus: Sweet revenge after repeatedly dying in JoiPlay. It’s now my headcanon that we poke the Ommetaphobian to make it leave.
Just upgraded from an AO3 guest to an AO3 user! If you see iyunia in your comments, that’s me. Just in case, this is also me:
• Yulia-Iyunia on Deviantart
• Iyunia on Cara
• Iyunia.bsky.social on BlueSky
If you think you found my other accounts, message this blog to verify them. While I’m not important enough to be impersonated, there are people with the same taste in usernames. Again, just in case, I used to be yulia_iyunia — not iyunia — on former Twitter (I can barely access the site anymore), and never had a Twitch.
you say this like we *don't* want links to Brazilian drift phonk loops from 2022
where the goods at? :eyes:
okay so i am music chaos incarnate and I have like... *several* playlists i'll loop.
So I just took my top ten songs off Spotify that they said i listened to the most most recently or something idk but HERE'S SOME MOOSIC I JAM TO:
Sk8er Boi - Avril Lavigne
2 Shoot to Thrill - AC/DC
Ho Hey - The Lumineers
R.E.D. - The Halluci Nation, Yassin Bey, NARCY, Black Bear
Promentory - Trevor Jones (from Last of the Mohicans)
Sunflower - Post Malone, Swae Lee (from Spider Man into the spiderverse)
We are Young - 30H!3
Shake it Off - Taylor Swift
Habits (Stay High) - Tove Lo
Light up the World - Glee Cast
I gotta be honest i don't think these are the top 10 i have listened to the most over time but i do listen to all of these XD
No pressure tags! Only if you wanna share :3 I'm curious what music you listen to~!
@sinspark4 @sardonic-rose @ss-shitstorm (Yes I tagged u again and yes I'm smirking :eyes:) @iyunia
bonus:
not the one i listen to the most (it's a pretty even split between my loop lists tbh, i play them for different tasks / projects / moods) but certainly one filled with songs i love singing and never get tired of ever. now if i could stop losing my playlist info every ~5 years maybe this time i'll get all my songs on one list again XD
I’m bending the rules a little for I am spotifyless. The songs were randomly selected from arbitrary sections of what barely counts as a playlist (it was never organized properly because I often manually select tracks to get from emotion A to emotion B). The list is under the cut because I had fun with the commentary. It has hyperlinks for convenience.
STUDIO LICO — ALL-IN (TILL.ver). The power! The confidence boost! There is an unofficial mix of AKUGETSU’s (Till) and 6FU’s (Hyuna) versions that I also really like.
syudou — In the Back Room (cover by Erinys). Save me, strong female vocals. I know the song is about succumbing to despair, but pretending to sing and scream along brings me joy for some reason.
Ferry — 100 EPITAPHS. It’s a part of the Parties are for Losers story, and you can hear it in leitmotifs: The Mill close to the beginning, then Occam’s Razor, and STRIKE 3 in the last third. I associate it with grim determination and gloom of an industrial town. If anyone wants to talk about Ferry’s songs, I’m all ears.
Kate Bush — Running Up That Hill (cover by RichaadEB & Annapantsu). Save me, strong female vocals (2).
Kensuke Ushio — Sweet Dreams (arrangement by Pandora Heaven). It feels like something important, inevitable, and potentially devastating is set in motion.
Indila — Love Story (piano cover by Penguin Piano). I love the original, but piano versions generally work better for the sad hours of the day. The sounds of nature in the background are a nice touch.
KOKIA — Fukurou (cover by Sati Akura). Soothing, gentle, and mysterious, almost a lullaby.
Hagali — Mizlecca. A medieval fantasy song in a fictional language that leaves my heart full of wonder and hope.
JACK MATE — JACK BET. This one was found through Zensen who has a lot more for electro swing enjoyers. There is an itch only this genre scratches sometimes. I like how playful and upbeat it sounds.
Swingrowers — No Strings Attached. Some more electro swing.
My Tumblr presence has been nonexistent from 2018 until last year’s summer, so I summon my oldest contact, @dooctheartist!
Financial Emergency Art Comms, OPEN! Request: Please reblog? My plea for help.
If I'm being totally honest and up-front, I actually ran out of food for my kitties for about two days two weeks ago while we scraped together cash in the account; we just haven't had the sales we usually get this winter and early spring, and it's eaten our budget alive. Like everyone else... I'm struggling, and for the first time in a long while, I am genuinely scared. I found out I'm late on a car payment right now (infuriating because I am SO CLOSE to owning it in full, less than $400!! D:), I have more bills coming up, and... We might be losing our house on top of everything, because Family Drama BS.
Commissions start at $10 and go up! My Tip jar is also open!
Ko-fi Commissions Open! Click to see Delicate Artisan Trash's commission menu.
I would deeply appreciate from the bottom of my squishy organic heart, if you'd share this post along if you can't afford to commission me <3 Reblogs are literally my lifeline right now.
(it literally makes me feel ill to ask for reblogs because I feel like i'm begging but you know what, fuck my pride, I will beg for work so I can buy my babies food if that's what it takes. Let me draw u cool stuff? :D Help me find other people who would like me to draw them cool stuff?)
We managed, I stretched out my kitties' pellet food and they got spoiled with some cooked eggs and meat and other goodies, but it really really wasn't what they *should* eat and that scared the shit out of me, honestly. I only just managed to afford to buy food for the cats and then, a week later, I needed to buy food for my birds too (thank fuck i only need to buy their bag of fancy ass organic pellets that won't explode their organs via malnutrition, like once every three months) It's a symptom of a larger problem, one I hope to resolve this year, but right *now* everything is a mess, and I could really use some more art commissions to supplement our income.
The Family Drama Tea is below the cut, if you wish to know about what's going on in my life outside of fandom nerdiness. (Spoiler: Don't Do Business With Family is a really great line of advice. No. Seriously. It is.) It's.... A lot. honestly, it's a lot. I am a tired bean.
Sooo a -very- long story short, it looks like me and my fam and all my furry, scaled, and feathered Symbiotes, are gonna be moving this year. Hopefully, on our terms. Frighteningly possibly, under the conditions of being evicted by my Aunt and Uncle who were supposed to be our partners, and instead pulled the most dickish gaslighting moves to be our Landlords instead. We're likely losing our house for very long and convoluted reasons, and while I'm optimistic things in the end will turn out all right... It's pretty damn scary right now.
The gist of it is; my mom and i don't fully own our house. It was my Great Grandparent's, and when they passed away, it was put into a trust that my mother was a part of. Split between her siblings and her mother, they all got a share of the GG's assets as per Great Grandpa's will.
And then there was the house, and the land around it. And naturally, everyone in the trust wanted their slice of profit / inheritance from the sale of said land as the will said they were entitled to.
As it happened, at that time, my (step)Dad had only just recently passed away, and the household we were living in was literally falling apart at the seams (gotta love that cheap ass nail-gun cut-corners-on-every-cost-possible Boomer Era construction quality amirite?) and sinking into the ground, and the expenses there had gotten ridiculously high.
Moving here was actually a financial smart choices for us; we moved in at almost zero debt when all was said and done, and while we no longer had any kind of nest egg, that was okay because we were making money with our pewter business and my mom travels to sales events. So we were getting by, and things were 'fine.'
Well, at first, it wasn't an option for us. My mom considered it, looked at what we could get selling our current house, and we decided that it wasn't financially possible. There was no way we could purchase the house, from the trust, at fair market value.
Well, long story short, next thing I know and my Mom and her sister brainstormed and voila! They came up with a plan for us to buy the house out from the trust; we would move in, pay for the mortgage and all that fine jazz as the new "owners" of this home, because it was supposed to be our home.
My Aunt and Uncle were basically just co-signing on to help finance the purchase, and my Aunt and Uncle invested capital (most primarily, both my mothers and my aunt's inheritance from the GG's assets) into buying the house from the family. So, my mother put her inheritance right back into the house, so that money all went paid out to the other members of the truste.
Now, the household and property was owned by three people; my mother, my aunt, and my uncle. Or rather... It was supposed to be. ;_;
Supposedly, we got a household that served all our needs flawlessly, kept family land in the family, and everything was hunky-dory amazing. We have been paying the bills like clockwork, but I guess we didn't make our millions fast enough for my Uncle, because...
Well. To put it bluntly, he lied to us. What started as a kind help of family helping family, has over the course of two years turned into a gaslighting mess of "oh I'm so sorry we didn't say this I thought I did! This is how things are now" with no option to actually make that decision together, and not to mention the actual literal terror I've had of being worried my fur and feathered babies were going to be let loose outside (we have coyotes, hawks, owls, eagles, big cats, you name it, my kitties would be Dinner) or killed (spraypainting in the house with birds, after the words 'sensitive respiratory systems' have left the man's lips the night prior, anyone? :D And don't get me started on the vaping indoors with them, or the constant daily reminders of how much They Don't Like My Symbiotes), eveyr time they visited our household.
Fortunately, they live literally across the states from us, so I don't have to deal with them in person often.
Unfortunately, they really fucked us over in this situation and i'm not yet sure how we'll resolve it, but our focus goal at the moment is revolving around "make lots of money, trim down our belongings so we can be Mobile At The Drop Of A Hat, and Look For Somewhere Else To Live"
Because they fucking lied to us.
We just found out that my mother, who is supposed to be a 1/3rds owner of this property, which was supposed to be put into the company of an LLC she and her sister had discussed, agreed to, and my mom's sister was supposed to set up and we do in fact get *mail* addressed to said business name.... Well, it just so happens, my mom's sister never transfered the title. ("Oh I'm so sorry I thought I told you about that? Well it just didn't make sense and I didn't do it" is such a great and wonderful and mature reason to not follow through on an agreed to plan of action. If it DIDN"T MAKE SENSE then WHY DID YOU AGREE TO IT IN THE FIRST PLACE????) And with some other bullshittery in my gloriously convoluted blood family (I love, love, LOVE and TREASURE my found family and those few good beans i'm more closely genetically related to my gods you people are amazing please keep being amazing we need more folks like you and less people like my Aunt and Uncle from their Sitcom Parody they didn't realize was meant to be a fictional script not a how-to guide to life)
Anyhow let's just say, I'm livid and worried that my Aunt's crooked husband, and frankly i guess i have to start viewing my Aunt as her own person and not just blaming her husband for Corrupting Her because She's Her Own Damn Person And Is Making These Choices, basically manipulated my aunt and mom and the whole situation, to set things up nice and tidy so he can fucking attempt to steal the entire inheritance from my mom at the cost of our livelihood and our home. Because they want to build their dream home, and have extended themselves too far with other ventures in the time since we entered into this whole arrangement.
All our finances have been invested into this place. It's a crapshoot. There was a lovely little issue moooooonths and months and months ago now, where my aunt and uncle pressured my mom into signing a "default lease" contract because they "needed it for the bank" for some convoluted fakey reason i honestly do not remember, i just remember warning my mom that it sounded sketchy as fuck (because they specifically stressed it wasn't a real lease and it wasn't going to be an issue and blah blah idc if you tell me it's fictional in the eyes of the court Written Contracts Are Law and that shit is REAL thank you very much) and if she signed the lease as it was written because it wasn't a fancy thing at all it was really just a default form-- well, if she signed it, they could have absolutely had the technical legal power to turn around the next day and gleefully tell me to get rid of all my Symbiotes, because they sent my mom a lease that restricted tenants from having cats / birds / etc wow how coincidentally specific.
So she made a different version that fixed that little issue. And my mom signed THAT version. And my aunt signed a FUCKING DIFFERENT VERSION AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT'S GONNA DO BUT IT'S A MESS I UNDERSTAND ENOUGH LEGAL JARGON AND ABOUT BUSINESS TO KNOW *THAT* AAAAH.
Sorry i just. Had to scream there for a second. I'm chill. Totally. Mostly.
So, back on track; the long long long story made honestly shorter I swear, is that the only people who have their names on our property and home we were supposed to be slowly paying off to own like a psudo renters agreement, are actually our factual Landlords according to what's currently documented and set up by them, and they actually own everything. And my Uncle, has long decided to, and has been, treating us like tenants, not like family, and very much an "I own this place you're just lucky enough to eat out of my hand" (he really got a complex, yo. It's actually pathetically hilarious and abysmally comedic, if it weren't so frustrating I'm actually stuck being involved in business with him that's fucking up our livelihoods)
I.... I can't even begin to state how much this all has affected my mental and emotional health and wellbeing. Finding out that a woman I admired from the single-digits and looked up to my whole danged life, actually views me as a lying and manipulative attention-whore who is ungrateful and selfish, (they think I am lying about my health disabilities, and my Uncle deadass tried to convince my mom and her husband that I was clinically insane and should get a Psyche Evaluation and blah blah blah) was admittedly a pretty big nasty blow to my squishy little heart.
So was finding out that a very happy, wonderful, cherished memory I thought I shared with said formerly adored Aunt, was actually all this time for these last several years, viewed as a horrible experience to her and she lied through her teeth about how much she enjoyed my company, literally encouraging me to walk all over her boundaries and telling me it was okay. Because if you tell me, when I ask you, if you are having fun and wouldn't you rather do something else or etc because I am reading ur body language and I don't think you are having fun so I am checking in because I want u to have fun, and you say "no no I really want you to experience this thing i've done a million times before please seriously go enjoy yourself doing the stupid thing over and over while i watch and relax," I'm... going to believe you? At your word?? Because that's the data you gave me to act on??????
And if you tell me, "honestly, no, i'd rather actually do something else because i am not having fun rn"... then I will act on that information, too, and we can change course go have fun together???
I wasn't even allowed the opportunity to. She let me cluelessly walk all over her happiness and I had no fucking clue except I -did- because I fucking -asked- her because I read her fucking -body language- and honestly this is a great reminder to me to trust myself, trust my instincts, and trust my fucking eyeballs because body language is hard to fake but words can easily lie.
So yeah i've been a big weepy trashfire mess a lot these last two years ^^''' Uuuuuh dunno where I've gotten inspiratio nfor writing my fanfic books ya'll love so much hahahahahaaaaa no clue no sir not a single idea here.... (I'm a fraud I so often ust take IRL events and slap new context on them for that glorious escapism mmmm delicious)
I'm devastated, to put it bluntly. But that's also old news (I found out the way my aunt and uncle really thought about me about, gosh, two years? was it now? not long after we moved in, and i've been worried about our household security and situation for a while, but now we have actual confirmation that Shit's Not Right and it's really the dreaded mess I was worried things might become. Damn do it suck when your paranoia ain't just paranoia :((( i want a refund, pls? plssss?)
The new news, is the confirmation that they are as sketchy, deplorable, gaslighting, manipulative, and dishonest as I was terrified they would be and their sweet honeyed words assured me they were not.
(don't even get me started on me actually trying to Talk To My Uncle to connect with him. You cannot connect on a deep and real level, with someone who cannot even connect with themselves honestly. It was a good, if harsh, learning lesson for me. Ow. Ow ow ow. My heart hurty.)
I'm hopeful that we can still resolve things as peacefully as possible (which is to say, my uncle very much is making Loud Noises about how he'd love to sell the entire property and with his Lack Of Smarts And Impatience he'd do it even if it's possibly at a loss which may well mean they then try to fight my mom to avoid giving her any return of the assets she invested into, y'know, our fucking HOUSE) by way of... just... doing what we're already doing. Making money, paying the bills, trying to save up and get ahead like we're always trying to do, sigh.
I take small, small satisfcation that my swamp almost ate this man. One should not drive heavy equipment into a fucking SWAMP. That skidsteer he rented was a very, very sad muddy and broken-axel'ed mess when the wrecker hauled it out of the mud :') (thankfully, no one was hurt physically [there is no recovering that ego bubble burst :'D], and the damage to the ground... Well. Honestly, he did more harm to the land actually using the skidsteer than they did dragging it out of the poor marsh. Sigh.) I sincerely hoped it scared him into thinking with a little more sense. I am not optimistic on that front admittedly, but I am ever hopeful. It's the second one he's sunk, in the same idiot choice of driving heavy machinery over wetland, if that tells you anything about how this man opperates.
And they thought I was the insane one? Isn't the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?
:SnarkyThinkingEmojiHerePls:
So... yeah, that's the *house* issue.
On top of everything, we took in two new kittens my parents rescued last October... I don't regret this. Really, I don't, because if they didn't rescue those little furballs I guarantee you they would be owl or eagle dinner because that is what happened to the other dozens of kittens and cats abandoned at the park these two little guys came from, and the shelters there were all kill shelters ;-; so... they came home with us. I've got a new brother and sister barely taller than my ankles, and i love them to death.
They're also two more mouths to feed, and because they're kittens, they also needed vaccines (thank fuck, I was able to get these! I found an affordable place to buy the vaccines and we administered them ourselves. That literally dropped the price by hundreds of dollars compared to the vets around me, yikes, plus bonus, no stressful vet visit. It cost me about $100 bucks with shipping, to get my babies their meds), and they're going to need a neuter and spay surgery here very soon. We have the luck of having a brother and sister pair.
The Mortgage payment (that as we just learned isn't even our fucking mortgage like it should be, it's purely under my aunt/uncle's names) is over $2,000 to be here, due to the way the taxes got adjusted after Great Grandparent's estate was closed. Even if my mom succeeds in somehow swinging an arrangement where we sell all the land around us off (30 acres.... imma cry to see it go, because it's some of the last natural land that's got a thriving ecosystem and diversity in my county, and not enough people care about that remotely, so thank fuck for the nature preserves ;-;), we're still going to be moving afterwards. That would, however, be probably the most ideal outcome of all this, because it'd allow us the chance to get our feet under ourselves (with a drastically lowered mortgage that may even be completely paid off with the land sale) as we look for a new place.
So... there's a chance I might get to stay here, but right now, it's Way Too Real that my aunt/uncle might decide to pull some kind of eviction notice BS. I genuinely don't know what to expect from these people anymore, except knowing that they do not have my or my family's best interests at heart, and I can trust my Uncle to break anything he tries to 'fix.' (I'm not joking. When I tell someone "hey I can't spraypaint the outlets like you wanted because the only paint i have is cheap watery bs that's only good for making weird fade effects it's literally that bad," I am not expecting the INSTANT my back is turned, for the forewarned person to be using that Shitty Ass Watery Paint to try and spraypaint my fucking house. God dammit. Not to mention the broken garage door, the broken fence gate, the broken toilet he installed wrong, or all the other wonderful 'helpful fixes' he tried to do. Or shit he broke while doing stuff. When we have a skid steer at our disposal, I should not have to go out and hand-rake ground back level because he Tore It The Fuck Up and made an even bigger mess.... guh, sorry, i'll stop ranting about that now)
As it stands, however, I am already looking for a new place. Any recommendations for me to check out in Virgina, or Southern Illinois? ;D
I just. Fuck. I am trying so hard ot be optimistic here ya'll, but if i'm honest, I could use some help, and I am finally biting my pride to fuckin' do that thing where I open my mouth and be honest about my shitty situation and ask for it. But I don't want to just Get Stuff For Nothing, so please-- let me work for it <3
I can't work a nine to five job on my feet all day. I can't even do a desk job all day (my current job IS basically a desk job lmao). But I can do it following my weird ass body's schedule between weird dizzy-pain symptoms, and I can do art!
So, if you'd like to help me pay bills which incidentially also includes my inernet bill which is what allows me ot publish fanfiction and art, I have opened up my art commissions! I have also created some fun membership tiers on my Kofi. The highest tiers offer gifts of hand-cast pewter jewelry I've made, and original artwork and letters made by me.
I won't ever stop doing art... But bills have to come first, so please pardon if I am slower on my fanfiction updates for my books in these next few dizzying months. I'm doing everything I can to make art, make money, and keep a roof over our heads.
Financial aid needed. Not for me, but a writer and an artist whose work I’ve been enjoying a lot, the author of Why the Caged Bird Sings. While reblogs are helpful, consider commissioning if you can.
So my brain suddenly connected a scene in a Transformers fic (chapter 6 of Why the Caged Bird Sings by Asharion on AO3 / @delicateartisantrash here on Tumblr) and Isn't there someone you forgot to ask? meme, and I just felt like breaking a half a year artblock streak (which was a part of a three-year-long almost-artblock). I used to be the kind of artist to turn down a commission if it involved mecha or robots, by the way. The power of engaging writing is not to be underestimated.
You may have noticed these vaguely cloud-looking patterns in my social media banners and that one post about Minecraft capes. They were made in Apophysis, an open source fractal flame editor and renderer, following a tutorial by lucid-light (Eli Vokounova / Eliška Voko) on Deviantart. Back in 2021, I briefly got into fractal art but failed to grasp it in the end. I still have some of the files, though. You can get them from my Dropbox if you are interested. A few more renders under the cut!
All three were meant to be phone wallpapers. I used two different tutorials for the one with bubbles: by Esherymack and by nightmares06, both on Deviantart.
At the very end of 2021, I picked up a watercolour set that had been left unused for three years. As you can guess, this wasn't my first attempt at painting my cat. He's so pretty in real life! If I didn't finally post him now, the internet would probably be forever deprived of his glorious presence! :D
Getting Minecraft's New TikTok Cape (Even If TikTok Is Blocked In Your Country)
The browser version doesn't display any of the prompts, forcing anyone who wants the cape to use the app.
For me, the issue with this was that I live in a country where TikTok is restricted, and the app seems to use some very convoluted methods to determine user's location, meaning I couldn't just use a VPN like with the desktop version. I also didn't want to install the app on my phone.
Here's what worked for me (all the steps starting from 3 are supposed to be done in the emulated space):
1. Install BlueStacks 5 Pie 64-bit,
2. Open BlueStacks X, from there, run App Player (icon that looks like layers of something stacked together in the bottom left corner),
3. I suspect that this step doesn't do anything, but disable use of location (Settings app > Personal > Location > Use location),
4. Log into Google Play Store using the app,
5. Download a VPN (in my case it was VPN.lat) from Google Play Store and connect to a server in a country where TikTok isn't blocked or restricted,
6. Close or force stop Google Play Store (Settings > Device > Apps > Google Play Store > Force Stop) before opening it again (it should act as if you are in a different country now, but you can try clearing storage in the settings in case it doesn't),
7. Download TikTok (it appears that once you begin downloading you can turn off VPN until it's done),
8. Make sure your VPN is on and log into TikTok (preferably with an account you can sacrifice to potential shadow ban) using an e-mail and a one-time code (for me, using a phone number resulted in a message about running out of attempts from the very beginning, and entering a password was not possible due to a non-existent problem with the internet connection).
Yes, apparently, I like chromatic aberration that much. No, I don't have a TikTok account, I used my friend's abandoned one. The last part is important as I've heard that using a VPN can send you into shadow ban.
There is an easy way to paste long texts into Minecraft books!
After a long period of absence I emerge to make a single post, this time not as an artist (I'm still losing to artblock) but as an amateur creator of terrible Python scripts. Pasting long texts into Minecraft books has been the bane of my existence recently, so I thought I'd share my solution.
Said solution is an if-elif spaghetti script that splits text from a file into parts based on the width of characters used in it, then loads them onto clipboard and pastes them into a book one by one. It's supposed to do what Block Book Binder by Andrew Lalis does but without resulting in some pages being empty (at least, in Java Edition 1.20) and with partial support for Cyrillic.
Another script to come out from under my hand copies pages of a pre-existing book, saves their contents as a file for later use, and automatically pastes them after a key press.
Programming is far from my strong suit but I'm pretty happy with what I managed to do (with the exception of that comma in the prompt that I forgot to remove, it bugs me so much now that I noticed it). I hope this will be helpful to someone other than me! 💙
Recently switched to Photoshop to try it out and I think I'm going to switch back to SAI. I like Photoshop but I kinda forgot how much I rely on my blending brushes
vaporwave
ellievsbear
pixelskylines
jbbartram-illu
dailybridgerton
gummygunk
dededos
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annaxmalina
yousharknotpass
