Sugar Coated

Hey, my name is Claire. I'm currently 25 years old, living back in the UK after five years in Australia. Hobbies include BJDs, Monster High, drawing, digital painting, gaming, League of Legends and a whole lot of other stuff. I collect figures from my favorite video games - Bioshock, Assassin's Creed, Fallout etc. I am also a huge Pokemon toy collector. Plus I have a handful of Nendoroids, figma etc. Primarily I'll be reblogging stuff I like but I shall be putting some original content up too.

[debreran]

Grey Peacock-Pheasant (Polyplectron bicalcaratum) of southeast Asia.

[ohcorny]

yo why didnt i know about these

[mcsprinkles]

Wow man forget regular peacocks this thing is magical.

[thetinybutimportantthings]

 Peacock pheasants as a whole are incredibly beautiful birds.

Mountain Peacock-pheasant (Polyplectron inopinatum) http://www.liewwkphoto.com/blog/?p=3975

Bornean Peacock-pheasant (Polyplectron schleiermacheri) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G72zmAU0dII

Palawan Peacock-pheasant (Polyplectron napoleons) https://www.pinterest.com/pin/392165080024946562/

[speciesofleastconcern]

those are some shiny chickens all right

[mugwomps]

I’ve not heard of any of these; they’re magnificent!

[the-corner-for-writers]

Tips for a Strong Story Opening

> ACTION. Story openings are really all about making the reader care about your character right off the bat. Action is a good way to do this. Start with action. Don’t bore your readers to death by introducing all your characters first and taking up ten pages. Save that for later. Action SHOWS how your character acts, as opposed to you explicitly TELLING how he/she acts. Have them do an action that introduces them appropriately.

> MINIMAL DESCRIPTION. It’s okay to describe a few characters in the beginning, but don’t go over the top describing every essence of their being. Give a few details and then, if necessary, you can revisit it later.

> BACKSTORY LATER. Before you dump your character’s backstory all over the page, you need to make sure that your reader first CARES about your character. This can be accomplished in the beginning of a story, if done right. Put your character in a dangerous situation, for example, or have them face a difficult decision. This will gain the reader’s sympathy. After you have sympathy, THEN you can let the backstory run wild.

> DO NOT INFODUMP. Please, oh please. This means all of the above. Don’t fill up the first ten pages with backstory and description of characters we don’t even care about yet.

>GIVE IT A HOOK. There needs to be some interesting shit happening, plain and simple. A burglary. A murder. Something exciting. Readers will put your book down if it’s a boring day-in-the-life type opening. Director Quentin Tarantino makes great use of hooks—the central event of the movie will often be the first scene, and the rest of the movie will be about how the characters got to that point.

[cogesque-deactivated20210410]

10-Second Writing Tip

don’t name-drop brands

There are a few very practical reasons to stop doing this today:

legal concerns (a handful of articles on the topic: 00 // 01 // 02 // 03)

it dates your novel

it is not fun to read

We can brand everything if we try hard enough, but most of the time, it ends up feeling like a glaring blemish in the middle of an otherwise smooth sentence.

With Brand Names

Jason tugged on his Converse and scooped up his Old Navy backpack. On his way out the door, he snatched the keys for his mom’s Honda Civic . Without Brand Names Jason tugged on his shoes and scooped up his backpack. On his way out the door, he snatched the keys for his mom’s sedan.

A good question to ask yourself is: do I really need to include this brand name? The answer is usually no if you’re using it as a adjective or replacing a simple noun that would be more comprehensive, but again, this is completely up to your discretion.

Sometimes, brand names can fit into the narrative (most commonly in dialogue, although there are other exceptions). If this is the case, and you feel as squeamish about the legal aspect of it all as I do, I strongly recommend making up your own names that sound dissimilar enough that they can’t be directly associated with the real thing.

[sosuperawesome]

Dresses by Sylvie Facon, on Instagram

[samjohnssonvt]

headcanon that Luna Lovegood has dresses like these.

[shelgon]

[zareidy]

Marilyn the Sableye (because diamonds are a girl’s best friend), 12″

[machigaeru]

I started Hebrew, which is why I’ve been dead on this blog, but I don’t think I can ever properly convey to you guys the sheer cultural whiplash of spending years learning Japanese from Japanese teachers and then trying to learn Hebrew from an Israeli

Japanese: you walk into class already apologizing for being alive Hebrew: you walk into class, the teacher insults you and you are expected to insult her back

Japanese: conjugates every single verb based on degree of intended politeness, nevermind keigo and honorifics Hebrew: Someone asked my teacher how to say “excuse me” and she laughed for several seconds before saying we shouldn’t worry about remembering that since we’ll never need to say it

Japanese: if you get one stroke wrong the entire kanji is incomprehensible Hebrew: cursive? script? fuck it do whatever you want, you don’t even have to write the vowels out unless you feel like it

Japanese: the closest thing there is to ‘bastard’ is an excessively direct ‘you’ pronoun Hebrew: ‘bitch’ translates directly

[ibex-ascendant]

Fun fact: Israel has possibly the lowest power-distance metric of any culture in the world, while Japan has one of the highest. I didn’t realize that the CTO of my company was the CTO until somebody else told me, because everybody called him by his first name and engaged in mutual shit-talking/playful insults with him.

In Japan, even calling your boss by the wrong honorific is liable to get you in trouble.

And apparently there’s some sciencey cooperative venture going on between Israel and Japan in an official diplomatic capacity. I want to be a fly on the wall when Japanese and Israeli scientists work together.

[bigyoch]

Hi I’m bilingual Hebrew/English and I’m in my third year of Japanese study. 

I’d like to share with you one of my favorite Hebrew culture vs Japanese culture stories. 

For one of my classes I was expected to write a speech about my experiences learning Japanese. I decided to focus on the Japanese practice of end-of-sentence omission (Essentially, failing to say the last part of your sentence because it could be considered to rude, like instead of telling someone they can’t do that, you’ll say “I’m sorry but that is somewhat……. (impossible).”). 

When my sensei asked me why I picked such a topic, I explained that the level of attention required interested me, since in Israel everyone typically talks at the same time and interruption is basically normal. 

My sensei didn’t even believe me. She laughed when I said that. I laughed too and asked, “Why are you laughing?” 

She said, “If everyone spoke at the same time, how would they ever understand each other?” 

Japanese/Israeli communication is my dream job and let me tell you living both cultures at once is an absolute riot. 

[shelgon]

Pokémon Daisuki Club Images for the  Pokemon Tails & Paws! Merchandise Collection

[shelgon]

Pokémon Daisuki Club Images for the New Ditto Transform Plush Collection and Gacha Figurines 

[pokemon-merch-news]

All new Pokémon Center and 5108 partnership will release a full line of necklaces! Alola starters, Alola Vulpix, Exeggutor, Pikachu, Mimikyu, Bewear and a lot more are in the front line! Each necklace will retail for 3 800 yen. The line will be released on December 9th, 2017.

[zombiemiki]

A super cute original Pokemon Center promotion called “Oteire Please” (Take care of me please!) will go on sale at most Pokemon Centers and Stores January 1st and the remaining Centers and Stores January 2nd.

(source)

[jp0777]

Some tiny lil water-themed test animations made in Blender while fooling around with emission shaders!

[zombiemiki]

New mascot size plush versions of Alola Vulpix, Rockruff, Togedemaru, and Cosmog are coming out at Pokemon Centers and Stores in Japan May 20th

(source)

[pokemon-merch-news]

Fancy a better look at the upcoming I LOVE EEVEE plush from Banpresto? This all new set features Eevee, Vapereon, Flareon, Jolteon and Sylveon.

Jolteon and Sylveon are 25cm tall and will be available on April 6th, 2017 Vapereon, Flareon are 25cm tall and will be available on April 20th, 2017 Eevee is 30cm tall and will be available on April 25th, 2017

[pokemon-merch-news]

Pokémon 20th anniversary Anime Snow globes have been announced! Rakuten has listed new Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle and Pikachu globes, which are 2 200 yen per globe. Release date is July, 2017. Each are to be approximately H65×W45mm in size.

Another collection featuring Eevee, Jolteon, Flareon and Vaporeon will be released in August, 2017. Same price and dimensions.

[pokemon-merch-news]

The next volume of Metamon Figure gacha collection (Vol.3) will be released on May 13th, 2017. This series features six new additions of Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon, Eevee, Espeon and Umbreon Ditto figures. They will be distributed at Japanese Pokemon Centers capsule machines for the usual 300 yen per capsule.

[pokemon-merch-news]

Pokémon Center has just announced a new wave of pokédolls! This set will feature all 8 evolutions of Eevee. The plushies will sell for 1 200 yen each.

Release date is May 13rd, 2017.