firewhispers | Reading

paperghost posting in

ysabetwordsmith suggested I share this short list of resources for printing stickers and other relevant accessories.

This is old news, but Stickermule has shown their asses again by giving away free pro-ICE merchandise, so people have been scrambling for other suppliers for custom stickers. I'm thinking about ordering stickers of my art by Harmonycon. I can't keep up with a million tweets and my Bluesky feed is already scrambled, so here's what I've found:

https://www.standoutstickers.com/
https://stickerguy.com/
https://thestickybrand.com/en-ca (limited time deals page is worth looking at)
https://thestickerlad.com/home (website looks like a WIP but furry-owned. Prices are ok)
https://stickerninja.com/ (this looks like Stickermule's biggest rival)
https://unionmadestickers.com/en-ca (you can probably use them for non-union stuff lol)
https://stickerblitz.com/ (another rival with good prices)
Vograce orders from China but I've had a good experience ordering sample packs and one-off keychains from them. YMMV. It's better for physical goods. Not sure of any alternatives that let you do one-off orders.

ETA 1/17: Found some more options.
https://wiki.scumsuck.com/resources:stickers (guide on how to print your stickers at home. Lists options for scanners and paper to buy, etc.)
https://zapcreatives.com/en-us (UK based)

ETA 1/24:
https://bearandbeagle.store/ (furry-owned, worth noting because you can input a "due date" for an upcoming convention)
https://www.copybaracreations.com/contact (also furry-owned and convention-oriented, currently no TOS / quote guide but you can contact for one)
https://stickerjerk.com/
https://stickerapp.com/
https://www.stickerbunnies.com/ (I've read good experiences on Bsky, but you have to email to start instead of using an on-site form)

dark_kana posting in

3_good_things_a_day

1) going for a walk during lunch break, seeing the sun in shining nicely again ^^

2) painkiller doing it's job. The headache I had when I got up this morning, is easing away...

3) lazy evening, going to try and work on my photo album of the year 2024

conuly

I held the bannister and I got it

I sat down to look for it

I took it with me because I could not find it

Damn splinter!

jazzyjj posting in

awesomeers

It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished!

Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!

yellowrosess posting in

iconic

Fashion/outfits
Cats text
Fashion art
Yoga
Vampire Diaries cast

yr3014

rest HERE @ yellowrosess

cosmolinguist

At various points today while I was slaving away over a hot laptop, I heard various Bruce Springsteen songs floating down from upstairs.

He said on fedi: "I have often noted similarities between the musicians, but I desperately want to hear New Model Army covering Bruce Springsteen's 'Further On (Up the Road)'."

(It was when he first said that he wants them to cover "Badlands," and Springsteen to cover their song "Vagabonds," that I figured I'd probably made a proper fan of him, if he could see the overlap between Bruce and a band he likes as much as he does New Model Army.)

He also sent me a link to what Springsteen said after Renee Good was murdered and then a YouTube playlist centered around Springsteen being in the Kennedy Center Honors of 2009. Which I think must be where I heard those songs from.

My newest library book, has been acquired after I heard the author, Steven Hyden, speak briefly on a short podcast series about Springsteen that D found and recommended to me (and actually listened to, which is amazing because he normally can't/doesn't want to listen to podcasts!). I found his book, called There Was Nothing You Could Do: Bruce Springsteen’s “Born In The U.S.A” and the End of the Heartland, and honestly I can hardly imagine anything more Me.

used_songs

Challenge #6

Top 10 Challenge. The category(ies) you choose are up to you. You can give top 10 Fics you read last year, the top 10 songs to create to, the to 10 guest stars on your favorite show, top 10 characters in your favorite book series, top 10... well, you get the idea.

10 happy times

1. Quiet mornings before my wife gets up when I can read, write and update my DW with Ella nearby.
2. Hammock time with Ella.
3. Browsing in a bookstore.
4. Cooking for my parents and/or wife.
5. When I'm in the midst of a solid piece of writing that is flowing.
6. Puttering around outside looking at trees and rocks.
7. Listening to music, discovering new-to-me music, talking to people about music.
8. Sending and receiving snail mail, whether it's Postcrossing or mail to/from people I know.
9. Figuring things out, making something new, having to work out how to put something together.
10. When you see something or hear something and it sparks an idea.

used_songs

Challenge #7

LIST THREE (or more) THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF. They don’t have to be your favorite things, just things that you think are good. Feel free to expand as much or as little as you want.

I like my ability to be all in and focused in a conversation with a student, especially when it comes to their writing.

I like how I can chain together random things and make something beautiful.

I like my purple glasses.

used_songs

Challenge #8

Talk about your creative process.

I keep copious notes on my phone and in commonplace books of raw material for writing. I collect stories from people, interesting words, bits of poetry, images, etc. When I have an idea for something, I page randomly through all of that and see what if anything sticks. Then I do an enormous amount of research (my favorite part of the process) and start a google doc with research notes and chunks of writing. Sometimes I do a sketch to help visualize the motion of the plot. When I wrote a crossover that involved House of Leaves, I sketched the house I was using as my setting so I could keep the physical space in front of me.

Then I write from both ends and the middle in pieces that are gradually stitched together. I'm not great at plots; I let the imagery and characters do the heavy lifting.

Once I have a draft, I rewrite it obsessively until I'm happy with it.

( pics )

I also generally carry sticky notes and have a lot of things jotted on those. I've been keeping commonplace books since middle school (they were spirals back then), so I have a lot of material. Honestly, I never have used most of it directly in my writing, but I feel like the ideas I have tried out in those pages are like training for when I do write a completed pieces. And sometimes I just enjoy writing short pieces that no one else will ever see, just for me.

dark_kana posting in

3_good_things_a_day

1) Sunshine!

2) Enjoying some heat to ease the tension in my back and shoulder muscles - I'll probably end up taking a nice hot shower this evening as well

3) A very delicious couscous salad for dinner

conuly

Now, we don't have a coffee maker. We have a french press, and we have a pourover thinger, and no coffee maker. Electric coffee makers are roach magnets, and I will stand by that statement.

But the job has a coffee maker, a nice new model after the pot on the old one broke, and the lid on top opens to the left, which means you have to hold the coffee pot in your right hand if you want to pour the coffee into the machine. Also, all the measurement numbers on the coffee pot are only visible if you're holding the handle in your right hand.

And you may say this is petty, and it is - well, it's petty for me because I have two hands, I might well be more annoyed, and justifiably, if I was missing one! - but somebody made a choice to hinge the lid on the left instead of on the back, and somebody, maybe that same somebody, made a choice to only put numbers on one side of the handle instead of both. And they didn't have to make those choices, they could've made different choices that didn't screw me over personally, me and all the other lefties as well as approximately half of all people who don't have mobility in their right hand or don't have that hand at all*, and they chose poorly. Probably didn't even think it through even a tiny little bit.

* Wait, is this a valid assumption? Or are people more likely to be disabled on this side or that side?

************************

( Read more... )

conuly

I am a knotted nebula—
a whirling flame
Shrieking aftire the endless darkness ...
I am the eternal center of gravity
and about me swing the crazy moons—
I am the thunder of rising suns,
the blaze of the zenith—
... the tremble of women’s bodies
in the arms of lovers ...
I sit on top of the Pole
Drunk with starry splendor
Shouting hozzanas at the Pleiades
... booting footballs at the moon—
I shall outlast the sun
and the moon
and the stars.…

*****

_Link

jazzyjj posting in

awesomeers

flareonfury posting in

dw_community_promo

svpromptstables is an Arrowverse (*coughs* check out it's multiverse *winks*) & Smallville Prompt table challenge, with prompt tables options ranging from 7-100 prompts. Low stakes, no limit on how much you can "claim" (and anyone can "claim" the same things), only a minimum of 100 words and no deadlines.

Tables | FAQ | Claim & Claim List

deidlit

Okay here it is, just a liiittle later in the month this year (and I'm just counting games this time, not watched/read stuff).

◆ Adventures of Mana	PSV
◆ Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain	PS2
◆ Legacy of Kain: Defiance	PS2
◆ Lufia & the Fortress of Doom	SNES
◆ Crystalis	NES
◆ Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past [Replay]	SNES
◆ Lunar Legend [Replay]	GBA
◆ Monster Hunter Wilds	PS5
◆ Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX	GBC
◆ Final Fantasy Legend	GB
◆ Split Fiction	PC
◆ Final Fantasy Legend II	GB
◆ Lunar: Silver Star Story Remastered	PS5
◆ Lies of P: Overture [DLC]	PC
◆ Conquest of the Crystal Palace	NES
◆ Look Outside [ver. 1.4, later 2.0]	PC
◆ Sackboy: A Big Adventure	PS5
◆ Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time	PC
◆ Air Zonk	PCE
◆ Atomic Robo-Kid Special	PCE
◆ Bikkuriman World	PCE
◆ Alisia Dragoon	GEN
◆ Arcus Odyssey	GEN
◆ Final Fantasy VI: Pixel Remaster	NSW
◆ Advanced Busterhawk Gleylancer	GEN
◆ Trouble Shooter	GEN
◆ Battle Mania Daiginjou	GEN
◆ Blades of Vengeance	GEN
◆ Dahna: Megami Tanjou	GEN
◆ Dynamite Headdy	GEN
◆ Earnest Evans	GEN
◆ El Viento	GEN
◆ Elemental Master	GEN
◆ Gaiares	GEN
◆ Gate of Doom	ARC

Total
35 Played

Takeaways
◆ Huge number of games played this year, and not many replays this time. Still not the most in recent years, but still pretty impressive! I thank the shorter retro games that don't really take all that long to beat when it comes down to it.
◆ This was a year of playing games I'd started years ago but never finished. Or at least, it felt like it, but that only applies to about 9 of the 35 games there.
◆ Favourites of the year were Legacy of Kain: Defiance, Crystalis, Lunar: Silver Star Story Remastered, Lies of P: Overture, Look Outside, Fantasy Life i, Alisia Dragoon, and El Viento.
◆ Not-so-favourites of the year were Blood Omen 2, Air Zonk, Atomic Robo-Kid Special, and Bikkuriman World. Seriously, aside from Blood Omen 2, why did I play these to finish?
◆ In relation to the previous note, this was also the year of me re-learning to drop games. I tried playing Aedis Eclipse early in the year and quickly found it was not for me. Instead of forcing myself to finish it, I dropped it. Wish I had applied that to some games later in the year, but I think it's finally sunk in that I can just... stop playing a game if I'm not enjoying it.
◆ Wish I'd played more Fantasy Life i in the post-game, but I think I was distracted with the upcoming move by that point. Also wish I'd played it with friends more than I did;

elf_wizard and I barely played more than maybe once or twice before I fell off the game completely. :(
◆ Please play Look Outside, if you can handle cartoon-y gore and like survival RPGs. I'm still flabbergasted by how good that game is.

Current Mood: accomplished

cosmolinguist

I had really intense, involved dreams last night; the kind where you feel like you spent days or weeks in your dream world and wake up disoriented as hell.

There have been lots about pets or small children in my care -- this time, a clever adorable toddler I was joining on vacation with her family, looking after the kid at some kind of kid-focused theme park. I had a great time, and woke up with no idea where I was or what day it was.

Luckily, D snuggled up to me as the big spoon, wrapped his legs around mine, and promptly fell back asleep, snoring gently in my ear. It is very grounding. (Sunday is the one day I don't have to get up early and I love it when I can spend Sunday morning like this.)

Occasionally he woke up enough to give me a few little kisses on the back of my shoulder, and his soft beard gently tickled my skin, and it's the best thing ever.