New Year’s 2025: Paris Celebrates With Dazzling Fireworks Around Eiffel ...

I really need to make some time to watch this show.

Anson Mount and Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike wearing the Starfleet field jacket

STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS 1x03 “Ghosts of Illyria” (2022) STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES 1x00 Pilot “The Cage” (1965)

“The field jacket [was] inspired by the landing party jackets in "The Cage”. We went for a classic 1960’s inspired bomber jacket using custom gunmetal delta print and foiled neoprene trim.“ - Star Trek: Strange New Worlds costume designer Bernadette Croft via Instagram

What an interesting artist and for what she did for the time. Her exhibit at the Seattle Art museum was really cool. I appreciated the letters she wrote looking for funding for her move and her work.

Yayoi Kusama: Walking Piece (1966)

hot artists don't gatekeep

I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard

Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.

Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.

Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.

Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.

SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.

SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.

Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.

Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.

Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.

Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.

Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.

I don't know why the chorus has lived in my head since I was a kid.

Losing the centricity of the main community sucks. But there are other groups starting something. I follow the reddit as the next big community and from there people post discords or other sites. I was actually hoping to find some community on Tumblr too.

I think after participating on and off every year since 2008, I'm OK growing out of it. Then getting into my daily word count year round phase to really embrace writing as a hobby.

This month has been a little weird, because in the past it's been the point of time where me and a few others ramp up for NaNoWriMo event planning.

I decided not to be an ML this year - I'm one of the many breakaway regions forging ahead with an independent event for our writers - but several people had been hoping to work with HQ again, and seeing the chatter around that is sad because it looks like NaNo isn't letting it happen.

Last year at this point, everyone who had volunteered to be an ML had been given instructions for this year, and links to order ML kits (usually the annual stickers). We'd get instructions in Aug on how to update digital spaces for the new year, and were encouraged to start scheduling events.

But it's Aug 1st and HQ has never even asked if anyone wants to volunteer this year. It's looking more and more likely that they have canned the entire Municipal Liason program, and if you don't have MLs what's the point of regions? If the community aspect of NaNo is going away, is it just a website now?

What made NaNo awesome was the other writers I'd hang out with on zoom or coffee shops.

I thought i had already grieved my time with NaNo, it had headed down a path I didn't want to follow and I had put so much energy into it. I'm building something new now even! But it's still so, so sad to think that it's just not my participation that has ended, but an entire program. And soon, I suspect, an entire organization.

NaNo is running on fumes, spiraling down and alienating so much of its old user base due to poor management and communication. Will it even run in November, I'm not entirely sure. I don't know if the donations they've received coverage servers fees.

Writers might have to do NaNo, or just write a draft in November, solo and that sounds so sad. I've only ever won because of my community (my region had at least 20 events scheduled in November).

I'd encourage people to reach out to old regions if you can - see if there's a grassroots community it morphed into. Or just any writing community - mine is hybrid now and all our writing events in November will have zoom options.

I hoped maybe the new HQ would build something that would work for someone, but i have a sneaking suspicion that it won't. NaNoWriMo might just become something like NoShaveNovember or Dry January. A thing you do, but no official community.

Feeling real bummed about this, because i volunteered with NaNo for 5 years and wrote for 12.

How a Historian Nailed Billionaires for Their Greed at Davos | NowThis

I watched this 5 years ago and youtube just suggested for me to watch it again. I never did forget about it and I don't want to, because it matters.

This year is about working locally.

I feel a little creativity blocked. I have a name that I used for years as a creativity pseudonym. It just doesn’t resonate with me anymore. Kind of because I didn’t really take it to the angle I intended and now it’s not really the objective either.

It’s time to think of a new name and one that will help with the vision I have in mind.

Parenting is hard.

There are so many other words that follow but no more energy to do it.

It's August and I already dealt with the flu. I'm not looking forward to the school year starting in a few weeks because that means more germs exposure.

I feel worried and anxious about getting other people sick and about how much it feels like a disruption to life when getting sick. Almost nothing can be scheduled and all crowded events and venues are huge risks with sweaty palms and holding breaths to step through.

That did not used to be me before the pandemic. I feel a fear that I didn't have. Is this a form of PTSD? I want to be normal but it doesn't feel over. It weighs very heavy on me and daily life. I function, I go out, I mask when I think it's applicable but my heart is still unsettled.