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Tips And Tricks - Blog Posts
What’s Up in December 2020 – Skywatching Tips from NASA!
Catch the Geminids meteor shower as the peak coincides with darker skies during a new Moon. Plus, Jupiter and Saturn appear closer than in decades, and the winter solstice arrives. Check this out for when and where to observe! Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.
An Astronaut’s Tips For Living in Confined Spaces
One thing astronauts have to be good at: living in confined spaces for long periods of time.
Nearly 20 years successfully living on the International Space Station and more than 50 flying in space did not happen by accident. Our astronauts and psychologists have examined what human behaviors create a healthy culture for living and working remotely in small groups. They narrowed it to five general skills and defined the associated behaviors for each skill.
For many of us in a similar scenario, here are the skills as shared by astronaut Anne McClain:
Skill 1, Communication
Share information and feelings freely.
Talk about your intentions before taking action.
Discuss when your or others’ actions were not as expected.
Take time to debrief after success or conflict.
Admit when you are wrong.
Skill 2, Self-Care
Balance work, rest, and personal time. Be organized.
Realistically assess your own strengths and weaknesses, and their influence on the group.
Identify personal tendencies and their influence on your success or failure. Learn from mistakes.
Be open about your weaknesses and feelings.
Take action to mitigate your own stress or negativity (don't pass it on to the group).
Skill 3, Team Care
Demonstrate patience and respect. Encourage others.
Monitor your team (or friends and family) for signs of stress or fatigue.
Encourage participation in team (or virtual) activities.
Volunteer for the unpleasant tasks. Offer and accept help.
Share credit; take the blame.
Skill 4, Group Living
Cooperate rather than compete.
Actively cultivate group culture (use each individual's culture to build the whole).
Respect roles, responsibilities and workload.
Take accountability; give praise freely. Then work to ensure a positive team attitude.
Keep calm in conflict.
Skill 5, Leadership/Followership
Accept responsibility.
Adjust your style to your environment.
Assign tasks and set goals.
Lead by example. Give direction, information, feedback, coaching and encouragement.
Talk when something isn’t right. Ask questions.
We are all in this together on this spaceship we call Earth! These five skills are just reminders to help cultivate good mental and physical health while we all adjust to being indoors. Take care of yourself and dive deeper into these skills HERE.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.
3 signs you have self worth 🫵💆
(IN MY OPINION & WHAT WORKS FOR ME). WHY DO YOU NEED SELF WORTH? to develop CONFIDENCE, prevent yourself from being manipulated & to CONTROL YOUR MIND.
you can also share your own experiences! i would love to read about other people’s point of view :)) don’t be scared, we are all connected as beings inhabiting earth~; i love everyone !! 👯♀️💓
1. YOU DO NOT CARE 💅💁♀️
i do not care if i’m being too loud, cringe or hyperactive. as long as it causes no harm (mentally!), you do not need to care about other people’s opinions. though your actions need to be REASONABLE. DO NOT neglect your duties as a human!! i love being silly in class, it’s nice to vibe around while spreading love~!
2. YOU TREAT YOURSELF WELL 💆♀️💝
you do not do things that make you feel like shit. do not validate habits that drain your energy & bring you discomfort. addiction is bad, kids. so, treat yourself nicely & do things that benefit you! 🌟🪴 you are a plant, and you WILL water yourself with CLEAN water.
for me, i find comfort in eating, doom scrolling & fortune telling, but it makes me feel DRAINED. nevertheless, i still do it because i have yet to identify the CAUSE of my addiction: my NEED TO SELF SABOTAGE & NEED FOR VALIDATION. to treat yourself well, provide YOURSELF with the VALIDATION you need. nothing will be found outside yourself, what you need can always and will only be found within.
3. YOU CARE ABOUT WHAT YOU EAT 🍽️
i dont know why, but eating healthily (veggies) give me such confidence and comfort! it is so therapeutic for me to eat veggies. you also have to identify what food makes you feel like shit. for me, it's cookies and snacks. AVOID WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE SHIT!! unless you do not mind feeling like shit. as they say, you ARE WHAT YOU EAT! reward yourself for having an awesome day with eating Healthy~ Show ya body that u Love em!!!
I'm currently relearning how to be human and I'm open to any tips and tricks you professionals may have.
Part of me still wants to really get into trying to use makeup, but I have oily skin and makeup feels very expensive, so I always talk myself out of it. I'm not even sure what all you need to have a proper kit?
Any tips?
love it >>>>>>>
𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐲 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬
Use two notebooks when taking class notes (one for in class and one for at home) the one for class, make it messy with footnotes and subtext. the one at home, make it neat (these are the ones to study off of; easy to read and short)
Quizlets or kahoots
Write down your plans for the week
Put effort in your projects (trust me, it’s worth the time)
Make school life feel cliche and try to romanticize things (it works)
When you’re studying, rewrite your notes to match your own words
Relate the information to yourself and your life. If you have chalk, draw math formulas on pavement, match your physics to life situations, randomly say history facts when relevant
Study in shorter intervals and take a decent amount of breaks (ie, 30 minutes spent studying with a 15 minute break; don’t go on the internet during that break)
Have a routine. study for a period of time in the morning or study before bed (do this every day; even on the weekends)
Stay hydrated; drink water or tea (not to much coffee)
Python Tips And Tricks ...
Post #134: Stackify, Prit Doshi, Python Tips, 10 tricks for optimizing your code, June 2024.
a small diy recommendation from annoying anarcho!
hey! are you tired of mixing acrylic paint with random shit to paint your patches? interested in a paint thats a little bit too opaque and probably needs to be watered down? (thus giving you a bit more to work with!)
then heres an idea!: wall paint samples.
ive been using $5 wall paint sample tubs since i started making patches, and holy SHIT it works super well! since the paint is so opaque you dont tend to need very much, and because its meant for walls its overly strong and water resistant. the small tubs also give you plenty considering how little you tend to need!
"annoying anarcho! what about the fumes!" idk but it works great. wear a mask or something while you paint if you're really worried.
only con is that you need to be confident in your abilities! if you mispaint you need to either go over it in a different colour or wipe it away with water asap, otherwise shits great! if you want colours that arent different varieties of white then mix it with acrylic, hypocritical of me to suggest i know, but it works a charm.
or, if you dont like paint then household bleach can be pretty decent! its permanent, has a cool looking colour +effect and is generally in most households, just make sure your fabric works with it and do some test strips!
(wear protection when handling chemicals!!)
Star laces??
Satan can spawn from your shoes now
A list of some of the things I use every day for writing and worldbuilding tasks!
I've been thinking about a post with this info for a few weeks now, so here it is! A note that I am not affiliated with any of these sites or services--I just use them :)
WordHippo
Until late last year, I had been using thesaurus.com to handle my never-ending hunt for the perfect word. I switched to WordHippo because it is much more friendly to searching phrases in addition to just words. It also includes rhymes, translations, word forms, and pronunciations. For non-English speakers, the word forms section could be particularly helpful.
Fantasy Name Generators
This site has just about anything you could need in relation to generators, including ones specific to pop culture and fandoms like Stargate, Star Trek, Harry Potter, and more. There are sections to create simple mockups of character armor, solar systems, languages, and even find some royalty-free music.
PhotoPea
As a graphic designer, I often find myself needing to visualize my characters, environments, and book covers to really immerse myself when I'm trying to write a scene. PhotoPea is a free alternative to Photoshop that even uses many of the same keyboard shortcuts (meaning you can often follow Photoshop tutorials while using PhotoPea). If the Adobe Creative Suite is out of your budget, PhotoPea is, in my opinion, the best free alternative.
Seventh Sanctum
This was the first generator site I used back in my days on FanFiction and FictionPress, and I still like to use it for its slightly less daunting interface when compared to Fantasy Name Generators. I also find it loads faster.
Descriptionary
I stumbled across this site not long ago, and I've become a bit obsessed with it. It's a bit clunky to navigate, but there's a lot of information and helpful tidbits to be found including color symbolism, body language, and words to use/not use and why.
No Man's Sky Photo Galleries
While this isn't a specific site, and the one I've linked here is just one example of many that are out there, I've found No Man's Sky to be one of my biggest inspirations when writing sci-fi and environmentally focused scenes. The sheer scale of No Man's Sky and its procedurally generated worlds make it easy to find inspiration for everything from planets, to fauna, wildlife, ships, and structures.
Inkarnate
This site stands alone if you need something that allows you to build beautiful maps for your stories. It has a free and a paid version, and the free version is fairly robust. If you're someone who writes anything that involves large-scale worlds or anything involving military strategies, it can be really helpful to have the lay of the land right in front of you as you write.
Autocrit
While the free version of this is pretty limited, I've really enjoyed having it accessible for identifying adverbs, story beats, and to compare my original pieces to genres and authors.
Cap That
If you need high resolution screen captures from your favorite shows, this is the place to find them!
I know they say, "Just use 'said,'" but that rule makes me irrationally angry, so, behold:
I stumbled across this site a few weeks ago--lots of useful info for if and when you feel like your descriptions are getting repetitive!
Con-going Cosplay Hacks
- Check out of your hotel early Most hotels accept cash payment at any point during your stay. If you are splitting up the payment of your room, head down to the front desk as soon as you have everyone’s share of the money. They will still hold the credit card for any extra incidentals, but this way you don’t have to wait in a long line at the end of your con stay to check out.
- Put bandaids on the back of your uncomfortable shoes You’re wearing a shoe that cuts into your heel, something you only notice after walking around the con for two hours. If you happen to be wearing tights, you can place a fabric bandaid into the heel of the shoe itself and have it be just as effective. This way you won’t have to remove your tights to get the bandaid on your skin!
- BRING FABREEZE AND SHOUT WIPES/TIDE PENS Someone in your group is going to stain their costume. It’s 100% guaranteed to happen. Whether it’s from food, drink, or smudged makeup, Shout Wipes or Tide Pens will save you from the stress of now having a stained costume.
Also, Fabreeze. It will make you feel better about wearing the same clothes multiple days in a row (not just cosplay!), AND it is a good idea to spray your cosplay down before packing it back up for the trip back home.
- Bag up what you can of your cosplays Buy the galleon storage bags for your trip and squeeze what you can of each cosplay into the bag. Label the bags as needed (ex: McCree 1 of 2). This way you have everything you need for that cosplay together in one place, thus saving yourself from tearing apart your entire suitcase every time you want to change cosplays. If parts of your costume don’t fit into bags, that’s okay! At least they’re big enough not to lose track of. Or you can upgrade from a storage bag to trash bags!
Keep reading
Spreading the word in case this helps someone. Stay safe!
hey so protip if you have abusive parents and need to get around the house as quietly as possible, stay close to furniture and other heavy stuff because the floor is settled there and it’s less likely to creak
Make sure you have an active library card! If you don’t have a card or haven’t used yours in a few years and your library is still open, get a card or have it renewed. (Check what ID you’ll need before you go.) While you’re in the library, check out that book you’ve been meaning to read, the audiobook or music CD you’ve been meaning to listen to, the movie you want to watch, and whatever else catches your fancy!
You can ask about the library’s online resources while you’re there or look on the website when you get home. Libraries can give you access to a lot of different resources, in addition to what’s listed above. They may have downloadable or streaming e-books, e-audiobooks, music, movies, and TV shows. Your library could give you access to classes on just about any subject, homework help for your kids, car repair guides, programs to help you learn a new language, and lots more. If you go through the library’s website, they probably have information about what you will need to access all of these resources.
If you didn’t get your library card before they had to close to protect people, here are a few free resources you might enjoy.
Jim C. Hines started a Twitter thread where authors can link to free, lighthearted stories (both print and audio): https://twitter.com/jimchines/status/1238486764525948928
The Metropolitan Opera is offering a free streaming opera every night while they are closed: https://www.metopera.org/user-information/nightly-met-opera-streams/
Some great artists are making coloring pages available for anyone to download and print: https://seananmcguire.tumblr.com/post/612756347442937856/catbatart-so-i-saw-a-great-post-by
Scholastic is offering day-by-day projects for kids in Pre-K through grade 6+: https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/support/learnathome.html
The Library of Congress is crowd-sourcing transcription of historical documents: https://crowd.loc.gov/
If you find that you’re having trouble thinking of things to do in the moment, make a list of stuff you want to try or keep meaning to do when you have time. That craft you bought the supplies for but never started, the time-consuming recipe you want to try, a nagging minor home repair you haven’t gotten around to doing -- put them all on the list! Make sure to get a good mix of fun things and chores. You can either check the list when you get stuck or put ideas on slips of paper to pull from a bowl.
Look for ways to volunteer online or by phone! I linked to the Library of Congress above, but there are tons of other crowd-sourcing initiatives you can do. If you want something closer to home and like talking with people, an organization you belong to may need someone who can call members to make sure they’re ok or just chat with people who are lonely.
If the news is making you stressed, take breaks from it or limit how much time you spend reading/watching it. If people are freaking out on social media, it’s ok to stop following them or not check those accounts as often. Look for people who are posting fun things or links to free stuff you can try. (Check your library’s website for those, too!)
Stuck at home? Here’s an isolation survival post:
(Everything here is free to use! Feel free to add on. Links were purposefully broken to avoid Tumblr’s spam prevention.)
Social:
discordapp.com/ - Like Skype but better, more accessible, smoother, and with more features. Call, play games, and chat with friends.
twitch.tv/ - Watch and chat with people doing everything from gaming to cooking to teaching.
Reading:
whichbook.net/ - helps you find what book to read
overdrive.com/ - Free audiobooks through your public library
standardebooks.org/ebooks/ - Free ebooks
rbdigital.com/ - Free audiobooks and ebooks through your public library
Movies:
www.kanopy.com/ - Free movies through your public library
www.ted.com/ - Watch lots of educational and inspiring talks
Hobbies:
join.skillshare.com/ - Learn how to do virtually anything with 2 free months of premium
scratch.mit.edu/ - Make a game or movie, super easy to use, good introductory programming “language”
gimp.org/downloads/ - Free photoshop-like program.
twinery.org/ - Make a text-based game
pixologic.com/sculptris/ - make 3D models
unity.com/ - Make a 3D game
yoyogames.com/gamemaker - make a 2D game
spotify.com/us/ - Listen to music
travelandleisure.com/attractions/museums-galleries/museums-with-virtual-tours - Museums with virtual tours
Dungeons and Dragons: (play over Discord!) (DM me if you want PDFs of the Handbooks)
probablybadrpgideas.tumblr.com/post/612459866001391616/basic-rules-for-dungeons-dragons-dungeons - The Basics
entertainment.howstuffworks.com/leisure/brain-games/beginners-guide-dungeons-and-dragons.htm - Learn to play
roll20.net/ - Make maps/play online
Video Games:
itch.io/ - play hundreds of games
freegameplanet.com/ - Even more free games!
dolphin-emu.org/ - Play Gamecube and Wii games
Phone Apps:
sourceforge.net/projects/gameboid/ - Play gameboy games
smartphones.gadgethacks.com/how-to/10-must-play-free-puzzle-games-for-iphone-android-0178848/ - list of puzzle games
Cooking:
fridgetotable.com/ - Input ingredients you have and get recipes you can make.
youtube.com/user/DepressionCooking - Learn how to cook with limited ingredients from a lovely old woman who lived during the Great Depression
butterwithasideofbread.com/homemade-bread/ - Make bread with yeast
letsdishrecipes.com/traditional-irish-soda-bread/ - Make bread without yeast
Other tips:
Take care of yourself (eat well, shower often, wear clean clothes, exercise, clean your space)
Talk with people
Do what makes you happy
Take time away from screens
Play – with your pets, your kids, your friends. Keep yourself active and busy and happy.
I’ll have to remember this!
SMALL TALK TIP FOR PEOPLE WHO HATE SMALL TALK: Ask people if they have any pets. This is light and impersonal enough to offend no one. People who have pets are usually pretty excited to talk about them and show off pictures, so there’s a good chance that you will be looking at kitties and doggos. People who don’t have pets will usually talk about the pets they wish they had, or have had in the past. People who neither have nor want pets are pretty rare.
Wandered into an article with 140 iconic cinematic shots, the comments complained there was no explanation to their composition. Decided to give it a run down and keep it to myself.
The compositions are mostly self explanatory but I wanted to see what patterns I could find. That’s just how you learn stuffs.
How to show expression with the mouth!
This was a request and at first I wasn’t sure if I had anything to provide with, but as it turn out it got a little longer than I expected because there were actually things I had to say!! Wow!!
Anyway, this is some guidelines I follow when I try to make the face expressfull, more specifically the mouth! It is often neglected, since it’s actually pretty hard, I’ll admit. But I’m here to help (hopefully…)! A mouth expression tutorial as per request. Enjoy and hopefully it will help some a little. ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ
Draw the teeth at the right angle.
This is super important. The upper jaw follows the angle of the head, and the lower jaw will depend on how open it is. Make sure you have a rough estimate of where the teeth are, and how much of them you’re going to see!
The lips will VERY roughly follow the same angle as the teeth. It really depends on the character, but it gives you a sense at least.
If you DON’T do this, you’re going to lose so much volume and the mouth is going to end up looking unrelatable. I showed this example in this tutorial:
It’s not just the lips!
The cheeks, chin, and tongue play a role too!
Try look at your own mouth or references! I have a very pliable and large mouth, so that’s one reason why my characters have it too lmao.
ASYMMETRYYYYY (ง ͠° ͟ل͜ ͡°)ง
I cannot emphasize how important asymmetry is when drawing expressions. It applies not only to the eyebrows to achieve the Dreamwork Face™, but also the mouth. Seriously if you draw a symmetric mouth I will deliver myself to your mailbox and then shout at you until you fix it.
Look at the difference between these two for example: which one has more “life”?
I think you get the idea.
Push and squish - give it flow
Here’s an old drawing I have but it illustrates how I think when I squish the mouth, and use folding and wrinkles to my advantage.
Look at your own face and see where skin bundles up, where it creases the most and when bumps appear on your chin. Subtle details makes all the difference!
One VERY effective detail is illustrated in the first sketch, where I pull upwards on one side, and downwards on the other. That’s a good detail to use when the character is making a skewed expression, or is extremely frustrated. I encourage you to play around with that concept bc it’s ~super effective~!
EXAMPLES:
Happy: Your entire mouth is pushed upwards, not just the corners of your mouth!
I tend to draw a :3 mouth bc I’ve been drawing Lance too much….. You don’t have to but it’s basically imprinted in my motor memory by now.
Pouting/frowning: corners are pushed down, middle pushed slightly up. Sometimes, there’s a slight dip in the middle too. It can give a sense that the character is biting their lips.
Showing frustration/intimidating/is intimidated: basically showing a lot of teeth. The corners are as open as possible and the middle sorta more squished. An extremely important detail here is showing some of the gums, and open space between the cheeks and teeth. That way it looks like the mouth it open to it’s full potential. Here is also where you basically MUST add folds and bumps, or else it’s not going to look relatable.
(Here I am again with the pulling upwards on one side and downwards on the other, as illustrated on the last sketch)
And then again, here’s just another doodle showing how important it is to show the gums. It’s the same face twice, but the second one looks slightly more frustrated doesn’t it?
(from my other tutorial on how to draw facial expressions)
As you can see, this last one is very versatile and I draw it a lot. Play around with the basic shape and see how much subtle details makes a lot of difference!
That’s it!
I hope that cleared some things up and was somewhat helpful! Enjoy drawing ✨
Background Tutorial
requested by ion4ever. sorry it took me so long to do this for you but hopefully I was of some help?
Notes:
I use CS6, and this was mostly done with default hard round brush at around 50% opacity or higher, 100% flow, and size pressure on. I made some random brushes for the greenery by modifying the default ones.
always use a large canvas. I go about 3000px x 3000px.
with enough practice, painting backgrounds like this will be a fairly quick affair. this one, for example, took about 30 minutes? it’s just a matter of time/experience. :)
So yeah, good luck doing backgrounds, and have fun!! :D
a series of composition tips i’d been sharing on twitter!
and since some people had asked, i’ve put up a pdf version of this on gumroad along with a layered psd of one of the example images too
tips would be really appreciated, but it’s up for free!