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Megathread - Blog Posts
RIP Joann, now what?
I wanted to make a post I could copy and paste and or link when I see folks asking where to buy fabrics when Joann is gone. I sew a lot, generally between 100-200 items a year and I don't do it on a big budget. Stores are not in a particular order.
Notions:
Wawak.com - start here, mostly stay here. Wawak is a supplier for professional sewing businesses and have the prices that show it. I will not pay for gutermann Mara 100 anywhere else. I buy buttons, tools, thread, and most elastic here.
Stitch Love Studio - this is where I buy lingerie supplies https://www.etsy.com/shop/StitchLoveStudio?ref=yr_purchases
Fabric:
Fabric Mart - this is one where you want to sign up for emails and never buy unless its on sale. They run different sales every day and they rotate. Mostly deadstock fabrics but I buy more from here than anywhere else. Fantastic customer service and if you watch you can get things like $6 wool suiting or $4 cotton jersey. https://fabricmartfabrics.com/
Fabrics-Store - again, buy the sales not the full price. Sign up for the emails but redirect them to a folder because it is TOO MANY. They stock linen or good but not amazing quality. https://www.fabrics-store.com/
Purple Seamstress - This is where I buy my solid cotton lycra jersey. They have other things, but the jersey is what I'm here for. Inexpensive and very good quality. If you ask she will mail you a swatch card for the solids. https://purpleseamstressfabric.com/
LA Finch - deadstock fabrics with a fantastic remnant selection https://lafinchfabrics.myshopify.com/
Califabrics - mix of deadstock and big brands, easy to navigate and always seem to have good denim in stock. https://califabrics.com/
Boho Fabrics - good variety, nice bundles. I have also gotten some really great trims from here. https://www.bohofabrics.com/
Firecracker Fabrics - garment and quilting fabrics, really nice selection and great sale section. I've bought $5 yard quilting cottons here several times. https://www.firecrackerfabrics.com/
Hancock's of Paducah - Quilting fabric and some limited garment fabric. AMAZING sale section. Do not sleep on the sale section. This is my first stop when buying quilting fabrics. Usually the last stop too. Not particularly speedy shipping. https://www.hancocks-paducah.com/
Itokri - This is something a little different. Itokri is an Indian business with incredible traditional fabrics. Shipping to the US is expensive, but the fabric is so inexpensive it evens out. I generally end up paying like $30 for shipping. Beautiful ikat and block prints. https://itokri.com/
Miss Matatabi - this is a little treat. This isn't where you go to save money, but there are so many beautiful things in this shop. Ships from Japan incredibly quickly. https://shop.missmatatabi.com/
Lucky Deluxe - Craft thrift store, always has an incredible selection and fantastic customer service. I need to close the tab fast because I never go to this website without finding something I need. https://www.luckydeluxefabrics.com/
Swanson's - the OG of online craft thrift stores, but I find their website harder to navigate. https://www.swansonsfabrics.com
Honorary Mentions: I haven't shopped at these places yet but I have had them recommended and likely will at some point.
A Thrifty Notion - https://athriftynotion.com/
Creative Closeouts - https://creativecloseoutsfabric.com/ being rebranded to sewsnip.com on March 1 - quilting deadstock
Hawthorne Supply Co. - I just got this rec and I think I need to not look too closely or I'm going to slip with my debit card. https://www.hawthornesupplyco.com/
This is not an exhaustive list of everywhere you can buy fabric, or even a full list of where I shop. There are SO many options out there in the world. You also need to think outside the fabric store box. I thrift men's shirt fabrics for quilts and sheets for backing fabric. I don't do a ton of in person thrifting and my local stores don't get a lot of craft materials but every thrift store is its own universe and reflects the community it is in. Go out and find something cool.
Oh and final note: Don't shop at Hobby Lobby.
i think the near-extinction of people making fun, deep and/or unique interactive text-based browser games, projects and stories is catastrophic to the internet. i'm talking pre-itch.io era, nothing against it.
there are a lot of fun ones listed here and here but for the most part, they were made years ago and are now a dying breed. i get why. there's no money in it. factoring in the cost of web hosting and servers, it probably costs money. it's just sad that it's a dying art form.
anyway, here's some of my favorite browser-based interactive projects and games, if you're into that kind of thing. 90% of them are on the lists that i linked above.
A Better World - create an alternate history timeline
Alter Ego - abandonware birth-to-death life simulator game
Seedship - text-based game about colonizing a new planet
Sandboxels or ThisIsSand - free-falling sand physics games
Little Alchemy 2 - combine various elements to make new ones
Infinite Craft - kind of the same as Little Alchemy
ZenGM - simulate sports
Tamajoji - browser-based tamagotchi
IFDB - interactive fiction database (text adventure games)
Written Realms - more text adventure games with a user interface
The Cafe & Diner - mystery game
The New Campaign Trail - US presidential campaign game
Money Simulator - simulate financial decisions
Genesis - text-based adventure/fantasy game
Level 13 - text-based science fiction adventure game
Miniconomy - player driven economy game
Checkbox Olympics - games involving clicking checkboxes
BrantSteele.net - game show and Hunger Games simulators
Murder Games - fight to the death simulator by Orteil
Cookie Clicker - different but felt weird not including it. by Orteil.
if you're ever thinking about making a niche project that only a select number of individuals will be nerdy enough to enjoy, keep in mind i've been playing some of these games off and on for 20~ years (Alter Ego, for example). quite literally a lifetime of replayability.
Made a twitter thread of the brushes and textures I use!! Wanted to share them here too
Links for everything can be found here
Can you recommend me resources for racial literacy, please?
so this is a hard question to answer when I don't know where you're from or what your background is.
The first book you should be reading if you're USAmerican is
preferably the 10th edition.
here's some articles and resources that are free though.
This is a really good starting point if the above are too confusing though
let me know if you need more resources!!
mod ali
people NEED to stop gatekeeping making music like ohhhh i don’t have an instrument ohhhhh i don’t know music theory ohhhhh i’m not gonna pay for some program. SHUT UP. take my hand.
you need NONE of that shit!!!!! there’s a website called beepbox.co. literally all you have to do is press things until it sounds a modicum of nice. it’s easy it’s free and it works on anything which has a browser because it’s a website.
if even ONE person starts making music bc of this post it will be worth it.
making bad music is just as important and okay as it is to write badly or draw badly or sing badly. you AREN’T BEHOLDEN TO MAKE GOOD MUSIC. making music is not utilitarian HAVE FUN. HAVE FUN!!!!!!!!!
in-browser multiplayer games
these are some games i like playing with my friends, feel free to leave additions in the replies =3 all of these games are accessible through a desktop/mobile browser, although i don’t know how many of them would work on mobile.
tough love arena: a super fun beta fighter! you can play rolling 1v1 matches in lobbies of up to 8 people
gartic phone: kinda like the game telephone, but for drawings instead!
skribbl.io / sketchful.io: pictionary! you can add your own prompts.
draw battle: kinda skribbl/sketchful but team versus team!
frantic fanfic: put in your own characters and work together to make fanfics! HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!
giddio: buncha board and table games!
tagpro: topdown tag game!
codenames: use teamwork and hints to guess your team’s code names!
town of salem: mafia type game– might be difficult to play nowadays
mafia.gg: ever played TOS or any mafia game? this is a simple text-based form of it! really fun for roleplaying within the game.
one night ultimate werewolf: another social deduction game!
spyfall: game works better in call- figure out who the spy among you is by asking questions about your special location!
pokemon showdown: make a poketeam and play matches!
tetr.io: online tetris! kinda functions like tetris99.
there are a LOT of cards against humanity clones, like pretend you’re xyzzy or picturecards… i haven’t tried a lot of them, so proceed with caution!
geoguessr / virtualvacation: guess locations of places- virtualvacation is like geoguessr, but with videos instead
Fuck It, Internet Guide
Hey there! As social media becomes more and more inhospitible for the local user, I wanted to post some useful/fun links to just about anything I can think of! Enjoy! Also, if you'd like an invite to the P!rated Games discord, lmk! ^_^
If you like what I do, consider tossing some money my way? I am so freaking poor, kthnx.
I AM CURRENTLY STILL UPDATING THIS POST AND I WILL REBLOG IT WHEN I ADD TO IT! Feel free to comment things I've missed, I'm sure there's way more than this came from!
EDIT 1: Here's the link to the google doc! Link it on your webrings and sites! Share on twitter! <3 be free my little links!
EDIT 2: Adding a readmore so this post isn't so long!
EDIT 3: Added more links ^^ please comment if there's cool stuff out there that I didn't link to! I want to collect as much reputable links as I can!
Links included are web centric (URL, generators, and archive collections), Knowledge Bases (like Libgen and The Eye, as well as open source projects from art museums), Art Tools (bootlegged SAI and different tools), Music Tools and Discovery (radio sites and music searches based on what you already like), and fun stuff (like Gifypet and Flashpoint!)
WEB CENTRIC
CURLIE: THE COLLECTOR OF URLs (Curlie strives to be the largest human-edited directory of the Web. You can save sites and create your own mini webring!)
Internet Archive (A collection of over 818 Billion websites, books, movies, music, and more. Hosts the Wayback Machine, which can be used to access a multitude of sites, given they were indexed in time.)
Wiby (Human submission search engine for older webrings, as well as a how-to guide on how to develop your own search engine)
Unicode Text Converter (Easy way to make your text illegible to Google but be warned, it will make screen readers malfuction)
Embed Responsively (Easily convert links and embeds to work responsively within your site - perfect for neocities!)
Generator Land (Generate a list or prompt for just about anything!)
GifCities (Part of the Internet Archive, a special project done as part of the 20th anniversary in an effort to save data from GeoCities. Find a gif for just about anything!)
Animated Images (Another gif repository, though this one is easier to search and includes small animations.)
Gifs-Paradise (Another gif repository. I swear I collect these. Searchable and categorized.)
ASCII Art Archive (Database of ASCII Art, also known as text art)
Christopher Johnson's ASCII Art Collection (Another, arguably larger, ASCII Art database)
MelonLand (A web project and online arts community that celebrates homepages, virtual worlds, the world-wide-web and the digital lives that all netizins share, here at the dawn of the digital age. See their thoughts and the WEB REVIVAL they're starting.)
Sadgrl Webrings (Webrings brought to us by Sadgrl.Online - 60+ different ones to be exact) and Sadgrl Links (70+ links just like the ones in this post)
Districts at Neocities (Remember neighborhoods on Geocities? Imagine that but for Neocities!)
Neocities Banners (Banners from all across neocities. Blinkies, banners and more leading all over the web. Mostly 88x31, though there are bigger ones too. Technically counts as a webring.)
Blinkies.cafe (Site for blinkies where you can even make your own! I get most of my blinkies here and off DeviantArt.)
88x31 Collection (Possibly the largest collection I've seen for 88x31 buttons)
90's Cursor Effects (Want a funky cursor for your blog or website? Wanna be able to realtime preview what cursors would look like? Come get some code!)
The Malware Museum (Interact with malware and viruses from the 80s and 90s through emulation! No nasty virus interactions needed :D )
KNOWLEDGE BASES
Library Genesis - LIBGEN (Scientific journals - dedicated to archiving every science journal and their articles in existence.)
Information Mesh (A web platform celebrating the 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web that explores social, technical, cultural and legal facts throughout different interactive timelines.)
Refseek (THE Academic Search Engine. To make academic information easily accessible to everyone. "RefSeek searches more than five billion documents, including web pages, books, encyclopedias, journals, and newspapers.")
Springer (Another large collection of archived research papers, books, and more.)
WorldCat (Great resource for locating and reading unique and rare books, perfect for library resources.)
OceanOfBooks (Another collection of books - notably there are LGBT+ sections in the "listopia" page.)
Web Design Museum (Over 2,000 sorted websites showing web design trends from '96 to '06.)
The History of the Web (A twice monthly newsletter about web history, and the incredible people that built it. Goes from 1989 to present.)
Field Guide to Web Accessibility (Principles and applications to every day web scenarios in order to make the web a more friendly place!)
CARI - Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute (an online community and collective association of researchers and designers dedicated to carrying on the important work of categorizing "consumer aesthetics" from the late midcentury, when work on the subject somewhat trailed off, through today.)
The Eye (Archive consisting of 140TB of books, websites, games, software, or anything else you can really think of.)
The Uncensored Library (A project from Reporters without Borders, where they use a loophole using Minecraft to distribute information.)
National Gallery of Art Public Domain (The National Gallery of Art has an open access policy for images of works of art in their permanent collection which the Gallery believes to be in the public domain. Images of these works are available for download free of charge for any use, whether commercial or non-commercial.)
Library of Congress Public Domain (Features items from the Library's digital collections that are free to use and reuse. The Library believes that this content is either in the public domain, has no known copyright, or has been cleared by the copyright owner for public use.)
Public Domain Review (an online journal and not-for-profit project dedicated to the exploration of curious and compelling works from the history of art, literature, and ideas.)
New York Public Library Public Domain (Our digitized collections are available as machine-readable data: over one million records for you to search, crawl and compute.)
Official articles from NASA (PubSpace is NASA's designated public access repository. It is a collection of NASA-funded scholarly publications within the STI Repository, aiming to increase access to federally funded research in accordance with NASA Public Access Policy.)
Universal Hint System (Wanna get some vague help for an older video game without getting spoiled? Check out these awesome hints!)
Smithsonian Open Access (Download, share, and reuse millions of 2D and 3D digital items from their 21 museums, 9 research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.)
Instructables (Wanna know how to make just about anything? Check here!)
QZAP Zine Archive (Archive of LGBT+ Zines, began in 2003 with zines dating back all the way to the 1970s. NSFW AT TIMES, BROWSE AT YOUR OWN RISK.)
P!racy Masterpost (Tumblr-based masterpost of game piracy, last updated 2021. A bit old but some of the stuff there is still good. If this link breaks, please contact me.)
P!rated Games Megathread (masterpost created by r/P!ratedGames includes required components as well as anything else you need. NOTE: PLEASE HAVE SOME SORT OF PROTECTION WHEN NAVIGATING THIS SITE)
Geocities Gallery (A website hosting a working archive for many abandoned Geocities Sites.)
Snipplr (Code Snippet repository. Great for coding issues.)
GeoCities (Archived) (Great for searching ancient webrings for gifs and website ideas. Not so great for downloads.)
Freeware Guide (Archived) (The Freeware-Guide died sometime in 2021 [we think March] but it's still full of VERY valuable information. Links are broken pretty much all the way through, but the names of software as well as what they do can be useful in finding them elsewhere thru some google searching)
Peelopaalu (Where I got a good handful of these links - AND THERE'S MORE!!!)
The Simple Site (More links to so much more cool stuff!)
Hathitrust (Like Internet Archive but focused on books/written word, a much larger pool of written works across history.)
ART TOOLS
Untitled - Paint (An in-browser version of classic Microsoft Paint!)
KidPix (In-browser version of classic KidPix for the public domain!)
Pixel Logic - A Guide to Pixel Art (Comprehensive guide to making cool art for $10 USD, updated semi-frequently and you get all new versions for free)
SAI - Bootlegged (A version of SAI with a multitude of brushes and textures pre-installed. Quite literally the only thing I use to draw aside from Clip Studio Paint.)
Stripe Generator (Need some easy stripes for an art piece? Can't be bothered to try and space stripes evenly? This is for you!)
Photopea (Free online photo editor supporting files for Adobe Photoshop, XCF, Sketch App, Adobe XD, and CorelDRAW, as well as many more!)
blender (A FOREVER free and Open Source software for 3D Modeling, full of tutorials and assets. I feel like most people don't know it's completely free to play with)
Vertex Meadow (A web-browser tool that renders 2D images as explorable 3D terrain. With it you can create detailed and unusual 3D environments to explore using a 2D paint-program-like interface.)
OpenGameArt (Need art for your game but you're not an artist? Consider checking here first [or just hire a real artist looking for work on here!])
Art Book PDFs (14GB of pure scanned pdfs of a lot of different art books. Need some inspo? Some teaching? Check in here for sure.)
MUSIC TOOLS AND DISCOVERY
BandLab (Social music platform that enables creators to make music and share their creative process with musicians and fans. Completely free with an option to set up stripe where you get 100% OF PROFITS. Available for apple/android/desktop)
JummBox (Free online beat-maker with a very simple interface that runs on your browser)
Mydora (Mydora is a continuous streaming player that gives you a deep dive into the lost archives of Myspace Music, based on some recovered data called the Dragon Hoard, with some additional metadata (most notably the locations and genres) from a different scan of Myspace conducted back in 2009. Contains 490,000+ songs, only a fraction of what was wiped out.)
Radiooooo (A place where people are able to play hit songs from the decade of their choosing from whatever country they wish.)
WFMU (Independent freeform radio broadcasting. Currently ongoing.)
Gnoosic (A sort-of music search engine that finds you songs/bands based off of your music taste.)
Khinsider (3.1 TB worth of video game soundtracks)
Radio.garden (Listen to thousands of radio stations all around the world.)
FUN STUFF
FrogLand (The purpose of Frogland is to show that the Internet can indeed provide a wealth of useful information and still be fun. Mainly, this site is dedicated to the many teachers out there who are finding new uses for the Internet as a tool for educating youngsters. Hopefully, it will inspire some young minds to find new interest in herpetology, biology, and environmental issues...not to mention providing some inspiration for young future computer "wizzes"! No longer active but still useful.)
Windows 98 icon Viewer (Want clear jpgs of all the Windows 98 symbols and icons? They're all here!)
GifyPet (Create your own embeded pet that people can play with and feed when they visit your page! See my version HERE [only works on desktop tho])
Ultimate Mushroom (Like the idea of picking mushrooms in your area but no idea what to look for? Check out this info hub!)
Gif Gallery (Another gif repositiory, only sorted by being numbered 1-100,000. Fun and silly, not so much useful unless you're looking for random gifs. Part of the MelonLand Webring)
Interesting DOS Programs (A host of DOS programming, guides and links.)
Internet Archive: MS-DOS Games (8,000 games right in your web browser! Your browser can play DOOM!)
Tiled Backgrounds (Need some small jpegs for easy website bg tiling? Browse this collection sorted by color.)
cOOl & EMO tEXt cOnVERTer xXX (Flashing warning. Wanna type like you're in the 2000s? Need a funny Green Day lyric as a caption? This is probably the best place for you.)
0x40 (Flashing Warning. Anime images synced with music. Fun for parties, lol)
WebGL Fluid Simulation (In browser fluid simulator, great for art backgrounds and desktop wallpapers.)
Flashpoint (The biggest collection of preserved Flash Games and Animations)
NCase (Free games and open source projects from Nicky [THESE ARE REALLY COOL AND FUN, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND])
Your World of Text (A huge interactive text doc that anyone can add to anonymously.)
Text To Speech (TTS in more than 30 languages and over 180 voices.)
ASCII Art Generator (Make ASCII Art from any image.)
Petit Tube (Random Youtube videos with less than 10 views)
Noclip Website (Noclip around various video game maps in your browser!)
Monster Mash (Create and animate some monsters in browser! You can also download their files.)
Soul Void: Redux (Free browser/GBA game where you help lost souls in the void :] )
Vimm's Lair (Emulators, games, and more - always scan your downloads!)
Sometimes I’m looking for something online - often “how to” articles - and I want to filter for - like - a website that was clearly built in 2010 at the latest, which may or may not have been updated since then, but contains a vast wealth of information on one topic, painstakingly organized by an unknown legend in the field with decades’ worth of experience. I don’t want a listicle with a nice stolen picture in a slideshow format written by a content aggregator that God forgot. I want hand-drawn diagrams by some genius professor who doesn’t understand SEO at all, but understands making stir-fries or raising stick insects better than anyone else on this earth. I don’t know what search settings to put into Google to get this.
Hey, you are not an embarrassment for not knowing how to do certain household chores/basic self-care. They do not come naturally to us. A lot of it takes practice! Maybe you had a neglectful guardian. Maybe you had one that was very coddling and never thought to teach you. Maybe you haven't lived in a place where these things were available to you or needed. Doesn't matter. It's okay to not know and far more common than you might realise.
That said, this website provides very simple instructions on how to do everyday tasks such as making your bed, using a washing machine, cooking different foods, washing dishes, taking a shower, etc. All you have to do is use the search bar to find the task you're struggling with, and it'll come up with what you need + other related how-to's:)
If you're having trouble navigating it, let me provide you with some examples:
How to clean dishes by hand
How to make your bed (with visual demonstrations of each step!)
How to fold clothes (with visual demonstrations of each step!)
How to take a shower & dry yourself off (also provides ways to shave beards, armpits, legs and genitals)
How to shave legs, armpits, beards, pubic areas, etc. (a more in-depth guide)
How to mop the floor
How to sweep the floor
How to swallow pills
How to make small talk
How to make eye contact in different situations (or how to avoid it while still looking natural)
It's also perfectly okay if these don't help or aren't appealing to you. Unfortunately, nothing helps everyone.
games (mostly text-based) about houses and places-- exploring them, haunting them, feeding them:
childhood homes (and why we hate them) - after a decade, you return home.
return - a text-based horror game about coming home.
singing from the far side of the hill - about a trans woman, homeless after a bad breakup, who rents a stranger's spare room. it's a decision she comes to regret.
anatomy - Explore a suburban house, collect cassette tapes, study the physiology of domestic architecture.
leave house - leave house
the open house - We at Northtree Real Estate (in partnership with Optix Dynamix Labs) are proud to present our new, state-of-the-art, open house simulator! Come and take a quick tour of 15615 Hollow Oak Lane, a familiar and comfortable showcase home in one of our premier developments!
what girls do in the dark - This little game is based off one of the greatest fears they had as a teenage girl: showing up late to a stranger's slumber party.
unbecoming - a sonically-textured interactive horror fiction exploring cycles of trauma and unspeakable forces of nature in a mythic rural American landscape.
13 laurel road - an interactive fiction game about the relationships we have with places and reconciling with trauma. You play as a young man named Noah who has been tasked with picking up some things from his cousin’s old house.
domvs - a gothic mystery game in which you rely on your environment to uncover the truth.
flesh, blood, & concrete - you find yourself in a vast, empty apartment complex.
i am still here - a short, unconventional ghost story and vignette reflecting on the end of a long lockdown.
vacant - Film a ghost-hunting show.
i made a free to use, 100% customizable comment widget for neocities users! it's really easy to install and add comment sections to any page. no more boring cbox or external guestbooks if you don't want them! and it comes with two themes to get you started!! please enjoy! you can find it here on my personal site!
beginner’s guide to the indie web
“i miss the old internet” “we’ll never have websites like the ones from the 90s and early 2000s ever again” “i’m tired of social media but there’s nowhere to go”
HOLD ON!
personal websites and indie web development still very much exist! it may be out of the way to access and may not be the default internet experience anymore, but if you want to look and read through someone’s personally crafted site, or even make your own, you can still do it! here’s how:
use NEOCITIES! neocities has a built in search and browse tools to let you discover websites, and most importantly, lets you build your own website from scratch for free! (there are other ways to host websites for free, but neocities is a really good hub for beginners!)
need help getting started with coding your website? sadgrl online has a section on her website dedicated to providing resources for newbie webmasters!
HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are the core of what all websites are built on. many websites also use JS (JavaScript) to add interactive elements to their pages. w3schools is a useful directory of quick reference for pretty much every HTML/CSS/JS topic you can think of.
there is also this well written and lengthy guide on dragonfly cave that will put you step by step through the basics of HTML/CSS (what webpages are made from), if that’s your sort of thing!
stack overflow is every programmer’s hub for asking questions and getting help, so if you’re struggling with getting something to look how you want or can’t fix a bug, you may be able to get your answer here! you can even ask if no one’s asked the same question before.
websites like codepen and jsfiddle let you test HTML/CSS/JS in your browser as you tinker with small edits and bugfixing.
want to find indie websites outside the scope of neocities? use the search engine marginalia to find results you actually want that google won’t show you!
you can also use directory sites like yesterweb’s link section to find websites in all sorts of places.
if you are going to browse the indie web or make your own website, i also have some more personal tips as a webmaster myself (i am not an expert and i am just a small hobbyist, so take me with a grain of salt!)
if you are making your own site:
get expressive! truly make whatever you want! customize your corner of the internet to your heart’s content! you have left the constrains of social media where every page looks the same. you have no character limit, image limit, or design limit. want to make an entire page or even a whole website dedicated to your one niche interest that no one seems to be into but you? go for it! want to keep a public journal where you can express your thoughts without worry? do it! want to keep an art gallery that looks exactly how you want? heck yeah! you are free now! you will enjoy the indie web so much more if you actually use it for the things you can’t do on websites like twitter, instead of just using it as a carrd bio alternative or a place to dump nostalgic geocities gifs.
don’t overwhelm yourself! if you’ve never worked with HTML/CSS or JS before, it may look really intimidating. start slow, use some guides, and don’t bite off more than you can chew. even if your site doesn’t look how you want quite yet, be proud of your work! you’re learning a skill that most people don’t have or care to have, and that’s pretty cool.
keep a personal copy of your website downloaded to your computer and don’t just edit it on neocities (or your host of choice) and call it a day. if for some reason your host were to ever go down, you would lose all your hard work! and besides, by editing locally and offline, you can use editors like vscode (very robust) or notepad++ (on the simpler side), which have more features and is more intuitive than editing a site in-browser.
you can use ctrl+shift+i on most browsers to inspect the HTML/CSS and other components of the website you’re currently viewing. it’ll even notify you of errors! this is useful for bugfixing your own site if you have a problem, as well as looking at the code of sites you like and learning from it. don’t use this to steal other people’s code! it would be like art theft to just copy/paste an entire website layout. learn, don’t steal.
don’t hotlink images from other sites, unless the resource you’re taking from says it’s okay! it’s common courtesy to download images and host them on your own site instead of linking to someone else’s site to display them. by hotlinking, every time someone views your site, you’re taking up someone else’s bandwidth.
if you want to make your website easily editable in the future (or even for it to have multiple themes), you will find it useful to not use inline CSS (putting CSS in your HTML document, which holds your website’s content) and instead put it in a separate CSS file. this way, you can also use the same theme for multiple pages on your site by simply linking the CSS file to it. if this sounds overwhelming or foreign to you, don’t sweat it, but if you are interested in the difference between inline CSS and using separate stylesheets, w3schools has a useful, quick guide on the subject.
visit other people’s sites sometimes! you may gain new ideas or find links to more cool websites or resources just by browsing.
if you are browsing sites:
if the page you’re viewing has a guestbook or cbox and you enjoyed looking at the site, leave a comment! there is nothing better as a webmaster than for someone to take the time to even just say “love your site” in their guestbook.
that being said, if there’s something on a website you don’t like, simply move on to something else and don’t leave hate comments. this should be self explanatory, but it is really not the norm to start discourse in indie web spaces, and you will likely not even be responded to. it’s not worth it when you could be spending your time on stuff you love somewhere else.
take your time! indie web doesn’t prioritize fast content consumption the way social media does. you’ll get a lot more out of indie websites if you really read what’s in front of you, or take a little while to notice the details in someone’s art gallery instead of just moving on to the next thing. the person who put labor into presenting this information to you would also love to know that someone is truly looking and listening.
explore! by clicking links on a website, it’s easy to go down rabbitholes of more and more websites that you can get lost in for hours.
seeking out fansites or pages for the stuff you love is great and fulfilling, but reading someone’s site about a topic you’ve never even heard of before can be fun, too. i encourage you to branch out and really look for all the indie web has to offer.
i hope this post helps you get started with using and browsing the indie web! feel free to shoot me an ask if you have any questions or want any advice. <3
Ok but like. What the fuck is there to do on the internet anymore?
Idk when I was younger, you could just go and go and find exciting new websites full of whatever cool things you wanted to explore. An overabundance of ways to occupy your time online.
Now, it’s just… Social media. That’s it. Social media and news sites. And I’m tired of social media and I’m tired of the news.
Am I just like completely inept at finding new things or has the internet just fallen apart that much with the problems of SEO and web 3.0 turning everything into a same-site prison?
genuinely tho, if we're seeing the end of the social media era, getting back into RSS would be a great idea. it lets you gather all manner of different websites to visit and keep track of, but without turning the experience into a facebook/twitter type slog where Engagement is the main focus
RPG Maker 2003/2000 Masterpost
Since there’s been a spike in people asking me 2003 related questions lately and I know a lot of different tutorials out there, I made this beginner’s masterpost to help some newbies out. This is the engine that OFF, Yume Nikki, Ib, & Pom Gets Wifi were made on, feel free to purchase it on Steam or the official RPG Maker website for 20$ (or for like 4-5$ on a steam or humble bundle sale).
NOTE: Most of these tutorials and all of these resources should work on RPG Maker 2000 as well.
The basics of game design
a nice collection of articles here on RPGMaker.net.
how the hell do i get this program to work
Ebeth’s RPG Maker 2003 Guide for Complete Newbies (Reblogable Version)
an introduction guide to the old translation of RPG Maker 2003
understanding how events work
switches as explained by bleet
understanding switches and variables
how to use switches
understanding conditional branches
changing the “Start, Load, Quit” options on the menu screen
making a treasure chest
making a door
how to make a locked & unlocked door
how to give your characters footstep sounds
copy and pasting events at the speed of light
create an easy password puzzle
implement a game of rock, paper, scissors
making a boulder puzzle
how to appear smaller on the world map
making a repeating/endless hallway or road
how to create diagonal stairs (and moving backgrounds on maps!)
make your game work WITHOUT RTP
make a sidescrolling map
visualizing your map
my parallax map isn’t showing up
Making a seamless map transition
understanding pointers
activating events by proximity
implementing weather
double tap to dash!
hold shift to speed up
How to change the font (and a followup!)
create a condition to know that the game has been loaded (for new game + and other stuff)
have NPCs follow behind you, aka a caterpillar system (this): tutorial one | two | three | four | five
making an action battle system (like the 2D legend of zelda games)
custom menu tutorials: one | two | three
how to make images fade in and out of your custom menu
one way of debugging your game
more tutorials here
Fangame Specific Stuff
The Pokemon Resource Kit - a nice big collection of graphics and such to use for a generation 3 (firered/leafgreen & ruby/sapphire/emerald) type game!
How to Start your own Yume Nikki Fangame
How to create effects in Yume Nikki: Tutorial 1
How to create endless hallways for Yume Nikki Fangames
How to make a “wake up” key for Yume Nikki Fangames
My tag for Yume Nikki Fangame Help
YumeResource was a blog created specifically for Yume Nikki Fangames
huge list of OFF spinoff/fangame resources
Creating battle sprites in the Mortis Ghost/OFF style
Check The Spriter’s Resource for any sprites you need to use from any game
sample games that were made for you to open up in the editor and see how events and such are done
A Sample Game for the Old RPG Maker 2003 (don’t worry, you can import games made in the old engine into the new 2003)
Mystic Sunrise, a sample game for the new RPG Maker 2003
graphics
Basic tips & links to some pixel art tutorials
my graphic resource masterpost
A base sprite you can use in 2003
how do I get a talksprite/portrait/full body sprite to work (these)? one | two | three
how do i make a message box with more details on it?
how do I get the correct coordinates for a picture i’m importing in?
how do these chipsets/tilesets even work?
can i change the sizes of characters or tiles? short answer: no
Do you have any templates? Heck yeah I do. Check this site out too!
how to fix the invalid color depth error
how do I fix this weird color around my character?? The proper way to import graphics & a reblogable post about importing graphics.
Menu error you might get in the New 2003 and how to fix it
Panorama/Parallax mapping for 2003, aka making your maps in another art program then importing them in as a backdrop
why not try and hand draw your own maps
how do i water tile???
map making: a set of guidelines
elevation made easy
make custom lighting for your game
If I want to create a room full of eyes that follow the player, how would I do it?
music
my stupidly big music masterpost
My First Game Jam’s Resource list
footprint sounds
You can search for stuff on soundcloud that’s free to use - click on tracks -> filter -> then click on “to listen to” and change it to “to use commercially.” There’s a lot of free video game music and other types of music on there, so check it out.
nightmargin’s music maker suggestion
list of free and open source music programs
famitracker - for your NES chiptune style music
Pulseboy - an online chiptune maker
as3sfxr - an online sound effects maker (coins, jumps, explosions, level ups, etc)
online .wav converter to convert music files into the .wav format
online .mp3 converter to convert music files into the .mp3 format
Other
Sharing your game once it’s done. Make sure to check everything!
So, you want to translate an RPG Maker 2000/2003 game?
Common Problems when trying to open up games and how to fix them
Yumeresouce can answer ALL your questions about 2003 and more, no matter what game you’re making
I’m most familiar with 2003 since that’s my engine of choice, so until I start doing more research on the other RPG Makers, I can only do 2000/2003 for now. If you want to do your own masterpost on any of the others though, I encourage it! :)
Feel free to add on anything you think is helpful. :)
NEED HELP WRITING? (a masterlist)
I have likely not added many that I've reblogged to this list. Please feel free to roam my blog and/or ask/message me to add something you'd like to see on this list!
Synonym Lists
Look by @writers-potion
Descriptors
Voices by @saraswritingtipps
Show, Don't Tell by @lyralit
Tips & Tricks
5 Tips for Creating Intimidating Antagonists by @writingwithfolklore
How To (Realistically) Make a Habit of Writing by @byoldervine
Let's Talk About Misdirection by @deception-united
Tips to Improve Character Voice by @tanaor
Stephen King's Top 20 Rules for Writers posted by @toocoolformedschool
Fun Things to Add to a Fight Scene (Hand to Hand Edition) by @illarian-rambling
Questions I Ask My Beta Readers by @burntoutdaydreamer
Skip Google for Research by @s-n-arly
Breaking Writing Rules Right: Don't Write Direct Dialogue by @septemberercfawkes
Databases/Resources
International Clothing
Advice/Uplifting
Too Ashamed of Writing To Write by @writingquestionsanswered
"Said" is Beautiful by @blue-eyed-author
Local house witch telling you to please learn basic housekeeping skills.
It’s not your fault if no one ever taught you but YouTube is a magical place and can teach you at your own pace.
an angel on letterboxd just dropped a whole playlist of films free on youtube I was filled with so much love and light I had to share with you guys
as an aroace person with limited sexual experience, no interest in watching porn, and poor sex ed as a teen, there IS something simultaneously funny and vaguely tragic about being 28 adult years old and realising how extremely tiny your frame of reference is for genitalia and deciding you should expand this to better understand bodies (yours and others). and then you're just there like "okay so what the fuck do I even google right now, anyway"
how i (personally) pirate things. this is by no means a great extensive perfect guide, ill just give you the process of how i go about it. and if you’re in a country where they monitor your internet usage, consider getting a good vpn! always helps. also if anyone wants to add their personal resources, PLEASE DO!!! you’re encouraged to do so!!!
Keep reading
So, Microsoft is terrible. Yes yes, the oldest claim in the world.
But specifically... I just hate how Windows 10 tries to conflate and confuse web searches with things on one's own computer. The start menu should never do anything related to web-searching, especially if it purports to try to give examples of things that are on my hard drive!
This will make old, computer-illiterate people more malware-vulnerable. You have to maintain a strong distinction between "things that are on this computer (and maybe even included in Windows)" (safe, one hopes, or you already got pwned by it, probably), and "things on the web" (scary, dangerous, not to be trusted at all).
Eroding that barrier in the UI is awful. It just FEELS like a violation every time I start typing into the start bar, and it tries to show me ANYTHING web-related. My computer is NOT just an internet-portal! It has tons of stuff on it, and when I'm interacting with the OS, I ONLY want to see things that are already on here!
If I wanted to see something online, I would go to my browser! All the online stuff should be segregated into the browser!
Specific programs can access the internet; that's fine. But my OS's functions and interface should JUST be about the things that are already on my computer.
Links to my free sewing patterns! - big manta ray - smaller manta ray - monster friend (those monsters with horns I’ve been making lately, but without horns) - pie slice - Fred, the Fish of Minimal Effort - tiny cat (aka Jiji) - mini mothman - whale shark/donut whale shark - juggling frog/toad (aka my smallest, simplest frog pattern of the three I’ve made) - large frog - tiny hedgehog - minecraft bee
adding this to my internet trinkets collection; bunch of very cool tools collected by @good-morning-czernobog! thank you for making this :D
included are:
dice rollers!
GIF and video makers and savers!
art refs and tools!
useful apps and generators!
open source/free to read books and research!
and other nice things!
i am not joking we need to force teach cooking in schools. like. it is an essential thing for survival. do you know how easy it is to make things if you know even the bare bones shit about how cooking works. we need to teach teenagers how far you can take an onion and some other veggies it''s sad that people grow up not knowing how to prepare literally anything. and i'm not talking about oh this home ed class taught me how to make chicken nuggets at home i'm talking about learning the balancing of sweetness and acidity and saltiness and bitterness and shit like that and techniques and oil temperatures and how meats cook. it needs to be taught because it's literally not even that difficult and it matters so much
here’s some links to reputable video game piracy sites :
crohasit (currently inactive , also has some software available)
steamunlocked (exclusively steam games . the previous runner of the above website helps run this one .)
fitgirl repacks (keep in mind people make fakes of this site frequently . the link included here is the ONLY correct link .)
oldgamesdownload (archival , exclusively retro or abandoned games)
tips for piracy safety under the cut if you need those . if you haven’t done this kind of thing before i encourage you to read that .
Keep reading
Free Online Language Courses
Here is a masterpost of MOOCs (massive open online courses) that are available, archived, or starting soon. I think they will help those that like to learn with a teacher or with videos. You can always check the audit course or no certificate option so that you can learn for free.
American Sign Language
ASL University
Sign Language Structure, Learning, and Change
Arabic
Arabic for Global Exchange (in the drop-down menu)
Intro to Arabic
Madinah Arabic
Moroccan Arabic
Arabe (taught in French)
Catalan
Intro to Catalan Language & Society
Intro to Catalan Sign Language
Chinese
Beginner
Basic Chinese I. II, III, IV , V
Basic Mandarin Chinese I & II
Beginner’s Chinese
Chinese for Beginners
Chinese Characters
Chinese for HSK 1
Chinese for HSK 2
Chinese for HSK 3 I & II
HSK Level 1
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin Chinese for Business
More Chinese for Beginners
Start Talking Mandarin Chinese
UT Gateway to Chinese
Chino Básico (Taught in Spanish)
Intermediate
Chinese Stories
Intermediate Business Chinese
Intermediate Chinese Grammar
Dutch
Introduction to Dutch
English
Online Courses here
Resources Here
Faroese
Faroese Course
Finnish
A Taste of Finnish
Basic Finnish
Finnish for Immigrants
Finnish for Medical Professionals
French
Beginner
AP French Language and Culture
Basic French Skills
Beginner’s French: Food & Drink
Diploma in French
Elementary French I & II
Français Interactif
French in Action
French Language Studies I, II, III
French: Ouverture
Intermediate & Advanced
French: Le Quatorze Juillet
Passe Partout
La Cité des Sciences et de Industrie
Vivre en France - A2
Vivre en France - B1
Frisian
Introduction to Frisian (Taught in English)
Introduction to Frisian (Taught in Dutch)
German
Beginner
Beginner’s German: Food & Drink
Conversational German I, II, III, IV
Deutsch im Blick
Diploma in German
German at Work
Rundblick-Beginner’s German
Intermediate
German: Regionen Traditionen und Geschichte
Landschaftliche Vielfalt
Gwich’in
Introduction to Gwich’in Language
Hebrew
Biblical Hebrew
Know the Hebrew Alphabet
Teach Me Hebrew
Hindi
A Door into Hindi
Business Hindi
Virtual Hindi
Icelandic
Icelandic 1-5
Indonesian
Learn Indonesian
Irish
Introduction to Irish
Irish 101
Irish 102
Italian
Beginner
Beginner’s Italian: Food & Drink
Beginner’s Italian I
Introduction to Italian
Italian for Beginners 1 , 2, 3 , 4 , 5, 6
Intermediate & Advanced
AP Italian Language and Culture
Intermediate Italian I
Advanced Italian I
Letteratura italiana
Japanese
Genki
Japanese JOSHU
Japanese Pronunciation
Sing and Learn Japanese
Tufs JpLang
Kazakh
A1-B2 Kazakh (Taught in Russian)
Korean
Beginner
First Step Korean
How to Study Korean
Introduction to Korean
Learn to Speak Korean
Pathway to Spoken Korean
Intermediate
Intermediate Korean
Nepali
Beginner’s Conversation and Grammar
Norwegian
Introduction to Norwegian
Norwegian on the Web
Portuguese
Curso de Português para Estrangeiros
Pluralidades em Português Brasileiro
Russian
Beginner
Easy Accelerated Learning for Russian
Advanced
Reading Master and Margarita
Russian as an Instrument of Communication
Siberia: Russian for Foreigners
Spanish
Beginner
AP Spanish Language & Culture
Basic Spanish for English Speakers
Beginner’s Spanish: Food & Drink
Introduction to Spanish
Restaurants and Dining Out
Spanish for Beginners 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Spanish Vocabulary
Intermediate
Spanish: Ciudades con Historia
Spanish: Espacios Públicos
Advanced
Corrección, Estilo y Variaciones
Leer a Macondo
Spanish:Con Mis Propias Manos
Spanish: Perspectivas Porteñas
Swedish
Intro to Swedish
Swedish Made Easy 1, 2, & 3
Ukrainian
Read Ukrainian
Ukrainian Language for Beginners
Welsh
Beginner’s Welsh
Discovering Wales
Multiple Languages
Ancient Languages
More Language Learning Resources & Websites!
Last updated: April 1, 2018
Your Character: A Masterlist of CC Guides
Character creation and development:
Character creation questionnaire
Character foils
Core values
Core values 2
Creating a character from scratch
How eating an orange reveals character
Fears, weaknesses, and pet peeves
Flaws
Flaws and Vices (list)
Inventory
Nicknames
Outline for a distinct character
Personal effects
7 Key Traits of Enduring Characters
What does your character know?
Your character as a paradox
Your character’s closet
Dealing with large character casts
Types of Character:
Creating a likable villain
Strong Female Characters
Supporting characters
Throwaway characters
Mary Sue / Gary Stu
Loner Characters
Character Arc:
Building a character arc
Series Characters
Steps of change
Swoons and wounds
Character dialogue:
How your character asks for help
Character-specific dialogue
Cursing
Speech patterns
What we say vs. what we mean
Who has control
Relationships:
Power imbalances
Pacing your romance
How to avoid unintentional romantic subtext
On the page:
Creating a strong first impression
An exaggerated first impression
Characterization through appearance
Description
Showing emotion
Staging
Thank God I have (insert character here)
Torturing your Character (and reader)
art cheats
hello i am here today to not lose track of the art cheats i have discovered over the years. what i call art cheat is actually a cool filter/coloring style/way to shade/etc. that singlehandedly makes art like 20 times better
80’s anime style
glitch effect
glow effects
adding colors to grayscale paintings
foreshortening ( coil )
foreshortening ( perspective )
clipping group (lines)
clipping group (colors)
dramatic lighting ( GOOD )
shading metal
lighting faces
that is all for today, do stay tuned as i am always hunting for cool shit like this