Just recently, I started cutting whole things; when a recipe calls for Ā½ onion, etc, I chop the whole thing and then bag the rest and put it in the freezer (onions, carrots, potato, peppers NOT TOMATOES) as a way to save the veggie from going yucky in my vegetable drawers.
This is also good advice for life, when people always have some to say about a stage in your life, be it a new job, a new fashion style, a makeover, a new spouse , anything.
Realistic Stuttering: āSorry, I uhā¦ I didnāt mean- I didnāt mean to do thatā¦ā
When people stutter, they usually reword what theyāre saying as they speak, and subconsciously insert āfiller wordsā such as āuh, like, you know,ā and etc.
*puts on speech therapist hat*
ACTUALLY! It depends on why they are stuttering.Ā
A Nervous Stutter results in what is called Mazing, or rewording the sentence. That is the classicĀ āI, umā¦ well Iā¦ look itās just thatā¦ so weā¦ā that @hellishhues is talking about. When someone is mazing their words youāre seeing a form of Speech Apraxia where the brain is having trouble forming verbal speech. This can be brought on by brain damage, memory loss, anxiety, nerves, and several other things.Ā
The root cause of a nervous stutter is a disconnect between the mouth and the brain.Ā
With this you will also sometimes see the classicĀ āS-s-s-sorryā¦ā especially if the person has been training to speak clearly and is now at a point of fatigue or stress where they are not mentally capable of forming the words.
The other kind of stutter is a Physical Stutter, sometimes referred to as slurring, and another facet of Speech Apraxia. This stutter is caused when the muscles of the mouth, tongue, and throat are physically unable to form certain sounds. This is most often seen in the very young and victims of brain trauma.Ā
Sounds are acquired at different ages, so a 2-year-old will probably not be able to clearly pronounce certain words (which is why toddler sound so off when theyāre written with developed dialogue). These mis-pronunciations are sometimes referred to as lisping, but only if the sounds are run together. If the person starts and restarts the sound because they got it wrong, it can also sound like the classic sound stutter.Ā
But it all depends on why the character is stuttering!
Do they have Speech Apraxia, Audio Processing Disorder, muscle dysfunction, or another medical reason to stutter? (1)
Are they stuttering because of anxiety, stress, or fatigue? (2)
Does the stutter stem from intoxication or blood loss? (3)
All of those will sound different!Ā
1 – Will have mazing, repeated sound stutters, and be the classic stutter that annoys OP.
2 – This is where youāll see the repetition stutter, mazing, rephrasing, and filler words.
3 – This is where you are more likely to see starts and stops and slurring of words.Ā
My mum has apraxia and I just wanted to say thatās one of the most concise and clear ways Iāve seen it explained, thank you!
I developed a bad stutter after a head injury that so Iām glad to see a professional explain why OP is a dickhead.Ā
From me, personally, OP can f-f-f-fuck off.Ā
My dad has a stutter that he went to extensive speech therapy to fix so his sentences more often go like this: āIām going to run to the āā- store for some milk. Is thereāāāshould I grab anything else?ā In which the āāāāā are pauses anywhere from a few seconds to full minutes as he tries to find a word he can say without difficulties or get his mouth to form a word without the āclassicā stutter.
Writers: Bad people are still people with their own problems and emotions, even when they cause problems and distress and hurt other people.
Tumblr Gremlins: Problematic. Blocked.
If you portray bad people as good people, then youāre normalizing abuse. Of course thatās fucking problematic.
So, see, hereās where that falls apart: nobody is entirely a good or bad person, and some people who commit genuine evil have extremely convincing reasons for doing so. Some people do acts of sincere good and extreme evil and if we donāt understand that, we leave ourselves vulnerable.
I did not and still would not call my actual abuser a bad person. Thatās vastly oversimplifying things! They genuinely helped me, and others, when no one else would. They raised the sweetest goddamn foster dogs the world has ever seen. Their entire personality wasnāt a front for this secret being of true evil; they were sincerely good parts, and sincerely evil parts, and one doesnāt cancel the other out.
This black and white view scares me, because someone being a Good Person does not mean they cannot be an abuser. An abuser can be extremely complex and sympathetic. They are almost always people who are well-liked and are frequently activists. They are extremely good at believable excuses and playing the victim – often (though not always) because they actually were victims. They do have their own emotions and problems and they are very, very, very good at making you care about them. You will, at some point in your life, almost certainly love someone who is abusive – if not to you then someone else.
I want, badly, to write stories that make the reader fall as deeply in love with a fictional abuser as I did with a real one, because that is the truth. That is reality. It is difficult, sickening, and true.
Abusers donāt have a Bad Person sign over their head, and you can know them for years without ever having a clue. Shutting down fiction that reflects this does nobody any favors, least of all people who may be victims.
Not to mention that if you have it in your head that āonly bad people hurt peopleā then you do not have the capacity to see when you may be hurting someone. If you are so concerned about morality, you almost certainly see yourself as a āgood personā ā which means that you will be unable to recognise when you have problems of your own which are causing others harm.
And I say when, not if, because no-one goes through their entire life without ever doing or saying something hurtful to another person. It is much more difficult to catch your own bullshit early on and fix it before it becomes manipulative/abusive if you believe that only ābad peopleā hurt others.
The other day I came across this awesome program by accident
(I donāt even remember what I was actually searching for, but on the several
times Iāve looked for a program like this Iāve had no luck). Itās cool enough that I wanted to share it.
Itās called DesignDoll (website here) and itās a program that lets you shape and pose a human figure pretty much however you want.
Thereās a trial version with no expiration date that can be
downloaded for free, as well as the āpro licenseā version priced at $79.
Iāve only had the free version for two days so far, so Iām not an expert and I
havenāt figured out all of the features yet, but Iāve got the basics down. The
websiteās tutorials are actually pretty helpful for the basics, as well.Ā
Hereās the page for download, which has a list of the
features available in both versions.
There are three features the free version doesnāt have:
Canāt save OBJ files for export
Canāt download models and poses from Doll
Atelier (a sharing site for users; note that the site is in Japanese, though)
It canāt load saved files
The third one means that if you make a pose, save it, and
close the program, you canāt load that
pose/modified model later. You have to start with the default model. I
found that out when I tried to load a file from the day before (this is why
reading is importantā¦). Whether saving your modifications (and downloading models and poses) is worth $80 is up to you.Ā
But, the default
model is pretty nice and honestly if all youāre looking for is a basic pose reference
it should work fairly well as it is.Ā Hereās what it looks like:
Thereās a pose tag
that lets you drag each joint into place and rotate body parts. The torso and
waist can be twisted separately, and it seems like everything pretty much
follows the range of movement it would have on an actual human.
Even the entire shoulder area is actually movable along with the joint! See, like how the scapular area of the back raises with the arm:
The morphing tag
is one of the coolest features, in my opinion. It lets you pick and choose from
a library of pre-set forms for the head, chest, arms, legs, etc. It has some more realistic body shapes in addition to more anime-like ones. Donāt like the
options there? Mix a few to get what you want! Each option has a slider that
lets you blend as much or as little as you want into the design.Ā
So you, too, can create beautiful things like kawaii
Muscle-chan!!
The scale tag
lets you mess with the proportions and connection points of different joints. This
feature combined with the morphing feature not only allows more body shape
variations, but it also means that you can do things like make a more digitigrade
model if you want. (The feet only have an ankle joint, but for regular human poses thatās all that you really need, so whatever.)
Or you can make a weird chubby alien-like thing with giant
hands and balloon tiddies if thatās more your thing.
The ability to pose
hands to the extent it allows is far more than I could have hoped for from
a free program. Seriously, you can change the position of each finger joint individually, as well as how spread out the fingers are from each other. Each crease on the diagram below is a point of movement, and the circles are for spread between fingers.Ā
And to make it a bit more convenient, thereās a library of pre-set hand poses you can pick from as well, and then change the pose from that if you like.Ā
In both versions, you can also import OBJ files from other places for the model to hold, like if you wanted to have them hold a sword or something.
Basically, this program is awesome and free and you should
totally check it out if you want a good program for creating pose references.
I just wanted to add a little more to this. If you have trouble figuring out how light sources work in your drawings this also allows you to choose where to have a light source.
That shaded ball on the left is your light source. You can see how moving the point changed the shadow cast.
Oh and all those other nifty looking things in that bottom bar there, yeah itās what you think. You can change the model color to one of these presets or even customize your own palette.
Plus for all you lovely people who want something a little more simplified to use as a pose reference
You can turn your model into the classic wire frame.
Why reblog this? Because for more visual creators, this will be like the lumberjack discovering chainsaws.Ā āReblog to save livesā as the saying goes.
So this past Anime Expo, I was constantly asked how I made/rigged up my wings for my Seraphim cosplay. I thought Iād write up how I went about making it for cosplayers whoās characters have multiple sets of wings, such as Angewomon, Lilith from trinity blood, and the like.Ā
These are the supplies youāll need (*will vary; this is what I used for 6 wings):
*x6 Ā 3/4ā³ PVC pipeĀ
12ā³x12ā³ 6mm sintra boardĀ
1 flag pole bracket
*1 roll of packing foam (mine was 12ā³x50ā²)
thin/cheap fabric or whatever you want to use as a skeleton
super glue/epoxy
hot glue gun and loads of glue sticks
heavy duty fishing lineĀ
6ā³ seperating zipper
canvas/duct fabricĀ
heat gun
dremel tool with a drill bit, rotary saw attachment, and sanding bit
screwdriverĀ
exacto knife/box cutter
self healing cutting mat/cutting board
scissorsĀ
fray check
zipties (I used 10 of the 12ā³)
reference pictures!
***I would like to say ahead of time that these are literally my first set of big wings and that they were made with loads of mistakes. I hope you will take this rough design and improve on it! ***
The very first thing I did was cut out hundreds of feathers. I made 4 templates of varying sizes, and cut the entire roll of foam into feathers. It took a lot of time, but I think the result was totally worth it.
^ I had an entire packing box full by the time I was done, this was tray one.
I forgot to take photos of heat forming my PVC to shape, but itās pretty straight forward. I matched up the ends of the pipe that would fit into my flag pole bracket, and drilled 2 sets of holed in each pipe. The first set towards the top of the bracket, and the second at the base. I did this so that at the end when I ziptied everything together it would be super, super sturdy.Ā
After the frame was shaped, I laid it over some cheap fabric and traced out the basic shape of the wing. I cut 2 of each shape, glued it to the PVC frame with hot glue!
I also apparently forgot to take photos while gluing on feathers, but this is the diagram I used as reference.
I tried to do a mix between whatās anatomically correct and the design, so the feathers are actually overlapped in the reverse of the above image. If that makes sense?Ā
Now onto the harness for your wings. Because I had so many wings, I wanted the weight to be distributed to my hips instead of my back. However, the costume design wouldnāt allow for a typical corset harness. I opted out for a sort of belt harness instead. It was actually really comfortably and you honestly didnāt feel the wings at all.Ā
I took a 12ā³ square of 6mm thick sintra and cut it into a 5ā³ width band diagonally. I also trimmed the sharp corners.Ā
Find your center, and line up the end of your bracket. I traced it out with a pen, and also marked where Iāll be drilling holes for the screws (included with bracket)
Now, taking one of the corners you cut off trace the bottom of your bracket a second time. I felt doubling up added extra support, and also helped the screws lay flush with the board. At this point in time you should have 2 pieces of sintra and your bracket.
Drill your holes, and glue your smaller piece of sintra to your band. Take extra care in lining up your holes, the super glue bond is ridiculously strong so take your time. Then screw in your bracket.Ā
Next youāre going to heat up your sintra and form it to your hips! If you think you need help, get help! I didnāt have any trouble doing it by myself though. When youāre done, you should end up with a little something like this.
Youāre almost there! Next you need to make a casing for your sintra/bracket combo. What is a casing? Well in this case itās a band of canvas that encases your sintra and allows you to wear it as a belt!Ā
Measure the width of your sintra and double it, add 1ā³ for seam allowance. As for the length youāll be using your waist measurements, add another 1ā³ or two as youāll be sewing in a zipper. Sorry I did this all very last minute and forgot to take photos of this part. Youāre going to align your bracket with your casing and cut out a notch for it. Go over the cut with fray check. Place your casing over your sintra, fold in the raw edges, and sew! Do a test fit before sewing in your zipper to determine how tight is tight enough, remember youāll have a little bit of weight pulling it back. When youāre done it should look like this.
I donāt have any picture of when I ziptied each wing in but this is how it went down: 4 of your PVC pipes are going to fit in the bracket. Itās going to be a very tight squeeze, but youāll get them in there. The other two will be straddling the side of the bracket. Do not fret though, thanks to the holes you drilled prior, they will be on there and wonāt be going anywhere anytime soon.Ā
Now here is a word of caution, I trimmed the ends of my zipties, but two or three ended up digging into my back and I ended up tearing myself up pretty bad. So, if youāre going to trim your ends be sure they are 1ā³ or shorter.Ā
Here is the other thing, my wings were a hot mess when I got to the con. They were dropping and darn near the saddest thing I have ever seen, ever. After stopping at the repair center the problem was fixed with cord, but I would suggest using fishing line.
The green line is where the harness is, the blue dashed and straight lines are the cord. Blue dashed lines mean it goes under something else. Basically, the top set of wings got holes punched under the PVC frame, so that the weight is supported. Itās then strung around my shoulders, and tied around the bracket, then back over my ribs, and again around the bracket, and tied off. It didnāt cut off any circulation, and was surprisingly comfortable! However, as this was an emergency fix I wasnāt thrilled. Looking back I wish I had fishing line, but thatās what Iāll use the next time.Ā
Thatās about it, sorry for any typos/grammatical mistakes. If I missed something or you have questions please feel free to ask. Hope this was helpful, and good luck cosplaying!Ā
Smile It Won't Suck Forever 