277 posts
this is your gentle reminder to stop fighting against your adhd and instead structure your life around it
buy a pack of chapsticks and put one in the pocket of all of your coats and jackets because you always forget to bring one and chapped lips is sensory hell
leave important things where you can see them. if they go in a box or a drawer you will forget they exist
put any appointments or deadlines in your phone calendar As Soon As you get them. set a reminder for a week before, a day before, an hour before, as many as you need as often as you need them.
when that little voice in your head says "i dont need to write that down, ill remember it" that is the devil talking!!! write it down anyway!!
plan for down time. have a few hours at the end of every day to just do fun stuff like engage in your hyperfixations. even if you didnt get all of your work done that day, have the rest anyway. you probably spent the whole day beating yourself up for not doing what you Should be doing, so you still need the break.
if you never eat vegetables because its too much effort to chop and cook them, get the frozen or canned shit. it doesnt go off for ages and you just have to microwave it. theres no point buying fresh vegetables if they just keep going off and being left to rot in the bottom of your fridge
if you struggle to decide what to have for dinner every day, take the decision out of it. choose a set of meals and eat those on rotation until you get sick of them, then choose some new ones and do it again.
its not stupid if it works! our brains literally have a chemical deficiency. you are allowed to accommodate yourself. go forth and stop making your life more difficult than it has to be because "this shouldn't be this hard". it is hard, so make it easier.
i was wondering which reshade preset you're using? i love the look of your screenshots!
thank you so much! đ„° i actually haven't posted many pictures using reshade - most of my gameplay pictures are still from my pre-linux archive. but if you're interested in the PSD i use, i can upload it!
i call it my Peppy PSD because it just puts a little extra pep into the existing game!
examples of before/after shots are below the cut. the beauty of this PSD is that it works on 99% of screenshots!
I find it a little too strong on photos of sims against blank backdrops, but otherwise it tends to work very nicely, day or night.
this is not the most economical psd out there - i have tons of layers at lowered opacities making very slight adjustments. since it's mostly for personal use, it doesn't bother me, but just a heads up.
(if I can figure out how to recreate this 1:1 as a reshade preset, i'd be happy to share that too!)
just another uniquely stunning pinterest dog, might be one of the tallest set of ears ever featured, this dog is just tall in general
(not sure if this is the source but this is as far back as i could trace it)
Hi, could you tell what lighting mod you have in your game? And if you use ReShade, what preset do you use?
Hi! I've used Cinema Secrets for the longest time, that's the lighting mod you see in all my screenshots. Recently, I also added the Postprocessing Mod (linked here together with dreadpirate's shader fixes; I use the version without depth of field). This is the combination you can see in the screenshots of my most recent lot makeover. I don't use ReShade though, it's always seemed like too much trouble to make it work :')
local bird lady thrilled by valinor biodiversity after spending most of her life in one town
(the short hair is either a fashion choice or a deliberate nod to lĂșthiens hair cutting shenanigans. your pick)
alaskaâs pretty bright once you crack her lightless shell
looks like ao3 is down again and i was in the middle of a multi chapter fic when it died on me.
and if that happens to you, this is what you can do to download the fic:
copy paste https://download.archiveofourown.org/downloads/00000000/fic.html in your browser url
replace the pink bit with the number right after /works (that's the work id)
for instance, in https://archiveofourown.org/works/44970790/chapters/113154673 the highlighted bit (44970790) would be the number you swap for the 0s
the download link will look like https://download.archiveofourown.org/downloads/44970790/fic.html
if you want the fic to be downloaded as an epub instead, use .epub at the end of that link
it should start downloading on your device
i'm sure a bunch of people know this and use it but in case you don't, hope this helps
Congratulations to the happy couple!
Mr Fingon and Mr Maedhros were joined in matrimony on Midsummer in the Shire. Paladin Took officiated the ceremony and they had a lovely reception with Gandalf supplying the fireworks. Bilbo Baggins gave them a set of silver spoons for a wedding gift--this was clearly done to spite Lobelia
Thank you to @starsofarda for the amazing idea!
(I know Mae should be taller but I drew this really quickly and wasn't thinking)
I feel like my blog is full of his older brothers and their offspring, but I actually love gentle, soft-spoken Finarfin as well đ
So here he is, having a beach day in Alqualondë with Finrod, long before disaster struck :') For @arafinwean-week day 1 + day 2 (Finarfin, Finrod, pre-Darkening, family)
(And yes, I'm an idiot and forgot that the sky shouldn't be bright blue at this point in time (more like night sky lit with some Laurelin gold or Telperion silver I suppose), but I was already tired of messing with this, so quick questionable golden background swap it is... eeeh maybe I'll redo that at some point)
@arafinwean-week 2025 Day 2: Finrod
Suddenly Finrod there a-swaying sang in answer a song of staying, resisting, battling against power, of secrets kept, strength like a tower, and trust unbroken, freedom, escape; of changing and of shifting shape, of snares eluded, broken traps, the prison opening, the chain that snaps.
i feel like i do 25% of what an average person does in a day and still it's too much
Quick doodles of different seasons/vibes for my hobbit home~
Turgon, King of Gondolin- High King of the Noldor (Or, one of them anyways)
Last, but not least, Turgon. This is another I've drawn before, I stuck with the same design, just updated. I really just wanted him to look regal, and it was a fun chance to throw in Glamdring.
As one year wraps up and another begins I wanted to thank everybody. As of scheduling these, I'm at just below five hundred followers. Just from posting Tolkien art, just from doing something that makes me happy. I feel like I've grown a lot as an artist in the last year. One of the Lord of the Rings actors has my art on his phone! I still can't believe that. I never could have even imagined that when I first watched Lord of the Rings as a child. For all of its ups and downs, I think we really do have a great fandom. Full of wonderful and creative people. The next year is going to be hard, I won't pretend it won't be. The next four years is going to be hard. But the connections and friendships we forge over the internet and across the world is a light in dark places. The act of creation is a light in dark places. Kindness is a light in dark places. I can't think of anything more true to the spirit of Tolkien's work than resilience and hope in the face of overwhelming despair. Stay alive, and stay safe. You're a light in dark places, when all other lights have gone out.
AVOID HEAT STRESS
If you have a laptop DO NOT use it on a soft surface like a pillow or on a blanket, itâll block the vents on your computer and make it get really fucking hot inside.
If you have a desktop you gotta open it up and blow out the dust sometimes.
If you are moving your laptop in a bag turn the laptop off. Donât put it to sleep, donât just shut the screen, turn it off, because otherwise itâs in the bag generating heat and thereâs nowhere for the heat to go in the bag. OFF. Not sleep. OFF.
DO NOT DROP
Okay I know that should be obvious but drop damage to your hard drive is bad bad news. Be as careful as you can to set your computer gently on flat surfaces; donât leave it hanging out on a bed where it can get knocked off, donât set it on the roof of your car. And yes, just dropping it a couple inches can kill your hard drive or totally shatter your screen.
DONâT PUT SHIT ON YOUR KEYBOARD
Look Iâve seen four people ruin their laptops because they had a pen on the keyboard and closed the laptop and it fucked up the screen and the keyboard and it sucks so much and you feel awful after it happens because itâs so avoidable just donât put things on your keyboard and always check that your laptop is clear before you close it.
PROTECT YOUR PORTS ON YOUR LAPTOP
Youâve only got one power jack and a limited number of other inputs on your computer and if they detach from the motherboard youâre fucked. USB ports get damaged because people use them a lot and eventually it weakens the connection and then they just stop working and it sucks. You can get around this with USB ports by using a USB hub to connect things like your keyboard and mouse.
For your power plug you just gotta be careful. Avoid tripping over the cord at all costs, donât yank the plug out of the computer. It will SUCK VERY MUCH A LOT if you have to buy a new computer because the power port lost contact with the motherboard.
Donât move your computer with things plugged into it. Take the power cord off before you put your laptop in the bag, take out the USB mouse dongle, do not travel with little nubby bits sticking out of your computer that can easily get caught or get tweaked or snap off inside of the thing.
(I really canât emphasize enough that most of the âit will cost more than itâs worth to fix thisâ laptops I see are because of USB ports and power jacks. People donât seem to know that this isnât something that can be fixed easily; a broken power jack is a âremove the motherboard and resoldier componentsâ job, not a âplug a new one in in fifteen minutesâ job and most computer repair shops arenât going to solder things for you and if they DO itâs going to be very expensive)
RESTART YOUR SHIT AT LEAST ONCE A MONTH AND JUST LET THE FUCKING UPDATES RUN
You should probably restart more than once a month but whatever. This is actually something that I consider part of reducing heat stress because when your processor is straining to keep up with all the background bullshit thatâs running from a program you opened three weeks ago itâs going to use up resources and get hot and look just restart it once in a while.
Also the updates are almost always okay and safe and generally running updates is a good and secure thing to do (though maybe follow a blog dedicated to the OS you run because if there IS a problem with the updates that blog will probably talk about it before the update gets forced on your computer)
ANTIVIRUS BULLSHIT
Yes you should probably be running an antivirus.
Sophos is free and itâs fine. But donât pay for it - if youâre using Sophos use the free version.
If youâre looking for something paid and a little more comprehensive I recommend ESET - get the cheap version, renewals cost less than the initial purchase, and feel free to get a multi-year version, the credentials follow your email not the computer so if your computer dies before your license expires you can install the license on a new computer.
DO NOT INSTALL NORTON OR MCAFEE THEY ARE EXPENSIVE BULLSHIT. Kaspersky is whatever. Itâs less bullshit than Norton or McAfee but not as good as ESET for about the same cost.
If you think youâve got a virus run the free version of Malwarebytes and get your shit cleaned.
KEEP LIQUIDS THE FUCK AWAY FROM YOUR COMPUTER
Again this should be obvious and yet. But seriously, just make a rule for yourself that drinks arenât allowed on the same table as your computer and youâll save yourself a lot of headaches.
PLUG YOUR COMPUTER INTO A UPS
Okay I fucking hate amazon but hereâs a thing you should be using, just search the rest of the internet for âsurge protector/UPSâ and youâll find something that isnât from amazon - APC is a solid brand for this.
Basically you want a fat surge protector that has a little bit of a battery backup and you want to plug your computer (desktop OR laptop) into that instead of into the wall. The benefit of this is twofold:
1) if thereâs a power surge the UPS will prevent your computerâs power supply from getting fried and possibly frying parts of your motherboard
2) if thereâs a power outage and youâre *at* your computer youâll have enough time to save what youâre working on before your computer loses power (like, youâll maybe only have a minute or two on a small UPS but thatâs still time to hit CTRL+S and keep from losing work)
At a bare, bare minimum your computer should be plugged into a surge protector but NOT directly into the wall.
BACK YOUR SHIT UP
[we interrupt this yelling for me to tell you that Western Digital has apparently released their new My Passport line and Iâm obligated to inform you that you can get a 2.5âł USB 3.0 backup drive with FIVE FUCKING TERABYTES OF STORAGE for $130. Or you can get 4TB for $93. Or you can get 1TB for $53. basically what Iâm saying is that it is not only cheap computer season it is also cheap hard drive season.]
[also if youâre getting a backup drive get western digital not seagate seagate fucking sucks and has a much higher failure rate]
Uh, okay, anyway - Do an image backup of your computer every once in a while so that if you get infected or your hard drive dies or whatever you can just restore from backup and move on like nothing happened.
HEREâS HOW TO DO AN IMAGE BACKUP.
SAVE YOURSELF THE WEAR AND TEAR
You know what is cheap? USB Keyboards and USB mice. You know what is not cheap? Fixing the touchpad on a laptop or replacing a laptop keyboard.
Get yourself a USB hub, a USB Keyboard and a USB Mouse (wired or wireless, doesnât matter) and if youâre using your laptop at home plug *that* into your computer.
Also if your keyboard on your laptop breaks itâs fine just to use a USB keyboard instead I promise; if the screen breaks itâs also usually cheaper and easier to get a used or inexpensive monitor than it is to replace the screen. Your laptop is basically just a very small version of whatever bullshit is going on inside a desktop, if the peripherals break but the core components are fine you can just use it like a desktop.
Unless itâs a piece of shit that doesnât have any USB ports or video out in which case you got ripped off, friend, demand functionality in your devices Iâm sorry.
/rant
I don't know I'm not done talking about it. It's insane that I can't just uninstall Edge or Copilot. That websites require my phone number to sign up. That people share their contacts to find their friends on social media.
I wouldn't use an adblocker if ads were just banners on the side funding a website I enjoy using and want to support. Ads pop up invasively and fill my whole screen, I misclick and get warped away to another page just for trying to read an article or get a recipe.
Every app shouldn't be like every other app. Instagram didn't need reels and a shop. TikTok doesn't need a store. Instagram doesn't need to be connected to Facebook. I don't want my apps to do everything, I want a hub for a specific thing, and I'll go to that place accordingly.
I love discord, but so much information gets lost to it. I don't want to join to view things. I want to lurk on forums. I want to be a user who can log in and join a conversation by replying to a thread, even if that conversation was two days ago. I know discord has threads, it's not the same. I don't want to have to verify my account with a phone number. I understand safety and digital concerns, but I'm concerned about information like that with leaks everywhere, even with password managers.
I shouldn't have to pay subscriptions to use services and get locked out of old versions. My old disk copy of photoshop should work. I should want to upgrade eventually because I like photoshop and supporting the business. Adobe is a whole other can of worms here.
Streaming is so splintered across everything. Shows release so fast. Things don't get physical releases. I can't stream a movie I own digitally to friends because the share-screen blocks it, even though I own two digital copies, even though I own a physical copy.
I have an iPod, and I had to install a third party OS to easily put my music on it without having to tangle with iTunes. Spotify bricked hardware I purchased because they were unwillingly to upkeep it. They don't pay their artists. iTunes isn't even iTunes anymore and Apple struggles to upkeep it.
My TV shows me ads on the home screen. My dad lost access to eBook he purchased because they were digital and got revoked by the company distributing them. Hitman 1-3 only runs online most of the time. Flash died and is staying alive because people love it and made efforts to keep it up.
I have to click "not now" and can't click "no". I don't just get emails, they want to text me to purchase things online too. My windows start search bar searches online, not just my computer. Everything is blindly called an app now. Everything wants me to upload to the cloud. These are good tools! But why am I forced to use them! Why am I not allowed to own or control them?
No more!!!!! I love my iPod with so much storage and FLAC files. I love having all my fics on my harddrive. I love having USBs and backups. I love running scripts to gut suck stuff out of my Windows computer I don't want that spies on me. I love having forums. I love sending letters. I love neocities and webpages and webrings. I will not be scanning QR codes. Please hand me a physical menu. If I didn't need a smartphone for work I'd get a "dumb" phone so fast. I want things to have buttons. I want to use a mouse. I want replaceable batteries. I want the right to repair. I grew up online and I won't forget how it was!
The âgetting it done in an unconventional wayâ method.
The âitâs not cheating to do it the easy wayâ method.
The âfuck what youâre supposed to doâ method.
The âget stuff done while you waitâ method.
The âyou donât have to do everything at onceâ method.
The âit doesnât have to be permanent to be helpfulâ method.
The âbreak the task into smaller stepsâ method.
The âtreat yourself like a petâ method.
The âit doesnât have to be all or nothingâ method.
The âput on a personaâ method.
The âact like youâre filming a tutorialâ method.
The âyou donât have to do it perfectlyâ method.
The âwait for a triggerâ method.
The âdo it for your future selfâ method.
The âmight as wellâ method.
The âwhen self discipline doesnât cut itâ method.
The âtaking care of yourself to take care of your petâ method.
The âmake it easyâ method.
The âjunebuggingâ method.
The âjust show upâ method.
The âaccept when you need helpâ method.
The âmake it into a gameâ method.
The âeverything worth doing is worth doing poorlyâ method.
The âtrick yourselfâ method.
The âbreak it into even smaller stepsâ method.
The âlet go of shouldâ method.
The âyour body is an animal you have to take care ofâ method.
The âfork theoryâ method.
The âeffectivity over aestheticsâ method.