Virtue Requires A Delicate Balance. 

Part one: money, leases, landlords, legal stuff

what papers do i need to rent a house? 

Not a ton. You usually need your social security number, a driver’s license or state ID card, and copies of your paystubs or some other form of proof of income.

What is a mortgage and how does it work? Is renter’s insurance necessary? What do I do if my landlord is in violation of the lease?

A mortgage is a loan from the bank to buy a house. It’s a combination of the amount borrowed and the interest accrued. You agree to pay back the loan over a set period of time, in monthly payments. It’s a lot more involved than that so I guess let me know if you want more info on that, but you don’t really need to know about that until you’re purchasing a property. 

Renter’s insurance is required by most landlords. This is so the insurance company covers it if your home is damaged by a natural disaster or a car through your wall or something. It also covers your home getting broken into. Renter’s insurance is really cheap, I think mine is $10 a month or something.

If your landlord is in violation of the lease, go above them and talk to their supervisor or the property management company. If they aren’t responsive then go to a tenant’s rights group in your area, or contact the Department of Housing (depending on how big the issue is).

hey how are you! been following you awhile now. just wondering like how much money you should save before moving out, some tips for people not making a lot of money and dying to leave their parents lol

The general rule is 3 months of living expenses plus emergency money. This should include: 3 months of rent, 3 months of utilities, 3 months of transportation expenses (bus/train fare or gas + auto insurance), 3 months of food, 3 months of phone/internet, 3 months of miscellaneous household shit 

I’ll give you the breakdown for my house as an example:

$1300 rent x 3

$100 utilities x 3

$60 phone x 3

$70 internet x 3

$75 auto insurance x 3 OR $100 bus fare x 3

$200 food x 3

$50 houshold x 3 (toilet paper, toothpaste, paper towels, soap, cleaning supplies, towels, etc)

medical expenses, personal expenses, etc not included

$5565 total (not including gas because i forgot it)

Also, you need to put down a deposit on a unit and usually first months rent + last months rent. Deposits are generally one month worth of rent.  This means total move in expenses for my house (NOT including utilities set up fees, internet fees, or any household expenses) were $3900 to my landlord.

Also broker’s fees are a thing in big cities but not Seattle.

You also have to factor in general house shit like furniture, silverware, towels, blankets, etc. Having zero furniture is cool for awhile but will make you crazy in a short period of time (example: I lived in an apartment with no dresser, couch, chairs, or desk for six months. My only furniture was a tiny bookshelf and a mattress. It was the worst. I was only living there temporarily and didn’t want to move furniture when I moved into my permanent house).

I don’t have any credit (never had a credit card, loans, etc.) will it be hard for me to get a place to rent? 

In my experience, many places are wary of renting to people without credit. I think what generally turns them off is that you have never paid bills so they have no idea of knowing if you’ll be able to make rent on time. Oftentimes they will ask for a cosigner on a lease if you don’t have credit. This means that your parent or relative (or anyone really) will sign the lease with you and also have their name on there. This is so that if you stop paying your rent, fuck up the apartment, etc, if they are unable to find you or you will not pay the rent/charges, your cosigner is responsible for paying them.

I recommend paying bills in your name or getting a credit card and using it RESPONSIBLY. That means utilizing 30% or less of your total credit available, and always making payments ON TIME, ABOVE the minimum payment. Pay a small bill that gets paid every month for sure with a credit card, like your phone bill or the internet bill. 

I also recommend just moving into an established house and being put on the lease that way, or subletting. That way even though you don’t have credit you have rental history and references.

I know that when you rent a house you have to pay for things other than rent, what kind of stuff is normally included in that and how much is a reasonable amount to pay?

Other bills are generally water, sewer, garbage, and electricity, but it varies by location. In some states heating is separate, and it’s required for the landlord to pay the heating bill (though this may mean that they leave it on all winter and you cook, or they leave it on but really low and you freeze). The most common thing I’ve seen is that landlords pay w/s/g, and you pay for electricity. Again, this varies greatly by location. For example, my electricity gets billed 4x a year, so they’re pretty large bills when they come in, but it isn’t a monthly expense. Seattle is super mild so we don’t have air conditioning or regularly use heaters. We’re also running my boyfriend’s giant computer all the time. Our bills are generally $250-$350 every three months. This is split between four people so it’s not that bad, never more than $100 every cycle. But I gotta stress that this varies from place to place. I have friends that live in large houses with 5-6 people and their utilities are about $100 a month per person, on top of rent. You need to ask the landlord what they cover and what the utilities usually come out to every month.

HORROR STORIES/PREVENTATIVE MEASURES

When making your master post about basic tips etc, I’d like to share my horror story. I only turned on the water faucets in my bathroom not the kitchen and it turned out the cold water didn’t work. In addition the faucet was missing an aerator too so the water was super wiley. Ugh and I should mention I moved from an apartment on the 3rd floor of a building to the 10th and apparently the 10th floor has bug problems I could not foresee. Maybe some tips for prevent buggies?

Fuck that sucks. Bug tips right here. Know what they look like, don’t take furniture from the street!!!!!

WARNING SIGNS

what are some things you should watch out for when looking for somewhere to rent? With the landlord?

Unit: Lots of discarded furniture outside/by the dumpster/in communal spaces (bedbugs). Dirty communal washing machines. Dirty lobbies. Weed smell (personal preference lol). Indoor smoking. Established (5 years or older) building and many empty units. Many people leaving after year-long leases.

Landlord: Are they shady? Do they tell you about their drug habits? Do they use hard drugs? Do they accept 12 applications even though they know that the first person is going to get the unit (applications are $20-$50 each usually)? Do they avoid showing you parts of the building? Are they creepy? Do they hit on you? These are all things I have had happen when looking for a place and they were all huge red flags. Don’t rent from someone that does any of those things.

im viewing an apt tomorrow and making a list of questions to ask landlord. is there anything specific i should ask thats often forgotten?

What are the utility bills generally running each month? How long do tenants usually live in the unit? How much has the rent increased over the last three years? What kind of people live in the apartments (families, students, DINKs?)?

disclaimer: all of this varies place to place, city to city, state to state, etc. this is just based on my experiences viewing hundreds and hundreds of houses and apartments in seattle.

What if tho.....

Dumbledore: This is the mirror of Erised

Harry: *looks in it*

Phantom: I AM YOUR ANGEL OF- Oops wrong mirror

Harry:

Dumbledore:

Phantom: Sorry

Headcanon that the reason the Phantom is so excited when Raoul shows up is that there is no way he had a good comeback to “It’s in your soul that the true distortion lies.”

Made this because my friend didn’t know this was a thing, so I thought maybe others don’t either? Hope it helps someone out!

how can i make my characters empathetic?

Hey there, anon! Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. I have two different ways to answer this: how to make your characters be empathetic and how to make people empathetic towards your characters.

HOW TO MAKE CHARACTERS BE EMPATHETIC 

This one is pretty self-spoken for. There is really only one way that I know of to make a character to be empathetic and it’s to put them in a situation that the character feels sympathy for another or have them care about something and to, eventually, share the feelings of the other character.

This could be just about anything - get creative with it! For example, have someone be treated unjustly, someone be thrust into grief or danger, facing an inner struggle, etc.

HOW TO MAKE PEOPLE EMPATHETIC TOWARDS CHARACTERS

This is actually pretty easy and you can also just repeat the above tips and tricks if you’d like!

However, different examples - and remember to get creative with it - are having your character display a valuable trait (though this is typically more rewarding if done a little before they make a choice that has a negative impact).

In addition, people love to watch real talent. Have your character be particularly good at something but don’t just tell how good someone is with a knife; show us. Show us how long it took, how many hours of pain and getting injured they had to withstand. Show them caring for their knives as if they were children. Show not tell is a very important part here.

Have them wish for a universal change or show them caring for people. For example, wishing for world hunger to go away and helping starving people go hand in hand together. Wishing for equality and going to rallies for pride, black lives matter, etc, go hand in hand. 

Give them something unique about them. Something that will make the reader grow some sort of attachment to them. 

I hope this helped, anon, and if you have any additional questions, please come ask! Happy writings! x

- Mod Lilly

If you need advice on general writing or fanfiction, you should maybe ask us!

haha having flashbacks to class...if there's one thing I don't miss it is school.

Body Language Is More Revealing Than Words: How to Read People More Clearly

Our bodies can often be more honest than our words when it comes to communicating our thoughts, feelings, and intentions.

When we choose what to say, we’re often using the executive parts of our brains (the “neocortex”). This part of the brain is responsible for conscious attention, language, and thinking, all of which we have a degree of control over with some effort.

Because we have a choice in what we say, this makes it easier to conceal, deceive, and lie with our words.

However, we don’t usually choose our body language, which comes from the automatic parts of our brains (the “limbic system”). This part of the brain is responsible for our emotions, instincts, and gut reactions, all of which we don’t normally have control over.

According to What Every Body Is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People, because our body language is more automatic than our speech, this makes it harder to conceal, deceive, and lie about our true thoughts and feelings through our bodies.

Therefore, if you want to learn how to better read people and understand what’s going on inside their minds, you need to listen more to what their bodies are communicating to you. Especially if it doesn’t match up with what they are saying.

Most of us know how to choose our words carefully. We are taught from an early age how to act polite and kind even when we don’t want to – or how to tell a harmless lie to protect someone’s feelings (“Thanks for the birthday gift! I always wanted socks!”)

However, we don’t often pay attention to what our body language is communicating. And because it happens automatically without us deliberately choosing, it’s harder to override how our body responds to a situation. Our bodies rarely lie.

In this article, I will share basic guidelines on what to look for in body language. This can also be a valuable resource in learning what your own body is communicating to others, perhaps without you even realizing it.

Click here to read more

Resources For Writing Sketchy Topics

Medicine

A Study In Physical Injury

Comas

Medical Facts And Tips For Your Writing Needs

Broken Bones

Burns

Unconsciousness & Head Trauma

Blood Loss

Stab Wounds

Pain & Shock

All About Mechanical Injuries (Injuries Caused By Violence)

Writing Specific Characters

Portraying a kleptomaniac.

Playing a character with cancer.

How to portray a power driven character.

Playing the manipulative character.

Portraying a character with borderline personality disorder.

Playing a character with Orthorexia Nervosa.

Writing a character who lost someone important.

Playing the bullies.

Portraying the drug dealer.

Playing a rebellious character.

How to portray a sociopath.

How to write characters with PTSD.

Playing characters with memory loss.

Playing a pyromaniac.

How to write a mute character.

How to write a character with an OCD.

How to play a stoner.

Playing a character with an eating disorder.

Portraying a character who is anti-social.

Portraying a character who is depressed.

How to portray someone with dyslexia.

How to portray a character with bipolar disorder.

Portraying a character with severe depression.

How to play a serial killer.

Writing insane characters.

Playing a character under the influence of marijuana.

Tips on writing a drug addict.

How to write a character with HPD.

Writing a character with Nymphomania.

Writing a character with schizophrenia.

Writing a character with Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Writing a character with depression.

Writing a character who suffers from night terrors.

Writing a character with paranoid personality disorder.

How to play a victim of rape.

How to play a mentally ill/insane character.

Writing a character who self-harms.

Writing a character who is high on amphetamines.

How to play the stalker.

How to portray a character high on cocaine.

Playing a character with ADHD.

How to play a sexual assault victim.

Writing a compulsive gambler.

Playing a character who is faking a disorder.

Playing a prisoner.

Portraying an emotionally detached character.

How to play a character with social anxiety.

Portraying a character who is high.

Portraying characters who have secrets.

Portraying a recovering alcoholic.

Portraying a sex addict.

How to play someone creepy.

Portraying sexually/emotionally abused characters.

Playing a character under the influence of drugs.

Playing a character who struggles with Bulimia.

Illegal Activity

Examining Mob Mentality

How Street Gangs Work

Domestic Abuse

Torture

Assault

Murder

Terrorism

Internet Fraud

Cyberwarfare

Computer Viruses

Corporate Crime

Political Corruption

Drug Trafficking

Human Trafficking

Sex Trafficking

Illegal Immigration

Contemporary Slavery 

Black Market Prices & Profits

AK-47 prices on the black market

Bribes

Computer Hackers and Online Fraud

Contract Killing

Exotic Animals

Fake Diplomas

Fake ID Cards, Passports and Other Identity Documents

Human Smuggling Fees

Human Traffickers Prices

Kidney and Organ Trafficking Prices

Prostitution Prices

Cocaine Prices

Ecstasy Pills Prices

Heroin Prices

Marijuana Prices

Meth Prices

Earnings From Illegal Jobs

Countries In Order Of Largest To Smallest Risk

Forensics

arson

Asphyxia

Blood Analysis

Book Review

Cause & Manner of Death

Chemistry/Physics

Computers/Cell Phones/Electronics

Cool & Odd-Mostly Odd

Corpse Identification

Corpse Location

Crime and Science Radio

crime lab

Crime Scene

Cults and Religions

DNA

Document Examination

Fingerprints/Patterned Evidence

Firearms Analysis

Forensic Anthropology

Forensic Art

Forensic Dentistry

Forensic History

Forensic Psychiatry

General Forensics

Guest Blogger

High Tech Forensics

Interesting Cases

Interesting Places

Interviews

Medical History

Medical Issues

Misc

Multiple Murderers

On This Day

Poisons & Drugs

Police Procedure

Q&A

serial killers

Space Program

Stupid Criminals

Theft

Time of Death

Toxicology

Trauma

Top 10 Muffin-Top Burning Exercises 

If you would like some help losing weight, we have compiled a list of the best weight loss products and services that have helped millions of individuals lose weight faster and more successfully. 

www.fitbodymag.com/shop-weight-loss

jimin with pink hair for @perfectlikegold​ ♡