alias_sqbr: And yet all I can think is this will make for a great dreamwidth entry. (dreamwidth)
2010-09-17 09:52 am

[sticky entry] Sticky: Since people never seem to read userinfos...

This is my personal/fannish journal. For topics I feel require a more serious and moderated approach I have [personal profile] sqbr.

You may be also interested in:


Posts I end up linking to a lot:
alias_sqbr: Fakir from Pricness Tutu holding his injured hand, in a blue rose Utena frame (fakir)
2025-07-26 05:50 pm
Entry tags:

Art Prompts For Visibly Fat or Muscular Humanoid Characters

I struggle every time I have to draw a character who can't be approximated by a series of smooth cylinders, so thought I'd ask for some prompts to help me practice!

So! Please give me art prompts for visibly fat or muscular humanoid characters, preferably in a relatively realistic style (anime is ok but not like Johnny Bravo)

No more than 3 characters, nothing that requires a background or complex/many props. Give me an image reference if it's not something I can look up easily. Picking a pose from the references below or sending me your own would make my life easier!

Fanart or original, including stuff like "This character but fat" or "A man in this pose and this outfit", but not vague things like "Any character in a victorian outfit". Nothing too sexy, squicky, or containing zombies(*).

Anyone who follows me is welcome to prompt!

(*) I only have a problem with the mindless contagious sort, or really gross decay. Possessed/controlled corpses are fine but no skeletons for this prompt ;)

Fat poses:


Muscular poses:
alias_sqbr: And yet all I can think is this will make for a great dreamwidth entry. (dreamwidth)
2025-07-22 03:42 pm
Entry tags:

Catch-up game

As tagged by [personal profile] anghraine. Last time I tagged the last five people in my tumblr notifications, so this time let's see who's in my dreamwidth inbox: [personal profile] fred_mouse [personal profile] winterbird [personal profile] got_quiet [personal profile] lilacsigil and [personal profile] alephnul. Absolutely no pressure though! Just if it seems fun! And everyone else is free to do it too.
Read more... )
alias_sqbr: the symbol pi on a pretty background (Default)
2025-06-24 05:36 pm
Entry tags:

Australian Songs I like

Local radio station triple J is doing a Hottest 100 of Australian Songs, and I thought it would be fun to make a playlist of Australian songs, in roughly descending order of how much I like them, and then compile my ten votes from there. My actual vote included less white dudes/took into account what was already in the system etc. And I am sure if I made this list on a different day it'd have been different songs!

alias_sqbr: Fakir from Pricness Tutu holding his injured hand, in a blue rose Utena frame (fakir)
2025-06-09 11:05 am
Entry tags:

Steering the Craft Chapter 3: sentence length and complex syntax

Masterlist

I feel kinda bad about how badly I'm butchering LeGuin's flowing prose for these posts. But I learn by summarising and sometimes even a clunky summary is easier on the brain. And maybe I'll inspire some of youse to go read the original!
Read more... )
alias_sqbr: Fakir from Pricness Tutu holding his injured hand, in a blue rose Utena frame (fakir)
2025-06-08 09:57 pm

Steering the Craft Masterlist

Steering the craft by Ursula K LeGuin is "A revised and updated guide to the essentials of a writer’s craft", and includes writing exercises in each chapter.
Read more... )
alias_sqbr: the symbol pi on a pretty background (Default)
2025-06-01 06:09 pm

Steering the Craft: Chapter 1, the sound of your writing

Masterlist

A while ago I bought a copy of Steering the Craft by Ursula K Le Guin, "A revised and updated guide to the essentials of a writer’s craft" since people keep reccing it. I read through to the first exercise and then Got Stuck. But I am going to have another go now I've thought some more about what kinds of writing I actually like doing (eg fanfic), and try and keep notes as I go.
Read more... )
alias_sqbr: And yet all I can think is this will make for a great dreamwidth entry. (dreamwidth)
2025-06-01 11:53 am

Thoughts about the kinds of fiction I like creating

Something I've been poking at lately is the fact I genuinely don't seem to enjoy writing original prose fiction, even though I enjoy creating fanfic, original visual novels, visual novel adaptations, and original art (and fanart). I definitely don't think it's lacking as an artform! It just doesn't fit my brain so well to make it. And I guess to some extent I also am less drawn to it as a consumer of fiction? That's harder to untangle and not so much the point of this post but I'm going to ponder it later.
Read more... )
alias_sqbr: And yet all I can think is this will make for a great dreamwidth entry. (dreamwidth)
2025-05-31 09:27 am
Entry tags:

Have I mentioned that Beehiiv is kind of obnoxious

Like, they're not too bad to use but my god the vibe is atrocious. I picked them for my newsletter cos they're free and (unlike Substack) not, to my knowledge, actively in bed with nazis. But goddamn.

Their latest "guide to growing and monetizing creator-first businesses" email started with "I recently listened to a podcast where MrBeast discussed how switching from voice actors to AI-powered software to translate one of his videos for a non-English-speaking audience created an admittedly worse product but improved the audience retention rate", a sentence near-perfectly designed to make me cringe away from my screen.

I guess the naked amoral capitalism is in some ways less gross than the "app for independent voices" thinly veiled amoral capitalism of Substack etc but urrrgh.

(now to decide if I want to crosspost this to the newsletter lol)
alias_sqbr: Teddy bear with purple details with a love heat. From Nameless: the one thing you must recall (nameless)
2025-05-29 10:06 pm

F/F Romance Visual Novel Rec: Love Curse

Love Curse is probably my favourite purely f/f romance novel I've played to date. It's not quite on par with my favourite otome (since that's a much larger genre with more to pick from), but still better than the average.



It's a well made Chinese game about a 20 year old lesbian college student who suddenly gets cursed to find her soulmate or die, and ends up falling for one of four different women in her life while she navigates uni, work, relationships, and the supernatural. The love interests and romances are enjoyably varied, and are a fun mix of sweet and a little messed up, with a choice of both fluffy happy endings and darkly romantic bad ends with tragedy/controlling yanderes/implicit hatesex etc.
Read more... )
alias_sqbr: the symbol pi on a pretty background (bookdragon)
2025-04-06 11:21 am
Entry tags:

Books That Rotate Inside My Mind Constantly

I made one of those book lists everyone is doing, though I got overwhelmed by choice until I came up with a Specific Rule on what to include (books and comics I think about/am influenced by and feel positively towards, only one book per author) that ended up with a different vibe than what most other people seem to be going for.

Some notable ones I did not include: Watership down (forgot); Anything by Neil Gaiman (nope); old childhood faves like Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton, C. S. Lewis and Paul Jennings where I couldn't muster up a specific example I still have frequent and largely positive thoughts about; manga like Mob Psycho and Full Metal Alchemist where I ADORE the anime and would absolutely have devoured the manga if the anime didn't exist, but as it is never got around to it. And of course all the books I will think of after making this post ;)
alias_sqbr: A giant eye with tentacles (tii)
2025-03-28 11:10 pm

Farming/Gathering/Crafting Games: Palia and Sun Haven

Sun Haven is like if Stardew Valley was made by furries who shop at Hot Topic. It's not a MMO but does have optional multiplayer, which I have not tried.

Palia is a free MMO where the world is shared with strangers and has a similar cosy post-apocalyptic fantasy vibe to My Time At Sandrock.
Read more... )
alias_sqbr: Zuko with a fish on his head (avatar)
2025-03-24 03:49 pm
Entry tags:

Anime reviews: Let's go through my Crunchyroll queue

I have gotten SO bad at keeping track of what I've been watching, so this'll do as a start. There's a whole bunch of much older shows mouldering down below this lot, this is just recent additions.

There is literally nothing here I really rec, except in a "if you also enjoy this particular flavour of cheese" way.
Read more... )
alias_sqbr: And yet all I can think is this will make for a great dreamwidth entry. (dreamwidth)
2025-03-23 11:17 am

So I made a newsletter!

A while ago I was inspired by Liz Barr of Escapist Routes to make a newsletter, since that seemed like a possibly effective way to deal with the increasing fracturing of my social media circle. And then I got really self conscious about posting to or mentioning it. BUT NOW HERE I AM.

The newsletter: Sqbr's Miscellany
Read more... )
alias_sqbr: A stick figure comes out from under a bed to say "I have more opions". Someone offscreen say "That didn't take long" (opinions)
2025-03-21 09:25 pm
Entry tags:

Thoughts on the Severance Season 2 finale


No spoilers just the overall tone of my feelings/this post:
I had very mixed feelings on the episode. This post is pretty much all complaints.


And now, SPOILERS.
Read more... )