alias_sqbr

Pants for the sleepy sewist with a big butt

Tue, 05 Sep 2023 07:04:03 GMT

So! I spend a lot of time lying down/sleeping in bed, and it gets depressing just wearing the few pants I can find in shops which comfortably fit my short, fat, pear-shaped body, since they generally scream HELLO I AM WOMEN'S PAJAMAS.

On the other hand, I am not very good at sewing! Even asides from my limited energy, straight lines and I tend to never be close friends.

BUT I HAVE MADE PANTS REGARDLESS. They're not the most flattering pants I've ever owned, but they're very comfortable, not super ugly, and in a fabric which only says "I am pajamas" in a small voice. In case other people might find it useful, I'll try and write up what I remember of my process.
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How to use html to create a spoiler tag

Mon, 17 Apr 2023 03:47:01 GMT

How to use html to create a spoiler tag (108 words) by sqbr
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: No Fandom
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional Tags: Meta, Guide, tutorial, HTML
Summary:

Here's an example of the sort of 'cut' you can create with this html:

Content note: CONTAINS A SURPRISE!

BOO! IT'S ME, THE HIDDEN DETAILS!!

I wrote this aimed at people wanting to add spoiler cuts to AO3 summaries etc, but the same code works on dreamwidth and a bunch of other places.

NOTE: Turns out the content under the cut is displayed in full to subscribers. Good thing I tested it before posting anything people might find upsetting!

I saw someone post a screenshot tutorial on twitter, thought about testing it then writing an image description, and then went, wait, now that I've written this test work, why not just use it as an example for other people?

It's the same code I already posted about that works on dreamwidth, but it hadn't occured to me you could use it on the AO3, and apparently they only just implemented it for summaries.

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A way to do spoiler cuts in comments and inside dreamwidth cuts

Sat, 15 Oct 2022 07:03:24 GMT

The code:
<details>
<summary>Spoiler warning</summary>
Spoiler details go here!
</details>

(Hooray for pauraque reminding me how to do <)

Example above the cut

Hello! I was hiding!

Styling the cursor (have not tried yet)

( And another one under the cut... )

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Using Blender to make a faux watercolour

Tue, 21 Jun 2022 15:34:32 GMT

This is mostly for my own future reference because I have already half forgotten how I did it, and I assume a moderate knowledge of shaders and the compositor. That said you could do a lot of this in a regular image editor, the main technique is just using paint textures from textures.com as masks for blurring and colour variation.

Image descriptions are sparse but I've tried to cover all the important concepts in the text.
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How to play Hades for the story (possibly with cheats)

Sat, 27 Nov 2021 06:19:06 GMT

Hades is a great game with a story that's intertwined with the gameplay in a way that means you'll get more of a feel for it by playing than watching someone else on youtube. There's a LOT of combat, even with cheats, if that sounds boring or will require too much strain on your hands etc I'm sure there's good videos that capture the basic gist. But personally, as someone who enjoys combat but is bad at it, I enjoyed playing it with cheats.

So! This guide is aimed at people who, like me, have the narrative as first priority but are ok with combat if it's easy enough. I'm not going to assume you're using cheats, and will avoid spoilers as much as possible. I start with some very basic advice and a description of the game, with no spoilers at all.

If my advice seems wrong, it possibly is, double check with another source! And if you've played the game and KNOW I'm wrong please let me know >.>
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The long road to fancy hair

Wed, 06 Jan 2021 03:26:41 GMT

I have finally successfully gotten my hair approximately the way I want it! Getting it into an asymmetric cut with a purple streak has been a long term project since my hair is very dark chaotically frizzy waves that insist on a centre part.

Next: a neater and less aggressively asymettrical version of the same cut, letting all the other dye attempts grow out (my hair is usually slightly darker than this), and maybe oil slick style dark vibrant streaks in multiple colours.

Below the cut, how I did it, for anyone who might find that useful.
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Lazy Guide to Playing XOXO Droplets

Mon, 23 Sep 2019 14:08:35 GMT

So! Here's the complete guide to the game as written by the developer. It has all the relevant information but I found it very overwhelming. This guide is simpler, but has very specific goals: romance one of the main love interests and see all of his content, and also see all the content for two side characters. It works for the free or paid version, but has mainly been used for the paid one.

There's also several more minor love interests in the paid version, and a friendship ending, which I have a reasonably efficient method for at the end.

There's no major plot spoilers, but some unavoidable "things that can happen" spoilers.
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A Guide to Paintovers, using Corel Painter Essentials

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 14:10:46 GMT

So, this is mostly for my own future benefit because I keep forgetting my own methods. But I'll try to explain things enough that it might be useful to other people too. You should be moderately competent with whatever art program you're using, and have some idea about colours and shading.

My basic philosophy is: realism is boring, and mistakes add texture.

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My relatively lazy approach to Helix Waltz outfits

Wed, 29 May 2019 02:26:53 GMT

Helix Waltz is a mobile game where the main mechanic is constructing outfits to wear to balls.

I've found a bunch of useful guides, but I needed a more simple and methodical approach. This has gotten me to level 51, at the start of Chapter 5, I don't know if it's much help past that point. Also, just because it's more intuitive for me doesn't mean it will be for you, there's other guides out there that might suit better.

Anyway! Here's how I make outfits.
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How to do half assed digital colouring without learning colour theory

Sat, 17 Mar 2018 04:44:15 GMT

If you want your colouring to look really great, colour theory is an invaluable tool. Here's a tutorial I found super useful.

But if that's all a bit intimidating and you just want some tips on how to make your colouring look ok without having to learn much theory, then the half-assed method I'm about to describe is a good place to start. I've used a flat anime-ish style but if you soften the shading the same technique works for other styles. Most of my art uses variations on this technique.
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Avoiding Fishing in Stardew Valley

Sat, 02 Apr 2016 13:09:23 GMT

So I really like Stardew Valley but I hate the fishing, and the various guides I've seen aren't aimed at people who want to avoid it. So here's what I've figured out! To be updated if I figure out anything new.

Non spoilery summary:
1) Fish are useful and necessary for a bunch of non-fishing-related things most players will want to achieve, so while you can mostly ignore it you probably don't want to entirely.
2) There are vendors who sell fish and fish related products
3) Certain fish can be gotten through other non-fishing methods
4) Fishing gets much easier as your fishing level rises, and there are ways to gain fishing exp without having to actually fish.

More spoilery information under the cut, but this game doesn't really have a plot to spoil, it's just things like what rewards completing certain achievements give etc. I found out a lot of this via the official wiki, which is pretty good.
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Things that have made me happy recently

Mon, 22 Jul 2013 12:25:19 GMT

Have been feeling under the weather, these things have made me feel better about it.

Flight rising: A dragon breeding/raising sim. Not super exciting since most things can only be done once a day (resetting at 3pm local time) but it's cute and I get the feeling will be increasingly more fun as I build resources.

Bounce Energy balls Ridiculously overpriced vegan fudgey nut things that are nowhere near as healthy as they claim but taste quite nice for something that doesn't set off my intolerances. The vegan ones are Cashew Pecan, Fudgie Walnut and Spirulina. Haven't tried the Spirulina yet.

Wysp Bills itself as an artist-centered (eg concrit and improvement rather than exhibition) gallery site, not sure I'll actually use it for that but the sketch practice is nicely set up. Assuming you want to sketch hands, dragons, or male anatomy.

(This Let's Play of) Hatoful Boyfriend It starts as a pigeon dating sim and gets weirder from there.

The Wa Gokoro Japanese restaurant in Morley. Wheelchair accessible, near the shopping centre/bus station, relatively cheap and quite nice.

And finally: making dreamwidth posts to procrastinate about answering my email... >.>

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Pain, ladies and the occupation

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:02:51 GMT

First, two sensible links: A set of posts about a chronic pain class, a lot of this matched stuff I've learned from chronic illness myself, though some didn't.

A nice perspective tutorial from astridv.

And now unabashed fannishess.

If there were Barryaran political RPF fanvids, they would look like this: Russian vids to a Vorkosigan fan rock opera.

All the Ladystuck works are out, and many of them are fantastic. Again, no real points for guessing which ones are mine, though one is slightly harder than usual. Here's the Ladystuck works I've bookmarked. There are MULTIPLE femslash fancomics, and THREE Rose/Terezi fics. This makes me happy.

And just as my dance card was looking empty…dragonagewomen, a female-character centric challenge for my other main fandom. Plus newgameplus is probably going to be running a computer game fandom remix challenge including art, which should be super fun.

I started watching the anime Gintama and it is VERY SILLY. It's about a Japan colonised by aliens in the Edo era, and seems to basically be samurai + pop culture references + scifi + random shenanigans. Also the main character Gin looks like a white haired version of Shin from the anime of Gokusen, it's disconcerting.

I also started watching Capital Scandal, A Korean live action comedy/romance tv show set in Japanese occupied 1930s Korea. It seems to be a mix of fun 30s shenanigans with fighting-against-the-evil-occupier war drama, I'm quite enjoying it so far but it's an interesting contrast to Gintama!

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