I know this is very long, so I apologize for that! But I also felt like it was important.
I see lots of posts about tendinitis and carpal tunnel help (which is DEFINITELY very important!) but I see VERY little about Military Neck— which artists of all kinds are just as likely to get, if you’re not sitting well. I’m definitely one of them, and I get to live the rest of my life with it, and its easily preventable.
I wanted to just do a little informative how-to-avoid, but…. I realize it would mean very little to anyone, unless I explained my experience with it. I’ve had it for 8 years now, and it never fully goes away. In fact, I did this comic today, because a cold front came in, and my neck is the worst its been in… a few months now, I think. So I sorta wanted to get this out anyway.
So, I hope you’ll see this, and think about it. Or, if you see this and realize you’re experiencing similiar symptoms and pain? I SERIOUSLY suggest finding yourself both a Chiropractor and a Physical Therapist (or honestly, a Massage Therapist that does deep tissue. tbh that’s what I’ve always used and it saved my life)
I’ve always sorta considered writing a book on this subject but…. regardless. I felt speaking from experience would be worth it.
Honestly? My biggest suggestion would be just to begin!
Its okay if you don’t have everything prepared, and its okay if you don’t even fully know your characters yet!
Here’s a few examples:
-I started Gloomverse before a single thought of the other countries came into play
-Actually to be completely honest I started Gloomverse and only had up until what happened at the magic show planned
-Nim and Cirrus were literally put into the comic because I thought ‘man people with cloud hair would be cool’. It took months AFTER they first showed up for me to figure out how they worked within Gloomverse’s current rules (AKA the hat and wand rules) and though it hasn’t been revealed yet, it makes total sense. I knew I’d figure it out eventually, so it was a mystery to me at first, too.
-I started before I fully knew any of the characters- I grew to know them over time, the more I drew them the more I understood them
-I literally started Gloomverse because I genuinely wanted to, with no full script planned, no nothing, beyond just the concept and the basic characters sounding like a ton of fun.
-Gloomverse had been restarted a couple times before this current version. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with it, and realized TWICE (or three times?) that it wasn’t reaching its full potential. I knew the moment the concept of the current rendition came into my head, I’d never restart it again.
You could plan for years but your story will still change as you write it. So just start! Write whats in your heart, and if you chose to stop writing thats okay, and if something far bigger comes from it, awesome! If you don’t like your current version, and have something far better written in plan, there’s no shame in restarting (though if you’re restarting because you don’t like the old art, I’d strongly advise against doing that. Otherwise you’ll never be happy and you’ll never finish it)
I’ve been doing comics for many, many years now, since Elementary school for sure. So I don’t know what its like to start my first one. But all I know, is write what you want, start when you want to start, and wing it and see where it goes!
The only thing he really understands at this point is the ‘fear’ of death.
Not existing is kind of terrifying, and a very baseline fear. So he can understand that, and if his life was in danger he would actually FEEL fear.
It’s kind of why he can understand Geno even if just a little. Geno is afraid because he’s ‘dying’ so fast. Fresh can get that.
What he DOESN’T get is why everyone ELSE is acting weird. In his mind, the only one who should be acting off is Geno, but everyone else shouldn’t be worried because they’re not the ones dying. And Geno doesn’t even WANT to be selfish and ask for things and try to make himself comfortable which confuses the hell out of Fresh because, in his mind, he’s DYING, he should be allowed to do whatever he wants because well, that’s actually understandable.
Man I’ve been going off on all the tangents tonight.
Alaina’s interpretation is my favorite Fresh interpretation- because its extremely accurate to what Fresh really IS. I’m chill with people interpreting him differently, but the real Fresh, the ACTUAL Fresh, is far more like the Momma CQ version. I did help teach her his character and whatnot, but this, this is what Fresh actually is- especially in early stages of his character development.
Beyond everything else, THIS is Fresh.
Actually, I wanna go into more detail so people get a better picture of WHO he is: because he really does get mischaracterized a heck of a lot and I’d like to explain this. He’s been rehashed and worked on a bit, so this is what his character has become.
-Fresh emulates emotions on other people. He is not human and he seems happy go lucky- because he’s COPYING that behavior from seeing it OUTSIDE himself. Mentally speaking, he doesn’t understand or comprehend happiness, but he created a persona around himself based on things that seem non-threatening, bright colors, smiles, silly language, ect ect, in a sense to protect himself from possible harm.
-Fresh is actually, technically, a non-sexual creature. Because parasites reproduce asexually, he has no concept of what sex actually is. He also has no concept of gender, once again, being a parasite. He goes by male pronouns because his first possession was male. But he has no real sexuality, and no gender.
-This makes him EXTREMELY naive. See, Fresh likes to kiss lotsa people. He thinks its fun and he’s even got a little book with checkmarks of how many people he’s kissed. Because he’s stunted emotionally, he doesn’t understand when people make emotional connections because of it. Once in a roleplay, people were trying to explain to him WHY kissing a buncha people could hurt them.
It ended up with this very comedic thing, they tried simplifying it to an extreme and say ‘you only kiss those you love’ which of course HE is like ‘what the heck is that’ and it ended up with this huge confusion where he thought he had to marry someone he had kissed. He was REALLY proud of himself for ‘connecting the dots’ for this conclusion while everyone else was just- stressed.
-The primary emotion Fresh has, is basic fear. Fear of oblivion- as Alaina had put it. He has a very hard time understanding anything above this fear of -lack-of-self, because his parasite body was programmed to above all else- aim for survival.
-Fresh CAN gain emotions- although he was stuck without them for so long, this leaves a predicament. Before anything else, he ends up with pretty dang bad anxiety. His lack of emotions for so long made everything in his life flat and grey, but it was easily controllable. When he starts to gain emotions, like when he starts to care about someone else- it throws him into panics.
Because most people have dealt with emotions their whole life, the feelings are normal, even if sometimes an emotion goes out of our control, but for Fresh the concept of this is terrifying. Because he loses control- AKA WHY would he protect someone else if it could mean harm to HIM? Why would he desire to do this- even though it goes completely against his survival instincts?
The moment he starts learning- even very basically, about how to care about people- how to feel happiness, or sadness- his anxiety shoots through the roof. And he can get very emotionally unstable, because he has NO IDEA how to maintain control, even with the slightest emotional interference. He doesn’t understand how people could handle such things on a daily basis because he’s lived without them for so long.
–
There are a billion more things about his character, specifically as he starts trying to struggle through feeling emotions- and some self-hate and yada yada yada, but I’m keeping that more intentionally secret.
People have wildly different interpretations of him, because he has no true story (yet) to back up on. But this? THIS is Fresh. This is how he actually is, this is the core of his character. I understand his mischaracterizations, but if you want to try and get Fresh right? This is what he really is. And I can’t wait to have him in a story one day, to follow through his ENTIRE journey. Because damnit I love him, very much.
Hey it’s a FRESH explanation about everyone’s favourite parasite! Aheheheh.
When I was in college, I had a wonderful mentor/professor who helped me learn lessons that keep being relevant as I go through life—which, if you ask me, is the tell-tale sign that he was a great professor.
One of those lessons was that it could be almost impossible to establish self-worth, and to recognize self-acheivement. After we’ve learned how to do something—ANYTHING—really well, it seems almost like second nature for us to do it. Even if we’re producing quality work, we look at it and think ‘well, sure this turned out well but anyone out there could have done it if they put the time in.’ We forget that WE are the ones that put the time in to learn the skill, and that WE are the ones who now have something special for it.
Here’s an example:
This professor told me about a time when he was at a conference giving a talk. After he was done with his seminar (which was probably about something awesome like chaotic oscillators) he went on to listen to other professors and industry professionals give their talks. There was one he was sitting on, thinking to himself ‘WOW this guy is cool. Here he is building a genetic search engine (or some other incredible topic) while I’m just dorking around with chaotic oscillators.’ but then, after the talk, my professor went up to him. He wanted to tell him how neat he found the subject and the guys research… And when he got up there, the guy went ‘OH WOW you are that professor with the chaotic oscillators! I saw your seminar and I was so excited by it! You’re really doing something incredible while I’m just dorking around with genetic search engines.’ And thats when my professor realized that JUST BECAUSE THINGS SEEM COMMON TO US DOESN’T MEAN THAT THEY ARE COMMON. Our skills, our lessons, and our experiences are unique to each of us, we just are looking at them through the fogged glass of ‘been there, done that.’ Others won’t be looking at them through that same glass.
If you ever see artwork and say ‘wow I wish mine was that good,’ or read a story and say ‘gee I wish that I could write like that,’ you have to also remember that there is probably someone out there saying the same exact thing about your work to themselves. It might even be the exact same person who you’re envying.
Please never forget that your experiences have made your own work into something valuable. YOU have put the time into it. YOU have something unique. YOU have something that it would take somebody else at least as long to duplicate, and it would still never come out the same way that you do it.
We fixate so often on comparing ourselves to other people, but we judge ourselves the most unfairly. We look at what they have, and we fret about what we don’t have, and we forget that we aren’t defined by what we don’t have.
Your work is important, and it is only going to get more important from here.
See, this is something I struggle with daily. I recommend giving this post a read.
I don’t know if this is for me or the anon who was broken up with or Everyone but uh
Yes!!!!!!! Bad times are hell when they come, but, as hard as it is, it’s always worth getting through it, because bad times end. They just DO, that’s HOW the progression of time works. In the meantime, if it’s a solvable problem, you should try to fix it (though don’t strain yourself too much), and if it’s not, eat some chocolate and listen to some Game Grumps and try to get through it.
Remember that chances are there are people that love you, and even if the odds are not in your favor, know that there are people who WOULD love you, so much, if they knew you.
She informed me that we’re paying for a lawyer to defend my dad. This happened because the president signed that any immigrant with a fellony would be deported. I’m worried, if we can’t do anything he’ll be sent to Laos.
ALL RIGHT KIDDOS, GATHER ‘ROUND THE CAMPFIRE OF 1,000 DEADLY MEMES, CUS THIS IS V E R Y IMPORTANT!
MY LOVELY LOVELY FRIEND COLORS KIND OF REALLY NEEDS YA HELP.
HER DADDY-O’S BEEN DETAINED BECAUSE OF SOME HELLA UNRAD BULLSHITTERY BROUGHT ON BY EL-PRESIDENTE BEING A TURD BURGLAR, AND SHE REALLY NEEDS HELP MAKING SURE HER BELOVED PAPA DON’T GET REMOVED FROM THE USofA.
*cracks knuckles* Okee doke I was going into a meeting when I got this but now I’m done for the day so here we go!
Listen up, anon.
I dunno where you are in the community but I think you need to take a step back because this whole statement of yours? Is heteronormative at best and both homophobic and transphobic at worst so I think you might be the poison, actually.
Let’s break this down. “A-specs are cishet at best” so just because someone isn’t sexually and/or romantically attracted to someone that makes them cis AND heterosexual?
First of all, heterosexuality is the attraction to the opposite gender. By definition. So people on the ace spectrum are literally not heterosexual. Literally. And to say that “well if you’re not gay you’re straight” is the most heteronormative ignorant bullshit I’ve ever heard in my entire life.
Second of all, there are trans ace people??? And homoromantic/biromantic/panromantic aces so what the fuck???
You’re literally acting like the very people the LGBT+ community stands up against. You don’t want people to treat you like a second class citizen because of your sexuality or your gender identity–so don’t turn around and be that asshole to people on the ace spectrum?? The absolute fuck?
Like boy howdy you need to do a lot of fucking soul searching. If you’re thinking of saying ace people aren’t oppressed–wow look what you’re doing right the fuck now. There’s a long history of aces in the LGBT+ community AND their struggles that they have to deal with from both outside AND inside the community. Mainstream LGBT groups are accepting of a-spec people but there’s some ridiculous backlash that a-spec people aren’t LGBT ~ENOUGH~ to be part of the community.
“Deleriousfromcoffee is no different why do you care??” This is such a fucking scary awful sentiment? You’re treating a HUMAN BEING a living person with FEELINGS like garbage just because of their sexuality you don’t think they have the right to feel like a part of a community made up of people who are LITERALLY FIGHTING TO BE THOUGHT OF AS HUMAN BEINGS FOR THEIR SEXUALITY???? Are you??? Seriously not getting why your attitude is super fucking toxic and hypocritical??? I don’t care how old or young you are, your words can damage people and this whole culture of anonymous hatred freeing you of responsibility has to stop because you forget you’re dealing with a real human being on the other side of the screen. It’s easy to demonize them and say and call them terrible things because you don’t have to see their face, cause they’re just an icon to you. That’s heartless and YOU are the problem. YOUR words and YOUR attitude are poison.
“I used to like you now you’re ace/aro too? it’s a fucking ploy to get more followers, get out of our community.” This is the funniest fucking thing I’ve ever read. I had “ace” in my blog description for years, thought I was aro too, added that, but recently took aro off because I am now dating my NONBINARY & ACE SIGNIFICANT OTHER who you called cishet and poison by definition of being a-spec so lmao FUCK you.
“A ploy to get more followers” wat. Who the fuck would think being ace would get you followers? Lmfao I put it in my description to discourage people from HITTING ON ME SEXUALLY. Like, man, drawing edgy skeletons got me followers, not being ace. And if I lose followers, i mean, I love my followers but if they decided they need to unfollow me for whatever reason okay! I’ve never cared about number of followers enough to “be ace/aro too” as some ploy. Lmao be ace/aro. Like it’s some like decision I made. Like it’s a choice and I’m choosing to be this way–OH WAIT THATS WHAT PEOPLE USE AS AN ARGUMENT AGAINST LGBT PEOPLE!!!
Fuck you. This is my community too and @deleriousfromcoffee ’s and every single other aro/ace who wants to be part of the LGBTQIA+ community. I’m staying and you can piss off.
And u wonder why I called u Chibbasaurus Rex once. ((Loudest voice out there.))
Those thousands of plates, bowls, wrappers and cups in your room that have been there for weeks and are going mouldy?
Invest in a plastic laundry basket like this one:
you can by it here on amazon. they usually are really cheap and easy to get pretty much anywhere, and you can put all the plates/cups/wrappers in one easy-to-carry place rather than all over your bedroom. If you put it at the end of your bed, or beside it, next time you go downstairs you can just bring every plate with you at once.
you can fill it up with washing up fluid so you don’t have to waste spoons squeezing it out every time you wanna clean a dish. They take pretty much a whole bottle of liquid at once so all you need is water! they’re super handy and you don’t have to get your hands in gross dirty water.
All those clothes all over your floor?
if you get another one of those laundry baskets i linked up there, it’s much easier to throw it in there rather than in a laundry basket, if you’re like me and just sorta throw stuff on the floor.
if you prefer a laundry basket though, you can get a double hamper like this
which makes it easier to sort your laundry in. the next step is bringing it downstairs which is a bit of a struggle. my trick for it is rolling a d20 dice using this roller and if i get a number higher than 10, i get up and do it. if i don’t, i stay sitting/laying down for another hour or so.
Having trouble getting up and making food?
Two words: CANNED FOOD.
if you get a little box or a basket (i have one in the shape of a kitty under my vanity) and keep it in your bedroom along with a can-opener and a utensil, stuff like this can last FOREVER.
You can get all sorts of food in cans, and most of it is microwavable so it’s an easy cook! Also, fruit slices generally come in cans of their own juice, so they double as a snack AND a drink!
You can also get bottles like these:
these ones are sistema shaker bottles and they take about 700ml per bottle. i’ve found it’s way easier to just fill up a bottle with juice/water instead of making cups all the time.
Bath/shower just not happening?
For this, I’d recommend baby wipes – they can really make the difference in cleanliness of your body! These you can get, like, anywhere, but here’s a link for some on amazon too.
I also recommend some batiste dry shampoo for your hair! all you do is spray it then brush it in
Feeling lonely or isolated?
There’s a whole bunch of cool discord servers you can join! they’re usually open to anyone with the links (it has voice calls but not video as of yet) as well as Skype where you can video call friends! discord server group chats are fun because you can talk to people whenever you want to, but you don’t have to go in there if you’re not feeling like it.
These are just some of the things I do to help myself cope with my depression. It isn’t ever easy to do, but these, hopefully, are some things that can help with some of the struggles that come with it. These aren’t things that will “fix” the depression, or instantly make it better, they’re just some suggestions that can help – Seeing a doctor or a therapist you trust on top of these things can make all the difference.
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