My Life in WordsThoughts, scribbles, doodles, videos.
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I've been trying to connect my email to AdSense, and to be frank, it's the most painful process I've ever encountered. You have to apply with a google email address, which is fine, and it gives you the option to link it to a website. Awesome. I link it to this one, but I apparently have insufficient content. Ok, fine. Except that the email I used is also associated with my YouTube account, and now I'm completely locked out of monetizing any videos I have ever created and posted on that account, because I can't remove the link to this website. I can't edit any information for Google AdSense unless my account is approved, which means any email that is EVER used can be deactived for inactivity, and then completely locked and remove your access to any funds you may have already earned or potentially earn in the future. There's no contact for support, there's absolutely no way to talk to anyone to resolve your issues. I am honestly shocked that Google has such a terrible system in place where you can't even cancel your links or applications without being an approved user. The forums are flooded with people who can't remove or adjust their applications, because the system is so poorly created. I can see why people are moving to Twitch, where at least the revenue and potential for monetization is well integrated. Update: My YouTube account got pushed through after I tried contacting them, and this website got approved roughly 5 months after submitting the application. There is hope!
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I don't normally do book reviews, because it's rare that book really strikes me in such a strong way that I feel the need to tell the world about it. Foxlowe is a book I received an advanced reader's copy of, due to my position as a book seller, and as I recently decided to slog through the hundreds of books I have sitting listlessly on my bookshelf, I gave it a whirl. Starting with the positives, the characters are easily identifiable and recognizable from each other. Each one seems to have a distinct personality that distinguishes them immediately upon speaking. Unfortunately, I think that's all the positives I have to discuss. The negatives start with the general writing style and theme. The author tried to do something different, in terms of how her paragraphs are written during moments of speech. Unfortunately, it lends itself to being rather awkward, as it's simply a large dash, occasionally followed by the name of the speaker. This might not be so difficult to read if it also didn't include a large amount of book-specific jargon. There are a lot of words and concepts thrown at the reader in the first few pages that aren't ever really explained. All you can do is use context to create a best guess at what the author is trying to describe. This brings us now to the plot. The book and its plot centers around a cult-like environment, where children are essentially kidnapped and brought into the house to be raised by the few adults there. Once they enter the house, they're given a new name and an identity, and a whole slew of rules to prevent "the bad" from entering them. What is "the bad"? It's the evil influence from outside. It causes people to act with negative or harmful intentions, and that's why no one is allowed to interact with the outside world, why darkness is evil, etc. If one of the elders thinks you have been influenced by the bad, or that the bad is inside you, you must do penance. This involves scraping your arm across rusty nails (the spike walk), burning yourself, being ostracized from the rest of the society, etc., and has such a large role in the book where scars are a point of pride and shame. There's never any true rationale given behind the punishment either, as The book essentially normalizes abusive households, as the main character was born to the household, and knows of no other life. Even in the end, once she's free from the house, she's not actually free from the cult. She still talks to them, eats dinner with them regularly, and seems to be trapped in the same mentality she had growing up. It's honestly hard to tell, because the epilogue where she's portrayed as an adult is literally seven pages long. In it, she returns to the house she grew up in, and gets upset when people describe the environment as neglectful, as though being raked over with nails and a fire iron was a normal way to get punished. She takes it a step further, and actually tries to groom a small child visiting the house with her family, by telling her the lovely stories of her youth. This is supposed to be a children's book, for ages 9-12. I can't honestly recommend this book to anyone, because it seems to be disturbing for disturbing's sake. The main character doesn't learn anything, she doesn't grow as a person. Sure, she rails a little bit against her lot in life, but she actually actively perpetuates the cycle of abuse on a baby that's brought into the house, and then again on some innocent stranger once she's an adult. I can't find anything positive or redeeming in this book that would cause me to recommend it to another person. Honestly, if I saw someone planning to buy it for a child, I'd actively urge them against it. It basically comes across as one of those horror movies where the only value in it is if you're solely looking to be actively disturbed by an environment or theme. Even if that was the reason someone chose to pick up this book, if the child in question is able to comprehend and grasp disturbing themes, there are so many better written choices in the general fiction section. I'm so excited, I can hardly stand it! I've been very busy the past few weeks, in no small part due to my new ventures with video recording, editing, and drawing. What has me the busiest so far is definitely the drawing.
I've recently started doing commissions of player characters from the World of Warcraft, and it's going so great! I've completed four so far, with another one on the way. Hopefully, I'll receive another couple commissions before the month is out. So far, since I'm building the pose and the background from scratch, it seems to be taking me anywhere from 2-4 days, depending on the race of the character. This male Pandaren definitely took the longest, clocking in at 4 days total. My shortest was a female undead, taking only about 6 hours, followed by a female Tauren taking about 2 days. I'm creating an art portfolio on DeviantArt, and I'll add a link in the "About Me" section of this website, so stay tuned for those pictures getting uploaded. For now, here's a sneak peak at my latest completed commission! I've been playing an awful lot of Slime Rancher lately, because there have been so many updates in the past year where I haven't had a chance to log in. The game officially released yesterday, and I couldn't be more thrilled. The most recent update, just in time for the game's official launch, introduced what our plucky protagonist, Beatrix, actually looks like.
I love it! She looks amazing! Her outfit, her hair, I love it all. It changes literally nothing about the way the game plays, aside from that she's now standing inside your main building whenever you go to check your mail or make your ranch more fancy. I can't wait to play more of it, and find out what other new features have been unlocked. I've already managed to get myself lost in a forest, and attacked by angry raccoon monster slimes. The future is looking bright, and squishy! |
Teaching, family, games, how to do it all? I'll try my best! Archives
February 2018
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