Did I Draw Today?

“Shakespeare wouldn’t have wanted this.”

“Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare, To dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones, And cursed be he that moves my bones.”

Before that though, If you would like to read more about the actual position of a PO soldier, you can look no further then the PO benefits page on the US Army special operations recruitment website (https://www.goarmysof.army.mil/PO/).

Personally I feel like many people still believe psyops to be some kind of conspiracy theory instead of a fairly standard military division in almost all modern militaries, anyways onto the example.

The US Department of Justice is going after (indicting) two RT (Russian state media) employees for committing fraud and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Basically they created a front "media" company in Tennessee, translated russian propaganda videos into english, then paid right-wing influencers to promote (reblog/retweet/talk about on streams) said videos.

Three of the named influencers that I could find were Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson.

I honestly have no idea who these three are, but supposedly their platforms have millions of followers. Also, some of these influencers were paid up too $100,000 a week to promote their videos and messaging.

So to summarize, Russia setup a fake company to pay American influencers to repeat their lies so that their followers would interpret those lies as legitimate since their were coming from a source they trust.

When people talk about election interference this is what we are talking about.

$100K a week is insane money for most, I am sure many people would be hard pressed to not sell their soul for that much money. Many of the videos from this media company were lies about the Ukraine war, and looking into Tim Pool it seems he also has a very anti-Ukraine stance (Audio from one of this podcasts https://v.redd.it/41xgvuri0vmd1/DASH_AUDIO_128.mp4)

I generally do not talk about my job on here, but corporations used to pay me to run seminars to help train their employees on spotting these types of attacks--mainly targeted psyops attacks from nation states to hack into their company via end user interaction.

Or in layman's terms, to help companies protect themselves from Russian Ransomware Thieves and Chinese Intellectual Property/Information collectors. Both of these being extensions of the Psychological Operations military divisions of each country.

I am really not sure how to end this post other than I am just trying to show people how real it is that the militaries of the world are spending obscene amounts of money in trying to influence your opinions and day to day life via your internet consumption.

Every time you realise that it makes no sense that the characters didn't do some super logical thing in the first place, figure out which character could have prevented it by simply the way they are as a person. You're not only solving the problem of the plot hole, but also the issue of writing flaws into your characters in a way that doesn't feel gratituous and contrived.

Why did the characters not use this weapon they had access to the whole time? - The character who could have told them about it wants to have control over people and had personally decided they shouldn't have it.

Why didn't that one genius character just tell everyone how to dismantle the robots? - They meant to, but being an absent-minded genius, they literally just forgot.

How did nobody notice that this little girl has been hanging out with an actual demon for seven years? - The demon made her pinky-promise not to tell anyone about it, and being naive and overly trusting, she didn't find that sketchy at all.

Why didn't the characters go to The Big Cool Guys for help in the first place? - The character who is stubborn and overly proud wanted to choose death before dishonour and didn't want to ask for help.

1. A more labour-intensive tool or technique doesn’t necessarily produce an objectively superior result. Sometimes the output of the easier technique is just as good. Hell, sometimes it’s better. Certainly, worthwhile art takes a whole lot of work, but the notion that a given work of art is superior because it was a huge pain in ass to produce is the value system of rich assholes who get off on the idea of people toiling for their pleasure. Don’t internalise it.

2. Even if the output of the easier technique isn’t quite as good in isolation, the time and effort you save by using it doesn’t just vanish. If, for example, you’ve got a colouring technique that’s 80% as good and takes 1/5th as long to do, that time savings will almost certainly improve other aspects of the work – either because you’re not being forced to skimp elsewhere in order to make time for the colouring, or simply because there’s less need to run yourself ragged to hit your deadlines, leading to fewer fatigue-induced fuckups.

Not everyone will like your fic. Write it anyway. 

Not everyone will like your art. Keep drawing. 

Not everyone will like your moodboards/edits/vids. Make more. 

Pursue your craft because it makes you happy, and just know that there are people out there who adore everything you create and can’t wait for more. And there are fans that haven’t found you yet, but your content will change their life. 

Keep creating, okay? 

-not getting your art right 100% in one shot

-making mistakes in a new medium (or even in a medium you have experience in)

-drawing self insert art

-drawing you oc’s with characters from a show

“here’s my shitty art”

“lol i’m so ugly in this selfie”

“you’re so creative. i’m nowhere near as creative as you”

“your writing is amazing! i wish mine was that good”

what all of these have in common is that they all involve putting yourself down. when you do that, those around you feel obligated to compliment you, which can make them feel frustrated that they have to just to be polite. not only that, but by talking yourself down you feel worse about yourself. the latter two phrases also centre your problems, distracting the attention from the person you’re trying to compliment. that often makes them feel bad!

here’s how to fix those phrases:

“here’s my art”

“selfie time!”

“you’re so creative. how do you do it?”

“your writing is amazing! do you have any tips?”

by cutting out the negativity, you make it so nobody feels obligated to compliment you. you’ll usually get more compliments this way because people don’t feel uncomfortable! the latter two phrases now also centre the artist and their knowledge. not only do they make the artist feel good, they also might score you some good advice.

I’m seeing reblogs on another post that say essentially: “no, writing is a talent, and not everyone can write! it’s so offensive to say that everyone can write, as it undermines my hard work”! Well, I’m telling you that those people are wrong. If you’re discouraged by those people -? If you feel unmotivated by those responses -? If you’ve hated every English class you’ve ever been in -?

Don’t be!

Can you just wake up and write? No. I think that’s why people often get offended by “anyone can write”, but this is the thing … everyone starts somewhere! I can guarantee that Shakespeare learnt his alphabet. I can guarantee that Mozart learnt his scales. I can guarantee that your bilingual friend still had to learn how to say ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’. I can guarantee the guy working on your car once never knew diesel from petrol. We all start somewhere. 

This thing is “writing is a talent, not everyone can write” just discourages people. It puts people in a place where they think “maybe I’m just one of the few that can’t”, which isn’t the case … even if you start writing today, and your grammar is a mess and your style is all over the place, you can still offer something that no one else can offer and you can still improve over time. 

I have a friend with severe dyslexia. It was at a point where you had to actually read his message aloud sometimes, to discern the meaning, because they were written in a strangely phonetic way, but now … he’s not perfect, no, but he’s made vast improvements. That came with daily writing and daily reading, as well as constant hard work and attention, and his writing actually inspires a lot of people. No, it might not be a bestseller tomorrow, but it’s still worth something. 

He has really unique ideas. He has a strong voice. 

I’ve been inspired by some of his concepts, while others I’ve remembered years later and he’s even been surprised I remembered, but - you know what - they were good ideas, and it was his writing that brought them to life and communicated them with other people. If he even inspires me to follow certain themes, or inspires other friends to write (as he has), that’s a huge accomplishment! He’s learnt to communicate better overall, but he’s also touching on other people and inspiring them and making them think. 

Your writing doesn’t have to be perfect. 

You just have to communicate with another human being. 

You can also improve, grow, and evolve … none of which happens by just saying “I have no talent” and not even trying, while even the so-called ‘worst’ writing has something to offer to someone. You can inspire a person without even realising it. You can make a difference. 

Honestly, it sounds so much better than “art block”. To me, “creative hibernation” sounds less like a negative thing and more like an organic part of the creative process. 

“Art block” sounds very definite. They sound like something you MUST actively fight against to break them down in order to continue. “Hibernation” on the other hand sounds more like a thing that happens every now and then but that will go away on its own when it’s time. It’s a stage of gathering energy for the next creative pursuit. Art block on the other hand is an artificial, mental block that actually just seems to solidify the more you treat it like an obstacle to get around.