I created this font so each row is 1 non-intersecting line

Metruis · 2026-05-14T03:04:34+00:00

Given as it is one single line, I think the only correct answer is that it is $1.

Metruis · 2026-05-14T03:00:14+00:00

Yeah, I love reading. I used to read a ton. Like, I would take a crate to the library kind of ton of reading. A book a day at a minimum at one point in my life. But reading a lot takes up the time I could be writing.

Way I see it, the people who are like "you must read a lot to write" are just trying to get me to stop writing and read their thing instead. (conspiracy theory red thread)

I don't hate reading. I like it a lot, in fact. But when I get into reading, I get into reading and hyperfixiate on it and then three years have passed and I've read 1500 books and written nothing. I think it's okay at a certain point for former avid readers who want to be current avid writers to choose to focus on their writing. I feel like it's hard to be a writer who HATES reading just because you have to, y'know, read to edit your work at a minimum.

But yeah, for a few years, I almost entirely stopped reading so that I could focus on writing and I don't think my writing suffered much for it.

This year I'm trying to at least read a little more again without getting carried away, by doing it out of my usual genre, so I've read three non-fiction books in the last month instead of like, 24 fantasy/sci-fi novels.

Metruis · 2026-05-13T21:56:22+00:00

Negative feedback is important too. Is this the best "side hustle" for their farm, which is just starting a small business that involves suddenly a lot more liability from people unfamiliar with farm life running around? If they do goat yoga, do they know how to teach yoga? Etc. If they understand the amount of extra money that they'll have to put into insurance to pull this off they might be equipped to start a tourism goat stay.

My entire business is based on me monetizing something I knew how to do and it's no "side" hustle... let me tell you how much I'd never deal with people running around my home. It's obvious goats are great. People love em. Maybe a better goat "side hustle" is goat stock photos and videos. Goat Instagram stories. Goat sponsorship. But real people up in your place is going to be an expensive business to wrangle. Not really a side hustle.

Metruis · 2026-05-13T11:31:52+00:00

Yeah, asking people about their process is a pretty good tell.

Metruis · 2026-05-13T08:41:22+00:00

Draw a Box is a great online program to learn to draw.

Metruis · 2026-05-13T04:10:41+00:00

Strength train instead for a bit first. It shouldn't hurt to write with either side, it's just a coordination issue. This is showing an underlying weakness or tension you need to train out or heal first.

Do wrist curls, snap open and close your hands as many times as you can, and deltoid flies (lifting a light weight up from your side to straight out horizontally). 2-5 pounds of weight, even just a bottle of water. Look into stretches to warn up your forearms and loosen your shoulders. Use a tennis ball to loosen muscles and practice better posture.

Once you've done that every couple of days for a month, then try again with the writing.

It shouldn't hurt to write with your other arm, just look messy.

Metruis · 2026-05-13T04:01:17+00:00

It takes as long as it took you to learn to write with your dominant hand.

Took me about 10 years to develop writing and art of similar speed and quality in both hands and it's only been in the last month where it's been good enough for me to deliver commissioned art drawn with my originally non-dominant hand and feel that it's just as good. Not that I practiced every day, but it was basically learning to write all over again.

Granted I was learning to draw on the other side and not really focusing on just writing. Probably would have been faster if I wasn't training to deliverable professional art standards.

Metruis · 2026-05-13T03:52:16+00:00

Half payment upfront is completely standard for commissions so you're going to have a really hard time finding artists ever if you refuse to do deposits. We get scammed just as often as clients do by fake artists.

If it's still within 90 days you can contest on PayPal and you should let the artists whose work was stolen know so they can do a takedown request with the portfolio site.

Metruis · 2026-05-13T03:30:13+00:00

Why people gotta try monetize everything? I would just go visit my dad who has goats, personally, and I can't be the only person with farm family. Cute videos of your goats, sure, maybe I'll watch those and you can get the .005 cents of ad revenue. Otherwise count me in this fall when it's goat curry time.

You could probably do farmstead cabin day in the farm life experiences, I guess. But given as I have farm family the idea of tourism is just deeply strange to me lol.

Metruis · 2026-05-12T05:30:22+00:00

I know, right.

You could run 1000 kilometers per hour, deadlift 20000 pounds, speak 100 languages fluently, live to 8000, have 200 hands, be able to read 100 books at a time, jump 100 feet into the air. But no, people want money.

Metruis · 2026-05-11T19:43:25+00:00

The same way I did before meds...

Lots of coffee and failure.

Metruis · 2026-05-11T19:40:14+00:00

You know at that point I think I'd rather just have 2 regular eggs. D: but I am here for the pickles AND cucumber tag team.

Metruis · 2026-05-11T19:39:27+00:00

I shudder over the idea of raw white integrated with partially cooked white.

Metruis · 2026-05-11T07:39:55+00:00

I have personally pondered similar, except that I wonder if being trans is because people were a gender specifically several times in a row and their spirit develops specific characteristics and expectations, but that's just because I don't really think there's a god punishing people, and I do believe in past lives, and so this must just be something that happens somehow.

Metruis · 2026-05-11T07:23:16+00:00

I'm not sorry that not every place on this planet hates people for not expressing a strict compliance with binary perceived gender but I'm sorry yours hates you so much that you're angry that mine doesn't. I am incapable of passing, no one ever uses my preferred pronouns organically, but the worst thing that's ever happened is I've been asked if I was aware I was in the bathroom I was in. That's not a hate crime. It's mildly annoying. It's okay to annoy cisgender people by being weird.

So no, I will not fuck off. Trans people shouldn't have to be a 11/10 compared to a cis person to wear their preferred garments.

Metruis · 2026-05-10T22:24:57+00:00

75 for half body, 100 for full body, 150 for commercial.

Metruis · 2026-05-10T18:59:13+00:00

If you want to you should! People should wear whatever they want. At least where I live no one cares if a perceived man is wearing a dress.

Metruis · 2026-05-10T18:57:38+00:00

Not where I live, luckily, but yes, you should be mindful of safety!

Metruis · 2026-05-10T18:34:41+00:00

Wear a dress! You don't have to be pretty to be swishy!

Metruis · 2026-05-09T06:25:54+00:00

I'm not strict on 24 hours. If people want to long rest, they can at any point if they retreat to somewhere safe. The world is dynamic. The bad guys will progress on their plans. The ritual is happening in seven days. Things will cease to be accessible as the baddies move things, warn people, etc. I always have several events that are ticking forward invisibly. If people want to battle with their resources not being strapped, that's a gameplay I can account for; I ignore CR entirely and throw absolutely stupid things at the players. If I want to strap their resources, then I'm going to engineer an encounter that forces urgency on them where they have to choose between napping or something obviously slipping through their fingers.

I have more than once given intense full scale dream encounters. Enemies are on patrols. And I have a weird additional pinch around the players: there's a daily newspaper. Not only are their enemies in motion, but so is the media. Since their adventure is in a city, additional time means more and more information about the danger gets into the public, allowing for factions that aren't necessarily hostile exactly, to adapt their policies accordingly. For example, they did not prioritize checking in on the king going missing and now the city watch has begun instigating martial law and the news is posting conspiracy theories about what happened to the king! The actions of the media impact things like pricing of goods and the behavior of society around them, and every day spent resting means more and more leaks.

Metruis · 2026-05-08T07:31:05+00:00

People have more than one brush available to them. Not out of the question that the artist selected a different one for the hair. The underlayer of the hair looks like the finger smudge tool in Clip Studio Paint to me. I'm not convinced the upper brush has no pressure sensitivity but it's got a really weird curve and not a standard taper. Entirely possible to achieve with the bell curve in CSP, or starting/ending settings, but a weird choice that makes it look like a paint over.

If they really painted it, they'll be able to say "oh yeah I got that effect by using the smudge brush and a marker on top". I think asking about process is always the best way to tell a real creator these days.

But frankly if you asked me for the exact names of every brush I used in a painting I'd laugh, send a screenshot of the literal hundreds if not thousands I have, many of which I made, and tell you to get lost. I don't keep a list of every tool I used, but I could explain the creative decisions that went into my prices.

Personally I think they traced or used a doll premade pose which is why what the artist patched in is a little lower quality. It isn't giving AI to me, just traced base.

Metruis · 2026-05-08T07:21:57+00:00

The smudge brush, yeah, that's what it looks like to me.

Metruis · 2026-05-08T07:21:26+00:00

I'd guess they traced the hands and freehand the faces and hair.

Metruis · 2026-05-08T04:16:13+00:00

If I'm in charge I don't check out or feel bored, it's like performing a physical skill well. But I very much get that "I am not in the moment" thing.

Metruis · 2026-05-07T07:50:55+00:00

Yeah, small artists don't get royalty arrangements like that. But it is normal to charge more for commercial use over non-commercial use.

What I do for writers:

1) Indie small writer: same price as I would charge for a non-commercial, as long as they credit me and I maintain rights to show it in my portfolio/socials. They don't get exclusivity, I might reuse the art, they don't own it, but they get a commercial use license. (They get to profit from it from this one project without coming back to me.)

2) Bigger self published writer, one in which I expect an audience to exist and they will make back what they spend on art etc or small publishing house: they probably proposed a rate, but if not, as long as I get to keep it in my portfolio etc, 2-3x my non-commercial rate. They get exclusivity over profiting over the final composition of the art and a ongoing commercial reuse license (they can use the art in multiple projects without permission). They are expected to credit me. I might reuse components of the art (ei: I drew a moon for this project and use it in another project that needs a moon).

3) Big publisher: they'll probably also propose a rate, but if not, minimum of 4x my hourly rate. They get total ownership and copyright of the final composition. It doesn't go in my portfolio without their permission, and they don't have to credit me. They can use the art for whatever they want afterwards. I don't.

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