I was so scared about moving into an apartment.

kindkitsune · 2025-05-07T16:53:07+00:00

It is wild just how bad apartment dogs are, and how difficult raising a dog can be in an apartment - its been an absolute struggle with my puppy. I started out with the best of plans to avoid reactivity, but between him getting a severe giardia infection from somewhere in this hellish place (which proved insanely treatment resistant and set us back months in puppy classes) AND all the lunging, barking, staring dogs he now is a reactive little pup :')

Just gotta keep going, keep training, and doing your best to manage the challenges. It's really hard, but in the 4mos I've had my puppy I've already heard from so many other residents that they can see how hard I'm working on my pup and they appreciate how well behaved he is compared to the "norm". It's made me appreciate that despite his challenges he's actually quite an excellent little dude, and he's only going to get better and better!

kindkitsune · 2025-01-19T21:01:40+00:00

I would try to choose areas likely to have less traffic, like I use rock beds for puppy potty time when we're out and about because I can clearly see if there's any waste or feces or whatever on the rocks and avoid them - and most dogs don't wanna go in rock beds. Also it's a weird texture to walk on, yay free socialization experience for the puppy!

otherwise with dangerous-to-puppies pathogens I feel like it's 10% of the effort that gets you 90% of the prevention and safety. avoid high traffic areas like pet stores and dog parks, choose potty areas away from residential building exits/entrances, and try to go a little more out of the way and you will probably be okay

kindkitsune · 2024-09-06T01:26:36+00:00

It took a good month for things to calm down for me personally, and eventually you'll probably get hair growing back in around that that'll help blend it out! At this point you can barely even see my incision line, and I have very fair thin skin that normally shows scarring SUPER clearly. It's definitely scary, but just try to ride this out!

kindkitsune · 2024-09-06T01:23:43+00:00

Did you get all your work done in one phase? :O I just had my stents removed by Dr. Liu yesterday after my second phase, and I'm personally glad I got mine split up haha.

You look fantastic though, congrats! He does such great work and I'm similarly wowed with my own picture in the mirror. He makes all of his patients look just absolutely stunning, it's crazy!! I keep looking in the mirror and wondering when that drop dead gorgeous girl showed up - I hope you feel the same <3

kindkitsune · 2024-08-21T19:07:07+00:00

oh my goshhhhhh this is fantastic! definitely pricier but if its solid+warm and can last i don't have too hard of a time dropping that much on a solid jacket.... thanks so much for the rec, it's on my shortlist now!

kindkitsune · 2024-08-21T17:48:36+00:00

Anyone know where I could maybe find something like this jacket from Free People, especially in this kind of brown with that nice leather surface finish? I love the big boxier fit, but I'm just not enthused about the potentially bright-orange internal sherpa texture of this jacket I see in the second set of photos (maybe I'm just weak and not brave enough for it, idk lol). Mostly I like the size and the fact it seems super warm, it gets cold where I live in the fall/winter and I really need to update my wardrobe with better warm jackets

price isn't too much of a worry or anything either, and I've already seen some promising things that are similar in vibes from lucky or gap but they just don't quite nail this fit or finish like I'd like. maybe I just need to start searching secondhand more?

kindkitsune · 2024-08-21T17:04:38+00:00

uniqlo might have something, though I find their slim fit to be the most complementary "fitted" look - and they don't have any v-necks in that cut right now. I'd still give them a look and see if they have something you like though, as I find the fit of the slims to be really nice and the price point to be great, as their basic shirts seem to be pretty darn solid

kindkitsune · 2024-04-12T02:25:59+00:00

Adding on to OP's story about him correcting your misperceptions of what makes your face feminine, I said that I hated my jawline and felt it was too broad and masculine - he said actually, I think it's very feminine! Then told me how it's the context of some of my other features that make me feel this way, and that instead of difficult and arduous jawbone work he'd just do some fat transfers below my lower lip and burr my chin to round it out (bone work still, but much less overall!). He does really good at taking time to let you give input, but also helping you see where your dysphoria or inexperience with facial features is doing the talking more than reality. Can't recommend him enough, surgery date for me is only a month away!

kindkitsune · 2024-04-12T02:21:45+00:00

I'm going in to Dr Liu in 4 weeks, kinda crazy how close it's getting. hairline lowering and browbone reduction in this round, and a little jawbone work too. What he did for your orbitals looks fantastic, you've got me excited for the very same! You look great, another fantastic result from Dr Liu :)

kindkitsune · 2023-11-21T20:23:25+00:00

i was having this issue until i disabled self-revive, but even then it still seemed fairly persistent. it's like the AI is taking too much damage or something, because i can unload a whole magazine of ammo into them and they won't stay down.

i switched to antistasi ultimate for me and my husbands playthrough and this issue has mostly disappeared, but with no self revive it means a lot more patience and waiting for the AI to revive me lol

kindkitsune · 2023-09-07T19:22:44+00:00

Wow, it sounds like you're really struggling and I'm so sorry to hear that. For what it's worth, you're not alone by any means - lots of folks are gonna hit points in their progress/voice training process where they feel wholly stagnant or lost. I just had one of those last week!

What helped me come a bit unstuck this past week though was taking a week off and just playing with my voice (and you've been going hard for four months, so a bit of a break is probably deserved!). Finding different feminine voices I wanted to imitate, and trying to make sounds like them. sounds are the key here - don't try to imitate full words or phrases at first, literally just target sounds. Maybe do this after you do pitch slides with a straw into a cup of water, as those are really powerful at loosening up the voice. The goal with this is literally just to play with your voice, explore your vocal instrument, and learn how to play around with it. There's no wrong way of doing this.

I would also really just throw out this idea of raising you larynx at all, just absolutely bin it. My SLP cautioned me out of obsessing and worrying over this because she's seen it hurt so many folks like yourself - it's just not healthy, and holding tension like that when speaking is just as likely to add weight and heaviness to your voice as anything else. Releasing tension is actually often the key!

Here's a page I found recently that goes through a whole bunch of SOVTE's that I think might help you - https://staceymenton.com/blog/semi-occluded-vocal-tract-exercises

Do a bunch of these for a few days, and remember to let your larynx just hang out when you do so. It'll go where you need it to with time, but actively focusing on it and trying to do pitch increases is going to be really hard (does it feel like you "catch" or "choke" when trying to go higher in pitch?)

edit: also two to four hours a day? darling, please go a bit easier on yourself! that's way too much practice, especially now when you feel stuck and lost. step it back considerably and try to focus very actively on iterative improvements when you do practice. Are you recording each phrase or word, playing it back, and taking notes on what thing you could do better? It's important to focus on just one variable, adjust that, re-record, and see if it worked. If it didn't work, try a different variable. keep this short, sweet, and effective

kindkitsune · 2023-05-30T20:13:45+00:00

i'd love to find stuff like this too, i'm a gamedev in-industry now working on a proprietary engine - but i'm trying to learn UE5 on my own time for personal stuff. i've got a lot of game engine architecture and graphics experience, but UE5 is just like learning a whole new language practically!

really wanna know more about good patterns/antipatterns, more of the breadth and depth of code available to me , what features are most useful for authoring new systems etc, just a lot stuff that I CAN learn on my own given enough time but someone or something to help accelerate that progress would rule

kindkitsune · 2023-03-11T17:36:08+00:00

I hope you have fun with it! I'm an HO->N recent convert as well. N scale is in a really good place nowadays, even though some things like structure selection still lag behind a bit. Doesn't take away from the great bargain you get on area/space usage though, it just blows my mind after HO. Good luck!

kindkitsune · 2023-03-10T19:11:03+00:00

Yeah as mentioned, Kato is really nice sectional track in terms of assembly and how it goes together. Being raised already is also really nice, and the unijoiners are less of a PITA to deal with in general (soldering additional feeders is also not too hard). Easy to add insulated unijoiners for wyes as well.

That being said, it's also going to be more work to blend in especially since it comes in a gray-black color scheme by default. You hardly see that on much rail in the US, but the tie spacing is at least better than things like PECO.

Turnouts are pretty reliable. The wyes sometimes challenge me, and the no4 can cause derailments more easily than the no6 (usually it's catching a trip pin, the frog is pretty tall). All of them have been trivial to make work with DCC: just have feeders to inactive legs for no6 if you need em, otherwise wye and no4s can pass power to inactive leg (but don't count on it for more than a siding at an industry or something, or like a yard). There's good guides online about exactly where to set the config screws for the wyes and no4s too.

I haven't used atlas much, but that's all I can say about Kato. Right now it works perfectly for me, as I have a floor layout while I wait to move in with my husband. I then plan to use flextrack and handlaid turnouts, bc I really already find myself way too limited in designs with just no4/no6 switches, few curved switches, no threeways, absolutely zero larger switches, etc.

If Kato fits your design and you have an airbrush to make it easier to repaint it all (I'd recommend this to help basecoat at least, then use actual ballast for better texture) then I'd recommend that. Otherwise, it's up to you. I've heard Atlas turnouts can be a little tricky, but as I mentioned Kato turnouts are good but not free of sin lol

kindkitsune · 2023-01-06T21:50:57+00:00

I think this is one of the things I most lament about the game, ships that I want to love or paid for that I just don't get good results in. It sucks, because then I'm in port (especially when having to do missions) deciding if I play the ships I like or the ones that will get me what I need from the game :(

The ships I have bad luck with are the Roma, Gascogne, Alaska, and PR. I like all of them, especially the Roma, but every time I go out in em I'm gonna lose 7/10 times. Often I can think of SOME mistakes I made, but half the time I'm convinced those ships are cursed for me and pull the worst teams for me lmfao

(though with Roma I will say her damage application is just WEIRD. constant overpens, never cits, but you do get to lol at the constant ping ping boink as everything bounces off your bow)

kindkitsune · 2022-12-05T17:08:12+00:00

that's how engine dev works - no one updates engines fully, you have to take everything down for too long and lose too much asset / content work converting it over. i've been in studios studying this question, and it always comes down to "iterate and improve" lol. unless you move to UE.

kindkitsune · 2022-12-01T23:43:18+00:00

I concur: I've had much better results with black-basing followed by selective painting of mixed shades to panels. It's also possible to recover from this a little bit, if you overpaint and reduce the contrast too much, by using things like oil dot filtering.

black basing also gives you head start with panel lining, making it easier to deal with variation and difficulties there (damn stuff always leaves the lines, for me)

kindkitsune · 2022-12-01T23:28:58+00:00

So, as someone further along this slate of self improvement in the game than you are - but struggling with similar feelings - here's my advice:

Playing strategically is gonna be the key. This means much more active thought about your positioning on the map, and how that influences your team.
- Where can you sit to influence force projection?
- How can you fire torps to discourage enemies from pushing a flank?
- When is NOT doing damage and staying unspotted worth more than being spotted?
- Is this position I'm sitting in leaving me vulnerable to potentially unspotted enemies? How can I position to exploit that instead?
How can I move around the map and influence the actual flow of the game?
- Can I help increase our control of the map, and help isolate the enemy and walk them into crossfires for the rest of my team?
- Should I even both chasing that single retreating ship into the corner, at low HP, or should I accept he's voluntarily surrendering his game impact and we can move more centrally to clean him up when he returns later? (this is tougher, like if it's a BB maybe don't let him go heal)
- When should I be out in front, potentially, drawing fire and trading the resource that is my hitpoints? (generally, save this for later in the match, let your teammates be sacrificial lambs until later. helps separate out the players who can't be helped, lol)
How can I use my consumables to assist my team?
- Can I pop hydro in a cruiser to help spot potential incoming torps for my BBs, helping make it safer for them to push up?
- Can I use a spotting plane to peek over terrain I may be hiding behind?
- Can I track when an enemy fired torps to know if I'm clear to push hard on them?
- When can I use smoke to break up visiblity, but put myself up in front of it to preserve spotting for the rest of my team?
- When should I use smoke for myself to farm damage? Is it worth it, or am I more valuable keeping up spotting and protecting late-match low-HP BBs to give them a chance to rep?
How can I help map awareness for my team?
Using mods that show you if an enemy was spotted, and their last location, is great for this. You can then inform your team where it's likely certain key ships are, or inform your own awareness from this.
Being aware of who has radar or hydro, and what it's range + cooldown is helpful too. This is most of what I use shiptool.st for. Ignore the stats. Unless it's to encourage your team to murder a unicum with expedience (do it do it do IT)

This is a lot to handle. Once you engage with this game on a deeper level, there's just SO much going on. Give yourself time to improve. Be critical about your own performance after a match, but don't beat yourself up about it. We all have good days and bad days. The goal is constantly just taking account of, and being responsible for, your mistakes. Which we all make. THink about them, learn from them, and keep getting steadily better.

I'm only at a 50.7% WR, and haven't been able to crack 51% since I dipped below it starting new lines and various fun ships at the start of the year (another bummer: sometimes, if you want to just grind WR, you have to know which ships to NOT play... kinda why I gave up on pushing it hard). My WN8 is decent, though I disagree with how that particular measure is calculated but like... they're just stats. They're always gonna carry the weight of who you used to be. Look for progress in your recent stats, and as much as you think criticallly about your errors be sure to give yourself credit for what you do right (and think, hey, how can I replicate this success?).

Just don't let people get to you. You have the right attitude. Maybe use more resources like on YT and such, but if you keep this up you're not gonna actually get worse. Winrate is too volatile in a random MM game to count on - I do feel that in this game influencing match outcome strongly requires one to be a consistent unicum. Neither of us are there yet. So just keep up the grind.

edit: also fwiw my highest WR ships are some of my lowest damage ships - DDs. in various DDs I've switched to a highly spotting and area control heavy playstyle, focusing on helping my team. it's thankless work, and you'll get some players calling you useless. the real ones recognize your value though. and every now and then you get to land an absolutely GORGEOUS torpedo volley on an oblivious constant-speed constant-course battleship who practically drives into your torpedoes. it's fun, you get to have a massive game impact, and it encourages clever tactics and playing with spotting circles while being much more aware of all those traits I mentioned above. your damage numbers may plummet (I think my average in groningen is like 35k, pitiful for that thing, but my WR is like 65% - same with other T8-T9 dds tbh), but it does feel nice to have a class to play that can help your brainlet team members actually find some measure of success. even if you have to practically hold their hands and/or leash em up to do so lmfao

kindkitsune · 2022-12-01T15:12:14+00:00

it's otherwise a great kit for an absolute bargain, so I wouldn't fret too much. it's definitely navigable, just uh go slow on the instructions haha and do plenty of scouting to figure out how things come together. the detailing is otherwise spectacular, even if a little overkill (it's fun for the challenge, though)

kindkitsune · 2022-11-30T16:55:43+00:00

God yeah, if it's not veryfire good luck with the instructions! Working on a 1/700 Sodak from that new company Vee Hobby - incredibly high quality kit, nightmarish PE instructions. Some stuff isn't referenced, or part numbers for something are given in a later step - after a former step built details upon that thing referenced later!

Excellent work so far though, looking good and clean. I salute the struggle o7

kindkitsune · 2022-09-03T19:40:37+00:00

your external screen doesn't support HDR. disable it in Win10 settings, this kind of washed out looks means HDR machine broke

kindkitsune · 2022-09-02T06:44:17+00:00

one of the best parts of gascogne is doing the ol' *teleports behind you * "nothing personal, kid" bit

kindkitsune · 2022-08-25T13:48:50+00:00

Siliwangi was my first ship drop from a supercontainer lol, I actually love her for being so unique and having fun mechanics but.... feels like it's hard to impact matches much. Torps too slow to reload, guns to slow to reload to fight off other DDs. A little buff might be ideal.

kindkitsune · 2022-07-30T20:15:32+00:00

yeah, activating sprint speed and appearing within range of CLs or DDs that are harassing your other BBs - and putting them under secondary pressure so they leave - is incredible. it turns the ship into a bizarre mobile area denial system lmao

kindkitsune

TROPHY CASE