cherrybombexe → cheruim
ABOUT ME:
» adult (20) & any pronouns
» arts, media and technology undergrad
» artist / writer / musician / clown
STATUS:
» commissions: 4/4 slots open! info here
» stream schedule: i am currently on hiatus until june! thank you for your patience.
IMPORTANT LINKS:
» you can find me anywhere using this link
» you can tip me here if you think my shit is neat!
» i do artfight & regularly put out a hitlist, so keep an eye out for that during june!
hello denizens of the internet! whether you’re friend, fan, foe or ambivalent to my presence: i have spent the last few months technically homeless. (don’t worry too much! i have a roof over my head.)
but even though the generosity of my current housing patrons has extended my stay, i still want to honor our original agreement of my stay being limited to august 31st.
and i am, to put it bluntly, poor!
i already have a full time job, which does cover the majority of things, but i am still relying on the state to help with food and healthcare & my job is a 30-minute commute from the place i'm staying (about a gallon of gas a day). finding an apartment where i am currently living has been a 6+ month long struggle (mostly due to roommate issues, not me). so... yeah. that’s where y’all come in!
to be very clear: i am not asking for donations. i am willing to do services for extra money. i write, i draw, i even do tarot. so if you’re willing to throw me some coin, my dms are open! if not, a reblog helps immensely. ALSO, I'M SO SORRY: I HATE E-BEGGING/SELF ADVERTISING AS MUCH AS Y'ALL HATE SEEING IT. CHEERS.
Okay, it’s update time:
So… yeah. I’ll be opening up emergency commissions once I finish my last round of art, and I’ll hopefully be employed before long. Here’s to not being homeless!
hello denizens of the internet! whether you’re friend, fan, foe or ambivalent to my presence: i have spent the last few months technically homeless. (don’t worry too much! i have a roof over my head.)
but even though the generosity of my current housing patrons has extended my stay, i still want to honor our original agreement of my stay being limited to august 31st.
and i am, to put it bluntly, poor!
i already have a full time job, which does cover the majority of things, but i am still relying on the state to help with food and healthcare & my job is a 30-minute commute from the place i’m staying (about a gallon of gas a day). finding an apartment where i am currently living has been a 6+ month long struggle (mostly due to roommate issues, not me). so… yeah. that’s where y’all come in!
to be very clear: i am not asking for donations. i am willing to do services for extra money. i write, i draw, i even do tarot. so if you’re willing to throw me some coin, my dms are open! if not, a reblog helps immensely. ALSO, I’M SO SORRY: I HATE E-BEGGING/SELF ADVERTISING AS MUCH AS Y'ALL HATE SEEING IT. CHEERS.
I made myself sad over a tragic himbo
hi ira! im p sure i remember u regulary scan ur traditional stuff n also times where u said u didnt do it for a while or smthg. do u have any tip on where tf to start w a big backlog...i didnt have acess to a good scanner or camera for a long time and now i do but i have so much shit i wanna scan in (both sketchbooks n loose papers) i have no idea where and how to start :')
[wheezing softly] yeah “regularly” is the goal, but hitting big backlogs every few weeks is more accurate to reality lmfao. but that means i have a lot of little things i’ve folded into my workflow to make it more doable!
that being said, i’m sure what works best will vary person to person, but the core rule that works best for me is: scan the backlog in batches, but digitally clean/edit/organize each batch in one sitting. picking up in the middle of where you left off in a physical stack is easy; picking up where you left off in a bunch of nebulous digital files is a fucking nightmare.
what i mean by that is, like, let’s say i have a stack of 60 sheets of paper to scan in. maybe i don’t have the time/energy/attention span to scan all 60; i start running out of steam at page 20 or something. in that case, that’s fine, set the rest of the pages aside; but if i sit down to start cleaning/editing that folder of 20 scans, i should do them ALL NOW. if i don’t think i can clean them all tonight, i’m going to wait and start tomorrow.
the reason i’m adamant about that is like, say i get through cleaning scans 1-6 out of 20, then i want to pick them up tomorrow…. frankly unless i remember to write myself a note (and i probably won’t) i’m going to forget which one i was on. it’s a pain to open a bunch of the scans trying to remember which one i did, i lose the “flow” that you can kind of get into when doing tedious stuff like this, etc… these are all tiny problems that i know ppl can come up w a million simple solutions for but the fact of the matter is for a task that is already kind of overwhelming + tedious that i’m already dreading, ANY AND ALL sources of friction are going to make it more likely that i’m just going to keep putting it off, and then it just Won’t Get Done.
basically, discover anything that potentially throws you off or makes you lose your spot or just makes the whole thing more of a pain in the ass (i can’t remember where i saved everything, the papers are disorganized and i can’t remember what i’ve already scanned, etc) and ELIMINATE IT (throw everything into sub-folders of one big folder called “SCANS” even if it’s ugly, gather ALL the stuff u need to scan into big piles in one place even if it’s ugly and then move them elsewhere when scanned, etc). it’s tempting to want to be like “i will get all my shit perfectly color-coded studyblr organized first and THEN i’ll do my scans” but realistically that just means you’re never ever going to do it. shit does not need to be organized. shit needs to be EASY!!!!!!
now some technical stuff, which is again super personalized to what works for me but maybe it’ll give ideas!
i use a free scanning software called NAPS2 and it’s a godsend. there’s a batch scan setting where u can tell it how many pages u have to scan, then set how many seconds it waits between each scan (i.e. 10 seconds, just enough to take each finished page off and swap in the next one/flip to the next page of ur sketchbook) and then it’ll just automatically keep scanning/waiting 10 secs for the next one/scanning until the stack is done, WITHOUT having to click “scan” every time. ymmv but for me this is really nice bc my scanner is on the opposite side of the room from my computer lmao (walking back and forth to hit “scan” every time is a friction point. ELIMINATE.)
NAPS2 also makes batch-saving things really easy with placeholders! for example, let’s say i have 120 pages to scan and i want to save them to a folder. instead of having to save and name each one individually as i go (friction point. ELIMINATE.), when i’m done scanning i can batch save and name them “april 7 scan $(nnn)” and the program will automatically name each one “april 7 scan 001.png,” “april 7 scan 002.png,” etc etc all the way up to “april 7 scan 120.png.” it saves me an incredible amount of time. (you can also do placeholders for current date/year/etc if that’s useful to you, but i already tend to manually sort my files into monthly folders so the placeholder numbering is the only thing i’ve used personally.)
if you have one of those “all-in-one” home office printers that has a top-loading feeder you can use for stacks of loose pages instead of putting them directly on the scanner glass, that can also be a good way to get a high volume done without having to open and close the scanner/place each individual page on the glass/hit scan every time etc; but i would only advise that for casual scans where the quality/alignment doesn’t matter much, bc there’s a higher risk of jamming/wrinkling and sometimes a lot of the scans come out a bit crooked that way.
when you’re digitally cleaning (this is clip studio specific but i’m assuming a lot of software operates similarly): once i’ve done whatever correction/adjustment layers i need to crisp up my scans, usually a tone curve + saturation adjustment in my case, i hold off on merging the adjustments down right away!!! you can copy those adjustment layers and then paste them on top of all the other scans you have to edit. i.e. copy the tone curve layer from scan 1.png, switch tabs into scan 2.png, ctrl+v. scan 3, ctrl+v. scan 4, ctrl+v. rinse and repeat and now look, you basically only had to do the tone curve once and then you can get the rest of the batch 90% done with one keyboard shortcut each. depending on each image you’ll probably have to tweak them for them to look their best, but it’s still way faster than navigating the menus and redoing your tone curve/level adjustments/etc from scratch every time (friction point. ELIMINATE.), especially if you’re trying to fight your way through dozens of files.
uhhhh what else. well here’s just a quick flowchart of my scan process in case it helps visualize! my philosophy is for everything to be in service of the end goal (get scans organized into patreon sketchbook compilations/set aside for later refinement/ready to upload, then i’m probably never going to look at them much again); i organize just enough to make that EASY, but i don’t bother with any form of organization that i won’t need to reference later. again, more steps just = more reasons the shit is not going to get done. ELIMINATE. STREAMLINE. WIN
(there’s also a folder by year but i forgot to stick that in and also who cares. i hope this makes, like, any sense at all)
a mischievous little creature enters your dash
have fun w/ this
go play touchstarved demo. this is an Order
I recently discovered laundry stripping and y’all, no matter how much of a crock of shit you think fast fashion is, you’re underestimating.
[image ID: a screenshot of the notes on this post, featuring several people indicating they want to know more. End ID.]
OKAY SO. You know how we talk about how one way fast fashion has made itself “necessary” is that the clothing looks like shit and feels horrible after just a few washes?
Let. Me. Tell. You. Something.
Laundry stripping is a process where you load your laundry into a tub or bin (I’ve been using my bathtub) with warm water, half a cup of borax, half a cup of washing soda, and half a cup of laundry soap (not detergent, SOAP, there’s a chemical difference). Leave it there for at least eight hours. I’ve been going for 12-24.
What you will come back to is a tub full of nearly-opaque black-gray-brown water that absolutely REEKS. This is normal. You are looking at (and smelling) hard water buildup, body sweat and oils that were embedded in the fabric, dead skin, and just regular grime.
Wring out your clothes. Throw them in the washer. (I like to do a spin-only cycle before going any further, because I have one of those washers that determines by weight how much water any given load needs.) Wash as usual.
You will notice I didn’t suggest any further pretreatment, and that’s because 1) you don’t want to layer too many chemicals on top of each other but also 2) you may not even need it.
When your clothes come out, check each one as it goes into the dryer, and if anything else s still stained, set it aside to run again with a regular pretreatment. One of the sweaters I did this with apparently did need a second treatment…to deal with what appears to have possibly been a hot chocolate stain that was previously invisible due to “well, it’s old” dinginess. I was planning to throw this sweater out. It looks almost new now. I need to wash it one more time for the probably-a-hot-chocolate stain, and then it needs to have the hem weighted to block it and bring it back to evenness, but dude. I wear my clothes to rags and I thought this thing was unfixable. “I need to reshape it” is nothing.
Remove clothes from dryer when done. Fucking MARVEL at the colors and how good the fabric feels. Give them a smell. Get righteously and royally angry that you can rejuvenate this stuff so easily, with a process that does take awhile but is 90% hands-off, but we’ve been trained to believe it’s all got to be binned once a year because discoloration and gross fabric is “normal wear and tear” and can’t be fixed.
It’s utterly unreal! I just pulled a seven-year-old work undershirt out of the dryer and this thing looks NEW!! It FEELS almost new!!! One of the shirts I hung up from the last load is older than some of the people on this site and it went from “I keep this to wear on laundry day, for sentimental reasons” to “I could actually wear this out of the house, it looks old but respectable”! The pajama bottoms I’m wearing were from Goodwill and they have BRIGHT YELLOW in them! I thought it was goldenrod!!
I do not know how often you’re supposed to do this (doing it every time can strip the dye out of your clothes, not to mention it’s way too much work to do every time), but once or twice per season seems respectable. I don’t wear white, so I can’t test the “it will make whites look almost-new as well” claim, but I’ve seen a lot of people on the cleaning subreddit attest that it works.
Just remember: WASHING soda. Not baking soda. I tried baking soda and a little bit happened, but not a lot.
Go forth. Rejuvenate your clothing. Strip your laundry.
I have a question about the "set it aside to run again with a regular pretreatment" bit: What is your regular pretreatment?
For grease: Dawn dish soap and a toothbrush.
For blood: soak in peroxide, rinse, apply more peroxide.
For ink: alcohol. Rubbing alcohol is best, vodka is an acceptable substitute. Do not use colored liquor like tequila or whiskey. Aerosol hairspray will work in a pinch.
For red wine or grape juice: white wine.
For "what the fuck is that, anyway?" stains: OxyClean Max Force Gel Stick.
For "oh shit, there was a red shirt in with my whites" stains: I'm very sorry. Try bleach?
Spot-apply all of these. In other words don't just toss your period panties into a sink full of peroxide, pour some peroxide over the crotch. Apply alcohol with a cotton facial pad or, failing that, a washcloth or kleenex.
Let it sit for five to fifteen minutes, then throw it in the wash. Try to use cold water; hot water will set stains.
what about with jeans in this? should I do a separate soak for them? I wear a mix of white, light, and dark clothes so I figure I'd have to still separate lights and darks, but I know denim is full of dye, and obviously I don't wash them super often. I just don't want to have to do this three separate times to do all my clothes.
joking about adults who rely on their parents (you know, the classic "grown men who live in their mom's basement" joke) does harm disabled people, by the way. it doesn't matter if you don't think you're targeting us. you are.
i'm getting my own living space for the first time ever in two weeks. it's in my mom's basement in a new house. i'm physically and psychologically disabled, i have multiple severe mental health conditions, multiple physical disorders, i use a powerchair, i have to spend most of my time in bed, etc... of course its in my mom's basement. i'm lucky to have a mom who cares for my support needs.
you know why i cant live fully on my own? sometimes im in so much pain or so sick i cant get out of bed for days, and if i was alone, i'd starve. i can't go outside much, and on top of my mental health issues, living in total isolation would destroy me. i can't manage appointments or finances or any of that on my own. i wasn't able to finish high school due to my physical and mental issues. i can't get a job, it takes all of my energy to do so much as take care of my hygiene, and i'm terrified of people. living on my own is dangerous for me.
this is a dream come true. we're getting a house where i can try to be independent, but if i can't, i'm safe.
and yet, i have to fear all of the implications that will have for my social life, if i'm ever able to get one. i'll have to tell people to go around back to get into my house, and when they ask why, i'll have to tell them i'm in my mom's basement. and it doesn't help that people frequently see my autistic traits and deem me a creep - great, im a creep in my moms basement, this is going to do wonders. and i'm sure all of my other mental issues will make that even better. /s
like, i dont care if youre joking about the neurotypical able-bodied people who "leech" off of their parents - first off, if you really were, i don't know where the creepy part of the joke comes in, and secondly... people have their reasons. i dont know of many people who willingly decide to keep living with their parents in a basement if they had the ability to go to their own apartment. it is not a moral failing to struggle with independence as an adult. stop acting like it is
artfights! lichete (left) belongs to liche & vide (right) belongs to easilydazed