Stuff I like and aspire to be

betaslovelythings:

thesadanon:

smartassjen:

katjohnadams:

anais-ninja-blog:

witchcraft-with-space-bean:

avantgaye:

m4ge:

i walk into starbucks and order a pumpkin spice latte with 13 shots of espresso. i tell the barista that i intend to transcend humanity and become a god. i ask for no whip cream

you say this jokingly but i had a customer actually order a pumpkin spice latte with 9 shots of espresso (also no whip) and when i asked her to verify that she did indeed want 9 shots of espresso she looked me dead in the eyes and said “i have 5 kids”

I once had a woman come in and ordered an Americano with 19 shots of espresso. The drink took ages. It held up the line. I asked her why, and she shrugged and said “I just don’t care”. We still talk about that woman. We never saw her again.

new cryptid: exhausted woman at starbucks

Actual conversation I had at register:

“Hi, welcome to [Starbucks]! What can I get you, today?”

“How much is it to fill a Venti with Espresso?”

“I- I’m sorry?”

“A venti cup. How much to fill it with Espresso?”

“Oh. uh. Well, it’d be I suppose… I only have a button for a Quad. I don’t have special pricing for twenty ounces of espresso in a single… drink.”

“Price is the furthest thing from my mind right now. How many ‘add shots’ is that?”

*deep breath of fear* “It’d be a quad with,” *clears throat* “uh, sixteen additional shots of espresso. But, ma’am, I should tell you that the shots will start to get really bitter if they have to sit and wait for us to pull twenty of them-”

“Taste means nothing to me.”

At this point I am truly fearing for my very existence in the presence of what must clearly be an eldritch being.

“Oh. Well, okay.” I put on my absolute best customer service smile to hide my terror and accept that I must face this dragon, fae, or demon with dignity. “We can certainly get that for you! The price will be _____.”

She begins to pay, I shit thee not, with golden dollar coins. We are a block from Wall Street, and this eldritch demi-being is paying for an unholy elixer with golden coins. My life will end soon, I am sure of it.

“Do you still have the ‘Add Energy’ packets?”

My heart began to race at this request. “Yes ma’am.”

“How many can I add?”

Futile though it is, at least I know the rote response to this. “For health reasons, we won’t add more than one per drink and we cannot sell the packets individually.”

“One then.”

I alter the order and tell her the new price. She pays, dumps the change and five golden dollars into the tip box. I write the order on the venti cup and pass it silently to the girl working the hot beverage station. Normally we called and pass, but this was … not something to be spoken aloud.

My fellow takes the cup, not thinking anything of the minor break with protocol, until she sees the order. She stares at me. “No.”

The woman, which I call her for no other greater insight into her terrifying being is within my grasp, simply stands on the other side and says, calmly but with a commanding tone I expect of Admirals in bad movies, “Yes.”

My fellow barista pales before her task. But we are dutiful, we are true to our task, great though it may be. She sets about clearing the two brand new Matrena’s of all distraction, and sets two tall cups in the ready position. The energy packet is emptied into the venti cup, and the shots begin pouring. 

The barista was damn near shaking. This woman’s gaze felt like the fires of the sun. Finally, the shots are pulled, the cup is filled, and the hand off takes place.

Our visiting Incomprehensible takes it to our milk bar and adds a dollop of cream. Satisfied, she proceeds to down what must have been half the damn cup.

Then she smiled at us, like a benediction and I was honestly filled with joy. And horror. She left, and we knew nothing more of her after that.

When I talk with other former employees, we quickly begin talking about “The Company” as if we’d never l, perhaps knowing that part of our soul still powers that awesome and terrible corporate machine. And when I share this stroy, other Baristas at first act shocked but quickly settle and comes the chorus, 

“Yeah, I had one like that.”

Okay, Starbucks lore is my new favorite genre of literature. Please collect all these and more into a book.

@peach-orange-juice

…I thought Venti Espresso Cryptid was a fever dream my manager had. Good lord.

(via mayannais)

animationforce:

Early test animation by @burnsides​

The Anastasia Re-Animate Project is still seeking more artists to join in on this fan-driven collaboration! Originally seeking to commemorate the original film’s adaptation to Broadway this late April, the project will recreate the “Once Upon a December” sequence as sung by Liz Callaway.

Press release photo from the Anastasia show previewed at the Hartford Stage in Hartford, Connecticut

Since the popularity and viral appeal of a Sailor Moon re-animate project back in 2014, re-animate projects allow fan animators and all artists alike into working on something together that they collectively love. Fan-driven collaborations demonstrate that animation is a unifying process.

Background by @evalesciasketch​

The project has already started production​ and has extended its deadline for completion in late December. For all those interested, additional details and the application form can be found here. Both animators and illustrators are welcome!

- Elvie (flightlessbutstilltrying)

(via flightlessbutstilltrying)

mayakern:

hi, y’all! i get a lot of similar, very broad questions about being an artist so i thought i’d take some of my time and make you all a master post with basically my be all end all advice/references/etc so y’all can refer to this whenever you need. hopefully i’ll also be updating this in the future!

1. there is no right or wrong way to do things. there’s only learning, figuring out what works for you, and finding ways to incorporate skills you accumulate through time and research into your working method. there are rules, some of them are great, some of them are stupid, most of them can be broken when you know what you are doing.

2. learn as many things as you can. doesn’t matter if you think it’s useless, if you’re having fun, if you like something, research it, learn as much as you can about it. the more things you know about the more interesting and varied your work will be, the more opportunities you’ll have, and the more unique you will be (and that matters whether you want a studio job or to be self employed!) sometimes you’ll learn something you really enjoy and you think it is COMPLETELY useless for what you actually want to do but then five years later you’ll be using that cool skill you had fun learning and be grateful you learned it!

3. make things for yourself. make things you like. when you enjoy what you’re making, you work harder on it and you make better stuff. people can sniff it out when you’re just trying to make something you think will be popular and more important, you’ll enjoy it less and feel bitter if you’re not doing it for you.

4. push yourself. this goes back to 2: learn as many things as you can and work hard.

5. don’t compare yourself with others. everyone comes from different backgrounds. some people learn more easily or quickly than others. you don’t know how much they work or what their history is and it’s very easy to see someone else doing something cool and think that it must come easily to them and then feel jealous. let me tell you: it is not worth it.

6. art is just as much about seeing as it is about drawing/painting/etc. you have to train both your eyes and your hand. that’s why figure drawing is so important – it challenges you to be able to see more correctly and precisely.

7. growth is not steady or constant. generally you get bursts of growth and then stretches of “stagnation” – essentially times when you haven’t figured out anything new and are just making things. this can be frustrating because during this time is usually when your taste/ability to see will grow and outpace your drawing ability. it happens to everyone, the fact that you are not happy with your work just means that your ability to see is improving!

8. for the love of god, track your art-related earnings and expenses (google sheets is free!) and learn how to do self employed taxes. they are not difficult as long as you keep updated records!

9. build a group of peers, people near your skill level (ideally also around your age), in person or online. these people will support and challenge you and help you grow!

10. if you want to learn how to do something, there are numerous tutorials for just about everything on google. it’s just a matter of learning how to refine your search terms and having the determination to stick with it. some things will be really easy to find, others less so. all the cool people online telling you to google stuff aren’t brushing you off. it’s how most of us learned things and the wealth of information available is far greater than you’d get asking some random person!

reading material for learning:

• making comics - scott mccloud
  
• figure drawing for all it’s worth - andrew loomis
  
• wally wood’s 22 panels that always work
  
• perspective for comic book artists - david chelsea
  
• color and light - james gurney
  
• framed ink - marcos mateu-mestre
  
• pricing & ethical guidelines - graphic artists guild
  
• steal like an artist - austin kleon

reading/watching material cuz you can learn a lot absorbing good stuff:

• persepolis - marjane satrapi (the movie is also great)
  
• asterios polyp - david mazzucchelli
• amphigorey - edward gorey
• the amazing world of gumball
• paprika - satoshi kon
• tekkon kinkreet - taiyo matsumoto (movie adaptation is also great)
• cucumber quest - gigi digi
  

online resources (they’re all free!):

• dear art director
  
• line of action
• croquis cafe
• muddy colors (specifically this entry)
• 10 perspective errors
• gurneyjourney
• google sketchup
• griz and norm
• frenden tool reviews
• kyle webster brushes (some of them are free!)
• paletton
• cgtextures
• lostandtaken
• adobe kuler
• gamutmaker
• fontsquirrel
• animationbackgrounds
• losttype

snapbacksteven:

Now that ‘Storm in the Room’ has come and gone, I want to remind you of a line of dialogue from a very old episode.

Steven says this about Amethyst, which turns out to be true. We still see signs of it in the Amethyst arc where she pours herself into defeating Jasper. But I think this line is true for all quartzes.

Amethyst doesn’t wanna think about herself. She hates herself. It’s a miserable thing to think about. You can see the stark contrast with the Famethyst; they all have eachother to think about, which is why they’re so happy.

Jasper doesn’t wanna think about herself. Although she is full of herself, she’d rather be a part of anyone else. First Lapis, and then corrupted quartzes, if that’s what it takes.

Steven doesn’t wanna think about himself. He doesn’t wanna think about the expectations riding on him and all the horrible things he’s done and been through. He’d rather think about everyone else and what he can do for them.

And Rose was the same way. She didn’t wanna think about herself. She was always asking everyone else about themselves. Whenever she’s asked about herself, she either evades it entirely or delays it as long as possible. She dedicated herself to – quite literally – everyone else. Both the Crystal Gems, and the entire human race.

But it backfired. The rebellion caused a war, the war caused the destruction of so many gems (and maybe even humans), caused her to bubble Bismuth and shatter Pink Diamond, and who knows how many other awful, dreadful things.

She didn’t want that anymore. But she couldn’t escape it. She couldn’t just run away from it. But she couldn’t just NOT think about it.

Everyone around her was so unique, so full of life, so free of burdens … and she wanted that.

Rose Quartz wanted to be anyone other than herself.

She didn’t make Steven to escape her mistakes. She made him because she thought so little of herself. Because she knew, anyone in the world would be a better fit as the leader of the Crystal Gems than her.

She wanted to live life as someone who would know what to do. Someone who could be strong. Someone who could make the right decisions. Someone who could create good where all she created was bad. Someone that could set out to do what she never could; to save everyone. Someone that could be everything she wasn’t.

She can’t give Steven the answers because …

Steven is the answer.

(via gonnaupanddisappear)