Super General Advice (the thread for advice without making a thread)

It's about as safe as craiglist these days, I have to say. Also depending where you live (since I only use it within pickup distance) bike or car sales listed tend to be stolen vehicles being resold on the sly

 

I've also found a lot of people are very much willing to haggle as well!

 

thank you! none of the things I’m looking at are in pickup distance, so I guess I’ll have to rely on that shipping guarantee if I decide to get something.

 

does anyone have on-hand some artist references/tutorials for drawing fat bodies? esp. with a guide on where fat is generally distributed across the body?

 

∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿
this is just a sort of loose guide i made myself because it's super fucking hard to find resources on how to draw fat people, so it's definitely not perfect but i DO draw a ton of fat people and i Am a fat person myself so that's where my experience comes from! let me know if i can clear up anything, i know it's not the most elaborate but i hope it helps :D

Spoiler: long

so the yellow areas are generally where you're going to see fat distribution, it's broadly similar but there are some differences in fat distribution on afab vs amab people. i find belly fat rests a little lower on the hips in afab people, a little higher up in amab people

and then here's an illustration of the same thing. fat in the limbs IME tends to mostly hang out in the upper arms and the thighs, although there is fat in the lower arms and legs as well, it's just not quite as prominent ime. there's not a lot of fat in the wrists or ankles, which is why some fat people look to have proportionally very small hands and feet. you'll also see cellulite on the thighs and butt

and here's a side-by-side illustrating the effect of gravity on fat. fat is very soft and doesn't behave like muscle; it hangs down and folds over itself. so you'll see things like "moobs" or "love handles" or whatnot. i find usually there's a crease where the bellybutton is. here's some more recent stuff i did with fat characters!

Spoiler: there is a Boob

and then there's another picture showing how fat sits on the jawline/chin area

i apologize if this isn't what ur looking for...it is so fucking hard to find decent reference for fat people :'D again i'm definitely not an expert and there are definitely people who draw fat better than i do, so feel free to disregard this if it's not helpful!

 

has anyone got advice on how to avoid getting scammed when buying stuff online? I'm trying to buy a switch, there is a guy in the next state over on letgo who is selling one plus a couple games for a reasonable price and is willing to ship it, but that site doesn't have any shipping guarantee. is there, idk, a paypal feature for this kind of thing? should I just try to meet up in person? would it be reasonable to ask him to list it on offerup, which does have shipping protection??

this is why I don't usually buy stuff online like this, I am far too anxious -_-

 

yeah I just did some looking and it looks like a paypal invoice is probably the way to go. I didn't think that was something you could use for buying used stuff online but I guess it is!

 

My manager had to put her dog down a few days ago, sadly. I'm getting her a sympathy card and on a whim I picked up a clay-but-made-to-look-like-stone lawn... ornament? decoration I guess? from a plant nursery that says 'in memory of a treasured friend' with a dog paw print on it, since I know she works in her yard a lot. Now I'm second guessing myself, though, is that an inappropriate thing to gift someone? could return it pretty easily :X

 

If someone did that for me, I’d be crying real tears of gratitude occasionally for years.

 

Does anyone have tips for wearing a mask long-term without getting ear pain? the loops around my ears pull on them and over time it gets really painful.

 

I’m not sure if this is helpful, but if I’m wearing something that’s gonna be bothering my ears for a long time, I try to get my hair between the thing and my skin if possible. It doesn’t fix the problem but it tends to give me more time before it really becomes a problem.

 

I've seen stuff like this where you make a thing that holds the loops instead of your ears:
https://madewithatwist.com/sore-ear-saver-2/
(Disclaimer that I haven't used any, nor made any; and this was just the first pattern that came up googling, but the idea at least seems sound)

 

Do you knit/crochet/craft at all? There's a little thing called an ear saver that I've seen people wearing that seems pretty straightforward to make.

 

In meatspace, I dance, and I took my stage name from a written work by someone who turned out to be a transphobic dickbag. Should I change the name or not?

 

nah

 

Your name now, liberated from the transphobe. Get your mitts all over it, smirking.

If it’s dragging down your mood, then it’s your absolute right to choose something else that doesn’t require constant mental battles for confidence. But I wouldn’t make a snap decision. Give it a bit of time, see how you feel.

 

I’m working in a place now that let’s me wear earbuds while I’m working. Which is great since music helps me focus. The problem is the wire keeps getting caught on things and getting pulled out.

Anyone know of some wireless earbuds with a decent battery life? All the ones I see say up to 2 hours on the box.

 

i have an old pair of enacfire brand ones that r still going strong, they're the best ive found for the price point but still are about $50 depending on the model
i normally charge mine every few days or so but im also not using them for long periods of time? but in my experience they do really well