• not traveling
• making a meal we enjoy even if it's not broadly considered traditional
• eating a real lunch so we don't get hangry waiting for dinner
• starting our meal on time

I'm excited for tonight's roast duck 😋

I just called

To say

I really dig all the improvements I've seen on Cohost in the very short time I've been here.

And I mean it from the bottom of my heart.

sure, there's just two things to bear in mind.

creative recognition is a matter of luck. you can spend hours crafting a post, only to find out that the time you posted "neon genesis eggbugellion" is now in a post chain 12 people deep.

if you want your stuff to do the rounds, if you want to do numbers—you gotta just keep making things and seeing what sticks, there's no real trick but persistence

the other thing to note is that popularity isn't all it's cracked up to be. turns out a lot of notifications stops being fun eventually, and sometimes a "hit post" will drown out the other things in your life

i'd advise to post what makes you happy, over catering to an audience. the mad scientists doing css crimes are likely doing just that, unleashing a horror with a cackle.

personally i've yet to do css crimes, but i've had a few posts pop off: a stupid joke (people love nostalgia) a half-assed computer post (people love learning new things) and stirring the fediverse pot (people love a bit of tongue in cheek flamebait). for me though, i don't post to get clicks, i post to talk at length about my hobbies, or i post to remember something later on, plus the occasional bad joke.

i'm not saying "just be yourself and you'll be popular" but "be yourself, you'll have more fun doing it—you never really know what's gonna resonate in advance". hobby posting might not get you all the attention but it will help you meet other nerds to bounce ideas off.

i'm also tacking on "be yourself, it's healthier both in a dopamine chasing and in a parasocial relationships way"

The Process*:

1. Imagine a rad character, become inspired
2. Collect some reference, but not enough, never enough. Use reference, but always get impatient and say "ah I'll get ref for [THING] when I get to it"
3. Launch one of the two programs. I suppose you could pay $5 for Maxon to give you a version of ZBrush they've artificially made worse, if that doesn't bother you.
4. Sort out Pureref.
5. Set up your tablet.
6. Add one mesh to the scene.
7. Stare at the mesh for 5 to 10 minutes, maybe poke it a little. Start making a head, but get the proportions wrong, pretend to examine your reference. Most importantly though, you have to decide you don't like it in under 30 minutes, no good art has ever taken longer to be realized in at least a basic form. Anyone saying stuff like "it took 5 years to paint the Sistine Chapel" or whatever is lying.
8. Put your tablet away.
9. Close the program, and save your Pureref board to a folder of abandoned reference.
10. Swear you'll get back to it later as you log into FF14 or start watching Andor again from the beginning or whatever.

*for 3D Art general but specifically sculpting in this case