Sapphire-53 - Stars And Art

tag yourself student edition

who cares: reads books in class instead of listening, attention span of 5 seconds when studying, generally starts studying in the day before, lost all their new fancy pens by week 2, still somehow gets A*, sometimes starts arguing with the teacher

i can and i will: motivated af, watches legally blonde 24/7, big dreams and aspirations, bullet journal is goals, sometimes very forgetful but makes up for it through very hard work, wants to figure out everything by themselves before asking for help

hello my name is stressed: signed up for 10000 extracurriculars and can’t get out of them now, time management god, hates the glorification of all-nighters but stays up until 6 am anyway, has the highest expectations regarding themselves, needs a hug

aesthetics TM: desperately wants their notes to look perfect, spends all their money on stationery, loves to doodle, PUNS, is great in one specific class, always tries to help their friends with homework, study playlists!!!, can still easily feel overwhelmed and lost but they try and that’s enough

what: has lost their motivation somewhere along the way, has no idea what’s going on, “there was homework”, messy notes and messy life, really wants school to end, hates the education system, has no idea what they want to do after school tho

Be very aware of how you feel. If a movie doesn’t make you feel good, don’t continue watching it. If someone’s blog used to make you feel good but doesn’t anymore, don’t continue looking at it. Keep redirecting your focus to what feels good. It’s important.

Wanted to try out some new makers and wanted to draw my favorite character, didn't turn out too bad. Could be better.

study moods

sleepy dawn

open windows

listening to lo-fi

wearing pyjamas

planning your day, creating to-do lists

the sky is pretty

spring breeze

coming back after a walk

drinking a glass of water

getting a head-start on the assignment

the great feeling of productivity, ah

cozy evening

sitting on your bed

rewarding yourself afterwards with a bath or chocolate

highlighting with your favourite markers

warm tea or cocoa next to you

night vision

it’s way too late, but you gotta finish that essay

rock music all the way

everything is a mess

you’re gonna be okay though

cinnamon afternoon

drinking coffee

doing some math exercises

listening to a chill/coffeehouse playlist

scrolling through tumblr in your little breaks

So You Need To Buy A Computer But You Don't Know What Specs Are Good These Days

Hi.

This is literally my job.

Lots of people are buying computers for school right now or are replacing computers as their five-year-old college laptop craps out so here's the standard specs you should be looking for in a (windows) computer purchase in August 2023.

PROCESSOR

Intel i5 (no older than 10th Gen)

Ryzen 7

You can get away with a Ryzen 5 but an intel i3 should be an absolute last resort. You want at least an intel i5 or a Ryzen 7 processor. The current generation of intel processors is 13, but anything 10 or newer is perfectly fine. DO NOT get a higher performance line with an older generation; a 13th gen i5 is better than an 8th gen i7. (Unfortunately I don't know enough about ryzens to tell you which generation is the earliest you should get, but staying within 3 generations is a good rule of thumb)

RAM

8GB absolute minimum

If you don't have at least 8GB RAM on a modern computer it's going to be very, very slow. Ideally you want a computer with at least 16GB, and it's a good idea to get a computer that will let you add or swap RAM down the line (nearly all desktops will let you do this, for laptops you need to check the specs for Memory and see how many slots there are and how many slots are available; laptops with soldered RAM cannot have the memory upgraded - this is common in very slim laptops)

STORAGE

256GB SSD

Computers mostly come with SSDs these days; SSDs are faster than HDDs but typically have lower storage for the same price. That being said: SSDs are coming down in price and if you're installing your own drive you can easily upgrade the size for a low cost. Unfortunately that doesn't do anything for you for the initial purchase.

A lot of cheaper laptops will have a 128GB SSD and, because a lot of stuff is stored in the cloud these days, that can be functional. I still recommend getting a bit more storage than that because it's nice if you can store your music and documents and photos on your device instead of on the cloud. You want to be able to access your files even if you don't have internet access.

But don't get a computer with a big HDD instead of getting a computer with a small SSD. The difference in speed is noticeable.

SCREEN (laptop specific)

Personally I find that touchscreens have a negative impact on battery life and are easier to fuck up than standard screens. They are also harder to replace if they get broken. I do not recommend getting a touch screen unless you absolutely have to.

A lot of college students especially tend to look for the biggest laptop screen possible; don't do that. It's a pain in the ass to carry a 17" laptop around campus and with the way that everything is so thin these days it's easier to damage a 17" screen than a 14" screen.

On the other end of that: laptops with 13" screens tend to be very slim devices that are glued shut and impossible to work on or upgrade.

Your best bet (for both functionality and price) is either a 14" or a 15.6" screen. If you absolutely positively need to have a 10-key keyboard on your laptop, get the 15.6". If you need something portable more than you need 10-key, get a 14"

FORM FACTOR (desktop specific)

If you purchase an all-in-one desktop computer I will begin manifesting in your house physically. All-in-ones take away every advantage desktops have in terms of upgradeability and maintenance; they are expensive and difficult to repair and usually not worth the cost of disassembling to upgrade.

There are about four standard sizes of desktop PC: All-in-One (the size of a monitor with no other footprint), Tower (Big! probably at least two feet long in two directions), Small Form Factor Tower (Very moderate - about the size of a large shoebox), and Mini/Micro/Tiny (Small! about the size of a small hardcover book).

If you are concerned about space you are much better off getting a MicroPC and a bracket to put it on your monitor than you are getting an all-in-one. This will be about a million percent easier to work on than an all-in-one and this way if your monitor dies your computer is still functional.

Small form factor towers and towers are the easiest to work on and upgrade; if you need a burly graphics card you need to get a full size tower, but for everything else a small form factor tower will be fine. Most of our business sales are SFF towers and MicroPCs, the only time we get something larger is if we have to put a $700 graphics card in it. SFF towers will accept small graphics cards and can handle upgrades to the power supply; MicroPCs can only have the RAM and SSD upgraded and don't have room for any other components or their own internal power supply.

WARRANTY

Most desktops come with either a 1 or 3 year warranty; either of these is fine and if you want to upgrade a 1 year to a 3 year that is also fine. I've generally found that if something is going to do a warranty failure on desktop it's going to do it the first year, so you don't get a hell of a lot of added mileage out of an extended warranty but it doesn't hurt and sometimes pays off to do a 3-year.

Laptops are a different story. Laptops mostly come with a 1-year warranty and what I recommend everyone does for every laptop that will allow it is to upgrade that to the longest warranty you can get with added drop/damage protection. The most common question our customers have about laptops is if we can replace a screen and the answer is usually "yes, but it's going to be expensive." If you're purchasing a low-end laptop, the parts and labor for replacing a screen can easily cost more than half the price of a new laptop. HOWEVER, the way that most screens get broken is by getting dropped. So if you have a warranty with drop protection, you just send that sucker back to the factory and they fix it for you.

So, if it is at all possible, check if the manufacturer of a laptop you're looking at has a warranty option with drop protection. Then, within 30 days (though ideally on the first day you get it) of owning your laptop, go to the manufacturer site, register your serial number, and upgrade the warranty. If you can't afford a 3-year upgrade at once set a reminder for yourself to annually renew. But get that drop protection, especially if you are a college student or if you've got kids.

And never, ever put pens or pencils on your laptop keyboard. I've seen people ruin thousand dollar, brand-new laptops that they can't afford to fix because they closed the screen on a ten cent pencil. Keep liquids away from them too.

LIFESPAN

There's a reasonable chance that any computer you buy today will still be able to turn on and run a program or two in ten years. That does not mean that it is "functional."

At my office we estimate that the functional lifespan of desktops is 5-7 years and the functional lifespan of laptops is 3-5 years. Laptops get more wear and tear than desktops and desktops are easier to upgrade to keep them running. At 5 years for desktops and 3 years for laptops you should look at upgrading the RAM in the device and possibly consider replacing the SSD with a new (possibly larger) model, because SSDs and HDDs don't last forever.

COST

This means that you should think of your computers as an annual investment rather than as a one-time purchase. It is more worthwhile to pay $700 for a laptop that will work well for five years than it is to pay $300 for a laptop that will be outdated and slow in one year (which is what will happen if you get an 8th gen i3 with 8GB RAM). If you are going to get a $300 laptop try to get specs as close as possible to the minimums I've laid out here.

If you have to compromise on these specs, the one that is least fixable is the processor. If you get a laptop with an i3 processor you aren't going to be able to upgrade it even if you can add more RAM or a bigger SSD. If you have to get lower specs in order to afford the device put your money into the processor and make sure that the computer has available slots for upgrade and that neither the RAM nor the SSD is soldered to the motherboard. (one easy way to check this is to search "[computer model] RAM upgrade" on youtube and see if anyone has made a video showing what the inside of the laptop looks like and how much effort it takes to replace parts)

Computers are expensive right now. This is frustrating, because historically consumer computer prices have been on a downward trend but since 2020 that trend has been all over the place. Desktop computers are quite expensive at the moment (August 2023) and decent laptops are extremely variably priced.

If you are looking for a decent, upgradeable laptop that will last you a few years, here are a couple of options that you can purchase in August 2023 that have good prices for their specs:

14" Lenovo - $670 - 11th-gen i5, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD

15.6" HP - $540 - 11th-gen i5, 16GB RAM, and 256GB SSD

14" Dell - $710 - 12th-gen i5, 16GB RAM, and 256GB SSD

If you are looking for a decent, affordable desktop that will last you a few years, here are a couple of options that you can purchase in August 2023 that have good prices for their specs:

SFF HP - $620 - 10th-gen i5, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD

SFF Lenovo - $560 - Ryzen 7 5000 series, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD

Dell Tower - $800 - 10th-gen i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD

If I were going to buy any of these I'd probably get the HP laptop or the Dell Tower. The HP Laptop is actually a really good price for what it is.

Anyway happy computering.

Whats you favorite fairy tale? (Essay)

My favorite fairy tale or the fairy tale that means the most to me is the Three Followers. The story of of one master and three followers who were the best of friends, until ambition, envy, loneliness, and duty took hold of the friendship they had and destroyed it. Destroying themselves in the process. This story is supposed to teach children that although these feeling do not have to be evil if you let them take a hold of you and emotions get the best of you, whatever you were trying to achieve will be beyond you reach. Something we should have thought of when the arguments began. Thought I will not go into details, this happened to my friends and I. These emotions turned our friendship that we once thought as hard as steel into tatters and shreds. We fought and blamed one another because of a desicion that was not in our control. In the end all that has left was anger, guilt, and memories of a happier time. A lot of time has passed since then, and for all that my friends did to me from verbally and physically, to the scars they gave me both literally and emotionally, I can say I have forgiven them for it. Some might think me a fool for it but if I were to stay with the anger and guilt they would have taken over me until nothing was left. I didn't want that. "The past doesn't define who you are, it just a starting point for who are going to be." I wasn't going to become a person who held grudges, never forgetting what had divided us but one who always remembers the good memories that united us. I hope that one day in the long future we will meet again, though we might not be the best of friends ever again. I hope when our eyes meet and I see not hatred or anger but nostalgia and forgiveness. I hope that day will come.

THESE ARE SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!

Captain America: Civil War AU (Manip)

Let’s be honest, if Peggy were around, Civil War would never have happened.

Process of my latest drawing from very quick sketch to shading and line work. I am trying to get back into art after a long break and drawing my fav character is helping. Critics are welcomed since since this was a really hard pose and lighting even with reference.

SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE + Art of the Movie excerpts ↳ for @tulipfarm ♡ happy (belated) birthday char!!