Personal Digest Saturday: April 8 – April 14

Life news this week: 

• Saturday I chilled with Victor most of the day. We spent the morning hanging out and walked over to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch and did some shopping. Played with toys. I got a featured post on that app again so I was enjoying responding to people's comments on my pictures of cartoon-inspired food. I did my blogging and some doodling.
  
• Sunday I realized I'd left my toaster oven on all night after making a potato so how about that. (Nothing happened except I couldn't figure out why the kitchen was weirdly hot and the paint peeled up on my cabinet above the appliance. Glad it didn't turn into a dangerous situation.) Texted with a friend about cartoons, did some music recordings, and talked to Fred on the phone.
  
• Monday I went to work, made a cartoon post about my books and comics which got put on the front page again (so, again, more fun conversations with people!) and had to edit a letter at work. Mom came over and took me out to eat with her roommate David. We also went grocery shopping and then just chatted with friends online.
  
• Tuesday I had a low-key day at work, and after I got home I had the apartment manager come over to listen to the upstairs neighbors. She didn't hear anything worth harassing them about. Surprise. Then I found out I won the site-wide art contest on the Steven Universe Amino app. Wow! Well, that makes . . . one time . . . that I've ever won an art contest. . . . (Wait, didn't I win a poster contest as a kid or something? And another one in middle school? Yeah. Well that's it.) People really like me a LOT there! I got some boring adulting stuff done, like processing a return, filing a warranty, and reorganizing my accordion file of personal paperwork.
  
• Wednesday I got a bunch of stuff done at work that I'd had on the back burner for a while. My company also got shortlisted on a project so YAY. On my way to meet with Jeaux a persistent dude kept hitting on me in a way that would have been sort of funny if it wasn't so awful. He asked me what brings me here . . . at the bus stop . . . (what do you think, dude?), asked me if I live "with a roommate," asked a really awkward question to find out if I was still in high school, asked me if I was doing anything later, asked for what I like to do and when I said read (and attempted to do so) he interjected that he never reads anything, read my shirt and stared at my boobs for a very long time after he was done reading it, asked me what my phone case was from and when I said it was from a cartoon he asked "you don't DRAW cartoons, DO YOU?" and when I said yes, he said "let me guess, you like to draw . . . flowers. and cats." (what?), and then attempted to get my phone number by saying "here, write your number down" and handing me his bus pass. I said no and he thought I just didn't understand him so he tried again. And then even AFTER I told him I was not giving him my number, he told me he was going to "some museums" this weekend if I was interested. WTF dude how awful would I have to be to you before you'd read me as not interested? Anyway Jeaux and I ate at Holy Hog and listened to Night Vale, and I fell asleep like right after he left.
  
• Thursday I did some editing on my first Pitch Wars mentee's next manuscript, did some work on the shortlisting documents at the office, and had a conversation with a financial adviser (seems like I'll probably be good working with him in the future). At home I read liveblogs, talked to Victor, and drew some of my comic.
  
• Friday at work was a little busy and I got to work on design again. Then just some forms and paperwork and making copies. Went home and posted some pictures on Amino (sharing some of my photos of merchandise again--it got put on the front page, AGAIN), and finished up my webcomic. Didn't do much after that because it took so long. I did a few doodles in pencil before falling asleep.

New reviews of my book:

• PG gave it a 3-star review on Amazon UK.

Reading progress:

• Finished this week: I didn't finish any books. Sorry.
• Currently reading: Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay.

New singing performances:

This week's performance was "Marble Halls" by Enya.



New drawings: 

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0622: "Definitely Meant To."






New videos:

My latest unlisted ukulele video is "Vanilla Twilight" by Owl City. I kept forgetting the words while trying to play, so I just gave up and looked at the screen.



New photos:

 

Victor drinking Powerade and Sprite in Sweet Tomatoes

Victor found a cool toy in Walmart.

Victor always finds the coolest toys.

My new Pearl shirt, out and about.

I have an impressive collection of Steven Universe comics and books.

Me celebrating my Steven Universe Amino Awards win in the Art category.
(This is not the art that won the award. I guess she's just celebrating with me.)

Jeaux on his phone in Holy Hog being a nerd with his
Rubies shirt and Cookie Cat backpack.

A fascinating photo of my computer screen
as I redesigned a sign pole.

Me at work thinking about something sad
and trying not to think of the sad thing.

Social Media counts:
 
YouTube subscribers: 5,316 for swankivy (6 new), 630 for JulieSondra (4 new). Twitter followers: 855 for swankivy (2 new), 1,325 for JulieSondra (3 new). Facebook: 291 friends (no change) and 207 followers (1 new) for swankivy, 649 likes for JulieSondra (lost 1), 55 likes for Negative One (no change), 127 likes for So You Write (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,485 (1 new). Instagram followers: 110 (2 new).

Wednesday Factoid: Water Sports

Today's Wednesday Factoid is: Can you swim? Do you play any water sports?

Water sports hehehee never mind

Uhm, I can swim, yeah. That's about as far as it goes.

I don't really know how to swim properly, like I don't know how to do the backstroke or the breaststroke or whatever. But I can doggy paddle and float on my back. I have never been SCUBA diving and don't know how to do a proper dive (though I'll dive off a low board or the side of a pool). I think I've had a swimming lesson or two as a kid? But it was probably more supervised playing in a pool? I don't really like the ocean but I go in it once in a while if it's there.

I've played volleyball in a pool, but never in any organized way. (I like it, though! I actually like volleyball in general.) I've never been waterskiing or anything like that. I don't know if it counts, but I have been canoeing. I got a certification in it with my parents and my sister when I was pretty young, and continued to go on short canoe trips with friends/family as an adult (but haven't done that in years).  

Excited About

I guess it's no secret that I do a lot of stuff. People are always telling me they see me as productive and creative and prolific. I guess that's true. And here's the secret:

I dive in and start working on something pretty much as soon as I'm excited about it.

And then I bust that thing out quickly instead of dragging it out over a long period of time, all while I'm still sort of in the honeymoon phase of that idea.

Usually it works out great. Sometimes, maybe not.

Novels are famous for being multi-draft works. You have to rewrite them several times (usually), and sometimes there's even a complete overhaul or two. Some people spend weeks, months, years planning a novel, and just as long writing it. I do very little active planning. Although sometimes an idea has been percolating for a long time and I explode into writing it as soon as it finally connects to something I can grab onto.

I have really not been doing that with writing lately. That's why you see blogging, singing, ukulele playing, activism videos, drawings, photos, book reviews, and no news of writing.

It's mostly the other ideas that are jumping in and seizing me these days. I am not sure WHY, and it's unusual, though not unprecedented. I had a short story I was excited about a while back. I started writing it and I didn't like the tone or the mood of it so I stopped, figuring I'll just scrap this and start over at some point. I haven't done that. I was excited about my new YA novel with an asexual protagonist, but I haven't written anything new for her in a long time. (I think if I reread what I have, I'd be able to jump-start the next chapter, but I haven't sought it out.) And I haven't written any new novels, or started Bad Fairy 3, or done any editing/rewriting on other novels I could maybe show my agent. (She's still reviewing Bad Fairy 2.)

Now, I know for a fact that if I got a book deal for the Bad Fairy series and it included the third as-yet-unwritten volume, I'd bust it out in a flash. (I'm like that, first of all, and secondly, I've written the story before in a less expanded form, so I know what happens.) I know I could decide to write that short story and get it out in an evening, or go back to writing Ace of Arts and see it finished probably in a couple months. But I don't do that. Because right now, for whatever reason? I'm not excited about it.

I'm not sitting around bummed out that I "can't" write, and I don't have writer's block. I just have a system that has always served me well in producing things, and right now that system isn't directed at writing fiction. It's maybe a bit distressing, because a) I know how much I enjoy doing that and b) not producing anything when I have an agent ready to read it and send it to publishers is kinda silly. But to be honest, I've never messed with that formula before, with the exception of, like, school papers. I've never sat down unexcited about something and written it anyway.

My method, if I were to decide I wanted to write stuff again right now, would be to get excited about it. And that's easy--rereading old stuff, applying creative exercises, checking out other writers' stories of success to inspire me. (Mostly that first item--reconnecting with my stuff makes me want to make more of it.) But it seems like right now I've been content just not making any new writing for a while. I'm not sad about it, though maybe I'm a little weirded out thinking "I SHOULD be doing this." But I don't feel like it right now. I'm enjoying creating some of my other things, like the fan comics and blog essays and webcomics and stuff.

I figure this can't last much longer. But you never know. 

Maybe I'll see what happens this week if I reread some chapters of my in-progress novel.

Personal Digest Saturday: April 1 – April 7

Life news this week: 

• Saturday started off bad and ended up okay. I was SO MAD because I went to the apartment office to discuss a video I made of my upstairs neighbors behaving abominably, but first they were busy so I said I'd come back, and then when I came back THEY HAD CLOSED FOUR AND A HALF HOURS EARLY FOR NO APPARENT REASON, with a sign up saying they would be back Monday at 9 AM. Well. I leave before they open and return after they close during the work week, so I was ANGRY since I'd been waiting for this day to take the next step on dealing with this problem! And then they just up and close! I left an emotional message for them and they actually called me back and let me come over when a temp got there. (They had closed for an unplanned reason and put up the wrong sign about how long they'd be gone. Someone from another property had to come fill in.) So I told her my sob story and dropped off my evil video. She also said she'd call the neighbors for me.
• And anyway after that I did my online stuff and posted a picture of my cool new toys and it got put on the front page on that Amino app I've been playing with so I made more friends and got more cool comments.
• Sunday I did my taxes. I was kinda salty that I had to pay so much in taxes because I earned money as an author. (You're subject to a self-employment tax if you do that.) It was literally like a quarter of what I made on the dang book! Oh well. I celebrated being done by buying expensive comics on eBay. Then I played ukulele and did karaoke, did laundry, and talked to people on the Amino app because ANOTHER one of my Steven Universe posts got featured on their front page (at the same time as another one was still being featured). These people, um, really like me? I also was about to hit 600 followers on my cartoon blog so I drew a REALLY CUTE picture of two characters sleeping to celebrate. And I finally reported a person who stole my content and put it on YouTube because they weren't responding to my polite requests for credit.
• Monday was back to work and I incorporated more data into the Access database I was building. I also worked on resumes and business cards. My coworker Sam drove me home. I went shopping at Michael's after work and then I did some private messaging with people on Tumblr who like to talk about nerdy things with me. I didn't get to post my drawing because my follower count stayed at 599 all night.
• Tuesday my follower count had hit 600 so I posted my cute drawing before leaving for work. I was very busy all day and we had a meeting. I got a good sandwich and we had a decent meeting. I had to make some copies and update some lists. The thief on YouTube who stole content from me got their video removed and their account flagged. Nice.
• Wednesday I missed the bus so I had to take a paid ride in. (I arrived in time to see it pull away! Darn!) I worked on business cards and Access database stuff. I met up with Jeaux after work and we had food at Vallarta's, and we forgot to listen to Night Vale, darn it. After he left I sulked over my loud neighbors and went to sleep.
• Thursday I spent the day putting out small fires at work and eating donuts. A guy there brought some in and left them on MY DESK so what was I supposed to do? One of my Steven Universe theory posts got featured on that app again so more new friends. I drew comic stuff on the phone with Victor and documented more of my evil neighbors.
• Friday I had to slap together PowerPoint stuff for my coworkers. In the afternoon I bought Night Vale tickets for the live shows in July, for me and five of my friends. YES. I got good seats too! After I got home, I worked on my comic and Victor came over. We hung out and he showed me a couple episodes of the show Bob's Burgers which I don't have much of an interest in but it made me laugh a few times. I was too tired to hang out with him long. (He slept over.)

Reading progress:

• Finished this week: A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty. Five-star review.
• Currently reading: Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay.

New singing performances:

This week's performance was "Give Me One Reason" by Tracy Chapman.



New drawings: 

My pretty dang adorable doodle of Garnet and Steven sleeping.

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0621: "Two Bottles."






New videos:

My latest unlisted ukulele video is "Do It For Her" from Steven Universe. This is a duet where an old warrior teaches a young girl sword fighting and self-destructive behaviors. Fun! (Again it is designed for piano and would sound much better with piano, as do all Pearl songs. Each character has their own instrument, and hers is piano. Here's the original.)


New photos:

My new Funko Pops! came in. Six new figures to join my family.
Welcome to Lapis Lazuli, Peridot, Connie, Rose Quartz, and two different Lions.

Someone I was talking to thought there was no official merchandise of this character
so I had to show them that Funko Pint Size Heroes Jasper exists.

Someone brought donuts to the office and put them on MY DESK. What was I to do?

Green sprinkle donut, anyone?

Social Media counts:
 
YouTube subscribers: 5,310 for swankivy (4 new), 626 for JulieSondra (1 new). Twitter followers: 853 for swankivy (no change), 1,322 for JulieSondra (no change). Facebook: 291 friends (no change) and 206 followers (no change) for swankivy, 650 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 55 likes for Negative One (no change), 127 likes for So You Write (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,484 (lost 3). Instagram followers: 108 (lost 1).

Wednesday Factoid: Cooling off or warming up?

Today's Wednesday Factoid (oops, happening on Thursday because I forgot) is: Which feels better? Cooling off after being too hot or warming up after being too cold?

Everybody who knows me knows how I'll answer this one!

I don't actually get that hot when it's hot. Sometimes, yeah, it's pretty awful here in Florida during the summer, but I very rarely feel desperately hot to the point that I'm craving an ice cube bath or something. On the other hand, being too cold is something I'm way too familiar with, and warming up with a heated blanket or in front of a fireplace or by drinking a nice hot drink is the most wonderful relief there is.

I loooove being cozy and I despise being cold. Just hate it hate it hate it. (And I get cold easily, too. Even in Florida, I have to take a jacket with me in the summer because it's likely to be too cold for me inside buildings.)

 

Art Theft

I guess I'll just whine.

I made a fan comic about two Steven Universe characters a while back and every time I share it in a new place I'm pleasantly surprised by how many people love it. I'm not an experienced fan artist or really an experienced artist at all, and it's a pretty new experience for me to have people sending me over-the-top compliments about something I've done, but I'm sure the biggest draw of the comics I did was the writing. I at least have confidence in my ability to do that, but I think the drawings came out unusually good for me, too, so I'm pretty proud of it.

I even learned swanky talk bubbles just for this project!

It was incredibly well-received on Tumblr, with thousands of notes and really flattering tags, people suggesting that it made them cry and whatnot. (I'm making a cute little collage of all my favorite tag compliments. I know it's silly, but it's also hard to look at the comments on Tumblr if they're left in tags, so I saved the images and put them together.) I made new friends from people private-messaging me to tell me how much they liked it, got hundreds of new followers, all that. 

Then I joined Steven Universe Amino, and while the people there were equally enthusiastic and similarly complimentary, several of them also commented that they'd seen this comic elsewhere. A couple, tellingly, said "I've seen this around and couldn't find who made it! IT'S SO COOL THAT I FINALLY KNOW WHO DID IT!"

Yikes?

So apparently the comic has been swiped and shared in at least four or five places without credit. On the one hand, I guess I've never made something that got popular enough and appreciated enough that people wanted to rip it off, so it's kinda exciting that that many people found it worthy. But? Yeah what the hell people not even a basic credit? I know it can be a pain to ask for permission from every artist whose work you want to share (and that's one of the reasons I love Tumblr's system: reblogs that put someone's work on your blog are easily traceable to the original poster, and no one thinks you're stealing it if you reblog it). But it's not like my cartoon blog is hard to find. And it obviously had to start with at least one someone deliberately saving the images off my blog and putting them somewhere else, knowingly, without saying who made them.

So it's been on Pinterest, it's been shared around groups on Facebook, and it has been made into a slideshow on YouTube at least twice by people who didn't make any attempt to find the original artist. (One of said YouTube accounts explicitly has a statement up about how they don't credit art because "it's too hard to find the original artist," okay dude, and their subscriber base of over 32,000 people is there for content that is simply recycled and shared without permission or credit. Someone's monetized YouTube is making money off art they're using without credit.) I messaged one of them and specifically asked my blog link to be included in the info, which isn't too much to ask considering I wasn't asked permission at all and it's nice of me to even let them keep it. But I didn't get an answer, so I submitted a copyright claim. Haven't heard anything back from that yet, but maybe I will. YouTube actually usually is pretty good with copyright claims.

Sadly, I hesitated to submit said claim partly because I feared backlash from the person's followers. It's a very popular account and if you get too many strikes you can get your account deleted. I can certainly imagine the account owner or any number of their followers turning on me furiously claiming that I should not make a big deal of this or that I should in fact be grateful for the exposure. Ah, exposure. That old chestnut, frequently thrown in the face of artists who expect basic respect for their work. I'm not even asking to be paid for its use, y'all. I'm asking to have my name and credit attached to it instead of specifically, deliberately removed from my intended place of display, to the point that people in the comments were asking who the creator is and no one can say. (Dude, a reverse image search isn't hard, and very few people out there have actually made a comic about this subject, so even a text search works.) This is not, like, an extremely old Internet post, or a post from a deleted blog that's hard to dig up the source on, or an image originally shared online for the first time by someone who doesn't know where it came from. It's easy to find me. They simply choose not to.

It makes me angry.

I've seen a few places where sites are offering PDF downloads of my book for free. Most of them are places that are questionable and potentially infested with viruses, and I don't know how accurate the downloads are. I don't bother with them. People are going to try to get stuff for free, and many of them do it partly because they cannot or would not have purchased the book anyway--I feel that very few book download pirates would suddenly become customers if they were forced to choose between getting it illegally for free and not having it at all. I'm not saying it's okay to not pay an author and their publisher for a product you want--yes, it's still stealing. But I think at least in that case, my name is still attached to it and the publisher's name is still on it. It isn't some orphaned piece of content that no one can trace. If someone steals a copy, they can still quote me, or recommend me to another person who might pay for the content, or list it on resources properly.

But when someone separates content from its creator, whether through carelessness or deliberately (as they do when people like this go as far as to actually erase artists' signatures), it's basically treating content people worked very hard on as if it belongs to everyone freely, to put anywhere, to do anything with. I heard my comic was put on YouTube with voice actors doing dubbed voices for the characters, reading my dialogue! I haven't found that anywhere, so maybe the person who told me they saw it was mistaken or maybe it's taken down or maybe its title is so obscure that I can't find the content (deliberately?), but people are making transformative works or including my work in their aggregate posts and not including any connection to the person who made it. Don't people want to know the artist? So they can follow them and see more of their work, or send them a nice message like so many of these people on Tumblr and Amino and DeviantArt have been doing? 

People like this content because it makes them feel something. I'm baffled at the idea that people want to enjoy content I made but think it's either unimportant or wrong for me to expect credit for it. And why do you care if you're not being paid for it either way? you might ask. Oh, come on now. I'm seeing comments like that levied at artists who are also being told "You should work for exposure." How is it "exposure" if the vast majority of the shares are "exposing" my work but not the fact that it is mine?

And perhaps it's also a little strange to be making such claims about fan works. They are clearly derivative content and I don't own the characters or their stories, so what is the point of being possessive of works derived from them if I don't have permission from the creators to make these works?

Actually, first of all this cartoon is specifically made by people who grew up with the Internet and fan communities; they're basically half a generation younger than I am, and their celebration of fan works when they were learning to be the artists they are has informed their perspective and has led them to be highly fan-work-supportive. They say as much in interviews, all the time, and encourage people to write their stories in the universe and create their own characters too. There's no belief amongst the creators that fan works infringe on the main work, I guess unless they are making unauthorized products that they're then selling on a large scale. (Even that is a gray area sometimes.)

But even if that wasn't the opinion of the creators, it's still an original work by an artist who deserves to be credited for doing it. Making the comic doesn't make me an owner of the characters or their stories. But the hours I spent and the care I put into coming up with the story are not lessened through acknowledging that they are not original characters. My name on it just says "I made this," not "I own everything associated with this."

And it just makes me really furious that they can love my content so much that they want to put it in their own spaces, but they don't think I deserve the basic respect of being credited.

 

 

Personal Digest Saturday: March 25 – March 31

Life news this week: 

• OKAY so Saturday was driving school again! I drove around for like 17 miles and practiced some parking and didn't run over any cones. I was also pleased with my bus navigation abilities; I took the right bus there and back and didn't get lost. I worked on a video about my upstairs neighbors' stomping so I could show it to the apartment manager, but I didn't finish it before the office closed. I got Skype-interviewed by a student doing an asexuality documentary, and the interviewer liked my cartoon coffee mug--yes, I was interviewed by a Steven Universe fan (whose favorite Gem is also Garnet, by the way, wow). I talked to my sister P on the phone while redecorating for spring, and after that I did my blogging and stuff. Whee!
• Sunday I did music, watched cartoons, and played with my new Amino app. (I was kinda talked into joining it because they have a Steven Universe app and they figured I'd fit in there. I do. Except the place is very, very young.) I finished redecorating and talked to Dad and Sarah on the phone. And I ate pizza!
• Monday I did some Access training and was able to get a start on making the database I wanted. Something I posted--a collection of toy photos--got "featured" on the Amino app so I kept getting nice messages and occasional people trying to buy my toys, haha. ("What would you sell me? How much? I'll go ask my mom." Haha.) I got a chance to draw at lunch, and after work my mom picked me up and we had some rice together before going grocery shopping. Did some relaxing and fell asleep early.
• Tuesday I woke up late again so I had to do a paid ride. I wonder if this will happen to me once a week or so until I start driving myself? I started to really figure out Access, I think, and my dad picked me up from work and took me over to a parking lot so I could practice some more driving skills. I ended up driving all the way home, including on a very busy road (Dale Mabry Highway, during rush hour). We drove to a pizza place and had pizzas there, and then hung out at my house where he helped me with some stuff about how to manage savings and 401(k) stuff. After he left I bought some silly things online and read a liveblog.
• Wednesday I just barely got to the bus stop in time. I did database stuff ALL DAY LONG and then went back to my neighborhood to meet up with Jeaux. We ate Five Guys food and talked about cartoons. After he left I was so sleepy that I fell asleep very soon.
• Thursday was a long, sort of boring day filling up my Access database with, well, data. The database does what I want! I can get it to respond to queries with the information I actually wanted it to find, in a digestible and usable format! Now I just have to put a bunch of data in it so it will be useful. My boss is helping me with it, and he commented that I'm already "becoming a guru at this, too." Wow. A co-worker drove me home so I had time to stop into the apartment office and pick up a package! It was toys! I entered a contest on the Amino app, talked to Victor on the phone, and saw a leaked episode of my cartoon. Shocking. :o And I found out someone ripped off the comic I drew and put it on YouTube without credit or permission. Also shocking. And I ate a potato.
• Friday I just spent the day tooling around with the Access database. Most of the projects in it still have no descriptions and I'm basically just trying to find descriptions. I reviewed the book I finished reading on the bus, got a ride home with my co-worker again, and did webcomics. Mom came over for a little while and I ate yogurt she brought. After Mom left I posted my other webcomic too and went to bed.

New reviews of my book:

• Dawn Peterson gave it three stars on Goodreads.
• Emelie gave it three stars on Goodreads.

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• The video where my fan comic was ripped off without permission. You can see people in the comments saying it was crappy to take it and some other people trying to find out who drew it because there was no way to find out. (I have contacted the person privately, but they haven't responded yet. If they don't respond, I will probably submit a copyright ticket to YouTube.)

Reading progress:

• Finished this week: Picture Me Gone by Meg Rosoff. Four-star review.
• Currently reading: A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty.

New singing performances:

This week's performance was "Here Comes a Thought" by Rebecca Sugar.



New drawings: 

Webcomic So You Write Issue 70: "On Tour."

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0620: "Can't Imagine."






New videos:

My latest writing video is called "Just Keep Trying!" and it is about persistence. People love to advise writers who are experiencing rejection to just keep trying and don't give up, but sometimes persistence isn't the only thing you need to get to yes. You need to be willing to reevaluate your approach or your product, and this video gives five tips on doing that.

 

My latest unlisted ukulele video is "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" in the style of Tiny Tim. I promised my dad a long time ago that I would learn this song so happy birthday, Dad. ;)

 

New photos:

I'm taking a lot of boring morning coffee selfies lately.

Secret superhero under my work shirt.

Me offering proof that I'm the original artist as part of a
requirement for the art contest I entered.

Social Media counts:
 
YouTube subscribers: 5,306 for swankivy (7 new), 625 for JulieSondra (4 new). Twitter followers: 853 for swankivy (5 new), 1,322 for JulieSondra (lost 1). Facebook: 291 friends (I defriended an acquaintance for being a butt sandwich to someone else) and 206 followers (no change) for swankivy, 650 likes for JulieSondra (1 new), 55 likes for Negative One (no change), 127 likes for So You Write (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,487 (lost 3). Instagram followers: 109 (5 new).