aroguexenolith

[aroguexenolith]

you mentioned in the chat of a jello stream that you disliked how much fantasy magic crystals were shaped like Quartz. are there any specific crystal shapes you think are underutilized in fantasy?

I always like it when i see a nice beryl-or-andalusite-esque columnar crystal, or something botryoidal or acicular in a way that it makes little pom-pom shapes. And dogtooth (scalenohedral) crystals are a nice way to have that classic spiky shape without going quartz about it. But there's a whole entire world of weird and unique crystal shapes out there to base your fantasy crystals on, and I can't show off every possible shape that a crystal can come in with just one post. Pretty much every shape that a crystal can be is underutilized in comparison to the quartz shape.

the big thing that gets me about the "oops, all giant quartz clusters" method of designing fantasy crystals for your fictional world is that the shape a quartz crystal comes in, even though it's seen as like, the ubiquitous crystal shape that we think of all crystals as being, is actually very specific to quartzes!!!!

This is a figure from the mindat.org page on quartz. the top three shapes (a, b, and c) should be very familiar images to you! These are the most common shapes that crystals will be in fictional media. They're also three idealized crystal habits of QTZ - normal (prismatic), trigonal (prismatic), and pseudo-hexagonal (prismatic).

That's a lot of long words, but it all boils down to the describing geometry of a quartz crystal, and the geometry of its atomic structure.

QTZ is made of polymerized silicate, which, again, sounds fancy, but a polymer is just a long chain of many smaller molecules, and silicate is just the common term for the molecule SiO4. Silicate is a tetrahedron shaped molecule, meaning it's a pyramid with a square shaped base. A QTZ unit cell is made of a chain (a polymer) of silicate molecules linked together.

Here, we use unit cell to mean the simplest repeating building block in a larger pattern. like, say, if you build a giant lego cube out of all identical cube shaped legos, each cube shaped lego represents a unit cell of that giant cube. But QTZ unit cells aren't cube shaped. They're rhombohedrons- ie, 3d shapes where each face is a rhombus.

and if you stack a lot of rhombuses next to each other, they form a hexagon.

So when all the little unit cells of QTZ fit together, their ultimate shape is going to be hexagonal.

Quartz are not the only hexagonal mineral. Calcite famously also has a rhombus shaped unit cell. In mineralogy terms, this is called having trigonal symmetry- tri for three, as in the three rhombuses it takes to make a hexagon, or the three planes of symmetry a rhombus has.

But calcite doesn't form in in those tall prisms that terminate in pointy pyramid shapes made up of isosceles triangles or pentagons. It sometimes forms in dogtooth crystals, but dogtooth crystal faces are scalene, and they don't have that long prism body with a pyramid at the top like an endcap- they're spikes all the way to the base. Why is that? Why is quartz different from other trigonal minerals? why are its crystals weird like that?

Well, theres a lot of reasons, but one major one is that on top of being made of rhombohedrons, Quartz is ALSO made of helixes!

Thats right. Quartz has TWO fundamental patterns happening in its lattice. At the same time!

You can see by the overlayed yellow rhombohedrons in the figure above that each rhombus-y building block of QTZ fits together into a helix-shaped chain. QTZ forms in helixes because each of the basic silicate (SiO4) molecules in QTZ is sharing two of its oxygens with the other silicates its connected to. Because each block of the helix chain is made of a rhombus, when you stack those helix chains all next to each other to get a big quartz lattice, those chains make a hexagonal net. But helixes are also chiral, meaning they have a handedness to them- they can mirror each other and still be non-superimposable, like human hands.

To get the scope on why this chirality makes a difference to the structure of quartz, lets compare it to another mineral with trigonal symmetry, the aforementioned Calcite. If you could see atoms, this is what a chunk of calcite mineral would look like to you:

nice and simple, right? That's a very normal looking rhombus. everything slots together in a very straightforwardly rhombus-y way.

Now let's look at quartz.

ough.

When you combine these two features of QTZ geometry, the rhombus/trigonal symmetry and the helix shaped network of interlocking molecules, you get a pretty unique structure, which leads it to grow in very unique shapes when it gets bigger- hexagonal prisms with many interlocking chiral faces, terminating in those striking pyramid points composed of isosceles triangles.

That all sounds pretty cool right? it sounds like quartz is a really striking and unique and beautiful phenomenon of geometry, right? so why would I be annoyed? why would I be annoyed that a fantasy crystal has that unique shape? BECAUSE THAT SHAPE MEANS THE MINERAL IS QUARTZ.

Do you understand now? Out of all the possible permutations of different shapes a crystal can grow into, QUARTZ IS KIND OF THE ONLY FUCKING GUY THAT DOES THAT PARTICULAR SHAPE! nobody is out there doing it the way my guy quartz is doing it! So much so, in fact, THAT THIS IS THE ENTRY ON MINDAT FOR IDENTIFYING QUARTZ:

BY EYE.

QUARTZ IS ONE OF THE ONLY MINERALS YOU CAN ID BY EYE.

So, when you designed your mystical blue glowing crystal that has the power to harness a wizard's mana or whatever the fuck? And you picked that shape for it to be?

That means it's not enchantenite, or lunarite, or or whatever the fuck you want to call it. It's quartz. it's just quartz. your lack of creativity and unwillingness to do anything other than the most basic, recognizable shape for your fantasy crystal has all but guaranteed it. Maybe start worldbuilding what trace elements in that otherwise extremely fucking normal quartz you have there cause it to glow.

Because you picked the one shape that basically only quartz can be!

Congratulations!

enjoy your magical silicon dioxide, you piece of shit.

[aroguexenolith]

Oh Forecaster Lusk (in the Peachtree City National Weather Service office), please never change...

(From the current long-term forecast discussion here: https://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=FFC&issuedby=FFC&product=AFD&format=CI&version=1&glossary=1 )

[aroguexenolith]

Actually! If you'd like to keep in touch with me--and on my end, I do miss seeing what my mutuals have been up to--you could add me on Discord! Maybe even have a little Discord group, which I think would be nice but dunno how much interest there is.

I've become completely ignorant of internet memes, to be honest...

I'll put my username in the comments.

[aroguexenolith]

Over the course of your life, you leave a lot of identities behind. What used to define you? The first adjective you described yourself with? The feature of your life that you presented as your true face?

But in the end, how many of these identities were tied to places you no longer go? People you no longer see? A job you left, a school you graduated from, a home you moved out of?

I was my parents' child and my siblings' sister. An art kid and chorus member at a fine arts school. A geology student and a rock nerd.

As my life diverged from my perception of myself, it came with a crisis: who am I now? It's a hard question to answer.

In the end, I think you should see yourself defined not by the time and place and phase of your life that you're in, but by who you intrinsically are. Not even what hobbies you have or things that you like.

These days, I'm cheerful and silly and kind.

[aroguexenolith]

??? Tumblr premium is $70 now???? It was initially $40, what happened?

[aroguexenolith]

Ducking in to bring some bird ramblings--

It's been very cold, and I'm very happy that I can work from home instead of having to deal with ice on the road and Atlanta drivers driving with ice on the road.

The cold has been bringing so many good birds to the balcony! There's of course the cardinal pair that lives here and has patronized our business for the last two years as well as the usual house finches (though I think maybe the regular house finch pair invited over all their extended family). We've had them in past years too, but we currently have a whole flock of ten goldfinches coming to the feeders all day. The local family of bluebirds (which is somewhere between four to six birds) has been rounding out our bird primary colors and also being the best bird poofs around.

Some of our rare--but not unusal--bird visitors are chickadees, tufted titmice, and the very rare mourning dove.

But we've also had some pretty unexpected visitors! Spring migration must be starting, because I've seen yellow-rumped warblers and a pine warbler. The pine warbler seems to almost flock with the goldfinches. Both birds are yellow with black bars on their wings, but the pine warbler has a vivid yellow belly that makes it pretty easy to tell them apart.

There's been a phoebe coming around! When I first glanced out the window and saw it, I couldn't believe it at first even though I know them very well and their tail wags are really distinctive. But phoebes aren't supposed to be seed eaters who visit bird feeders! They hang around water and swoop in to get insects. What on earth was this bird doing hopping on the balcony floor picking up seeds?

Then, just this morning, I went to see what bird Peppermint was stalking through the balcony door window. It was a ruby-crowned kinglet! Despite having ruby in their name, these birds are actually very small (ping-pong ball sized?) and almost olive green-ish. But why is it here??? I'm so ecstatic to see it, but kinglets stay up in the tree canopy and don't visit feeders (though don't tell the kinglet at my mom's house that).

I'm not in a dense urban area in that there are a good number of trees around, not a ton of tall buildings, and most homes are still single homes, but this is still unquestionably an urban area. The variety of birds is really exciting to me and also distracting me from my work all day. We're up on the third floor by the tops of some trees, so maybe that makes our balcony count as "canopy."

Still holding out for more bird friends....would love to have regular chickadee, titmice, and dove visitors. Once or twice before I've seen a downy woodpecker at the balcony, but not for a long time. I'm most hoping for nuthatches to appear, as they're my favorite birds. Maybe we'll get some more interesting migrants? One year a huge flock of cedar waxwings spent a few days in the trees right outside my window, and another year I spotted black and white warblers not far away from here.

[aroguexenolith]

I really fly under the radar, but someday my increasing number of floral button up shirts is going to out me

[aroguexenolith]

I worked part-time at a houseplant store for a bit, during my stay in unemployment purgatory, and there was only one employee there who wasn't a they/them.

[aroguexenolith]

Hazel McNab

Linocut

[aroguexenolith]

Maybe when we move apartments, I can finally get things organized! (this is the devil talking)

[aroguexenolith]

Got a job, very nice. I actually negotiated my pay and it sucked and I hated it the whole time, but they didn't call my bluff about having other job opportunities I'm exploring (lol) so I ended up with a very nice increase from the initial offer. I'm amazed at how much they're actually willing to pay me. This is going to be a 60% increase from my last job, holy shit.

Just filled out the diversity/demographics/EEO survey as part of the onboarding. I'm always hesitant to actually say that I'm queer and neurodivergent, but this time I said, eh fuck it. Whoever looks at that info can be super surprised by the fact that I'm not cis, straight, and non-depressed. I think it would be funny. I look like a normie in almost every way except for my growing collection of colorful patterned button-ups.

[aroguexenolith]

Hi Tumblr! I'm still hanging on! Lots of ups and downs, reading translated webnovels, feeling like I'm getting nowhere, and trying to figure out why my cat is wailing.

Tumblr is such a time sink for me, so I'm not going to reinstall it on my phone. There's also a lot of stuff on here that, historically, has not been good for my mental health.

I have family in both Asheville and Augusta, so everything with Hurricane Helene has been...a thing. Everything's ok, my mom is probably legitimately traumatized, they just got internet back last week-ish, but no one was hurt.

I worked at a plant store for a bit and now have a truly gigantic dracaena just kinda hanging out in my room. Not sure what to do with it. Her name is Fay, after the olivine end member fayalite.

I hope you all are doing well! I see my seasonal depression poem has gotten some activity lol...ain't that just the way. Catch you all later!

[aroguexenolith]

Not sure how I didn't make this connection before, but my psychiatrist referred to my depression as a chronic illness and I'm having to take some time to digest that. I'm not going to get better or get free from despair, we're just trying to make it so I have as many good days as we can.

[aroguexenolith]

me holding a gun to a mushroom: tell me the name of god you fungal piece of shit

mushroom: can you feel your heart burning? can you feel the struggle within? the fear within me is beyond anything your soul can make. you cannot kill me in a way that matters

me cocking the gun, tears streaming down my face: I’M NOT FUCKING SCARED OF YOU

[aroguexenolith]

The lightning has been putting on a real show all night. I know that few people will watch the weather like I do, but still. I wonder if someone else in this city has been watching it with me.

[aroguexenolith]

[aroguexenolith]

The off-topic personal ramblings aside, I totally get why someone would share a recipe in a long, descriptive format.

For my own recipes that I've made a ton of times, there are little tips and commentaries that come from experience. It's way too much to fit on a recipe card. (I've tried.)

Things like, would this be a good recipe to try making gluten-free? What if you want to make these cookies but don't have a stand mixer? What if your favorite nut isn't pecans, like mine is? What should you keep in mind using a dark vs. light pan, or a metal dish vs. a glass one? (Or if you're using old Pyrex vs. new Pyrex.) Etc. etc.

I wish I had someone to pass it on to. I guess that's why some people have recipe blogs. Or kids.