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IT"S FINALLY DONE!!!!!!!!!!! Check out my animation of the title song from Nerdy Prudes Must Die, a horror musical from @teamstarkid You can watch the FULL stage show on their youtube channel!

https://youtu.be/PG3RDdyD_GQ?si=Rhxg6asT0MMoTTXd This clip features Jon Matteson as Richie, Will Branner as Max! The story and script is by Nick and Matt Lang, with music and lyrics by Jeff Blim!

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Mickey 17 + baby creepers

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“The best yuri is written out of spite.” -my friend Ashley, when I told her the reasons for writing this short were out of spite for Geoffrey Chaucer encouraging people to not believe in elves and my love of lesbians

Anyway it finally got done, some Elf Yuri TM for @jsketch12 ! Juno if you disagree with any of these descriptions or characterizations please do not hesitate to correct me

Anyway enjoy lol

With the holiday rush finally over, most of Santa Claus’ elves were out on the town, treating themselves to a nice break. Some were catching up on lost sleep. Some were using the leftover materials from their toy grind to make some personal knick-knacks. Sally, however, was heading to Scandinavia, specifically to the land of the Sylvanian Álfar, to visit her girlfriend. Despite the two groups partaking in trade and being on good terms, as far as Sally knew, she was the only one of the Arctic Elves to ever date one of the Álfar, since they were notoriously hard to please (as most elves who lived south of the Pole were). Sally still didn’t know how she’d managed to get on the good side of probably their most wonderful member, in all senses of the word: Lady Avylana, one of the keepers of the forests of Midgard.

Sally found Avy watering a small sapling in one of the sacred groves. She stuck out like a polar bear in a reindeer pen with her long, white dress against the brown and green forest. Knowing better than to trespass too far on holy ground without permission, Sally leaned on a tree nearby. “Hey, beautiful,” she said, not even trying to hide her smile.

Avylana looked over at her and smiled back. “Sally,” she chuckled, standing up straight.

“How’s it goin’ out here, m’lady? Need some help?”

The pair couldn’t have looked more different. Sally was pretty tall for an Arctic Elf, but she was still barely taller than Santa’s kitchen counter. She was full of spunk and sass, with brown hair that refused to lay flat on her head unless it was kept under a hat for at least three hours. Avylana was twice her height and then some, and regal and collected as they came. Her strawberry blonde hair was about as long as Sally was tall, always kept perfectly brushed. Yet despite those differences, they both took their jobs very seriously. Sally spent most of her year working tirelessly to build and wrap toys for children all over the world, and Avylana worked to keep the forests of her homeland healthy and alive. Sometimes, that meant helping each other with their tasks.

Avylana frowned a little, the glow in her silver eyes dimming a bit in her concern. “Haven’t you just gotten a break from your toy-making duties now that the holidays are over?” she asked.

Sally shrugged. “I like to keep busy, and I’m a capable gal. Besides, I wanna make sure we get all the time we need to chat, and that means getting you off work. You got a spare watering can or somethin’?”

Avylana had learned by now not to argue with Sally once she'd made up her mind on something, or at least that was what Sally thought. “I suppose there’s no harm in allowing you to lend a bit of aid.” She looked around. Her gaze settled on a few saplings in pots. “Would you like to help me re-plant these?”

“Sure thing. Can I, uh, come in?”

“After you remove your shoes, of course.”

Sally took off her shoes and trotted over to where Avy was. The saplings were about half her height, small enough for someone like Avy, but a hassle for herself. Nevertheless, Sally was used to having to lift things as tall as she was. She buried her hands in the pot, getting her arms deep enough in the dirt to where she felt some soil fall into her shirt collar, and lifted with all her strength. Up came the sapling. It wasn't heavy, just cumbersome. “Goodness,” said Avy from behind her. “Perhaps you should not-”

“Nah, I’m ok, babe,” said Sally. “Where do you want this?”

“Are you sure you can carry that safely?” The concern in Avy’s voice was tangible.

“I’m fine. I’m used to this. Where should I put it?”

Avy directed Sally to a hole she had dug prior. Sally lowered the tree down roughly, trying not to drop it, and plonked it into the hole. The whole front of her sweater was covered in dirt. Sally couldn’t help but see Avy bite her lip a little at seeing the mess the tree had made. “Oh, dear…”

“You’re actin’ like I don’t have a washing machine at home, babe,” said Sally, scoping out another hole that Avy had dug and marching toward another pot. “All in a day’s work! At least it ain’t paint. I’ve ruined plenty of sweaters to paint accidents. There was this one time-” She paused to heave the tree out of its pot. “-this one time that Pepper had the gall to try luggin’ a full paint bucket across the second floor walkways. Girly tripped and the whole bucket went top-down onto the floor below. Elliot, Devin, and I were right there. Bright orange paint, too! Poor Devin got the brunt of it, but I had paint in my hair for weeks afterward.”

“My goodness,” said Avy, sounding deeply concerned. “You weren't harmed, were you?”

“Nah, we were all fine, but Mr. Scott was livid. Pep was ordered to clean up the whole thing herself, which I personally think was a little unjust, since it wasn’t her fault. She bought us all hot chocolate afterwards as compensation for dunkin’ us. We paid her back in secret.”

Sally lowered the sapling into the hole. “I’m just glad you’re alright,” said Avy, coming over and helping her bury it. “Promise me you’ll never stand under a paint bucket again, though. Alright, love?”

“Promise,” said Sally, blushing a little at being called “love” and at being so close to Avy after so long of not seeing her.

Avy nodded in acknowledgement. “Bright orange, hm? I'm unsure how good you would look in that color. I'd say green matches your eyes a lot better.”

“Yeah, I think you're right,” said Sally. Having Avy so close to her after so long was making her a little flustered. “Hey, uh… mind if I gave you a lil kiss?”

Avy smiled at her, then gave her a peck on the cheek. Sally blushed even more. “It’s good to see you again after so long,” said Avy, brushing some of Sally’s hair behind her ear, then booping her nose gently. “Promise me you’ll tell me everything after we get done here.”

“Heh… yeah. Of course, babe,” said Sally, and promptly followed it up with a kiss of her own. After a long few weeks of toiling away almost nonstop, being alone in the woods with her partner was just the rest she needed.

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Kneecap stew

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isn't this part of a Indian Jones spoof and he shooting at nazis?

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im honestly shocked it took this long for nmkart to get review bombed lmao

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A vicious fluid is probably chlorine tri-florid

please stop writing "viscous" when you mean "vicious", it produces the weirdest mental images ever

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how can people still support her music after she did this

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Have you seen this post?

You probably have. It currently has over 120,000 notes, largely because of this addition.

Of course it's going to get reblogged, this kind of unsourced factoid does numbers on here. But something about it wasn't quite right.

A bit of searching turned up the origin of the "fact".

Alright, so it's someone who posted this on reddit 4 years ago and somehow ended up in the search hits. And the post confuses the electric eel (from South America) with the electric catfish (from the Nile, which the Egyptians would have known about).

Reminder: this is an electric eel (Electrophorus electricus). It is from South America. (image from Wikipedia)

And this is an electric catfish (Malapterurus electricus). It is from the Nile and would have been familiar to the ancient Egyptians. (image from Wikipedia)

And then of course people were speculating in the notes to that post about trade routes between South America and Egypt. Excellent scholarship everyone.

At this point I was ready to call it another made-up internet fact that gets reified by people repeating it. But something was still bothering me.

An ancient Egyptian slab from 3100 BC. What could that be...

Oh.

The Narmer palette. It's the goddamn Narmer palette. (image, once again, from Wikipedia)

So where is this "angry catfish"?

It's not the Egyptian name for the electric catfish.

It's... Narmer. It's Narmer himself.

Narmer's name is written as above (detail of top middle of the palette), using the catfish (n`r) and the chisel (mr), giving N'r-mr. The chisel is associated with pain, so this reads as "painful catfish", "striking catfish", or, yes, "angry catfish" or other similar variants, although some authors have suggested that it means "Beloved of [the catfish god] Nar".

So.

Where does this leave us?

It would appear that this redditor not only confused electric eels with electric catfish, but also confused a Pharaoh's name with the name of a fish. And then it got pushed to the top search hits by a crappy search engine and shared uncritically on tumblr.

In short, "the electric eel is called angry catfish" factoid actually literacy error. Angry Catfish, who ruled upper Egypt and smote his enemies, is an outlier adn should not have been counted.

Also the Arabic name for the electric catfish is raad (thunder) or raada (thunderer).

References

Afsaruddin, A., & Zahniser, A. H. M. (1997). Humanism, culture, and language in the Near East: studies in honor of Georg Krotkoff. Eisenbrauns.

Clayton, P. A. (2001). Chronicle of the Pharaohs. Thames & Hudson.

Godron, G. (1949). A propos du nom royal. Annales du Service des antiquités de l'Egypte, 49, 217-221.

Sperveslage, G., & Heagy, T. C. (2023). A tail's tale: Narmer, the catfish, and bovine symbolism. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 109(1), 3-319.

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really streatching the defintion of a swamp there

Swamp

Artist: Sam Burley TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

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an incomplete taxonomy of christmas music

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I don't know who this is but this is an A grade bit

junna if she stopped fucking around

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You've mentioned that when your boiler tickets expire you need new boilers. How does that work? Can the whole boiler be removed from the frames?

"We don't necessarily need to have them replaced, but the boiler and firebox needs to be revised to renew the certificate. The last boiler shop in Norway closed down in the 80's, so bigger repairs and revisions of steam locomotives can no longer be done in Norway. Then the boiler, firebox or the entire engine itself needs to be shipped to another country where they still do these jobs. Minor boiler revisions, like Setskogen's in 2023, can still be done at our workshop in Sørumsand. Basically they go through the entire boiler, looking it over, pressure testing it and such. If a locomotive needs to go to another country, they load it onto a truck and drive it there. Like UHB No.2 Urskog who is currently in Czechia for her revision. Or SB No.5 "Markus" who is in England right now. Also SB No.6 "Lukas" is having his boiler revised, but instead of shipping him entirely to England, they picked him apart and only sent his boiler and firebox. I've attached some photos taken by the author who witnessed the entire process of dismantling him."

This is "Lukas" in June 2024, running passenger trains.

In late August 2024, the process of taking him apart started:

First, they needed to remove the funnel, dome cover and the cab. The crane is a useful tool for that!

Once the boiler was removed from the frame, they put the cab back. Now this is all that is left of him, standing in SB's workshop. It's hard to imagine that only 11 days before this photo was taken, he was moving under his own steam, pulling passenger trains!

The boiler and firebox loaded and secured on a flatbed, ready to be shipped to England for revision.

"Lukas" is expected to be back in service in 2026 or 2027. We look forward to seeing him back in action!

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Dating Odyssey

im pregnant and its nobodys. it aint even mine

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I slowed down Rock Lobster because I suspected the results would be special and if you can't listen to audio right now I've drawn a visual representation for you:

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The Ghost Buckeye (Junonia prosopon), descended from a species driven to extinction by urbanization and habitat loss, has evolved specifically to ward off humans. When intimidated, they display the uncanny face-like patterns on their wings. The image it creates has inspired many legends about unearthly distorted creatures, and has consecrated entire areas of forest as haunted.

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Yes I made the youtube bait style thumbnail and title, frankly I think both are really fun?? But mine are almost 100% honest!! This space dragon is canonically 976,973,871 meters long. Close enough!! I cannot stress how adorable the writing is in this book. It almost feels like a little kid had to have come up with some of the ideas because they're so excessive.

It also presents a truly fascinating universe in which MOST inhabited planets are currently in a nearly barren or post-apocalyptic state brought about by one nightmarishly deadly lifeform and there are several simultaneous ongoing threats to the entire existence of the universe. So it's a little SCP Foundation and a little Pokemon Pokedex, but it's decades older than both!

I'm going to read the rest of the book sometime this week, or Sunday! But I might also squeeze in another different twitch stream before or after!