#THOSE ARE EXCELLENT DESIGNS

[wheres-your-paddle]

oddly specific magpod thought:

mike crew is often drawn with a lot of white and blue, usually lighter colours (because it's the colour of the sky). and oliver banks is drawn super goth — wearing all black/dark colours, maybe with skulls or something (because he's like the grim reaper).

which makes sense! not bashing anyone who does that!

but!! hear me out:

i think the aesthetics people use for oliver banks and mike crew could be switched.

mike crew's focus isn't just "sky" and "falling" — he gets his powers from thunderstorms specifically. he references a childhood fear of storms, of dark clouds, etc. his aesthetic shouldn't be "big fluffy clouds", it should be dark and ominous.

inversely, oliver banks has a very nonchalant/accepting view of the End. he's at peace with it. have you ever seen that painting of death depicted in all white? that's him — he's at peace with the inevitability of death. after all, he's the one bringing the death, he's already died. there's no need for the dark/dreary aesthetic.

[quirinah]

i forgot to post this yesterday but I watched the movie and IMMEDIATELY dropped everything to open my tablet 

[sergeantsporks]

Love how Darius is a villain coded Disney princess basically. With his wake up routine

You go to the Deamonne house in the evening and you assume Darius is some evil stepmom, or malicious billionaire. He's sitting in a big armchair, stroking his cat Eberwolf and drinking expensive wine. You come to the Deamonne house in the morning. You try to decide if he is doing a villain number with all of his minions (a la "Be Prepared") or if he's doing a princess I Want song with all of his animal companions.

[vampirerite]

using willpower to force all the fgomart leftovers onto amiami

[stuckonaglacierwithmacgyver]

At some point I want to go back and like, rewrite the big Jamsack post so it's less wanky (I wrote it like 10+ years ago) but also that would just be a special treat for me because I don't think most people are reblogging from the sauce anyway.

I stand by it though, all excellent points very objective no bias here

[catventuring]

[duck-newton]

I love you taako with a big nose I love you fat taako i love you taako with big teeth i love you masculine taako I love you taako with actual elf features i love you taako that’s a little goofy looking I love you taako that’s anything other than a thin white ultra-femme with a button nose 🫶🫶🫶

[bhaalsdeepbat]

Someone was talking about how tailoring and embroidery are two different skills, and I keep thinking about a Tav who thinks they're the same bringing a bunch of fabric and thread to Astarion hoping he can bibbity-bobbity-gay-hands magic a dress, but instead of a gorgeous gown, they end up with an abomination that would scandalize any seamstress and make any designer faint

[creatediana]

An untitled free verse poem written 3/10/2015, with metaphors I would one month later shape into this poem

[rosicheeks]

Tbh, I've never watched Adventure Time. It's been on my list but I'm not sure if I can get into the art style and the lot. What appeals to you about it? I really like Infinity Train, Steven Universe, She-Ra, Batman the Animated Series, and Gargoyles if any of those similar enough? Oh. And The Owl House.

OH BOY I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY

this is gonna be my first time I don’t ramble in the tags cause I want to include everything and not leave anything out!

Ok ok ok so I didn’t think I’d like adventure time either. I just watched it for the first time this past year and ever since I’ve been obsessed with it! The entire universe is just so good. I’m amazed it’s a kids show. There are just some parts and episodes that get trippy and super DARK but most of it is a happy go lucky show

And then there’s MORE! There’s Adventure Time: Distant Lands and Fionna and Cake 😍😍😍

Which again I was very skeptical about cause Fionna and Cake weren’t my favorite episodes in adventure time but they did an AMAZING job with it.

I’ve been rewatching Adventure Time cause there’s just so much to it? They’re only 10ish minute episodes but they jam pack those episodes my dude it’s crazy what they fit in 10 minutes.

Some episodes are super fucking random and make no sense and other episodes (usually towards the end of the series) are actually about the story. And it might just be because I’m usually smoking or high when I watch it but I don’t fully remember everything that happens. Some of these episodes I’ve rewatched and it feels like a brand new episode????

Not sure if any of this makes sense tbh

It’s honestly not like any of those shows but I kinda think it’s in the same ball park? It’s like if those shows were from Cartoon Network.

I’ve watched She-Ra, Owl House (I’m on the last episode and I don’t want it to end!!!!), Gravity Falls (which if you haven’t seen you DEFINITELY need to watch cause it’s on the same wavelength as owl house and has some of the same voice actors) and also really like Harley Quinn the animated series (if you’ve heard or seen that) and love all of them with my whole heart 🫶🫶🫶

1000/10 recommend at least trying a few episodes! Like I said they’re only 10 min and man oh man they are so good!

I will say that I binge watched a lot of them and now the ending song will be stuck in my head for the rest of my days. Also I got very very annoyed that they were so short and went by so damn fast!

BuuuUuUuUuUt when they came out with distant lands and fionna and cake I was THRILLED cause they are longer episodes and they go more into the story of the universe of adventure time and the characters.

[red-dragon-archfiend]

Another Pokemon hot take for you: Charizard receiving two separate Mega forms in gen 6 was a blatant attempt to sell more merchandise and get people hyped for gen 6 after gen 5 was a relative failure, but the results did make Charizard actually really cool as a competitive Pokemon and both forms look sick

[mejomonster]

My biggest complaint about red white and blue is the cover ToT

(Don't take me too seriously dhdhf)

[astyrra]

why is it so hard to find actually good t shirt designs, especially merch t shirts

[thequietabsolute]

i’ve got the recent Elon Musk / BBC interview on in the background and at around 19 minutes in they get into this really sticky conversation where they’re talking about ‘hate speech’, which ofc is a complex and highly nuanced topic, and something which has been debated about, in its essence, for millennia, and … my. fucking. god … during this particular part of the discussion the interviewer seems to enter into :: one of my very own carefully curated anxiety dreams :: where everything you’ve just said is skilfully exposed as gotcha virtue-signalling prattle designed to create a specific narrative, but now you’re left hanging there naked burbling incoherently trying to backtrack for :: an entire three minutes :: to the amazement of all present while one of the world’s most influential people just sits there casually laughing at you, calling you a liar, and then proving you’re a liar. Seriously if you get the chance give it watch, it’s an extremely illuminating moment.

‘Fuck me! This is like watching a clown run across a minefield’, as the great Malcolm Tucker would say.

[hello-delicious-tea]

BabyTea has this stupid hand me down potty that, when he is peeing, there is an exact wrong angle at which he can shoot pee where it comes right out the front between the seat and the base. WHO DESIGNED THIS THING???

So his dinosaur sleeper pants got pee on them, which was a CRISIS, and he spent the remaining FOUR HOURS of the night drifting off, having his butt get cold and fussing, drifting off with snuggles after which I sneakily covered him with blanket, kicking it off because blankets are anathema, and then waking up and fussing because his butt was cold. He’s doing fairly well this morning, having never quite wakened fully again, but I am so tired.

In retrospect I could have solved this with different pajama pants. It was dark, he would not have known they didn’t have dinosaurs on them!

[samwisethewitch]

Homemaking, gardening, and self-sufficiency resources that won't radicalize you into a hate group

It seems like self-sufficiency and homemaking skills are blowing up right now. With the COVID-19 pandemic and the current economic crisis, a lot of folks, especially young people, are looking to develop skills that will help them be a little bit less dependent on our consumerist economy. And I think that's generally a good thing. I think more of us should know how to cook a meal from scratch, grow our own vegetables, and mend our own clothes. Those are good skills to have.

Unfortunately, these "self-sufficiency" skills are often used as a recruiting tactic by white supremacists, TERFs, and other hate groups. They become a way to reconnect to or relive the "good old days," a romanticized (false) past before modern society and civil rights. And for a lot of people, these skills are inseparably connected to their politics and may even be used as a tool to indoctrinate new people.

In the spirit of building safe communities, here's a complete list of the safe resources I've found for learning homemaking, gardening, and related skills. Safe for me means queer- and trans-friendly, inclusive of different races and cultures, does not contain Christian preaching, and does not contain white supremacist or TERF dog whistles.

Homemaking/Housekeeping/Caring for your home:

Making It by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen [book] (The big crunchy household DIY book; includes every level of self-sufficiency from making your own toothpaste and laundry soap to setting up raised beds to butchering a chicken. Authors are explicitly left-leaning.)

Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair by Mercury Stardust [book] (A guide to simple home repair tasks, written with rentals in mind; very compassionate and accessible language.)

How To Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis [book] (The book about cleaning and housework for people who get overwhelmed by cleaning and housework, based on the premise that messiness is not a moral failing; disability and neurodivergence friendly; genuinely changed how I approach cleaning tasks.)

Gardening

Rebel Gardening by Alessandro Vitale [book] (Really great introduction to urban gardening; explicitly discusses renter-friendly garden designs in small spaces; lots of DIY solutions using recycled materials; note that the author lives in England, so check if plants are invasive in your area before putting them in the ground.)

Country/Rural Living:

Woodsqueer by Gretchen Legler [book] (Memoir of a lesbian who lives and works on a rural farm in Maine with her wife; does a good job of showing what it's like to be queer in a rural space; CW for mentions of domestic violence, infidelity/cheating, and internalized homophobia)

"Debunking the Off-Grid Fantasy" by Maggie Mae Fish [video essay] (Deconstructs the off-grid lifestyle and the myth of self-reliance)

Sewing/Mending:

Annika Victoria [YouTube channel] (No longer active, but their videos are still a great resource for anyone learning to sew; check out the beginner project playlist to start. This is where I learned a lot of what I know about sewing.)

Make, Sew, and Mend by Bernadette Banner [book] (A very thorough written introduction to hand-sewing, written by a clothing historian; lots of fun garment history facts; explicitly inclusive of BIPOC, queer, and trans sewists.)

Sustainability/Land Stewardship

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer [book] (Most of you have probably already read this one or had it recommended to you, but it really is that good; excellent example of how traditional animist beliefs -- in this case, indigenous American beliefs -- can exist in healthy symbiosis with science; more philosophy than how-to, but a great foundational resource.)

Wild Witchcraft by Rebecca Beyer [book] (This one is for my fellow witches; one of my favorite witchcraft books, and an excellent example of a place-based practice deeply rooted in the land.)

Avoiding the "Crunchy to Alt Right Pipeline"

Note: the "crunchy to alt-right pipeline" is a term used to describe how white supremacists and other far right groups use "crunchy" spaces (i.e., spaces dedicated to farming, homemaking, alternative medicine, simple living/slow living, etc.) to recruit and indoctrinate people into their movements. Knowing how this recruitment works can help you recognize it when you do encounter it and avoid being influenced by it.

"The Crunchy-to-Alt-Right Pipeline" by Kathleen Belew [magazine article] (Good, short introduction to this issue and its history.)

Sisters in Hate by Seyward Darby (I feel like I need to give a content warning: this book contains explicit descriptions of racism, white supremacy, and Neo Nazis, and it's a very difficult read, but it really is a great, in-depth breakdown of the role women play in the alt-right; also explicitly addresses the crunchy to alt-right pipeline.)

These are just the resources I've personally found helpful, so if anyone else has any they want to add, please, please do!