#i dont think it helped but this is a good resource

[ladysantos]

Hii!!! I was scrolling through your page and i really love your artstyle!

I saw on a post you did went to animation school and im planning to go to one too! (I also saw ur filipino! Same :33)

I recently have been trying to improve my art (drawing everyday, studies) and honestly i feel like im not getting anywhere! Im burnt out and tired but i feel like if i dont draw ill lose my progress :(((

Do you have any tips you think can help me?

And, assuming u live in the Philippines: do you have any resources that can be beneficial to me? Since all the good resources i can find can only be bought by dollars :((

keep on drawing and doing studies!! the progress doesnt seem obvious now but i promise you these go a long way. but its also important to have fun! draw what you like, draw self indulgent stuff, draw for ur friends, be silly with ur art! i feel like these have been the fastest way for me to improve. and also dont forget to let urself breathe, its fine to not draw everyday if you feel burnt out. u dont lose progress when u rest! u come back stronger! take the time to expand ur visual library, observe things u can apply to ur art. honestly i only ever bought 1 resource and that is a brush set i dont even use o(-( there are loots of free stuff out there. if ur looking for videos ive been watching the drawing codex on youtube recently and its just nice to draw along with him while learning new stuff

[hjeojeo]

The "im gonna go back to bed and sleep another 3-4 hours but first" thoughts.

I was trying to look for my anon asks tags cause it seems I've used a bunch of different ones over the years but i think i found the most consistenly used one (#anonasks)

And omg interesting observing how 2014~2017 ppl were very ready to ask about art tips and stuff

But definitely starting from 2020~2022 ppl don't ask anymore

But this also coinciding with the overall "gotta be a professional artist" vibe and overall art community changing where ppl expect a certain quality of art or something- it all makes me think about how hostile the current online art community is for both beginner artists and artists struggling with figuring out their art/self.

Im thinking on how to help encourage other artists more.

Im gonna try to think more on tutorials and stuff bc it's something ppl have asked from me for many years but i just never had the confidence to. But the real detailed reason is bc i never wanted the heavy responsibility of teaching, but i think i see now how important it is to dedicate to teaching and sharing what you've learned.

At the time i thought there's plentiful resources, i dont need to add my bumbling mess. But it seems that just bc there's plentiful resources doesn't mean it's assesible.

So i guess i can try to brainstorm how to collect helpful resources and share that and also put more effort into..thinking of how i can describe and explain my personal art approaches and thoughts/processes.

I think art should always give a person a feeling of "i want to do that! I CAN do that!" Instead of whatever the current vibe is, it makes me think it gives ppl the energy of "my art isn't good enough" and that is genuinely terrible. Art shouldn't be expectations and standards and whathaveyou. It should be whatever the fuck centered on joy and expressing yerself

[ecoamerica]

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

[anipgarden]

Adding To or Starting a Garden

AKA, the beginning of the Plants-Related section of this series.

This is my third post in a series I’ll be making on how to increase biodiversity on a budget! I’m not an expert--just an enthusiast--but I hope something you find here helps! 

Got an area of lawn you’d like to convert to a wildlife haven? An area you can stick some hanging baskets in? Want to know how your garden of tomatoes and zucchinis is already putting in a lot of work? This is the section for you!

It would be dumb of me to not acknowledge that the act of gardening can come with a lot of costs. Buying seeds, buying plants, buying soil, raised bed materials, mulch, etc. … it can all get a bit daunting, let’s be honest! But there’s quite a few ways to get seeds and plants for free or extremely cheap, which I’ll be addressing in this section! The next section will be all about addressing the other Costs in gardening and how to mitigate or eliminate them entirely.

Also, do keep in mind; there’s no need to try and convert a whole area from lawn to garden or unused to garden at once. In fact, it could actually be extremely beneficial to do it a little at a time--maybe four or five square feet to start out.

Front Lawn (or Managing Principles)

If you live in a place where you’re required to have a grass turf lawn (HOA’s come to mind…), try replacing it with native grasses instead! You could even possibly use a low-growing ground cover plant like clover to a similar effect! Reseeding/replacing an entire lawn can be a big upfront cost, but even just letting the lawn be a little messy and tall helps. If the lawn gets patchy, leave the bare spots for a little while and something different will likely pop up! Pioneer species will fill the gaps and provide benefits to other plants around them, support animals, and more! If you want to take the guesswork out of it, you could always research what the pioneer species are in your area and plant the ones you like most. 

Obtaining Seeds for Cheap or Free

The cheapest way to start a garden is by far via seeds. However, seeds can be a bit complicated to grow, and some sources make them… way overpriced. Fortunately there are ways to get seeds for little to no cost! 

Some places sell seeds for as low as a dollar, 50 cents, or 25 cents! The packets may not have a lot of seeds, but it’s definitely a good start for a low budget! I’ve personally bought cheap seed packets at Walmart--the Ferry-Morse and Burpee brands are not what we’re looking for here. Typically the cheaper ones I’ve found are American Seed (which is owned by Green Garden Products, which also owns Ferry-Morse, Livingston Seed, McKenzie Seed, and Seeds of Change. Do with that information what you will), but they’re rarely stocked near the Ferry-Morse ones in the Formal Gardening Section. I’ve most often found them on end caps near the gardening section, so you may have to weave through a few aisles to find them, but once you do there’s an array of flower and vegetable seeds to select from! Alternatively, I’ve found seeds at Dollar Tree sold 2 or 4 for a dollar in Spring as part of their seasonal product; however, when they’re out of stock, they’re typically out of stock for the year. Try to check them out early in the year!

Otherwise, other seed companies like Urban Farmer or Botanical Interests will often have semi-frequent sales in spring and fall, when people are stocking up on seeds--joining their email lists can help you be the first to know when a good sale is going on!

Some foods from grocery stores will provide seeds that you can use in the garden as well. I’ve had the most luck with store-bought bagged beans, peppers, and tomatoes. Some people have had luck with watermelons, apples, citrus, squash, and more. Do keep in mind that you likely won’t get the same variety of fruit/vegetable as the one you bought--the resulting plant may look different and taste different.

Give it a shot! Pick some beans you like--if they don't grow well, at least you can eat the rest!

If you live in the US, food-producing live plants, bare roots, and seeds can often be purchased with SNAP benefits. But what does growing fruits, veggies, and herbs have to do with boosting biodiversity? While food crops aren’t typically native, they still provide valuable shelter for native insects. Some plants even have intricate relationships with native fauna--like the squash bee, a solitary bee which exclusively pollinates cucurbits like pumpkins, squash, and zucchini. And we get to benefit more directly as well! If you’re planting a diverse range of foods in your garden (as opposed to the swaths of single-plant farms that typically produce what’s sent to grocery stores), you’re supporting high levels of biodiversity by providing a variety of plants for creatures to live and hunt around.

Most of the time, when we think of boosting biodiversity with a garden, we think of a colorful flower garden teeming with pollinator species. However, if we’re striving to use native species, it can be a bit difficult to find some species in stores. I can say from experience that trying to find any wildflower seeds other than butterfly weed, purple coneflowers, and black-eyed-susans is… challenging, if you limit yourself to stores like Walmart, Home Depot, and Lowe’s. You might occasionally get lucky with an ACE Hardware or a local nursery, but even then sometimes it can be hard to track down who in your area is selling what--let alone if you live in an area where no one really is selling native plants or their seeds. Not to mention, even once you find a local or online store selling the seeds you want, they can sometimes cost a pretty penny. So what do you do?

If you have the option to, consider gathering native seeds yourself! Get good at identifying the native flora and fauna--or at least, a few target plants and their lookalikes--and get ready to go! Learn where they tend to grow, when they’ll be seeding, etc. Try to identify the plant before it goes to seed (for most plants, it's easiest to identify when flowering), then check back regularly to gather seeds. Typically, if I want to learn how to collect seed from a specific plant, I just search it on Google or YouTube--oftentimes, I'm lead to the GrowItBuildIt Youtube page, so it may be a helpful resource for you as well! Of course, make sure to leave plenty of seed behind so the wild population can repopulate, and seed can feed other creatures in the area. A good rule of thumb is to take no more than 1/3rd of what's available.

Buying seed in bulk is an option if you can afford the upfront cost. Try teaming up with a few friends to buy some bulk seeds and split them amongst yourselves--you’ll get tons of seed! Prairie Moon is a popular site that'll sell seeds by the pound if you can afford the price--though they're in the US, and I believe they focus on Midwest and East Coast natives.

If you want to cheat the system, don’t buy bulk sunflower seeds--buy bags of sunflower seeds being sold as birdseed. They’re typically all black oil sunflower seeds, but they’ll sprout, and they’re fairly cheap for the amount you get!

However, beware generic wildflower seed mixes! Many brands like to sell wildflower seed mixes in big box stores like Home Depot, Target, or even Dollar Tree, but they’ll often include flowers that aren’t native or possibly even invasive in your region! Before you make any purchases, double check to make sure the contained seeds won’t do more harm than good! A quality source of native seeds will provide English and Latin names for all seeds included, and will be native to the region or at least non-invasive. 

See this? I don't trust this.

There’s a good handful of programs online that’ll send you free seeds if you’re planning to start a native habitat project! Poke around online and see what you can find; you might get lucky! The best time to start looking for these is fall and winter, I find--by early spring, many of them are either done or beginning to wind down... though some also start up in spring. Ultimately--just check regularly! You never know what you can find!

Other Ways to Get Plants

Don’t want to start from seed? That’s fair! You can try cuttings! Just be sure not to take too much of the plant while you do so. Make sure you’ve gotten a few leaf nodes on your cutting, and cut any flowers you may have gotten. Make sure to leave some blooms and foliage on the original plant for the creatures in the current habitat--you don’t want to destroy one habitat to make another in your garden. There’s tons of methods of rooting cuttings, many of which have different efficacy rates for different plants, but that’s a topic for another post.

If you find seedlings growing in a place where they won’t be able to sustain themselves long-term, or are in danger of being destroyed, consider relocating them! You may be able to gently dig up and transplant the seedling to your garden. Don’t do this if they’re in a place where they can easily survive--ideally, you’ll be taking plants from sidewalk cracks, heavily maintained public gardens, roadsides, etc. Do be careful while doing this--ensure your safety first!  

You’re totally allowed to join gardening communities like clubs, facebook groups, and more before you’ve even put a trowel to the dirt. These are great places to learn information and advice! Many gardeners are more than happy to help out a new gardener, and will eagerly provide seeds, cuttings, or even baby plants! Talk to some people about your gardening journey and what you’re hoping to do, and you just might find some kindred spirits--or at least get more people interested in the topic! 

Seed and plant giveaways and trades happen all the time in gardening clubs, as well as online! Just poke around and see what you can find! Some are explicitly trades, meaning you’re expected to send something in return, but once you get your feet on the ground with some plant knowledge you’ll be stellar! You may be able to explain you’re just starting out, and someone may send you seeds without expecting a trade, but I’d suggest trying giveaways first. 

Poke around online and see if there’s a local chapter of your state’s native plant society. From there, you’ll likely be able to find a calendar of events--many of them will host plant sales in the spring, with a bunch of native plant seedlings ripe for the pickings if you can make it out and have some money to spare! Fair warning, though, you’ll want to get there early if you can. If they say they’re starting at 10, try to get there by 9:45. Year after year, there’s always record turnout, and they sell out of plants faster than ever. Just trust me on this. I’ve been let down; hopefully you won’t have to be.

Some libraries are beginning to host seed libraries! Check around and see if your library has one! Ideally, the system works best if you also have seeds to contribute in return, but if you’re just starting out I’m sure they won’t mind you taking some seeds! Just consider saving some seeds to contribute in the future and pay it forward. If your library doesn’t have a seed library? Consider asking if they’d be willing to start one! Community interest is a great way to get the ball rolling on projects like these, but they’ll only know the community is interested if the community tells them they’re interested!

Volunteer to Garden for/with Someone Else

Maybe someone in your area wants to garden, but is struggling to find the time/energy. Many elderly people who used to garden simply can’t anymore but still would like a garden. Other people may love to have a helping hand in their garden. You might even find a few people in your area interested in renting and sharing a community garden plot with others, so they don't have to handle it all on their own! They may be interested in increasing biodiversity right now, or may be willing to if it’s brought up to them. You might be just the kind of person someone needs! Since it won't be your garden, you’ll likely need a bit of permission and collaboration to get anything in particular going, but it’s worth a shot and a way to maybe even make friends! 

Again, your mileage may vary with some of these. You may not know where there's a bunch of wildflowers growing in your area, or maybe your local library doesn't have a free seed library. That's okay! Do what you're able to, find what you can find, get what you can get! And there's never any shame with starting small--in fact, starting small can make the project easier to manage and expand when you're able!

That's the end of this post! My next post is gonna be about ways to start growing plants cheaply--low cost seed starting set ups, essentially. There's a lot of good options, many of which I've used myself even! Until then, I hope this advice is helpful! Feel free to reply with any questions, success stories, or anything you think I may have forgotten to add in!

[artsybi]

my new toxic trait is that whenever someone complains about any kind of fatigue or leg pain within earshot i immediately think "just get a cane"

im serious though

like, acquiring a cane is so easy compared to a lot of mobility aids, you can literally get them for ten bucks at CVS, i got mine for twenty off amazon because i wanted one that folds, and it has served me great

like, i think we a society would be much better off if we completely normalized mobility aids to the point that you can just,, buy one, for a temporary injury

and with canes specifically, again they're cheap! but also they're often adjustable, so if you only need it temporarily for an injury and don't want to hang onto it, you can give it to someone else, or even donate it!

just, recently someone was complaining about ankle pain (a sprain, i think, they weren't using crutches or wearing a boot or anything so i'm not sure) and i'm just thinking "why wouldn't you get a cane for that?" like, medical underarm crutches can be unwieldy, and it's just one ankle, so a cane is a perfect solution

anyway, stigma around mobility aids is a prison and you can literally just buy a cane if it'd help you. no one can stop you, and you can donate it if it doesn't help/when you don't need it anymore

[quasieli]

I feel a little more alive today. I reached out to a crisis text line last night (just for any sort of guidance) and it did actually help a bit. I got some resources for job search and low cost therapy, and funny enough, the person I was talking to was also named Elijah. They were nice and I'm glad I spoke to them. It felt weird at first but talking did at least help distract me enough for my brain to settle down a bit. So thanks from one Elijah to another.

[mo-ok]

the fucking konjac

[gachaparadise]

Starting to suspect the reason I have trouble clearing stages in Arknights isn't just my strategic incompetence but, perhaps, some other secret reason. Jury is still out on it though.

[sp-ud]

FR I wanted to unplug my computer because of the second hand embarrassment I got.

i was watching ranboos pov and i am so glad they were barely in the whole event vc, the times they were was just...

anyways enough bitching about that, woooo charity!

Tiltify - The Festival of Voices - Week of Community

[cutemeat]

[13lizardsinatrenchcoat]

The whiplash of seeing someone reblog my post about Iran and discovering a bunch of TopGun fandom posts on their blog.

[gothamcityneedsme]

thinking about how fucking dare she say this to a fellow leader.  lol.

[frankensteindotpdf]

the way people keep reacting to that tweet about the person who got overwhelmed trying to figure out how to boil an egg bugs me so much

like. if you know how to do something it seems ridiculous sure but you also hold all kinds of knowledge you wouldnt even think to share! its second nature to you, of course you know how high to fill the pot of course you know whether to set it to high or low and how much salt “a pinch” is and whether you should fill the pot with cold water or hot water and and and

if youve never been taught and youre sent off to live on your own there are so many questions you can have that would have been solved by being able to watch someone but if youve never had that opportunity they stack up!! and if you compound that with other shit like executive function issues or low funds? if you dont have the energy or money to waste failing its a lot easier and less frustrating to just Not Try

is that the Right option? i mean no, you cant learn that way but jesus have a little sympathy tutorials Do Not tell you everything and if youre on your ninth google search trying to follow a tutorial on one “basic” task sometimes sticking to what you Do know is just the best youve got

[lulladae]

This is a longshot, would you be willing to help me get my insulin? I'm down to my last pen and its pretty much close to being empty.Nt asking for much only need $370 rn to save my blood sugar. please help me with a small donation or share, reblog any help can save my life.Please help & Blessings ❤

unfortunately I won't be giving you any money as you are a known scammer! go fuck yourself. there's actual people that are struggling right now. it's even worse that you're reblogging palestine stuff because you know a genocide is going on right now and you're probably just trying to use your "support" to make yourself seem more legit or more sympathetic. hope you at least donate some of your scammed money to help.

donate esims to Gaza:

donate to PCRF:

https://www.pcrf.net/

you're definitely going to block me after this (like all the people you blocked cause they asked to have their money refunded) so bye! burn in hell. (edit: I was right)

everyone else: you should donate to these, and other trustworthy sources you can find, to help palestine instead of scammers like these. people are fucking dying.

[silverislander]

my old english class sucks so bad that its fucking demoralizing. so i go to every class and sit there bored out of my mind, i dont learn shit from the prof bc hes awful at explaining anything, i dont understand enough to do his stupid fucking homework, im completely unmotivated to do the readings or homework so i NEVER get the chance to learn. i cant win w this guy

[lovetheorem]

.

[slutdge]

decriminalizing drugs and being opposed to forced rehab is important as a leftist but what a lot of leftists i meet seem to be unable to grasp is that you need to also be ok with people doing drugs for the rest of their lives. of course healing the environment that causes people to become addicts and making mental health services available and making drug use safer via needle exchanges is important, but you also need to know that even if all addicts are given all of those resources some of them will still continue to use drugs and you need to be ok with that. you need to view that as neutral. you cannot proclaim yourself a leftist while trying to dictate what people do with their own bodies even if you think you have good intentions or that its in the best interest of an addict. you need to accept this if you have truly destigmatized drug use in your mind like a lot of yall claim you have but dont actually reflect that in your words and actions when you call for forced rehab. help should always be available and encouraged, but the option to still use drugs despite that should be too. zero criticism will be considered on this post cause i know yall that disagree with this and merely cosplay as leftists online have never actually had an addiction or known someone with an addiction. have a nice day.