maxbrighindi

[chillyfeetsteak]

I first became fascinated with it a few years ago when I noticed it out an airplane window on a flight from Texas to Southern California. In an expanse of endless desert, suddenly, a vast body of water. When I got home, I immediately looked it up on a map. The Salton Sea.

It’s the largest landlocked body of water in California. It sits right on top of the San Andreas Fault at over 200 feet below sea level. It is more than twice as salty as the Pacific Ocean. It is completely toxic. And I had never heard of it before then.

(photo essay under the cut)

In the early 1900s the Colorado River was diverted through a series of irrigation canals in order to provide water for the farmlands of Imperial Valley. One of the head-gates broke during a flood, and the desert basin filled with water for 2 years before it was fixed. The unexpected lake soon became a popular vacation destination; it was stocked with fish, and resorts and hotels popped up along its shores. It became known as a great place for sport fishing, waterskiing, and yacht parties. Big name celebrities visited. At one point, it had more annual visitors than Yosemite.

Salton Sea has no outlet, and is only filled via agricultural runoff. As the water evaporated in the hot desert sun, the lake became more and more saline. Chemicals began to build up from the run off causing toxic algae blooms, and mass die-offs of fish and birds started in the 80s. By the 90s, the beaches were littered with fish gills and bird bones and the resorts were abandoned. The lake began to dry up as irrigation run-off was diverted away. The exposed lake bed is also toxic, and the high desert winds kick up the dust, making the air poisonous. 

Despite the unpleasant odor, the noxious air and the summer temperatures regularly reaching 120°, a renaissance of sorts began in the early 2010s. Artist and nomad colonies began to spring up around Salton Sea. Bombay Beach, once a popular resort destination, is now mostly a ghost town, but the folks who remain have turned the ruins on the shores into an outdoor art installation gallery where the found-art sculptures are cyclically destroyed by the elements and then replaced with new ones. Many of the houses and RVs in town are themselves art pieces.

In nearby Slab City, a settlement of off-the-grid lifestylers, you can find even more folk art. Salvation Mountain is a manmade hill painted with bright colors and bible verses and maintained by a community of volunteers. East Jesus is a sculpture garden and art installation. 

This past weekend my partner and I finally made the pilgrimage to the Sea. California has the benefit of being home to a huge array of biomes. In just a couple of hours you can travel from snowy mountain peaks to lush oases to endless sand dunes. Driving the hour or so south from Palm Springs towards Salton Sea is like driving towards the end of the world.

Bombay Beach especially enamored me. The beach is crusted with salt and millions of tiny shells and bones. It smells awful, like sewage and chemicals and low-tide and rotting fish. You drive out onto the beach and park anywhere amongst the sculptures and deteriorating resort ruins. The art feels raw in a way I haven’t experienced before. It reminds me of seeing paleolithic cave art. Humans made this, with no motivation other than to create something intriguing or beautiful or sad. Not much can live out here, but what you find fills me with a great adoration for humanity. Despite the asphyxiation of the natural world, the human spirit persists.

[bacchuschucklefuck]

soon it'll be dawn again

transcript under the cut ⏬

page 01

Fig: no way? - you're still up?

Riz: Wh– yes?

Riz: Why'd I not be.

page 02

Fig: I me~~ean - that took.

Fig: whole day.

Riz: Yeah?

Fig: 'm beat.

Riz: you should sleep.

page 03

Fig: nah. my guy's still up

Fig: I wanna hang out.

page 04

Riz: That's really nice.

Fig: Hah! - Nobody ever expects an Archdevil rockstar to be nice.

Riz: … yeah. - 's just budget work tho. (the stuff I'm working on) - I've heard it's boring.

page 05

Fig: yeah, but you do it…

Riz: It keeps things going, right? - Nothing happens if nobody sits down and - does the thing.

Fig: That's right… - though. Yeah.

page 06

Fig: sometimes it's someone else who - doesn't want the same thing to happen.

Riz: … - mm.

page 07

Riz (off screen): …It took me a long time to get that not everyone likes doing what I do. - 's probably because you guys are so nice– - or. - kind.

Riz (off screen): to anyone too, not just. - the people you /love/.

page 08

Riz: that's not how it is elsewhere. - The world's– not. hostile. - but 's not like it's kind.

Riz: So I'm doing as much as I can now… 

page 09

Fig: Hey.

Riz: ?

Fig: Go dig some dirt with me.

page 10

Riz: [blank speech bubble] - oh you meant like - actual dirt. (not incriminating information)

Fig: o yea.

Fig: there's clay in the backyard soil. - sometimes when I'm sun deficient or something I go touch dirt for a bit.

page 11

Fig: here u go

page 12

Riz: uh

Fig: now we make a thing! - 'm pretty good at freehanding a bowl.

Fig: I'll show u

page 13

Fig: just– yep, flatten that out as evenly as u can, then–! - actually ur nails'd be so good at cutting out the strip. [larger than usual space] wait. - wait. wait u can carve patterns with them! we HAVE to try

Riz: uh - What. do I carve?

Fig: anything!!!

page 14

Fig: and– yep just seal the inside uh. seam?

Fig: yep that works - okay time's up! all contestant hands up

Riz: [blank speech bubble] - okay - wh. what's next?

Fig: haha - watch this.

(sound effect text): FWOO—MP

page 15

Riz: WH– DON'T JUST DO THAT???

Fig: Now it's fired!

Riz: THAT WAS NOT SAFE

Fig: (actually it's just dry. if u add water rn it'll dissolve)

Fig: ok catch!

Riz: [blank speech bubble] - careful!!

Fig: dw no need haha

page 16

Riz (thought bubble): oh - it's warm…

Fig: now I want you to throw this.

page 17

Fig: u gotta do it - c'mon

page 18

Riz: wh– - It's like 3AM right now

Fig: oh it's not /fired/ fired it's not gonna make a loud noise

Riz: And then just? leave a pile out here?

Fig: pour water over it & it'll be gone I told u

Riz: but

page 19

Fig (off screen): RIz.

page 20

Fig: I've done all this before.

Fig: Can you trust that at least?

page 21

Riz: no, I– - I do. - I trust you.

page 23

Riz: okay what happens now

(sound effect text): glob

page 24

Fig: we do it again!

page 25

Riz: wh. [larger than usual space] What do you mean. (this clay's too wet also)

Fig: see! you're already learning

Fig: [blank speech bubble] - there are flows that are futile to fight. - The world changes.

Fig: Things change.

page 26

Fig: I've learned my lessons with "forevers". - But - as an artist

Fig: I can give you one thing: - You can always do it again.

page 27

Fig: most of everything depends on the rest of the world, - but this. - making new. - that's yours as long as you want it.

page 28

Fig: So?

page 29

Riz: Yeah. - Yeah! - let's make another one.

[rendevok]

“Take my hand” a comic for NaruMitsu Week 2023

day 1 - lies & secrets - 2 - 3 - 4

[jaspersbaseballsack]

It's the fact that so far Armand is the most inhuman monstrous vampire still walking the earth that we as readers have met. And yet we see him fall hopelessly in love with the most ordinary human man.

[inkskinned]

he says i hate everyone except you and that is addictive and that is kind of romantic and beautiful because you're young and you're kind of a sarcastic asshole too and you don't like bad boys, per say, but you don't really like good ones either. and you like that you were the exception, it felt like winning.

except life is not a romance book, and he was kind of being honest. he doesn't learn to be nice to your friends. he only tolerates your family. you have to beg him to come with you to birthday parties, he complains the whole time. you want to go on a date but - people are often there, wherever you're going. he's just so angry. about everything, is the thing. in the romance book, doesn't he eventually soften? can't you teach him, through your own sense of whimsy and comfort?

at first - you know introverts often need smaller friend groups, and honestly, you're fine staying at home too. you like the small, tidy life you occupy. you're not going to punish him for his personality type.

except: he really does hate everyone but you. which means he doesn't get along with his therapist. which means he has no one to talk to except for you. which means you take care of him constantly, since he otherwise has no one. which means you sometimes have to apologize for him. which means he keeps you home from seeing your friends because he hates them. you're the single exception.

about a decade from this experience, you'll type into google: how to know if a relationship is codependent.

he wraps an arm around you. i hate everyone except you. these days, you're learning what he's actually confessing is i have very little practice being kind.

[corneliaavenue]

with like 5 more days to go...

[ghostlyheart]

How I (roughly) imagine this scale:

1- I see myself as a faster reader than the average person. I can breeze through a text quickly and still understand almost all of it

2- I read at a "normal" speed. I need to pace myself but can consistently read and comprehend a text in a reasonable time frame

3- I see myself as a slower reader than other people. It takes me a long time to get through a text and if I try to go too fast I won't understand it

Obviously this can vary by your mood, the type of text, etc. and this is a very imprecise scale with some overlap, I'm just casually curious!!

[lottieurl]

thinking about jackie's room being covered in roses. roses on the sheets and on the nightstand

and shauna telling jeff jackie likes poppies. did jackie actually like poppies? did shauna lie to jeff because she didn't want him to get jackie something she actually likes?

[cheekinpermission]

TWST Ask Game!!

General

1. Who's hand did you first grab? Why? Would you choose someone else if you could do it over again?

2. Who is on your homescreen?

3. What does your guest room look like?

4. Who is on your main team?

5. If you could have any unique magic / signature spell in the game, which would you choose and why?

6. First SSR? Most recent SSR?

7. Is there an SSR you really wanted but never got?

8. Is there any character who seems to follow you (i.e. they always seem to pop up when you're trying to summon someone else)?

9. What changes would you like to see implemented in the game?

Favorites and Least Favorites

10. Top five favorite characters?

11. Favorite character from each dorm?

12. Least favorite character from each dorm? 13. Favorite NRC staff member? 14. Favorite non-NRC character? 15. Favorite dorm?

16. Favorite character design?

17. Favorite overblot design?

18. Favorite dorm uniform?

19. Favorite event?

20. Favorite book from the main story?

21. Favorite R card that you own? Favorite SR? Favorite SSR?

22. Favorite relationships? (Romantic or platonic!!)

Personal

23. Which dorm would you be sorted into? 24. Which character(s) would you get along with the most? 25. Which character(s) would you actively avoid? 26. When did you start playing TWST? 27. What drew you into TWST? What made you stay? 28. What is the TWST related content that you've produced that you are most proud of?

Wild Card

29. What is your opinion on [any character you like!] 30. Make up your own question!

[mythological-mayhem]

Zeus: Nothing in life is free.

Aphrodite: Love is free.

Apollo: Adventure is free.

Hermes: Everything is free if you take it without paying.

[dc-polls]

If you do have a title in mind, put it in the tags!

[lunarharp]

What led to this (orufrey comic, cw an uncomfortable/creepy scene)

[crplpunkklavier]

underrated turnabout trump moment imo is right after kristoph says his wreathed in blue flame shit and the judge is like "wtf are you talking about" only for payne to immediately go "oh CLEARLY the defense is trying to wax poetic to IMPRESS WOMEN" like imagine being kristoph in that moment youve already been shitting your pants for twelve straight hours because you brained a guy last night and none of this was part of the plan and did you just slip up in the middle of court?? does everyone know??? no dont worry the prosecution just told the whole courtroom that you were just doing hot girl shit and everyone just went oh ok. moving on

[cirrus-grey]

No, seriously, what makes Celia so special??? If Darrien and the other "emaciated souls" were each balanced out by someone getting eaten by the Centre then I guess it makes sense, but then why didn't Hill Top just eat someone to balance Celia? Why does two people going in her place balance it out instead of unbalancing it in the other direction?

And what about the other people we know who've crossed over? What balanced Anya Villette? Or Jon and Martin? Or the goddamn Fears???

[beemovieerotica]

probably not the first person to say this, but the "theyre all trying to sleep with the professor" sounded like the sexual intrusive thoughts suddenly taking the wheel

already explained in another reblog but it's helpful to redirect thoughts toward something that does not cause personal distress and specifically does not involve the thinker. if you have OCD you will probably not magically stop having intrusive sexual thoughts. at the absolute minimum, and as a healthy step toward lowering anxiety/self-hate/self-criticism, your sexual thoughts can be focused on a made-up classroom full of arts students instead of you personally doing [redacted].

as an aside... I know multiple people who have slept with their professors/TAs/bosses/etc in actuality, so it really doesn't fall under the out-of-left-field "intrusive thought" category for me. sleeping with a higher-up is something that happens in the world pretty regularly regardless of the moral complications of it, by people who do not consider the scenario horrifying or disturbing. like idk how to emphasize that intrusive sexual thoughts hit very different and are not something that 2 groups of people could potentially debate being "ethical" or not.

having a passing thought of "hmm my teacher is hot... and kinda...?" is not an intrusive thought. I think this is the tiktokification of mental illness.

I get evaluated by an OCD specialist every few weeks and the categories of intrusive sexual thoughts they ask about are 1) incest 2) child abuse and 3) sexuality that does not align with yours (i.e. if you're gay, you have intrusive thoughts of being forced to perform heterosexual sex, and vice versa). these are all sexual scenarios that would 100% provoke distress if manifested in the real world.

wanting to fuck the hot film studies professor is not an intrusive thought. treating it as such means we still have a long way to go in unpacking the influences of puritanical culture and alienation from healthy sexuality...and it makes it harder for people with actual intrusive thoughts to get help.

[exerzist]

Idk but something about tomura having a rlly deep idol crush on aizawa while aizawa is in his early thirties, married to mic for five years, with hitoshi and eri is really funny to me,, like tomura slides in and he's like "yo wys homegirl" and aizawa is just standing there befounded