#rating animals

[rate-every-bat]

If you haven't done it already, you should rate the Hoary Bat 💞 They're my favourite and I would love to see your opinion on them

Absolutely, let's do it!

Today's Bat: Hoary Bat

The Hoary Bat has always put me in mind of a little powdered donut. There's an abandoned mining cave that's been turned into a museum and nature preserve in my area, and bat spotters frequently find these frosted babies hanging out there during the summer. I'd really love to spot one in person, but for now, I'll settle for this precious picture:

Environmental Impact: The Hoary Bat has an incredibly wide habitat range across North and Central America, even reaching as far as Hawaii. With such a wide range, it's no surprise that they've split into several subspecies (which is so, so cool). They migrate from north to south in the autumn, or hibernate for short bursts using a "butt blanket" and torpor state to withstand cooler temperatures. Interestingly, they predate several pest species, but have a relatively restricted diet compared to other North American insectivorous bats. These guys also catch rabies fairly frequently, which is another hit to their score here.

🦇🦇🦇/5

Beauty: Oh, these guys are angels. Their wide faces and perfectly round eyes make them look like Precious Moments dolls with wings. Their coats, multi-colored with a delicate white frost, are the peak of winter fashion. I can't think of a single thing that would make these guys more appealing... top marks!

🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇/5

Power: Hoary Bats are largely solitary throughout the year. Upon mating in the autumn, the female retains sperm in her reproductive tract. She'll reserve it all winter, and come spring, she will fertilize her eggs and give birth by early summer. Delayed fertilization allows them to choose whether or not conditions are right to rear young, and controls for their generally lonesome nature. I first learned about this ability with bears, and I continue to find it fascinating. I will have to deduct points from the Power score, however, for their decidedly anti-clean-power stance: their leading cause of mortality is striking wind turbines.

🦇🦇🦇/5

Overall: This upcoming summer, hit your local mine. Maybe you'll find a Hoary Bat... or me, with a camera.

🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇/5

(Today's sources: Animal Diversity Web, Bat Conservation International)

(PS: I couldn't find a convenient spot to mention this, but the Hawaiian Hoary bat is actually endangered. They're the only remaining native land mammal in Hawaii according to the National Parks Service. BCI lists some conservational efforts, which I'd recommend reading up on and advocating for if you're able. Thank you!)

[creature-feature-creature]

It's been a while so I'm gonna just do a non-ask rating :)

BABY GARFIELD

From the Garfield movie (trailer)

Design - 9/10; look at him. He's so round. He looks like an utz cheeseball. Also his legs being just STUBS makes me really happy. Somehow still instantly recognizable as Garfield while also being sufficiently baby

Purpose - 10/10; made me aww. Made my middle aged father aww. Made Jon aww. Allowed garfield to breach the restaurant. He came, he saw, he conquered.

Overall - 10/10; garf.

[bigmeatpete69420]

Today i will be ranking all the animals on planet earth starting with the lowest life form :

Billionaires

The rest of the animals are tied for best animal

[fellowshipofthenoodles]

may i ask for your opinion(s) on marbled gecks and slatey-grey snakes?

slates are one of ~10 australian colubrids, and marbed geckoes.. marbles are EVERYWHERE. wood piles, rocks, behind picture frames, everywhere you look, there's a geck...

I actually hadn’t heard of them before, so I went to google to have a nosy…

Marbled geckos

10/10 based on looks alone. This man is just here for a good time. They come in lots of cool colours too!

Looking into their care it seems like on the surface they’re pretty easy to take care of but I’d absolutely have to look further into it, because google is terrible for care stuff.

Slaty grey snakes

See this is the reason I wouldn’t be able to live in Australia, because I’d just want to walk up to every snake I see and kiss them directly on the face. Look at it.

I love how one page I looked at called them “inoffensive” and in the next breath was like “this snake will bite you and musk all over you if you disturb it” which yeah sums up most colubrids pretty well 😩

Also 10/10 yes please I love them

[id: 1st picture is a grey marbled gecko sat on a hand, 2nd picture is a brown slaty grey snake posing]

[suspiciousmammal]

Rating shelter cats, because why not

Günes, 2yrs old

This is the look a starbucks barista gives you when you order some horribly complicated drink you found on tiktok. 10/10 I love her

Chanel, 3yrs old

I don’t even know what’s going on here but I fully support it. 9/10

Minegri & Mitabra, 3 & 2yrs old

I’m reasonably certain that the tabby cat is trying to find a way out of the failing marriage with her goth gf. Sucks to be her I guess. 3/10

Khalua, 5yrs old

We love cats that look like fat, ever so slightly cross-eyed tigers. Absolutely phenomenal 11/10

[cicadaghost]

HERETIC - a commission for @beatcroc !! this one was a blast, very fun design!!!

[retrogamingblog2]

[orobty]

Leo! Leo! Tag me in!

LEO! TAG ME OUT!

[is-the-snake-video-cute]

I just had to share these guys I found out about recently

they’re called Mexican Mole Lizards and they make no sense whatsoever

Ah! That, as I am thrilled to tell you, is Bipes biporus, and they're not actually lizards at all. They're amphisbaenians, the final group of squamata, the order of scaled reptiles - related to lizards and snakes, but very distinct. They have very unique scales - the scales are arranged in rings loosely attached to the trunk, so they move with both skin and trunk muscles. Amphisbaenians, unlike snakes, only have primitive eyes, have a fracture plane in their tails, have both vestigial pelvic and pectoral girdles (even primitive snakes only have vestigial pelvic girdles), and have teeth and powerful jaws specialized for tearing chunks out of prey.

Look at the skulls on these guys! It's like they're straight out of Alien!

B. biporus and others in its genus are actually unique among amphisbaenians because they have those front legs, most amphisbaenians are legless.

They're my favorite amphisbaenians. I think they're so cute.

And they can MOVE with those little legs!

[unbfacts]

[rate-every-bat]

Today's Bat: Minecraft Bat

Minecraft is a classic game, and I've always liked that it included bats as a kind of set dressing. I wish they did a bit more, but that won't stop me from reviewing them!

Environmental Impact: These guys could not have less of an impact. They exist to squeal and make you jump when they fly out of a dark cavern without warning. They don't provide any experience or loot when they die, so they aren't of much use to a player. They get to hang around and look cute, and that's it. There are some bat companion mods out there: Companion Bats and Pet Bats were the ones I found with a quick search. Both these mods have bats eating Pumpkin Pie, so I'll say that they are solidly not part of the game's food web.

🦇/5

Beauty: Here's a first for the blog: Minecraft bats received a redesign in 2019, with Version 1.14. The original bat has a more Minecraft aesthetic, with a blocky head and stiff wings. I don't think you were ever meant to look at them too closely. The newer bat is both cuter and more realistically bat-like, with well-defined wing shape, a square nose pad, and nice big ears to echolocate with. It's not calling out to any specific species that I can discern, but it's a vast improvement over Bat 1.0.

EDIT: @cornbread-but-cringey pointed out an error here: The bat redesign was actually completed in 2023. I confused this for a texture update from 2019. Thank you for the correction!

🦇🦇🦇/5

Power: Sorry, Minecraft bats, but I can't seem to find much to write home about here. There's apparently a special type of bat called a Witches' Bat that explodes upon impact with the player... which I've learned happens once "SkyBlock-yearly" during the "Spooky Festival". I was entirely unaware of both the "SkyBlock-year" and the "Spooky Festival" until writing this post, and I'm amazed that there are still things about Minecraft I've never heard.

🦇🦇/5

Overall: Dear Microsoft: Your bats should produce guano, eat bugs, disperse seeds, roost in chimneys, and/or any other bat-like behaviors. I like them fine as passive mining buddies, but my heart yearns for more.

🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇/5

(Today's sources: Minecraft Wiki, Minecraft Wiki)

[creature-feature-creature]

Please rate vegandragora from dragon quest monsters 3 🥺👉👈

VEGANDRAGORA FROM DRAGON QUEST

from @spoofsies

Design; 10/10 - it's stub legs. The :3 face. The googly eyes. The flower aspects. You may have just graced me with the perfect creature. Like holy shit I do not have the words to encompass how much I love this being. I can only thank you for showing it to me.

Purpose/Effectiveness; ?/10 - unfortunately I don't know much about dragon quest, and I couldn't find much about this guy. I'm just going to assume he does his job perfectly well because nothing that perfect could ever do wrong.

Overall; 10/10 - your honor look at him

[is-the-thing-actually-jewish]

are Hanukkah sweaters a Jewish thing? i've seen them before but 90% of the time, they're people trying to make christmas displays more "inclusive." so are they legit Jewish or no?

Rating: Capitalism.

Hanukkah sweaters are a prime example of what I previously characterized as "capitalism's tendency to tepidly repackage any Christmas symbols in literally or metaphorically blue-and-silver wrapping paper to appeal to a Jewish market." As the "ugly sweater" phenomenon has grown more popular, retailers saw an excellent opportunity to widen their market by having "Hanukkah" versions.

That said, there's a wide range of Hanukkah sweaters out there, some of which are more problematic than others. Ones that are literally just recolored Christmas designs with a couple Jewish-y things tacked on, like this "Shalom Gnome" design or this "Oy to the World" design are more problematic than enthusiastically tacky designed-from-the-beginning-to-be-Jewish ones. The former says "Hanukkah! It's Christmas for Jews! Jews! They're just Christians without Santa or Jesus!" while the latter says, "Oh, you're going to walk around with an eyesore sweater full of tinsel and actual little jingle bells as though anyone could possibly forget that it's Christmas season in this country? I see you, I see you, and I'm just going to casually wear this sweater with a menorah and candles that actually light up because Judaism rocks, that's why."

Then there's a whole genre of Hanukkah sweaters with, let's say, more adult content, and people's mileage may greatly vary on how they feel about them. Personally, I find the ones riffing off more secular aspects of the holiday to be largely harmless, such as this "You Spin Me Right Round, Baby" design with dreidels. On the other hand, while some may find it amusingly subversive, I find ones making fun of the religious part of the holiday (i.e., the actual hanukkiah/menorah) to be in poor taste at best. There are a plethora of "let's get lit" Hanukkah sweaters like this one that genuinely annoy me. (For one thing, Hanukkah isn't even a drinking holiday! If you want a drinking holiday, we actually have those but Hanukkah isn't it!) Ones like this that make it into a creepy pick-up line actively disgust me. And this "gelt digger" one is genuinely antisemetic, given the stereotypes about Jews and money.

I would be remiss not to mention what I personally think is the best of the Hanukkah sweater subgenres: animal puns. My fiance owns this Meowzel Tov sweater with a truly garish design. What does "mazel tov" have to do with Hanukkah, you may ask? Absolutely nothing, but hey, cats! Can't be upset about Jewish cats! Similarly, llamas? Not Jewish at all! But Happy Llamakka? Okay, cute pun, cute graphic, I'm reluctantly charmed. Your Menorasaurus would not be kosher for actual use as the candles are all different heights, but you know what, that actually makes me smile.

So, basically: If you get joy out of being loudly Jewish during a season where everything is yelling about Christianity all the time, go ahead and wear your ridiculous ugly sweater to the company party. Just take a close look at the design to make sure it's not actually full of Christmas trees, not pretending something extremely Christmas is Jewish because it's a pun now, doesn't use Charedi men as a cartoon stand-in for anyone Jewish, and doesn't makes being Jewish primarily about not being Christian.

In sum: RIP my browser history, I'm going to be getting such terrible ads for the next several weeks. Click the links at your own risk.

~Mod Leora

[collophora]

My biggest regret is that we never got a shoot where their helmets take damage, they just fly away conveniently v_v

[suspiciousmammal]

Love your blog! If you’re still doing dog ratings would you mind rating my boy Beacon? He’s not very bright.

No offense but your dog looks like it's been microwaved. 10/10

[strbymacaroon]

Silent Love: Master-List!

Master-List:

༝̩̩̥͙ ༓༝̩̩̥͙ ⊹ ૢ་༘࿐ Synopsis:

When moving out of your dorm and leaving your eccentric roommate goes to shit, you're offered by one of her friends to move in with him... for free! That is, if you don't mind living with two completely opposite college boys.

However, life isn't that easy, and there's a hot asshole around the corner to piss you off. Especially when he's always up late at night when you're studying, purposely trying to get on your nerves in the most perverse way possible.

You hate him.

Yet, the tables seem to turn when he comes knocking on your door asking for your help. For something in exchange, of course.

Under one agreement, that is.

CW: Alternate Universe - College/University, Shameless Smut, Thin Walls, Mildly Dubious Consent, Roommates Fluff and Crack, Slice of Life, Kinda Slow Burn, Oral Sex Vaginal Sex, Slight Age Difference, Degradation Fake/Pretend Relationship, Dirty Talk, Dirty Thoughts, Enemies to Lovers, Spit Kink, Heavy Angst, Hurt/Comfort.

.・-: ✧ :ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

༝̩̩̥͙ ༓༝̩̩̥͙ ⊹ Reader here on Ao3 ⊹༝̩̩̥͙ ༓༝̩̩̥͙

ૢ་༘࿐ Chapter One: 14k words.

.・゜-: ✧ :-︑︒⚬∙︓· : ̗̀ ➛ New Roommate(s)

“… “I can’t deal with your sobbing when I’m trying to go to bed because he broke your heart again.” It’s the reason you're moving out, actually. That's being mean, it isn’t the reason why you’re moving out. But, it definitely is one of them…”

ૢ་༘࿐ Chapter Two: 9k words.

.・゜-: ✧ :-︑︒⚬∙︓· : ̗̀ ➛ Sexual Tension

"...Maybe you imagined the whole thing, you were up really late and could’ve been sleep deprived. You can’t, right? That’s impossible, you’re not crazy. Besides, if you’re not imagining it, Yuuji had to have heard, right?..."

ૢ་༘࿐ Chapter Three: 11.7k words.

.・゜-: ✧ :-︑︒⚬∙︓· : ̗̀ ➛ Fake Dinner Date W/Feels

"...You yell at the door. It’s way to fucking early to be dealing with this shit, why couldn’t he bother you in the afternoon? You glance at the clock on your counter, the numbers ‘2:57 PM’ glaring back at you, oh shit. Okay, fine, maybe it is time to get up..."

ૢ་༘࿐ Chapter Four: 26.6k words.

.・゜-: ✧ :-︑︒⚬∙︓· : ̗̀ ➛ Project Week

"...You weren’t necessarily dreading this moment, but you aren’t looking forward to it. Things are just back to being silent between you two. Now, you have to follow him around like a lost puppy..."

ૢ་༘࿐ Chapter Five: 10k words.

.・゜-: ✧ :-︑︒⚬∙︓· : ̗̀ ➛ "Good Guy."

"...You feel your stomach drop. Sukuna presses his lips together, his eyes moving up and down your frame, before naturally looking at the women besides him. He can see your expression sour from the corner of his eye, and it makes his stomach turn uncomfortably..."

ૢ་༘࿐ Chapter Six: 27.1k words.

.・゜-: ✧ :-︑︒⚬∙︓· : ̗̀ ➛ Forgiveness?

"...Uruame nods, placing the things on the table. “Of course, I’m here for Sukuna.” They place the final item, and you quickly observe they’re the ingredients for cookies..."

ૢ་༘࿐ Chapter Seven: 34k words.

.・゜-: ✧ :-︑︒⚬∙︓· : ̗̀ ➛ A Lovely Night

"...“Shit! Sukuna why didn’t you—“ If possible, your stomach twists even harder. The space next to you is empty, void of any form of existing life other than a messy pillow. You feel your eyebrow twitch, before punching his pillow. That fucking lying ass son of a bi..."

ૢ་༘࿐ Chapter Eight:

.・゜-: ✧ :-︑︒⚬∙︓· : ̗̀ ➛ Epilogue...