#sandmats

[hurlumerlu]

Hello, hope it's okay to ask - regarding your Sand post, was the thing you were referring to the fact that he passed along the BostonTop (at that point) revenge porn after stealing it from Nick?

Also could you tell me - and this is a genuine question - what you are referring to regarding him being a raging bitch? I am sorry that i have to even ask. I very much remember that after initially watching the show up to ep3 I considered everyone without exception in the show to be a rather awful person. But I have since fallen so massively in love with Sand that I am apparently 100% supporting all his gay rights and gay wrongs to the point that I will not even remember him ever having done anything wrong ever in his life besides the revenge porn shit. (That being said I also am of the opinion that some of the behaviour of people in OF can be judged differently when seen in their direct context and overall see it as a show about deeply flawed people. But honestly at this point I will straight up believe that I have become a Sand apologist to the point that i might be blind to other shit he pulled.)

Hey! Entirely okay to ask, and you have nothing to be sorry for X) On the contrary, I love getting asks and excuses to talk about my little shows. Full disclosure, I am absolutely not the best person to go to for a list of Sand's wrongs. In some aspects - not the raging bitch part, to be clear - he reminds me of my wife when I met her, and that will give any character a serious number of get out of jail free cards. When I call him a raging bitch it is 1. because both Top and Boston have good reasons to think of him that way 2. with deep love and affection and 3. because I need the reminder, sometimes. I would also argue, without a hint of sarcasm, that Ray is the least red flag of the main 6, so like. always always take my assessment of fictional characters with a grain of salt.

It does feel a little weird to double down on my use of the word "bitch", because I do not like it and almost never use it, but I think the connotations it carries are appropriate in the context of Sand's flaws (or some of them). I was mostly referring to the stealing and passing along of the sextape, yeah! To me it is the most cruel act committed by a member of the core cast (so not counting, say, Atom or Gap), especially since it was fully premeditated (unlike Nick who premeditated the awful invasion of privacy but didn't expect to get his hands on a full-on sextape) and since it is mainly Sand's fault that the sextape got out at all (Nick shared it with him but showed no sign of wanting anyone to get their hands on it). And while Mew threatened to share another sextape in an insane self-righteous vengeful power trip... Sand is the one who, you know. Actually did that.

Then there's the fact that he used Ray to do so. His motivations for that choice aren't spelled out to us, and I personally don't think he was trying to hurt Ray, exactly. I think he was trying to prove that he wasn't desperately in love with him at this point - a sort of "I don't love you, see: I can use you." I don't think he expected Ray to care that deeply and be so morally conflicted, but even that tells us that he wasn't being fair in his assessment of Ray's character at all. As a slight aside, even though he couldn't have predicted Ray's self destructive spiral - and Ray doesn't necessarily need anyone's help to start one - he still pushed him into it... which is why I was so fucking taken aback when I checked the ofts tag and saw so many people saying stuff like "wow, Ray calls you a whore and you still play nurse for him after his accident? get up man" because like yeah, Sand has no spine when it comes to Ray, but also he feels responsible? He thinks he's partially at fault and he's honestly not wrong? Why are we acting like Ray flew off the handle for no reason? Did the scene where Sand sees the seat belt bruise and falters, and Ray is actually the one subtly checking on him, kick only me in the face? alright then.

And the kicker is that I personally don't think Sand ever feels bad for leaking the recording. Don't get me wrong, he feels bad for hurting Ray, and for hurting Nick, but we never ever see him reflect on the hurt he caused Boston or Top (he does tell Nick he's sorry, but immediately follows it with "Boston is an asshole anyway, why do you care", which does not read as willingness to examine his actions, to me). In his mind, they're the dicks, even at the end. And I love that! I love how self-righteous the little fucker is. He was hurt and he retaliated, like they pretty much all (Nick, Boston, Ray, Mew, Atom, Chueam...) do at some point. That's the story. They hurt each other and they learn from some of their mistakes and in my opinion the show do not judge them for making those, and leave them space to grow. Like you said here in the notes, ofts is about a bunch of flawed people! It would be boring if it was just "all those messy people and Sand, the reasonable one" (though Sand would love to learn that some see it that way, and would agree).

So yeah, the moment where he looks at his phone, drops it on the ground with a sigh and fucking stomps on it is enough for me to bestow the title of raging bitch upon him. Insane choice in and out of universe. But! since my role today is apparently to get Sand condemned by the jury, let me list some of his worst qualities:

as mentioned, he's self-righteous and judgemental. It's easy to forget, because he can also be very forgiving at times, especially with Ray, but calling the drunk in the men's bathroom "people's burden", out loud, just because the guy didn't react gratefully to your concern, is just so demeaning and rude? Ray is so incredibly obnoxious later at Sand's appartment that's is easy to think he had it coming, but Sand is the one who went from zero to sixty at the drop of a hat. (he also tells Mew that Ray was the one starting this fight, and like... I beg to differ). And it's not like that's the only disparaging comment he makes about Ray. Some of it is meant to tease, some of it... isn't, but I think what matters most is how it lands, and they don't all land well. A sentiment I've seen a lot in the fandom is that Mew's scolding is the bad type while Sand's scolding is the good type, but I don't agree. I think they often say the same stuff, or stuff that could have the same impact, and that Ray partially craves (proof they care) and is hurt by it in both cases. I also think it's somewhat unfair to Mew, but this is a post about Sand.

this is deeply intertwined with point 1, but boy does he have a temper. Early show Sand will see a situation, asks "anyone wants to escalate that?" and not wait for an answer. To be entirely fair this changes very fast after he develops feelings for Ray, at which point if Ray is involved in the situation Sand does attempt to desescalate and/or just leave the scene (with Ray if he's not the one fighting with, without him if he is) but if Ray's not present? You're shit out of luck. Baseball bat Sand may have only lived in the pilot trailer, but he was perched on actual Sand's shoulder for a good half of the story.

also linked to point 1: his hypocrisy. He made such a big deal of Top "stealing his boyfriend", even though we don't even know if Boeing cheated on him with Top or simply broke up with him for Top (which like, sucks and will break your heart, but also people do fall out of love and there isn't necessarily a guilty party) only to make out with Ray behind Mew's back and later confess his willingness to be Ray's "secret lover" unless he finds someone better (he says he feels bad for Mew. he says "we should stop". but does he? do they?). And I want to give credit where credit is due, Sand did try to leave the first situation, but it wasn't so much out of consideration for Mew or some nebulous idea of doing the right thing than it was about his own self-image and hurt pride at being second choice. And he got even over that, in the river scene, as long as he could save face by pretending he wouldn't wait for Ray if a better opportunity came along. The fact that these two's beautiful, incredibly tender lovemaking scene happens before Ray breaks up with Mew isn't a innocent choice! Sand has a pretty strict idea of what a good person is, and he wants to be one, mostly thinks he is one ("do you think I'm a man with no dignity") but he is as failible and driven by his wants as the others, especially when it comes to love.

as a result of the first three points, his capacity for holding himself accountable and offering proper apologies vary greatly. Ray is actually a hundred times better at it than Sand, I will die on this hill, but this post isn't about Ray either. I don't remember him vocally apologizing for putting Ray in an awfull position by giving him the tape (which would require admitting either that he knew it would hurt Ray and did it on purpose or that he didn't take Ray's feelings into account at all) and while he does apologize to Nick it is, I've already argued, quite half-baked. I don't think he aplogize to anyone else for that? And like, I know he can do it. His apology for making Ray feel insecure about Boeing is very sweet and mature even though he did nothing wrong, so I interpret it as him often chosing not to apologize, either because of his aforementioned self-righteousness or because that would require him eating some crow and he doesn't like that.

he's just kind of bitchy sometimes! He's sarcastic, he's a nag and he loves to complain, and have we forgotten "Someone who was exactly my type dumped me for someone else"? I'm not saying Boeing didn't deserve that, I'm saying it's a bitchy retort. I just know one of the reason these two got along was because they judged people together a lot. I just know it. It goes hand in hand with his reluctance to be vulnerable and honest about his feelings: while this particular character flaw does not one a raging bitch make, Sand tends to deflect with offhandedly disparaging comments or an insistance that he doesn't care, and while it's not purposefully hurtful, it can be quite thoughtless, and does him more harm than good in the long run.

So yeah, here's my list of Sand's most bitchy characters flaws. I find them really endearing, tbqh. Some of them ensure that Sand belongs in the story and with the others characters, others serve to make his relationship with Ray even more touching to me. His devotion would be one thing if he was this angel of forgiveness and patience the fandom often paints him as, but he's a quick-tempered judgemental ass, and he still loves Ray (a guy who doesn't see himself as truly lovable, considered a handful by everyone around him) with breathtaking ease and steadfastness, no effort required (he in fact put some considerable efforts into not loving him, to no avail). Sand doesn't love Ray in spite of, he doesn't love Ray as some sort of cosmic trial to reach sainthood, he simply loves Ray, period. And idk, that means a lot to me. This show, weirdly, means a lot to me.

[prettycreepyprettycrawly]

Snazzy little plant, unique to Monterey <3

[noseysilverfox]

Spotted spurge (lat. Euphórbia maculáta), or prostrate spurge, milk purslane, spotted sandmat – a perennial creeping plant native to North America🌿

Молочай пятнистый (лат. Euphórbia maculáta) – многолетнее стелющееся растение родом из Северной Америки🌿

[phantomdecibel]

I keep seeing the “animation is not a genre it’s a medium” post and it’s like. whoo!! hell yeah love the animation-positive energy!!! I just can’t. bring myself to reblog it yet bc the urge add my unasked for possibly incorrect opinion to the post is overwhelming cause like guys. it’s definitely not a genre yeah, that’s the wrong word, but it’s not a medium either. in animation, and just art in general ‘medium’ refers to what the art is made with, and that applies to animation too; it is not ‘made with animation’, it is animated. medium is like, paint or clay or pencil on paper or ink or collage etc etc – all of which are forms of animation. stop motion (which is more of an umbrella for moving something little by little) can be done with sooooo many different mediums! you’ve got claymation which is probably the most well known type of stop motion animation, you’ve got sandmation, pixelation, ink on glass, paint on glass, and a hell of a lot of others I don’t know the technical names for, like animating with pastels or charcoal. and also scratch/paint on film, which isn’t stop motion really, but still a really neat form of animation. there could definitely be another definition for ‘medium’ that I just couldn’t find, but as far as I can tell that’s it. in art the word medium refers to the materials a piece was made with, and ‘animation’ is not a material. tbh I’m not quite sure how animation would be classified, in one succinct word, other than just like,, “a form of art✨✨”, which is why I didn’t want to add this directly to the original post (and also I was a tad afraid this has come off slightly passive aggressive which is not my goal in the slightest I just woke up literally ten minutes ago and am not a morning person). but just, to me, referring to the whole of animation as a medium kinda sorta has the same. vibes ig. as referring to it as a genre? just like. to me specifically, I’m definitely not speaking on behalf of all animators, but calling it a medium kinda. lumps it all together? everything unique and different about the different things you can do with animation and different mediums in animation, calling it one medium sorta takes away from some of that, to me. idk man maybe I’m harping on nothing, but it just rubs me the wrong way. like I guess ‘medium’ could be a. semi-accurate descriptor if you’re only referring to one form of animation like idk. digital, but even that has so many facets that count as different forms of animation – traditional 2D, 3D, tweening and different editing techniques, to name a few. Point Is: there’s a lot that can be done with animation, using different mediums, which is kinda the beauty of it and calling it one medium kinda takes away from it, to me. “animation” is an umbrella term for making an image move, and it contains a variety of different ways you can do that, as well as other umbrella terms. I mean, you wouldn’t call “art” a medium; it refers to a whole bunch of different things, like painting or writing or photography etc etc. hell – even painting and writing are umbrella terms, referring to the different types of those things! under painting you’ve got acrylic, watercolour, oil, etc, and writing you’ve got things like prose fiction, poetry, scriptwriting, biographies, etc etc. when you’re referring to an art piece’s medium, you tend to get a bit more specific than just calling it ‘an art thing I did using materials’. this is important to me bc it’s literally my major haha. thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[anonymusbosch]

in Southern California you may know them as sandmats (common trailside while hiking and as sidewalk weeds) -

but there are also some funky upright ones! they're mostly herbaceous around here

go on iNaturalist some time and look at global spurges and rejoice!

Euphorbia euphoria

Was sent this by a friend:

which is a reference to this:

namely, the fact that the wild mustard Brassica oleracea, once domesticated, produced a bewildering variety of vegetables by selecting each cultivar for a different part (cabbages from terminal buds, Brussels ssprouts from lateral buds, broccoli and cauliflower from flower buds, kale from leaves, and so on), all of them still being technically part of the same species, Brassica oleracea var. whatever.

Now, as far as I know, nobody has bred B. oleracea into a tree. But there is, not quite a single species, but a genus, that has gotten pretty close to that kind of internal morphological diversity:

Behold Euphorbia, the genus of spurges, counting over 2000 species (that nevertheless are often capable of interbreeding) scattered throughout all continents:

Euphorbia dendroides (Mediterranean)

The poinsettia, Euphorbia pulcherrima (Central America)

Euphorbia actinoclada (East Africa)|, one of the many cactus-like species (cacti proper are all American species except one, so if you see a cactus-like plant in an African or Asian deserts, odds are it's actually a kind of euphorbia)

Euphorbia trigona (Central Africa)

Euphorbia myrsinites (Southeast Europe)

Euphorbia obesa (South Africa)

Euphorbia ferox (South Africa)

Euphorbia ampliphylla (East Africa) (source)

Euphorbia aphylla (Canary Islands)

Euphorbia helioscopia (Eurasia and Africa)

And so on, and so on...

[just-your-average-cryptid]

Weed ID!

Because the logical response to construction outside is to go look at the plants chilling in the sand they’ve built up

First up: graceful spurge! This one hopped into an empty porch pot lol, but there’s some bigger ones on the curb

Other names: fluxweed, garden spurge, graceful sandmat

This plant is supposedly native to my area (Florida iydk, and supposedly bc that can be a tricky question to answer and sometimes the internet is wrong.) It’s a perennial plant with toxic sap, so not prone to getting munched by animals. Apparently it’s an ornamental plant as well, though I’ve never seen it anywhere but a roadside.

BABY TREE ALERT! This here is a young Southern live oak! Probably the offspring of the tree that used to be here; it got run over :,(

These are definitely native to the southeastern US and get pretty big once they’re grown up! Sadly I don’t see that happening for this lil guy… not sure if we can do anything to keep it there

Caesarweed! Also called a Congo Jute for… some reason

This one is invasive :/ their actual home is tropical Asia, but they’re found all over the world to varying degrees of environmental impact. It’s a perennial and also a crop, though that’s been overtaken by the invasiveness issue.

Fragrant flatsedge! Smell not verified at the time of writing

Also called calingale, nutgrass, yellow nutsedge

Native to the general US, this plant can actually be an annual or perennial depending on the climate, which I think is pretty neat!

Lilac tasselflower! These haven’t bloomed yet, but the whitish-purple dots are the buds :)

These are native to China and the general west-pacific, but they aren’t considered invasive here in the US afaik. The leaves are actually edible, and the flowers are quite nice despite their small size.

That’s it for Weed ID, but should I do this more? This was actually kinda fun :D and now we all know some new plants!

[rattyexplores]

Two different Euphorbias

Top images - Euphorbia maculata Bottom images - Euphorbia prostrata

20/03/23

[freshsliceofbread]

Good morning everyone! Despite waiting for my new light I’m feeling pretty good! 

[mydaystan]

My bags ready, I'm on my way !!!

LET'S GO !

[textless]

[dogbite142]

Fendler’s Sandmat I can across in Bonita Canyon in Cibola National Forest yesterday. Still has yet to bloom and bud flowers. It can be found on cliffs, ledges and rocky banks (where we found it) in the 4 corner areas, TX and WY. Still will have to do some more research to find details about this stunning soul we share this life with. #142 (at Cibola National Forest) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGVH-ghClKOIccb_o5K4IijLNWTUoEWbEWk9NE0/?igshid=jefrhapahww2

[rabccphotography]

Prostrate Sandmat

[mildly-inappropriate]

W jaki sposob dzialaja bentonitowe maty

Metod na ochronę ścian, fundamentów i innych konstrukcyjnych elementów przed wilgocią jest całkiem sporo, różnią się one poziomem skuteczności, ceną i sposobem montowania. W ostatnich latach coraz większym zainteresowaniem zaczęły się cieszyć bentonitowe maty, jakie ze względu na szereg zalet sprawdzają się doskonale w dużej ilości rozmaitych zastosowań.

Składają się one z dwóch warstw geotkaniny, pomiędzy którymi zostaje umieszczona warstwa bentonitu. Materiał ten ma bardzo ciekawe właściwości, gdyż wchłania on sporą ilość wody. To będzie powodować jego napęcznienie i zamianę w żel, a równocześnie dobre uszczelnienie zabezpieczanej powierzchni.

Tego typu maty muszą być kładzione w odpowiednich warunkach klimatycznych, ale później straszne im nie będą nawet silne mrozy i ulewne deszcze. Jeśli ktoś chce się dowiedzieć czegoś więcej w tym temacie, to może w wyszukiwarce podać hasło sandmat. Pośród wyników z pewnością znajdzie strony, jakie mu dostarczą wielu informacji o tej technologii.

+Tekst Sponsorowany+

[birdsy-purplefishes]

#PsathyrotesRamosissima / #Turtleback With a a cholla, an ocotillo, some cryptanthas and plantains, and a very red sandmat. #velvetturtleback #psathyrotes #asteraceae #californianativeplants (at Ocotillo, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/CnXoVb4So5w/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[choukhmer]

ស្មៅ​ទឹកដោះខ្លា​ក្រហម

ឈ្មោះ​ទូទៅ​ជា​ភាសា​ខ្មែរ: ស្មៅ​ទឹកដោះខ្លា​ក្រហម ឈ្មោះ​ទូទៅ​ជា​ភាសា​អង់គ្លេស: Chickenweed or Gulf Sandmat ឈ្មោះវិទ្យាសាស្ត្រ: Euphorbia thymifolia ការ​ពិពណ៌នា របាយ: មាន​ដុះ​នៅ​តាម​ដងផ្លូវ ចម្ការ​ដំណាំ និង​ដី​ទំនេរ ។ ការ​ពិពណ៌នា និង​លក្ខណៈ​ជីវសាស្ត្រ: ឯកវត្ស ដើម​បែកមែក​សន្ធឹង​គ្រប​ដី មាន​រោម និង​ពណ៌​ក្រហម ស្លឹក​មាន​ស្និត (២​ជួរ​ឈម​គ្នា) ផ្កា​នៅ​លើ​មុំ​គល់​ស្លឹក​ពណ៌​ផ្កាឈូក​ទៅ​ស្វាយ ។…

[freshsliceofbread]

Mommy wants to let you all know: this is her very first bearded dragon! If you see something she can do better please say something! I am very important to her <3