#that I definitely don't use up nice things willy nilly

[enchantedpalia]

Happy Winterlights!

A couple of weeks ago Tish visited me to tell me about Winterlights. It's the first time she's visiting me since she became my shepp, so I figured it was important. She told me about the winter festival of Winterlights, when Majiri light candles with those they care about and it's to hope for a fresh, green spring because this is the darkest time of the year, when the sun rises so late and sets really early. She said it's symbolic of new beginnings, and warmth, and that it evolved into celebrating with food and drink. Jina also told me about the ancient human tradition of decorating evergreen trees and hanging up decorations and stockings. Tish gave me a candle to light with all the people around the village, and I ran around doing that, and it was grand fun to share that with everyone and listen to all their hopes and wishes for the coming year. I lit a candle with Jon as well, and he said his hope was to find an enormous palium node and mine it all by himself. I think I gave him my best glare. My hope is - just to get some more answers, I guess. Answers about everything, but mostly who I am and whose I am. There must be someone out there who loves me. There must be. I must be someone's baby. I can't just appear in the world and have nowhere to come from. All things are born. We don't just materialise from some void. My parents are out there somewhere.

Here's a picture of my tree. I put presents at the bottom for my friends. Jon's present is there too. Funnily enough it's NOT palium. I'm not getting Hassian anything for Winterlights because he is incredibly mean and if he wants presents he needs to learn to be nicer to people. A few weeks ago, in a rare moment of niceness, he told me he had been watching me hunt and that I was almost as good as he was. It made me feel good, and like he really meant it, because he never just tells you things willy nilly. Then yesterday, when I was in the woods near the gate to Bahari, he thought it was really important to tell me that I needed to get a handle on my bow. WHAT? I glared at him and he smirked at me until I lost my temper and shot an arrow right over his head. He was definitely startled and he walked away but I was fuming so badly. So no. He doesn't get a present. Sorry not sorry. This behaviour is not okay. The only good thing about Hassian is Tau, as I've noted before. Here's a picture of me with him. He's the best.

It's snowing. A LOT. I have no memories of snow - well, of anything much, really, beyond vague feelings of recollection or a sensation that there's something missing - so this is sort of like my first time seeing snow, I guess? After the first night I went out and jumped around in the snow for a while. It's soft but it's crunchy. And it's wet but it's powdery. Snow is a contradiction. Maybe it's Hassian's spirit weather.

Jon thinks the best thing about snow is making snowballs to pelt me with. I was startled at first! Snow hurts when it's packed together like that and thrown at the back of your head. But! I made a stack of snowballs and got him right back. Several times.

Here's a picture of me on my front porch. You can see a bit of snow in the background. When I took this picture most of it had melted! But then it snowed again that night. I've decided I like snow best when it's fresh. It becomes a slushy sludgy mess eventually, and that's awful.

I'm about to put this journal down and head into town. I'm having lunch with Ashura in the inn and a bunch of us have been invited, including Jon. Since it's our first Winterlights, he's hosting us all, and I'm looking forward to it. Reth has promised 'a big feast', and he told me there are going to be a lot of vegetarian and fish dishes that aren't soup. I'm not sure if we're supposed to take anything but I'm taking a blueberry pie.

Happy Winterlights!

[literaticat]

According to QT comments, an agent sends one of two form rejections. One that praises the premise but criticizes the writing and one that praises the writing but criticizes the premise. Do you think this agent actually has a system where they tailor-send these forms to 1. writing needs work and 2. premise needs work? Or is it just random? Because it's always one or the other. Surely, the agent would encounter books where both writing AND premise were the problem or something else was the issue?

Here's the thing about QueryManager:

When agents are passing on something, they have a drop-down menu with possible responses. You can make those responses be whatever you want, and as far as I know, you can have as many as you want. I have two that I mainly use -- one is sort of abrupt, and I use it when I think something is not targeted well to me. (I mean, it's not MEAN or anything, it's just sort of like, "Hey, thanks for the query, but this is not for me.") The other is a little more flowery with some language about how "I didn't feel that spark" and other agents will feel differently, etc. This is what I use when I think somebody is definitely on the right track, it's just not something I can or want to take on personally.

(I also do have a couple of others - one specifically to artists/portfolios, for example).

Within those, I can also ADD or change the language if I want to -- like if I personally really feel like XYZ is the problem, I'm allowed to tailor that response so it's BASICALLY the form, but with a little something extra added. However I usually do not, unless I'm particularly moved to do so, which is not often.

My point though: It is literally exactly the same amount of work to click one thing on the drop down menu or the other -- SO, I'd assume, that this particular agent generally finds that the work they are sent either has an OK or even good premise, but the writing doesn't hold up -- or the writing is nice, but the premise doesn't hold up. This tracks for me, actually -- usually one of those things IS the problem, if I were to pick two possible problems!

Those are just very big buckets -- like if I say "the writing needs work" that covers a vast array of possible issues. Characterization, sense of place, dialogue, literal grammar -- all those things and more fall into the "writing" bucket. If I say "the premise needs work", again, that could mean a lot of things. The stakes aren't high enough, the plot isn't interesting enough, it feels like a re-tread of a lot of things I've seen before, it's in a genre or category that isn't fashionable right now, or I just personally don't like stories about dead dogs and this is what that is -- all those things and more could fall into the "premise" bucket.

What I'm saying is, I think they probably are not just choosing which one they send *willy-nilly* -- and I do think that virtually all queries that are a decline COULD be put into one of those two buckets. So they are likely choosing the one that they feel is the bigger "problem."

At the end of the day -- I personally would probably not call out either of these things, or other specifics like that, in a form decline, because frankly, I likely didn't read enough of the book to REALLY know or be able to pinpoint a problem, and I don't want to send the author into some sort of spiral by telling them a something is a "problem" that they will then feel the need to "fix", when it's just my totally subjective and random opinion that somebody else may not agree with at all.

But that said - I do understand why some other agents who AREN'T me might choose to be a little more specific. I just don't think that's enough info for you to be able to really DO anything about it, and at the end of the day, they said no, so move on and find that yes.

[bistaxx]

T0ont0wn crossover writing consultation ask: do you think capitalistic robots seeking world domination will feed a young child (aged ~5) they plan on indoctrinating? If yes, what quality do you think the food will be? Will it be nutritious enough for a young child to survive?

-@minecraftrelatedrandomness

I had to think about this one for awhile because I'll be honest I don't even know if toons need food to survive (And I'm assuming that by child you mean a toon child of course), they can certainly eat if they want to but I think they really just need laughter and joy to truly thrive.

But for the sake of argument let's say that they do- I'd imagine that healthy and nutritious food for a toon is probably pretty different from our human standards- toon food would probably lean a lot more saccharine or just silly childish food in general- comfort foods and desert sort of things.

Given that several gags that injure COGs are food related I highly doubt they'd be keen on handing those over willy nilly to their toon captive- it'd be too much of a risk- growing child or not. Not to mention that doing so would go directly against their M.O.- COGs want to make the Toons and T0ont0wn in general more corporate and serious like they are I really doubt they'd let this kid enjoy fun toon food that they'd need to develop into a happy healthy battle-ready toon.

Now I keep on going back and forth in my head on if COGs would even eat anything resembling organic food cuz.... well they're robots lol. I've done a bit of research and found that during the Bossbot HQ Clubhouse battle there is a part where the Toons have to pretend to be waiters for the COGs banquet and it's stated that COGs love oil- but if it's too greasy they'll straight-up explode! ... HOWEVER- the card art for the Bloodsuckers and Bottom Feeders DO show them eating organic material (a lollypop for bloodsuckers and.... literal trash for bottom feeders lol)- so if you take the card art as hard evidence then Yes, COGs do eat organic material! So I'll cover for both options just to be thorough.

I'd imagine in both circumstances it'd be a hard switch from whatever food this captive used to eat to whatever the COGs want them to eat- since Toons don't go by our rules I could see them being able to ingest things like oil or fuel- but it'd definitely make them very unhappy :( As for organic food, I'm picturing either the most boring bland typical meals you can think of like plain toast and black coffee, or maybe even just whatever they'd find in vending machines during lunch breaks- I think Higher-Ups would get more fancy food though like a nice steak or something, whatever fits that rich business man aesthetic y'know.

The quality of the meals given to the Toon would probably be low by COG standards- I can't imagine them ever considering wasting their higher quality goods on some Toon- Hell they'd probably even make them work for it, no free handouts- Sorry kid you have to start at the bottom of the ladder like everyone else! But hey maybe if the Toon in question proved themself to be a hard disciplined worker and loyally embrace the soulless capitalist lifestyle the COGs would be willing to reward their newest employee with some better nourishment- maybe even start giving this Toon a paycheck to further push them into being a good little worker! (... not sure how much the toon would appreciate it all though- especially if it's just more oil and junk like that lol)

(... Also I feel like even if the Toon were to start ahdering more to COG lifestyle they'd still be alienated by other COGs- probably jealous lower level COGs- and always reminded that they'll never truly be one of them- they will always just be a Toon in a COG society)

I can't imagine it would be good for the Toon long term- whether it's boring bland food or literally oil, but I do think they could survive- Toons are hardy beings. I don't really know how severely it'd affect a growing toons development, they could end up weaker or less joyful then an average toon- but maybe in turn not as badly affected by attacks from COGs. If they were to escape or be rescued maybe they'd struggle to get back into eating what they used too, having now grown accustomed to what the COGs would feed them. There's a lot of different ways you could go about how this could affect a Toon longterm!

I hope this was a good answer, it was fun to think about!

[iscariotapologist]

rambling under the cut. nothing exciting i am just musing about some things

a post of mine has made its way around anti/exchristian tumblr and its always really weird to see it among a bunch of posts about how much they hate god and religion fjdsafds like i Get It i do but knowing myself and why i wrote that post its very funny. i find myself in a weird position regarding that mindset...people who know me in real life get shocked if they find out i'm religious because i am so cynical about christianity and talk shit about it so much because of how it's damaged me; people who know me only from this blog might be shocked by how caustic i can be about it elsewhere (but not nearly as much as the other way around lmao i barely filter myself on here because it's. my blog. whereas i often filter myself quite a lot irl). like i definitely went through a hate god/mad at god phase big time - and anger at god is not something i make an effort to keep a lid on at all these days either! - and i genuinely viscerally understand a lot of the kinds of antichristian sentiments that come from that corner and it can be cathartic, but at the same time its frustrating in its myopic view of god and religion. anyway this is not really about that and insofar as it helps people recover great, that kind of thing served its purpose for me and still does from time to time. its more about how i feel like i should fit in that space a little better but am too obsessed with god to be as vehemently angry as i used to be (also i am not a teenager anymore, which helps). but at the same time i was in what i am not uncomfortable calling a religious cult for a hot minute (not of my own volition) and the denomination i grew up in and am still surrounded by is sometimes called a cult as a whole (which i mostly disagree with because i don't think cult is a term to be used willy nilly but understand), and i was raised fundamentalist and thought i was going to die soon and jesus would come back, and all of that was pretty goddamn damaging and it would be nice to have people who understood that and also understood that spirituality can still be very important and wildly different. for understandable reasons i have come across few, if any, people like that. there is no point to this i am just, as usual, upset that i don't fit even loosely into any particular religious box - and yes i know this is fine! but a bitch gets lonely after a long time in the theological wilderness. is all. i think this is why the idea of theology grad school is appealing to me because of the possibility of like....intelligent and substantial dialogue about god and religion. which is SORELY (!!) lacking at this school despite the big fat seminary. and also staunch atheists vex and perplex me. as do staunch christians. thats another post though

[bluem0use]

It's about time I introduced you to the cast of The Crackin'-Up Studios. Don't worry. You'll be seeing them again, especially in the mini-comics!

**In order from top to bottom, left to right**

Billie Bob Willie-Nillie Black Sheep: The overall face of The Crackin'-Up Studios itself. She is the ring leader to the whole circus. The pilot to all the flight attendance. The manager to a corporate office. You get the whole idea. She's one poppin' fire-cracker (A.K.A. has a short temper) that's all for the business, but doesn't mind getting silly from time to time. On screen, she is the definition of unpredictable and crazy, fun and silly. She's a gun happy country gal that started off small and came out big with her talents for making people laugh. She worked hard to get her way to the top. And all of it has obviously paid off. If someone was to use words to describe her, it would be fun, loving, friendly, brave, courageous, generous, the list could go on and on. This gun-loving  little lady, no matter where she goes, always somehow seems to change people's lives. And for the better.

Poochie Pooh Poodle: Billie's partner-in-crime. Her bestest friend since her younger years. Her ride or die buddy. Poochie is the main co-star to the series, and a serious eye-candy to men. While Billie is featured as the funny, wacky, unpredictable, quirky character on-screen of the trio, Poochie is often featured as the sex-appeal. The sex symbol. The hot mama. She also models as a little side job whenever necessary. She's the sweetest sweetie-pie you will ever meet in your life. However, proceed with caution. When provoked, she's one sassy gal and won't hesitate to give you a mouthful (and probably a gun wound) if you mess with her, or her friends.

Wolfie Blackfang Wolf: What's the three musketeers without a male in the picture? Wolfie may not have known these two women as long as they've known each other, but their his closest family he's ever had since he left the orphanage. He is also the main co-star to the series, accompanied by being the musical genius of the three. Since a young boy, Wolfie has practiced music as not only his hobby, but his life. His alluring ability was able to trap the young black sheep and poodle in a trance on a fateful night in a club where he worked to try and make a living, thus landing him a job and a ticket to materialization through the ladies. From there, he has always acted as the stud of the three, protecting them whenever they needed an extra hand and also charming women with his attractive voice along the way.

Candy Bat: This "monster", this "usually nocturnal creature of the night", this "mysterious shadow" is nothing but a sweet treat in the eyes of many who travel far and wide to Nightwalk Bay to get a taste of his sweet treats at the local candy shop. At least, that's what Billie, Poochie, and Wolfie will tell ya. Famous for his line of business, Candy Bat is a harmless, humble candy man..err..bat that seeks nothing but to fill the mouths of the fortunate with a sweet after-taste. His delicious pastries, frozen desserts, and fizzy drinks aren't the only thing that appeals to the eyes of many. He's also a support character at The Crackin'-Up Studios during the day and a friendly (but hissy, due to his uncontrollable excited hisses whenever he meets someone new and/or is excited) candy shop-keeper at night.

Scratches: Whoa, watch out for that web! There's a BIG spider up there! And his name is none other than Scratches, yet another support cast character for The Crackin'-Up Studios. When in the presence of my six-armed friend, be cautious. Scratches loves the ladies and will go through extreme lengths to entangle you in his web, if he deems you a worthy enough mate. Don't worry fellas, he doesn't swing that way. Though..spider's gotta eat, right? What? Spiders only eat insects? Not this playful, flirtatious one. Note that this spider is dead, and has been ressurrected after a deal made by Ozzan (scroll down to reference Ozzan's bio). Therefore, Scratches likes human flesh too. Dont worry too much though. He's too busy chasing both Poochie and Billie around the studios, trying to declare his love for them. Though...something about a huge demon spider just..turns those two ladies off.

Honey Hyena: As the name implies, this hyena is sweet as honey! Raised on a bee farm, this little lady never expected to end up being a supporting cast character to The Crackin'-Up Studios. That was, until a little Black Sheep mozied on over and decided to offer her the position and the materialization process just like everyone else. She figured the nice lady would need the money boost besides "Milkin' bees all day long" - Billie. Honey loves bees. In fact, on her days off from woking at the studios, that's all she does! Is work, work, work at her long-descended family bee farm, making honey and selling it for some dough (money) as a side job. She is also the motherly figure to all the cartoon ladies on set and often tries to share her knowledge with them in hopes she can help guide them on the right path. I mean, not everyone is perfect, right?

Bon Isabell Bunny: Daughter of a long deceased magician (who was, ironically a white bunny), she has seeked to find more support by becoming a supporting cast character to the TV series. However, though, she wasn't looking to be a supporting character when offered the job by Billie Bob. Bon has a bit of a...strong hatred for Billie Bob. Bon saw how much love and respect the black sheep got, even from her "enemies". So, what does this tempered (its just as bad as Billie's, trust me), quick-to-anger, grumpy gal do? Well, it's like they say, "Kill the sheep, take her wool!". That is...if she could catch her first. Forever caught in this game of cat-and-mouse on screen and off screen, Bon decided to settle into this position for now. Hopefully one day, her magic tricks and traps can pay off and actually earn her a spot in the lead position.

Bon Iseah Bunny: Twin brother to the other Bon Bunny, this bunny seems the complete opposite of his sister. This magic bunny doesn't mind being a supporting cast character, and instead enjoys making others smile with her magic tricks and qurkiness. After all, its what his deceased magician father would have wanted. He admires Billie and everything that she does not only for everyone else, but herself. He just hopes with time, his sister can see that. For now, this calm bunny will just have to play as yin to his sister's yang (A.K.A., trying his best to calm her in her most stressed and ferocious moments).

Molly Cow: Before her rise to fame as another member of The Crackin'-Up Studios crew, Molly Cow, the half-pig half-cow offspring, could not keep a job to save her life! She was lazy, less focused, often slacking or ducking off, and/or giving up before she even set foot in the door! The funny thing is, she wouldn't care, and just go back to living with her parents. Seeing as though Molly's confident and care-free attitude was a necessity to bring on some laughs, all Billie had to do was offer a hand to the voluptuous, intriguing young woman and for some odd reason, this cartoon has managed to keep the job ever since. Side note, if you ask her what her "other" job would be whenever she brings it up, it would be shopping. She is ALL about the fashion!

Malachi (formerly known as "Michael Jamesking"): Yes, Malachi is actually an angel. AND, he is also a featuring asset to the team whenever needed. With the help of one of Veronica's potions (scroll down to reference Veronica's bio), he has the ability to shrink down to size on command. He also is a good line of defense if life-threatening danger ever be-falls the company, for even if he is a judgement angel, he is considered very powerful against a mortal (unless demon weapons are used against him). He is pure, friendly, and kind, however, you must not associate yourself with the presence of evil upon first meetings. He IS a jugement angel after all and will be quick to judge you and shame you for your choice of sin and avoid you like the plague while also be-littleing you. Ironically, the only exception to this treatment is Ozzan (his best friend in all universes) and Bendy (in the head-canon canon universe). Also note, Malachi was never always Malachi. Malachi was once Michael, a regular, normal, working business man who unfortunately got hit by a car on his morning rush to work.

Ozzan: Oh boy. This one's a bad one. If you thought Scratches (scroll up to reference Scratche's bio) was bad, wait until you get a load of this one! This foul-mouthed, ill-mannered, obnoxious, flirtatious pervert is somehow a necessity to The Crackin'-Up Studios. His crude sense of humor and anctics tend to get a good laugh out of adults more than oblivious children. He will flirt with anything, sleep with anything, hell even risk catching some sort of SEXUAL DISEASE for anything that has legs. This man lives, breathes, and embraces everything that is bad at every cost, every time. Its possibly why he was so close to Lucifer (the Devil) back when he was in Hell. Though, take caution. If you piss him off (which isn't really hard to do), he WILL tear you to bits and peices with his bare fists. Also, beware of tentacles and trendils ladies. He has them everywhere and can use them not only in battle, but also for...other things. So beware and..make sure your doors are locked.

Veronica Bat: Born "Daddy's Little Monster", Veronica is the daughter of Candy Bat and Valentine Naxxremis (formerly Bat)(She will be referenced in the next ref). For most of her life, she has lived with her mother and embraced her witch-hood, which usually ends up with the little gloom and doom bookworm getting bullied for being a "half-breed". However, her luck gets turned around when she meets Billie Bob (like a lot of these people's do) who helps instill in her to be happy to be herself and to screw what everyone else says..and to also get back at them at all costs. She looks up to Billie and Poochie as her "Aunties", though, has trouble getting along with her father. She was raised to believe she had left her and her mother and never really loved them. Which, is obviously not true, but, she has a hard time believing that. Once welcomed to the cast, Veronica is a huge hit with the goth little teen girls who aspire to be like her: beautiful and mysterious. Let's just hope she gets he powers under control first, for she struggles with that a great deal on screen for comical effect and off screen.

Patricia Greene Pig: (A/N: She probably has had the MOST change out of all of them, so beware) Patricia is Delloris's (scroll down for Delloris's bio) bestest friend since childhood. Snobby, rude, sassy, class. All of these combined makes her perfect for scenes where she's the girl that thinks she's too good for the male trying to win her heart. Likes are, their only trying to "woo" it for her money. Oh, did I mention she's very wealthy? Her and Delloris aren't friends for nothing. You have to have some sort of status when it comes to getting in goods with the mayor's one and only daughter. Also note that Patricia is an EXTREME germo-phobe and will pelt you down with germ-x if you've so much as TOUCHED an un-sanitized door knob.

Hank Kat: Hank Kat has been an aspired musician since he was a little boy. He has really known the struggles of what it's like to be broke from both of his poor parents. So, as a way to raise some money, he went out on the streets and played his father's old rusty trumphet for some pocket change. Crowds were so awed at his talent, before long, Hank was hitting the clubs to try and win over some cash to take care of his parents once he became of age. Similar to Wolfie, Poochie had just so happened to stumble upon him. Though they didn't exactly see eye-to-eye due to species war, they were able to put their differences aside the night they had spent together, dancing the night away. As they danced, Poochie would listen to this party-goer's story and become sympathetic for the poor fellow. Thus, she figured his wallet could be fed a little more and thus offered for him to be a support character on the team. With his toe-tappin', feed stompin', hand wavin; jams that he can play on trombone, trumphet, pretty much just about any instrument he could blow into, he would become not only a major asset to the supporting cast, but also the music, both at his day job at the studios and his night job in the clubs.

Puncho: This "unstoppable brick wall" can take a punch and also pack it. After all, they don't call him "Puncho" for nothing! Though he's not much of fan favorite unless it comes to his famous boxing episodes, Puncho is a well-served supporting cast in the crew. He's often seen alongside his partner, Scraps Skunk (scroll down for Scrap's bio), no matter what the situation. He has a temper just like Billie, girl Bon, and Ozzan, however, instead of unleashing it by yelling at coworkers and throwing large objects (Billie), chasing someone down the hall with a chainsaw (Girl Bon), or spewing a bunch of curse words that's enough to make a sailor blush (Ozzan), he lets out his steam in the ring. He is the undefeated champion (if you don't count his and Billie's first brawl in one of her posters) within the boxing ring and anyone who dare wants to challenge him in taking his belt, well. Better be prepared for the pain. Bring a lot of ice.

Scraps Skunk: A timid, shy soul who is pure and good at working the ring as a referee. He plays fair though, he always will support his bestest friend, Puncho no matter what. His often scared, frightened, shaky attitude is welcomed on screen whenever needed. He was often bullied through his childhood and unlike those who have toughed up from it, he only seemed to soften. Hell, even Billie has chewed him out for his overly push-over nature. Though, she gives up. For nothing can change this poor man's soft heart and kind ways.

Wallis Moose: What else to say about this guy besides him obviously being a horrible detective? After his first appearance as one in one of Billie's episodes, Wallis fell in love with the idea of being one and even off screen, tries to solve "mysteries" wherever he is needed. However, he always slips up short and makes himself to be a fool. How did he even earn a spot on the team? Well, to put it simple, Wallis is a stone cold, hard drunk. He drinks and drinks and drinks, and when he's hiccuping and stumbling all over the place, Billie couldn't help but find it amusing the first time they met. After all, the first night they met, they both danced drunkinly through the streets of Nightwalk Bay, where they somehow met. As kooky as it sounds, it actually happened. Believe me.

Chico Georgina Chick: This once poor broken flapper was able to leave her broken past of having to prostitute herself on the streets and go some nights starving behind. Coincidentally, Chico was given another opportunity at a better life by Hank Kat (scroll up for Hank's bio), who happened to run into her at one of the clubs and show her a much better life than what she was living by offering her a position at the studios and materialization through the machine. Now a re-born, classy lady, this former flapper...heh...well, let's be honest. Girl loves to party and dance like there's none tomorrow, is ready to bring all the club's joy and bump to the table on screen. Hank is often seen by her side, playing away on his trumphet while she dances on top of a table. Nothing too promiscuous or provocitive. Want to keep the adult's attention but not as much. She's known as the party girl out of the group and also knows a thing or two about fashion. Also, keep her as FAR away from Molly (scroll up for Molly's bio) as possible..they fight a lot.

Delloris Acorn: Delloris is the beloved daughter of the mayor of Toon City, within the alternate world where cartoons "live". Her mother died giving childbirth and though she never knew her mother. She was always expected to act lady-like and proper, is why she carries herself that way. Though, the day Billie met Delloris and her father and was allowed to spend the day with her, Billie turned her upside down and all around. To the point Delloris came home, dress cut into a tank-top, short short overalls, knee-high socks, messy hair, and busted shoes. Billie's excuse was they were pig wrestling (no pun intended Patricia). Her father was awfully upset and almost demanded Billie to be arrested, however, Billie's sly deal to offer Delloris a spot at the studios was the only thing that saved her from some jail time. Now, while away from her rich and perfect life as the mayor's "little princess", she's allowed to get down and dirty. Especially on screen where down and dirty are necessary for some laughs.

Mad Mouse (also known as "Maddison K Mouse"): Why is this mouse so quiet and mysterious? Why does he never speak or even take off his goggles? Wait, is this mouse even a "he" at all? Well, yes and no. To put a long story short, back in these days and times of the early 1900s, women weren't taken seriously. Even toon women. Born a genius, the only way to get people to notice her freakishly large brain talent is to disguise herself as a man and as to go as "Mad Mouse" instead of "Maddison Mouse". However, her little secret couldn't be kept that long, for an incident in her labs caused her to lose part of her disguise and have to come clean to Billie, Poochie, and Wolfie. It was through them who helped her realize that, no matter who you are, your voice deserved to be heard no matter what. From that point on, this support cast member decided to cease wearing the disguse and be her actual self. Though, I wouldn't mess with this quiet little genius. She's a little...mad (crazy), as the legends and cartoons portray her as.

[herboponics]

The Complete Guide To Hydroponic Sanitation & Sterilization

Sterilizing and sanitizing hydroponic equipment is really important. Why is that?

Diseases

Priority for cleanliness in your grow room affects the health of your plants. If you do not keep your room clean you are opening up pathways for disease and fungal pathogens.

Unclean Produce

It would harm your health if you are not being clean in your grow room and around your plants. You are going to be harvesting produce that is not clean and probably not healthy for your customers.

Certifications

Another reason why cleanliness and sanitation are important would be certifications and standards. There are many certifications and standards out there whether you're trying to grow organic or get any other certification.

There are usually very detailed standards when it comes to cleanliness and sanitation. So make sure you check with that specific licensing board for that certification to make sure you are doing everything correctly.

Difference between sanitation versus sterilization

Sanitation is just general cleanliness of your grow rooms. So things like removing dead plant material from your towers cleaning up any spills or any messes sweeping mopping cleaning out your filters scrubbing down and keeping your harvest and planting area clean and well prepped. These are things that all make sanitation and sterilization seem much different. Sterilization refers to killing microbial life like bacteria, microbes, fungi, anything small like that.

Sanitation and sterilization are typically accomplished with things like hydrogen peroxide bleach and antibacterial products like Lysol. It is essential to make sure you are killing off the microbial life. So, in conclusion, you will be wanting to use both sanitation and sterilization in combination to make sure that your grow room is as clean and healthy as it can possibly be.

Materials you need to use

A various array of cleaning utensils like scrubby sponges stiff bristle brushes are needed. Long handle brushes are great for getting in hard-to-reach areas like your reservoir when you want to clean that out. It is also very important to have gloves and eye protection you will be using some various chemicals throughout your sanitation and sterilization processes.

You also need things like scissors to help you remove dead plant material that may be clinging to your plants. You will also need various cleaning agents to help complete this. You will have things like bleach and hydrogen peroxide. Bonus points if you go for food grade hydrogen peroxide - it is a little bit more highly concentrated than what you can buy on the store shelf. However, if you can't get that easily regular peroxide will work.

We also like to use an agent for general sanitation around the room. That's just for cleaning up spills and messes that are not killing microbial life. So a general degreaser like this works really well if you don't like using things like that. You can definitely use vinegar for cleaning that will work as well. One more option that we use for sanitization that you might not have up there is an ozone machine. Now ozone can be pumped into the air of your grow room and it can sterilize basically anything it comes into contact with including human life, which makes it a little bit dangerous. Because you cannot be around while that ozone machine is running.

If you are using ozone to help sanitize your hydro solution by pumping that ozone into your nutrient reservoir, it is much safer for human use. You don't have to worry about the toxicity of having that ozone running and having people nearby. So you can add ozone in your reservoir to help keep that clean.

Obviously, you would not want to just go dumping bleach or peroxide into your reservoir willy-nilly. You're probably going to kill your plants. There is a safe amount of peroxide that you can add to your reservoir while you have plants in it bleach however I would not recommend adding while you have plants in your system.

Bleach is more for sterilizing things while you have nothing in your system. So you can flush it out and start fresh and obviously with cleaning agents. For sanitation, these really probably should not be getting into your reservoir. They probably will kill your plants however using these to clean things around the general area of your plants is perfectly safe as long as you are not getting them on the foliage.

How To Clean The System

First, start with sanitizing and sterilizing your room so you would want to sweep and mop your floors. You would want to clean scrub down your walls things like that anything to keep your room just neat and tidy have fewer problems with mess. You're going to have fewer problems with plant diseases. You want to keep your equipment sanitized and sterilized as well - this one is really important. You want to keep your hydro system clean and sterilized so you want to keep all the tools that you use with it cleaned and sterilized.

You're opening up the possibility of infection in your plants every single time you cut with a non sterilized piece of equipment. That is the key to limiting the spread of disease. The more cleaning that we do for our equipment with a vertical system the better. That helps you keep the top lines very cleaned out and prevents clogging. We also like to vacuum out the drainage that keeps any debris out from clogging up our drainage and causing floods. And generally, we just like to give a good sterilized wipe down of tower faces, gutters, rack faces - anything like that, keep it nice and clean. When it comes to your reservoir you will either want to occasionally scrub down the sides of the reservoir or you can use a pressure washer if you don't have a pressure washer.

This is where a big brush really comes handy to reach into those hard to get places of your reservoir. But once you have scrubbed it down you can always go ahead and sterilize your reservoir with something like bleach or peroxide. And then flush your tank out; fill it up with clean fresh water and start new. We also like to keep our filters very clean - remember to check your swirl filter. If you're using a larger system that one gets all your large particulate matter.

This is important especially if you're running something like ozone or hydrogen peroxide on a regular basis in your reservoir. Otherwise just by keeping your Y-filter cleaned out and sanitized is good enough when you're cleaning your tower media. Remember to remove as many roots as you can. You also may want at some point to sterilize the media from your towers. You can do that with dilute bleach and you can also do that with hydrogen peroxide. There are two ways you can go about doing this - you can either put these into your reservoir or run them through the towers. And let it cycle through your entire system. If you are doing bleach, remember to flush the system after doing that another option is to get a flood table tray. That you can actually dunk that tower media into your dilute bleach solution.

So you may be asking yourself we've cleaned just about everything in the grow room.

Now, what about the plants? Do you sanitize and sterilize the plants? You may want to remove your dead growth. If you leave that behind, it can open you to fungal or bacterial infections in your plants or any other nasty diseases like that. You don't necessarily need to sterilize your plants all the time. A lot of these sterilizing agents will kill your plants, however, you can do things like fungicidal sprays and dunks.

But know that if you do need to sanitize and sterilize your plants, there are fungicides available to help you do that whenever you want to be sanitizing and sterilizing. This is a very wide open subject that's up for debate it really depends on the size of your system. If you're doing just a little home system, you can supply yourself. You're probably not going to be cleaning stuff out as much as someone who has an organic certification and are producing thousands of crops. They're going to be cleaning all the time.

Usually, most people in a hobby market can get away with just cleaning when they need to, so it doesn't cause problems of fungal infections. Bacterial infections don't cause drainage and flow problems within their reservoir pumps, drip emitters. So you don’t get to know. If you have a certification or a license, check with that licensing board that certification board for their cleaning standards and their schedule. If you are not licensed and not certified, we still recommend keeping up to a regular cleaning schedule.  Try doing everything at least once a week if not more frequently. You may need to do it more frequently to prevent things like clogs. And you're going have random spills and messes if you do not do it. Remember that cleaning is almost a daily activity in the professional hydroponic world.

Safety Guide

We're going to give you a little bit of safety do's and don'ts for these two topics to make sure you're not making any large mistakes in your hydroponic setup. There are lethal doses of these cleaning and sanitation products that we have listed here. Obviously, you should not be using super-strength cleaners and degreasers on plants. You should not be dumping these into your reservoirs. You're going to kill your plants if you do that. Some of these other ones like hydrogen peroxide can be used in hydroponic solutions with living plants.

In very small amounts, vinegar is also very safe. However, bleach is going to kill your plants pretty quickly. There must be gloves and safety glasses to protect your hands and eyes. They can be fairly harsh chemicals. Remember if you do go the route of peroxide and obtain food grade hydrogen peroxide remember that food grade is much more concentrated than what you get on the store shelf in a little bottle. It actually needs to be treated like a caustic substance at that concentration until it is diluted in water.

Ozone can be toxic to humans. If you are pumping ozone into the air you should not have anyone working in that area. However, you can pump ozone into a liquid into your hydro reservoir and that is safe to work around as long as you're not running it constantly.

For more information and to get your own hydroponics setup, visit Herboponics.