#we want a nest egg to move out of state

[platinumrosetail]

Ok weighter block and request block is Killin me so I thought about this ask

Can you do any 5 ships from any fandom you do x female half spider baby reader

Like reader is in her egg and the egg falls into one of the ships hands and then they say the reader there's now please and thank you

Ooooh interesting. Also everyone who reads this If you don’t like any of the ships I ship then either skip that ship or move on from this post as I don’t care if you don’t like it that’s your opinion and I’m not going to just stop shipping them because you guys don’t like it as it’s my opinion and we all have different opinions and different ships so do take that into consideration before you go wild and comment something you shouldn’t as I’ll just delete it anyway, this is your first and last warning, thank you.

Warning: noob author, female child reader, platonic yandere characters, and others.

Characters: sinbad x jafar (magi), tighnari x cyno (genshin impact), muzan x yoriichi (demon slayer),

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Magi!sinbad x jafar:

Drakon found an egg while out picnicking with his wife, he believes the egg was either abandoned or something happened terrible happened to the egg’s parents.

(Remember that she said half so the spouse could be female and the spider half could be male or we could go the male x male route as magic does exist and it could help make that happen and maybe even without magic.)

He decided to bring you to his king and his wife so that they could decide on what should happen next.

Sinbad was curious on why one of his oldest friend brought an egg to him and his wife until he heard the reason.

Jafar decided to take care of the egg as if the egg is in the wrong hands like kou empire then danger will soon come with whatever is inside the egg becoming a weapon of sorts and didn’t want that to happen again like it did with him.

(It’s been a long while since I last seen magi sinbad so I could be remembering it wrong or something but I think that kinda happened with jafar like he was turned into a weapon until he met sinbad and all I could be wrong.)

Sinbad was onboard as he was thinking of having a child with jafar, he wouldn’t mind if the first one wasn’t from both him and jafar as it would help them get started on how parents should act.

When you hatched you were nothing like sinbad, jafar, and the generals were thinking you’d be, it would seem you’re arachnes what with the spider features you have but there’s also some other creatures feature they can see but it’s less than your spider half of what they can see.

Your spider half allows you to climb on walls (unless the other half is also something that can climb on walls then ignore that lol) so you’re a troublemaker if you want to do something but your parents, uncles and aunts won’t allow you, though jafar seems to always be able to get you down whether it’s by coaxing you, getting you down with his strings or using his weapon on his strings to climb up there and get you himself. You mostly get this influence from watching sinbad and what with sinbad teaching you some things you shouldn’t know which gets him in trouble, the two wouldn’t have it any other way.

Genshin!tighnari x cyno:

Collei found an egg while scouting with some of the other rangers she described to bring it home as she could tell by the state of the nest that the parents are no more.

Tighnari was surprised to see collei carrying a fairly large egg after getting back from routine scouting to make sure the forest is in check.

Once she explained what she saw tighnari decided to raise the egg as there was no telling what could happen to it once it hatch especially with the fatui and their experiments that they do on people and creatures.

Cyno was surprised like tighnari first was at the egg being in his shared home with tighnari, though he soon understood when both tighnari and collei explained what she had seen and the possible outcome of the parents along with what might happen if the egg falls in the wrong hand seeing as how they don’t know what could be inside the egg until it hatch’s.

They took care of you until the day you hatched, making sure you were warm and such, there were a few scares but thankfully nothing bad has happened as far as they know.

The day you finally hatched was when it was thundering outside making tighnari, collei, and cyno plus the others in the small village stay inside so as to now get soaked and sick.

You were a hybrid, with your spider half being the most noticeable feature than you other half. Thankfully all his equipment to do a check up on you were inside the house so he can give you a check up after you hatched instead of going out in the rain which would most likely get him sick and that won’t be good especially with you just hatching the same day as the storm and you can get sick as well if he does, you were checked up and the results came out fine as you’re healthy like any other baby born.

Demon slayer!muzan x yoriichi:

Yoriichi had found an egg while scouting for any demons that would come that night but all he found was the egg.

Yoriich brought you to muzan and suggested that they adopt the egg and care for it.

Muzan out of fear of angering yoruichi and having his end by him agreed, not knowing that he will also get the same parental instinct to take care of you.

Muzan made sure that the upper and lower moons are to take care of the new demon heir and if harm should come to the egg then he would gladly make them wished they protected the egg better.

Muzan kept the egg away from Douma as he knew that the rainbow-eyed upper moon is unpredictable what with him having no emotion and to make sure that the egg is safe he leaves it with kokoshibo and akaza as he knows those two are more responsible than Douma.

Though sadly the two usual babysitter had to be unavailable as they were on a mission to find the blue spider lily and the rest of the upper and lower moon wasn’t really trustworthy to take care of you except maybe nakime but she is busy as well, so muzan sadly left the egg in Douma’s care not without giving Douma a warning that he should not bring danger to the egg and protect it at all cost or else consequences will happen.

You had hatched in douma’s care a little before muzan had arrived so while waiting for muzan douma began telling stories about muzan even though only he understood himself as your still just a baby and too young to understand him talking, all you knew is that this male with the rainbow eyes is not your mother who you heard through your egg all the time in the past. Muzan arrived a minute or so later expecting to see his child still in a egg but is shocked to see that there is a baby with spider like feature surrounded by egg shells, he immediately knew that you had hatched as he can see the slime that is usually in a egg on your small spider hybrid like form who is giving a bored look at Douma who still is telling stories about muzan. Muzan quickly left with you after rewarding Douma with more of his blood and went to his home to introduce you to yoriichi.

(A/n: hope y’all like it! I sadly couldn’t do 5 fandoms as it was hard to find two other fandoms that could go with this but I still hope y’all like it 😁 anyway I think that’s it so hope y’all have a wonderful day/evening/night!!)

[levy120]

Different kinds of Nightmares in the Rayman Franchise (Headcanons)

I feel like rambling a bit about my headcanons concerning the different kind of Nightmares in the Rayman franchise.

While editing Reverb I came across a segment where this is touched upon, but I just don't have the time to spare to infodump all of those little nuances without interrupting the story at large, so I thought instead of rambling to the folk in Discord I could just take this here for once :D

In the Dreamcatcher Lore Nightmares are not created equal and there are definitive differences among them. There's a bit of a Hierarchy amongst these, too.

Examples include (in no particular order):

Shadowborn  Sentient Nightmares born from very strong negative feelings towards another individual. Jano (from Polokus) and Raymesis (from Rayman) are prominent examples of this. They usually are equally as powerful as their counterpart and inherit the dislike for the ‘original’ they spawned from.

Darkness Particularly Powerful Nightmares with mysterious origins. Usually shadowy creatures, sometimes amalgamations of multiple Nightmares.  As a raw force of nature they are usually driven by instinct and no more intelligent than an animal, with the exception of Mr. Dark. His intellect is what makes him particularly dangerous. Prominent Examples of this are (as stated above) Mr. Dark, the “Hades Hand” and “Dark Creatures” from Rayman Legends or “the Beast” from Dream Catcher (1). Arguably the Darkmess from Mario + Rabbids if we want to include this. 

Jano-Spawn Nightmares that were directly created by and from Jano; “the cute ones” - in his own words. These include the Mini Janos, the Psychlopses, the Antitoons. These can be used by Jano as scouts for him to scry and peer into the world without having to move from his spot by the Cave entrance. They usually sport an uncanny likeness to his own physique. Sometimes Minor Nightmares (like Boney Arms and Darkroots) are used for these purposes as well.

Magically Conjured Created with the purpose to be a living weapon. Not sentient, but highly dangerous and deadly to the touch. Notable examples include Bad Rayman from R1 and Shadow Rayman from the Haunted Paintings.

Corrupted Sentient beings that started out as regular dreamfolk but turned to “the dark side” at some point. Usually more powerful due to their broad experience and history. Prominent Examples include all the Bosses from Rayman 1 and Origins, Ales Mansay or Glombrox. Technically the Hoodlums if we want to stretch it, though Jano does not consider them part of his jurisdiction. (You do not mess with the Lums, the Lums are older than the Gods themselves).

Cave-Tethered Can be born off of anyone; any horrendous fear or bad dream in itself someone might have at night, may that be Polokus or your neighbor Teensy. These are born into and usually never leave the Cave of Bad Dreams and thus do not pose a threat to the Glade at large; but they are likely to cause trouble in the Cave itself and do not listen to anyone (not even Jano). Raymesis loves to “purge” them to let off steam. 

Flora E.g. Darkroots and Tulips. These are not sentient but are reactive to their surroundings. Those Nightmares are not usually created consciously and more so an effect of a Nightmare infestation to a plot of land (aka the ENTIRETY of the Land of the Livid Dead, the Cave of Bad Dreams). Not to be confused with the common Flora that just happens to be dangerous like the green darkroots or sea anemones.

The Livid Dead E.g. the toxic fumes with faces from R2, the Skeletal Arms from the Cave or the Tomb of Ancients, the Zombie Chickens or the inhabitants of the Land of the Livid Dead. What makes them exceptional is that they refuse to die (e.g. the First King) or are born undead (Zombie Chicken Eggs). These Nightmares have the means to repopulate naturally. Usually, they are content and peaceful if left alone, though they can be territorial or protective (of their nests or gardens e.g.). 

Not-Really-Nightmares

Minions Often confused for Nightmares this category encompasses anything that passes as regular Dreamfolk. The “Common Enemies” encountered in the games that are never seen redeemed and are actively out to cause trouble. E.g. the Lividstones and Hunters, less so territorial native wildlife, like the Piranha. Calling someone a "Nightmare" is a popular insult for people who are a nuisance (depending on the situation either used jokingly or as a legit slur).

Various Just because a character is an enemy doesn't strictly make them a Nightmare. The Knaaren are their own culture from their own god, and the Pirates were an outside force (which is why Polokus was willing to deal with them and Jano attempted to help by spreading rumors of a treasure hidden in his cave - but that's a headcanon for a different day :D)

Is all of this a shameless plug for my fic? Maybe :'D (you can find more about that here /cough). Is it me just wanting to Infodump? Also Yeah. I do it rarely enough here - and the Rayman Nightmares give me brainworms.

[dextixer]

On Conventions, and why it is good that Roosterteeth is getting rid of RTX.

So, many people have probably already noticed and have been made aware that RTX is not happening this year. I have seen many reactions to these news, anger, joy, satisfaction, dismay etc. What i have also seen is people asking some good questions and making some bad conclussions too, like for example the person talking about how RTX made RT money and the like, so i wanted to put my two cents in.

Do be aware that im not an expert, nor an event organizer myself, the information i will share here has been gathered mostly from the comments and statements made by organizers and those who have participated in these events.

Conventions arent profitable

First things first, everyone should keep this in their minds moving forward. CONVENTIONS ARE NOT PROFITABLE. There are exceptions of course, but at large, most conventions operate at a loss, especially those that occur in the United States.

It all comes down to cost versus earnings ratio, which more often than not, does not fall to the side of earnings. To make a convention, one has to organize a venue, staff, events, security, decorations, catering and many such associated details. Venues alone cost a LOT of money, this is not like me, a random Eastern European dude renting out a specially prepared cottage for a party with friends, Venues are specifically made and built for conventions, they are extremelly sought after and they KNOW it, as such their costs are often jacked up to high heavens, especially since things like location matter to them extremelly. The problem is even worse in the United States where many venues jack up the prices to, quite frankly, criminal ammounts.

Earnings for such events are also, not amazing. Lets remember, most of these conventions are fan-events. So if a convention isnt sponsored by a corporation, most of its earnings will be things like ticket sales, people renting out space for vendors etc, sometimes signatures and even auctions.

As such, most "profitable" conventions are the low-key ones. The ones that are small-scale, that can get cheaper venues, and thus save on the costs while being able to profit.

Big companies can afford to make big conventions at a loss because to them, its partially a flex and partially an advertisement for the company. Think of things like Blizzcon.

RT however is in a shit position of NOT being a big enough company to spend money willy nilly, but also, their conventions are not small enough, to turn in a profit either.

Cutting Fat is good

RT is not in a good state. Those critical of the show and the company in general have known that for a long time now, despite the crying and bleating of some of the biggest of fanatics that "RT IS DOING GREAT GUYS!" and other such nonsense. We know RT is in a shit state, they know that they are in a shit state, everyone with open eyes knows they are in a shit state.

As such, cutting costs is actually good.

For a long time RT has acted as a "big" company due to the success of RWBY. When RWBY blew up, so did RT, they expanded into other animated projects, started high-profile conventions, started hiring TOP class VA's etc. The thing is, the golden years dont always last.

Many a Youtuber has said as much over the years, many of them have shared that they know that they wont be popular forever, and those smart among them build up nest-eggs from the money they earn on Youtube and streaming in general.

If a youtuber refuses to accept that they are becoming less popular, well, their ending can be less than pretty. The same applies to companies like RT. After RWBY became less popular, RT did not have the golden goose anymore. They could not afford to make stupid financial decisions anymore.

So now, they are trimming the fat.

Which is good.

Possible brighter future

Hope for the best, but expect the worst, that is my current opinion on this. Trimming the fat and tightening up that belt might result in RT being able to squeeze out some smaller profile shows and earn enough money to possibly come back to RWBY, or at least make a movie to end it.

It might help the company, and as far as im aware, this is the right step to take. At the same time, this can also just... Not be enough.

[quotesfrommyreading]

For most people, discovering a frog living in your fence post would make you feel either kind of creeped out or kind of charmed. For one guy in Australia, it was a challenge: He decided to make it the sweetest pad possible. In a now-viral two-minute TikTok video, he designs and 3-D-prints his frog an elaborate home. He keeps adding features until the lucky amphibian has an attached pool, a downstairs mating pond with a tadpole ramp, and a predator-proof safe room.

This frog house was gleefully over the top, practically engineered to go viral with its renovations for “increased ribbit amplification” and a brushtail possum who occasionally likes to drink water from the pool. But frog houses as an idea are worth taking seriously. Animals don’t need much to get cozy in our backyards and balconies, as the world has already learned with birds. One ecologist found that bird feeding goes back at least 3,500 years; in the 18th century, the facades of Ottoman palaces and mosques were fitted with structures to house birds, who were seen as both holy and lucky. Birdhouses and bird feeders are so thoroughly part of human culture that purple martins in eastern North America nest almost exclusively in houses made by humans.

But why do birds get all the love? Building a little house for a frog to shelter in, or a pond where eggs can hatch and tadpoles can grow, is a great idea if you’ve got a place to put it. Even a tiny pondlet in a container on a patio can raise a whole amphibian generation. You can provide meaningful help to animals that need it, and participate in species conservation at home with very few downsides. Honestly, creating a backyard pond is probably better than putting up a birdhouse. Will someone please think of the urban amphibian?

Birds are beautiful, and they sing—it is no wonder we have long welcomed them into human spaces. At some level, it doesn’t even feel like sharing space, because birds live up high, in trees and on rooftops and telephone wires. They get the sky, and we get the land. Seems fair. But frogs? Inviting them into the garden can make you feel uneasy. Whereas birds are “so obvious and so charismatic,” Erin Sauer, an ecologist at the University of Arkansas who has studied both urban birds and urban amphibians, told me, frogs are “cryptic” and “camouflaged”—“they don't want you to find them.” Many frogs in temperate zones, including much of the United States, are brown and green, and more active at night. They are a subtle pleasure, compared with a crimson cardinal or an iridescent hummingbird.

It might not be obvious that some amphibians are probably living not too far from you, in part because they stay hidden. Frogs, newts, and salamanders exist in most cities. In New York, you can hear gray tree frogs call in Brooklyn Heights. In Los Angeles, the canyons of Griffith Park are filled with bumpy western toads. According to the biodiversity tracker iNaturalist, 28 species of amphibians have been spotted in Columbus, Ohio, including the colorful eastern red-backed salamander.

But amphibian populations are declining. Forty-one percent of amphibians are threatened with extinction, in part because of an ongoing fungal pandemic that as of four years ago had driven an estimated 90 species extinct. Frogs also have habitat needs that are “so specific,” Sauer said: They must have both water and land to complete their life cycle.

Still, if there are frogs near your home and some relatively protected route for them to travel, and you build a pond with vegetation around it, they will likely move in. An analysis of dozens of projects that created ponds for amphibians found that in every study, frogs showed up at some or all of the ponds. And many of the studies found that the number of species was similar or higher in created ponds than in natural ponds. Not all of those ponds were in cities, but another study looked at ponds in Portland, Oregon, and found similar results. The biggest predictor of how well a pond attracted frogs wasn’t whether it was real or fake, but the amount of plants growing in and around it.

Frog ponds aren’t very common residential features (yet), but it isn’t like no one thinks of amphibian-kind when designing their outdoor space. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has some advice for creating effective backyard conservation ponds for native wildlife. There are any number of guides online to building toad abodes, frog hotels, and general-purpose backyard frog ponds. Some gardeners install toad houses, hoping that a toad will move in and pay rent by eating common garden pests. You can even buy handmade toad houses on Etsy. And naturally, TikTok Frog House Guy is now selling frog houses as well.

It can be simple, and cheap, to invite amphibians over to your place. Tree frogs love to hang out inside vertical tubes, so simply pounding a few PVC pipes into the ground can create a little frog hotel. Building a cozy house for toads can be as easy as half-burying a broken pot. Making a frog pond is as straightforward as digging a hole; setting a commercial pond liner, an old bathtub, or even a plastic storage tote in the hole; and filling it with rocks and water. “You don’t need to 3-D-print some elaborate frog mansion,” Sauer told me.

I had called Sauer to set my mind at ease on one point: Would creating an artificial house or pond also create a transmission point for disease? She told me it wasn’t worth worrying about. Yes, multiple frogs might move into a pond or house, and they might touch if they mate, but frogs already gather in groups naturally, whereas birds at bird feeders can congregate in unusually high numbers. Feeders can pose a disease risk to birds, Sauer said: “You have a single place with one porthole, and they stick their faces in there and chew on things. And then their friends come over and do the same thing.” A frog pond can even bring in birds, who will use it to bathe and drink—with less chance of disease transmission.

There are very few downsides to catering to your local frogs, the biggest of which is that your backyard might have more mosquitoes—mosquitoes, like frogs, breed in water. To avoid that, you either need animals that will eat all of the mosquitoes (such as dragonflies or some tadpoles) or you need to keep the water moving. A solar-powered aerator costs about $30.

It is very possible that the frogs that show up to your patio water feature won’t be critically endangered species, but that’s okay. “We want to keep common species common so they don’t decline,” Sauer said. It all helps. Providing habitat for amphibians is important, but researchers are also working on frog houses that will actually help save frogs from the fungal pathogen. These houses would be like little greenhouses: hot enough to kill the fungus but not too hot for the frog’s comfort.

Not everyone can or wants to build a frog house. But they might be interested in putting a pot full of wildflowers for pollinators on their balcony. Saving species in the 21st century isn’t just about protecting big, undeveloped parks—although we need those too. It is also about figuring out how to coexist with the many species that can thrive in the urban, suburban, exurban, and agricultural landscapes we’ve made. That we’ve shared space with birds for thousands of years proves we can do it.

There’s evidence that this is already happening, and birdhouses and frog houses are just the beginning. People are adding bee hotels and bat houses, and planting milkweed for endangered monarch butterflies to lay their eggs on. It can be dizzying to think about all the species that need help right now, but engaging in everyday conservation can also just be fun, helping to turn neighborhoods into corridors of habitat for creatures such as frogs. Our cities can be wetlands too, at least in spots. Our kids can watch tadpoles on summer days. And in the spring, we can listen to the frogs sing at dusk.

  —  You Should Build a Frog Pond

[jellyfishloveletterghosts]

Any other headcanons for Steve x kilt guy? I don't know why it works, but it really really does

Not going to lie forgot I had stuff in my inbox >.<

Thank you for the ask <3 these mostly specifically go with a half formed Barbie Dream House BnB wip I have for them.

Kenneth is on the swim team with Steve. But his other sport is wrestling, he probably does weight training too.

Steve always gets turned on when they play wrestle and he always finds himself pinned because Kenneth knows all the moves. It always leads to a sweaty good time for the both of them.

Kenneth gets a scholarship for wrestling, is offered a couple and takes the one nearby the little state school that accepts Steve.

They get a little apartment, a shitty two bedroom they can barely afford. They wanted one bedroom, would have been more in their price range but the appearance of separate bedrooms is safer.

Steve finds a job at a little family owned grocery store, ends up working in the bakery. Kenneth finds a flexible job doing construction.

They're getting by, but they don't get a lot of time for each other. They do their best to have a date night on the rare days they both have it off.

When Steve’s grandpa passes she leaves the old family cabin to him in her will. Original the plan is to clean it up and sell it.

Kenneth insists on going with him when he decides to spend his summer getting it ready. Steve got a little money in the will as well, enough for them to take the summer off and add a little to a nest egg for the future. Or whatever emergency expense comes up next at least.

The cabin is a disaster. No one's been there in a long time and the place hasn't been well kept. The yard is over grown, there's more than one hole in the roof. Steve is so upset at seeing what’s happened to a place that holds so many cherished childhood memories he puts his fist through a wall.

Kenneth realizes how important the place actually is to Steve and offers up a different plan. “We could make it into a bnb. People eat those places up. We just need to clean it up and you happen to know the hottest contractor in town who will do the job for a very reasonable fee.”

Steve loves the idea and is more than happy to pay that fee when he’s not hopped up on painkillers. He’s a little too unsteady and queasy stomached before they lower his does as his arm starts to heal.

There’s a stash of barbies in the basement, in an old panic room his grandpa put in after his grandmother was home during a robbery. She took the guy out but his grandpa wanted her to have some place to go in case it was more serious next time.

The only time he got to play with them was when he was visiting, the majority belonging to his cousin and when his grandma noticed he liked them she started making more just appear when he was around.

Kenneth notices also has always known Steve likes the bright colors in decor. “You know every god bnb has a theme.” He doesn't know that but he notices the way Steve lights up at the idea. “We could do a theme. People love barbie.” Kenneth has an aunt that goes to doll shows and know there's a following at least.

[teecupangel]

Ark: Aberration Edition

Submitted by @saberamane

I’m back with the next ‘Ark Survival Evolved AC Edition’!

They have finally figured out the whole thing going on with ‘Scorched Earth’, defeat the Manticore (which Desmond is super bummed out that he couldn’t tame that thing, it was so cool), they ‘ascend’ again, and the new area they land in is horrible. But also pretty cool. Desmond loves all the bio luminescent creatures to be found on ‘Aberration’.

(Just a note, they all have a Rock Drake, so it won’t be listed with their other tames.)

Desmond:

Aberrant Carno

Aberrant Equus

1 Ravager (She’s more ‘pet’ than ‘tame’, she’s pretty but not ‘high level’ so she stays at base. Basically she’s an event color dino.)

Basilisk

Seeker (non-tameable, but it’s Desmond. He wanted the little eldritch flying creature, so he got it.)

Reaper King (Of course)

Shoulder Pet: Bulbdog (He finds it right away and needed it. It’s one of those ‘it’s so ugly it’s cute’ scenarios.)

Altair:

Aberrant Otter

Aberrant Purlovia

Aberrant Pulmonoscorpius

Aberrant Parasaur

Karkinos

Aberrant Megalosaurus

Shoulder Pet: Shinehorn (I just enjoy the thought of Altair having an adorable little goat on his shoulder all the time.)

Ezio:

Aberrant Ovis

Aberrant Spino

Aberrant Paracer

Aberrant Doedicurus

Roll Rat

Aberrant Baryonyx

Shoulder Pet: Featherlight (It reminds him of Petruccio, and all the feathers he used to collect for his little brother. Needless to say, anything so much as looks at this featherlight wrong dies.)

Ratonhnhaké:ton:

Aberrant Megalania

Aberrant Iguanodon

Aberrant Direbear

Pack of Aberrant Raptor’s

Pack of Ravagers

Aberrant Sarco

Shoulder Pet: Glowtail (They are noted as having the quickest recharge of their light of all ‘glow pets’, which would greatly benefit Ratonhnhaké:ton as he’s typically the ‘hunter’)

=========================

Additions by teecup:

The Ark Survival Evolved AU idea (this one and this one too)

Tames for The Island Ark

Tames for the Scorched Earth Ark

At this point, they have all agreed to just let Desmond do whatever thing he does and they don’t even bat an eye anymore if Desmond returns with some kind of monster/animal that shouldn’t be tameable. At some point, it’s become a running joke about what next untameable beast Desmond would return with. Altaïr is currently winning with his suggestion of “God” and the deadpan way he stated it and the fact that they all know he’s an atheist makes it all the more funnier and it’s really hard to top that one.

(All of their Rock Drakes have the same ‘nest’ and a few months later, they learned that one of them laid an egg and they’re not entirely sure which one it is?)

Desmond:

His Abberant Carno is named Rex The Second because, according to him, Rex Two sounds a bit ‘sad’.

His Equus is usually used for patrols nearby.

His Ravager follows him around the base and likes to get pets but doesn’t like it when others try to pet him. He actually just followed Desmond into the base and just… never left.

His Basilisk is a jerk. He likes to burrow deep underneath the ground then pop out whenever someone passed by. Nobody gets surprised anyway since the Basilisk glows as light blue in their Eagle Vision but still… jerk move. But he mostly accompanies Desmond whenever he goes out because it’s a good companion for taming other monsters/beasts.

Altaïr had researched on the Seekers before to check if they could be tamed and, if not, what’s the best way to take them own, and that’s how he theorized that the reason why Desmond got a Seeker is because it sees Desmond as a light source. His Seeker is always energetic and acts the same way wild Seekers would act whenever they are near light sources like a Bulbdog which earns Desmond the nickname “Our very own Bulbdog”

Oh god. Oh my god. Are we saying that Desmond got impregnated by a female Reaper since that’s the only way to get a Reaper ingame? Are we going for that? Because I hella am in for that! Just imagine Altaïr checking Desmond after an encounter with a Ravager Queen that left him alive and him gravely saying, “You’re… pregnant.” and everyone just stares at Desmond and Desmond is like “It’s not like that! Oh my god, no!” In the end, Desmond ‘shoots’ out the baby Reaper and takes care of it like… I guess a child of his own (oh man, the angst that will happen when they leave this Ark and have to leave the Reaper behind, yeeesss)

Desmond likes to keep the Bulbdog with him always and its deathly afraid of the Seeker but the Seeker just ignores it and goes for Desmond every time.

Altaïr:

Altaïr’s Otter mostly does whatever it wants but he serves mostly as Altaïr’s assistant, bringing him tools or holding things for Altaïr while he’s busy with his current project.

His Purlovia primarily just lazes around in his workshop but he always likes to burrow all over and is sorta maybe best friends with Desmond’s Basilisk? Or maybe they’re burrowing rivals, no one is really sure.

His Pulmonoscorpius usually accompanies him whenever he’s away from their base as it’s a good bodyguard and its poison can be used to weaken or tamed any beast that catches his fancy (and the poison is also used for some of his creations). He got his Pulmonoscorpius from a cave too so he uses that as a mount whenever he goes to a cave so other monsters/beasts won’t be alerted.

His Parasaur loves to gather berries. No one knows why but he just lets him do what he wants since Parasaur also warns them of any dangers near their base that he sees during his berry picking.

What his Karkinos lacks in speed, he makes up with his sheer utility. If his Otter is his assistant in the base, the Karkinos is his assistant when out in the wilds and there have been many encounters that ended in their favor thanks to him.

No, Desmond, this Megalosaurus will not be named Megalosaurus the Second. No. Megalosaurus Junior is also out of the question. Stop it.

Shinehorn is a good lightsource. That’s the reason why he’s on Altaïr’s shoulder. Yup. That’s the only reason why. No, the fact that Desmond had been the one to give it to him had nothing to do with Altaïr’s preferential treatment to the damn goat.

Ezio:

To continue with the whole ‘naming farm creatures’, these herd of Ovis have a Haytham, an Abbas (the one that always tries to chew Altaïr’s robes) and a Lucy (named after Lucrezia Borgia or so Desmond says)

His Spino mainly patrols all of Ezio’s other tames and he actually let Desmond name it Spino the Second.

His Paracer served as their first base actually while they were looking for a good place to ‘settle down’ as Desmond likes to call it. He’s their oldest tame and he mainly just lounges in the base as a reward for having to deal with all the shenanigans the group had to go thru while he served as their mobile base.

Doedicurus likes to roll around and, really, Ezio enjoys watching his Doedicurus roll around to beat the crap of any creature that tries any funny business.

Roll Rat was used to help build their base, mostly by rolling onto obstacles to destroy them. Now, he’s mainly used to harvest wood and mushrooms. Hell, he and Parasaur sometimes return at the same time filled with berries they have collected. Desmond called it berry-bonding.

Baryonyx is Ezio’s primary companion when he goes outside and also their main source of underwater resources.

Featherlight is nicknamed ‘asfoor’ which means little sparrow and Ezio has a soft spot for it. He once gifted Desmond one of the feather that had fallen from the Featherlight and Desmond is the only person who understands how much the little creature reminds Ezio of his family (not just Petruccio but Maria Auditore as well)

Ratonhnhaké:ton

Megalania is always almost on walls or ceilings and helps by ambushing hostile creatures while they’re focused on Ratonhnhaké:ton and his ‘main force’.

Iguanodon usually helps with farming and gathering resources in the base but he’s important when Ratonhnhaké:ton leaves for long periods of time as he helps hunt food and resources they may need in the wild (like poison that Ratonhnhaké:ton can use to craft items)

Ratonhnhaké:ton refused to call his new Dire Bear Dire Bear The Second because that he felt like he was comparing it to his previous Dire Bear. He did agree to naming it Teddy Bear though. (he doesn’t know what teddybear actually means)

His main force is composed of a pack of Aberrant Raptors that all have names and Ratonhnhaké:ton can distinguish each of them with a glance. They’re very well coordinated with the ambush tactics of the Megalania and like to corral their enemies to where the Magalania is waiting to pounce them.

The pack of Ravagers is actually the children of the Ravager that followed Desmond to their base. Every time they’re in the base, they stay with their mother (which means Desmond takes care of them). They’re very energetic and the Raptors actually usually have to corral them to stay in formation.

Sarco is Ratonhnhaké:ton’s preferred mount whenever there is a need to dive somewhere.

Glowtail prefers to wrap around Ratonhnhaké:ton neck and sometimes around the crown of his head.

[adultswim2021]

Moral Orel #42: “Nesting” | November 20, 2008 - 12:15AM | S03E12

It’s the penultimate episode of Moral Orel, unless you count the bonus episode Abstinence or the special Beforel Orel. This one starts off with a scene taking place during Offensiveness, in which Orel gets eggs banned. Here we learn that the way Orel got eggs banned was by making an appeal to the Mayor, who he (and we) find out is Orel’s father, Clay. Clay Puppington has been the mayor this entire time! This is the “stinking dead-end job” he’s been complaining about for the entire series!

After these scenes, we join up with the present, where it’s Easter in Moralton. Miss Censordoll finds out that Orel was shot by his father, and begins hatching her scheme to gain control of the town. In Alone, we see her lording over a cardboard diorama of Moralton, and the opening sequence of this episode reminds us of this. 

There is yet another time jump forward to November. Clay is running against Miss Censordoll for mayor as an incumbent. Orel, dealing a blow of betrayal to his father, is Censordoll’s campaign manager, and even appears in a pamphlet in his still-hobbled state, pointing out the fact that he shot his own goddamned flesh and blood.

It’s established throughout the episode that Clay shares Censordoll’s passion for eggs, as sinful as they are. It’s tied to his own shameful issues with his Oedipal complex and his mother’s death he caused as a boy. When they have a debate, he cracks up, and Censordoll realizes that she can control him and concedes the election. The episode ends with them having a chat at the bar, which eventually ends with her seducing him. 

This one is fairly complicated, and requires a decent memory from watching Offensiveness. Easy to lose sight of is just how much the episode moves ahead through time. There’s also the detail of Orel and Clay’s relationship; Clay had been shamefully ignoring and avoiding Orel for the past six months.

The reason this detail is sorta glossed over (it’s mentioned in dialogue), is that originally this season was meant to be 20 episodes, and Dino originally wanted to have an episode or two that showed Clay avoiding Orel. The scene in Clay’s study where Orel remains stonefaced while his father dresses him down for his betrayal is the first time they’ve spoken directly to one another since Easter. At this point in the series, we see Orel has fully lost respect for Clay.

According to the video commentary for this episode (viewable on Youtube at the moment, also linked to from the Moral Orel wiki in an alternate link) This episode was originally going to coincide with the 2008 election, which at the time of production looked like it might have been Hillary Clinton vs. McCain. This was mostly a coincidence, but they were interested in playing that up for the promotion of the episode. It wound up being the Big O limo man instead of Hilldog as we all know. 

The scene where Clay morphs into his little boy self sounds like it wasn’t scripted; Scott recorded his lines and slipped into the little boy voice on the word “mommy”, and as Dino describes it he decided to destroy Scott’s subtlety and animate Clay as his little boy self for one shot. I like it fine! Animation is supposed to be visually expressive!

The song at the end, when Clay is macking on Censordoll, was originally supposed to have legible lyrics. It was a mashup of "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" and "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" called "I Saw Santa kissing Grandma’s Corpse". Eben Schleter wrote the lyrics and Dino described them as being horrifically shocking. It’s on the official, but very limited, Moral Orel soundtrack that was distributed to the cast, crew, and some fans. It’s unavailable on YouTube as far as I can tell, which is weird. You’d figure someone would’ve uploaded it there. Maybe I will. Not sure if the horrifically shocking part is in the segment we get; seems like pretty normal stuff to me.

Dino also decided against using it because he didn't want people to think there was a connection between Clay kissing Censordoll as a "corpse". Censordoll's obsession with eggs is because she's barren (because her parents removed her reproductive organs as a child), for those of you who are connection-hounds.

Finally: my proprietary tidbit, which is special, and I am special for knowing: The “stinkin’ dead-end job” running gag with the mayor reveal was actually an unrealized concept from The Ben Stiller Show, which Dino wrote for. There was a running sketch which was a bad sitcom about an obnoxious sockpuppet named Skank who was the patriarch of a human family. Dino had pitched an idea that Skank would come home muttering “stinkin’ dead-end job!” on some repeated basis and that they’d eventually reveal that he was the mayor. The reason “Nesting” was selected as one of the episodes to produce for season three was because Dino really wanted to make sure we got this payoff with Clay, and this joke was planned since the beginning of the series. I unfortunately knew that tidbit before Moral Orel even was a thing, so I also knew and was perhaps mildly robbed.

44 NIGHTS OF OREL

This premiere was preceded by a repeat of Offensiveness, which is to be expected... to say the least!

MAIL BAG

@snusuwiwjs asks:

What is your opinion on Barenaked Ladies? It looks like a scrapped finale that got replaced by Live at Fillmore.

I never actually did watch those Gametap era Space Ghost episodes, but I will at some point for this blog, so I have no idea! If you're saying you think that it was an intended finale for television, that's pretty interesting. My understanding is that those episodes weren't actually written by anyone connected to the original Coast to Coast. It is weird thinking there are episodes of that show I haven't watched, but here we are!

8SLV2P77djc. You can go ahead and type that into youtube, PRINCESS

Wow, that's so weird. Is that a talking chicken? What the hell are these Cartoon guys smoking? LMFAO

KON! writes:

RE: MORAL ORAL EPISODE S03E11 "SACRIFICE" I can't believe Dino did a Horace & Pete years before Louie

Except I didn't have to pay five dang dollars for it!!! I had to pay $200 dollars a month for a cable package that included hundreds of channels I did not need or want, and spend one half of my waking hours at work in order to afford it. Morally that's a much better deal because Louie grabbed his dick at some broad and said "nice fuckin' model" to her (sexist).

[lady-morta]

Open Starter

“Okay, so, let’s go over this one more time,” Morta said with a sigh, turning on her heel and slowly walking back towards the large, circular window overlooking the city street below. “We agree upon the creation of three score new ferrymen, the creation of nine more way points, the implementation of a three strike warning system before termination, and three weeks of excused leave. There, did I miss anything?

There was a loud squawk, causing Morta to turn around abruptly. She looked over the countless sets of eyes looking back at her, and scowled as the one squawk turned into a dozen. Soon, feathers were ruffling and she threw her head back to stare at the rafters before shaking it and rolling her eyes. Things used to be so much simpler when she didn’t have to rely on her servants to help her do her job. Alas…without her scythe, this was where she was at. 

“You are constructs. You do need family leave! You can’t reproduce!”

The squawking continued. Soon, it was a cacophony of sound. Though her ferrymen took on the form of corvids, they were quite sentient. For the most part, they only spoke to her--but that didn’t mean that a few of the other deities couldn’t communicate with them if they so wished. With the amount of noise they were making, Morta couldn’t imagine a reason any of the other deities would want to commune with her ferrymen.

 Morta raised her hand, releasing a crackle of icy energy. Silence fell through the room--the secondary attic of one of the few remaining cathedrals within Vievecor--though the birds remained unsettled. “Fine. In the event that one of you manages to reproduce, you can have family leave. Six weeks. And no, adoption does not count! I will not have you going out and stealing pigeon eggs in order to get an extended vacation until they’re out of the nest.”

Another squawk from the background. 

“I don’t care if you’re indignant--don’t pretend there isn’t at least one of you here thinking about it. I’m looking at you Odjir. Now, are we done? We’ve been cooped up here--no pun intended--for far too long and I have a party to get to.”

One by one, the birds took off, passing through the walls and ceilings with ease to return to their patrol of the city. Soon, it was just Morta left…with Odjir. He hopped towards her, gave what Morta was certain was a hmph with his head, and then took off, flying awfully close to her face as he passed through the circular window. Morta scowled and muttered a few choice words before stomping towards the door. 

Quickly descending the rickety old stairs to the upper level of the cathedral, she waved her hand, unlocking the wooden door from the other side. She threw it open, startling an aging priest who was far too in shock to say anything as she made a U-turn, her heels clicking loudly on the stone stairs. Morta breathed a sigh of relief as she crossed the entryway in only a few steps and pushed the large double doors open…

Only to freeze in her tracks. It was so cold. And…and was that snow? Surely not, it was too early in the year for that, what with Halloween only being just around the corner and--

Was that…a holiday song? 

Morta crossed her thing-sweater- covered arms, haphazardly rubbing. It wasn’t as if the cold really bothered her, but it was quick a shock in her weakened state. Morta followed the music down one block towards the heart of the city, slumping her shoulders more and more as the city center came into view. 

There was an ice-skating rink set up. Families were linked arm in arm, gliding around as holiday music echoed from speakers and colored lights twinkled from the manicured trees. She had missed the Halloween Celebration hadn’t she? She should have known. The veil had been so terribly thin while she gathered with her ferrymen and time tended to move differently when engulfed in such energy. While she had expected a few days to have passed her by, it seemed that had been wishful thinking. What more had she missed. 

With a sigh, Morta dropped down on an empty bench. “Fantastic…”

@vievecorcitystarters​

[ranger-rai]

Dear Ranger Rai,

What do you know about the move Secret Power and the Secret Bases it can create? I’ve heard people can make what seems to be pocket dimensions out of this move. Obviously, it can be exploited by people with less than good intentions… The extent of the space created varies between the rumors I have heard across Hoenn. But a few seem to revolve around people being able to grow berries in the dimension if it’s created by skilled Pokemon.

Why I bring this up is that I’ve fallen into a few set up around our Safari Zone. Most are in various states of disarray and generally abandoned. Keyword most. We caught a thief who hid some rare Pokémon eggs in a base. The Wobbufet family has family calmed down thanks to us finding their unborn kids. I just… Want to know what regulations and such are involved pertaining to Secret Power?

Sincerely, a concerned guard of Hoenn’s Safari Zone.

I know that Above Ground Secret Bases are much more popular in Hoenn, but Underground ones are popular here in Sinnoh.

Because Bases are restricted to Underground here, we don't have too many issues with people putting them in places they shouldn't be.

There's a lot of deep tunnels that are well supported, mainly from the Excavation Society run by Roark and his Father Byron.

We are pretty active on the underground goings and are pretty strict on where people can go for bases and exploration.

As for Hoenn, because there's so many trees and Nature integration they discovered that some pokemon could find secluded areas or clear out areas for potential nesting, that's mostly what Secret Power is.

I have done some work out in Hoenn and I asked a bit about Secret Bases and apparently so many of them get abandoned or forgotten that its basically free game.

People make Bases in trees, bushes, near water, and underground, so you could be just walking along and stumble upon several abandoned bases.

Hoenn really needs more regulations on Secret Bases, but since they are using Pokemon to basically create nesting areas in plain site, it's hard to always notice them unless actively searching.

It's really difficult to regulate something like that when it's a natural move for pokemon.

At most, banning the sale of the TM would help but it wouldn't stop people from trying.

There would need to be something like a major deconstruction of unwanted Secret Bases, a limit of how many bases a trainer can have registered to their trainer ID at a time.

Actually I don't even think they are registered so that could be the main issue.

I'd say that if you're having a serious issue, you might need to call your local rangers, ask them to conduct a survey of the area, and if need be, shut down any bases within a certain distance of your Safar Zone.

Also bring it up to any elected officials or anyone in charge and get the word out.

[metamoonshots]

[ad_1] Pricey MarketWatch,  We're really lucky to have a lifetime inflation-adjusted federal pension and Social Safety of $200,000 yearly. We’re a 65-year-old man and a 69-year-old lady. Our revenue roughly breaks out to $125,000 and $75,000, respectively.   We didn't benefit from spousal survivor advantages once we retired years in the past, which appeared like a good suggestion on the time. So our plan was all the time to self-insure our long-term care and spousal survivor wants. We want some assist with methods to plan for the long run.  Now we have additionally amassed $1.5 million, half in IRA and thrift savings plans and the opposite half, which got here from the sale of our real-estate property, in a taxable brokerage account. Our monetary adviser has us striving for a 5.5% return on the taxable account. We actually don’t want or intend to faucet these funds, since our pensions cowl greater than our wants and permit for our three to 6 months of journey per yr. Now we have no debt or mortgage and pay our bank cards off month-to-month.   One predominant query is, how a lot ought to we put aside, if something, for long-term care? In long-term-care insurance policies previously, the utmost payout was round $360,000. We thought that was the correct amount to focus on.   Now we have a life-insurance coverage for the 65-year-old of about $300,000 via 2036. Ought to we search for extra life insurance coverage, or is it cheap to rely upon the above nest egg to cowl the prices of the lower-retirement-income partner, since she will not be eligible for my Social Safety advantages? See: I’m in my 60s with almost $1 million. My home is paid off. I’d like to move but am afraid of the high prices elsewhere: ‘Will I be OK?’ Pricey reader,  It's really great to have a lot revenue in retirement via your pension and Social Safety alone. That can definitely assist you within the years to return.  Calculating how a lot cash you’re going to want for long-term care might be very tough, similar to making an attempt to determine how a lot it's essential have saved for retirement general. There’s nobody quantity to give you, since what it's best to put apart would rely in your well being, the state you reside in and lots of different elements.  Insurance coverage can also be not utterly out of the query now. True, long-term-care insurance coverage can very simply be way more costly than it will have been had you bought it years in the past, however relying in your well being and the supplier you select, you do have choices.  There are additionally different insurance coverage choices. For instance, your life-insurance coverage, or one other one, may have long-term-care riders connected to it, akin to a demise profit that pays for these bills. “This could have higher tax advantages and ensures an quantity that’s not uncovered to market dangers,” mentioned Nicholas Bunio, a licensed monetary planner. And not using a rider, the demise profit would solely pay out at demise.  To determine how a lot you might want, you might try the Genworth Cost of Care calculator, which helps you forecast the price based mostly on the yr and the interval (month-to-month, each day, hourly and yearly). The calculator consists of figures for in-home care, assisted dwelling and nursing houses. Genworth, an insurance coverage firm that makes a speciality of long-term care, has been monitoring these bills throughout the nation since 2004.  These projections generally is a useful begin, mentioned Brenna Baucum, a licensed monetary planner at Collective Wealth Planning. “The everyday long-term-care well being want is simply over three years,” she mentioned. “With these two items of data, you may get insights into how a lot you might have to earmark for long-term care.”  Additionally see: We have two houses and 45 acres of farmland, but we don’t know what to do about retirement. Where do we start?  However keep in mind, this quantity would simply be an estimate.

To be additional protected, Baucum recommends rising projections or on the lookout for extra sources of funding if the household has any historical past of cognitive decline.  Your monetary adviser may additionally level you towards a number of assets or assist you arrange your funds so that a portion of your property are safe ought to it's essential pay for long-term care. You must also double-check — or triple-check— that your partner actually isn’t eligible for Social Safety advantages in your file. The Social Safety Administration can explain further.  I’ll finish with this: Along with operating the numbers, assessment — or create! — your necessary estate-planning paperwork, akin to a will, a healthcare proxy and anything you suppose your partner ought to have. You’ve accomplished so nice at making a nest egg, and also you’re working arduous to protect it. Ensure you have all of the paperwork in place to permit you to benefit from the arduous work you’ve already accomplished.  Readers: Do you have got strategies for this reader? Add them within the feedback under. Have a query about your individual retirement financial savings? E-mail us at HelpMeRetire@marketwatch.com [ad_2]

[beckyandrick]

Costa Rica bucket list - see mama sea turtle laying eggs…check!

Okay, it sounds cheesy but it was magical. Truly, it was. A pitch black night on the Caribbean Sea, only the light of the moon lighting the beach as the ‘turtle spotter’ told our guide she had a mama green sea turtle nesting so we could make our way to her nest by the light of a red flashlight.

Strictly no photos allowed so this is a stock google photo but it’s essentially what we were lucky enough to see! The only difference was the light was red to better protect the turtles. Costa Rica does an amazing job conserving nature and this was no exception. We had a slot between 8-10pm, with a trained, licensed guide, had to wear dark clothing and remove all smartwatches that could shed light and scare the turtles. Once the turtle spotter (trained by the National park) confirmed that mama had dug her nest and was beginning to lay eggs we could move in close enough to to watch. Apparently as she lays the eggs, nature takes over, she is in a trance like state and observers don’t disturb her. But any strange lights, colors or movement while she is preparing can send her back into the ocean and risk the hundred or so eggs she is about to lay so the National park rules are appropriately strict. After she deposited her eggs those powerful fins covered the eggs and sprayed us all with sand even as we moved a good 10+ feet away. Part of the experience! Wow.

We just returned from a quick 2 night weekend trip in Tortuguero…on the eastern side of the country and only a short 30 min flight from San Jose. We opted for the flight vs the 4 hour drive + 1.5 hour boat transfer. Tortuguero is considered the ‘Amazon of Costa Rica’ and is only accessible by boat or plane. It was Kai’s first small plane (that she remembers…she did a couple in the Philippines) and she loved it! Said ‘I didn’t want it to end!’ It’s gorgeous to be able to watch the landscape below from a prop plane.

The landing strip was seemingly tiny between a river and the Caribbean ocean. Thank goodness these pilots know what they are doing! Loved the ‘terminal’…more like a semi-abandoned building. Our ‘taxi’ to the hotel was a boat. And that began the weekend on the water.

Our first night we did a night walk, with notable sightings of a tarantula and poison frogs. This is why you go with a great guide! 😳

Day 2 was River/canal safari day. We spent hours back in the canals searching for animals and found an alligator, a caiman, toucans, a turtle, iguanas, monkeys and plenty of other birds. Our favorite part was a canal with water so black and calm it became a mirror. As Kai said ‘it looks like everything is holding hands…I just don’t want to know what is living under the water!” Same, kid, same.

Admittedly then we took a nap so we could be awake for the 8-10pm turtle tour (thankfully we didn’t get the 10pm-12mn slot!). Amazing!

This morning we got a gorgeous sunny morning at the pool before we flew back to San Jose. I think we wore her out. Sleeping through a turbulent, rainy flight on a 12-seater small plane is a skill!

[ammg-old2]

For most people, discovering a frog living in your fence post would make you feel either kind of creeped out or kind of charmed. For one guy in Australia, it was a challenge: He decided to make it the sweetest pad possible. In a now-viral two-minute TikTok video, he designs and 3-D-prints his frog an elaborate home. He keeps adding features until the lucky amphibian has an attached pool, a downstairs mating pond with a tadpole ramp, and a predator-proof safe room.

This frog house was gleefully over the top, practically engineered to go viral with its renovations for “increased ribbit amplification” and a brushtail possum who occasionally likes to drink water from the pool. But frog houses as an idea are worth taking seriously. Animals don’t need much to get cozy in our backyards and balconies, as the world has already learned with birds. One ecologist found that bird feeding goes back at least 3,500 years; in the 18th century, the facades of Ottoman palaces and mosques were fitted with structures to house birds, who were seen as both holy and lucky. Birdhouses and bird feeders are so thoroughly part of human culture that purple martins in eastern North America nest almost exclusively in houses made by humans.

But why do birds get all the love? Building a little house for a frog to shelter in, or a pond where eggs can hatch and tadpoles can grow, is a great idea if you’ve got a place to put it. Even a tiny pondlet in a container on a patio can raise a whole amphibian generation. You can provide meaningful help to animals that need it, and participate in species conservation at home with very few downsides. Honestly, creating a backyard pond is probably better than putting up a birdhouse. Will someone please think of the urban amphibian?

Birds are beautiful, and they sing—it is no wonder we have long welcomed them into human spaces. At some level, it doesn’t even feel like sharing space, because birds live up high, in trees and on rooftops and telephone wires. They get the sky, and we get the land. Seems fair. But frogs? Inviting them into the garden can make you feel uneasy. Whereas birds are “so obvious and so charismatic,” Erin Sauer, an ecologist at the University of Arkansas who has studied both urban birds and urban amphibians, told me, frogs are “cryptic” and “camouflaged”—“they don't want you to find them.” Many frogs in temperate zones, including much of the United States, are brown and green, and more active at night. They are a subtle pleasure, compared with a crimson cardinal or an iridescent hummingbird.

It might not be obvious that some amphibians are probably living not too far from you, in part because they stay hidden. Frogs, newts, and salamanders exist in most cities. In New York, you can hear gray tree frogs call in Brooklyn Heights. In Los Angeles, the canyons of Griffith Park are filled with bumpy western toads. According to the biodiversity tracker iNaturalist, 28 species of amphibians have been spotted in Columbus, Ohio, including the colorful eastern red-backed salamander.

But amphibian populations are declining. Forty-one percent of amphibians are threatened with extinction, in part because of an ongoing fungal pandemic that as of four years ago had driven an estimated 90 species extinct. Frogs also have habitat needs that are “so specific,” Sauer said: They must have both water and land to complete their life cycle.

Still, if there are frogs near your home and some relatively protected route for them to travel, and you build a pond with vegetation around it, they will likely move in. An analysis of dozens of projects that created ponds for amphibians found that in every study, frogs showed up at some or all of the ponds. And many of the studies found that the number of species was similar or higher in created ponds than in natural ponds. Not all of those ponds were in cities, but another study looked at ponds in Portland, Oregon, and found similar results. The biggest predictor of how well a pond attracted frogs wasn’t whether it was real or fake, but the amount of plants growing in and around it.

Frog ponds aren’t very common residential features (yet), but it isn’t like no one thinks of amphibian-kind when designing their outdoor space. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has some advice for creating effective backyard conservation ponds for native wildlife. There are any number of guides online to building toad abodes, frog hotels, and general-purpose backyard frog ponds. Some gardeners install toad houses, hoping that a toad will move in and pay rent by eating common garden pests. You can even buy handmade toad houses on Etsy. And naturally, TikTok Frog House Guy is now selling frog houses as well.

It can be simple, and cheap, to invite amphibians over to your place. Tree frogs love to hang out inside vertical tubes, so simply pounding a few PVC pipes into the ground can create a little frog hotel. Building a cozy house for toads can be as easy as half-burying a broken pot. Making a frog pond is as straightforward as digging a hole; setting a commercial pond liner, an old bathtub, or even a plastic storage tote in the hole; and filling it with rocks and water. “You don’t need to 3-D-print some elaborate frog mansion,” Sauer told me.

I had called Sauer to set my mind at ease on one point: Would creating an artificial house or pond also create a transmission point for disease? She told me it wasn’t worth worrying about. Yes, multiple frogs might move into a pond or house, and they might touch if they mate, but frogs already gather in groups naturally, whereas birds at bird feeders can congregate in unusually high numbers. Feeders can pose a disease risk to birds, Sauer said: “You have a single place with one porthole, and they stick their faces in there and chew on things. And then their friends come over and do the same thing.” A frog pond can even bring in birds, who will use it to bathe and drink—with less chance of disease transmission.

There are very few downsides to catering to your local frogs, the biggest of which is that your backyard might have more mosquitoes—mosquitoes, like frogs, breed in water. To avoid that, you either need animals that will eat all of the mosquitoes (such as dragonflies or some tadpoles) or you need to keep the water moving. A solar-powered aerator costs about $30.

It is very possible that the frogs that show up to your patio water feature won’t be critically endangered species, but that’s okay. “We want to keep common species common so they don’t decline,” Sauer said. It all helps. Providing habitat for amphibians is important, but researchers are also working on frog houses that will actually help save frogs from the fungal pathogen. These houses would be like little greenhouses: hot enough to kill the fungus but not too hot for the frog’s comfort.

Not everyone can or wants to build a frog house. But they might be interested in putting a pot full of wildflowers for pollinators on their balcony. Saving species in the 21st century isn’t just about protecting big, undeveloped parks—although we need those too. It is also about figuring out how to coexist with the many species that can thrive in the urban, suburban, exurban, and agricultural landscapes we’ve made. That we’ve shared space with birds for thousands of years proves we can do it.

There’s evidence that this is already happening, and birdhouses and frog houses are just the beginning. People are adding bee hotels and bat houses, and planting milkweed for endangered monarch butterflies to lay their eggs on. It can be dizzying to think about all the species that need help right now, but engaging in everyday conservation can also just be fun, helping to turn neighborhoods into corridors of habitat for creatures such as frogs. Our cities can be wetlands too, at least in spots. Our kids can watch tadpoles on summer days. And in the spring, we can listen to the frogs sing at dusk.

[thedovahcat]

Gorillas and Impending Rough Starts

Well registration for classes finally came and went for me, and I was able to get everything I needed for the Fall semester signed up and all that jazz for.

That was until I noticed the OUT OF STATE STUDENT tag that’s still on my name.

I knew I was cutting it close truth be told. The timing of our move out here was back in August and that’s always when school starts, so I was hoping maybe I’d just be able to inch past the ‘you’ve lived here for one year’ date and get that In-State Student pricing.

Sadly that was not the case. And will not BE the case until at least November.

This distressing fact left me with two options: start later (spring 2024) or take only a limited number of classes just to hold my place and so I’m not wasting TOO much time.

Opting for the ‘save my place’ option right now, though the mark up for ‘Out of State Students’ is completely ridiculous. As expected. We all know colleges are gatekeepy and scammy as shit, but that’s the world we live in.

So I guess the unsavory part in this is I’ll be taking one of my higher level big girl programming classes this semester after all, at a community college as planned. But I’ll sure be paying for it. The pricing is about 2,000 for a 4 credit hour class, and thank God dad was nice enough and is going to go halfers on me with it, just because he really doesn’t want me to get like...I don’t know, kicked off the Fall roster list or whatever it is colleges do, you know? Once November comes and goes this year though I’ll have enough documentation to prove I’ve been living here for at LEAST a year.

So, that was the big hole in my boat this week on Monday. It was an upstart that I think I knew deep down was likely going to happen, but I got so caught up in studying and fantasizing about FAFSA and scholarships just paying my way through- It’s really never like... hit me, you know? That college is extremely unaffordable for some folks.

I was really lucky in that I had college funds from when I was a kid. My parents saved up for me to do community college the first go around when I was 18, and I did. I got my degree and in the end it turns out, while it was useful in securing me my cemetary job, and I did learn a lot... All in all I feel like I wasted my potential on an art degree. Not to knock art degrees of course. This is just from my personal experience of having been on that side of the tracks. So I think my opinion is more valid if anything else.

The art route didn’t work for me. Now I’m going back to get something more practical. But without a job, and with me being too highly qualified for almost all retail jobs (it sure sucks when you get rejection after rejection because you know your own worth), I’m seeing now that however this path is going to be ahead of me?

It may not be smooth. It may not be easy.

Getting into debt is one of my top fears and so far up until now (and even still right now, cuz I haven’t spent all my savings yet), I’ve managed to stay out of it. I own my own car, bought it used and in cash, I had a regular job and was living at home (still paying rent and utilities of course) but I was still able to save a good nest egg.

I still am more fortunate than a lot of people. And I don’t necessarily know how this road ends. My parents can’t pay for college for me, and I can’t pay the whole ride through so I’ll need to heavily lean on my grades to make me look good. And I’ll need to do plenty of study on my own of course to ensure that happens.

It’s... Pretty scary. Even at age 29. I don’t think it ever really stops being scary tbh. But... I mean, at the end of this I hope that there’s something good waiting for me. Comfort, security, a healthy work/life balance or something like that to where I’m not a slave to my job because I have the ability to CHOOSE not to be...

I really, really hope that I will get to experience that. Don’t we all? I don’t know how I feel right now though, I guess is what I’m trying to say. Scared, hopeful, battling with pessimistic and optimistic outlooks, I feel alone in this like, this is for real this time. No more do-overs after this. This is the last chance to try and improve myself. I feel like I squandered that opportunity when I was 18, but, really now, I’m not going to blame an 18 year old for not knowing what the hell the world was going to turn into. Sheesh.

Paying for this one fall semester’s going to be a big ouchie but, it’ll only be the one time at least. I wish I had it in me to wait until Spring but, I feel like I’ve already wasted enough time. And honestly, 1k is a drop in the bucket when you lean back and look at your life as a whole. Obviously I’m not going to recklessly get in debt, and at least try to be strategic about it, but still. It’s very nerve wracking.

The commissions have stopped coming in, I’m trying everything I can think of to drum up some more money but nothing’s really sticking against the wall sadly. And, really I expected it. This is the way the art world is, it comes and it goes. It’s not stable, and sometimes you won’t land a bite for months. Possibly longer. I once thought I had it in me to stick it out as a starving commission-based artist, but, I’m finding I really don’t. It’s a very hard gig to keep up, and I don’t improve quickly enough to where I’m able to secure a lasting audience.

AND.... honestly? It’s never been something I’ve wanted. I don’t find value in being popular. Yeah sure it’s nice for the cash and such, but... I dunno. It just doesn’t line up for me personally.

And then you have the whole bit about the job I had and how I was hardly being paid anything, because anybody could do my work. You didn’t need to be talented to have a company consider you an artist. It was NICE if you were, or you had the know how, but it wasn’t required. And the pay reflected on that. Plus, considering how much corporate crap was constantly going on... I know I’m worth way more than that.

This whole ride about wanting a Bachelor’s and such too has been more of a.. I want something good for -me-. Because -I- want it. Type thing. Like a self care thing, I don’t know? I’ve always wanted a Bachelor’s and I’ve always felt like I was too dumb or too unmotivated or lazy to be able to obtain one. Like I didn’t deserve it or something.

But my god after studying for the math test for a couple months the way I did, and scoring so high on it, that really renewed the self confidence I know I -can- have (and do have with certain things.) I feel like finally I’m starting to shape up and grow into becoming a real adult. Albeit late, I’m what, fucking, 29 now? I’ve always been a late bloomer though with everything. And really, a lot of things you are ‘supposed to have already done as an adult’ is all subjective. I need to stop letting it bother me as much as it does.

I’ve wrenched myself off the video games (not entirely! but by a lot), I’ve been focused more on independent studies, or if I’m not doing that I’m trying to figure out how to earn some extra bucks here and there. I feel like my form of escapism has been lost and suddenly I’m locked out here in the real world, unable to properly escape reality as I have done since I was a child. I can no longer ignore important things, because no one will take care of them for me. I can’t just lie here and expect circumstances to chance, I have to get up and do something different. Do I still want to give up sometimes and just lay in bed, maybe for the rest of forever?

Hell yes I do.

But I won’t. That part of me will not let me. I won’t allow it. I will make something out of it. I’m terrified of failing... but, it will have felt worse if I didn’t try at all. And yes, things might not always be ideal, and things may get very difficult. I think I’m just going round and round in circles, psyching myself out... But what can ya do?

Just gotta keep going.

[college-girl199328]

Florida resident Jeffrey Heim was searching for shark teeth in the Myakka River when his life was changed forever. Now he hopes that sharing his near-death encounter with an alligator will help save others from the same fate.

That day—May 30, 2021—He made two major mistakes. He dived alone—I was feeling invincible—and during mating season.

Helm told Newsweek that he had done that river several times before. "Each trip I would spend hours in there. But I would stick with my mentor, and very experienced extreme cameraman, Mark Rackley. He's got a lot of experience with alligators specifically so I would always take his lead when we began diving."

After about a minute in the water, he was hit by what felt like a boat propeller moving at 50 miles per hour. "It came up from behind me so I never even saw or heard it coming," he said.

Before he realized what had happened, Heim had been seriously bitten on the head and hand by a 7-foot-long female alligator. "She actually gave me a second to feel my head and have a better understanding of what was happening to me," Heim said. "But then she really tried to get me—I could see in her eyes, she wanted to kill me and finish the job. I had to very quickly dodge out of the way."

Florida is home to 1.3 million alligators, and an average of 10 unprovoked attacks occur across the state every year, the Florida Wildlife Commission reports. Most alligators are naturally afraid of humans. However, they can become aggressive when they start to associate humans with food, which is why it is illegal to feed wild alligators.

Heim said that this particular gator may have learned to associate humans with food. But, because of the time of year, there was probably another, more seasonal reason for her aggression.

"The professionals who removed her believe she was protecting a nest," Heim said. "They didn't see a nest on the side that they were on, but the nest could have been on the other side of the river."

Alligator mating season occurs between May and June every year, and egg laying continues through June into July. At this time of year, alligators are typically more active, and more territorial, alligator expert and associate professor at the University of Florida, Frank Mazzotti, told Newsweek.

"[Alligator attacks occur most frequently] during the warmest months of the year—May to September—but they can occur anytime," he said. "Be careful, cautious, and aware of your surroundings."

Heim said that he had been aware of alligator mating season, but he "just didn't take it seriously," or seriously enough. "That was my mistake."

Although fatalities from alligator bites are rare, Heim knows just how lucky he was to have survived the attack. "The ability to react after that head trauma was a miracle in itself," he said. "I was able to get away and climb out onto the bank, which was about 6 feet high. […] But even if she had simply knocked the wind out of me, it would have been a completely different story."

After hauling himself out of the water, Heim was taken to the hospital, where he received 34 staples in his head. "I felt every one of those 34 staples, and they felt exactly like you think they will," he said.

After two days in the ICU, Heim was sent home. But he said he felt like a "zombie" for days after. "The whole head trauma and blood loss just wiped me out. I was exhausted."

The staples were taken out after nine days, but Heim continued to battle follow-up infections and exhaustion for weeks. "Once I found out I was allowed to live I just cried my eyes out like a baby like I'd never cried before," he said. "It all just flowed out of me, uncontrollably. I was just so thankful for life."

"I have tremendous respect for that apex predator. I never wanted that alligator to die—I had a wildlife representative visit me in my room to get a recount of everything and I told them 'please don't kill it.' I was in her home."

Heim now uses his passion for collecting shark teeth to raise awareness about Florida's ecosystems and wildlife. He does this through his company SHRKco, which sells handmade shark tooth jewelry and donates a percentage of profits to marine research and conservation groups. "I love seeing people enjoy the same shark teeth I worked so hard for and, a lot of the time, risked my life for," Heim said.

Despite spending more time than he used to hunt for shark teeth, Heim has not encountered an alligator in the wild since the attack. He has actually been back to the Myakka River twice since the incident both times with other divers. "I did it the right way, much safer and at a much better time of year," he said. "It was a big learning experience to take the mating season seriously."

[almaanipescontrol]

WHAT TO KEEP IN MIND BEFORE YOU ASK FOR BIRD NEST REMOVAL CONTROL IN MELBOURNE

Long before people used to wake to the sweet tone of birds. Yes, it was long before urban living flourished. Later, the world started changing and so did its people. The standard of life has also been changed. Forests are getting sold and cut down to modernize our surroundings. At the state of this emergency, there are some new problems have arisen. Birds are invading people’s places and nesting. Messy garden, birds’ poop all over the place and cars, destroyed flower pots, and scattered nesting materials are some of the common issues people face when there is a close habitant of birds to your place.

That’s why around the globe, many birds nest removal professional services are available. If you are a citizen of Australia, ask for AL-MAANI pest control service for bird nest removal control in Melbourne.

Why Do You Need A Professional Help:

There are a few accidents that happen when there are bird nests in homes or offices. As the nests can be found anywhere. You may find them in an unused stove, or fan vents in winter. If you have not moved your car from the garage for a long time, there is highly a chance that you may find at least one nest there under the car in boiling summer.

In cases like that, your life can be threatened under such circumstances. Also, the bird might as well lose its life. In both cases, eliminating the risk of any mishaps is nearly impossible. That’s why you should search for help.

What Professional Help Means In Bird Nest Removal:

Destroying the nest and killing the eggs inside is a cruel job. Rather than doing that, professionals help to move the nest safely to a better place where birds can be freer. These workers have enough knowledge to understand the purpose of nesting. They also know when a particular bird’s breeding season is. With this knowledge, they can set up the correct time to remove the bird's nest and shift it to another place.

Precautions To Take:

Here is a step-by-step guide to measuring the preparation and precaution you need to take.

Locate the bird's nest. If it is in a fan vent, make sure not to turn on the fan till you finish the removal process.

Learn about the species of the bird. The species of a bird tells about lots of things like how many times it builds nests, its characteristics, breeding period.

If it is the breeding period of the bird, wait for the season to end. We certainly don’t advise you to break the eggs.

Make sure the birds are away from nests. Find out what is the time they leave and return to their nest before you declare a nest empty and destroy it.

Use gloves and different clothes while removing the process. Don’t touch it with bare hands. You certainly don’t want any disease to get spread through you.

Later on, discard the gloves and dress in the right process.

For any additional queries make an appointment with AL-MAANI PEST CONTROL SERVICE. They provide the best bird removal control in Melbourne.

[twilightown]

I want............. more tattoos..................