@phantomtheraccoon and I had the pleasure of visiting the home of a fellow artist and Master Gardener yesterday evening, and enjoying her little backyard paradise on a lovely evening. These are her photos, which focused on flowers and bees. More in a moment.
The last couple of hers:
And mine focused on landscaping, artistic details, and succulents:
Second post, third photo. With the golden circle and the points facing in different directions from different elements. GORGEOUS.
went to the grocery store today and i was very pleased by their pride cake selections
OMFG THESE ARE MINE I MADE THESE THATS MY GROCERY STORE
this reply in the comments tho
This did not go where I expected from the first tweet and now I am laughing so hard I am crying.
Among my acquaintances, I am one of the better bakers. Therefore I am “the one who bakes”. Gathering of the Dutch-Indo elders? I will produce a spekkoek with no less than twenty layers. Nephew’s special day? I will make his favorite; macarons filled with chocolate ganache. Teen wistfully wishes for a Minecraft cake? I gotchu fam.
No one ever said “she’s already baked a dessert once and we loved it, so obviously we won’t ask her to bake again; tell her to make spaghetti this time”.
Write that trope again.
“Wow! I loved this story! I hope the author never writes anything remotely like it ever again!!” - Words that have never come out of any reader’s mouth, ever
If you have seen Ted Lasso you may have noticed these unusual microphones used by the football commentators.
Despite being a microphone nerd, I had never seen anything like them before. So I decided to go into research mode and discovered these microphones are quite fascinating.
They are called "Lip-Ribbon" or "Commentator's" microphones.
They were specially designed by the BBC in the 1950s for extremely noisy environments. Soccer Football stadiums have peaked at 130 decibels so they needed something that would not get overwhelmed in that circumstance.
They use several very clever techniques to make sure only the voice is picked up and everything else is rejected.
First, they use a bidirectional polar pattern.
That means it will accept sound from two directions, but reject any sound coming in from the sides. And since the diaphragm is only exposed on one side, that helps reject sound coming from the other direction.
Next, the microphone is not very sensitive so you literally have to hold it up to your lips (hence "lip-ribbon") in order for your voice to have enough sound energy to vibrate the diaphragm.
That top part rests directly on your lip and there is a little pop filter to keep your plosives in check.
There is a built-in high pass filter so it rejects any sound below the frequencies typically used by the human voice.
But my favorite trick... a labyrinthian internal baffle system.
(I found a diagram of this when researching but then I lost the tab and I cannot find it again. So you'll just have to accept this crude photoshop I did in 30 seconds to help you understand.)
Sound is energy. And that energy is diminished the farther it travels. The inverse square law for sound states that the intensity of sound decreases by approximately 6 dB for each doubling of distance from the sound source. Sound also diminishes when it reflects off a surface.
That is a very sciency way of saying... make sounds go through a tiny maze and only sounds with the most energy will prevail.
So if you have your lip pressed up against the front of the mic, your voice's energy will make it through the labyrinth of baffles without issue. But every other sound in the stadium will have a much harder time getting through.
These mics may even be vuvuzela-proof.
And even more amazing... this microphone was designed in the 1950s and they have yet to create anything better for incredibly noisy environments.
Isn't that neat?
I think it is neat.
【-Dreaming of the Milky Way-】 Qi Lolita Jumper Dress and Cape Set
Hi, Neil! First off, wanted to say thank you for all the writing you’ve done! You’ve managed to somehow be a part of one of my favorite movies from childhood (Coraline) and now one of my favorite shows (Good Omens).
I wanted to ask about Beelzebub’s hat, like what did you guys make it out of? I’ve been planning to make one for myself to wear out but have no idea where to start.
The first hat was improvised. We had big fly eyes that were meant to go over Anna Maxwell Martin's eyes. The day before we were going to be shooting (her first scene was on the airbase) I went into the hair and makeup tent and was told that was not going to be possible. So we had the "eyes" and I suggested we just glue them to a hat and add wings and antennae. And the next day that was what Beelzebub wore. So it was literally a bowler hat with two things that looked like fly eyes glued to it and some bits of wings made of gauze and a couple of black pipe-cleaners.
what the fuuuuuck
this is a short horror story
Please make sure to reblog this with the explanation you guys:
The toddler doesn’t know Alexa is a name; as far as they’re concerned it’s a word that makes things happen. If the kid was saying “please play baby shark” it would mean literally the same thing to them because they don’t really understand language yet.
The toddler is mimicking adult behavior because they have seen adults say things that start with “Alexa” and have learned that starting a request with “Alexa” makes it more likely to be fulfilled. This kid has learned something about how their world works purely through observation! This isn’t a bad thing! It’s just been misapplied and it’s up to the parents to correct their speech as they grow enough to understand the difference.
“Oh that animal doesn’t LIKE you it just TOLERATES you” …..So? If that’s the most a non-social organism can feel towards you isn’t that just as special an honor as whatever it is you think affection means??
“This creature with no natural social instincts outside of mating allows me to freely interact with it, while causing it little stress” is fucking DOPE AS SHIT
also… are you SURE? like, we’re still finding out so much about animals. Wolverines fathers, who we thought were not involved in caring for kits, turn out to travel around and collect all their kits from multiple mothers and take the whole group out on camping trips. Some spiders have tiny frog pets (!) or group up to communally raise their young. Wild sharks, crocodiles, and snakes have formed strong, documented relationships with people.
this man Gilberto (Chito) Shedden nursed this crocodile back to health after it was shot in the eye, and they were best friends for the rest of the crocodile’s life.
this python came in out of the wild as a baby snake and curled up next to the family’s infant, Oun Sambat (or Oeun Sambat?) and they were inseparable for 12 years
Cristina Zenato removes hooks from sharks and they let her stick her hand down their throat to do it and they even bring other sharks who need help to see her.
It’s a relationship that goes beyond a single helpful interaction. For example one of the sharks that would show up when she first started swimming with them was a shark she called Foggy Eye who really didn’t like to be touched. One day, Foggy Eye showed up with a hook in her mouth that Cristina Zenato removed, and ever after, Foggy Eye cuddles when she visits, putting her head in Cristina’s lap and enjoying some petting
We don’t know SO much. Some wolf spiders will adopt unrelated orphaned spiderlings and raise them. We recently discovered that the ant-mimicking jumping spider (below) produces “milk” and suckles its young until they are nearly fully grown.
SO. Don’t assume we know all about what creatures do or feel or whether or not they form social connections or bond with others.
We’re told octopuses are solitary.
That’s the story.
They live alone. They die alone.
Except for Octopus City where they live in a social collective.
Except that I watched with my own fucking eyes a giant Northwest Pacific Octopus who my friend social for an aquariums interact. He hadn’t seen her in a year. He reacted to meeting us and to getting treats? But all he wanted to do was see her, touch her, show her his enrichment items. After a year he recognized her and the response was “YOUR BACK AUNTIE YOURE BACK I MISSED YOU LOOK WHAT I WAS DOING WHAT DO YOU THINK BUT YOURE BACK hi nice to meet your friends YOURE BACK.”
Fucking yeah ok 👍 solitary nonsocial. Idk. If it acts like it loves you then it does. In its way.
The guy who literally wrote the book on wolf social hierarchies realized like pretty soon after publishing that he was completely wrong because he had only been studying animals in captivity, but the erroneous information on “alphas” captured men’s imagination so they still cling to it despite it being just flat out wrong - according to the guy who CAME UP WITH THE THEORY so you know it’s legit. Europeans who first encountered the platypus assumed it was a hoax. Knowledge is seeking the limits of our species’ understanding of the universe Wisdom is looking PAST the limits of our knowledge and staying fucking humble about everything we don’t know.
One thing I love about Tumblr that wasn't a thing on Reddit is that I can just write whatever the fuck text post I want. No titles. No putting text on images. No algorithms or karma. Just fuckin splatter your mind onto the screen and people will see it. Like god intended.
if u wear a binder and still have some boob
remember
chris evans still has more boob
no worries
This is somewhat reassuring
At a grocery store before I had top surgery there was a couple Infront of me. The guy was pointing at random folks around and saying to the girl, “I’d fight him for you, I’d whoop him for you, I’d beat him for you.” She nods toward me and says “what about this dude behind you?”. I have my headphones in (without music) and I see the guy glance behind himself at me, make a face and look back to her. “Nah, girl, did you see his chest? He could probably knock me out with his pec, girl” Honestly it was a life changing event.
official boob post
Crowley Iced Lollies are up in my SHOP now!
Hell’s hot, we’re all going to need a cold treat on the way down 😇
I love you being trans I love you trans women i love you gender exploration I love you self discovery
[ID: two screenshots of a reddit post on r/offmychest by user awaythrowjessie, titled "My girlfriend made me realize I'd be happier as a woman". it reads as follows:
I am 33, born male, and have had major self image issues my entire life. I hated seeing myself in mirrors, pictures, you name it. I honestly thought it was kinda normal so I just accepted it.
Now about 3 weeks ago I was at my girlfriends house, we have been dating a little over a year now, and have plans to move in together soon. Now recently she has shaved her head to support of her friends with cancer (side note thenl treatments for that friend are going very well). She had since bought some wigs to wear while her hair grows back out. We were joking around as I have male pattern baldness, and when she went to the bathroom I jokingly threw a wig on and waited. She came our, saw me we laughed for a bit and she said "you know I think you'd make a pretty girl" we laughed some more but those words triggered something in me.
Cut to a few night's ago she asked why I've been acting weird lately and I just told her how i was feeling. She said "alright let's do this " and when I asked what she told me she was going to give me a bit of a makeover and put me in one of her dresses and if i liked it then good. I was nervous and asked what if I did like it would she still be attracted to me. She just responded with "Baby you know I'm bi, guy or girl you're still mine." Her words reassured me honestly i love her so much.
Anyways she finished the make up, fitted a wig on me perfectly and got me in a dress and even helped me put a bra on and stuff in a little so i could see what breasts would kinda look like on me. Now I expected to see myself in the mirror, laugh this off and move on right, but I didn't. She did an unbelievable job, like I looked like I had been born a woman, and when I saw myself in the mirror for the first time in my entire life, I liked what I saw. I probably stared at myself for a good 10 minutes before she finally asked me something. She asked what I wanted to be called. After a few seconds I said Jessie, I always like the name Jessie. She whispered in my ear "well Jessie, you look beautiful." And that was it, I knew this was who i wanted to be.
I'm nervous now though, my friends will accept it but my family are, well let's just say not very progressive. But this is what I want.
end ID]
there’s an update!!
[ID: A screenshot of a Reddit post from r/offmychest by user awaythrowjessie, titled “I went out as Jessie for the first time and I was honestly surprised”. The screenshot reads: Hello everyone, this is an official follow up to my previous post that went viral and caught me off guard.
So me and my girlfriend, (Who has officially agreed to disclose her name lol) Emily, had gone shopping for me to get me outfits and the like. Earlier today i put on one of those outfits and officially faced the world as Jessie for the first time.
To say I was nervous would be an understatement. We went to our local mall and I was almost shaking, thankfully Emily calmed me down and said if anyone said anything mean to me she'd handle it, then playfully threw up her hands like a boxer lol. We stepped inside and started walking around going in stores and I noticed something, no one was staring. Like at all. I live in an area that still has issues with LGBTQ people so I was afraid of staring or aggressive people. But none of that happened. People greeted me, the store workers were kind and nobody looked at me like I was weird. I felt comfortable, and Emily even said she saw someone check me put, though i doubt that.
This was unbelievable to me and honestly I felt like myself. I feels nice that I can go out without worrying about Judging eyes.
To all the supporters of my previous post thank you, you have made me happy. Ill keep this account going to let you join me in my journey and once I'm confident enough I'll post up some pics of me and Emily too :) end ID]
I'd much rather people reblogged this version of the post than any other at this time btw
Honestly crying right now. Wherever Jessie and Emily are at this moment, I hope they're doing well.
This is so similar to my wife's story I'm smiling and crying at the same time. I love it every time someone realizes they can live as their authentic self.
i am the very model of a modern gay millennial i have a tumblr blog and a prescription for estradiol i've problems economic, psychological, and medical and sympathies political which border on heretical
