Witch King Toad

Making "immortal tofu" (神仙豆腐; shen2xian1dou4fu3).

The tree of the leaves it's made from and the "tofu" itself is called "immortal" due to a legend of one village struggling through a famine, and an immortal guiding them to use a particular tree's leaves to make this "tofu" to survive. It is a traditional folk food found throughout south China.

[eng by me]

to uk peeps

so you guys are facing down yet another global warming summer and as an american i feel entitled to barge over and give you a lot of advice about how to live your life. also i’m used to surviving 90-110 degree summers (32—43 celsius) with no ac. so here we go. 

Other things that freeze really well, a short list:

Other general tips:

If you need to cool down quick, run cold water over your wrists (or put ice cubes on them maybe?). This is a trick they taught us in gymnastics class but it works just as well on hot days.

When you start getting that feeling like you’ve adapted to the heat, like it’s not bad, like you could just stay where you are for hours and hours, even get a blanket, and maybe you feel like you’re zoning out a little, it’s time to reconsider, move around, have something cool to drink.

And it can be hard to remember to eat when it’s so hot, for some reason. Cold food in small portions is generally easiest to manage. But remember to eat food with a lot of salt, a lot of potassium, a lot of vitamins. I can’t believe bananas aren’t on this post. My god, get your potassium, you’ll feel SO much better. If you’re eating something salty and it tastes unusually, amazingly good, it’s because you’re running low on salt, so keep eating it.

and seriously yeah keep an eye on people like kids and the elderly and anyone who’s under your care. ask them how they’re feeling if they’re able to tell you, and if not, try to see if they’re looking unusually unfocused, breathing too hard, haven’t had anything to drink in a while, etc.

If you bind, be even more careful about how long you bind and pay even more attention to your binder’s effects on your body.

sometimes there’s nothing else for it but to just fill a bathtub with cool water and get in. Seriously, it can be so helpful. Also, showers. Showers are good.

also take care of your dogs I don’t know anything about dogs but be careful for them! maybe look up some tips.

also could anyone who even thinks about reblogging this from me to make fun of brits, pls stop?? when it gets hot here it’s kind of awful bc A/C is rare and they’re really not used to this kind of heat. if you add any sort of teasing if u reblog this for me i will find u and push you

Seriously, air conditioning is basically not a think here. And most of our houses are designed to trap heat. Our old people’s homes are not air conditioned. Our hospitals are not air conditioned. When we have unusual heat waves people die.

If you find yourself shaking, feeling dizzy, or feeling cold in the middle of a heat wave, sit yourself down in the shade and sip water (don’t chug, you’ll make yourself throw up) until you feel normal again. These are some of the first warning signs of heat exhaustion and ignoring them is dumb. If you’re at a sports practice or being otherwise active in the heat and you recognize these or other symptoms of heat exhaustion/heat stroke, don’t let yourself be pressured into playing through it. Listen to your body and take care of it.

I have so many British buddies, you guys, pay serious attention to the tips up above. For those who don’t know, I live in Australia, one of the driest and hottest places on earth, and we get those same temperatures that the first poster quoted, hotter in the centre of Australia. I didn’t know half of those tips, and I’ll likely utilise them next summer myself.

Please, take care in the heat, I’ll make sure to reblog this later on when it gets closer to you guys’ summer, but please, take this seriously. Even with us being used to the heat the way we are, we still have fatalities because people do not properly look after themselves.

also, since everyone always forgets – if you’re wearing sandals or flipflops, PUT SUNSCREEN ON YOUR TOES. Those little piggies are not used to being grilled, and sunburnt feet isn’t fun. Actually, suncreen everywhere (nape of neck, all over your ears, right down to your figures. Put your sunscreen on before getting dressed, and let it soak in, so you don’t get burn lines along the hems, and re-apply FREQUENTLY. In fact, if you don’t regularly use sunscreen, read this helpful FAQ As someone with skin cancer, let me tell you, DON’T LET YOURSELF GET BURNED! /psa

another point to cool off is behind the ears, press an ice cube there when your head feels hot

lie down on the floor to refresh, if your house is all wooden floors and carpets, the floors won’t be fresh but where there are tiles (like the bathroom) would work

and yo, if u have towels, u should soak ‘em in cold water or a tub of ice if one is accessible, and just wear it around your neck

also, the sunscreen thing is rly important even if you don’t think you need it, you can still get sunburnt and have ur skin peeling, and that’s no fun.

If you have access to multiple floors, it can be a good idea to set up an air mattress or even just pile up some blankets on the floor and to sleep on the lowest floor you can. Heat rises, and even with a/c we used to sleep on the ground floor when we were in an old farmhouse. It’s also not a bad idea to wear loose, light colored clothing that’s a little more covering, since this helps keep the sun off of you and makes it easier for sweat to evaporate, which both help keep you cool. Idk if anyone’s mentioned this, but you can tie up loose hair in a bun or braid to keep it from sticking to your neck. It’s a small but quick thing that can make you feel a bit better, just make sure to keep the back of your neck in the shade and sunscreen.

If you plan on lying on your stomach in the sun SUNSCREEN THE BOTTOMS OF YOUR FEET. Really sunscreen every 1-2 hours and make sure you apply at least 15 min before going outside.

I like sticking my top sheet and pillowcase in the freezer about 30 min or more before going to bed. And cold wet hair is a blessing for a while if you have longer hair

About clothing: If you can wear loose clothes made of 100% cotton or linen, wear them! A lot of synthetic fibers (I’m looking at you, polyester) will stick to your skin like plastic wrap.

Also, FROZEN BANANAS. Frozen bananas are excellent. And having something salty to snack on, because it will make you thirsty and remind you to drink water, as well as replacing any salt you lose by sweating. Just keep a bag of chips (er, American-style chips, I mean) or pretzels handy and munch on them.

I get super dizzy in the heat- not related to dehydration or heat stroke or dangerous things, it’s just a thing with my body. If you’ve figured out that you do the same (and aren’t suffering heat stroke) it can be a pain. Best thing I’ve found to counter that is rest my head between my knees or on a table or whatever, face down, and put something frozen on the back of my neck. A frozen towel or ice pack or whatever. Like all the other cool down points people mention are good but I’ve found that to be the best one to counteract dizziness is the back of the neck at the base of the skull. 

Reblogging because this information is helpful for everyone around the world.  I’m heat-sensitive so I’ll be trying some of these this summer myself.

Please also take extra care of pets and children - small bodies overheat much faster!

Hard, dark surfaces (asphalt, paving, etc) absorb heat and radiate it back - if the air up where your adult head is, is hot, then down at knee level where small children and pets walk may be 20-30 degrees F (10+ deg C) HOTTER. Black road surface can be hot enough to actually burn paws.

Heat exhaustion in pets looks like it does in people - dizziness, disorientation, unfocused eyes. Dogs may pant so hard their mouth is foamy. Especially be careful of long haired dogs and any breed with a short nose or flat face. If you can clip the coat, the dog will probably be grateful, but will also be susceptible to sunburn, so use your judgment. Sometimes it’s better to leave the hair, or clip only the belly.

Cats are pretty heat tolerant, but definitely make sure that outdoor cats have reliable shade and water. Indoor cats appreciate a fan to lay near.

If you have an overheated dog or cat: Immediately move the animal to shade, and cool them by putting cool (NOT COLD OR ICY) water on JUST THEIR PAWS. Do not douse the animal in water - thermal shock is just as bad as overheating. Keep soaking the paws in cool water until the animal recovers. Offer cool (NOT COLD OR ICY) water to drink. If you offer very cold water to an overheated dog, they will drink it, but it may make them vomit, only worsening dehydration. If the animal doesn’t want water pretty much immediately, they’re dangerously overheated - soak their paws and call the vet.

Dogs which are merely hot, not overheated, will enjoy the same things you do. Cool water at all times. Soak a rope toy in water and freeze it. Frozen peanut butter for a treat. Give the dog a frozen water bottle - they might ignore it, or they might happily lick it or lay on it.

These are good tips. My current apartment has no a/c and used to be the sunroom of an old victorian house, so I can vouch for how important all this is. Lay on the floor in your undies and put frozen water bottles in your armpits. Trust me.

In addition…. • If you can afford it, go to the movies or other places (like shopping malls) where the AC will be on HIGH. I realize this won’t get you through the whole day, but it can help. • Keep a jug of water in your fridge. Sometimes the pipes get so hot in the sun that your tap water won’t get cooler than lukewarm. • So you’re inside and you’re bored… try not to leave your big desktop computer running all day. Use a tablet, read a book, or play games on your Gameboy/smartphone. Computers with fans put out a lot of heat. • A park with grass and trees will be cooler than a park with just concrete/pavement/whatever. Not just because of the shade, but because the plants won’t bounce all the sun’s heat back at you. • Light bulbs put out heat too (more or less depending on the type) so leave them off when possible. • Hopefully it cools off at night. Open all the doors and windows (easier if you have screens; I hear some people don’t??) once it’s cooler outside than in, and overnight if it’s safe. Make sure to close up in the morning before it gets hot out again.

Another sleeping tip: put an ice pack (preferably a soft one but use whatever you have) in a pillowcase and take it to bed with you. Just lay an arm or whatever over it; in my experience, you’ll scoot closer to or farther from it during the night to adjust your temperature without waking up TOO much. Like an anti-hot water bottle for your bed.

Seconding the shower suggestion above, too. Absolute lifesaver and it can just be a quick rinse.

Current place doesn’t have screens on most of the windows (lol), so I dropped <$20 on a mosquito net canopy, which is also a literal lifesaver depending on where you live.

Additional tips from a fat person primarily geared towards other fat people:

More tips from someone without AC

this is very important: DO NOT USE A FAN IN DRY HEAT. This increases the risk of heat stroke. blowing dry air that is warmer than your body temperature will raise it, not cool it down. 

after going through the PNW heatwave in an area where no one has AC, I don’t want ANYONE caught unprepared.

Here is a list of heat related illnesses, their symptoms and what to do if you or someone you know is experiencing them (from the CDC):

Text version:

HEAT STROKE

HEAT EXAUSTION

HEAT CRAMPS

SUNBURN

HEAT RASH

*at the door to the selkie convention* good evening, ladies—allow me to take your coats

QUICK UPDATE: i am paying 182 alimony checks

I need everyone to know that the ship Götheborg, the world's largest ocean-going wooden sailing ship, answered a distress call the other day.

Imagine waiting for the coast guard or whatever to show up and instead a replica of 18th century merchant ship pulls up and tows you to the coast.

Text from the sailors on the sailing vessel Corto

On April 25th at 01:00, we left Cherbourg and set sail for Camaret (the tip of Brittany). 

We are two experienced sailors on board (Simon and me) with the objective of bringing the boat to Southern Brittany.

At 15:30, we were at sea, more than 50 nautical miles from the coast, when our rudder broke. After sending a PAN-PAN call on the VHF radio, the three-masted sailboat Götheborg quickly responded to our call, offering to tow us to Paimpol (France).

We repeatedly emphasized that we were aboard a small 8-meter sailboat, but the response was the same each time: "We are a 50-meter three-masted sailboat, and we offer our assistance in towing you to Paimpol." We were perplexed by the size difference between our two boats, as we feared being towed by a boat that was too large and at too fast a speed that could damage our boat.

The arrival of the Götheborg on the scene was rapid and surprising, as we did not expect to see a merchant ship from the East India Company of the XVIII century. This moment was very strange, and we wondered if we were dreaming. Where were we? What time period was it? The Götheborg approached very close to us to throw the line and pass a large rope. The mooring went well, and our destinies were linked for very long hours, during which we shared the same radio frequency to communicate with each other.

The crew of the Götheborg showed great professionalism and kindness towards us. They adapted their speed to the size of our boat and the weather conditions. We felt accompanied by very professional sailors. Every hour, the officer on duty of the Götheborg called us to ensure everything was going well.

The next day, as we approached the French coast, we radioed for another boat to help us enter the port, but no one responded positively. Around noon, the Götheborg approached us as closely as possible and stayed by our side until the arrival of a French rescue boat to ensure that everything would go well for us before letting us go.

This adventure, very real, was an incredible experience for us. We were extremely lucky to cross paths with the Götheborg by chance and especially to meet such a caring crew.

Dear commander and crew of the Götheborg, your kindness, and generosity have shown that your ship is much more than just a boat. It embodies the noblest values of the sea, and we are honored to have had the chance to cross your path and benefit from your help.

We thank you again for everything you have done for us.

Sincerely,

David Moeneclaey (skipper of the sailboat Corto)

painting these with zero context is definitely an experience xD

“Barely Counts as a Sin” by tabbystardust

(Bigger version on AO3)

Daily Cephalopod #35

This is a nice video showing an blind/invisible stitch, which is quite useful for repairing tears or finishing something (ex. cushion).

Also, that extra step for putting back the seam is really nice.

I updated my hobbit cover!

having given good omens a rewatch in preparation for season 2, i've been doing some thinking. and i caught something this time around that i haven't noticed on previous watches. (keep in mind, i'm basing this info on the tv series because i'm in the middle of re-reading the book as well, and i'm not all the way through it yet)

most main characters had a theme about defiance or defying expectations. not just our beloved angel and demon.

crowley and aziraphale are obvious about this, they directly defied heaven and hell's orders in order to save the world. they broke away from heaven and hell and began to be on their own side.

and we have to talk about adam as well. defying satan, choosing to save the earth, choosing his friends over his heritage. he's told directly by gabriel and beelzebub to start the war, and he outright refuses. pretty obvious defiance there.

but i also noticed that anathema burned the next set of prophecies. this is after newt says 'you don't want to be a descendant your whole life do you?' or something to that effect. the prophecies seemed to be a burden to her more than a joy, seeing as her entire life had essentially been planned out for her. and so she ends up defying the idea of predetermined fate for her own lineage. she sets herself free in this way.

i noticed that newt wound up being romantically involved with someone who is technically his enemy, because he ended up with a witch. it's noted that newt's and anathema's ancestors were enemies, and that newt's ancestor burned anathema's ancestor at the stake. so newt defied expectations by romantically pursuing anathema, despite the generational feud. (if i can call it that.)

Shadwell too, who spent the majority of life being a pretty hateful guy, ended up romantically involved with madame tracy, despite the vitriol he had for her. and he goes against the teachings of his own army in order to do that.

madame tracy decides to give up offering her services, and chooses to be with shadwell. to me, it seemed to me that she wasn't happy with her career path, and found it somewhat irritating on occasion if her expressions were anything to go by. she chose her own happiness over pursuing a career that didn't really seem that fulfilling. i think i can make an argument here that she defied shadwell's expectations to keep going just the way she was pre-apocalypse. but the main point here is that she did something extremely difficult. happiness can be a hard choice to make, and a complicated one. but she did it, and she seemed pretty glad by the time the episode was over.

so what can we learn from these characters about free will, making choices, and the act of defiance?

aziraphale and crowley can teach us that we are not bound by strict moral laws, that morality itself can be relative, and that if two options suck, try and look for a third option or a way out. essentially, we get to choose our own side.

adam can teach us that we are not bound by our genetics and can make the choice to be better than our parents. we can choose to separate ourselves out from bad family members. just because our parents were bad, doesn't mean we have to be as well.

anathema can teach us that we don't have to be bound by tradition and what our ancestors did. we have the choice to abandon the worldview and throw off the shackles of expectation and predestination. we can break the mold, if we want to.

newt can teach us the same lesson there, i think. with the added addition that love has an ability to overcome certain barriers.

shadwell can teach us that it is possible to make a choice to let go of hatred and bigotry. (though, let's be real. that guy has a longgggg way to go. still, he can be credited for having a decent start) and with less hatred in his heart, he's got a better chance at being well rounded.

and madame tracy can teach us that it's never too late to pursue happiness.

it's late, i don't know how much sense this is all making. but i can't help but notice that good omens is a lot of things to a lot of people. and during my rewatch, i saw that there was a lot of focus on defying expectations, making better choices for yourself and others, and pretty clear themes on free will.

choices, choices, it's all about the choices we make and how they define us.

and as someone who has struggled with defying harmful narratives, who has parents who are not good people, as someone who has wrestled with ancestral expectations, who has struggled to cast off internalized hatred due to things that are not in my control, who is trying so hard to make choices that will lead to happiness...

good omens is an exceptionally meaningful work.

and tonight, as i'm in an overthinking and overanalyzing mood, i feel like i'm so close to grasping something important here about myself. about what it means to be human. there's something here about choosing your own path that i'm just on the edge of understanding.

an epiphany just on the tip of my tongue.

how apples are worth eating, and the cost of free will might have been worth everything that came after, sure.

but something more personal as well. something about how we can be more than what we're told to be.

i'm actually getting a headache trying to parse everything out. (yes, really)

these characters, all from wildly different backgrounds, with different experiences and traumas, all making the same choice in different ways. the choices that work for them.

hard choices, difficult choices, but ones that lead to joy, to safety, to love...

bravery, courage, doing your best when the chips are down and the world is ending (or at least, when it feels that way)

i'm trying to put all this information together in a way that makes senes, because i feel like i'm on the edge of something groundbreaking in a personal way.

if i figure it out, i'll let you guys know.

excellent discussion! yes! they all took a plunge, being willing to change. change is hard, and scary, even when you want it and it's a good change. it still takes courage to step out of what is familiar (however unfulfilling) and into the unknown. how lovely that this story gives us such a variety of approaches to positive change.

we all talk about az being out of touch w technology but what about crowley. when does mr. “crowley automatically assumed all vehicles he drove would have cassette players and therefore this one did” “he forgot abt speakers so his sound system just works perfectly without them” find out no one uses cassette tapes anymore. when does he find out fax machines are obsolete. does he know what body wash is, bc he doesn’t need to shower and he doesn’t go to the grocery store. has he ever seen a granola bar. does he know about automatic transmissions. if crowley hadn’t invented fruit roll-ups i don’t think he would know what they were. there are unplumbed depths here. crowley doesn’t interact with the world like a human any more than aziraphale does and i think we may have forgotten that

It’s also a huge and hilarious plot-point that Crowley’s computer is showy, but doesn’t do much, whereas Aziraphale’s is an outright fossil, but very functional. And he uses it to keep all those scrupulous tax records in which nobody can prove he’s getting away with murder somewhere.

y’all realize this means that aziraphale is canonically 99x better with computers than crowley. aziraphale keeps incredibly detailed tax records on a computer in the 80s. do you know what computer was the most popular - particularly for financial records - in the 1980s? the IBM personal computer.

this thing ran a text-only operating system. the screen couldn’t display any images unless they were ASCII (like the logo shown above). the first iterations didn’t even have a multicolor display - just the standard green on white text you see in retro vaporwave shit.

to use a text-based operating system, you need to know virtually every command you could conceivably need to run in order to do what you need to do. need to open a file? first you need to locate it. you need to type the right command to move to the right directory and then you need to type the right command to open it in a text editor or viewer. you need to either know all these commands, or (in 1983) have them written down in a goddamn book and look them up one by one.

in other words, most people even now wouldn’t have the first idea how to take a crack at one of these motherfuckers.

and of all people, aziraphale can use one - not only reasonably, but well enough to keep tax records SO DETAILED that the IRS DOESN’T BELIEVE THEY ARE REAL.

and crowley’s computer doesn’t do anything. because he doesn’t know how to use it. sure, he’d be able to use windows 10 today with some instruction (what the hell is a mouse for, anyway?) but aziraphale would almost certainly be able to read the error codes the damn thing spits out when crowley inevitably breaks something

#if aziraphale got a new computer today he would install linux on it and do everything from the command line and that’s my final take#good omens

THANK YOU FOR THIS DELIGHTFUL ADDITION AMIAS

Crowley: angel, help me, I need to find a new pair of cool leather jacket online, my last one just caught on fire.

Aziraphale with hacker voice: Leave it to me

agreed, but this is because when Aziraphale inputs a command, the computer always does exactly what he expected it to do.

Aziraphale talks to his computer like he’s talking to a person By this point his computer is probably a person He types “show me the picture I took last saturday of a duck” and the computer’s like “you took two pictures of ducks last saturday, here they are.” and ignores the pictures of geese and robins with no tagging required

input: Play that one of Crowley’s cursed bebops I have lodged in my head, please.

input: It goes do do do do do do do.

output:

despite being equipped with a sound system only capable of generating motherboard emergency beeps, somehow a full orchestral & choral cover rendition of Queen’s Fat Bottomed Girls that had not previously existed

Just throwing out there: all this, and Aziraphale’s computer probably shares one feature with Crowley’s Bentley — both just assume it can do what everyone else can do.

So Crowley might not know about automatic transmission, or even 5-gear manual transmission, but the Bentley handles at least as well as any car Crowley has ever seen because OF COURSE IT DOES.

And Aziraphale does not know what the internet is, but he knows Crowley can buy things with his fancy computer-phone, so he can sit down at his old IBM and type “Hello I would like to purchase a rare book, Oscar Wilde, first edition” and the computer responds “There are five Oscar Wilde first editions for sale in London.”

Also, if Crowley DOES know about body wash, granola bars, and whatever else OP said, it’s solely through people mentioning it on social media. Crowley’s entire understanding of “how normal modern humans do” comes from (A) social media, (B) action movies, and/or © sitcoms.

Which honestly might explain a lot.

At some point, Dwalin had to pack his things to go on this trip, and he went, “Okay, essentials only! Knuckle dusters, war hammer, Grasper and Keeper…. oh, can’t forget my violin!”

Right?? So c'mon Thorin you loser, why didn’t you pack your damn HARP? Bofur’s even got his flute. The Company needs more road music. 

I wish we saw Thorin’s harp in the movie (although his voice was more than enough 😍), but he most definitely packed the harp when going on the Quest:

Oh I wish we could see and listen the scene in the Book!

Me too! That would be amazing… we need more dwarven songs!

It’s better because in the book Tolkien was so specific. Dwalin and Balin didn’t have a violin It’s a viol which is not even a common instrument and Bilbo states it was “as big as themselves”. Imagine lugging around the equivalent of a cello on a multi month journey into unknown perils. What a legend.

The Durins and some of their kinfolk 👑 ⚔️ 🏹❤️

“The Lonely Mountain”

The fifth of eleven new watercolours depicting places in Middle-earth and Númenor for an upcoming book.

Mossy necklaces by Mossandfeather

mood

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) by Panegyrics of Granovetter

Via Flickr: