I started Hebrew, which is why I’ve been dead on this blog, but I don’t think I can ever properly convey to you guys the sheer cultural whiplash of spending years learning Japanese from Japanese teachers and then trying to learn Hebrew from an Israeli

The span of human experience is so insane.

💓🎀💗💖💞🌸💣🖤🎩♠️💣🖤 🌊💙🥏🚙🦕🌌

we love to see it

suchwita gave us an absolutely insane deep dive into the yoonmin lore…. jimin remembering yoongi in the middle of the night telling him he’s a great singer and that he wants him on the team as the starting point for his motivation to debut with bts.. jimin crying outside of the bathroom before a live perf and yoongi finding him and comforting him.. yoongi giving jimin his first drink.. yoongi making sure he gets trained as a singer??? and then the fact that he told jimin to promote on music shows and promised to be there to show support???? him asking jimin to show up and perform on HIS solo tour just because he wants an excuse to have jimin there????? god bless

yoongi is so invested in jimin’s growth as an artist 🥺 even when they were trainees he used to ask about how jimin was doing and when he found out he didn’t like rapping he agreed that jimin should definitely focus on being a singer. he’s been saying since forever that jimin’s voice is his favourite in bts and that not only does he want to write And produce And form a unit with him, he also gives him advice re: his vocals because he wants jimin to be the best he can be. the both of them used to stay up at night in the practice room just talking about music. yoongi specifically chose to perform tony montana as agust d with jimin because he wanted to show off jimin’s hidden rap skills and he kept encouraging him to write the lyrics himself. jimin produced his own joke song but yoongi still loved it and danced to it. bts is making their own album from scratch and yoongi urged jimin to be the pm because it’ll bring him closer to the music. he cares so damn much and it’s so heartwarming 🥺

fanart: suga’s “damn, shit” series is complete! :D

Seasonal bows 🌸🌿🍂❄️

+ bonus

The Witcher Headcanon - Purring

ko-fi request of jaskier with a knife geralt’s sword

x

okay so i often watch these chocolate guy videos and think to myself “what is the point of making this out of chocolate? modeling chocolate is reportedly disgusting, this is not really intended for consumption, why doesn’t he just make it out of clay or something”

but watching this video i FINALLY realized.

chocolate is the only sculpture medium that you can melt and then freeze for effect without some serious equipment.

like. the process of letting the chocolate drip down over the water balloon? yeah that chocolate only needs to be, like, a little over 100F/38C. that’s a touchable temperature, that’s something that you can put your fingers in without burning them off. and then it freezes again at about room temperature! and granted you want the ambient environment a little colder than room temperature, because otherwise the heat from your hands will start to melt it, but again, being able to melt this medium with your hands is a bonus.

clay doesn’t melt. you can make it liquid-y by adding water, but that doesn’t harden up again afterwards, or when it does, it’s EXTREMELY fragile. plastic melts, but at pretty high temperatures that can be dangerous to handle, and it’s also really easy to burn and will release toxic gases when it does burn. metal melts, but that’s obviously even HOTTER and MORE dangerous. wood doesn’t melt. stone technically melts but like. good luck with that one.

chocolate melts at a reasonable, human-touchable temperature and freezes again at room temperature, which means you can make solid shapes from dripping or pouring melted chocolate and letting it harden.

the only other sculpting medium i know that does that is wax, and i think wax is generally too soft/malleable overall for the kind of large structures that this guy makes.

so i finally, FINALLY fucking get why he does this shit in chocolate oh my god.

@hexadecimal00

I mean, I’m pretty sure he does them in chocolate because he’s a pastry chef and chocolatier by training (really early training, too! Like 14 years old!)

Like all of the above about the features of chocolate and how it allows itself to be used to make this kind of detailed sculpture are true but um, pretty sure he makes sculptures out of chocolate because he’s a pastry chef and these are his media. One of the most remarkable things about his work is actually that he’s absolutely dead insistent that every one of these is made to be eaten: a lot of chocolate sculpture is (or especially was before he started throwing down this way) kinda … .second class food. It really is JUST about the sculpture. 

Guichon is adamant that it’s supposed to also taste amazing and is meant to be eaten. 

He’s not a non-food sculptor who stumbled across chocolate as the perfect material and medium; he’s a pastry chef who internalized that his awesome food could also be awesome sculpture AND still be food. He works in chocolate because that’s the point. 

For the smaller things he makes, you’ll often see him actually eating it at the end, and I think that’s a great indication that he’s actually trying to make Good Food, not just PRETTY food.

This post is doing the rounds again and every time I stumble upon re-reading “modeling chocolate is reportedly disgusting”, I’m consumed by rage. I had already commented but whatever ahfjf!1!

As a pro pastry chef who would give half a lifespan for a fraction of this fucker’s skill, let me reiterate: Chef Guichon works only with the best materials, and I have yet to see him adding glucose or corn syrup to his chocolate (which is how you make standard modeling choco). This shit is FINE ok, it’s high-percentage cocoa unless it’s white, the lacquer he airbrushes on is ALSO cocoa butter + dye, and the quality IS the reason it’s so stupidly versatile. Chocolate triglycerides crystalize and arrange themselves differently depending on melting and cooling points. If it’s flexibler than clay, it’s only because Chef Guichon’s otherworldly sense of temperature is only rivalled by his whittling technique, his intimate knowledge of how much tension and weight the material supports, and his eldritch understanding of shape. I hate him for it!

I’m damn positive he’s a delightful person! I would never ever wish him ill! He seems so adorable and chill, but oh my god! There’s a pic of his baby-faced teen self with a Kraken vs Ship work - from 2007!! I spent ages denying my loathing was 1000% CRIPPLING RADIOACTIVE GREEN ENVY!1! “Modeling chocolate”, “reportedly disgusting”? He’s the fucking Mozart of his craft, I shall never be on his level, and I won’t stand by this slander. The taste has to be out of this world, plus the sculptures DO get eaten by the end of the events they’re made for. They’re food, through and through.

So yeah, nice analysis of the properties of chocolate as a sculpting/modeling medium but seriously - OP has it all backwards. Gastronomy as a whole is an art, AND it’s not meant to last, AND flavor is a major part of the aesthetic experience (which is why fondant should be banned).

Chef Guichon changed the game. He’d never nerf his own work with subpar taste.

Chef Guichon changed the

game. He’d never nerf his own

work with subpar taste.

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

@abluescarfonwaston #I feel like this might be Valdos horse and I have no idea why I thought that - that or one of his employers#!!!!!!!!#Valdo seeing Jaskier for the first time in years ready to tear him apart for Losing the Nack#Fingers fall off?#only to lose his voice halfway through as Miłek steps into view#haha... he really likes horses#and Valdo takes in the shag of his hair and the two seasons old cut of his shirt#(too big. or. or rather the mans too small now)#(wants to peel the layers off and count the ribs and muscle and scars himself)#the scars on his hands#this isnt how he wanted to win. victory tastes like dust in his mouth#like dust and dirt and horse shit and he opens his mouth -#would he like to ride?

Those tags!! GOOD GUY VALDO.

got this glittery dust from lush im abt to start my career as edward cullen

How much does that pay?

not enough

the glitter wont come off. i dont think this is a career anymore i think im just edward cullen.

saw a snail today.....effervescent...

this is the skin of a killer, bella......

(still covered in glitter)

How old are you?

(the infamous piece of cinematic history we all wish we never saw)

...seventeen....

(im 19)

How long have you been 17 (19) 😳👀

a while.

I know what you are...

say it... out loud. say it.

vampire

are you afraid

(STOP SAYING THAT THIS POST HAS 10k OR 100k OR WTV VIBES THIS CANT BE MY LEGACY)

STOP

SILENCE

a kitty is like a stuffed animal that is so heavy and it bite you and she loves you so much and you're best friends

pokemon blood and pokemon bone where you osmosis jones your way through some creature to discover microscopic pokemon

I can get behind that

(Top to bottom: tardigrades, staphylococcus aureus, and mash up of various fungi)

this but they’re the sole source of disease in the Pokemon universe

*doctor places stethoscope on my chest* “Good news and bad news: here’s the good news, I can hear it chanting it’s own name, so diagnosis is easy. The bad news is… you’ve got tuberculosa.”

I GOT A FUCKING RAISE THE POTATO WORKED WTF

This potato works. Every. Fucking. Time.

We need like a month where nothing happens and there's no repercussions we all just stay in bed and hibernate and nothing goes wrong

My ancestors, watching me dump an entire stick of cinnamon, two cloves, an allspice berry, and a generous grating of nutmeg into my tea, sweetened with white sugar and loaded with cream, while I sit in my clean warm house surrounded by books, 25+ outfits for different occasions, and 6 pairs of shoes, in a building heated so well I have the windows open in mid-autumn:

Our daughter prospers. We are proud of her. She has never labored in a field but knows riches we could not have imagined.

I like this so much better than the idea that our ancestors would be embarrassed or ashamed of us for being “soft” or some crap like that.

My ancestors, watching me stuff my face with fried chicken while studying: She eats like an imperial concubine and can afford to study like am imperial scholar. WE MADE IT

She eats like an imperial concubine and can afford to study like am imperial scholar

My ancestors watching me use my stand mixer while living in a small apartment and attending university: Thou hast kneadeth bread in FOUR hail marys??? FOUR??? And thou ist poor as a churchmouse, yet liveth in a fine cottage with four pounds butter and fresh berries in thy larder!! And two featherbeds! And thou attendeth the King’s college, as a lord!!

My ancestors being like:

Look at this fine young lady! She can paint she can sew and embrody, she sings and read

And without a wealthy father to pay for that, plus she is florid in the body! She doesn’t know hunger!

We did it!

Me: /wearily studying/

My Ancestors: TRULY SH— what? They? A little unorthodox, but reasonable I suppose. TRULY THEY PROSPER, FOR THEY LIVE IN A DWELLING WITH MANY ROOMS AND ONLY THEIR SPOUSE TO SHARE IT WITH! THEY HAVE DOGS WHO DO NOT PERFORM A FUNCTION! THEY HAVE MANY BOOKS AND DO NOT HAVE TO SPIN THEIR OWN YARN! THEY BATHE AT A WHIM WITH GENTLE SOAP FREE OF LYE! OUR DESCENDANT BRINGS HONOR AND PRIDE TO OUR LINEAGE!

Me: /yawns and sips my coffee/

My Ancestors: /cheer wildly/

Me: *hunched over at my desk nursing a headache.*

My Ancestors: “Truly, we prosper; see here, our infirm descendant need not even work on her poor days, but has the luxury to rest as she sees need! A doctor attends to her illnesses; her clothes are warm and free of pests; she cares for exotic and dangerous animals within her own home! We have found the height of luxury!”

Me: *treats myself to a pineapple and a bunch of bananas*

My Georgian ancestors: ZOOTH SHE HAS BOUGHT A PINEAPPLE! NOT MERELY BORROWED ONE! TRULY SHE HAS ACHIEVED FAR MORE THAN WE COULD KNOW!

me: [puts on warm socks and a blanket, is now warm regardless of the weather outside]

My impoverished Russian Jewish ancestors:

Me: [learns to knit from youtube videos]

My ancestors: Our descendant, the heir to all our hopes and fears for a far-off future… She can buy fine clothes woven and knit by automatons, with but a fraction of a day’s earnings… and she does… she has so much free time to do as she pleases… and she uses some of that time to do what we did.

One woman from rural Poland, who died from smallpox in 1717 CE, a grandmother at 35: I knit roses and peonies into my and my children’s gloves… it wasn’t much extra work to dye the red, once I had already cleaned the wool and spun the yarn, and to knit in the designs… and I wasn’t a gifted knitter but I was a good knitter, and I thought, well, it might not make a difference to how warm the glove is, but it made the children happy and it made me happy. I liked to make things beautiful when I could.

Another woman, a peasant from what’s now France, who died from getting kicked by a mammoth in 8995 BCE: [Patting her on the back] I made my family’s clothes too. Every day my sister and I wove and wove and tended our children. We went out of our way to make the cloth lovely. Not a trace of it remains anywhere on earth now… But it mattered to us. And she might not know our names, or know it was us, but evidently, it matters to her too. She has so much beauty available to her, in every direction, and she wants to make it where we once made it.

[everyone sobbing and high-fiving each other.]

A man from Britain, 1104 CE, sitting at the trans-temporal telescope, reporting on my doings: She’s stopped knitting and now she’s playing minecraft.

The other ancestors: Ah, yes, the dream of building. We know this one well. What vision doth she design now?

Telescope man: Looks like… Some kind of floating temple?

Everyone: [Goes completely apeshit]

Y'know, putting aside the potential a-/acephobic reasons, and the "not relying on overused romance tropes/shortcuts" reasons, I think one of the big reasons (that I haven't really seen talked about?) that Good Omens gets accused of queerbaiting is that it's basically the story of an existing relationship. It's not the story of how Aziraphale and Crowley fall in love, or admit that they're in love, or whatever that people tend to expect out of romance stories these days, at least, not in the traditional sense. Yes, technically we get to see their relationship develop and we do get to see them realizing and admitting to themselves that they are in love and that the other loves them back, but that's not really the main focus the way it is in a lot of stories where romance is involved. There's no "will they/won't they" drama, there's no big confession or relationship-affirming kiss or anything, because they've been in a developing relationship for nearly all of 6000 years. That's like, literally what the Arrangement is. It's their relationship, their "basically married", their "involved", their "together but we can't say it outright bc people are watching and also we don't wanna screw it up". And people aren't used to seeing that in stories about relationships (seriously, find me one example of a story where the main, endgame couple is together at the beginning and the plot doesn't revolve entirely around them having issues that they need to work out. Hollywood/the publishing industry is allergic to writing about healthy relationships that stay healthy and in tact and exist after they get together). So when they see Neil Gaiman say "it's a love story" they expect the story of Azi and Crowley falling in love and finally admitting it to themselves and each other and having a big climactic kiss to seal the deal. And when they get a couple who is basically married in everything but name, who have been together for 6000 years but have had to be so so careful and dance around their feelings bc ~bureaucracy~, who don't need a big kiss at the end, just a loving, tender look because they can finally relax and be in love together... it doesn't feel like enough to them. They were so busy looking for the "getting together" plot that isn't really there that they missed the love story that was there. Which is a shame honestly, because it really is an excellent love story. There's enemies to lovers and mutual pining and almost a sort of courtly love situation going on and it's excellent. And people don't see it because it's not what they were looking for.

The love story in Good Omens is also a very queer love story.  It’s the story of two people who have a relationship which exists in every single way except the official one.  And the fun thing is, it was one of those in the original book as well.  It’s a love story countless non-heterosexual people lived for decades, centuries even, and it’s a love story a lot of non-heterosexual people are still living today.  It’s just instead of saying “oh, no, they’re Just Good Friends”, the televisual version of Good Omens actually commits to the truth and says: “they love one another, very very much, and they aren’t allowed to do anything about it, because if they do, they’re going to wind up being flung out of their families and their jobs and their homes, and never allowed to return”.  (Never mind the families, jobs and homes they’d be thrown out of were each as dysfunctional as the other.  That isn’t the point: the point is this was their family, their job, their home and they didn’t know whether they’d be able to replace it.  Don’t belittle the risk until you’ve taken it). 

No wonder a lot of the heterosexual folks didn’t understand what they were looking at.  I think the part which is simultaneously both tragic and inspiring is there were a lot of non-heterosexual people who also couldn’t recognise it... because it wasn’t an experience they had any knowledge of.

When the show gave us a full montage of their past??? Episode 3 I think? Readers, I cried. That was so beautiful and magical and it was 3 am and I couldn’t believe that the show was awknowledging their love this way! “You go too fast!” The burning church scene! I was besides myself because I never thought they’d make it so clear in the show!!

And then I got online and people were pissed that they weren’t “canon” and I was extremely confused, let me tell you.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Neil Gaiman, who has repeatedly expressed extreme reluctance to alter anything that Terry Pratchett wrote out of respect for his memory, wrote HALF AN HOUR OF ROMANTIC BACKSTORY THAT DIDN'T EXIST IN THE BOOK AT ALL.

Seriously. Half an hour. That's half of an entire episode. In a six episode series. Half of an episode, with no interruptions, not even for the fucking opening credits. Do you know how many fucking pages that is for a script? How much of it Neil Gaiman fought to keep in? HALF AN HOUR. OUT OF WHOLE CLOTH. An entire LIFETIME'S worth of interactions, with its own internal plot, that wasn't there before. That's not an accident! And it sure as fuck isn't queerbaiting!

So a really interesting thing to me is I’ve heard a lot of younger people in the fandom say that “my mom watched Good Omens and even she could see it was a love story!” Folks, it’s because she knows what a marriage looks like.

I’ve been married 18 years and I have never seen a show on television that portrayed my marriage dynamics as well as Good Omens. Ever.

Married people are either relegated to this weird comedy where they really probably shouldn’t be married because they hate each other and it’s all a joke. Or they live in a world where sure the other does bad things, but they never get talked about or resolved. Or my personal favorite to cringe over, married so long that you’re just sort of one existing entity blob with a shared mind that doesn’t acknowledge there are two people with individual wants and needs (that sometimes don’t mesh).

Then Good Omens waltzes in where Aziraphale and Crowley share so many interests, but also maintain their own. Sure, they banter but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone say “Oh Lord, heal this bike” is antagonistic or in anyway indicative that the pair doesn’t still adore each other (Aziraphale shooting back with “perfectly normal velocipede” keeps the light tone going, even if they did). And they respect each other’s boundaries and needs, even to the end of the world.

It’s not just that we don’t see established relationships, it’s that we don’t see developed and healthy ones in media often. Throw the careful queer balancing game of “is it safe” on top and… I can’t think of another time I’ve seen that at all. Or even attempted.

And I am so grateful this show exists.

The people complaining that the show didn't go far enough or didn't openly state that they're in a relationship, are people who weren't in any queer relationships in the 80's or before and aren't in touch with that aspect of queer history.

Good Omens was published in 1990 and it depicts the lived experience of almost every queer person at the time. Because back then, and even in the 90's, we didn't say we were queer, we didn't say we were in relationships. Queer people who'd been in love and living together for decades told everyone around them that they were just roommates because anything else was liable to get them killed, or at least cost them jobs and housing and family and everything else.

Somewhere or other there's an art exhibit that is the only item (an AC unit I think) that was left behind when the artist's partner died of AIDS and since his was the name on the lease, the artist was unable to claim anything from the apartment and the family took everything including all the artist's belongings and left him without even anything by which to remember his love.

Good Omens is positive affirming representation of life as a queer person in a society where it's not okay to be queer, and it should stand as a reminder of that part of queer history, and of the fact that it can happen again.

I’ve nattered on this with several fellow Queers who were part of the comm in the 80′s and 90′s and we absolutely know and see this story (hell, one of them pegged on the wing extension in the prelude, “Oh! This is a love story!”) It’s actually been rather healing, seeing that coded dance without the destructive Hollywood  romeo-and-juliet doomed romance overtones slapped on it.

Strawberry Bat 🍓 / Peach Bat 🍑