Jenn the mostly harmless

Each of the lyrics comes from an old-time hickory song for fiddles, and is a lyric from that corresponding song.

"Fire on the Mountain" --> "Fire on the Mountain, run boys run"

Fire On The Mountain - Fiddle Player POV

"The House of the Rising Sun" --> "The Devil's in the house of the rising sun"

House of the Rising Sun

"Ida Red" --> "Chicken in the bread pan peckin' out dough"

Ida Red - Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys

"Granny Will Your Dog Bite" --> "Granny does your dog bite? 'No child, no'."

FTC #149 Granny Will Your Dog Bite

And for your furthered education, The Mountain Whipporwill.

in a time before things like radios and record players, every time you heard music was because there was somebody in the room with you playing an instrument. and many, many, many social events involved dancing, which requires music. so, if you're planning any kind of gathering in the american south or appalachia, you need to find a fiddler. and the fiddler's job is to play music that everybody knows and likes and can dance to.

the mistake The Devil makes in his bet with Johnny is that he misinterprets the contest as being about technical ability, so he has this big flashy song. he plays fast and impressively with a band of demons playing unfamiliar instruments in unfamiliar rhythms. he's definitely more skilled at playing than Johnny, and thinks he has it in the bag.

"What's up everybody I'm the beastly BARD, I joke and I jingle, yeah I'm a real CARD, Laugh in my face, expect to get MARRED I'll make it look easy when I take you down HARD."

Art presented without further comment:

artists (the OP is by Theodoor Rombouts, 17th c) : F. Gordeev 1769, Cornelius Cort 1566, Bernard Picart 1733, Enrico Barberi 1893, Luca Giordano 1660, Grigorij Mihajlov 1819, Jacob Jordaens 1640, Jean-Louis-Cesar Lair 1819, Johann Heinrich Fuseli 1781-1785, John Singer Sargent c. 1921, John Singer Sargent 1921, Kaspar von Zumbusch 1880, Josep Campeny i Santamaria, Juan Manuel Ferrari 1952, Peter Paul Rubens 1610s, Nicolas-Sébastien Adam 1762, unknown (Prometheus Vase) 1867, Pavel Wenig 1892

Aaand switch bonus: "Prometheus Strangling the Vulture" by Jacques Lipchitz (1943)

In some places in the south it is hugely less dangerous to be out as a furry than out as queer, and so a lot of queer youth end up in the fandom. I also found as a kid in the south that rednecks were less "threatened" by my queerness and less prone to violence if they knew I was a furry before they knew I was queer. Don't know if that still holds true, this was in the 90s and 00s.

There's something so beyond words about playing hide-and-go-tag with a fluffy little guy who will try and sneak up on you the same way you sneak up on him, who will chase you when you run, who totally GETS what's going on and will enthusiastically join in despite having no common language or anything.

And the we just lay on the nice cold floor together like freaks

My favorite technique for this is to make eye contact around a corner. Draw back out of the line of sight, and then peep back at them once or twice, and most cats will come investigate. When they come around the corner, burst off running, looking back at them. A lot of cats will chase you at this point and now you are playing hide and seek! Hide behind doors! Jump over them to run away! They love it!

I'm an artist and medical student, and I use art to help me pay some bills.

I built a free, helpful tool because to help prevent other talented creatives from undercharging, as I really see this a lot online.

It's a calculator with a built in reality check

Input your survival costs and expenses

True billable hours

Get the rate you actually need to charge to hit a 20% (or whatever you choose) profit margin.

It generates the rate, a template negotiation email + final invoice.

Plan to keep this tool free, ad-free, and open to everyone.

🔗 Check your math: fairpaycalc.artres.xyz

If the "Thriving Rate" calculation empowers you to double your quote on your next job, please consider hitting the "Buy me a coffee"button. It keeps the server running and the code flowing <3

Aeolipiles are these babies:

Rumination is probably the most common type of OCD compulsion, but I rarely see anyone talking about it. I've talked to multiple people diagnosed with OCD who didn't even recognize it as a compulsion.

Basically, if you have OCD you have terrible intrusive thoughts. They can be about anything, but common themes are fear of being a bad person, fear of hurting someone, fear of contamination. etc.

Rumination is when you get stuck in a spiral. Rumination is when you spend hours catastrophizing, overthinking, analyzing, telling yourself it's going to be okay.

I'll say it again:

Rumination is a compulsion.

Rumination is a compulsion, and that means you have to stop doing it.

I did ERP (exposure response prevention) for my OCD with a therapist! For 9 months! And it did help, but the idea didn't really click until I found this website a couple years later.

And Oh My God. It made things make so much more sense, and I was able to pull myself out of an episode even though I wasn't in therapy or on meds at the time.

Genuinely if you have OCD, or even if you suspect you have OCD, I'm begging you to read some of these articles.

Like this was genuinely life changing for me.

Here are some of the ones that were most helpful to me:

Defining Rumination

How to Stop Ruminating

ERP Exercises for Compulsive Rumination

Ken Sample and his cougar character, origin of the fursona.