Lady Wildflower

Did a wee mockup of my Lal from Offspring, now she's returned to the Enterprise as a Lieutenant JG Doctor as of S5 E06 The Game!

There's some physicist from Idaho that did a series of what different locations on Earth would look like if Earth had Saturn's rings. Article was saying that depending on your latitude, the rings could appear as a straight line overhead, or a sort of rainbow arch higher up. Fun idea to toy with.

This isnt... Quite true, unfortunately!!!

That description is best suited for someone's personal taonga (for example, a heirloom necklace that's been passed down through generations)

but that's a pretty old fashioned use of the term- usually if someone is referring to something as taonga, it's used as a term to describe something that's of cultural significance and something that's treasured by the entire Māori people.

For example- kiwis are taonga, the haka is taonga, the ocean is taonga, pounamu (greenstone) is taonga, and pāua are taonga! None of these are things we can own, but it is something we look after, because it's treasured by us!

We've had a family/murder of crows visiting our garden for years now, and this season the chicks are soooo helpless! They just stand around expectantly with their mouths open as the mom crow eats. Which is what inspired this comic! :)

Also everyone: When there's a hurricane you should never drive through water more than six inches deep, water that's a high as your ankle is enough to sweep you away.

"Don't you people have storm drains?"

Yes.

After you make 999,999,999 credits you are banned from making any more money. People have to pay you in omni gel or nothing. All the work you do from then on is pro-bono, baby.

"No." Says the tuna, "Do you?"

"I have never seen it." Says the whale, "but deep in my body, I remember it."

"Why do you care," says the tuna, "if you will never see it."

"There are bones in my body built to walk through the forests and the mountains." Says the whale.

"They will disappear." Says the tuna, "one day, your body will forget the forests and the mountains."

"Maybe I don't want to forget," Says the whale, "The forests were once my home."

"I have seen the forests." Whispers the salmon, almost to itself.

"Tell me what you have seen," says the whale.

"The forests spawned me." Says the salmon. "They sent me to the ocean to grow. When I am fat with the bounty of the ocean, I will bring it home."

"Why would the forests seek the bounty of the oceans?" Asks the whale. "They have bounty of their own."

Last year I finally had an excuse to illustrate this simple little Tumblr story I've had bookmarked forever for class.

netflix is making a hockey show called "the sticks" that is based on a very real tragedy that occured in canada in 2018.

the show follows a minnesota high school team after their bus crashes and coming back to hockey afterwards.

in 2018, the humboldt broncos' (a junior A team made up of 18-22 year olds) bus was hit by a tractor trailer on a highway intersection. 16 people (10 players, 2 coaches, and 4 team staff members) were killed, along with 13 other players severely injured.

the memory of the humboldt broncos crash is an incredibly sensitive subject carrying a lot of trauma to both the survivors, their families, and deceased's families. the trajectory of hockey in canada was changed significantly after this tragedy.

despite this, netflix has decided to make a show using the death of young hockey players for profit. they did not consult the survivors, nor the deceased's families. they stole a canadian story for a feel-good cash grab.

None of the families even knew about this show until the media started asking how they felt.

It is taking a tragedy and turning it into a cash cow.

This was such a deeply-felt issue that even the truck driver pleaded guilty and has tried to make amends. (And as he is facing deportation after his sentence, some of the families have even started supporting him being allowed to stay in the country.) There is a real story you could be telling about community and resilience that is not just turning one of the worst days for THE NATION into cheap thrills and sensationalism.

In Pratchett, it doesn't matter if you're beautiful as a woman.

I can't give precise names because I'm reading a translation*, but the latest example, that made me realise this, is the mages going to the King's and Magrat's wedding, and Ridcully reminiscing about the young woman he would have married if he could have (and what a surprise it was to understand who she is lol), saying, no, she wasn't beautiful, she had eyes like she was piercing you with them. Like we know who she is, we know she's intense, scary, impressive, a bit domineering, unapproachable to most... And these qualities, that you rarely see in a woman in fiction, are exactly why he loved her. Magrat is also not beautiful, she can't find clothes that fit, can't do anything with her hair, has an unfortunate red nose, doesn't have curves, and yet, she charmed someone enough that he keeps following her when she awkwardly and hurtfully pushes him away in the name of her independence. Isn't that beautiful? And she also is charmed by him even though he was pathetic and sad and an underdog (I do wonder if they'll really end up together because it looks like they can't actually talk to each other normally and that's not a great start lol).

Pratchett wrote women not like a man writes women but like a person writes a person. And he's not selling the lie that you have to be beautiful or agreeable or soft to be loveable and likeable, because it's true! Plenty of us of any gender are really intense and have jagged edges, and aren't hot or pretty or handsome or dreamy, and we still live full lives. Lives where people love us, are drawn to us. It feels so surprising and new to me, to see this in fiction. And Nanny Ogg is a prime example, she was probably never classically beautiful to start with, but now she only has one tooth left and is sometimes described as pretty ugly, but she can still get some lol, but she's also so carefree and happy and approachable that it felt more evident and a bit on the comedic side, like, oh yeah, the sexually liberated woman is still slutting it up in her 70s (?), ahah - but for the frigid, sanctimonious, terrifying, solitary one to have inspired love and devotion? I didn't expect that.

I'm endlessly charmed. The more I read (chronologically), the better it gets.