Shibi

Highlights include:

For your first two years (when you were small) you lived in a foster home with people who raised you into a very polite young man. Two is like you plus me, that's what two is.

Some people adopted you before me and they called you Timmy (which is a stupid name) and they returned your ass almost immediately because you were so annoying at that age.

Like think about how annoying you are right now at seven years old, but way worse.

I'm better than them though, I don't call you Timmy and I wore earplugs to bed for three years because you love to scream at bedtime. Earplugs are like when I roll over and go back to sleep even when you are yelling so so so loud.

I got you at a time in my life when I was really sick (being sick is like when I'm up late because I'm throwing up and you are a very handsome good boy who sits with me) and they had to put me asleep for a procedure. A procedure is like what happened to you when they put you asleep and took your balls away.

Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo! Ring a dong! hop along! fal lal the willow! Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo! Hey! Come merry dol! derry dol! My darling!

My dad´s archenemy

"my skin has turned to porcelain, to ivory, to steel."

my favorite pov character :) i wanted to depict how she changes her appearance and especially her clothes to fit into the king's landing court, shedding as much of her northern culture as she can, but still keeping some remnants of it by wearing stark colors and jewelry. in my mind, she both reutilizes fabric by making it into new gowns, and also is gifted/borrows gowns from other ladies of the court

I had another client today get confused and upset at how I labeled their final file.

(If you don't know already, I'm a graphic designer)

The filename was something like "ProjectnameFNL-BLEED-DIE.pdf"

I also named the email "Projectname Final File - Bleed & Die"

Now, for the non-designers out there, a bleed is how you get the picture to the edge of the page in a document. You can't just print an 8.5x11 page in that situation, you have to print a larger page, and trim it to 8.5x11, and that overprint that you cut down is called the "bleed".

Die is short for dieline. If you are printing something in a different shape than a cutter can make (basically anything without straight lines) then you need a die. A die also helps trim things a lot faster, some can do a hundred sheets at a time, as opposed to manually doing it (which I'm not even sure how you'd even do that)

In this situation, I was making a box. They are notoriously tricky, but I've done a bunch before. And the person I was dealing with was new, and she had to send along the final approval to her boss.

She wasn't rude, but was clearly uncomfortable in our meeting today. I really had to explain it to her, and said that these were industry standard things and her printer needs this info. I also have worked with her boss before and absolutely knew that they'd understand the terms.

This is a kind of sample of what I mean. The dieline is the pink line. It is where things will be cut. You can see that it is a special shape that can't just be cut out regularly.

Everything blue outside the pink line is the bleed. you won't see any of that in the final folded box.

And the white lines you see are just the fold lines. They are usually part of the die line, but have a different process to use them.

Came across this art installation, Liza Lou's Kitchen, at the Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC. It's a kitchen made of tiny glass beads, that artist Liza Lou did, taking 5 yrs. to complete, from 1991 - 1996.

My favorite part is the sink.

Dont get me wrong, I love TGCF, I love Mu Qing (and he has soooo much angst potential its not even explored, but thats what Ao3 is for :') and GUZI AND QI RONG alskdjfoweiur dont even get me started on them <3) but like TGCF is like. 8 volumes. Which is not bad, like its good, but like there's so much? So much stuff happens, which isn't bad, I guess, cause complicated character arcs and stuff, make for a veryy interesting read, but like LOOK AT MDZS.

It's also the first one I read so there could be a huge nostalgia thing in it. Like. I love MDZS cause its so cleaaannnnn. I feel like everything connects, characters are rarely wasted. TGCF has so many characters, its beautiful and diverse, but that means a lot of them aren't as explored well if that makes sense? I'm also not a huggeee fan of the typical "perfect" character if that makes sense. Xie Lian is not perfect but he seems to effortlessly carry people's admiration, as well as hate, but compared to Wei Wuxian, I feel like Wei Wuxian would be more realistic or even relateable. Xie Lian's bad luck is kinda the main thing that trails after him, and he makes horrible decisions in his worst point, but improves, which is great. And ofcc HuaLian is so special, it holds a dear place, in my heart. I can't quite imagine like pure devotion from the start though. Like its beautiful in a story but not grounded in my mind as realistic.

And then! MDZS is just like, I love all the characters---or not all, but close enough. Characters are well explored, everything connects in a clean precise way, we get explainations for everything, it gets cliche at points like I guess with Xue Yang's very typical behavior, traumatized childhood--> evil but even so with Xue Yang I feel like he also serves not just as a "Oh this random guy here is involved in the plot because I needed another villian, but he jsut serves as suchhh a good foil for Wei Wuxian, cause they come from similar situations, but like ended up so different, and you can argue like "Oh Wei Wuxian got adopted and loved and Xue Yang didn't" but that's not just it, like both of them wanted power, but its so clear how different they wanted to use the power. Xue Yang was very for himself, and Wei Wuxian was very, always, to protect others. Some of MDZS' bonus chapters are questionable ie the past lwj one and the library scene but i dunnoooo.

Guys I'm not making much sense :') I just love it! I love the characters, the seperate arcs! AND THE LOVE STORY!

So earlier I said HuaLian isn't very realistic. Cause Hua Cheng kinda just drops from the sky and then adores Xie Lian, and never changes his mind, just loves him more and more, that line where he is like "Dianxia, in my mind the one fallen from grace is you. The one in unending glory is also you. What matters is you, not the state of you," and that's SO BEAUTIFUL?!?!?! Isnt' that what everyone wants to hear, like I love you no matter what? But also like. Idk. Like, he doesn't have a clear logical reasoning to fall in love, which is fine, its a story, and that sometimes happens in real life, you just fall in love!

But Wangxian?!? It's not "enemeis to lvoers" okay? Like from the start, you start with attraction, then kinda friends, and then, like LWJ cares for WWX okay, and WWX cares for him clearly, but then there's the whole, watching someone you love make horrible decisions, and you don't understand, but he tries to help WWX anyway, like its so clear LWJ does not give up his character for WWX, like he tries to love Wei Wuxian, and support him, by believing in him, nad trying to help him when he thinks WWX is harming himself, but he never changes his own entire ideology, he doesn't change himself to revolve around Wei Wuxian. Obviously there is that pivotal moment in the cave where he like fights his own family, but even that stems out of "I want to protect him, I believe in him," rather then purely "I love him, I don't care if he's wrong, I will throw all my values out the window." Like if Wei Wuxian was in the wrong, Lan Wangji consistently challenges him. Like there's that line from WWX, which actually im not sure if this was from the drama or novel, but where he goes, "When everyone adored me, you scolded me, and when everyone hated me, you alone stood by my side" and that's SO SO GORGEOUS because that's what loving is someone is all about. Loving them unconditionally doesn't mean coddle them, it's also about helpign each other grow. Though I suppose murdering people together is also romantic. But I mean, when you see someone you love hurting themselves, you should stop them right? Like Wei Wuxian, when he's being reckless, is being dangerous to himself kind of, and that's when LWJ scolds him usually kinda, even if everyone else sucks up to him.

AND THEN ALSO! WANGXIAN'S DYNAMIC! They're very very clearly from the start, on equal grounding. Like WWX might bottom but like even back when he had his core, he and LWJ were match for match in skill and stuff, and I feel like that's really important. When he lost his core, he clawed his power back through like demonic cultivation, which he is as strong in as LWJ is in pure cultiavtion.

Like Gastornis was thought to be a carnivore for decades and then carbon isotopes were like, "nah this thing was basically a giant goose honk honk".

Art by Ja Chirinos

Oviraptor was thought to be an egg eater, then much ink was spilled about whether it ate mollusks, and now it's thought to be an omnivore, but mostly a fruit/seed eater like a parrot.

Somehow this Adobe Stock image is the only art of an Oviraptor eating plants I can find. How is that?

And even birds with some teeth are getting in on these dietary mysteries.

Longipteryx was first thought to be a kingfisher-like hunter of aquatic prey, but it has since been found with seed contents in its guts, making it another surprise frugivore.