Smol Coffee

Pretty Lady is a grizzled old street cat who was at some point fixed based on the fact her ear was tipped. She has a bizarre face that I'm not sure if it came from genetics or a current health issue, but her eyes are sort of...tilted? I've tried to get a picture of her to show my coworker who used to be a vet, but have not succeeded.

Anyways. She's grizzled. And old. And has started to look a little rough around the edges, so I've been trying harder to catch her to try and get her some vet care.

Pretty Lady refuses to be caught. She's right there for morning snackies when I bring them out, but attempts to interact beyond food are met with serious hisses. The trap in my yard is a joke to her, no matter what food I put inside. And god forbid any of the other neighborhood cats try to come eat the food I give her. That is Not Allowed.

Except! Except!

Pretty Lady has recently acquired a little himbo boyfriend. The boyfriend, who I have named Target because he is orange and has a perfect circle target pattern in his fur, is a wee baby tomcat who is juuuuuust starting to get his cheeks. I have witnessed Target fall out of my shed more than once (it's a one foot drop for reasons I don't understand given it was custom built), seen him startle at falling leaves MULTIPLE times, and seen him have a full on yowling fight with a stick.

Pretty Lady has taught Target to avoid the trap in my yard, shares her food with him, and makes him stand guard while she eats. Target seems incredibly pleased by this arrangement.

As a former music teacher, I can also say that "learn the fundamentals first" is the death knell for a vast percentage of beginners, especially adult learners.

I've run into this with drawing several times, where some well-meaning artist has lectured me on needing to study anatomy properly or not use shortcuts like CSP brushes. And oh, believe me, I know. I know exactly how to learn an artistic discipline in a structured way. I just...don't want to!

The thing is, I'm not aiming to be a professional artist. I want to draw my gay little anime guys. I would undoubtedly improve at art much faster if I approached every gay little anime guy drawing as a study exercise. But I would also have quit drawing a decade ago if I couldn't just let myself enjoy drawing imperfect fucked-up little guys with whatever shortcuts I needed to body myself across the finish line.

With my adult piano students, my approach was always "What's your goal?" If their goal was to learn exactly one Elton John songbook to play at parties, then...that's what we did. We'd put tape on the keys to label the notes, and just fuckin go for it. Learning exactly one Elton John songbook is a good and noble musical goal, full stop.

Some of my students needed and enjoyed a more structured approach to learning; if they wanted to be able to play classical music, then yes, scales were going to have to enter the equation at some point. And yet others would learn the Elton John songbook, catch their white whale, and realize they wanted to explore more of the ocean. The scales were still there for them to learn!

Often the choice isn't between "learn art well" and "learn art imperfectly" - the choice is between "learn art imperfectly" and "don't do art at all." To which I say, learn imperfectly! Or, what the hell, don't 'learn' art. Just do, and enjoy the doing of it.

My sister took more photos of my dress. I am very happy with how this turned out :)))))

@introvertsnation

So the location "Sentinel" has been thrown around a lot lately in the last day or so... and even if it's not 100% the locations for TES VI, it's still a fun idea/ something I wanna explore with Joshi's actual "Josh/Yesh" alias that I decided to give him some time ago. Anyway, running on the post Skyrim theme, ya boi's been a bit more fucked up than usual (thanx dragon bitchslap). Regardless, he still needs a holiday, and he has his preferences when it comes to holiday destinations. Give him another 5 minutes before disaster strikes.